His Heart, My Home

Jesus prayed…

He prayed at every opportunity. He prayed earnestly. He prayed urgently. He prayed intensely. He prayed powerfully. He prayed productively. He prayed passionately.

Jesus prayed with focus, faith, and fire.

He prayed at His baptism in the Jordan.
He prayed before choosing the apostles.
He prayed before feeding the multitudes.
He prayed publicly, and He prayed privately.
He prayed a long while before sunrise.
He prayed on mountain tops all night.
He prayed in desert places.
He prayed at the Mount of Transfiguration.
He prayed at the tomb of Lazarus.
He prayed in the upper room at Passover.
He prayed often in Gethsemane, the last time in agony, just hours before His death.
He prayed while hanging on the cross.
He prayed with two disciples in the village of Emmaus after His resurrection.
He prayed as He ascended back to heaven.

But of all the prayers Jesus prayed, one prayer stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is the prayer found in John 17.

Chapters 13-17 of John’s gospel provide us an extraordinary record of Jesus’ marathon farewell to those in the upper room that night. These chapters contain some of His most profound teachings and powerful interactions with His disciples.

At this point, Jesus knew that His time on earth was soon coming to a close. He had washed the feet of His disciples, teaching them to love and serve one another in humility. He had shared the Passover meal with them, and revealed God’s plan for a New Covenant, established and ratified by His own broken body and shed blood.

He had taught them on the vital necessity of abiding in Him, and on His imminent death and resurrection. He had endorsed and explained the ministry of their soon-coming Helper, the Holy Spirit.

Finally, at the climactic moment of the evening, just a few hours before His arrest in Gethsemane, His sham trial, and His sacrificial death on the cross, He prayed… a prayer of such passion and power that it is truly unique in all of human history.

Jesus’ prayer can be best understood by noting its four distinct facets. Jesus prayed for:

●  God’s Glory (Verses 1-5)
●  His Disciples – Present (Verses 6-19)
●  His Church – Future (Verses 20-23)
●  Our Eternal Destiny (Verses 24-26)

God’s Glory (Verses 1-5)

The Bible doesn’t tell us Jesus’ posture as He prayed. Many Christians today pray with their hands folded, heads bowed, and eyes closed.

But in Jesus’ time and culture the posture for prayer was quite different. People stood as they prayed, lifting their hands and faces toward heaven.

Regardless of His actual physical posture, we do know that His spiritual posture was one of earnest expectancy, because Verse 1 tells us that He “lifted up His eyes to heaven.” The Passion Translation says, “He looked up INTO heaven”.

Jesus’ connection, and communion with His Father was direct, personal, eye-to-eye, face-to-face, and heart-to-heart.

Jesus then “spoke” to the Father. It’s interesting that John didn’t use any of the five or six normal Greek words for prayer here. Instead he used a word (laleo) which means “to request from an equal”. And John purposefully chose to use this word three times in this chapter.

This was a “God-the-Son to God-the-Father” prayer, a conversation among equals, a prayer that only Jesus could have prayed.

Yes, God invites and encourages us, as His children, to come, with assurance, boldness, and confidence to the throne of grace as we pray. (Hebrews 4:16)

But Jesus’ prayer here was different. God is our Father by grace, but He is Jesus’ Father by nature. This prayer was infinitely beyond any other prayer ever recorded. It was prayer in its purest form… powerful and perfect.

Jesus chose to pray audibly, to allow us to hear His intimate conversation with the Father, so that we would be assured that His love, care, and prayers for us would never end.

In spite of the horrific pain and suffering Jesus knew He was about to undergo, the tone of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was one of victory, not of fear, nor sadness.

Jesus, the Son of Man, prayed in agony in the Garden as wrestled with the limits of His human nature, and the onslaught of doubt and fear from the enemy. He faced not only physical, but spiritual death, knowing that He was about to be separated from the Father as He was made to be our sin. (Galatians 3:13 and 2 Corinthians 5:21)

But Jesus, the Son of God, the Triumphant Christ, prayed in faith in the upper room, proclaiming and celebrating His eternal victory over sin, death, and hell, before He ever stepped onto the field of battle!

Let’s read the first few verses of Jesus’ prayer. (John 17:1-5, NKJV):

¹ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, ² as you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.”

Jesus had said many times, previously, “my hour has not yet come.” But now He says, “It’s time for me to complete the work that my Father has given me to do.”

Jesus was laser-focused on God’s will and God’s glory. He was saying “Abba-Father, this will be the triumph of the ages! Sin, death, and hell will be ultimately and finally defeated! Soon, I will triumphantly enter the gates of heaven again as the King of Glory!  Abba, aid me, help me, strengthen me, and glorify me so that I may do your will, so that I may complete your plan, and bring glory to you!” (Psalm 24:7-10)

The world can only see the shame, the sin,  the blood, the suffering, and death on the cross. But, as believers, we see the cross differently. We see it as Paul the Apostle saw it, as a place of victory, not defeat, as a place of glory, not shame, as a place where life triumphed over death.

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14, KJV)

The cross was more than a place of death. It was the place where God’s Seed was planted, where the glory of Jesus’ life and His light would be released into the world, to grow, to spread, to multiply, to prevail, and to produce an eternal harvest!

²³ He replied to them, “Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Let me make this clear: A single grain of wheat will never be more than a single grain of wheat unless it drops into the ground and dies. Because then it sprouts and produces a great harvest of wheat—all because one grain died.” (John 12:23-24, TPT)

There can be no resurrection until there is first a death. It’s at the cross where our sin nature was put to death. We were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him and are seated with Him at the Father’s right hand.

⁴ “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:4-6, NKJV)

Jesus knew it was all for the Father’s glory!

“For now He towers above all creation, for all things exist through Him and for Him.  And that God made Him, pioneer of our salvation, perfect through His sufferings, for this is how He brings many sons and daughters to share in His glory.”
(Hebrews 2:10, TPT)

Jesus saw it all by faith and spoke those powerful words of faith and victory as He prayed to the Father on that glorious night!

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Once again we are asking our readers to partner with Student Life Organization, Inc. in Cebu, Philippines through prayers and donations for the victims of the recent earthquakes and typhoons. The need is still great and there is still much work to be done.

NOTE: Please see our posts dated 11/10, 11/15, and 11/23.

Just $13.60 (USD) provides food and water for a family of five for three days, or for a family of five for three days.

What an awesome opportunity we have been given, to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of these precious people. Would you please give generously today?

For donations please use this link:

paypal.me/anaferuiz

Thank you! We pray that you will experience God’s richest blessings as you give in Jesus’ name!

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