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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