“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9, NASB 1995).
Beloved, what stands out most to me here about Paul’s prayer life is that he spent so much time praying for other people. Listen again to what Paul writes: “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you.”
What about you? Does this challenge you? I know that we pray for other people, especially if someone says, “Pray for me.” I will stop, as I am sure you do, and I lift that person up. I also pray for the people I am ministering to. I care and I pray for others just like most of you do. But is it a priority? Yet, when we are alone, how much of our time is really spent praying for others? How much of our prayer life is devoted to a higher purpose beyond ourselves? I realize that we need to start, so often times, with praying about our own life, Jesus said:
“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:3).
But the point I am trying to make is that we need to go beyond just praying for ourselves.
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).
Beloved, I think this is a challenge to us all. God wants our prayer life to not just be centered on our own needs or concentrated on the natural. God desires that we would put others first. God wants us to see the big picture.
Beloved, for us to walk in the love of Jesus, we have to go to that next level and pray for the interests of the church at large.
I am not talking about just the material or temporal things. Not that those are not important and need to be prayed for, but Paul was focused on God the Father’s plan. So what does he pray for?
“That you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
Paul’s priority was that God’s people would be strengthened in order that they would receive revelation to understand God’s will. This should be our priority, for not only ourselves but for others as well.
Too many of us are still bound to this earth. We rely on what we see with our eyes. God wants to take us out of this realm and into the realm of the supernatural! We need a breakthrough, friends. You and I need a breakthrough in our minds and in our hearts to stop only seeing in the natural. Even those of us who are entrenched in the church are too often walking in the flesh. Everything that we are seeing—although we might be giving it religious titles, religious labels and biblical references—at the end of the day, we are still seeing predominantly in the natural. We are seeing according to the flesh; we are not seeing according to the Spirit. Thus, we often are not praying according to the Spirit.
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I remember visiting Peru years ago, and I went to a museum there that was all about Jesus. They had big statues of Jesus. They had a Jesus for everything, every shade of skin color that you could imagine, a Jesus for this and a Jesus for that. Some even worshipped the statues.
We, too, often limit Him to an image we hold with our natural minds. Beloved, we need to break out of the boundaries of our intellect and stop seeing Jesus predominantly in the flesh, and instead, see Him in the spirit. Jesus is God clothed in humanity. If you and I just simply see Jesus as flesh, a body on the cross, and that is as far as our vision goes, we are missing it! Yes, God came down to earth, clothed Himself in humanity and died on the cross in the flesh. But God, in the person of the Son, existed long before He was clothed in the flesh.
“He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2).
Beloved, we need to take the limits off and know Him primarily in the spirit. When we do, it will change us to become spiritually aware, spiritually driven and spiritually motivated—to pray for others. Yeshua said:
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18).
We pray right now, Father God, that You would glorify Yourself in Your children on the earth. We pray, Father, for Your church to come forth. We pray for Your bride to arise and enter the fullness of her destiny. We pray, Father, that Your people will be enlightened through spiritual revelation to know Your will for their lives. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.
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Rabbi Kirt Schneider hosts the impactful television program “Discovering The Jewish Jesus,” which is available in more than 100 million homes in the United States and nearly 200 nations worldwide. In 2021 he began broadcasting on radio and now airs across America. Rabbi Schneider imparts revelation of Jesus’ Jewish heritage and His fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Questions of how the Old and New Testaments tie together, and how Yeshua completes the unfolding plan of The Almighty Yahweh, are answered with exceptional clarity.
www.discoveringthejewishjesus.com/about-2/rabbi-schneider/
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