Prayer and Power

Yesterday, right before I woke up, I had a dream where my wife and I were hanging with a bunch of friends from Church.  Two of the people in the group were friends who are well-known intercessors, and we were talking about Church History.   I said to my honey, "if you want power, pray!  The powerful people always prayed!"  Our intercessor friend said, "AMEN!"  that is where I woke up....  

I started reflecting on the theme of prayer yesterday and ended up snoozing during my quiet time, partly due to the allergy medicines I am taking, but the theme of prayer settled into my consciousness and I returned to it over and over, as I drifted in and out of my slumber.   Since I was unable to fully engage yesterday, it seemed like a good theme for my prayer this morning.  

Rather than going to Church history and digging into the stories of people who were great prayers, like Praying Hyde, George Muller, or Count Zinzendorf, I decided to go to our best example, Jesus!  Just searching for the word pray in the New Testament in my online bible provided a more than ample list of verses to read and pray through! 

While we do see many references to Jesus praying, the Gospels do spend more time on His words and teaching to His disciples, which only makes sense as His prayer was to our Heavenly Father.  I am only going to quote a couple of verses, but there are over 150 times that pray, prayer or praying are used in the New Testament, so there are plenty of other verses to reflect upon.

Here are the verses I am going to look at this morning.

Mark 1:35 NIV:  "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."

Mark 6:46 NIV: "After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray."

John 5:19 NIV:  "Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

John 12:49 NIV: "For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken."

I am not sure what comes to mind when we hear the word prayer, having grown up Catholic I was certainly familiar with the word, and practice of repeating prayers, but not so familiar with what we see in these four verses.  The idea of going somewhere separate, and praying for long periods of time seemed like something monks and nuns would do, but not a regular congregant.  

Jesus describes a level of intimacy with His Father that was remarkable, in that every word He spoke and everything He did came from the Father   My early understanding of prayer was to send plenty of words towards heaven and hope that God heard and moved on whatever situation I was praying about.  It never really crossed my mind that prayer was actually another way of referring to a RELATIONSHIP with God. That is what what Jesus modelled to us all.  Its not the words we speak that change us, but rather the words we hear, and what we see in prayer that are important!  We are changed, not by our flurry of words but by our listening, hearing and conversing.

I think its safe to say that Jesus didn't repeat the "Our Father" prayer over and over again when He went up on the mountain to pray.  Instead He conversed with the Father!  As a younger man, I figured Jesus, as God's Son and part of the Trinity, really didn't have to "pray" so much as He just knew what to say and do as a part of the Trinity.  However, as Paul writes, Jesus laid down His divinity in some way, becoming fully man (see Philippians 2: 6-8), and thus what He modelled to us is what is available to any of us, as mere humans.  We can have an intimate relationship with the Father, where we know what He is saying and see what He is doing! 

The three people I mentioned earlier as great prayers, were all people who understood this simple reality and pursued it with a wholehearted passion.  They too were not repeating a set of words over and over again in their prayers, instead they were conversing with God!  Because of their intimacy with the Father, they experienced great power, for they saw what the Father was doing, heard what He was saying and came into agreement with Him!  They had no power of their own but stepped into the flow of power that flows from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!  

In the same way that Jesus demonstrated the power of His words, things like "Lazarus, Come Forth!" He modelled for us the ability God has made available to us to speak into existence His plan and purpose, with power and authority.  Jesus handed His ministry to the church and fully expects and knows that somehow we will fulfill the great commission, and come to a place of unity and purity.  We are unable to accomplish any of this on our own, from our own reserves of power, but only through uniting ourselves to Him through intimate relationship, through prayer.

For some heavenly reason that we cannot fathom, God chooses to work in and through us to accomplish His will on the earth!  He wants to bring about change, and He will do it through us!  

While I cannot claim any great intimate relationship with the Lord, I am certainly trying to pursue that type of relationship with Him.  I too get up early to pray!  I go to someplace where I won't be interrupted and work on listening and seeing!  Oftentimes I need to get all of the stuff that is running around in my mind, cleared out before I can truly listen and see.  My time of prayer is mostly listening and allowing the Lord to direct my thoughts, what I read, even what I reflect upon.  There is a simple rhythm of relationship that I try ot live within every day, as I know intimacy does not come from occasional interactions, but rather through regular conversation, transparency and humility.

As I often do, as I reflect on my relationship with the Lord, I see parallels to my relationship with my sweetheart.  Early on in our relationship we spent hours in conversation, getting to know each other, learning what was important, asking questions, and listening as much as sharing.  As we have grown, our relationship has gone much deeper, often I don't need to ask what she is thinking, as I know what she is thinking.  (Note:  I still ask most of the time, just so I don't assume and get it wrong).  I communicate constantly so that I know wat she is thinking, what she would like me to do, etc. not because of some fearful response, but because of my great affection.

In the same way, I spend time every day, usually at the start of the day, not because of some religious rule, but because of my great affection for Him.  I try to remember throughout the day to seek His presence and guidance as I work, interact with others, or just relax.  I am nowhere near proficient nor understanding everything the Lord is doing or saying, but I am getting better, growing my relationship with Him.

Ultimately, I do believe that the Lord wants this type of relationship with all of us!  That we might know what He is thinking, saying and wanting to do through us!  I believe He wants to partner through us releasing great power to change our lives and the lives of those around us!  He is looking for faithful, trustworthy people to invite into a place of intimacy so that He can entrust them with greater vision for what He wants to do!  I think its safe to say that much of what He wants to accomplish is impossible without His involvement and His power.  "Jesus looked at them (us) and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ( Matthew 19:26 NIV).

Amen!  Let us believe that He wants to show us great things that He wants us to pray and speak into reality here on earth!  Let us be witnesses and ambassadors of His love and power to the world!  Let us learn to pray / relate with Him in deep intimacy!  Let us Pray!

Amen and Amen!