Prayer – Light from the Word

O Send Out Your Light and Your Truth, Let Them Lead Me (Psalm 43:3)

In the midst of a society filled with lies and deceit, this prayer serves us well to make it our own in times when we only have to turn to television to notice the fakeness the world of news and TV, and every electronic garget offer us. False and shallow Bible prosperity teachings have misled the masses to the road of no return. This is a society covered with tattoos, covering whom they truly are. As they dress in black, expressing their dark beliefs. Children reared without the love and biblical instructions to guide them in the direction God instructed in the Bible, as it says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6). Today’s generation carries a degree of insecurity lodging in their soul. They are all part of high tech. They are a mute society, with no communication outside themselves from the time they awake to the time they close their eyes to sleep. The Bible warns us not to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (I John 4:1). According to John, the spirit of the antichrist is already in the world. His spirit permeates and guides those who follow him. It’s time for Christians to wake up and take action against Satan to protect ourselves and our children. We have been given the full armor of God to fight with, for our wrestling is not with flesh and blood, but against the despotisms, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly sphere (Eph. 6)

Light serves to show the way, as the lamp is to guide our steps. YAHSHUA declares: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). When darkness permeates the church, the truth is clouded with confusion and none embraces it. It is precisely in the midst of this confused society that we fervently must pray: “O Send Your Light and Your Truth, let them lead Me.” God has sent the Light and the Truth. YAHSHUA said, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life” (John 8:12).

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Prayer, the Cry of the Soul

The book of Psalms undouble expresses our cries in many ways. For that reason, we often go there to find comfort and learn how to present our cries to the Lord. They are testimonies of God’s faithfulness in every situation. Psalm 42:5 says, “Why are you cast down, o my soul? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.” Reading the psalms, we find similarity with the writers of the Psalms. It is as if they were expressing our feelings in many cases. The book of Palms is filled with praises and acknowledgement of Whom God is. Merciful, loving, powerful, patient, etc. In Psalm fifty-one King David expresses sorrows for his sin with repentance, seeking God’s forgiveness. The cry of his soul is evident in the acknowledgment of his desire to be clean from his sin: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin, for I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me… Create in me a clean heart, o God and renew a right, persevering and steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:2-3,10).

The Patriarch Job’s testimony of faithfulness to God written in his book, is a book we must not overlook. One, where he expresses his feelings of frustration being confident of his innocence before God and to his friends who came to comfort him. He expresses himself saying, “Surely, I wish to speak to all Almighty, and I desire to argue and reason my case with God” (Job 13: 3). In his deep hurt, where his heart cried before God, he prayed, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat! I would lay my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments; I would learn what He would answer me and understand what He would say to me” (vs. 23:3-5). That’s the prayer cry from his soul, when suffering was intense and there was no answer to his prayer. Job’s desperation brings home to us as we too ask, God, “where are You”? Day and night we find ourselves submerged in the agony of doubt, Where is God? Our sufferings are not to be compared with Job’s sufferings, but everyone’s soul go through a valley or a desert hard enough to call on God for help. That’s where prayers from the soul cries to God in intimacy, waiting for His deliverance as Job, did. In spite of his sufferings, Job still feared God. He had much to say that showed his faith and taught us patience. He so declared, “For I Know that my Redeemer and vindicator lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth and after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God, Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger!” (Job 19:25-27). That’s a declaration of faith knowing that his eternal future was secure in the hands of His God.

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There Is No Answer From God

When God is silent in response to our prayers, while He Himself encourages us to call on Him in our struggles, it is because either He is acting in His sovereignty, performing that which is best for us, or He is sanctifying us, or calling our attention to hidden sins. The Psalmist wrote, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me (Ps. 66:18). That is, guilty of known sin but continuing practicing it. In order for peace to reign in our troubled heart and our relationship to be restored with God, it is necessary to test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord; to lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, acknowledging that we have transgressed and rebelled against Him (Lam. 3) confessing our sins to be forgiven. A heart that is repentant, the Lord will not forsake it, said David. If that is the reason why God remains silent to our prayers, that will be a good start. A church that embraces false teachings, has separated itself from God and have alienated itself from receiving His blessings in having their prayers answered. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened at all, that it cannot save, not His ear dull with deafness that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2).

