Jesus was first of all the Son of Man before He became the Son of God. He only became the Son of God after His resurrection from the dead (Hebrews 5:5).
He had in fact often referred to Himself in the scriptures as the Son of Man (Matthew 26:24).
He referred to Himself in this way over and over again because, He wanted us to comprehend that He was a Man just like us on this earth. He was the first Son of Man who had received the Spirit of God without measure on the earth (John 3:34).
Jesus was known in Nazareth (His native hometown) as the Son of Joseph, the Carpenter. He lived the same typical Jewish lifestyle, like most of the young people of His time in Nazareth. He encountered the typical challenges that we are facing daily with the evil one around us today also.
Most people don’t even know that Jesus’ earthly father (Joseph) died while He was still in His teens. Jesus had to grow up while working to expand the family carpentry business which Joseph had left behind.
As the eldest in his earthly family, He became the breadwinner for the family through the carpentry business that Joseph left behind for Him.
And with the income from that business, He supported His mother (Mary), in taking care of His other younger three brothers and two sisters after the death of Joseph (Mark 6:3).
This was a challenging time in the life of Jesus, as He was growing up to become an adult. There is therefore no challenge that you are going through in life today, that Jesus never went through as a young Man.
After His other siblings had fully grown up and able to take care of themselves, Jesus had to get out of the business and the house, so as to fulfill the call of His Father in Heaven.
He had to separate Himself completely to that call of God, by moving away from His siblings to establish His ministry headquarters at Capernaum.
The evidence is there for us to see that He did a great job, by laying the godly and prosperous foundation for the future of every member of His family.
Jesus played that role successfully as the Son of Man within His own family, to the extent that after He had left them alone to fend for themselves, they all also left Nazareth to follow Him to Capernaum.
It was from Capernaum that the good news of His work started spreading out throughout the nation of Israel.
Just as He was successful in overcoming those challenges in His early life, Jesus expects each one of us to be successful in overcoming every challenge in our lives today.
He had overcome the evil one already; and had given us the victory in His name. And if we are truly following His examples from the scriptures, we will discover that there is nothing stopping us from being victorious at all times over the devil.
Jesus lived a victorious life because He learnt to depend on His Heavenly Father, instead of considering the circumstances of His life and upbringing without Joseph (his earthly father).
With the absence of Joseph in His life, Jesus never wasted any time to look up to His Father in Heaven, as the only Father Who was truly and always there for Him.
And as He depended on His Heavenly Father, so as to be able to walk in constant victory on the earth, He expects us to be dependent on our Father in Heaven also.
That was why He gave us His name to be using in prayer, whenever we are approaching the Father in Heaven.
Everything that He taught us in the scriptures, had been personally and successfully practiced by Him.
He will never tell you to do anything that He had not done with success before. And if it worked for Jesus, it would work for you also.
Victory comes through persistency in prayer.
Victory came to Jesus in the place of prayer. Up to the very moment of His death on the cross at Calvary, He was talking with the Father in prayer. He breathed in prayer as we are breathing air for living at all times.
Praying was a lifestyle pattern for Him in getting the wisdom that He needed, to assist (His mother) Mary as He grew up into Manhood. The challenges of His upbringing at Nazareth prepared His prayer life for the higher calling of God.
He was persistent in prayer when faced with the challenges of life at Nazareth, as He was growing up to become an adult. Those challenges had actually helped Him in becoming Who He ended up becoming – the Son of God.
That’s why parents have the responsibility at home to be teaching their children, how to pray in overcoming their individual challenges in life.
The local Church is there to help, but there are some things that children would rather want their parents, to tackle with them alone at home.
By joining your faith with their faith in overcoming those small challenges, you are helping them to develop their spiritual muscles for prayer into bigger things in life.
The scripture said about Jesus teaching the disciples on one occasion that:
“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,”
Luke 18:1 NKJV
Oftentimes when Christians are not getting immediate answers to their prayers, there arises the tendency to become wary or lose heart.
But it’s actually at this time that we are supposed to be putting pressure on God’s word with our faith, to perform for us in prayer.
Jesus never expects us to become wary or lose heart in prayer. Those who are giving up in prayer can’t stand victoriously in Christ Jesus.
The devil will do many things to hinder your prayers, but if you don’t lose heart in your resistance against him, you will be victorious.
One of the easiest weapons of the enemy against your prayer life comes through the mind; especially if you are not constantly renewing your mind with the promises of God, that you are standing upon in prayer.
The devil does this through the thoughts of the mind, that are contrary to the promises of God.
Prayer was the secret to the victory of Jesus in life. It has to be the lifestyle that we live as Christians also.
Praying at all times is what we were commanded by Jesus to be doing.
