Power Praying: Hearing Jesus’ Spirit by Praying Jesus’ Prayer

DAY 1

We need to decide to pray.

It was Napoleon Bonaparte . . . who said: ‘There are only two forces in the world— spiritual force and material force, and spiritual force always wins.’ Napoleon died a prisoner on the island of St. Helena. His dreams of world conquest died with him, mute testimony to the fact that he had used the wrong weapons.¹

There comes a moment when a person has to make a decision about prayer. First of all, you have to conclude that prayer is helpful, meaningful, and a means to an end—knowing God and accomplishing God’s purposes in and through us. Then you have to decide to actually pray. After this, with the decision made, you just have to do it.

This decision shouldn’t be taken lightly, for prayer is life-transforming. If you want to remain as you are, don’t start to pray, for prayer will change you forever.

All of life consists of and is shaped by the decisions that we make, whether those decisions seem major or minor. Today you will make a series of decisions—from the time that you will rise, to the clothes you will wear, to the interactions you will have with people. Each decision will, in some sense, direct the course of your life, and leave you slightly (or radically) different than you were before. Life consists of decisions made, and each decision changes us.

Sometimes decisions that are seemingly inconsequential lead to big changes. You may decide to enjoy a drink at the coffee shop and meet your new employer at the next table. On the other hand, decisions that we agonize over sometimes lead only to minor changes in the way we actually live. You may need to buy a new vehicle, think that you are in way over your head, and blissfully discover that your monthly payment schedule is just about the same as the previous month’s—only now there is warranty with the vehicle.

To live is to choose, and to choose is to change. The only question that must be answered is whether you want to change one way or another. Our ability to choose is part of what makes us distinctively human.

To pray, or even to want to pray, is to choose. If you are just starting a life of prayer, then to pray is to make a choice to take a chance on a relationship with God (for to pray is to relate). If you are seasoned in praying, then to pray again is to choose as well. You are choosing to deepen your bond with the Author of time and space, enter into deep counsel with the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ about the eternal destiny of others, and forge new bonds of intimacy between yourself and the Almighty. But whether you are just starting or are far along in the journey, you are choosing.

This choice to pray (or not) involves some presuppositions. Before proceeding any further, take a few minutes to consider this imperative from Scripture: Anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6, NIV).

Ponder this text for a few minutes. Saying it aloud a few times will reinforce the point and help get it clearly in your thinking. Consider this as a beginning point. Ask yourself what it means and record your impressions here.

I once heard someone describe prayer as the bridge we throw across the space between our weakness and God’s strength—a bridge over which He can walk into the human heart. Prayer requires the recognition that there is distance between us and God and that the distance needs to be bridged. If we do not decide to pray, there will be no progress at all.

PEN TO PAPER

PRAYER CHALLENGE

Author and theologian Richard Foster said:

To pray is to change. That is a great grace. How good of God to provide a path whereby our lives can be taken over by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.²

Begin praying today. Give God a few minutes of your time as you get started. Simply tell Him, Lord God, I want to learn to pray. Teach me how to communicate with You. I want the greatest reward, and that is to know You and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

DAY 2

Focused prayer needs a dedicated time and place.

"Those who do not pray at stated times in a direct and earnest

manner are not likely to pray at other times."

—Dr. John Henry Newman ³

The first part of praying is deciding to get started. The harder part of praying is to continue after beginning! Even the Lord found that He had no choice except to retreat from everything and everyone in order to fellowship with His Father. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there (Mark 1:35, NASB).

Examine the prayer life of the Lord, and it soon becomes clear that He had a routine of prayer. Though He prayed with others, it is clear that He prayed alone frequently, often when it was dark and quiet. The significant events of the life of Christ were regularly found to occur while He was at prayer:

Now while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove. (Luke 3:21-22, NASB)

It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called his disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles. (Luke 6:12-13, NASB)

And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. (Luke 9:29, NASB)

Even a quick look at a few texts is sufficient to make the case that prayer

was a regular part of Jesus’ life. It is also clear that prayer was a significant element in the major events of His life. We can see that even God, the Son of God, needed prayer in His life. Think of it. This was God at prayer! It may seem obvious, but the first secret of prayer is to pray. Put it in your day planner.

