THE CALL TO PRAY

Welcome to the subject of God's delight. It's a far more prestigious honor than any accolade in our world – the call to pray! God's major gift of God to humans is to seek His face by prayer. This extraordinary mandate inspires heaven more than anything because it places credible demands on God to fulfill His promise, words, and purpose, which He loves earnestly to do. It also allows the Most High God to step into personal and global concerns with a one-on-one partnership with us. "Oh, that men would pray and not faint!" says Christ in Luke 18:1.

His passion for seeing "His Father's will be done" was as strong as His prayer lifestyle. Sandwiched between his prayer times were deeds of grace, glory, truth, miracles, and utterances of heavenly wisdom, flooding the earth realm. Evidently, between one moment in prayer and the other are recorded values of results and miracles.

And the Jews marveled, saying, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"
"Never a man spake like this man." - John 7:15, 46

This scripture is an outspoken wonder of how intelligent Jesus was. Therefore, we can imagine how intelligently he prayed as well.

Intelligent people like Jesus would never have consistently spent a moment in prayer,
let alone a whole night in prayer unless praying was a smart idea!

As righteous as He was, Jesus held onto prayer with so much respect and reverence as though it was all He had on earth!

IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH

"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Hebrews 5:7-9 KJV

In Hebrews 5:7-9, Jesus offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. These reveal aspects of the passion of Christ. This passion was released upon the earth for all Christians to receive as an anointing to pray for in the last days. Literally, as He was in His flesh, so are we to walk in our flesh with the same inspiration. He broke through for us so that we can break through by prayer. This script suggests that all Jesus did in his human body was to focus on prayer, leaving the greater works of signs and wonders as the responsibility of His Father and the Holy Spirit. The call of prayer is to walk in the prayer formula of Jesus.

"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow." Luke 22:41-45 KJV

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was torn between His Father's will and His flesh's will. He knelt in the garden and prayed until the contention was overpowered. The dilemma between God's will and man's will can produce defeat if not handled wisely. Victory comes when we let go of our fleshly determinations and yield to the glorious will of God. This is because the perfect will of our Heavenly Father is like a bank that has all the riches and treasures of heaven and earth, visible and invisible, the known and the unknown, combined – so, let us seek His will first by praying first. Jesus had to let go of one to yield to the other – in other words; He needed to press on to the absolute will of his Father according to purpose. This is because there is absolute victory in the complete will of God, the creator of all things. Jesus knew that one of His accomplishments on the earth was to break the backbone of the will of man and human rebellion against God. The only way to get this done was by the breakthroughs of prayer. This He did on His knees on the stony ground of the garden. What a man of vision He was in the days of His flesh!

The rugged ground must have taken a toll on his knees and was painful, to say the least. Yet as though that was never a concern, He pursued His Father's vision to accomplish the divine order.

"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44

Luke 22:44 says, "In an agony He prayed more earnestly." With this in focus, Jesus, our big brother and Messiah, prayed earnestly, even more than in Hebrews 5:7, for intensity and broke all the records He had set before. Therefore, the fearsome journey to the apex of the cross was a victory that had already been won in prayer. It was His all-time championship prayer encounter that made the difference.

This moment of worship was so strategic that an angel was sent to strengthen Jesus to cut the deal of salvation on our behalf. The script suggests there is no better alternative to prayer in the world created by the Most High God. If there was, Jesus would have fulfilled that option. He needed the power of prayer to conquer the cross, the grave, and the death that was offered. The life-wire of prayer carried Him over the bar. May this be your glory when you pray!

"And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases."
Luke 6:12-17

Jesus spent 10-12 hours in prayer, without sleep, for the best 12 to be chosen by His Father as His ultimate dream team. By the morning, this list was downloaded for His earthly ministry to advance. Imagine He wouldn't make decisions of such practical relevance without first sounding the mind of God in prayer. May all leaders, politicians, business visionaries, and singles desiring to get married take the cue that the impact of a team is for lasting results and not for cosmetics. He had a powerful team, with Judas as an important choice, playing a role that was divinely strategic. This brave act could only be birthed out of prayer.

PRAYER + PURPOSE = OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGHS

Seattle, the Northwest, America, and the world at large deserve the support of praying dynamos whose decisions to seek God produce invisible advancements that influence the visible world at all times. The call to prayer is therefore of the highest importance for Christian leaders. May the love of God make your prayer life full of contentment, as you believe in His abilities, capacities, and desires to answer when you call, to open when you knock, and to reveal when you seek. Therefore, let us pray without ceasing!