Jesus’ Passionate Prayer Life

“The Life of Jesus provides the model for our prayer lives.  God is seeking to mold us into the image of His Son (Colossians 1:27-28).  If we are to act like Christ, our prayer lives must be conformed to His.  Many Christians are unwilling to pay the price that Jesus paid when it comes to interceding with God.  Jesus’ prayers came with vehement cries and tears and, ‘because of his godly fear’, He was heard by the Father.”  Henry and Richard Blackaby

Jesus was passionate! 

We saw it in the wonderful film The Passion of the Christ.  He was passionate about the lost, He was passionate about life and death, and He was passionate about prayer.  Jesus wasn’t lukewarm or apathetic about prayer.  No!  He was on fire and fervent about it, and we must be too.  We are living in a time when passionate prayer is needed for every nation. 

Jesus modeled a lifestyle of prayer.  He prayed often.  Mark 1:35 says, “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.”  Jesus prayed in the desert and other lonely places (Luke 5:16), and he often prayed all night long (Luke 6:12).  His prayers were with such intensity of focus that at the end of His life He even sweat great drops of blood when He prayed (Luke 22:44). 

We may not sweat drops of blood when we pray, but we do know that sometimes prayer requires a wrestling in the Spirit with passion and fervency.  Jesus never gave up, and He doesn't want us to give up in prayer.  He says in Luke 18:1 that we should always pray and not give up.  We read about the example of Jesus’ passionate prayer life in Hebrews 5:7:

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayer and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

Luke’s Gospel is labeled the Gospel of prayer.  In this Gospel we see that whenever Jesus had to make a decision He prayed.  He prayed before his conflict with the Pharisees, before choosing the disciples, and on the Mount of Transfiguration.  And today He is still praying for us.  Think about that!  The prayers of Jesus were heard because He left it all up to God.  In Heaven He is praying and always lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).   

Many of you are deciding to increase the level of prayer in your own life.  Others of you are trying to develop a greater prayer focus in your church or ministry and are running into opposition and spiritual warfare.  The enemy will try to stop prayer in any way he can because he fears the prayer movement that is increasing all over the world.  I have felt the intensity of warfare. 

Don't give up or let the enemy discourage you.  Things will happen as you persevere.  God delights in your prayers!  Prayer is the most important thing you can do because after you have prayed, the fruit will come.  When you plant seeds of prayer, they must grow.  And when you pray God's Word over your life, ministry, family neighborhood and city, His Word will not return void. 

Why did Jesus pray so passionately? 

He knew that His authority and message came through prayer and through connecting with the Father in the power of the Spirit.  Jesus always knew when He should withdraw and pray.  He never became distracted by the work, because He always knew that power for the work came from God.  More prayer equals more help and more blessing.  Prayer was Jesus’ continual lifestyle and practice.  He prayed passionately for Himself and for other as he walked this earth. 

And, no matter what our calling is in life, He wants to bring us into a deeper, a more passionate and intimate prayer life because He wants us to walk in a new level of power and authority.  In the book Experiencing God Day-by-Day, Henry and Richard Blackaby exhort us to go deeper in prayer:

“Throughout history God has looked for those willing to yield everything to Him and His desire to redeem a world.  At times God has marveled that no one was willing to go with Him (Isaiah 63:5, 59:16).  The prophets seemed to grasp more than the common people, for while society carried on as though nothing were wrong, the prophets agonized and wept over what they knew God was preparing to do.  God is calling you to go deeper in your prayer life with Him.  If you are willing to be the person Jesus can take with Him into the most sacred moments, you will experience things only the angels shared with Jesus in the garden that night.”

 

The Prayers of Jesus

We have several examples in Scripture of the passionate prayers of Jesus.  His prayers glorified the Father and showed how deeply He wanted God’s will to be done, even at great personal expense.  His prayers demonstrated His deep love for us and His desire for our unity.  Through His prayer, He teaches us how to pray to the Father.  He teaches us to forgive.  Heaven was opened when Jesus prayed and His very appearance changed. 

“Jesus… went up onto a mountain to pray.  As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning” (Luke 9:28-29).

“And as he was praying, heaven was opened” (Luke 3:21). 

Meditate on each verse and think about the following examples of the prayers of Jesus:

• The Lord's Prayer - “This, then is how you should pray:  ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’” (Matthew 6:9-13).
  
  
• Glorify Your Name - “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!’  Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again’” (John 12:27-28).
  
  
• Glorify Your Son - “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:  ‘Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him… and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began’” (John 17:1-5).
  
  
• A prayer for believers - “…I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one…” (John 17:6-19)
  
  
• A prayer for unity and love - “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me…” (John 17:20-26)
  
  
• A prayer for God’s will to be done - “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:39-42, Luke 22:44).
  
  
• Father forgive them - “Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots” (Luke 23:33-34, 46).