Plan to pray.

Choose a place.

Choose a time.

Clear your calendar.

Go where no one will interrupt.

Then pray.

Do this regularly.

The habit of praying is more important than the amount of time spent in prayer. Some years ago a seminary student in his twenties told me that he wanted to develop his prayer life. He had just read a biography of a great intercessor and was inspired. He rose the next day at 5:00 (though he didn’t need to be at class until 9:00). It was his plan to pray three hours a day, and so become one used by God for His work. He prayed for every classmate, every pastor or Christian worker, every uncle, aunt, friend, and even foe. He even prayed for the scrawny cat who lived in his university residence. Convinced he had stormed the gates of heaven and sacrificed for his Lord, he ended his prayers. Then he noticed his watch read 5:07.

He managed to rise two more days that way; on the fourth day he crawled back into bed, miserable and defeated. While both of us were speaking of another matter, his self-disappointment came into the center of our conversation. As he spoke of his discouragement, a thought popped into my mind.

Can you give God five minutes a day? I said.

Five minutes? Is that enough? he answered.

How much time does God get now? I asked.

Nothing, he answered.

Then five minutes is better than nothing.

The man agreed.

Together, we picked the best five minutes—the time when he was most awake, most aware, and most able to concentrate.

We picked the best place, a place where no one would interrupt him, and where people would leave him alone for as long as a half hour should he want to pray longer (which he very much doubted at the time).

We picked a time and place that he could use seven days a week, so that he could make a routine of being still before God (for being still can be prayer just as well as speaking).

We picked a book of the Bible, so that if he ran out of things to say, he could focus on the Lord by reading or studying Scripture.

We picked a time to talk with each other again to make sure he followed through.

Then he made a solemn vow, that if any unforeseen circumstance should interrupt his five minutes he would immediately choose another five-minute window and complete his prayers the same day. In the presence of God he committed to never violate that promise, but to pray a minimum of five minutes a day, every day, for the rest of his life.

And he did—for about two weeks.

Then five minutes just wasn’t enough.

Within a year, he was praying on average twenty-five to thirty minutes a day in a dedicated time and was in fellowship with God all through the day, turning his life into an example of living prayer. Sometimes his dedicated time went as long as an hour; sometimes he was back down to five minutes (though by then, dropping down to five minutes left him utterly unsatisfied). But he had established a prayer habit that continues to this present day.

PEN TO PAPER

PRAYER CHALLENGE

Simple prayer is the best prayer. Most of the prayers in the Bible were not elevated, lofty pieces of literary achievement. They were a sharing of the heart between God and the one praying, often concerning some need or desire. As you begin with a commitment to five minutes a day, plan to tell the Lord about your hopes, ask Him to direct your decisions to make you more like Him. Should you run out of words, simply wait in His presence with an open Bible in hand. This also is prayer. Prayer is nothing more than relating to God as God relates to you.

If others are sharing this resource with you, tell them of your commitment to five minutes a day. If you are doing this journey on your own, perhaps there is someone you could tell who would hold you accountable for those five minutes. Prayer shared is prayer multiplied: If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:19, NASB).

DAY 3

The goal of prayer is to know God.

What do I pray about? That is a common question. Most who begin the journey of prayer assume that prayer consists of a series of requests (coming from us to God) followed by a series of answers (coming from God to us). With this view in mind, we turn prayer into a sort of achievement orientation. Prayer becomes a means to an end, and the end is God’s direct intervention into human affairs along the lines of the fulfilling of our legitimate needs (most know that to pray according to a purely selfish desire is not pleasing to God).

