Okay, I think it's my turn. So without further ado, I was thinking about this when Celia was talking, a quote by Samuel Chadwick. He said, Satan dreads nothing but prayer. The church that lost its Christ was full of good works. That's the church at Ephesus. And if you know, Pastor Mark's been working on the seven churches through Revelation, in Sunday school and he talked a lot about Ephesus, but you've lost your first love. He says activities are multiplied, organizations are increased, souls may be lost in good works just as surely as in evil ways. The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies. prayerless work or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. And I know I've shared with all these ladies, it seems like this is my fourth ladies' conference, and this has been the hardest that I have had to do. I have struggled. And I can't help but think that it's because Satan hates the praying people. And whatever He can do to keep us here, be it private or corporate, He will certainly work on that. Now, I have my Bible with me, but I tend to drop things off a podium. So I have my Bible text in my note. I encourage you, though, to follow along in your Bibles with me. We are taking up the topic. Do I have a remote control? I do. We're taking up the topic of the paradigm of prayer. And I was touched this weekend. I was listening to Brother Clyde in his offertory prayer, and he was praying for the ladies who were preparing on confession, thanksgiving, and... other things. And I sort of laughed and said, yeah, I'm still trying to figure that one out too. This idea of a paradigm came to me because it's actually something that I teach at a college level and in nursing, and it fascinated my mind this past year in relation to prayer. The word paradigm, let me explain that word to you. And then, well, let's just, let me ask the Lord to help me, because I'm going to need it. Father, we gather one last time around portions of your text. We ask that you would give us your spirit, Lord, to open our minds. Please, Lord, help me to be organized. Take these words. and use them effectually as it would please you in the hearts of these dear ladies who've gathered today. I pray that they would go out with an enlarged vision of who you are today and an appreciation for this privilege of prayer. I own my dependence on you, Father, and call upon you for help in the name of Christ, amen. Now, a paradigm comes from two Greek words, the first meaning beside and the second meaning to show. And it was used up until the 15th century to mean a model or a pattern, something that you would emulate, an example. And we still use it in that way somewhat. But in 1962, a philosophical scientist named Thomas Kuhn wrote a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It had nothing to do with religion at all. It is a science textbook, but he had a thesis in which he utilized the term paradigm to mean the key theories and laws of a scientific system and the application of those theories to solving problems. He coined the term, which you may or may not have heard, paradigm shift, which means to change your way of thinking from one way to another way of thinking. Since his groundbreaking work, the Oxford English Dictionary has added this definition. Specifically, it says, it is a worldview underlying the theories and methodologies of a particular science subject. And another dictionary renders it the generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline. Now, if you recall, a worldview means a particular philosophy or conception of the world. We all know what worldview means because we use that word quite a lot in our vernacular. In other words, in modern linguistics, to speak of a paradigm is to speak of one's beliefs and practices about all of life within a set worldview. In simple language, our paradigm is how we see the world, and in consequence, how we react to the things we see and experience. So this concept of paradigms have been used. very frequently now in leadership training and is very popular with motivational speakers. And they explain this concept, basically, positive thinking brings positive results. That's the mantra of our century, right? How you think is what you will affect the results. But actually, this is a stolen mantra. Obviously, everything the world has is stolen. But this is too stolen because from the beginning of the biblical framework, the scriptures teach us that how we think about life and how we see life does drive our actions in it. So, let's talk about it. Job, the oldest book of the Bible, was mentioned this morning. was very haughty, he had certain ideas about how life was, and then he came face to face with the Almighty. In Job 42, he states, I know that thou canst do everything, and no thought is withholden from thee. So after everything that Job went through, this was his worldview, that God alone ruled and had supreme authority. His paradigm shifted right there. And when his paradigm shifted, his mouth shut. And suddenly, he had nothing more to say. He was full of self-loathing, and he just sat awaiting a verdict from God, which he found to be a verdict of mercy. What about the psalmist? There's many in the Psalms, Psalm 62, Psalm 63, Psalm 71, Psalm 73. I could go on and on about how the thoughts and emotions of the heart and man are moved and swayed by our point of focus. Psalms 42, especially when the psalmist is dialoguing with himself and he says, why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Matthew Henry wrote of this verse, when the psalmist looked to the Lord as his chief good and set his heart upon him accordingly, he rode the storm out anchored. What about the book of Habakkuk? Habakkuk, a very short and terrifying book. predictions of doom and gloom, and yet at the very end, the last verses of chapter three, although the fig will not blossom, and there is no fruit in the vines, and the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, everything that can go wrong will go wrong, yet, here's my paradigm, here's how I'm gonna see this. I will rejoice in the God of my, in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation for the Lord is my strength. And he will make me to walk upon my high places. Move forward to the New Testament, Paul's paradigm. