- [Instructor] Jesus was a person of frequent,
persistent prevailing prayer.
Prayer was an indispensable part of everything he was.
It was the source of his spiritual life,
his spiritual growth, his spiritual power.
In Matthew 26:41, He urged his disciples
to keep watch and pray
so that you will not give in to temptation.
There were at least two pivotal moments
in the life of Jesus when his prayer stood out
above all other times.
One was that the garden of Gethsemane,
when Jesus faced the reality of the cross.
Though his disciples had come with him, Jesus left them
to rest while he went further into the garden
and prayed so intensely
that he sweat significant drops of blood.
See Matthew 26:36-44 and Luke 22:44.
The second prayer of monumental importance
came during those dark awful hours
he spent upon the cross.
Though He was undergoing the intense agony of crucifixion,
Jesus heart went out to his tormentors and on their behalf,
he prayed, "Father forgive them for they don't know
what they're doing."
Luke 23:34, "There is no doubt about it.
Our Lord was a man of prayer."
When and where did Jesus pray?
Deep prevailing prayer is not always convenient.
Effective prayer demands, a commitment to time and place.
Jesus exemplified this fact in Mark 1:35.
Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out
to an isolated place to pray.
When did Jesus pray?
He prayed during the early cool of the day.
He prayed when there was no one around
when there were no interruptions.
He spent early quality time with his father.
He prayed while his mind was fresh and unencumbered
with the many details of living.
Have you ever risen very early in the morning to pray?
Those times are often the most refreshing,
the most rewarding, the most precious.
Where did Jesus pray?
He could have stayed in his room or even in the house,
but he didn't.
He found a solitary place in which to approach
and commune with his father.
As our example, Jesus prayed.
He prayed frequently.
He spent quality time in prayer.
He prayed when and where interruptions would not beset him.
Though Jesus had come from the father,
He knew his strength lay were in in prayer.
So if Jesus needed to pray, how much more must we?
If he needed to find quality time to pray,
how much more should we?
And if he deemed it necessary to get away from others
while he prayed, shouldn't we?
if you own a car, you know you must put fuel in it
regularly, or it stops running.
You know, you must feed your body regularly or it will die.
Prayer is the fuel that feeds the spirit of man.
And if your spirit is not refueled by frequent prayer,
it will run down and come to a complete stop.
Christ also spent entire nights in prayer.
Luke 6:12 says, "One day soon afterwards,
Jesus went up on a mountain to pray
and he prayed to God all night.
All night in prayer to God.
Some people will say, but I can't do that.
I've got to get my rest.
Yes, you need your rest,
but you need to spend some nights in prayer.
I agree it isn't easy but necessary.
It must have been so with Jesus because crowds of people
often wanted merely to touch him.
How much he must have needed the refilling
that came from those nights alone with his father.
The result was always a fresh supply of power and anointing
sufficient for the never ending drain
upon his spiritual resources.
But during those nights, when he prayed,
laying before the father,
the needs of a hurting sinful world, God met him.
And our father will do the same for anyone who cares enough
to forfeit a few hours sleep to rendezvous
with the Almighty.
For a person to give up their rest to intercede for others,
reveals their sincerity.
And for a person to devote to God alone a morning,
a day or an entire night shows his or her passion to help
and bless people and indicates that they are his
or her first concern.
The church must rediscover its source of power.
The church today has beautified itself
by constructing high buildings
and impressive places of worship.
But the same church in many cases
is out of touch with people.
As a result, there has been an entire generation
that doesn't know God, that doesn't love and serve him.
My friends, this generation needs God.
The church today, church must be reborn
for the task of reaching this generation for God.
It must reach the mountain top and spend time in prayer.
We need to seek God.
We need to learn how to search for him
with all of our hearts.
We need those mountaintop prayer meetings.
We need those times of solitary prayer.
We need them a thousand times more than Jesus ever did.
Prayer was Jesus communion, his inspiration, his strength.
Jesus set the prayer pattern for us.
He was showing us how to live, how to worship, how to pray.
And if we would be successful in our lives for the Lord,
we would do well to follow our Lord's example.
Jesus said in Luke 18:1, "That they should always pray
and never give up."
God wants us to learn, to pray in times of adversity,
in times of turmoil in times of problems.
He wants us to pray and not lose heart or give up.
Don't quit, don't give up, anybody can do that.
But it takes endurance, courage and commitment to pray
and not lose heart.
Prayer held no second place in Jesus life.
It's beautiful to realize that even though Jesus
was the son of God, the savior of the world,
prayer was always first place in his life.
Prayer held the number one priority for him.
Is prayer first place in your life?
Does it have that same priority in your life
as it did in Jesus life?
Let's be very honest, most of us pray if we have time.
We pray if the baby doesn't cry and disturb us.
We pray if the neighbors don't come over for the evening.
We pray if we don't have to clean the house or go shopping
or go to work.
But if prayer is to be effective in each of our lives,
as God intended, it should be,
it has to hold top most priority in our lives.
When Jesus went to the mountain top to pray,
he was there for that single purpose,
nothing disturbed him there.
So he prayed.
