The Prevailing CHRIST
The Prevailing CHRIST
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, while he prayed.
Mark 1:35
One of the remarkable highlights in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth is his powerful prayer life. Prayer is a top priority in his ministry. His ministry is powered by his mighty prevailing prayers. He made no ostentatious display of His communion with the Father or of His intercession but usually slipped away quietly to get alone in prayer. He arose very early to be able to intercede without interruptions.
We have known the agony of His prayer while He is travailing in Gethsemane. As it is written in Isaiah 53:12 ; “He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the trangressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus Christ is the intercessor-savior. Hebrews tells us, “During the days of Jesus life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears.” (5:7). Moses, Elijah. Isaiah and Daniel were all mighty in prevailing prayer but never such prevailing as that of Christ, the Son of Man, as He interceeded on earth as our great High Priest.
There was never any human being busier than our Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry. Mark tells us of occasions when He did not even have a time to eat. On other occasions He did not take time to sleep. He was ministering by day, and people came for interviews at night, He was teaching, preaching, healing, journeying and blessing, but He withdrew alone to pray. It was probably during those early morning hours and all night hours when He could be more alone with the Father that He again and again prevailed with strong crying and tears. Christ tells us how deeply and how often He longed to save Jerusalem.
E. M. Bounds wrote, “His life crises were distinctly marked, His life victories all won in hours of importunate prayers.”
According to Thomas Payne, “ His prayers were stronger than all forces of earth and hell together. It was to Him the real battlefield.”
His prayer brought great victories. He prayed and through Gethsemane agony He was able to bear the weight of the sins of the world.
Prevailing prayer was Jesus lifelong vocation. All that Christ accomplished during His earthly ministry was born in intercession, covered and saturated with intercession and empowered and anointed as a result of intercession. Andrew Murray says, “Every act of grace in Christ has been preceeded by and owes its power to intercession.”
Christ chose to minister primarily not through the power and attributes of His essential deity as Son of God, but rather as Son of Man. He chose to face life and Satan on the same level that we do. His baptism occurred as He prevailed in prayer and the Holy Spirit came upon Him as He prayed.. No doubt that during His earlier years in Nazareth prior to His public ministry, He had already been praying day after day as He worked in the carpenter’s shop, Prayer was very much part of all that He did. It was His very life and breath.
Jesus won His forty-day battle in the desert through prayer. He depended totally upon the power of the Holy Spirit just as you and I must do. Jesus prevailed daily in prayers. He could not live and minister without His prevailing prayers.
If we want to have victorious spiritual and ministerial lives, the prayer life of Jesus of Nazareth must be reflected in our lives. As it is written :” It is not by might nor by power but by my Spirit.’ The key to successful ministry is a life of dedicated intercession as revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
Christianity now is a great success. It is now worldwide and has impacted and transformed millions of lives. It continue to grow bigger as day passes by amidst great conflicts and persecutions. Theses are the evidences of Christ’s tireless intercession. For Christianity is not born of men, it is a work of God.
This hub is an excerpt from the book :
Mighty Prevailing Prayer written by Wesley L. Duewel