We must be careful here. It is right to communicate with God about anything (even to tell Him when we are being selfish). And God does intervene in human affairs as a direct response to the prayers of His people. One of the important ends of prayer is for God to hear and to answer. However, the main point of prayer is to enter into the fullness of life itself. Jesus said it best when He prayed about the nature of eternal life itself, and the goal of our very existence: Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3, NIV).

When eternity arrives, we won’t have any things to pray about, or any situations that will require a special intervention of the divine presence— God will be manifestly and directly present to everything and everyone at once. But we will find ourselves joyfully confronted with and be in intimate communication with the radiant presence of the living God and the risen Lord beyond the close of time and forever. Prayer is an anticipation of that ultimate reality, a starting point in the journey to that goal.

Two days ago we took a beginning look at the concept of receiving a reward from God in response to prayer. Author Philip Ryken makes the point well when he speaks of the ultimate reward:

The reward for secret prayer is the prayer itself, the blessing of resting in the presence of God. Prayer does not simply maintain the Christian life; it is the Christian life, reduced to its barest essence. Can there be any greater joy—in this world or the next—than to commune in the secret place with the living God?⁴

The text from John 17:3 quoted above is just the beginning of the main point of that chapter—that the goal of Jesus’ coming to earth was that we might know God intimately. The supreme aim of prayer is utter union and complete participation in the very nature of God Himself—in all three persons of the Godhead. It is to be joined to the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit in the same way as Christ Himself was joined to His Father.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are . . . that they may all be one; even as You, Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:11, 21, NASB)

There is much to consider in these texts—too much for a single day’s reflection. Take some time now to consider the union of Christ and His Father. Take some time to consider what it might mean for you personally to enter into that kind of relationship with God.

PEN TO PAPER

PRAYER CHALLENGE

Decide today that you will give God the unsafe stuff of life—the nasty thoughts, the greedy inclinations, the lustful moments, the hard-to-explain yearnings that have no words. Give these to God’s safekeeping and thank Him that they are safe there forever.

DAY 4

God initiates, we respond.

There was a long season in my life when I thought that prayer was to tell God what needed to be done. The profound impression I had was that if one just prayed longer and more intensely, God would be persuaded to alter the stream of events in my life (or in those for whom I was praying). Phrases like we must pray this one through or we need to storm the gates of heaven picked up from well-meaning people in prayer meetings contributed to the thought that all the initiative belonged on the human side. The heroes were Jacob, who wrestled with the angel and had his way with God, even though it meant having his hip taken out of joint (a poor understanding of Genesis 32:22-32), and the widow who wore down the unrighteous judge (Luke 18:1-8). For the record, Jacob was a deceitful schemer who wouldn’t let God bless him until he was broken and helpless. The parable of the widow and the wicked judge is a contrast, not a comparison. God is not a wicked judge, but a loving God who answers quickly—so don’t give up praying (the point of Luke 18:1). Surely if a scoundrel could hear a persistent whiner, then a loving God will immediately pay attention to the needs of His people!

Just the same, these were the models, and long were the prayer meetings. We would agonize and have no sense of relief should the prayer not be answered, because it was our responsibility. The trouble is that praying like this leaves the believer’s walk with God as disjointed as if he were wrestling with Jacob and the angel! We will find ourselves as weary as the widow of Luke 18 pestering a corrupt power-monger to get his attention!

It was a great relief to discover somewhere along the way that all true prayer arises not from us, but from God Himself. John White says it succinctly:

Prayer is not you trying to move God. Prayer is among other things being caught up into God’s directions and activities. He orders the affairs of the universe, and he invites you to participate by prayer. Intercession is God and you in partnership, bringing his perfect plans into being.⁵

Here the heroes in our praying are the Lord (who did nothing unless the Father told Him [John 5:19-20]) and the apostles and prophets (who, when praying, obeyed the prompting of the Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes [Acts 13:1-3; 16:6-10]). In particular the apostle Paul serves as a solid model for prayer; he teaches about God-initiated prayer in the experience of the perplexed believer.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And [through this] we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:26-28, NASB)

Did you get that?

