The power of prayer - Part 1

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word. May You give us understanding and revelation as we read it In Jesus Name.

Today's lead Word is from Luke 6:12-13 NKJV

"12.Now it came to pass in this the days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

13.And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles."

Amen.

My question to you as a child of God (including myself) today is how intentional is your prayer life? The above passage highlights the importance of prayer concerning the decisions we make in our lives. The bigger the decisions, the more time required to spend in prayer. Before Jesus chose his apostles, He clearly had to seek the mind of Abba Father before making this big decision. These apostles all had a role when it came to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and after his crucifixion and ascension to heaven, the apostles were witnesses who spread the gospel of the "power and wisdom of God that is in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:18-19).

At the same time, one of the twelve apostles Jesus chose after his prayer time was Judas Iscariot who betrayed him to His crucifixion for God's glory. This is evidence that prayer enables us to know the mind of the Father. When we pray and know the mind of the Father, He also gives us the grace and wisdom to see things the way He does giving us the courage and strength to go through a particular situation. For example, when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane before his arrest, in addition to asking the disciples to watch and pray with him, he asked God "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will"(Matthew 26:39). This is one of the many examples in the Bible that clearly portrayed that Jesus was fully cognizant that He could not do nothing without prayer.

If the Son of the Almighty God spent this much time in prayer to know the will of the Father and to be guided by Him while here on earth, clearly the importance of prayer in our daily lives cannot be overstated.

Today, I'll end with this instruction found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV:

"Pray without ceasing."