Co-laboring Prayer

Softpill 25 Aug 2008 - 5 Jan 2015

Co-labouring Prayer

The Heard Prayer

“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety” (Hebrews 5:7).

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is central to the salvation of mankind. Most of us think that our Lord rose from the dead because He was God. But that negates the perfect sacrifice He offered in the capacity of being incarnate and man alone. Luke a Physician, in chapter 11 verse 20, took care to mention that the miracles that Jesus performed were, so to speak, “by the finger of God” and thus not Jesus’ own doing (Luke11:20). John also quotes Jesus as saying that He did not do or say anything on His own initiative but by the Father (John 8:26-29; 12:49). And Jesus always told His believers that their faith has made them well, implying that it was not His doing alone. As for the miracle of all miracles, Hebrews 5:7 above reveals the secret of how Jesus Himself rose from the dead. The Life Application Study Bible has this comment on the verse: “Have you ever felt that God didn’t hear your prayers? Be sure you are praying with reverent submission (piety), willing to do what God wants. God responds to His obedient children.” Thus says the Holy Spirit through Billy Graham, “What you are, speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” So piety it is...religion it is...self-will bowed to God’s will it is...love and serve the least of His brethren it is...for God to hear and answer our prayers.

Christ offered intercessory prayers on our behalf along with a love and service to us—His brethren—to the extent of dying for us. In other words, He did not simply pray for our redemption but “He entered the most holy place ...with His own blood” (Heb 9:12). The Amen came from the earthquake after He said, “Father into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”

While Christ offered once to bear the sins of many, it is not without reason that John tells us that our love for our brethren should be to such an extent that if necessary we too should lay down our lives for them (Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:16). Alas, what kind of faith do we see today? Let alone lay down our lives for our brethren, we have nothing except the one talent of Word to serve them with, as we pray for their various needs. As Stephanie Sosebee put it, "All too often Christians will throw out there, 'I'll pray for you.' It has become, in my opinion, the greatest Christian 'cop-out.'" Our prayers are similar to how James puts it: “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but we do nothing about their physical needs. But don't get me wrong, i do recognize that a simple faith-filled prayer puts their plug in the LIVE socket of the power of God.

But the Model Prayer that the Lord taught us is a kind of prayer that does not let us off the hook like how ordinary prayers do. It is really an introspective prayer that ushers us to love and co-labor with God and neighbor so that we become one.

We may find that as we pray, the answer lies within us. We may realize that we are the answer to those prayers. You maybe a lawyer, a businessman, a carpenter, an engineer, or a good cook who can invite the people who requested prayer, to your house—or if you are a company, to your board meeting—to find solutions to the questions raised during prayer.

Jesus says that if we have done good to the least of His brethren, it is same as doing good to Him. James says if we know the good that we ought to do and do not do it, we sin (James4:17). And Paul warns that the wages of sin is death. If religion you say is not in the vision of Brother Bakht Singh, it is perhaps you have not understood him at all.

Thus says the Holy Spirit: “Think back. Before you set out to lay the first foundation stones for the rebuilding of my Temple, how did it go with you? Halfway return on your crops—half the grain you were used to getting, half the wine. I hit you with drought and blight and hail. Everything you were doing got hit. But it didn't seem to faze you. You continued to ignore me. Now think ahead from this same date—this twenty-third day of the eight month of the two-thousand-and-eight year of the Lord. Think ahead from when the Temple rebuilding was launched. Has anything in your fields—vine, fig tree, pomegranate, olive tree—failed to flourish? From now on you can count on a blessing.”