We blame God for not answering our prayers; for this reason, many deny His existence, disregarding their sinful life-style as a result of God’s silence to their prayers. The holiness of our God does not mingle with sin; there is no relationship with Him if we choose the world’s life-style, instead of observing His commandments. God is not a robot to do things we want Him to do, the way we want Him to do. In this world there are many gods people chose to worship. But none of them is the true supreme GOD, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, Eternal and Infinite, All- Powerful, All -Knowing, etc. etc. When we try to approach Him, we must do it realizing that His presence is holy ground. Enter His presence in awe of Him in humbleness and adoration, shoes off in submission to what He has to say. His love will embrace you, bringing you close to Him, for He is a Father to those who love Him. YAHSHUA said, “What man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent? If you then evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him!” (Matt.7:9-11). When telling the disciples the parable of the widow, YAHSHUA concluded by saying, “And will not God defend and protect and avenge His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf? I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily…” (Luke 18: 1-8). In our suffering, He will rock our cradle until the storm passes by, provided that we are walking with Him. God’s silence does not mean He has given us a deaf ear; No, to the contrary, He is closer to us, but He must do what it takes to sanctify us. The process of sanctification is slow, otherwise, we would not be able to endure it. The secret of contentment is submission to His will. When God is silent, that will be the time to be still before Him until He directs us to the next step in our walking with Him. The Prophet Habakkuk said, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (2:20).

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Psalm Ninety

Psalm ninety is a prayer that Moses uttered, registered in the pages of psalms. It is a review of his experiences in the desert, as the leader of the nation of Israel on their route to the Promised Land. In this psalm, he acknowledges God as the eternal God, the Creator, the sovereign and powerful God; man’s brevity of life and his fallen nature. Moses, a man of God, whom He considered humble and worth of respect, a man to whom God spoke face to face and defended against those who rebelled against him as in the case of Moses’ brother Aaron and sister, Miriam. In Numbers 12: 5-9 reads: When the Lord came down to deal with them, He said, Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make Myself known to him in a vision and speak to him in a dream. But not so with My servant Moses; he is entrusted and faithful in all My house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in dark speeches; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and He departed. There has never been a man on the face of this earth who has had such deep relationship with God. Even, in his death, it was God who buried him. Perhaps angels witnessed Moses’ funeral.

Moses expresses this beautiful prayer from his heart with honest desire to acquire a heart of wisdom. He addresses the Psalm to the Lord, saying, Lord, You have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all generations (verse 1). When Moses shines the light on the fact of whom God is, man, in his natural estate, is nothing but dust, lasting as long as a weed of the field. He can never be compared to God in his sinful condition, although created in the image of God. Moses dealt with Israel for forty years. He came to see his people for what they were: rebellious and of hardened heart. He suffered much under their scrutiny of criticism. As an intercessor, he prayed for them in times when God was angry and ready to give up on those people. In this psalm, he writes, Who knows the power of Your anger? And Your wrath, who connects it with the reverent and worshipful fear that is due You? (verse11). We see His power displayed in the early years of Israel’s pilgrimage, when God descended to Mount Sinai to covenant with them; Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for He descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. (Exodus 19:18). The writer to the letter to the Hebrews describes how Moses felt at that time when God descended to Mount Sinai saying, In fact, so awful and terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am terrified (Heb. 12:21).

Psalm 90, more than any other psalm, (in my opinion), truly testifies the reality of God as a result of Moses have physically experienced Him. When I read this psalm, I sense the deep relationship between God and Moses. Defending Moses, God told Aaron and his sister, Miriam, “I speak to Moses mouth to mouth and he beholds the form of the Lord.” Twice, He spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain in the presence of God. His death happened in the presence of the Lord and He buried him there. He heard the voice of the Lord audibly and not in a dream or vision. So, when Moses wrote this psalm, he was reliving those days in the desert with its challenges and victories. He was well acquainted with God’s wrath and anger in His judgment toward Israel. So, his prayer was one of intercession for them when he said, Who knows the power of Your anger and Your wrath? So teach us to number our days that we may get us a heart of wisdom; Turn, O Lord [from Your fierce anger]! How long-? Revoke Your sentence and be compassionate and at ease toward Your servants. O satisfy us with Your mercy and loving-kindness in the morning, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days; make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted us and to the years in which we have suffered evil; let Your work be revealed to Your servants and Your majesty to their children; and let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands- Yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it (Ps. 90:11-17).