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but we are not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. And even the believers at the Philippi, he admonished them. Think about these things, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is honest, whatsoever is just, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is lovely and of a good report. These are what you are to set your mind on. This is your paradigm. This is your worldview. So what is the purpose of this abbreviated glance through the scriptures, it is to make my apology for my thesis. The thesis of this lecture is, our paradigm of prayer will alter how we pray. Now before I began this study, I never really spent any deep thought understanding my own personal paradigm of prayer. Prayer is a common a necessary topic in most evangelical circles. I've heard about prayer since I can remember. I was taught to pray since before I could remember. I hope my children will be too. But sometimes familiarity breeds contempt, and not a contempt as in a scorning, but just a disuse and a lack of appreciation for. But coming to this study, I had several avenues that I was going to go on, and every one of them I kept abandoning because I felt like I couldn't get into that one, and I couldn't understand that one, and that one really convicted me, so we're definitely not going in that direction. And so I got really sluggish, and I realized the sluggishness of my own heart on the subject of prayer, and that I view prayer through a very monochromatic lens. I've read biographies and watched biographies with my little ones on these great men and women of faith, and I confess that I find that I have struggled to comprehend their lives and their faith. Samuel Morris, Gladys Alward, Corrie ten Boom, George Mueller, John Patton, William Carey, Amy Carmichael, and the list goes on and on, and all of these were men and women who seemed to have lived and operated in my personal point of view outside the realm of reality. They're a bit addled. Visionaries, we would call them. And so when I compared their lives of seeming impossible faith to my own, I felt like my prayer life really just consisted of a list of needs and a couple of impossible requests that I confess I offer half-heartedly. And from this despondent self-assessment, I developed this desire to know and understand what these faithful men and women seem to know and understand that has eluded me in my personal practice of prayer. What was their paradigm? And how could I shift into it? So that's what I'm going to muse on in the next hour. The Lord gave me Colossians. Let's open there because it's a beautiful text. Colossians 2 and 3. Now oddly enough, I had my first breakthrough from this photo right here. Actually, Diane sent it to me because apparently one of her son's classmates' mother showed up at the airport in this dinosaur suit and embarrassed her son and so forth. And I have found that this dinosaur has flashed through my lifetime. I even saw somebody wearing this dinosaur at Walmart during the pandemic. Alexander White says, imagination as God in his goodness gave it first to man is nothing less than the noblest intellectual attribute of the human mind. So I want to engage your imagination and go with me to Colossians 2 verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Go forward to Colossians 3. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead and your life is hidden from Christ. And when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you all appear with him in glory. Perhaps you begin to understand where my imagination took me upon reading these verses. To understand what our paradigm of prayer should be, we must understand our perspective or the point of view of our paradigm. in these verses, note, in him, with Christ, hidden with him, in glory, all through this chapter of Colossians, and in fact, all through the Pauline epistles. You will see this occurrence in Christ, in Christ, in Christ over and over. But Paul didn't coin this doctrine. It came straight from the lips of Christ. Turn now with me to John 17. We talk about the model prayer being the model prayer, but this, is the prayer of Christ. This is a rare intimate portrait, a glimpse, if you will, and he's dropping into a conversation that Jesus has with his father. And there is so much to learn about this. I strongly encourage you to study this prayer. There is an entire volume on just this prayer alone written by one of the Puritans. I can't think of his name right now. John chapter 17. I'm gonna pull out a couple of texts from here. Follow along with me. Look first at verse 11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep thy known name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those that thou givest me, I have kept them, and none is lost but the son of perdition. Go down to verse 21. That they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, they also may be one in us. And the glory, verse 22, which thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one. I, them, thou, in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And then he says it again in verse 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am. Verse 26, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. Moving forward, previous to this in John chapter 14, Jesus had already told his disciples that he was going to kill them. And here in this prayer, the Lord imposes upon His Father, this is His will. He says in His prayer, I will that. These are requests certain of fulfillment, that those for whom He would shortly carry out the work of redemption would be one with Him, in Him, and He in them. Pink asserts that a real living union is affected between Christ and His members, not as if they were soldered together, but by the Holy Spirit anointing and indwelling both, for He being infinite is able to conjoin those who are far apart. The same Spirit that dwells in the body of Christ on high dwells in me as a redeemed child of God. We are one, not two pieces soldered together, my half, your half, one. The person to whom we are united is none other than the God-man, the incarnate risen Savior, in whom Colossians 2.9 says, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily Paul speaks to the reality of Christ, to being with him in glory. Our union was from the beginning of time. because Ephesians says that we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world and this covenant of grace was agreed upon within the triune Godhead and it was a union that was effected by Him when He accomplished redemption and realized when each saint is given the gift of faith. And that birthright has been purchased for him or her, having died with him. We have been, have been, have been raised to sit with him in heavenly places. Currently, spiritually, we sit with him at the right hand of God the Father, at the throne of grace. We hear this phrase so much, ladies. that I think sometimes we aren't affected by it in the way that we should be. It has become cliche. but it is the most profound imperative, not only of our Christian walk, but of prayer life, that we understand and we fix our minds upon this. It is the foundation of our faith. It is the paradigm, the worldview of every believer, the point of view from which we view the world, all things that are, and how we act and how we react to God's providences while here on earth, that we are not here. Paul speaks most firmly in Colossians 3 when he says, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Where Christ sits on the right hand of God, set your affections, and that's an imperative. That's a continuous imperative. Keep setting your affections on things above, not on the earth. This is our paradigm