Praying

THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples. And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven. Give us daily our bread [food for the morrow]. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil. Luke 11:1-4

Notice how Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “our Father,” “give us,” “forgive us,” “bring us,” and “rescue us.” When Jesus taught us to pray, He did not teach us to pray: my Father, give me, forgive me, bring me, and rescue me.

I don’t know about you, but my prayers have usually been either for a need or a want that I have, or a need and a want that someone I know has. But when Jesus taught us to pray, the prayer was for the body as a whole and not just for a specific member. Even if the prayers are really religious, like for wisdom, faith, healing, or love. They usually would go something like Father, I ask You in Jesus’ Name to give me wisdom, or Father I ask You in Jesus’ Name to heal so and so. But this is not at all how Jesus taught us to pray!

Now I want you to look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Right before Jesus was crucified, at the time of His greatest need, He prayed for the body as a whole. He prayed for all who would believe in Him. He prayed for the body to have eternal life. Jesus prayed for us to all be one with our Father as He is One with our Father. He prayed for the body as a whole to be sanctified and for all of us to have our Fathers love abiding within us. We don’t see many examples of prayers in the Gospels, but the two prayers that the Holy Spirit did have written, were both for the body as a whole.

There is a power here that I think the church is missing. And the Truth is that we are all one, we are all the body of Christ. We are members of His body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone. And if I have a need or you have a need, the body has a need. Jesus knows better than any our oneness with our Father through Him and our oneness with each other. And when our Lord taught us to pray, it was for the body as a whole and not just for a specific member. Just think of your own body and how it works, if your hand is cut, your whole body has a need and the whole body joins together to assist the hand. This is exactly how the body of Christ is, we are one!

And when Jesus taught us to pray He was teaching us to not only look to our Father for every need, but that our need is actually the body’s need, and when we pray our prayers should reflect this Truth. There is only One Spirit, One Lord, and one body. So our prayers should sound something like, Father in Jesus’ Name I ask that all who are called and chosen are healed this day, that this day all of your children have perfect wisdom and peace. That today all of your children are debt free and lenders and not borrowers. Father, I ask that in Jesus’ Name that we are all as You are, even while on this earth, that we all have the mind of Christ, and that we all have the Holy Spirit abiding within us showing us plainly things to come. So whatever your need or desire may be, include the whole body in your prayer, just as our Head taught us to, and as our Head did! Because our need is the Body of Christ’s need. We are all one!