Power to Pray Today
Introduction
In perhaps a prelude to things to come (https://world.prayerassembly.org/), that is, if it pleases the Lord to revive us (Hos 6:2), I was inundated over the weekend with opportunities to teach, preach and testify. These of course left me exhausted, but there must be a way forward, in Christ, to handle such times without burnout. This way forward, for all of us, will require a quality of praying rare in the comfortable Western Church of our day, we are the Laodicean Church (Rev 3). The Spirit who indwells out mortal bodies has promised us resurrection life (Rom 8:11); this truth will be affirmed by each of us, but most of us are confused concerning the outworking of the promise. I want to meditate on an old saying about Jesus’ ongoing prayer life by a holy man of God, “Christ is our life: in heaven He ever lives to pray; His life in us is an ever-praying life, if we will but trust Him for it. Christ teaches us to pray not only by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing us HIMSELF, the ever-living Intercessor, as our Life.” (A. Murray). Jesus is ceaselessly praying, in us (cf. Heb 7:25). As such, persistent persevering prayer is a sure sign of God in us as “the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Our faith must be focussed on Christ’s ongoing praying life that we must look (Heb 12:1). St. Irenaeus (130-202 AD), profoundly commented, “For the glory of God is a living human being; and the life of the human is the vision of God.” This is perfectly true of the life of Jesus. In resurrection/ascension through the Spirit “the man Christ Jesus” sees the Father directly (John 17:5) and has superseded the Adamic “living soul” to become a “life giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45 cf. Gen 2:7) able to impart eternal “imperishable” being to all who trust in him (1 Pet 1:24). This transition can be traced through scripture.
Old Testament Temple
The centre point of Israel’s worship was the glory of God, for the Lord’s most intense intimate presence (Rom 9:4-5), that indwelt the Jerusalem Temple as a house (cf. 2 Chron 5:13-14; Ezek 10:4). However, from its construction its builder sensed the radical inadequacy of a material construction to house God. Solomon testifies, “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!” (2 Chron 6:18). With the ongoing rebellion of the people of God under the old covenant, prophetic hope shifted to an end-times temple for God to indwell.
Eschatological Temple
This temple, whose glory would exceed the former (Hag 2:9), was designed to be a “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa 56:7; Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). A suggestion of how this glorious ultimate vision would be realised awaited the coming of a new type of human (Eph 4:22-24). The Lord spoke of this through the prophets. “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting-place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being? ’declares the Lord. ‘But this is the one to whom I look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” (Isa 66:1-2). This prophecy was fulfilled in the trials of the humanity of Christ.
Jesus as the Temple
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” (Heb 5:7 cf. Mark 14:36). Overcome by the awesomeness of his Father’s will that he become the atoning sacrifice “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2), it was only through his arduous obedience as only Son, that Christ’s human nature was “made perfect” (Heb 2:10; 5:9). Only through his immeasurable agonies of enduring divine wrath (Mark 15:34; Rom 3:25; Eph 3:8) can Christ’s frail human nature be fully united with the eternal glory of God. The shekinah glory that was in Temple, embodied in Jesus, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14), reached its maximum indwelling expression only through willing self-sacrifice. He prayed, “Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”” (John 12:28, 33 cf. 21:9). The destruction of the first Temple traumatised Israel (Jer 9:1) but the destruction-and-resurrection of the end-time temple of Christ’s body, ““Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”” (John 2: 19, 21), glorious, resurrected life beyond the limits of this created order (Heb 9:11, cf. 2 Cor 5:1 “eternal in the heavens”).
Heavenly Prayer
Jesus lives “by the power of an indestructible life ….so, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:1, 25). Having his communion with God as a human being perfected through death-and-resurrection (cf. Rev 5:6), Christ himself is the bond of our eternal security and his inhabiting life in “the riches of his glory” (Eph 3:16; Col 1:27) the source of our strength to pray. The mutual indwelling of Father and Son, ““If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23 cf. Rev 3:20-21), means all relational distance between God and humanity has been overcome through Christ in us. So all our prayers in the will of Christ must be answered (1 John 5:). What do these great things mean for prayer today?
Humility the Key
We all know Jesus became Incarnate through self-imposed lowliness, that “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:5ff.), but we mostly fail to appreciate this act of humility is sustained in his glorified state. The New Testament unashamedly points to the present humility of the Saviour, “I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!” (2 Cor 10:1). By his own vision of Jesus, Paul was made alive (cf. Irenaeus quote above) and empowered to lowliness, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling”…“lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor 2:3; 1:17). Through his extreme lowliness (Phil 2:3), Paul shared dynamically in the humility of Christ before the Father’s call to obey as a son in the exalted (John 20:17).
Conclusion and Application
Who understands the spiritual strength of the indwelling ever-praying Son of God. The exhortation to the extraordinary intimacy of the reality of having “been raised with Christ” into glory (Col 3:1-4) contains a call to heavenly-mindedness (cf. John 3:3,6-7). This applies to everything, but especially to our call to pray. Our confidence and strength to pray comes from the amazing Jesus who is at the same time “above all powers” and whose glory lives in the depths of our hearts (Eph 1:21; 3:16 -17). Sola Deo Gloria. Glory to God Alone !!
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