A summary of effective prayer and the Lord's prayer John 17

/10. Specific prayers that every believer should be praying. \

 

/a. Prayer for leadership in the nation and for the military, 1Tim 2:1-2.\

 

1 Tim 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,

 

1 Tim 2:2 for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity

 

/b. Prayer for the sanctification of food, 1Tim 4:4-5. \

 

1 Tim 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

 

1 Tim 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

 

1 Tim 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

 

1 Tim 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;

 

1 Tim 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

 

/c. Prayer for the unsaved, ROM 10:1.\

 

ROM 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them [unbelieving Jew] is for their salvation.

 

ROM 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

 

ROM 10:3 For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

 

ROM 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

 

The answer to this prayer is not the violation of their free will but that God would reveal to them in a personal way that their own righteousness is not sufficient for deliverance from the second death. No one can climb out of the pit of spiritual death. Only Christ, the Savior, has accomplished this and it can only be acquired by merit-less faith.

 

/God will not violate their volition, but God will add or altar circumstances so that they will have more opportunity to see their need for a Savior.\

 

Is your prayer going to save anyone? That would be blasphemy since it would make salvation depend on you. Each soul has its own decision to make concerning the Christ.

 

Let’s take a scenario: You pray, perhaps very often, that your sister see her need to believe in Christ as Savior. But God loves your sister more than you do and the Scripture clearly says that God desires all mankind to be saved, so why would your prayer increase God’s desire? It wouldn’t. However, is not God the one who Sovereignly places souls in the bodies of whomever He wishes? Don’t forget that your prayers are heard twice and the first time was in eternity past. When God heard your prayer he may have said yes to it in EP and placed the soul of a “believer” in the female body that would be born from your same parents. God can put any soul anywhere He chooses. So keep praying for unbelievers. God may say no or yes, not to saving someone because you prayed, but to imputing a saved soul into the body of the one you prayed for.

 

God knew in eternity past who would believe in Him and who wouldn’t. Why would Paul pray for unbelievers if he knew it was pointless? And furthermore, why would God the Holy Spirit record his prayer for the unbelievers in the word of God that will exist for all time and eternity?

God is Sovereign concerning birth. He imputes souls where He wills. Your accurate prayer could influence that decision. So keep praying for unbelievers.

 

/d. Pray for your enemies, Matt 5:44.\

 

You never will know who they all are. But for ones you do know, pray for them! And I don’t mean imprecatory prayer, “Father, break their teeth in their mout!.”

 

/Matt 5:44

"But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you \

 

You never know what your enemy might become.

 

/GAL 1:13

For you have heard of my [apostle Paul] former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; \

 

/e. Pray for pastors, missionaries, and evangelists; 2 Thess 3:1; HEB 13:18; COL 4:2-4.\

 

Unless you are in the field of missionary or have been attempting to operate in the gift of evangelism, you have no idea of the pressures that these men face. [prayer for Scottie]

 

Pastor teachers have a different lifestyle than most. They are commissioned with spending time in the history, scripture, and languages that God has given to the church. I have seen first hand how much work it takes to gather God’s revelation. And if I don’t find it myself, how can I teach it to you?

 

A pastor must first be honest. He can only teach what he knows.

 

He must discover what his predecesors know and be truthful to his own teachers, even if loyalty is questioned of them, the fact of the matter is that truth from God is absolute, but the revelation of that truth comes in time to everyone.

 

He must also be diligent. He is always learning. He must also teach with authority.

 

/2 Thess 3:1

Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you;\

 

 

/HEB 13:18

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things\

 

COL 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

 

COL 4:3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;

 

Col4:4 in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak

 

/11. Summary of effective prayer for the believer priest in the Church-age.\

 

/a. Protocol: Petition, intercession, and thanksgiving to the Father in the name [mediation] of the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit.\

 

/b. In the sphere of agape love: RMA, humility, lack of MAS, objectivity.\

 

/c. In agreement with the will of God.\

 

/d. Not intended to spend on your pleasures.\

 

/e. In faith that the request will be answered in the timing of God.\

 

Believing you will receive.

 

/f. Understanding that there is a petition and a desire and God evaluates both.

       Petition        Desire

       No                No

       Yes              No

       No                Yes

       Yes              Yes.\

 

One instance were God said no to the petition but yes to the desire.

 

2 Cor 12:7 And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me —  to keep me from exalting myself!

 

2 Cor 12:8 Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

 

2 Cor 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses [not sin], that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

 

2 Cor 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

/g. Concentration on the Person of the Father [sanctified is His name].

 

/f. What the scripture instructs us to pray for:

1.Thanksgiving to God for His plan and your logistical support.

       2.Thanksgiving for positive believers\

      

/3.Petition to by-pass temptation

       4.Petition to have an attitude of living one day at a time

       5.Petition to wipe out legitimate debt\

      

/6.Intercession for other believer’s attainment of super-grace (Eph 1; Eph 3)

       7.Intercession for the nation of Israel.\

      

/8.Intercession for President, government, local authorities, military, communicators of doctrine, enemies, unbelievers. \

 

/Prayer is a part of your divine good production, therefore effective prayer is rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ.\

 

/The believer priest has both “inner room” prayer and spontaneous prayer. Pray without ceasing means that he is always ready to pray and has a habit of doing so.\

        

/12. What should actually be considered the Lord’s prayer is in John 17. \

 

We turn once more to follow the steps of Christ, now among the last He trod upon earth. The ‘hymn,’ with which the Paschal Supper ended, had been sung. Probably we are to understand this of the second portion of the Hallel,[Psa 115-118] sung some time after the third Cup, or else of Psalm 136., which, in the present Ritual, stands near the end of the service. The last Discourses had been spoken, the last Prayer, that of Consecration, had been offered, and Jesus prepared to go forth out of the City, to the Mount of Olives. The streets could scarcely be said to be deserted, for, from many a house shone the festive lamp, and many a company may still have been gathered; and everywhere was the bustle of preparation for going up to the Temple, the gates of which were thrown open at midnight.