In other words, our attitude to the issues of life generally is supposed to be with prayers on our mind, instead of allowing the enemy to be touching our thoughts, concerning what we are believing in God for.
The enemy knows that if he can control your thought life, he will succeed in making you wary and lose your heart about praying.
The world today needs prayer more than ever before, because the onslaught of the enemy is increasing more and more every day. And if you are not constant and persistent in prayer, you may find yourself being entrapped in his wiles.
Jesus knew how the challenges of our world today, may force His believers to take their eyes off the victory that He had given them.
This is exactly what the enemy wants. The devil wants you to be talking more about your problems, and everything that he is doing so as to hinder your faith.
Every time you are talking about him; you will begin to gradually become wary and eventually lose heart to be prayerful.
He doesn’t want you to ever consider the victory, that Jesus had already given you in your thought life.
The world in which Jesus lived was full of problems, but in the midst of the miracles, signs and wonders that He was performing; He still found the time to be praying for people during His personal time alone with His Father in Heaven.
In fact, He could not had been able to perform those miracles, without a strong prayer lifestyle.
The scripture said about Jesus that:
“Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.”
Luke 6:12 NKJV
And again:
“And in the daytime, He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.”
Luke 21:37-38 NKJV
This was the normal way of life for the Great Victorious One. And anyone who wants to be in constant flow of victories needs to emulate His examples from the scriptures.
Jesus spent all night in prayer with God alone on the mountain top. He didn’t take any of the disciples with Him, because He wanted some intimate moments with the Father in prayer.
Can you imagine Jesus being alone in the darkness of the night on the mountain?
He was a Man like you and me; but He was able to disassociate himself from the noisy crowd that was thronging around Him.
Jesus needed some time to go into consultation with the Father.
He depended on the Father alone for answers to the challenges that He encountered daily as the Son of Man. This was why He said in another place while He was talking with the Pharisees that:
“I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”
John 8:38 NKJV
And this was what He had taught the early disciples to be doing also. He taught them how to depend on the Father in prayer.
Jesus had set a precedent for us in prayer to be following, as we are seeking the face of the Father.
Jesus as the Son of Man needed to be renewing His spiritual strength daily, by fellowshipping with the Father through prayer.
As the eagle mounts up the mountain for the renewal of its strength, Jesus did the same thing as a pattern of life in prayer.
A Christian who wants to be spiritually soaring higher as the eagle in constant flow of victories, needs to be praying at all times. If prayer worked for Jesus on this earth, it would work for anyone who will believe in it.
The problem with many is that they like to talk about their problems with people, instead of taking about it with their Heavenly Father in prayer.
The devil has snared them with the negative confessions of their situations with people. He has entrapped them with their own words. Therefore, they are unable to walk in constant victory.
They often begin to wonder why their prayer is not working for them.
However, wisdom from the life of Jesus is always there to teach us, that prayer is crucial to every victory in the life of a Bible believing Christian.
Jesus was the Son of Man on the earth, and as a Man like us, He felt the same things that we are feeling daily.
He is the only One in Heaven today who can associate with our situations on the earth. He had been through whatever we are confronting daily in our Christian lives.
The Bible says:
“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,”
Hebrews 5:8-9 NKJV
Ascending the mountain is not an easy task, but Jesus did it because He cherished those moments of prayer on the mountain with the Father at all times.
He was always looking forward to it with an elated heart, because He knew that every answer to every situation in life comes from the Father.
He became perfected in His suffering, so that we can be able, to receive the perfect and complete victory, which He had given us through His resurrection and ascension.
Be persistent and never give up.
I personally do strongly believe that Jesus spent a lot of time waiting on the mountain, before the Father for the answer to some of His prayers.
Those moments of waiting are the moments of fellowshipping with the Father, when He never had to do anything but to enjoy the presence of the Father.
It’s during those moments of waiting in His presence for answers to our prayers, that God’s very presence begins to fill us with His glory.
At the garden of Gethsemane Jesus spent three hours in prayer to the Father. And the scripture says that every time He returned back to the Father, He was just saying the same thing that He had said before.
The scripture says:
“Again, He went away and prayed and spoke the same words.”
Mark 14:39 NKJV
Yes, Jesus had to repeat Himself before the Father each time. He was not speaking vain and empty words, but He was making intercession before the Father.
Your daily confession in prayer has a way of increasing the tenacity of your faith before God.
Being persistent in saying the same thing reveals the situation of your heart to the Father in Heaven. He will speedily grant your request before Him in prayer.
It’s just like a lawyer will make a plea before a judge in a court of law. He has to argue his case based on the point of the law, and the legal precedents that had been established before the court. He may have to repeat his argument over and over again, so as to convince the judge in granting his request.
