Cultivating a Deeper Prayer Life - A Theology of Prayer

Study 10

Text: John 17

"I HAVE MANIFESTED YOUR NAME TO THE MEN WHOM YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OUT OF THE WORLD…" John 17:6

Jesus was most conscious of how He manifested His Father's Name. He sought to teach His Disciples that when they prayed, they must always seek to be conscious of "hallowing His Name" (Luke 11:2; Matt. 6:9).

Let's try and imagine how Jesus communed with His Father in prayer. Let's review the things He said in prayer…

He prays with deep affection to His Father John 17:1
He is conscious of the fact that He is "the only true God" John 17:3
He is also deeply conscious of glorifying Him on earth John 17:4
He reviewed His life's work, which He acknowledged as something entrusted to Him by His Father John 17:5

Jesus now adds one more dimension into his profoundly deep communion with His Father in prayer. He contemplates on the fact that He "manifested His Name" when He ministered on earth.

What did Jesus mean when He spoke of manifesting God's Name?
Let us consider the following thoughts.

1. CONSCIOUS OF GLORIFYING GOD AND NOT SELF

What is in our mind when we serve God? Sometimes, we are not able to free ourselves from foolish, selfish, self-aggrandizing thoughts. All of us have been guilty at one point or another of ourselves. Perhaps it is our scholarship. Perhaps it is our experience. Perhaps it is our giftedness. In any case, we manifested ourselves, rather than the Lord who sent us into the ministry.

How rebuked we must be as we consider how Jesus prayed. He was eve conscious that He must manifest God's Name at all times. He refused to draw people to Himself. Always He spoke of His Father- His will, His power, His glory etc. What a challenge to us to pray to be most conscious of manifesting God's Name and never our own.

2. THE CHALLENGE TO EFFECTIVELY MANIFEST GOD'S NAME

Jesus lived in a difficult period. There were many who professed to know God, but in their lives they denied Him. The religious leaders in His day proclaimed that they knew God. However, in reality they were nothing but hypocrites. Their religion was nothing more than pretence.
The great challenge for Jesus was to teach and live in such a way that He manifested God's Name magnificently and effectively. That was difficult, to say the least.

It would require deep and profound true knowledge of God
It would require great courage to manifest God's Name in life, especially when strong opposition is expected
It would require great consistency to keep up with the manifesting God's name effectively.

Jesus of course succeeded. We may not experience the same degree of success. However, let us be deeply challenged to manifest God's name, and never our own when we serve the Lord.

Let us check our hearts each time we come to the Lord in prayer. Let us seek to manifest the Lord's Name faithfully in word and deed as consistently as we can.

"TO THE MEN WHOM YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OUT OF THE WORLD…" John 17:6

As Jesus prayed and reviewed His life and ministry on earth, He realized that very few truly understood God. He preached to the masses, and there were great multitudes who listened to Him. However, many failed to appreciate who God really was. They failed to comprehend the great truths that Jesus sought to teach them about His Father.

Then there were the religious leaders who opposed Him strongly. They had much academic learning, but sadly, they failed to comprehend the deep truths that Jesus taught about God. Instead of appreciating His depth of insight, they sought instead to kill Him.

However, there was a small group of Disciples who gave up everything to follow Him. Yes, they were dear to the Master's heart. It is not without significance to note the way Jesus spoke about them.

He spoke of them as "men whom His Father had given Him out of this world" (John 17:6). Once again, Jesus magnified His Father's Name. He acknowledged that it was His Father who gave these Disciples to Him.
How we must learn how we can see our Father's Hand in our life. Let us seek to deepen our consciousness of God's hand in our life. The best place to cultivate this consciousness is in the place of prayer!

~ Pastor Charlie Tan ~