Prayer

Luke 11:1-54

Life can never be at peace or satisfied by anything tangible except by prayer. This condition is what led one disciple to ask Jesus Christ to teach them how to pray. They must have talked much prior to the request of prayer; nevertheless, it was a very appropriate request which Jesus deals within the following manner:

Prayer is:

1. Peace
2. Unity
3. Light to the body.

1) Peace

The burden of sin is a thorn in the flesh which makes ones fight tirelessly against fear caused by consciousness of death. The constant worry in life is what is described as the debt or burden of sin and to find rest in life can only come from the prayer.

It is this burden of sin or which led to one of the seventy disciples to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, to get rid of the burden of sin and hence receive peace.

In a few words, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, how to ask, seek and knock all at the same time. It is an action of the heart due to consciousness of sin. A heart with numbed conscious would never need prayer, but there is no such a thing as a satisfied heart except as a hypocrite with no fear of death.

The prayer must be directed to God the Father in heaven who reveals himself in the “Word” which is Christ as he was standing before them. In other words – the disciples could have said to Jesus standing before them “Jesus save us from sinners.” Every need of the soul is met by the Word, and as one need or burden is satisfied another arises, so in life we need constant prayer.

Jesus is the Name, the gospel or the Word of the Father and the Son to meet every need in order to save humanity from sin and death and satisfy the soul of every man with the gift of the Spirit life. It is this gift of the Spirit which can satisfy every living soul of man.

Prayer is drawing spiritual life from the Word and that is continued removal of sin, increase faith, love, joy, and hope and peace. Prayer therefore is constant receiving of the Word of God, search, learn, hear, and do. Daily prayer is the spiritual power to be found in the Word. It is to acquire more and more knowledge of God through Christ. Prayer is also our petition for God’s victory over the devil, that is, to bring his Kingdom in the hearts of all men in the world.

This prayer is the defeat of Satan and at the same time the dawn of God’s Kingdom.

Protracted petitions are of no avail. Prayer involves all bodily effort, mental and physical dedication. All this takes place in the heart by the Word. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the true knowledge of God through Christ which is God’s love. Then only the devil would flee from the hearts of Gods disciples.

Prayer prevails just like in ordinary life; with a friend at midnight asking for bread, and no father can give a stone to his son or a serpent in place of fish, a scorpion for an egg.

The contrast is breath taking; if we who are evil, without knowledge of God through Christ can give appropriate gifts to our friends, sons, and daughters; how much more our Father in heaven. He will give appropriate gifts of the Holy Spirit for our salvation to all who prayer. Prayer is God’s word in the heart of a sinner, the hearing and doing.

2) Unity

Prayer is unity through faith in Christ for it is the defeat of the enemy who is always divisive. Few do ever pray as Jesus instructed and demonstrated. Weakness or absence of prayer means enmity with one another.

Many may feel satisfied by deceit, for they will be made empty. Others with protracted verbal prayer for earthly needs, which is outright rejection of God’s gift of the spirit. In the same way the Jews rejected Jesus’ testimony, while others asked for a sign.

“The sign which I will give you is a fatal one!” Jesus must have thought and expressed it in words. “A house divided in every way cannot stand.” People without the Word cannot leave together.

Generation after generation right up to our present generation, are the sons of Beelzebub. This is the world we live in, divided by sin. The divisions have ever become more significant and are visible since the beginning of the world. Division within families, son against father, daughter against mother, husband and wife, tribes, countries, and the world is still divided up to this day, with every man at each other’s throat. The more we reject Christ the more divisions the more strife continues.

Division is the sign of the devil’s havoc in the earthly kingdom where prayer is not known.

In every detail, God’s Kingdom is ONE; with God as the Father and Lord Christ as the Savior and disciples as sons of the living God with one spiritual body all under one master Christ, the Word.

Christ is the great sign to the world as one who drives out demons from people’s heart to become disciples of Christ as one spiritual body.