shift. This is a movement from an earthly perspective to a heavenly perspective. It is from looking down on earth rather than up to heaven. And how do we do this? It's already done because Paul says, you are Your life is hidden Christ. It's already there. It won't be there someday. It's already there, just waiting to be revealed. The mystery may be glanced over because it's so mysterious and so incomprehensible. What, if we can grasp that paradigm, what perspectives regarding prayer might this mystery offer to our redeemed imagination? Let's think for a moment on this position, our position in Him. Calvin wrote, John 17, to comprehend or write what was intended by saying that Christ and the Father are one, we must take care not to deprive Christ of his office as the mediator. Refer that we are one with the Son of God, not because he conveys his substance. But because of the power of His Spirit, He imparts His life and all the blessings which He has received from the Father. McLaren notes in his comments on our text in Colossians, the ground of these declarations is found in the fact that faith joins us in the most close and real unions to Christ so that in his death we die to sin in the world. And even while we live the bodily life of men here, we have another life. Unless our Christianity has grasped that great truth, it has not risen to the height of New Testament teaching and Christian privilege. It is a great and incomprehensible verity of the Christian faith that each and every soul who has acknowledged Christ by faith wells with Him on high, currently seated at the throne of the right hand of God the Father. So who is this One in whom we are hidden? And I am indebted to John Owen's rich work, Communion with God, for some of this. Let's consider the person of our paradigm. Who are we in? The first thing is that he is the beloved. the Beloved, who warranted, the Scripture says, the full pleasure and delight of his Father at the Lord's baptism, and again at the Mount of Transfiguration, as Peter would describe in 1 Peter 2.17, such a voice spoke to him from the excellent glory, this is my Beloved. I am well pleased. McLaurin notes that to us, Exampled relation of kindred to the Father. There's no other relationship like it. He and His Father have a relationship that no other deity in heaven or earth has. We are created and He is creator, but God the Father, God the Son are creator. No one can have a relationship with God like Jesus. But, but, McLaren goes on to say, he has nothing in himself alone. He has redeemed us. And in him, we may become God's beloved sons, well-pleasing to the Father. In him. we become sons. Gil further explains, he is the natural, essential, only begotten Son of God, his beloved Son in whom the Father loved from everlasting as his own Son. Christ always was and ever will be considered both in his person as the Son of God, but also in his office as the mediator. God is not only well-pleased in and with his Son, but with all his people considered in him. In Him, He loves them. In Him, He takes delight in them. In Him, He is pacified towards them. And in Him, He graciously accepts them. We are in the Son, the embodied deity, intimately acquainted by familial bonds with the holy God of eternity. There is no other position which could secure filthy, unholy people as we. The favor and amicability of a thrice holy God or usher us so graciously into this benevolent presence without eternal judgment and condemnation, we ladies to us and for us. Christ is an endless, bottomless fountain of grace. The fullness that it pleased the Father to commit to Christ, Owen says, to be the great treasury and storehouse for the church, this position is full of grace. It's full of truth. It is sufficient for every purpose and every need. It is a glorious position. Christ is victorious and sits at the right hand of God, the son. And all the accolades and all the attributes that are laid on the mediator are transferred to us by virtue of this context of being in him. All that the Father has given to the Son is ours. The second thing we note about this one in whom we are is that he is the exalted one. He is the Lord and ruler of all the world, Acts 2.36, Psalms 2.6. Having had all things placed in subjection under his feet, Hebrews 2.7 and 8. Having all power given to him both in heaven and earth, Matthew 28.18. He has the keys of hell and death. He has been given power over all flesh, John 17.2. over all principalities and powers, Ephesians 1, 20 and 22. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, the highest possible exaltation, having received a name which is above every name. He is in full possession of a kingdom over all of creation, Philippians 2, 9. His chariots are 20,000 and thousands of angels, Psalms 68, 17. And among them he rides on the heavens and sends out the voice of His strength attended with 10,000 times 10,000 of His Holy One, before whom every knee will bow, Isaiah 45, 23, and all will be brought before His judgment seat, Hebrews 1, 1 through 14, and in Him We stand exalted who will be, as it says in Jude 6, joining and approving the final sentence of the judge. Believers are administrators of the kingdom under Jesus and have been given the authority to put down all rule that is hostile to God Almighty. Jameson Fawcett Brown. Exalted. This one in whom we are is so many more things. He's the Redeemer. He's our advocate. He's the mediator. He's our covering. He's our head. But I want you to just focus and grasp not His downward relationship to us, For the moment, this intimate relationship that His person affords us to the Father, we sit in Him, beloved of the Father, exalted on high, at the right hand of the Creator of the universe, the sovereign potentate of time and eternity. Do we feel defeated? Do we fear that our prayers cannot be answered? Why? We're in Him. If we can adequately grasp the reality and the necessary implications of our standing before and beside the Lord of glory, how will that impact our prayers? Owen tells us simply, our faith does not act immediately upon the Father, but by the Son. By Him, we have access to the throne. By Him, we're introduced to the Father and God. And when we have access to the Father by and through Christ, then we will behold the Father's glory, we see His love that He uniquely bears toward us, and our faith acts on that. This is our paradigm of prayer. In Him we have access to the Father, not in a stewer, unconcerned being, far above our thoughts, out of sympathy with our frames. You've already heard it. He is a Father full of love and grace and in gracious sympathy with our feebleness and our pit and pity us. Psalm 103 verse 8. Many believers regard God the Father with fear and shrink back from His holiness, but as Owen remarks, While it is true that Christ's blood alone is the means of communication, the free fountain and spring of every good thing comes from the heart of the Father. Eternal life was with the Father, 1 John 1, 2 says to us, and is manifested to us. And as the love of the Father to the Son is immeasurable and eternal, so in Him we are recipients of that immeasurable and eternal love. Owen says, he sets his love upon us in an imminent manner, that it may be received in an imminent way. