“CHRIST IN INTERCESSION” (continued) - part 9.

Have you had the opportunity to read through this high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 a number of times yet?

If so, did you notice the reasons Jesus gave for asking certain blessings for His own?

Let’s look at them quickly, starting with:
     - v 11: ‘...keep Thine own that they may be one, 
     as We are...’
     - v 13: ‘...that they may have My joy fulfilled in   
     them...’
     - v 19: ‘...that they also may be sanctified through the  
     Truth...’
     - v 21: ‘...that they may be one in Us: that the world        
     may believe that Thou hast sent me...’
     - v 23: ‘...I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be 
     made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
     Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou 
     hast loved Me...’
     - v 24: ‘...that they...be with Me where I am; that they 
     may behold My glory...’
     - v 26: ‘...that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me
     may be in them, and I in them...’

What a tremendous order Jesus has asked of His Father for His Church.

I hope you noticed that He petitioned for the very deepest depth of spiritual knowledge - a depth so august, it takes our breath away when we stop to consider it seriously.

He has opened wide the gates of heaven to put at the Church’s disposal the power of the Eternal.

This is a sobering thought in this blueprint of God’s ways that Jesus has ordered here.

You see, what Jesus prayed for was for His heart to be settled well into the depth of His Church.

The work being entrusted to its care called for something more than just a system of Christian enterprise and activity.

What He desired for it called for a closeness of fellowship with Him, a spirit of devotion to Him, a laying hold of all that He has and is, of making it partaker of Himself - of His prayer power, of His prayer life.

This was the way it was to be equipped to meet the spiritual poverty and need of the world.

There was to issue forth a livingness - a force that would emit real life, real joy, a refreshing - a living anew.

Jesus saw many, many hungering souls who were yet to be fed by the Bread of Life.

When He looked at the spiritual poverty in the world, as He did in Mt. 9:37-38, His heart bled.

He saw a people wandering about like lost sheep without a shepherd to lead them, to feed them.

And He asked the disciples to begin praying for these people, to pray to ‘the Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers into the harvest.’

Nothing short of prayer - the partaking of Christ in prayer - would be needed since it would be through the force of its power that the harvest would be brought in and His kingdom would come.

And, Jesus was willing to give to these disciples who would pray, the authority and the right to call upon the power of heaven to move in behalf of the wandering lost sheep who were ripe for harvest.

‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth...’, He had told them.

Would this be just a matter of a few words spoken to God in what is commonly called ‘prayer’?

I do not think so.

I grant you, that in its beginnings, prayer is so simple that even a little child’s faith is honored in his childlike prayer.

He prays according to the measure of light that he has and is pleasing the Lord when he does it.

Yet, prayer is, at the same time, the highest and the holiest work to which Christ calls.

At first, it appears so simple. 

It is later that we find it is more difficult, and it forces us to admit how inadequate we are, how really disinterested we are in the glory of Christ, and how unfit and slothful we are in the face of the challenge.

Jesus was aware of these human frailties in us - of that we can be sure.

Is this not why He was so set on imparting these unspeakable gifts of such spiritual import to the Church in His prayer? 

These gifts of John 17 are gifts that assure that depth of communion with God that calls forth the working of His power toward the full revelation of His Being.

We have to understand that everything He felt and feels needs to be streaming into the Church for its full effectiveness.

Without its fullness, the Church’s heart stands on its own -  its ministry has no spiritual force in it.

So wonderful is the placing of His work into the hands of His Church, so dependent has the Lord made Himself on the Church as His Body, through whom His work is to be done, so real is the power which He gives to His people to exercise in heaven and earth that its use is truly awesome in its responsibility.

I repeat what I said earlier: this is a very somber thought in the blueprint of God’s ways.

Spiritually, the Church will have to make a break from this world’s enticements and be occupied with the things of Christ only.

What we must learn supremely is to attach everything to the Lord Himself.

Are we willing to step on to this heavenly ground alone with a view to utter attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?

Do not be too quick to answer this without some serious seeking and prayerful thought.

‘The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, must be from the Lord.’ (Prov.16:1) 

This is what the prayer is all about - Jesus seeking to make Himself more completely the life of His Church than has been its experience up to this point.

Because - what He is to us depends on what we are willing to be to Him.

This is Christ’s ordained way of coming to the full revelation of God - we miss much if we miss this. 

It is what makes the difference in prayer.

How easily we go to prayer that has no spiritual power to it and it avails to absolutely nothing.

It is no wonder that Jesus prayed for His Church, asking for the deepest depth of divine life to be infused in it.

Let us just take a look at the oneness for which He prayed.

‘...keep Thine own that they may be One, as We are...’
‘...that they may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.’
‘...I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me...’.

Question: What does this mean?

It means so very, very much - and I can touch it only lightly.

For the community to be ‘one’ means that it mirrors the mutuality that the Father and the Son showed in their relationship with each Other - far too deep for us to grasp.