Jesus' Passion Is That We Would Pray

A football game is definitely a passionate occasion.  Fans are in the bleachers waving, yelling, and jumping up and down.  The air is filled with noise as one of the players catches the football, quickly looks around, and throws it with all his might to another player.  The quarterback catches it and runs right and left, dodging his opponent.  He finds an opening, races down the field, and makes a touchdown.  By this time the crowd is screaming.  Banners are wildly waving!  Even the quiet ones surprise you with a sudden burst of unexpected emotion.  This is what I call passion. 

But as you look at this illustration, think about it personally. 

Jesus’ passion is that you and I would pray.  He wants us to be passionate about prayer and excited without any reservations.  He loves it when we earnestly seek Him and trust Him, praying diligently to the end.  He loves it when we believe that prayer puts us on the winning team.  Just as a football player runs with all his might and uses every ounce of energy to win, Jesus wants you and I to be passionate about prayer to that extent.  He loves it when we passionately seek Him and embrace a life of extravagant devotion to God in prayer.     

When you have made it your aim to grow in prayer, you have chosen a noble passion.  When you have made it your goal to see prayer mobilized in your church or city, you have chosen a wise ambition.  When you call upon God to teach you to pray as Jesus and His disciples did, you are praying a wonderful prayer.  Every day when you say “yes” to prayer you make the Father glad.

In our travels to various nations, we are seeing increased desire to pray and to pray effectively, a passion in prayer such as we have never before imagined.  The pursuit for prayer is not just an individual pursuit but churches, ministries, and cities are seeking God on a wider scale.  Truly this is the end-times Church arising to her destiny.  I am presently in the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.  It’s Saturday afternoon and there are a few hundred young people here in the prayer room.  They are ones who want to have a passionate prayer life like Jesus and are making it their aim.

During the next couple of months I will be sending you teachings from my books on prayer that I am in the process of finishing, editing, or publishing.  This is from the book called: Jesus’ Passionate Prayer Life: Discovering How to Pray Like Jesus.  Our teaching about the life of David will be delayed for a few months.

I encourage you to join in prayer and embrace a life of extravagant devotion.  Watching the free webstream of day and night prayer at: http://cdn.zionnetworks.tv/tpr/move/index_IU.html

“I want to encourage you to embrace a life of extravagant devotion to God, without any regard to cost.  I want to encourage it not only because you will have the greatest reward you can have at the end of your life, but because you will fulfill your destiny in God, and just because it is an incredibly enjoyable way to live.”  Mike Bickle

By Debbie Przybylski

www.intercessorsarise.org

A Devoted Heart

“Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.  You are my God” (Psalm 86:2a).

Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling like an exhausted runner in a race that never ends?  Are you sometimes emotionally out of breath where it’s hard to concentrate, difficult to relax, and you feel unmotivated and restless?  Do you feel like you need to gather lost strength and your activities are running ahead of your heart?

Life in 2010 can be quite challenging.  It is hard to live above the noise and demands of everyday life.  But if we are going to survive, we must learn to balance our outward busyness with our inward reflection.  It’s a life-long process. Only God can keep us in perfect balance. 

Last month I wrote about an awakened heart and here we will look at the Biblical example of David.  He was a man who cultivated his heart relationship with God.  In the next few weeks we will be looking at David’s life and writings.  He is one of my favorite Old Testament characters because he was a man who had a devoted heart.  His heart hungered deeply after God.  What do we know about his life?  He was a triumphant king who had great tragedy - He was gifted yet human - He was strong in battle yet fell in weakness.  In spite of all of these things, David was God’s chosen man. 

David battled with impossibilities just like us.  I like his humanity.  He was shockingly real - a man who was desperate, dependent, and cried out to God on a regular basis.  He didn’t have life together as we may think of some superstar Christians.  He didn’t want to be big in man’s eyes, but big in God’s.  David’s struggles are for all of us to see.  They were very real, vivid struggles.  God is letting us in on his secret life.  God is teaching us what true greatness is, because unfortunately there is still a lack of depth among Christians today.

David Was Devoted in Obscurity

“But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

David lived during the time of the Judges.  Samuel, the prophet, was old and the people were not satisfied with God’s method of leading a nation.  The Israelites wanted a king!  Other nations had kings, and they wanted to be like them.  They rejected God’s ways, and Saul was their choice.  After all, he was physically attractive, strong-willed, and had many external qualities (1 Samuel 13:14).  But God’s choice was different.  De did not look at talents, gifts, and personality.  He looked at internal qualities of the heart.

When the time came for choosing a king, 7 sons passed before Samuel.  But God did not choose these.  The youngest son, David, was tending sheep.  He wasn’t plotting about how to become king or complaining about his mundane job or envying his brothers.  David was worshipping God out in the fields and shepherding his sheep.  This time in his life was very significant.

Perhaps we can think that David’s job was boring, unimportant, worthless, and very lonely.  It even seemed in the natural as if he was left out of God’s big picture altogether.  But God often tests us with the boring and the mundane.  When He develops inner qualities, He is never in a hurry.  It is in the little things that we prove ourselves capable of big things.  They are actually the behind-the-scenes tests of integrity.  We may think, “I am in the wrong place, I have talent, I should be a leader or doing something important!”   But God sees and he is looking at our heart.