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Assure yourselves then that there is nothing more acceptable to the Father than to lift our hearts to Him as the eternal fountain of all that is the rich grace which flows out to the sinner in the blood of Christ. Do you think the Father longs to commune with His Son? Then He longs to commune with us. That will take you a long time to think about. If our position is in him, then our mind is on things above. If our position is seated in the heavenly realms, in union and direct communion, as A.W. Pink said with the father, Ephesians 2.6, then our perspective on all things, here below, all things must be radically impacted. In the Colossians 3 text, we're told by the Apostle Paul, if he then be risen with Christ. I like what the Myers New Testament notes stated on this text. It is a relation of real participation in the resurrection of Christ. When Christ rose from the dead, he lived and he ascended and he sits and he intercedes. And our participation in that resurrection must be as active. McLaurin comments, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above and that to seek. It doesn't mean that we're groping around in the dark trying to find something. It is an aim, it is a target. It's like when those military aircraft set that laser on something and it is locked in. It implies that we are aiming at something. And if we are fully aware and living in the reality of our position on high, what should we be aiming for? McLaurin continues, surely the Christ seated on the right hand of God will be as a magnet which draws our consciousness upwards to himself. And this is no metaphorical sense, but it is a blessed reality. In this unity with Jesus, the depths of the Christian life hid with Christ in God, and that we risen with Him do sit at the right hand in heavenly places, even while our feet, dusty and sometimes bloodstained, journey along the path of life. I feel I'm being redundant, but it's so important, y'all. I've studied this and I can't get my head around it. Do you know how hard it is to get above? Some days I can't even get above my own bedsheets. I just want to be in the bed with my head covered up. Sometimes I can't get above my newsfeed. Sometimes I can't get above my little children. But we are above. It is our present reality. And so it must become our conscious and active paradigm. The disciples walked with the Savior of the earth. They were gifted with powers of healing. They were given the very mouth of God. They were given signs and wonders. But they didn't live in the reality of what they were taught. They didn't realize their reality. They didn't have the full revelation that we have. He was so overwhelmed by what he saw of the glory of God that he wanted to create monuments here on earth. As Calvin said, he didn't understand the vision. For while he was hearing from the mouth of Moses and Elijah that the time of Christ's death was at hand, he foolishly dreamed that his present aspect, which was temporary, would endure forever. How often do we think our present aspect will last forever? A.T. Robertson said on his Epics in the Life of Christ, it would seem that another object was in view. It was to help these three disciples to look at the death of Christ from the standpoint of heaven rather than that of the world of Satan, but they missed it. They didn't understand. And at his death, they were shaken, conflicted, discouraged. They were hiding. They grieved. They couldn't unravel the mysteries until the risen Savior sought them out and walked with them and ascended into heaven. than all of the teachings by the power of the Holy Spirit which was gifted to them on their open mind and their entire paradigm of life shifted. The kingdom realized and real was not of the earth. It was in heaven. The body of Christ was the souls of men. And everything about the disciples turned apostles changed radically. They had purpose. They had power. And as A.T. Robertson described them, they acquired a militant faith and set about to conquest the world. And Acts says they did. These are they who have turned the world upside down. What happened? Their paradigm shifted. They watched the face of their Savior as it rose into the heavens. And they got a message from the angels that He had been taken to heaven and that He would return the same way. They were given a commission by this glorious triumphant king, and he said to them, go and make disciples of all the nations, because I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again, so that where I am, there you may be also. Suddenly their perspective was no longer earthbound. It had been given the wings of heaven. and it soared to their beloved master. I've said this to Celia, I think. I imagine every day they went outside and looked up. I imagine they said, I wonder if it's today. I bet they sat and even talked to one another over a meal about things the Lord did with them, things the Lord said with them, how he looked, people he had healed. But every time they heard a clap of thunder, they ran outside and said, is that Him? So engrossed were they in their love and anticipation of the Savior, they didn't have time to be distracted by the world. Hear Austin Phelps in that beautiful book, describe their paradigm. He said, critics have observed that the apostolic epistles Doctrine sometimes embedded in passages of remonstrance and of warning, and it should seem, and this actually, if you go back and look at Romans 11 that Celia talked about, you have all this doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and then what a magnificent God we have. Thought of that right there, that exaltation. It would seem that the apostolic mind came down unwillingly or from a sense of duty to deal with the sins and weakness of earth, but it was ever on the watch for a chance to rise like a bird loose, though but for a moment into the upper air. They became men and women who lived in another reality. And it was the reality of a risen Lord whose design was to bring them. to himself. But lest we think that this is just a New Testament paradigm, let me show you that it's not. Let's consider 2 Kings 6. In 2 Kings 6, Elisha has been feeding the king information that the Lord has given him about the movements of the enemy, and the enemy is rather angry. So they send an entire host of an army to surround this little bitty town Israel so they can get rid of Elisha. And Elisha's very calm, but his servant isn't. And Elisha prays, Lord, open the eyes that he might see. And 2 Kings 6.17 says, And the Lord opened the eyes of the man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. The young man then saw the reality of Elijah's faith. Elijah was in another world. The army didn't bother him because he saw heaven. His was not an earthly battle and neither were his reinforcements. Let's go to Stephen. