Jesus’ Pattern For Prayer
Isn’ t it worth noting that with all the miracles that the disciples watched Jesus perform, they did not ask Him to teach them to work miracles but opted instead to ask Him to teach them to pray?( Luke 11:1). Could it be that they realised that the power of Jesus’ ministry came from time spent in prayer?
Paul in Ephesians 6:12 said,“ For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”( NKJV) This statement begs the question how do we, mortal, physical human beings, wrestle spiritual beings? You may remember Jacob wrestling with a spiritual being whom he would not let go until the spiritual being blessed him but how do we today do as Jacob did or as Paul reminded us?
Paul chose the word‘ wrestle’ which indicates close combat. In an arm wrestle, for example, the two hands are locked as each person tries to press the hand of the other onto the table. For us therefore, to‘ wrestle’ spiritual beings they must enter into our realm or we must enter theirs. In the Genesis account we see the devil entering our realm by using the body of a serpent, when he tempted Eve. If it is going to be spiritual combat and not physical, then we will need to enter theirs. I believe this fact is brought out when we take a closer look at Jesus’ prayer life.
Jesus Entering The Spiritual Realms
Take a detailed look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness at the start of His ministry. Read Matthew 4:1-11. Firstly, note that Jesus was tempted by the devil after fasting and praying for 40 days. Physically Jesus was in the wilderness but spiritually He was in another realm. How do we know this? vs 5“ Next, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on the highest part of the temple …” Did Jesus, being very hungry after 40 days fasting, walk with the devil into the holy city then climb to the top of the temple where He spoke with the devil as He balanced on it’ s pinnacle? And again,“... the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power.” Did Jesus along with the devil, walk until they found a very
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