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Wake up, Get up, and Pray

The hour had come when our Lord YAHSHUA was to fulfill the will of the Father. Nothing was going to impede Him from accomplishing the most difficult task He had come to fulfill. After partaking of that last supper with His disciples, He knew that His sufferings and death were going to take place in the cruelest way. The shadow of death surrounded Him in an agony of His Spirit and soul in the Gethsemane Garden. He confessed to His disciples the extent of His pain. Arriving at the garden, He took with Him Peter, James and John, and began to be struck with terror and amazement and troubled and depressed. And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly and sad so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awaked and be watching; and going a little farther, He fell on the ground and kept praying that if it were possible the hour might pass from Him (Mark 14:33-35). In the midst of all He was contemplating to suffer, He gave the disciples emphasis on praying. “Pray so that you may not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:41b). Three things were important at that hour for the disciples to do: Keep awake, watch and pray. They were to keep awake with the Lord, YAHSHUA in His hour of temptation. But the time of the day called them to sleep, for it was very late. The three times He had called the attention of His disciples to pray, it was definitely to warn them of the presence of the evil one, who had come to temp Him. That was for him the “opportune time.” Satan has a way to visit us at the point of our weakness; he tried this tactic with the Lord.

Suffering as a human being, YAHSHUA was subject to Satan’s temptation at that hour. But the power he thought to have to crush the Lord’s plan failed big time. For in spite of the Lord’s weakness, He never gave up His position of Son of God. And as Son of God, He had greater power than the evil one. However, the disciples were exposed to Satan’s temptation and for them to be victorious, they had to do these three things: Stay awake, watch and pray. The warning was directed specially to Peter. He said to him: Simon, are you asleep? Have you not the strength to keep awake and [watch with me for] one hour? (Mark 14:37). The Lord had warned Peter earlier that before a cock shall crow this day, you will three times deny that you know Me (Luke 22:34). Peter, being warned earlier, still did not connect the Lord’s words directed to him at the garden. Remaining sleeping kept him off guard and weak to fight the temptation. Few hours later, Peter was found denying the Lord, as He had warned him. One cannot sleep, watch and pray. It is impossible to fight the devil while sleeping. There are many people- Christians and non-Christians suffering alone because we are asleep; we are falling into temptation of all kinds, because we are drunk with the things of the world and not able to wake up from it to help the helpless. YAHSHUA asked the question, “Have you not the strength to keep awake and watch [with Me for] one hour?” One hour out of twenty-four hours in the day is very minimal to invest in the life of one who is suffering.

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The Holy Spirit, Our Intercessor

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, is our comforter, helper, advocate, Intercessor, strengthener, the Spirit of Truth Who comes from the Father, He will testify regarding Me (YAHSHUA) (John 15:26). He is the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him, for He lives and will be in you (14:17). YAHSHUA promised the disciples before He left the world, saying, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come [back] to you (14:18). How could the disciples understand this promise, unless they were tuned in to every word that YAHSHUA was saying? After our Lord made known His death and departure from the world, He knew how deeply it would affect His disciples. The words of comfort He offered them echoed through ages to come. In chapter 14:1-3, of John, very well- known verses, spark hope in every believer when reading them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me; In My father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you; and when I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again ad will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also”. In the midst of sorrow, knowing that their Lord was going to die and leave them, the disciples had these words to lean on for comfort.

The Holy Spirit faithfully leads us into all truth; faithfully teaches us the truth; faithfully convicts us of sin and guides us to repentance. He is preparing every believer in Him to meet YAHSHUA through the work of sanctification- through molding us to be more like Him. Sometimes we hear His voice audible, sometimes softly as He communicates to us through our conscience. In first Peter 1:2 we find the trinity involved in the work of redemption: God chose us, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and YAHSHUA the Messiah sprinkled us with His precious blood in His redemptive act. Led by the Holy Spirit, we are His children; He has performed the work of adoption when He freed us from bondage to fear; He testifies with our spirit assuring us that we are children of God. That gives us the right to call Him Abba (Rom. 8) for He foreordained us to be adopted as His own children through YAHSHUA Messiah, in accordance with the purpose of His will (Ephe.1:5). Because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, we are guaranteed our salvation. It is part of our spiritual blessings. Paul gives a list of all the spiritual blessings available to all who believes in YAHSHUA. One of them is we have been stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit. He is a guarantee of our inheritance, in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it – to the praise of His glory (Ephe. 1:13-14). In Him we also were made [God’s] heritage and we obtained an inheritance. Therefore, we live for the praise of His glory! (Ephe. 1).