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, preaching Christ crucified, so angered his hearers that they began to gnash him with their teeth and took up stones to stone him. But Acts 7.55 says, Stephen, look, steadfastly up to heaven. That is a paradigm of conviction. There was something to be seen. And he was not disappointed because the Bible says he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Jameson Fawcett Brown commented, the sight was witnessed by Stephen alone as heaven opened to be revealed to his bright and beaming spirit. And there stood Jesus watching from the skies, the scene in that council chamber and the full tide of his spirit. He was at that moment engaged in pouring into the heart of his witness. It didn't matter what those men were doing to Stephen. He was going home. And there standing waiting for him was his heavenly paradigm. And even as the stones fell upon that gracious man's head, he was not defeated. His gaze fell upon victory and never moved. His seat was on high, and soon that reality would be realized as he was welcomed through those gates. And years later, as Paul penned the words, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I wonder if mine's eye didn't cast back to this witness whose cloak he held while that man died. whose voice he heard say, lift it up. And Paul remembered and said, for me to lift up is Christ also. What a reunion that would have been between Stephen and Paul. Elsewhere in the scriptures and in church history, we see that those who have uninterrupted vision have a reality of their position in Christ as seating with Christ in heavenly places. It provides such clarity of vision that these men and women have dared and done extraordinary feats in the kingdom work of Christ. and theirs has been a legacy of earth-shaking and heaven-dawning thinking. So what does prayer look like from this heavenly paradigm? B. M. Palmer, in his work Theology of Prayer, observes An exceedingly loose opinion prevails that prayer is only the utterance before God of human wishes. How often do I find this true of my own prayers? This is my grocery list of things I need, my complaints, things I didn't get. Jim Burton wrote, I often say my prayers, but do I ever pray? And do the feelings of my heart go with the words I say? When we live in the reality of the paradigm of in him, prayer becomes a new event. And Christ gave us His own prayers, intimate glimpses into the paradigm through which He communicated with His Father. So if we are to communicate with the Father, Him, then we should study how He prays. What is Christ's paradigm of prayer? This first observation that I want to make, and there's four observations, and then we'll be done. The first observation that I want to make of Christ's paradigm is that his prayers were intensely personal. Intensely personal, and I wish I could develop all of these, but time does not necessarily give us that advantage, so I pray that y'all will think on these things for yourself, develop them further in your own mind, but in his prayers, Christ displayed a vital intimacy. In John chapter 10, John chapter 10. He says, very simply, I, my father, are one. He often sought the Father to commune with him in secret intimacy, so much so that Alexander White, in his book, Teach Us to Pray, observed that the Lord had such a place of prayer and was frequently retiring to it, so much so that even Judas knew where he could be found. He was always in the Spirit. Matthew Henry says, in those quiet places, our Lord prayed as a man and as a mediator of his people, yet he was God. And he spoke with majesty and authority as one with and equal to the Father. In the opening prayers of his own prayer in John 17, he affirmed his being in the Father. He said, glorify thy son, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with you before the foundation was. In his prayer, he acknowledges and begins his prayer with a reminder of his intimate union within the Godhead and position in God himself. Even in His human form, the glory of His deity was made manifest, John 1.14 says. And because of His deity, Jesus also affirmed in His prayer His sovereign authority. "...as thou hast given Him power over all flesh." should have eternal life. And finally Jesus affirmed his high priestly calling to as many as thou hast given me and I have finished the work which you have called me to do. So in his prayers Christ confirmed his intimate association with the Father, he asserted his divine prerogative and He confirmed His divine purpose on behalf of and in intimate association with His own people. In other words, His prayers spoke to His personal relationship to the Father at the same time as His personal relationship to His people. What does this do for us? Well, we pray, coming to the Father, Affirming our position in Him. We're in Him. That's why we pray in Jesus' name. We also affirm our high priestly calling. 1 Peter 2.9 states, but you are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Meyers' New Testament commentary clarifies this, that a priesthood is possessing of a royal character. It not only offers up sacrifices, but exercises sway over the world. This is confirmed, and I could give you text in Exodus and Revelations, but lest we shrink back from this comparison, and I do, because I know I'm human, I know me, You don't know me, I know me. The idea that we stand before the Father, high priestly and royal. But here's what McLaren thought. There's not a creature in the whole universe, though he were mightier than the archangels that stands nearest God's throne, who is so great and independent that his happiness and well-being is the sole aim of God's gifts to him. That's what prayer gives to us, that we stand next to the throne of God. Our well-being is God's gift to us. What about Benson? Benson says, as princes, you have power with God and victory over sin and Satan, the world and the flesh. As priests, you are concentrated to God for the purpose of offering spiritual sacrifices." Barnes also notes the dignity of the priestly office. They were a kingdom over which they presided. They were all priests, and he refers to Exodus 19. However, Alexander White says it best. I love this in Alexander White's books. has a whole chapter called The Magnificence of Prayer. Well worth reading. The Magnificence of Prayer. Just note the highlighted. We do not nearly enough magnify and exalt our royal priesthood to be kings and priests unto God. What a magnificent office. But then we who hold that office are men of such small and mean minds. Our souls so decline and so cleave to this earth that we never so much as attempt to rise to the height and splendor of our magnificent office, the magnificence of all prayer, is that it is the greatest kind of act in office that man or angel can ever enter on, it can ever perform. Think about that, ladies. The magnificence of being able to speak directly