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John

John 
Day 
Day 265

John 17 : 1 - 26 "PRAYING IN GREAT DEPTH"

Day 265 – John 17

PRAYING IN GREAT DEPTH

There is no question as to the fact that Jesus prayed in great depth. That was the way He always prayed. Depth of prayer reveals the character of the Intercessor. Depth of prayer also reveals the knowledge of the Intercessor of the needs of life and ministry. Depth of prayer is not something that a person could acquire overnight. Jesus must have spent much time communing with His Father to be able to pray as He did.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF SENDING FORTH THE DISCIPLES INTO THE WORLD

We are given yet another insight as to why Jesus prayed for His Disciples the way He did. He prayed for them in this manner, because He was going to send them forth as His Witnesses.

He had done His part in preparing them to preach and teach the Word of God. Through a three-year programme of Discipleship, Jesus trained them to be good fishers of men. The Disciples had been taught many deep and precious truths!

There was one more thing that He needed to do for them. He must pray for them that they might be truly sanctified by the Father.

“As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself,
that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
John 17:18-19

RECALLING HIS OWN SENDING

As Jesus prayed for His Disciples, He recalled how His Father had sent Him. His Father had sent Him with the Word of truth.

Jesus had sent His Disciples into the world in similar fashion. He followed the pattern of His Father closely. There had been no fear of sending Jesus into the world. Neither did Jesus experience fear in sending out His Disciples into a world that was hostile.

There was absolute confidence in sending out the Disciples. Everything that they would need to succeed had been made available to them. What was really needed?

1. There must be the Father’s Authority backing them up.

2. There must be the Holy Spirit giving them power for life and ministry.

3. There must be the Word of Truth.

4. There must be the Person of the Lord Jesus authorizing them for ministry.

5. There must be diligent and steady prayer support.

These things were all in place! Thus there was no fear that the Disciples would not make it if they were sent out to minister in His Name.

“FOR THEIR SAKES I SANCTIFY MYSELF”

What does this statement mean? Let us take time to meditate on this Word. Jesus was sent to minister to Israel. Thus He proclaimed the Word of the Gospel to Israel with the greatest sense of urgency and faithfulness. The multitudes came to Him with many needs. Many were desperately ill. Others were oppressed by demons. Ministry to the multitudes consumed a great amount of His time and energy.

Nevertheless, Jesus always found time to specially teach His Disciples. He had called them to be His Disciples. He must therefore set Himself apart to teach them as He should. For their sakes, He set Himself apart to be their Master.

He would set aside time each day to teach His Disciples the Word of truth. He would find the most powerful illustration to explain things to them. He would go over the Word He taught them again and again till they fully understood. He would pray for them. He would devote time to cultivate their friendship. He would see to their needs.

In this manner Jesus sanctified Himself so that He could minister effectively to His Disciples. There was no other way to raise them up as a good team of Disciples!

“YOUR WORD IS TRUTH”

Once again, Jesus found Himself going back to what He taught His Disciples. What had He Himself learned from His Father? Hadn’t His Father taught Him Truth? But of course Jesus would focus on teaching His Disciples the truth drawn from the Word of God.

Let us recall what Jesus spoke concerning the Word of truth that He claimed was from His Father.

“I have many things to say and to judge concerning you,
But He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world
those things which I heard from Him.”
John 8:26

Jesus credited to His Father the many things He taught in public. He proclaimed that even as His Father was true, so He was committed to preaching the truth.

He went on to urge the Jews to be His true followers if they were to listen to His Word and to abide in it.

“And you shall know the truth and the truth
shall make you free.”
John 8:32

Jesus preached many messages, and all were drawn from the Scriptures. All were powerful proclamations of Truth! He had sent His Disciples out to preach that same Word of Truth given to Him by His Father! There was great power in Truth. The Word of truth proclaimed could set a person free from the power of sin! The Word preached had power to create faith! The Father Himself would always back up the Word of truth! The Disciples would be sanctified by the Truth indeed.