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Our Ways Are Not God’s Ways – God’s Thoughts Are Not Our Thoughts

(Isaiah 55: 8- 11)

Abraham was seventy-five years old when God called him to leave his country, relatives and his father’s house to a land He was going to show him. He promised to make a great nation from him and bless him with riches. Seventy-five in those days was still a young age, relatively speaking, for his father had died at the age of 205. He had no children at that time, for his wife was barren. When the Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision a second time, he said to the Lord God, What can You give me, since I am going on childless and he who shall be the owner and heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Look, You have given me no child; and born in my house is my heir. Abraham in his human nature is puzzled, not understanding God’s time line for the fulfillment of His promise. Sixteen years later, God came to Abraham again and this time he made a covenant between Him and Abraham. This covenant was that Abraham shall be the father of many nations; he probably wondered when, since sixteen years had passed since God had called him out of his land to a new land He was going to give him but his wife still was barren.

When God came to Abraham the last time before his wife conceived, he was at the age one hundred and his wife at ninety years old. God’s promise of a son became a matter of laughter to both of them. But God assured them that time that He was going surely to return to them when the season had come round, and behold, Sarah his wife was going to have a son. The reality to them was that they were now old, well advanced in years; it had ceased to be with Sarah as with women. Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become aged shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord being old? The Lord saw and heard Sarah and said, Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son (Gen.17,18:10-14). God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not His ways!

The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised (Gen. 21:1). Abraham was one hundred and Sarah ninety years old; but what is it to the Lord, since He is the Creator of life, and He is not in a frame of human time? He opened the womb of Sarah and what seemed impossible to them and their family, and a matter of laughter, became an expression of God’s power and faithfulness, for there is nothing hard for Him. His thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not His ways. He could have called someone younger according to our thoughts and reasoning; or He could have given Abraham a son earlier, but how would they have known the depth of God’s power and wisdom in the fulfilling of His promise to them? In our weakness God’s strength is manifested. Abraham had to go through a few experiences in life before he would see the reality of the promises. First he had to believe in the only true God, since he had come from a family of idol worshippers; second, he had to have faith to take the first step in obedience to God. Faith and obedience were then credited to him, for doing the impossible as far as to obey God in sacrificing his only son as God had asked of him to do. He had waited for that son twenty-five years. Now the Lord wanted to take him back. The depth of his faith went beyond the visible reality; in his faith he obeyed, believing God was going to give him his son back after he had killed him, as we read in Hebrews 11:17-18: By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received all welcomed [God’s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your descendant be reckoned, for he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead, he did receive him back from the dead. “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; our ways are not God’s ways”!

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You Rule the Raging of the Sea

King Hezekiah of Judah, a righteous king before God, suffered two raging of the sea storms. In II Kings chapters eighteen to twenty, is the story of how Jerusalem was about to be conquered by the king of Assyria, a very powerful king, who God had used in the past to bring destruction of nations. King Hezekiah found himself at his mercy, when he declared his purpose to him through a letter saying, Behold, you have heard what the Assyrian kings have done to all lands, destroying them utterly, and shall you be delivered?… Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. He went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed: O Lord, the God of Israel, Who is enthroned above the cherubim. You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth; Lord, bow down You ear and hear; Lord, open You eyes and see; hear the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to mock, reproach, insult and defy the living God…Now therefore, O Lord, our God, I beseech You, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know and understand that You, O Lord, are God alone (II Kings 19:14-16,19). This storm of tsunami proportion came to Hezekiah without any warning. Just imagine the devastation King Sennacherib would have caused to the city of Jerusalem, as it would have been in time of war! King Hezekiah’s heart sunk with fear, however, his faith in God led him to the path of deliverance, when he cried to Him. God heard him, and responded by causing chaos among his enemies; He said, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country. While King Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword (II Kings 19:7, 37). Exactly as God told him. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? The Prophet Jeremiah asked the question (Jer. 10:7).

But King Hezekiah became deadly ill in those days. The Prophet Isaiah came and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover (II Kings 20:1). After such great victory, King Hezekiah was facing with a challenge, the rage of the sea, once again. Still young, he pleaded with God for his life saying, I beseech You, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before You in faithfulness and truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight. Hezekiah wept bitterly (II Kings 10:3). The word of the Lord came to Isaiah then saying, Turn back and tell Hezekiah, the Leader of My people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your [forefather]: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord; I will add to your life fifteen years and deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake. (II Kings 20:5-6). King Hezekiah was miraculously healed according to the words of the Lord God. These two times the raging sea arose against King Hezekiah, it did not accomplish its purpose, for the Lord God intervened through the prayers that went up to Him with sincere heart and in humbleness. Who is like our God? O Lord God of hosts, who is a mighty one like unto You, O Lord? And Your faithfulness is round about You; you rule the raging of the sea, when its waves arise, You still them. (Ps. 89:8-9).