to the creator of the universe. Once you begin to think of him, of him who is the hearer of prayer, and who waits, in all his magnificence to be gracious to you. I absolutely defy you to live any longer the life you now live. The supreme magnanimity and superb generosity of God is seen in this. In the men he selects, yes, prepares for himself, calls, consecrates, and clothes with the mitre and the ephod and the breastplate. Have you seen this? And he clothes them. What's that text in Ecclesiastes that pulled you out of your blood? And I have put badger skins on you. As we come to this prayer in heavenly paradigm, we approach our Father and our God with the boldness of the royal calling to which he has called us. And we recognize our position in the throne room as those who wait upon the king of all the universe. But such intimacy of prayer is as costly as it is vital. It costs something. It cost our Savior. But it cost us something too. Christ is time and again recorded going alone to pray. He spent time away from the fellowship of his disciples. He missed meals, he lost sleep. Prayer was vital to him. And this habit of prayer White explains cost us time. And truth is time doesn't enter into God's equation. Eternity is on his side. He doesn't have a watch. He doesn't time how long we're in prayer. He is not restricted to the time restraints we're restricted to. But the fact of the matter is sometimes we need time to calm ourselves. It also costs us self-discipline. Why again, nothing is so severe upon a man's powers of thought as a heart just to approach God and abide for a sufficient time before God in prayer. Can you not wait with me one hour? Yet most importantly, the cost of true prayer is the cost of self. In his greatest struggle before the cross, we've already heard about it, Gethsemane, as he stared death in the face, he who could not die, bearing the weight of sin guilt, he said, not my will. White says, to lie down before God's feet and say, not my will, and to say it without bitterness, or gloom, or envy, or ill will, and to go on to the end of our lonely, desolate lives full of love and service to God and to man will cost you all of your soft, easy, self-indulgent habits. This is the paradigm of prayer. It is costly. See why I didn't want to talk about this? But the prayers of Christ secured the redemption of His people. He paid the highest cost. The high cost of an effectual, fervent prayer was granted at His request. And when He paid, and what He paid, why do we withhold from Him our own sacrifices? Why is it too much for us? I ask myself, why? About the cost to me. Together for public worship, Why is it so tedious? It's because I haven't analyzed properly the cost to Him that I could do it. The Stoic said, nothing is so costly, so enormous, so extortionate as that which is bought. Prayer is intensely personal. and very costly. The second observation that I want to note about prayer is that it is intentionally purposeful. In John 17, Jesus declared, I have glorified thee on earth. I finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And elsewhere, he speaks to his disciples, telling them that he had done the work which thou gavest me to do, the work of the Father, in John 6, 8. And in all of his communications with the Father, which are recorded in the four gospels, the will of the Father and the will of the Son are shown to be in perfect harmony. And a reveal of all the prayers that Jesus prayed, or that were spoken of him praying through the gospel, reveal that each one links to his mission and purpose here on earth. And here was his mission, and here was his purpose, to reveal the Father, to glorify the Father, and to redeem his people. Everything he did, every prayer he prayed, had one of those or all of those elements. And our prayers have no less purpose. In 2 Corinthians 5.20, Paul says, we are ambassadors of Christ. We have taken up His cause. Myer's New Testament interprets this, in our embassy we conduct Christ's cause, seeing that the reconciliation which has taken place through Christ, because God has entrusted us with this work, Our exhortation is to be regarded as taking place by God through us. We continue Christ's mission. In Him, our purpose is to reveal the Father and the Son, to glorify the Trinity, and to evangelize the world. We have a great commission to build the kingdom of Christ here on earth, to represent his cause in a dark world, and our prayers should reflect those directives. Do we lack wisdom? Ask for it. Are our knees weakened? Ask for strength. Do we desire boldness in our witness? Ask for that. Is there a physical ailment that limits our service to our neighbors or other ministries of Christ? As Peter's mother, she was healed, and the Bible says she immediately began serving. Ask for healing, that we might serve the Lord better. Is there a thorn in our flesh? Pray for grace. We come to God with expectation because we have purpose in Christ. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who enlightens us to our needs and to the will of the Father. And our prayers, like Christ, should be contextualized within our purpose as believers in Christ. Because we're in Him, our purpose should be ever in harmony with His purpose. James assures us that we do not have answers to our prayers because our purposes are not aligned, James 4.3. But if our prayers are not for our personal glorification, but rather the glory of the Father, we may be assured of a very good reception at the throne of grace. And because our prayers have a purpose, they must be direct and definite. Phelps write, I come to my devotions on an errand of real life. I have an object to gain. I have an end to accomplish. There is a business with God I am about to engage in. Andrew Murray wrote, definite prayer teaches us to know our needs better and it tests us as to whether our desires are honest and real. It leads us to judge whether our desires are according to God's word or whether we really believe that we should do the things we ask. It helps us to wait for the answer and mark it when it comes. We can't come to God with some nebulous idea of what we want. We have a purpose. I want salvation for my little ones. I am assured that God's in the business of saving souls. I believe that prayer aligns with Him. So I'm gonna pray it and I'm never gonna quit. Our purposes will be reinforced by our desire to see those requests comes to fruition. Phelps continued, easiness of desire is a great enemy to the success of good men's prayers. Consider, he says, what a huge indecency it is that a man asks God for a thing he values not. If it's not important to you, you probably shouldn't speak it to an eternal God. But if it's important enough to talk to God about, you better keep talking to him. Swinuck writes, if a man petitions a king, he gives attendance to see whether it will be granted or not. The contempt of God's majesty and mercy is for you to throw down your prayers before him and then run away, not caring what becomes of