The attorney is not saying vain things before the judge, but he is laying a strong foundation for his case in this way. It may sound boring to a novice in court; but the judge is attentively listening to him.
The attorney knows that the way by which he is making the legal arguments with those precedents, may cause his request to be accepted or to be denied by the judge.
This is the same situation with us when we are praying before the Father. Our prayer needs the legal basis from the written word of God (the Bible). It also needs a legal precedent from the testimonies of others, whose request in prayer had been granted before by the God.
In the parable of the persistent widow Jesus made it clear, that the widow never stopped pleading her case before the judge. She kept on saying the same thing until the judge finally said:
“Yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Luke 18:5-8 NKJV
It’s important that whatever we are saying matches up with the promises of God from the scriptures.
At the end of this parable Jesus highlighted the importance of our faith, in what we are confessing before the Father.
Anybody can say anything that the Bible says, but if it is not being mixed with faith, it will produce no result.
Jesus said again:
“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8 AMP
Now, how was Jesus asking, seeking and knocking? The scriptures gave us an example of this while He was praying in the garden of Gethsemane. It says:
“Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke 22:43-44 NKJV
Jesus was asking, seeking and knocking earnestly. The angel of the Lord appeared to Him and strengthened Him in the spirit as He was praying like this.
His whole being was deeply involved in intercession. He gave His heart, His mind and His body to prayer and intercession in this way.
What appeared to be like blood was dropping off His body as sweat. The Bible says:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11 NKJV
In the same manner as the angel of the Lord strengthened Jesus to be praying like this, the Holy Spirit can quicken our spirit, mind and body to be involved in deep intercession about the will of God for our lives.
Jesus was not trying to avoid being in the will of the Father, by praying in this way. He was seeking to position Himself in the perfect will of the Father. He was not seeking to escape death on the cross.
He was praying for the will of the Father to be fulfilled in raising Him from the dead. And eventually that perfect will of the Father came to pass.
Jesus was risen from the dead to give us the victory. He did this to show us how we can also be persistent in prayer.
When we keep on asking, seeking and knocking in prayer, it is our faith that is actually being empowered. Faith must get to the point where it will overflow with our confession, for God’s power to be released in answering our prayers.
By laying the same precedent in prayer, we are laying a solid foundation for our intercession before our Heavenly Father.
God can never turn His back on any precedent in our prayer before Him, that is collaborated with the scriptures. He can’t deny His own words in the Bible.
That’s why it’s important to search the scriptures for the testimonies or precedents, that fits into your prayer before the Father, in laying the foundation for your request before Him.
If it’s in the scriptures, then it’s surely going to touch the heart of the Father. If He had done it for others before in the scriptures, He would have to do it for you also.
Don’t be wary of waiting to the end.
That’s why our waiting time is never wasted before Him.
It’s like an eagle that is waiting on the mountain top to renew its strength. The eagle waits persistently and patiently. An eagle is not in a hurry at all. Nights and days will come and go away, but all it does is to wait. It waits for the cycle of healing and restoration to be completed.
The purpose of the eagle that is waiting in seclusion on the mountain top is to renew its strength. It needs a new beak, new set of claws for the feet, new feathers for the wings and many other things, that are meant to make it the most skilled hunter among all the other birds in the air.
The scripture says:
“Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O Lord our God? Therefore, we will wait for You, Since You have made all these.”
Jeremiah 14:22 NKJV
If you are waiting on the Lord, you will have to be waiting while renewing your mind. We can’t just be waiting without doing anything.
Our waiting time is the moment when the mind has to be renewed, to receive and run with the answer from the Lord God.
A renewed mind is steadfast in the face of opposition. The mind that is renewed stays steadfastly on the promises of God.
He is not moved or swayed by every opposition of the enemy. He waits for the Lord and is never concerned about the noise from the enemy, to make him move from his position of dominion and authority.
A renewed mind that is waiting on the Lord is dwelling in the glory of the Almighty God. He is not even noticing anything that the enemy is doing against him, because God’s glory overshadows every scheme of the enemy against him (Psalms 91:1).
The eagle goes through a lot of changes as it waits for its transformation to be completed.
And when the time finally comes for it to come out of its seclusion, there is an excitement within it about the newness of life that has been restored.
This is the moment when we as Christians ought to start praising the Lord. His praise has to be overflowing through our hearts, because of the sense of urgency that we have received from the presence of the Lord.
As the Psalmist said:
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Psalms 34:1 NKJV
Constant prayer goes hand in hand with constant praises at all times. It’s the continuous praises that you are giving to the Lord with your mouth, that moves His hand into your situation.
So, keep on praying and praising the Lord with thanksgiving. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking and keep on believing. Something is about to happen suddenly in your life as you do.
