Power of God … ours in prayer!

Power of God ~ ours in prayer!  Ephesians 1.19-22; John 17

Hello. 

Can you imagine being with Jesus, and having him pray over you?  O, how blessed were those who experienced the physical presence and voice of Jesus, commending them to the Father!  I am sure that Jesus reached out and touched them as he prayed … sure that Jesus touched the disciples often, as one more way of conveying his love to them.  And when he commissioned them, that he raised his hand in the authority that was his alone, to release them to go and teach others . . . perhaps he put his hand on the crown of each of their heads, one at a time.  Ah.  It would have been a supernatural exchange, conveying the power of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful followers. 

Take a look at how and what Jesus prayed:

~Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they will be one, just as you and I are one.

I pray these things while I am still in the world so that these followers can have all of my joy in them

I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from the Evil One

I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. I have given these people the glory that you gave me so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. I will be in them and you will be in me so that they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as much as you loved me.¹

Jesus still prays for us, dear ones!  “Christ Jesus who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”²  

Note that Jesus prayed, “Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me…” and interestingly, as Paul concluded his prayer here in Ephesians 1, he also prayed, (that) “you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe.”  He goes on to describe that power:   

That power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world. God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings, not only in this world but also in the next. God put everything under his power and made him the head over everything for the church, which is Christ’s body.

So, Friends~ as you pray, claim the power that is yours in Jesus Christ.  Let’s you and I really believe it . . . have faith in the same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.  Claim it as you pray.  You serve a God of power and might, and Jesus himself gave us the right and privilege to pray in his name, accessing the authority (and power) in that name!³  Amazing.  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it, and they are safe.”⁴

Lord God, I am weak and sometimes feel thrown this way and that in life … oft by my own failings—silly anxieties and proclivities.  Yet you are God.  You are the God on the throne, and you are mighty—your power greater than any other that exists, and it is mine.  So God … I pray by the power of your name, that you will enable me to walk daily in a manner worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that I may have great endurance and patience, a manner worthy of you, looking to you for all things.⁵  Amen.