It means that the Church must mirror the intimacy that the Father and the Son have - a communion of heart with heart.

It means that the Church must mirror the co-operativeness that the Father and the Son displayed to it.

It means that the Church must mirror the love Each has for the other and the love Each has for the redemption of the world.

It means that fellowship, relatedness to one another, harmony with each other flows along smoothly according to the measure of Christ. (Eph.4:7)

It runs without strain, without divisions, without incessant complaints and small-mindedness. 

It means that Jesus Christ is to be known in absoluteness in the life of the Church.

In short, it means that the Church mirrors exactly how Jesus displayed the divine life as He moved in this earth.

For, God ‘hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son...’. (Heb.1:2)

This was the secret of His effectiveness in completing the full and perfect revelation of God upon the earth: ‘He was the express image of the Person of God, upholding all things by the power of His Word...’ (Heb.1:3)

And, in praying as He did for this oneness among His own, Jesus was well aware that this self-same heart of the Divine concern for the world was needed by His own people for it to be effective in carrying on His work.

Again I say - Jesus was reaching deep. 

There is, in this, no room for shallowness and superficiality of spiritual capacity. 

The cheap, the easy, the quick, the glamorous, the popular - all the fads that come quickly and disappear just as quickly - will have no place in Christ’s Kingdom.

Jesus seeks depth: ‘deep calls unto deep’ (Psa.42:7) - and this calls for stamina and painstaking endurance.

Full growth is the purpose and design of His Eternal Plan.

The disciples were, obviously, not aware of what they were asking when they asked Him to teach them to pray, in
Luke 11:1.

Perhaps it was in seeing their own lack as they observed Jesus that they felt the need to ask Jesus to teach them to pray - we hope so, anyway.

We know they were quite full of ‘themselves’, leaving no room for Him, when they quibbled among themselves as to ‘who among them should be accounted the greatest?’ 
(Luke 22:24)

Up against what Christ has in mind, their thinking and ambitions were all sheer foolishness - how like we are today!

He needs those who see His purpose aright and who will meet the affronts and the discouragements under His constraint of love and who will not suffer the shock of disillusionments that come when they have been building on the sands of self-purposes about the Lord’s work.

Those who know that Jesus’ prayer for the Church is a life versus death matter, spiritually, that it will cost everything, - that they are in it to that degree - and have no illusion about it - are those ready for true prayer and intercession.

And, if the Church’s oneness is to complete God’s work in making visible and tangible His very Person and the glory of His Person, then it must needs have an effective prayer ministry - this they know as a certainty!

Let me now turn to where prayer and intercession starts with us - as individuals, as couples, as family - that can help to lead us into this depth - at least, so long as we do not look upon it as a duty or chore, nor a ‘rule’ to follow, nor an assignment to complete.

I do not say these things just to stir up a desire within - such stirrings are not lasting for they do not reach into any depth.

But - I do say them to encourage each of us to seek out the Lord in these matters.

Do you not find, in the course of your week - at home, at work, at school - anytime - anywhere - an inward inclination to turn to the Lord within your very heart?

Are there not countless situations that arise that call for prayer?

This is deep calling you unto that which lies deep within and is being developed by Christ Himself.

Parents - do you not often sense how needful it is to pray with your children each day before they go off to school?

‘In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.’ (Pro.14:26) 

Any age can learn of this place of refuge - encourage it - and start at a young age.

Are there not moments when you must just stop to consider ‘Jesus’ in the activities of the day?

Are there those times when you and your spouse must lay every difference aside and approach the Lord’s throne in prayer together?

This is the Lord calling you into a deeper oneness with each other and with Himself.

If you are becoming more and more aware of a drawing into such - almost constant - daily communion, I hope you are quietly responding and bending to the Lord’s will to ‘pray without ceasing’. 

Our desire is for that oneness the Lord seeks to develop with each of us, and with His Church, in general.

I urge every one of us to obey this serious call without fanfare, without seeking anyone’s approval or admiration, and without trying to impress others with our so-called spirituality.

‘In quietness and confidence is our strength,’ when we stand steadfastly in Him.

His conditions of spiritual living - if given free reign in our daily walk - opens up limitless possibilities which He desires to impart to us.

The influence of one small group, such as this group, may be hidden - unknown - but it has no limit in its range of influence.

It is able to go to the ends of the earth, actually ministering Christ without leaving Thouand Oaks.

If things are done according to His ways, it just happens: we need to organize nothing - it just takes place under the divine undertaking of things.

We only need to ‘learn to pray’, to be ‘anxious for nothing’, and to be available to do His bidding.

It is a big order - bigger than I am able to express in words - but it was Christ’s petition to His Father for us and it is meant for His Church today.

We do pray, Lord, for Your Holy Spirit to minister this Word to each one of us - in power and in truth.   AMEN!

Let us now go forth in His joy and be led forth this week, once again, in His Peace!     So be it!