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Understanding How to Pray

(Luke 11:1-4; Matt. 6:9-13)

When the disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, the Lord opened widely the doors of heavens and made certain the entrance of all who desired to come to Him in prayer. The prayer the Lord taught the disciples starts by saying, “Our Father Who is in heaven.” The prayer is directed to the Father. When we enter His presence, we draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in good time for every need (Heb. 4:16). We must enter His courts with praise, revering His name; proclaiming the Gospel to all nations (“Your kingdom come”) and desiring His will to be effective in every aspect of life “on earth ( in my life) as it is in heaven.” The prayer then is directed to the basic necessity of life- our daily bread -food sufficient to sustain us.

In Proverbs 30:8-9 Agur prays, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me lest I be full and deny You and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and so profane the name of my God.” This wonderful prayer is a prayer of contentment with a spiritual sense of obedience and the pursuit of holiness. Paul said, “Godliness accompanied with contentment is great and abundant gain, for we bought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these we shall be content” (I Tim. 6:6b-8).

YAHSHUA said, “Give us this day our daily bread”. Not tomorrow’s, but only today’s; that is, supply the means for our sustenance “One day at the time”. He said, “Do not worry and be anxious, saying, what are we going to have to eat? Or, what are we going to have to drink? Or, what are we going to have to wear? So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble” (Matt. 619, 31, 34). Having our needs supplied one day at the time encourages us to a renewed desire to seek Him to be the provider of our basic needs. And as the Bread of life YAHSHUA satisfies every spiritual need of the soul as well. We should desire Him daily as we desire bread to satisfy our physical needs. He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things taken together will be given you besides” (Matt. 6: 31).

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Can You Tarry with Me Through the Night

The place- a garden; the occasion- YAHSHUA’S coming trial and death. After the Passover supper, they headed to the place where they customed to go- the Garden of Gethsemane. While He went a little further, leaving the apostles a stone’s throw, taking Peter, James and John with Him, He knelt down and prayed. This time, was not only to pray, but to agonize His last hours before He would be betrayed into the hands of the Jewish authorities and ultimately into the Romans’ hands. The Garden of Gethsemane was witnessing the suffering of Messiah on His way to deliver mankind from the hands and power of Satan. I just wonder if that was the same or approximate location of the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve first sinned. The first scene was the fall of men and a sentence given them and to the serpent. It was then that God gave Adam and Eve the promise of salvation, and to the serpent He uttered its destination saying, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all animals and above every living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15). He began to be struck with terror and amazement and deeply troubled and depressed. He then said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching, and going a little farther, He fell on the ground and kept praying, that if it were possible the [fatal] hour might pass from Him; He said, Abba, Father, everything is possible for You, Take away this cup from Me; yet, not what I will, but what You will (Mark 14:32-36). The disciples, not understanding the urgency of the moment, were overwhelmed with fatigue and fell asleep, leaving Him alone agonizing. Three times YAHSHUA woke them up to pray and warned them to watch and pray, but of no avail, until the time came for the betrayer to come with a band of guards from the Jewish authorities to arrest Him.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Satan was bruising YAHSHUA’S heel, while the disciples slept, powerlessly, for not remaining in prayer, as they were told. YAHSHUA’S words, “Abba, take away this cup from Me; yet, not my will, but what You will” shows the extent of temptation He was going through alone. That was the opportune time for Satan to come back to tempt Him. At the beginning of YAHSHUA’s ministry, He spent forty days and forty nights at the wilderness, and when at the end when He felt hungry, Satan came to tempt Him. According to Luke, Satan left YAHSHUA after he ended every temptation, until another more opportune and favorable time (4:13). The opportune and favorable time had come to Gethsemane Garden, when the devil showed up to tempt YAHSHUA once again, at the point of His weakness. YAHSHUA aware of it, warned the disciples to be in prayer. But when He returned to them three times, He found them sleeping. That’s when YAHSHUA asked a very solemn question worthy to consider: Have you not the strength to keep awake and watch with Me for one hour? Keep awake and watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:37-38). YAHSHUA continued agonizing, but the disciples continued sleeping, not taking into consideration the severity of the moment that YAHSHUA was going through. They heard the words YAHSHUA expressed to them; but their hearts were far from sharing the Savior’s pain in their lack of understanding. The third time when YAHSHUA found them sleeping instead of going back to praying, He then said, It is enough. The hour has come. The son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinful men; get up, let us be going! See My betrayer is at hand! (Mark 14:41).

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