And until you and I can learn to utilize prayer
in the same single-minded fashion,
we'll never be able to reach the mountain tops of blessing
and anointing and receive God's blessing.
The high priestly prayer of our Lord.
Jesus prayer in John 17
is one of the most significant chapters in the entire Bible.
In it, we can feel the very heartbeat of Jesus
as he prays to his father.
And the concerns for his people that he expressed there
are concerns that we should share
as we go to God in prayer.
Let's look at some of those things Jesus prayed about
in his high priestly, prayer,
the prayer in which we can also sense the depth of his love
for the father and us, his children.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would all be one.
"Now I am departing from the world.
They are staying in this world, but I am coming to you.
Holy father, you have given me your name.
Now protect them by the power of your name
so that they will be United just as we are," John 17:11.
What a precious realization, Jesus prayed for you and me.
And he prayed that we might be one with him in the same way
that he is one with his father.
Think of the closeness, the warmth, the sharing
that goes on between fathers and sons.
And Jesus is asking the creator of the universe
to bring about that same affinity between Jesus
and all his followers.
The fact that Jesus prayed for this
indicates that such as possible
and that we should pray for it.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would have joy.
"Now I am coming to you.
I told them many things while I was with them in this world
so they would be filled with my joy," John 17:13.
How wonderful to realize that when Jesus prayed
for all of us, he prayed that we might possess
his divine joy.
With Jesus resources available
we should never be sad or unhappy.
We should indeed be filled with joy, his joy.
"and truly the joy of the Lord
is your strength," Nehemiah 8:10.
When we are joyful, we are filled with strength.
But when our joy is gone, we become weak.
This too is a proper subject for our prayers.
Jesus prayed that all of his disciples be kept from evil.
Jesus knew that all his followers would be under attack.
His prayer in John 17:15 was
"I'm not asking you to take them out of the world,
but to keep them safe from the evil one."
God doesn't take us from our jobs
to keep us from exposure to evil.
The devil is determined to destroy us
and continually tries to draw us away from God and his word.
But Jesus, the son of God,
prayed that we would not be overcome by any of the tricks
The devil employs against us.
And we need to pray Likewise, every day.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would live Holy lives.
Sanctify them by your truth.
Your word is truth.
John 17:17 "Sanctify them," Jesus prayed.
The word sanctify simply means to set apart
for a sacred purpose.
To consecrate, to purify.
There's only one way only one means to achieve this
the word of God.
God has provided his word as the instrument
of our sanctification.
Ephesians 5:25 and 26 says,
"For husbands, this means love your wives
just as Christ loved the church.
He gave up his life for her to make her Holy and clean,
washed by the cleansing of God's word."
We sanctify ourselves by availing ourselves
of his resources, by reading the word of God,
by obeying the word of God,
living as the word of God directs
and praying for his purifying to be accomplished in us.
Jesus prayed that his disciples be perfect.
John 17:23 says, "I am in them and you are in me.
May they experience such perfect unity
that the world will know that you sent me
and that you love them as much as you love me."
This is amazing, but it's exactly what Jesus prayed.
That we may be made perfect in him,
that the world around us might come to know the love of God
in Christ by observing our clean living and our Godly lives.
Indeed, we need to ask God daily to use us
as effective witnesses in his love.
In John 17:24, Jesus prayed
that his disciples would receive eternal life.
"Father I want these whom you have given me
to be with me where I am.
Then they can see all the glory you gave me
because you loved me even before the world began.
Think of it, Jesus prayed that the inhabitants
of the entire world might receive eternal life.
"For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son," John 3:16.
Jesus is that only begotten son described in the scripture.
He is the one who prayed for us, for you and me
that we might inherit life everlasting.
What a blessing hope we have in Jesus.
And in like manner, we should pray daily for the salvation
of those we love who do not yet know the savior.
Whatever we are or become in our spiritual lives,
We owe it all to the savior who gave himself for us.
Who prayed for us, that we might be one with him
and who gave us such a beautiful pattern to follow
in our own prayer lives.
Father Lord, helped me learn you are Lord of my life.
You have the power to rule all that I think, believe and do.
When I allow my mind to run to places that destroy my peace,
remind me these are illegal thoughts.
You do not require me to dwell on feelings and affections
that contribute to fears.
I acknowledge my mind will live in perfect peace
as I fix my attention on you.
So Lord Jesus, let your peace govern my heart.
Remind me of the piece I have in your house
and teach me how to be grateful for those events
that make me run to you, center on you and remain in you.
I never need to live with fearful, troubled thoughts.
The truth is you are in control.
Dear father in heaven, I praise you for your steadfastness
and steady presence in our lives.
At times we can feel you right next to us.
However, it is difficult to grasp that you are there at all.
Sometimes life gets so painful
that our minds just cannot feel you through the pain.
Sometimes you take away those feelings
so that we may seek you even more fervently.
I pray now father, that I may rely not on my emotions,
but instead on your love for me.
May I rely on your word to be the truth that governs my life
over my understanding.
Help me to recognize you and believe in you,
even though my emotions may tell me, otherwise.
You are good, you are reliable and you are kind.
You are both all-powerful and all-loving.