The Mystery of Prayer

When seeking to know the Will of God we should look to the Holy Scriptures.

A common struggle for followers of Christ is to, as one might say, “know God’s will for my life”. To end such frustration we must see that God’s Will, and His will for our life are intrinsically united. That being said, we are also given a great privilege as Children of God… that of being co-laborers with God  and Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9; 6:1). When we are brought to life through Christ by grace through faith, and through the deep wet furrows of Baptism, we are then taken to the fields of the family business. Our Father has given all things into His Son’s hand, and we are given a mandate in the Great Commission to labor for souls, because “The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2). A key component of our Father’s business, through His Son’s Bride, is prayer. Our greatest example of a vibrant prayer life, and who we are to imitate, is Jesus Christ, who while on earth demonstrated a heart and lifestyle of prayer and commanded His disciples that “… they ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1b).

After the glorious Resurrection of our Lord, when He ascended into Heaven, Jesus Christ did not cease from praying. The book of Hebrews makes this clear.

Right now Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding, praying, for the Church, and fallen Mankind… because God desires that none should perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9); that all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4 NKJV).

That answers God's desire to see fallen Mankind redeemed, but what about God’s will for us, the already redeemed Church?

1 Thessalonians says:

"Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification…" 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3a NKJV

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV

In conclusion, we see that prayer is the sacrament/holy mystery where we interact with the will of God and commune in the Spirit. Why would i call prayer a “sacrament”? Because, all sacraments are where eternity and finality (Heaven and Earth) meet; where God's grace is mediated in a simultaneously Spiritual and physical expression. 

Therefore prayer – which requires intention and action to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven in tangible ways – is not only a sacrament, but one in which we can all participate in continually in our hearts.

God's Will is also that of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We are to love God first with everything we are, and then love everybody else as if they are our self. We are to make disciples of all nations (ethnos in Greek, which means peoples, not civil states). Through devotion to God we inevitably love His creation, especially those made in His image. From this place of prayerful devotion we will walk in the Spirit, abiding in Christ, and will make disciples of all "peoples", because it is God's Will that we do so.

Let us thus pray with diligence and joy of the Holy Spirit, as we labor with our beloved Savior and King who shall return bodily for us, His Bride, to the glory of the Father. Amen

We have eternal glories that await us!

Praise be unto our Creator and Redeemer who by His own blood purchased a People from all peoples to be gathered together to worship forever in a Kingdom of grace and truth! Amen.

Our Father who art in Heaven hollowed be thy name. 

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, in Earth as it is in Heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

For Thine be the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. 

Amen." 

Matthew 6:9b-13 

(combination of NKJV and KJV)

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