Jesus told us to pray, believing that we had already received the thing we are praying for… and it would happen. Really?
He said that if we asked for anything “in His name”, He would grant it. Is that true?
He talked about telling a mountain to be picked up and thrown into the sea and that if we believed it would happen. I have never been around a person that prayed a prayer like that and then witnessed mountains flying through the air.
I am not suggesting that Jesus is wrong, or that He was merely teasing us, or that His words have been corrupted over the years, But it’s obvious that praying in the “name of Jesus” is the key to understanding the power and efficacy of prayer. Praying in His name, is praying like He prayed and with the mindset that He had. That explains why we do not see mountains floating in the sky or some of my prayers being answered! So often my prayers resemble Christmas list of presents I want or occurrences I am hoping will happen so that my life will be easy.
To have “His mind” when I am praying means that I am not praying for selfish blessings or for things that might dilute/compromise my witness, hinder the work of His Kingdom on earth, or make me into a spiritual midget. He prayed for things that glorified His Father or that brought blessings to others. Rarely were His prayers ever about Him or His needs.
And so early this morning today I thought about the things that were sapping my strength and focus. I thought about how I have prayed in the past, and this time I determined to change my mind set from my personal, biased perspective, and to instead pray as if I were Jesus—-that is, to pray believing that God heard me, and praying with a goal that was rid of selfish ambition.
It felt good to pray like that! It was as if I had reached a new understanding of prayer and had entered into a level of prayer I had not been experiencing, and I noticed that I was able to pray with more resolve and faith that my prayer was pleasing to God the Father. Something was released within me when I gave up any pretentiousness in my prayer and I honestly could see that I was now not praying for a hidden agenda, but “in Him”. I began to understand the purpose of prayer for His perspective, not my own.
Today things began to happen……
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