it. Our audience at the throne of grace is in Christ. and His purposes make our prayers effectual with the Almighty. Therefore, Wyatt cautions, never say idle words to Almighty God. Say them to your equals, say them to your sovereign, but never speak them to God. When we come to God with purpose and with intention, we may be assured of fruit. And that brings me to the third point, which is prayer. Christ's prayers were powerful. Brief perusal of the Gospels and the life of Christ will confirm to you that Christ never prayed a prayer in vain. and his prayers effected powerful changes in the life of people he touched. And then those people went out and effected powerful changes in the lives of the people they touched. In John 11, one of the most powerful accounts, Lazarus being raised up from the dead, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and declared, Father, I thank you that thou hast heard me. and I knew thou hearest me always. If we are in him, we are heard always. Barnes notes Jesus never prayed in vain when he spoke but moved. Is such power available to individual believers? Indeed. The prayers of the saints are not only heeded, but they are designed and ordained, listen ladies, to move the hand of God Almighty to work out His mighty will and in the hearts of men and in the world in which they live, God uses the prayers of men to work out His will. That's power. Power! Firstly, saints' prayers are heeded. Turn to Daniel. I want to show you this. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible I think now. In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel was reading. I don't understand the book of Daniel anymore than I understand Revelation, so I'm not going to try to teach you anything out of it. I just want to show you this. I was reading and realized that it was time to return. The time had come to return. And in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 3, It says, I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and I prayed unto the Lord my God. Okay, let's go now to Daniel chapter 10. In those days, verse two, I Daniel was in mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine to my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till those three weeks were fulfilled." And then he, was it by a great river, skipped down, skipped down to Verse 5, and so forth and so on. And he saw this vision of this man. Verse 8, and of course he fell to the ground. He had no strength. But then, verse 10, a hand touched me and set me upon my knees. And he said unto me, verse 11, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words I speak to you. Stand aright, for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken unto me, I stood trembling. Then he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day thou settest thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days. He fasted and mourned for three full weeks. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia, and now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people. I want you to understand something. Immediately when Daniel prayed, somebody was dispatched. And when they were opposed, somebody else was dispatched. Heaven moves at the prayers of the people of God. That's why Satan hates them so much. That's why he opposes them. That's why he distracts you. That's why he puts you to sleep. That's why he impairs your ability to focus because he does not want you to lay hold upon the throne of God. Because heaven moves when a man prays. Immediately, his petition came into the ears of the Almighty God. White notes, in God's administration of things, a child's prayer is a mightier reality, setting in motion agencies more secret, more impalpable, and yet gracious, constant agencies whose chief vocation, as far as we know, Matthew 18, 10, is to minister to that child's bidding. A child's prayer moves the greatest force in all of the universe. Revelation 8.3 reveals that the prayers of all God's saints are offered with incense on a golden censer. Now, I don't know all the symbolism there, but what I get is God doesn't lose the prayer of his saints. He doesn't misplace them. He doesn't forget them. He's ever bending low over dust and ashes, listening for the slightest groan. And when he hears them, they are a sweet-smelling sacrifice. The power of prayer to bend the ear of the potent hate of time and eternity. Our prayers are not only heeded, but they move the hand of God. Austin Phelps in The Still Hour observes, Christians often have little faith in prayer as a power in real life, that it is literally, actually, positively, and effectually a means of power. It has, and God has determined that it should have a positive and an appreciable influence in directing the course of human life. It is a connection between the human mind and the divine mind by which through his infinite condescension, we may actually move his will. And that's a big thing, almost blasphemous. It's called causality in theology. I told my husband, I didn't really understand if I could talk about that. And he said, well, just quote a bunch of people. The creator of the cosmos has ordained that the prayers of righteous men affect this world and the kingdom of God. It is his power which he grants to praying hearts. It's His Spirit that moves them to pray because it is His purposes that He intends to affect. So you see, it's all Him. It's His purposes. It's His power. It's His Spirit. It's just our prayers. And He doesn't need them, but He chooses to use them because it pleases Him. Why? But it does! We see this principle in 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 18. You'll remember there was a bitter famine and Ahab and Jezebel were on the throne. It was about time for the famine to come to an end. Ahab was very angry at Elijah. He hunted him down. and Elijah is dispatched to Ahab by the Lord, and he tells Elijah in verse one, present yourself to Ahab, and when you've done that, I'll send rain. So he does, he presents himself to Ahab, but it's not as simple as that. He ends up having to massacre all of the ungodly, wicked priests of Baal, which Jezebel had set up, which had stirred the Lord's anger. And so after he spends all day doing battle with these priests, The rain still hadn't come, but that didn't matter to Elijah because he knew. So he said, yeah. You eat and drink and get yourself to your house because the rain's coming. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. We know there wasn't a cloud in the sky because later on it says that he prayed and prayed and finally a cloud the size of a man's hand came. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. But in verse 42 of chapter 18, And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel, cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked. There's nothing, and he said, go again seven times. And he said to Ahab, prepare thy chariot, get thee down that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass that meanwhile the heavens turned black and there was a great rain. Clearly it was Elijah's prayer that effected the rainstorm, but it was God's intention to send it. Elijah prayed in accordance with the revealed will of God. Daniel was 70 years or accomplished. Daniel prayed in accordance with the revealed will of God. As with Daniel, the response was delayed here, but the confidence never lagged because God's purposes will always come to fruition. He will always do His will in heaven and on earth. If we have that confidence in the sovereign power of our God, our prayers will not stop. We will not be discouraged though He delays. In Joshua 10, Joshua said to the Lord, I need to defeat your enemies. I need more time. And God heard Joshua's request and gave him the thing he asked for. And the sun stood still for a full day. God moves heaven and earth at the prayers of his people. Swinick declares, God's word and his will must be the rule of our prayers. We must ask of Him what we must do for Him. Divine precepts, divine promises, divine prophecies. These are the boundaries of our prayers, but these are boundless. The prophecies of blessing are eternal. So actually our prayers have the power to unleash omnipotence. And still, Phelps chides us. Christians often have little faith in prayer as a real power of life. Why? Why do we have little faith? Such conviction feels blasphemous that we can. But B.M. Palmer wrote, And there's a lot in the theology of prayer by B.M. Palmer, I suggest it to you. Being one with him. being one with Him who effectively pleads above. His petition becomes our prayer ascending to heaven with all the fervency of His desire. We touch in touching Him all things that are awful and high in His eternal dwelling place. We unite our will with the will of the Supreme and form a part of all that's done beneath the sun. Do you need a purpose in life? Start praying. If we could conceive of the power that's to be wielded in prayer, would we pray more often? Would we pray more fervently? Finally, the prayers of Jesus were perpetual. This has already been talked about. I'm so busy. I've got so many things to do. I hardly have prayer time. I get interrupted. If we consider prayer as a duty or a box that we need to check off on our list of things to check off, then we will become frustrated. But checklist thinking is not the Christian's paradigm of prayer. Christ was perpetually in prayer because he was one with the Father. Don't you talk to yourself. I talked to my son. He was in such union with his father that his spirit communed with his father even while he performed his work among men. The apostles after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord adopted this paradigm of union with Christ. He said he was with where there are spirits to be found. It would seem, again, Phelps, that the apostolic mind came down unwillingly, but always like a bird going back up. If we have a right view of who we are in Christ, the reality of our position on high We'll find those admonitions to prayer in the scriptures like Colossians 4.2, continuing prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing. Luke 18.1, men always to pray. These aren't exhortations to isolated actions or truncated duties. They are actually descriptives of a mindset on things above. This is what you will do because you are doing in Christ already. It is our reality. As Christ is communing continually with his Father, we are in him. The Puritans referred to this state of prayer as fragmentary prayer, that habit of offering up brief ejaculatory expressions of devout feeling. Psalms 73.25, whom have I in heaven but you? There's none upon the earth I desire besides you. My mind goes back to the apostles. All their lives, all their lives they scanned the heavens looking to see the face of their beloved master. They didn't know what day, but they knew. They had a promise. He told them in John 14, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And they didn't want anything but to be with him. They didn't much care which direction the reunion took place, whether it was that direction or this direction, it didn't much matter to them. The face of Jesus, his mannerisms, his nuances, his voice, all known to them and dear We have not seen him this way. And yet our hearts long after him fervently and passionately. And this is what Jesus told Thomas, you have seen me, but blessed are they who have not seen me. And they still scan the skies and still believe. What are they believing? That he and we are one. And we are united by indissolvable, unfathomable bonds of eternal love. We are those who have no memory of His face. We have not touched the scars of redemption. We did not get that last longing look in the face of Him who rose into heaven, but we are nevertheless in Him at this moment, and that is a position of promise and of power, and we are listening for the clarion call of the trumpet, and we scan the skies for a sighting of His chariot, and our hearts long with overflowing desire for the moment when our face rests on the beloved? And can a heart so attuned toward and so affectioned for this love, all other loves excelling, find prayer a duty? Can it find it an encumbrance or a drudgery? Can we sigh and complain that we need to have prayer or go to the service of prayer? Or can we find ourselves reaching out to Him in every sorrow, thrilling to Him with every joy, seeking Him with every question, groping for Him in darkness and delighting in His every providence, knowing that everything He does is for us? When Christ becomes our reality, Phelps says, there rises an experience of blessedness in communion with God, which prayer will express like a revelation and a devotion like a jubilant psalm. Yes. Yes. Our paradigm of prayer will alter our practice. Are we seated today at the right hand of God on high? Are we in him who gave himself for us? Do we pray with purpose and power? Do we strive to live daily more and more in this constant state of reality, this paradigm of prayer that our current real position is embedded most advantageously and securely in the throne room of the Almighty God far above the schemes and chaos of men and the wiles of the devil. In him who loved us and gave himself for us and intercedes for us and pours out all the riches at his disposal upon us. In him, adopted, accepted, beloved, exalted, empowered, This is our paradigm of prayer. Let's pray. Father, I don't feel that I have done justice to the deep richness of your word. But oh, Father, we need a vision. Without a vision, the people perish. We need to be a praying people, but Lord, our prayers are earthbound. Visit us, Father. Send your spirit upon us. As we go from this place, even today, Lord, would you just Send us with a sense of your reality that we might walk in you more fully and more richly. And that all that you do in our lives, good or bad, would be seen from a heavenward perspective. We need you, Lord. Thank you for your son who secures us a place in the throne room of God. It's in his name we pray. Amen.