Pray Through
Pastor Ashley McArtney
Disciples: ’Teach us how to pray!’
Jesus: ‘Ok. Be bold, be persistent, be consistent. Don’t give up’
Persistant Prayer (Luke 11:5-9)
Luke 11:5-9 is a teaching on bold, persistent prayer. On contending and not giving up. Friendship with the home owner is assumed, but it’s never to be taken for granted. Jesus doesn’t teach - “We are besties, Im about to give you everything so sit back, get comfy, enjoy your new divine nature and all the promises connected to it.” He teaches activity and initiative as essential traits of a praying disciple. The Greek of the follow verses 9-10 literally render: “Keep on asking and you will receive… keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you
The Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22)
If Luke 11 is Jesus teaching on persistent prayer, then Luke 22 is Him modelling it. The disciples asked ‘teach us how to pray!’. Well here is prayer at its most powerful - the prayer of a man at war against every fear, sorrow, demon and principality. Marks account tells us that three disciples were invited right into this moment. Why? They were given an assignment to watch Jesus, to behold Him. To witness a man at prayer who was going to gain victory over the cross.
Jesus Prayed Through
One thing that grabs me as I sit in these verses is the humanity of Jesus. Jesus the man was praying in the Garden. The will of Jesus, the son of man needed to be superseded by the will of God. His human will needed to be painfully submitted to the Father. This was the purpose of Jesus garden prayer, to find the will of God for His life, and not leave until He got it.
What is it to pray through? It’s to come out of the place of prayer with the mind of God on a matter. You may not have the manifestation of the answer immediately, but you are resolute - its a done deal - you have sort God, you grabbed hold of His will, and now you are unshakable… its just a matter of time.
Jesus was determined to pray through. I propose that this was the greatest battle Jesus faced. Greater than the 40 days in the wilderness, greater than the ploys of the religious leaders, greater than the pain, injustice and separation He experienced on the cross itself. Once Jesus found victory in the Garden, the cross was a mere formality.
Luke 22:45 says “Jesus rose from prayer and went back to his disciples….” The Greek word for ‘rose’ is Anistemi (an-is'-tay-mee). It means to raise up from the dead, to be reborn! Its the same word used when Jesus literally ‘rose’ from the dead! In the garden Jesus prayed Himself to a place of life! His flesh conquered, His will submitted, the enemy defeated. Nothing could stop what happened next - victory occurred in the Garden, and would be fully manifest on the cross.
He then tells His disciples to do the same. He tells them to
“Get up! (Anistemi!) and pray” 22:46
Peter in The Garden (Mark 14)
Marks account zeros in on an important aspect of the garden scene. The garden wasn’t just a practice run for the disciples. It was very much life and death moment for both them and Jesus. This is also Peters moment of battle and breakthrough. The scene is set with Jesus predicting Peters denial. He then brings Peter into the space of breakthrough prayer and says to him ‘Watch me and Pray!’ That night, Peter gets three opportunities to get the victory in prayer. Three opportunities given, one for each denial that Jesus predicted. This was Peters chance to pray through, to ‘Anistemi’, to rise from the dead into life and overcome that spirit of slumber which would ultimately cause him to deny Christ. At each opportunity, Peter was found sleeping. I believe that Peter would not have denied Jesus if he ‘rose up’ in prayer that night.
The spirit is willing but the body is weak
This is Jesus incredible insight into Peters failure that night in the garden. Peter got crushed. Peters condition was weak. His root of pride undealt with, grief and sorrows too much to bear. It wasn’t a spiritual issue. It wasn’t because of a lack of zeal or passion, which Peter had in spades. Peter was crushed by sorrow and was unable to submit it to the will of God. Here is the warning… If you get to a garden of gethsemane moment in your life (and we all will), and you have not dealt with your heart, you will be crushed, regardless of your zeal or spirituality. Wholeness Is body, soul and spirit working together. When one area is weak, everything else is impacted.
Alone in Prayer
Jesus in the garden couldn’t rely on disciples, he needed to pray thru. He had no one else to lean on. Like Peter, either pray through or die/deny. There are somethings in life that only you can achieve victory over in prayer. You either get the victory in prayer or you die. You pray through or you deny Jesus and choose a lesser thing. Often in these times because of the crushing reality of the circumstances we turn to pastor and other men and women of faith to pray for us. But I’m convinced that if you don’t find a way in prayer, no one else will. Off loading the burden to others doesn’t work. It’s your child, pray them into health. Pray them into salvation. You birth the vision! Foolish virgins think they can quickly buy oil off others, but it’s too late for that.
