There Must Have Been Something When Jesus Prayed.

During praise and worship time at our church one Sunday, a thought struck me so hard to the point that I couldn’t focus the entire day. I guess it was one of those moments where the Holy Spirit revealed something to me, and I just knew that it wasn’t me at all.

His whisper to me: “There must have been something when Jesus prayed.”

This thought stuck itself like gum in my mind. I couldn’t let it go, so I asked God, “Lord what are you trying to tell me?” Then the Lord brought me to Luke 11:1

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’”

I honestly find this scripture quite intriguing. The disciples were always with Jesus. They witnessed and experienced the miracles that Jesus did such as raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out demons, multiplying food, calming storms, walking on water, and a whole lot more. Why is it then that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray? These men grew up in the same religious culture, followed the same traditions year after year; I could not help but ask myself why the need to ask Jesus how to pray. They could have asked Him to teach them signs and wonders and miracles since people’s attention were always drawn to supernatural things. Why prayer?

Then the Lord made me realize that there must have been something that happened when Jesus prayed; something that the disciples could not see from anyone else despite their religious environment.

I don’t think that Jesus did ministry apart from prayer. If we are to carefully study the Scriptures, it can be seen that Jesus spent 40 days praying and fasting in the wilderness before starting His ministry. Even after starting His ministry, there were always accounts of Jesus leaving the multitudes that followed Him and going into quiet places to pray. I am certain He cultivated His relationship with God. Prayer is more than talking with God; it is having communion with Him. It is the exchange of our intimate thoughts and feelings to God and God to us. And because of His lifestyle of prayer, when Jesus prayed and His disciples witnessed it, there was more than religion or tradition. There was a visible relationship — a relationship between God and man that it made Jesus’ disciples want to pray in the same manner that He did. Because of prayer, Jesus was so in sync with God; He walked in perfect harmony with God, doing only what He saw His Father doing (John 5:19).

A missionary pastor once told me: “Anyone can feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, and do all the other good deeds that we could think of. You do not have to be a Christian to do that. But to save a soul, heal the sick, cast out a devil, and work miracles are things that we cannot do without prayer.”

I believe that prayer is not only a means into ministry, but the primary work of our ministry. It is our primary mission field because we are fighting for the souls of the people whenever we do missions. Remember: our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities that are holding people back from knowing Jesus. Every work that has eternal gains is the result of prayer.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

We can do a lot in this life. This means that we can preach the gospel, extend our hands to the people around us, or even do miracles, but only God can create everlasting results to our labors. This truth should make us realize that anything done without prayer is fleeting.