Page 11 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

Everything Jesus accomplished flowed from His intimate fellowship with the Father. When the people of
Jesus’s day saw Him perform some great miracle, that was because the Father was working in and
through Him. When they heard Jesus speak, that was the Father speaking through His Son. Everything
about Jesus’s life was produced by the power of the Holy Spirit, born from His intimacy with the Father,
and overflowed into the world. Jesus Himself made that clear: Do you not believe that I am in the Father,
and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father
abiding in Me does His work. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. (John 14:10-11)

Jesus also made these astonishing claims during His ministry: Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of Himself, unless it is something, He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does these
things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is
doing. (John 5:19-20) I do nothing of my own initiative… for I always do the things that are pleasing to
Him. (John 8:28-29). Sometimes we just breeze through these scriptures without really catching the
radical nature of what is being said. Notice how Jesus used the word nothing twice. When Jesus
described His ability apart from the Father, He chose to use the word nothing. Twice!

Jesus modeled what it looks like to live in total dependence on the Holy Spirit through moment-by -
moment fellowship with the Father. This is what praying without ceasing is all about. (I Thessalonians
5:17) This is what it means to acknowledge Him in all our ways so He can direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:5-
6) Where does Jesus live right now? Most people would probably say “heaven” right off the bat, and
that’s certainly true. But that’s not the whole answer. Right now, this very minute, Jesus lives in me. And
if you have accepted the call to follow Him, He also lives in you. By the indwelling of His Spirit, He takes
up residence in our lives. And He desires to live through us just as the Father lived in Christ.

Again, it is worth saying that the Christian life is not you and me trying to do good things and avoid bad
things. The Christian life is not even you and me trying to mimic the life Jesus lived. Those approaches
create burdens. The Christian life is the life of Jesus Christ fleshed out in our lives-yours and mine-
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember, it is Him that worketh in us both to will and to do His
good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13; see also Galatians 2:20) Too, many times we struggle and agonize in
prayer only to walk away disappointed that our prayers were not answered. Too, many times I see
preachers declaring and decreeing that something will be done, and their declarations and decrees
comes to naught. What’s the problem? There is a blindness to their self-efforts rather than a resting in
Him as described over and over in the book of Hebrews. (Hebrews 4:1-7) The conquest of Canaan never
depended upon the Hebrews self-effort it depended upon the divine intervention of God. And likewise,
living the victorious Christian life does not depend upon self-effort, but upon Him living through us. And
out of the overflow of Him living in us, we will see the fruit of the Spirit manifested.

Let’s look at this truth from John 15:4-5. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can
do nothing. In Jesus’s illustration, who is the vine? (Jesus) Who are the branches? (We are) And our
spiritual fruit is the life of Jesus in us, being lived through us, as we abide in Him. The invitation to follow
Jesus isn’t an invitation to live for Jesus; it’s an invitation to abide in Jesus and let Him, out of the
overflow of that relationship, live His Life in and through us in a way that produces fruit for His kingdom.

Are you abiding in Christ? Do your prayers express to our Lord that you realize it is Him that has to work
in and through you to accomplish His will? Do your prayers remind you that He began a good work in
you, and you are confident He will complete these good works, as you rest in His grace? (Philippians 1:6)

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