 

God knew all along how He was going to use David.  He was very pleased with David’s performance, his worshipping heart and care for his sheep, his integrity and obedience.  Above all else, He was pleased with David’s devoted heart.  And He chose David as King.  We read in 1 Samuel 13:14, “the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people”.

Every single day was purposeful in God’s eyes.  David - the very least and the youngest in his father’s estimation - was great in God’s eyes.  He was God’s choice man.  He was anointed first in private before his public anointing.  At the perfect time “the Spirit of God came mightily on him” (1 Samuel 16:13). 

What God did in and through David was the outcome of his private life of devotion.  He had a prepared heart that was fixed on God.  His life was devoted to seeking God in prayer and worship.  God was David’s greatest reality. 

Remember the life of David the next time you are tempted to be discouraged in the ordinary.  David - who was obscure, unseen, and unapplauded by the crowd - was big in God’s eyes.  Perhaps David wrestled with insignificance and routine in his harder moments.  He may have combated negative feelings and attacks from the enemy in his thought life.  But he passed the test of routine and obscurity, and was faithful in his devotion to God. 

David had a Heart After God

“Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.  My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Psalm 27:7-8).

What was the secret to David’s success?  Throughout his obscure life alone out in the fields, He continued to praise, worship, and thank God.  He cultivated his heart and allowed God to root out self.  All of this seemed so contrary to human wisdom, but in His perfect timing God used David mightily.  David had a shepherd’s heart of trust and devotion.  He was the giant killer, the composer of Psalms, Saul’s personal musician, Jonathan’s closest friend, a hunted fugitive and, finally, the King of Israel. 

The Bible says that he was a man after God’s own heart.  For the Bible to say this about a man is quite astounding.  David used all his energies in pursuing God.  He spent time with God.  His inward life was more important than his outward activity.  It was his highest priority, and he learned to work effectively from the inward to the outward.  Out of our hearts flow our energy, insight, and influence for God.  David let God penetrate his heart deeply.  God was his one dominant passion.  The cost was high to feel God’s burden, to feel His anguish, to understand His heartache, and to stand in His truth day in and day out.  But he was willing.  Look at the influence of the Psalms in your own life.  Have they not touched you inwardly again and again?

David was not preoccupied with accomplishment.  He was preoccupied with God.  What we are comes out of our private life.  It’s invisible to almost all but God.  Yet it greatly influences others.  Great lessons are learned in the secret place.  Dependence is learned and we are touched at the bottomless depths of our personality and spirit.  We aren’t going to get anywhere unless we go into the deep with God.  I lived on a ship for years and we never got anywhere unless we launched out into deep waters.  If we learn this lesson - private before public - we have learned the greatest of lessons that will affect the rest of our lives.  It’s solitude and devotion before activity. 

Learning to Live a Devoted Life

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2).

Christians often have the problem of living on the surface, the visible level.  It’s a temptation we must all face.  The outward is most immediate for our attention.  It demands our time and energy.  We can feel trapped by the tyranny of the urgent.  The battleground of the ages is activity - It’s Satan’s great strategy - If he can keep us constantly active, he has gotten us - We are no longer captain of our souls, and easily sink.  An impulsive desire of mankind is to avoid concentration on God.  It’s so easy to work for Him any day than to let Him work in us. 

People all around us are driven, but why?  We are often starved for respect and public applause.  Perhaps we are afraid to face our inner problems or never had the approval of one significant person in the past.  Maybe we are trying to gain acceptance or want power in order to compensate for the loss of never hearing “Well done”.  Or we could be covering guilt and are trying to clothe it in spirituality.  Maybe the hurts of the pass will just not go away.  We may have been raised in a home where accomplishment and drivenness was a way of life or where there was pride and competition all around us.  There are many reasons why.  But it’s time we look inside and let God drive all the wrong motives out of us.  We must learn to live a devoted life.

Perhaps the opposite of drivenness is to learn to wait upon God in stillness.  David said in Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”.  In waiting David demonstrated dependence.  He listened and he waited while he watched over the flock.  He knew how to draw on God’s resources (Psalm 63:8).  He knew how to receive from God in solitude.  Fountains of living water come from the interior.  God wants to build dependence and quality from the inside out.  David learned how to battled for his nation in God’s strength, not his own. 

Are you tempted not to make prayer and devotion to Christ your first ambition in life?  Does the devil tempt you to focus on the externals of life rather than what is most important.  Are you tempted this year to run around in endless activity or are you learning to listen to the still, small voice of God.  Keeping Jesus as Lord of our life is the best way you and I can live in 2010.  Let’s keep Jesus in the center and cultivate a devoted heart.


We are presently living at the International House of Prayer Mission Base in Kansas City, and it’s refreshing to see hundreds of young people who are seeking to develop their inner life and put Christ at the center.  Awakening services are taking place and God is reviving hearts.  In the midst of very cold weather, God is warming the heart and bringing everyone into a higher level of devotion.  I will keep you informed.   


“On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.  Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:6-8).

By Debbie Przybylski