 

Passing out by the gate north of the Temple, we descend into a lonely part of the valley of black Kidron, at that season swelled into a winter torrent. Crossing it, we turn somewhat to the left, where the road leads towards Olivet. Not many steps farther we turn aside from the road to the right, and reach what tradition has since earliest times - and probably correctly - pointed out as ‘Gethsemane,’ the ‘Oil-press.’ It was a small property enclosed ‘garden’ in the Eastern sense, where probably, amidst a variety of fruit trees and flowering shrubs, was a lowly, quiet summer-retreat, connected with, or near by, the ‘Olive-press.’ It contains old gnarled olives trees, which stretched their shadows over Jesus as He prayed. This ‘Garden’ was the place where Jesus ‘often’ gathered with His disciples. It was a quiet resting-place, for retirement, prayer, perhaps sleep, and a trysting-place also where not only the Twelve, but others also, may have been wont to meet the Master. And as such it was known to Judas, and soon he would lead the armed band, when they found the Upper Chamber no longer occupied by Jesus and His disciples.

 

We come from the perfect Garden of Eden where the first Adam chose against the will of God and chose independence from Him to the dark, fallen Garden of Gethsemane where the last Adam, under unspeakable pressure, would submit to the will of God the Father and prepare to bear the penalty of the first Adam and all his descendants.

 

The sickly light of the moon was falling full on them as they were crossing Kidron. It was here, we imagine, after they had left the City behind them, that the Lord addressed Himself first to the disciples generally. We can scarcely call it either prediction or warning. Rather, as we think of that last Supper, of Christ passing through the streets of the City for the last time into that Garden, and especially of what was now immediately before Him, does what He spoke seem natural, even necessary. To them - yes, to them all - He would that night be even a stumbling-block. And so had it been foretold of old, that the Shepherd would be smitten, and the sheep scattered. Did this prophecy of His suffering, in its grand outlines, fill the mind of the Saviour as He went forth on His Passion? Such Old Testament thoughts were at any rate present with Him, when, not unconsciously nor of necessity, but as the Lamb of God, He went to the slaughter.

 

But there is something very different about this prayer than the prayers of the Lord in Gethsemane that we’ve already seen.

 

In this prayer the Lord speaks of the cross as if it is a foregone conclusion. Therefore this prayer, which was offered in the Garden of Gethsemane would have come after His third request of the Father to let the cup pass from Him. Once the temptation of bypassing the cross was itself bypassed, the Lord’s focus turned to the glory of His victory, the glory of the Father’s plan that gave that victory, and the sharing of that same glory with the RFOG.

 

Now since we will look at this passage in detail when we get there in our study of John, a brief summary will suffice here.

 

John 17:1 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come[the time of the cross]; glorify Thy Son [victory on the cross], that the Son may glorify Thee [flawless execution of the Father’s plan],

 

John 17:2 even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind [session], that to all whom Thou hast given Him [the entire RFOG], He may give eternal life.

 

John 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

 

/There is a difference between having eternal life and living in your eternal life as the resurrection life. The difference is knowing the Father and His plan as well as the person and work of JC.\

 

John 17:4 "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.

 

John 17:5 "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

 

/His deity has always been glorified with the Father, but the request here is that the humanity of Christ enjoy that same glory.\

 

Now He prays for His bride. First for the 12.

 

John 17:6 "I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word.

 

John 17:7 "Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee;

 

John 17:8 for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.

 

John 17:9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;

 

John 17:10 and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

 

Mine are yours and yours are mine. This reveals intimacy in relationship with no barriers whatsoever.

 

John 17:11"And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name[protect them by Your power], the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

 

John 17:12"While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them[He provided for and protected them during His entire ministry], and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

 

John 17:13"But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

 

The Lord asks His Father to give you the same happiness that He possessed.

 

John 17:14"I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

John 17:15"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world[don’t carry me out of catastrophe], but to keep them from the evil one.

 

Evil refers to religion and human viewpoint.

 

John 17:16"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

John 17:17"Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.

 

Being set apart by the truth is the protection of BD over your soul. Positionally we are set apart at the moment of salvation, but through doctrine we also become set apart from the world in lifestyle from a system of thinking after the pattern of the mind of Christ.

 

John 17:18"As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world[commission - purpose and destiny].

 

We are left behind in order to fulfill the plan of God, exploit our primary assets so that we receive secondary assets and therefore glorify God. Every believer is given a destiny to fulfill. The eyes of our hearts must be enlightened in order to see that destiny.  

 

John 17:19"And for their sakes I sanctify Myself[set Himself apart by means of doctrine and the plan of the Father. Who were the soldiers looking for in Gethsemane, the One - I am He], that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth [He gave us the pattern - the same plan that He fulfilled].

 

John 17:20"I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word[the total of this prayer is for you and me as well];

 

John 17:21that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.

 

John 17:22"And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one[passing on of the inheritance to us];

 

John 17:23I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.

 

John 17:24"Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am[seated with Him on His throne, REV 3:21], in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.

 

John 17:25"O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me;

 

John 17:26and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them. "