Something truly miraculous is taking place around here…The last few Wednesday and Sunday services were epic. God is getting ready to do something out of this world for this church. I declare it in the powerful name of Jesus. Keep pushing we have 4 days left. Looking forward to seeking you in our midweek experience this evening.
Today, I want to share something that I not sure if I’ve ever shared before. One of the most encouraging experiences as a pastor is to be prayed for by someone else. Each Sunday morning for a number of years a group of faithful committed and capable followers of Jesus Christ arrive 30 or so minutes to pray. The prayers range from welcoming the Holy Spirit in, to singers, musicians, unchurched, unsaved, discouraged & depressed but somewhere in that solemn moments somebody will pray for the pastor. When someone prays for you in your presence, something special happens in your heart; you feel warmed, encouraged, loved and appreciated. There’s a sense of intimacy, when we’re holding hands and God simply slips in and embraces us all. I pray for the people that I’m privileged to pastor everyday. I’ve had the awesome task to pray for them in good time and bad time, times of celebration and sorrow. I stand before them each Sunday praying for them and speaking blessing over their faith, family, finance and future but it’s something special for one God’s sheep to recognize that while my pastor is called to be the Shepherd of this flock he’s still a sheep just like me and if he’ll pray for me I need to pray for him. It is one of the best ways to build relationships between people and pastor. Let me just take a moment to thank that group of saints that stand in the gap for Janice, my family and myself, it makes going the battle each and every Sunday and Wednesday a little easier.
It is one thing for us to pray for and with one another – to bring our brothers and sisters in Christ before the Lord in prayer – but it is quite another to realize that in Jesus we have someone interceding on our behalf. Do you know that Jesus prays for you? Do you know that he goes to the Father on your behalf and on our behalf?
Robert McCheyne once said this: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” If you have had the experience of someone praying with you – of having someone right next to you, sitting beside you, bringing your concerns and needs before God, I invite you now to imagine Jesus doing exactly that.
In John Chapter 17 we catch a glimpse of the passion Jesus has for people. In this chapter are Jesus’ final moments with his disciples before being arrested, Jesus prays for his disciples. Knowing that he will be leaving them, praying for them is the best way to prepare them. Jesus prays for three things on our behalf: protection, perfection, and unification.
John 17:1 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father…
1. Jesus prays for our protection!
Verse 14-15 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one…”
2. Jesus prays for our perfection!
Verse 16-19 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; you word is truth. As you sent me into the world, And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also my be sanctified in truth.
3. Jesus prays for our unification!
Verse 20-23 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, In in them and you in me…”
Enjoy today’s reading and I will see you on day 18.
Jesus Prayed for Himself, 17:1-8
Jesus Prayed for His Disciples, 17:9-19
Jesus Prayed for Future Believers, 17:20-26
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