(Verse 20) If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God has come upon you. He is the strong man armed, who keepeth his Palace. His goods are in peace and protected. This is the Kingdom of God.

In Beelzebub’s house, on the other hand; when a stranger shall come upon the house, he will not overcome, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth his spoils. This is our nation, the world, and our families – divided we are.

Jesus perfectly concludes, “He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” This is so true, as it is the world we live in today. When Jesus was on earth, he cleansed many people’s hearts driving out evil spirits. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. He saith, “I will return unto my house where I came out.” This is the time after Christ bodily form had left the world.

When the devil returned, he finds the house empty swept and garnished, went, and collected seven other spirits more wicked than him; and they entered and dwelt there. Thus, the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is our world today; divided and as such we cannot stand but destined for destruction.

Houses are divided because we have abandoned the stronger one, the Word. It is an evil generation because we would not believe.

We are indeed a different generation from the Ninevites who believed the sign of Prophet Jonah, who was for three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. They believed his message and repented.

Jesus gave many other signs, but now one, greater that the Prophet Jonah is here; the Lord Christ who spent three days in the grave; but still our generation would not believe.

The queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord and this is what she had to say after the long journey to visit king Solomon.

“Blessed be the Lord thy God to set thee on the throne of Israel because the Lord loves Israel forever.”  Prayer therefore brings unity and the only way to be at peace with one another.

3) The Light to the body.

The Word or prayer is the light to the body. Christ the light will be hung on the cross for all to see, the light of the world. All the humiliation and passion he went through was for the sake of His light to the world.

The Word as light is what lifts the heart of sinful man from darkness to salvation in Christ. The Word as a prayer fills the body of an individual person (the heart organ) completely with light and leaves no part in darkness.

So, when the heart, the organ of sight is filled with the Spirit, the man has a single heart, the organ of sight. Without this light the body is filled with darkness and that is condemned to eternal death because of sin.

The bodily members: the mouth, hands, feet etc., all act according to the heart as it prays and directs each one of them according to the light.

To all who reject prayer there is nothing left except the law which condemns the whole body filled with darkness to death, hence the constant worry for unbelievers. So, Jesus tells us to this day; “You clean the outside of the cup (that is a heart without prayer) but the inward part (the heart) is filled up with wickedness.”

“Fools are ye, did not he that made the cup make the inside?”

Cleaning the outside of the cup, illustrates the critical things emphasized in our lives today. Examples include, our tithing, rituals of marriage / weddings, thanksgiving services, temple worship yet without knowledge and effect of the law.

Jesus elaborates one of the many rituals:

The gospel mentions tithing only three times in its direct condemnation of the Pharisees or church leaders who made it mandatory and all three cases are scathing in their severity.

The three other references in Hebrews 7 Vs 5-9 are merely historical.

All the Apostles were originally Jews and had been brought up in the Jewish rituals including tithing. However not one of the apostles recommends tithing in any epistle.

Yes, Paul called for the great offering in 1 Corinthians 16², and Corinthians 8⁴) for a specific purpose of spiritual unity between the Gentile and Jewish Church believers on two different locations.

However, Jesus left no room for misunderstanding, he was the last to forbid Jews from tithing which was established in Leviticus 27³⁰, Numbers 18²¹ and Deuteronomy 12^6,22,27  where instructions to the old tithing was to be done conscientiously even in little things. It was necessary though not lived up to. Who really could offer 10% of every part of gain he receives, etc.? Absolutely non.

The church maintain tithing through ignorance of their followers and in this way, we are like unmarked graves, we contaminate all who are in contact with our polluted words. The result being many cannot enter the Kingdom of God because of our mechanical studying of the Old and New Testament.

It is not the Law and its keeping that leads to a pure heart but embracing Christ’s righteousness, true comprehension and purpose of God’s gift of the Spirit; the true love of God through Christ’s own sacrificial death all of which are received through prayer.

With the debt of sin, we must all as disciples approach God’s throne of grace through prayer.