Through the groaning of the Spirit within, God prays through us, and through that praying brings something new to birth, usually in us first, but also in our situations.

God initiates.

We respond.

Stop and take a moment to reflect on the Romans text. Think of a time when you didn’t know how or what to pray, and all you could do was groan. Perhaps you are groaning now with the weight of grief or deep despair. Ask the Spirit to pray through you to accomplish some great good.

PEN TO PAPER

PRAYER CHALLENGE

Sometime today you may sense a stirring in your soul to pray for someone. You may be standing in a checkout line in a grocery store or parked at a gas station and notice someone. Deep within there is an awakening that this one needs prayer. This is God initiating a prayer within you. To respond, simply ask the Lord to pray through you. Ask God to reshape this person’s context to bring about some great good. Instead of praying through to break into God’s presence, let God pray through you, by the Spirit of Jesus giving you a prompting inside. Commit to do this each time you are in the presence of other people, just for today.

DAY 5

Jesus’ perpetual ministry for us is to pray.

Iremember the moment clearly. I was driving down a mountain road in the interior of British Columbia, crying out to God as I was descending. I had gone through three consecutive heart-wrenching experiences, any one of which would have been enough. But three devastating blows in the same window of time clouded my thinking and brought me to a point of despair.

I didn’t think I could ever pray again.

In fact, I had resigned my church because (among other reasons) God and I weren’t talking to each other very well. It is hard to preach the Bible and proclaim the goodness of God when you are not sure its promises apply to your own life anymore. When we spoke, it wasn’t a two-way communication. It was usually just me demanding to know why God had allowed what He did.

Driving along in the car, I cried out, Why did You do that!

Sometimes I would shout. Other times I would sob. It seemed that God had abandoned me, though strangely, even in my arguing with Him, I sensed His nearness. There were no clear answers—only His nearness and a great cloud of confusion.

Each prayer initiative that I had offered up to the Lord—that I had lived and hoped to see accomplished—had come crashing down. These were not incidental prayers about minor things. These were the prayers of my life—and they had come to nothing. And yet the unmistakable marks of God’s hands had been all over the calling to pray that very way. One divine appointment after another had confirmed that these were not merely things I wanted God to do, but things that God wanted me to pray and live. I was not praying through for God to do things my way. I was being prayed through for God to do things His way.

But then, why had things gone so terribly wrong?

Was I wrong?

Had He spoken and I messed the whole thing up?

Could I ever hear Him aright?

I needed help.

My conclusion was that I was the problem. Every ounce of my believing had been focused on hearing and obeying God. It was now evident to me that I simply couldn’t get it right. And so the best thing to do was to resign my church and retool my life. Careening down that stretch of descending mountain pass felt good. It was solid. I could see the road. I could think. I stopped at a roadside turnoff for a few minutes just to stretch. Then I picked up the book I was reading. It was The Workbook of Living Prayer by Maxie Dunnam—a six-week course on what else but learning to pray. On Day 5 of Week 4, Dunnam made an affirmation that was working its way into my soul.

The Living Christ is praying for you now: Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25, RSV).

It hit me with tremendous force. Jesus was perfect (it was more than abundantly clear that I was not). Jesus was sinless. Jesus was resurrected into glorious, magnificent authority and power. Jesus was seeing reality from the perspective of eternity. There were now no barriers to His perfect knowledge. He could see the start from the finish.

And Jesus was praying—for me.

I found myself weeping like a baby. The tears streamed down my face until it was hard to see. If Jesus prayed, there would be an answer—a perfect one, a sinless one, a glorious one that would unravel all the complexities and produce a wonder. God would see me through.

I asked Him if I could join Him in His perfect praying, and add my imperfect intercessions to