“And the Lord said,Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. But he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death. Then He said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me…” Luke 22:31-34 NKJV
From the scripture, one would think that because Jesus had prayed for Simon, the matter was settled, but it wasn’t so.
The effect of Jesus' prayer was tied to Peter’s response and attitude. But Peter’s response showed his lack of understanding. Jesus went further to tell him what would happen, still he didn’t get what Jesus had seen and was telling him about. The fact that Jesus saw what was ahead of Peter and prayed for him did not mean that it was all settled; Peter had a part to play.
When God reveals things to us, it is not so that we become fearful but our response is to pray to avert it especially when it is evil. On the other hand, sometimes we are complacent about our response and take things for granted. (See another example in 2 Kings 8:12-15 about Hazael whom Elisha told would become king but would cause much havoc) Hazael responded by saying “am I a dog”?Instead of crying out for mercy and asking the Lord to help him and avert those terrible prophecies. His response empowered satan to take a hold of him and lay the seed of the terrible things he eventually went on to do. If God can take over a man, satan too can get a hold of a man and use him.
As Jesus moved on to the Mount of Olives, Luke 22: 39-46, He enjoined His disciples to pray. The way to escape temptation is to pray. When Jesus returned from praying the first time, He met them sleeping. The day we begin to have an indifferent attitude towards prayers, we have missed it. There's no alternative to prayers. Today, there are many intellectual Christians, they can analyse everything from current affairs, world economy to the present happenings in the nation, all these and more they can do but pray. All they do is talk, they even talk about the need to pray but never pray. Jesus told his disciples to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation. Jesus was in sorrow, but He went to pray, the disciples were in sorrow but went to sleep.
From this account, Jesus was trying to show them the temptations ahead of Peter and the others but they didn’t see. In the times of temptations, there is a tendency not to pray. In our day, there are diverse temptations facing us and the only way we will not be victims is to pray. The manifestations of temptations and evil are rampant and we have to pray not to fall into the temptations. These temptations are so real that it can make one become bitter, self-centred, wicked, offended etc but you have to make up your mind not to give in to these feelings. The things happening in our nation are enough to cause one to react and begin to respond in the negative. The lawlessness and wickedness of men can make one wicked, but we must not fall for it.
At Gethsemane, When Judas came to betray Jesus, the disciples acted wrongly. Because they had not prayed, they interpreted and responded wrongly, with swords.
Prophetically, this is not the season to sleep but to pray. This sleep is not a physical one. You will be on the wrong side if you are not praying in this season. When you are sleeping, you have no idea about what is going on. You are not in the know. Interestingly, Peter’s response/state in verse 62, (And Peter went out and wept bitterly) was the answer to Jesus’ prayer for him in verses 31-32. This was actually a cry for mercy and help. If he had responded in this way from the beginning, he may not have had to deny Jesus. If Peter’s response was different when Jesus prayed for him, his experience would have been different.
THE CONNECTION. These things were written for our learning. We must not make the mistake they made. The disciples had Jesus with them, to instruct and pray for them but in our day, we have the Holy Ghost. And part of what the Holy Ghost does is to help us to pray. This is where the connection comes in, we must respond correctly in these very tempting and wicked times by the help of the Holy Ghost.
WHAT THIS SHOULD LEAD US TO? As you give in to prayers:
1. Insist on the salvation of all those in your sphere of influence or your world, all those connected to you biologically, spiritually, geographically, vocationally. You must not be indifferent about their salvation. Never forget that the greatest testimony that heaven reckons with is that a soul is saved and knows the Lord. (See Jeremiah 9:23-24) Everything begins in prayer. Prayer has no geographical boundaries, nor is there distance in prayer. Jesus’ desire is that none should perish and He left us with the mandate to go into all the world and preach the gospel by letting us in on the Father’s prayer point that we should pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest.
2. Draw the bloodline around your covenant domain against the activities of the angel of death that no one will be taken in their prime.
3. To be effective in prayers, you must forgive, love and show mercy. When you are in bitterness and offence, you cannot be effective in prayers. You cannot enjoy mercy if you are not showing mercy. Anytime you are walking in unforgiveness, you are in captivity. (Matt.24:12, Jude 1:21-23, Matt. 5:6)
4. We have to be strong in the Lord. As we see the day approaching, many more will deny the faith for comfort, and in several ways. But we have to hold on to the profession of our faith without wavering, we need to provoke one another to love and good works and also not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Hebrews 10:23-25, Ps. 84:7, Acts 2:46. You can never grow in the Lord when you take fellowship with God for granted. How truly a Christian you are is seen in the structure you’ve put on ground. What makes your home a Christian home, is that it is the principles of God's word that governs the affairs there, and the family altar is kept alive. We shouldn’t neglect our gathering together. The enemy targets where our strength is. (Our personal and corporate fellowship, See Acts 8:1-3) We must endeavour to keep our corporate and personal fellowship intact. In summary, keep fellowship in the temple and fellowship in the house alive. Keep the corporate altar alive, keep the personal altar alive.
5. It is WARTIME, not PLAY or REWARD TIME. This WAR is not physical but spiritual. Presently, schools and churches are on lockdown, these two are avenues for both spiritual and mental education. Are we not bothered that our children are out of school, church? And don’t we believe we should go on our knees and pray rather than fighting over mundane issues and spreading matters that have no eternal value and will not add to us?
6. Let’s seize the moment and make the most of it because we won’t have it forever.
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