Prayer power depends on doing what God asks us to do - even when it's hard.
Jesus is our supreme example - Son of God and yet a man who was constantly praying to the Father, seeking direction as to what to do next. And then he did what the Father laid out before him.
His greatest test came in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death. He asked his closest disciples to go with him as he prayed in anguish before the Father, knowing that he was soon to die for the sins of men. The gospel of Luke tells us that he even sweat drops of blood from the overwhelming stress.
"Abba, Father," he cried out in Mark 14:36, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."
Jesus faced physical pain and death, but - even more - he was about to be cut off from his loving ties with the Father on the cross as the full force of man's sin fell upon him. He was to be the sinless sacrifice to pay for our sins so that we might have access to an eternal relationship with God.
The Father answered Jesus' prayer by giving him the strength to go through with his mission. His obedience led to a stunning victory over Satan and evil.
Imagine what would have happened had he not obeyed! We would all be hopeless - in the grips of Satan and hell.
Before Gethsemane, Jesus gave a clue to the power of his ministry. In John 5:19, he said: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."
I believe Christ is talking about his time in prayer with the Father as God shows him what to do.
The apostle Paul also made a difficult choice to obey what God asked him to do.
Towards the end of his evangelistic career, Paul was informed by the Holy Spirit he was to go to Jerusalem with suffering and jail awaiting him (Acts 19). He went ahead with the trip even though his followers pleaded with him not to go.
He said: "My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God."
Paul's letters glow with wonderful prayers for the people he is talking to. He called on people to pray always in all circumstances. His prayers were marvellously answered - because he obeyed what God told him.
The Lord often lets me know what I must do when I ask him. He lets me know through scriptures and promptings in my mind.
But sometimes I balk because there is a cost to obedience.
The apostle John said in 1 John 3:22 that we will receive whatever we ask if we obey God and do what pleases him. The implication is that I will not necessarily receive what I seek if I do not obey him.
This speaks to me.
Jesus is our supreme example - Son of God and yet a man who was constantly praying to the Father, seeking direction as to what to do next. And then he did what the Father laid out before him.
His greatest test came in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death. He asked his closest disciples to go with him as he prayed in anguish before the Father, knowing that he was soon to die for the sins of men. The gospel of Luke tells us that he even sweat drops of blood from the overwhelming stress.
"Abba, Father," he cried out in Mark 14:36, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."
Jesus faced physical pain and death, but - even more - he was about to be cut off from his loving ties with the Father on the cross as the full force of man's sin fell upon him. He was to be the sinless sacrifice to pay for our sins so that we might have access to an eternal relationship with God.
The Father answered Jesus' prayer by giving him the strength to go through with his mission. His obedience led to a stunning victory over Satan and evil.
Imagine what would have happened had he not obeyed! We would all be hopeless - in the grips of Satan and hell.
Before Gethsemane, Jesus gave a clue to the power of his ministry. In John 5:19, he said: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."
I believe Christ is talking about his time in prayer with the Father as God shows him what to do.
The apostle Paul also made a difficult choice to obey what God asked him to do.
Towards the end of his evangelistic career, Paul was informed by the Holy Spirit he was to go to Jerusalem with suffering and jail awaiting him (Acts 19). He went ahead with the trip even though his followers pleaded with him not to go.
He said: "My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God."
Paul's letters glow with wonderful prayers for the people he is talking to. He called on people to pray always in all circumstances. His prayers were marvellously answered - because he obeyed what God told him.
The Lord often lets me know what I must do when I ask him. He lets me know through scriptures and promptings in my mind.
But sometimes I balk because there is a cost to obedience.
The apostle John said in 1 John 3:22 that we will receive whatever we ask if we obey God and do what pleases him. The implication is that I will not necessarily receive what I seek if I do not obey him.
This speaks to me.
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