EXPERIENCING PRAYER WITH JESUS
published by Multnomah Books
2006 by Henry T. Blackaby and Norman C. Blackaby
Italics in Scripture quotations are the authors emphasis.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible , New King James Version 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Other Scripture quotations are from:
The Amplified Bible ( AMP )
1965, 1987 by Zondervan Publishing House.
The Amplified New Testament 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation.
The Holy Bible , New International Version ( NIV )
1973, 1984 by International Bible Society,
used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ( ESV )
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.
M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission.
For information:
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blackaby, Henry T., 1935
Experiencing prayer with Jesus / Henry Blackaby and Norman Blackaby.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-56296-8
1. PrayerChristianity. I. Blackaby, Norman C. II. Title.
BV210.3.B54 2006
248.32dc22
2005030043
v3.1_r1
C ONTENTS
Introduction
F OR A L IFE-CHANGING E NCOUNTER WITH C HRIST
W e have opportunity in our ministry to interact with numerous people through conferences, online discipleship classes, Bible study groups, Sunday services, and meetings with business leaders. We encounter so many wonderful believers who have an earnest desire to live a life pleasing to God and effective in His kingdom. Very often they express to us a deep burden to understand and grow particularly in the area of prayer.
These Christians enjoy reading their Bible, serving in their local church or ministry, and sharing their faith, but again and again they tell us that they dont see victory in their prayer life. Even when they spend considerable time in prayer, they often fail to sense that their prayers are vital or effective .
OUR BURDEN FOR THIS BOOK
As weve heard these longings from Gods people, God has placed a burden on our hearts to write this book.
In doing so, our goals are these:
1. To open afresh your mind and heart to the prayer life of Jesus.
2. To help you anticipate and recognize the activity of God in your prayer life as He conforms you to the image of His Son.
3. To exhort you to obey and respond to all of the fullness of GodFather, Son, and Holy Spiritas He develops your prayer life.
4. To help you see the immediate urgency of the hour in which we live, and the impact we can have through our prayers.
5. To show that immediate and thorough obedience is key to your prayer life.
LOOK TO GODS ENABLING
Our desire is that Experiencing Prayer with Jesus will not be simply more information about prayer for you, but that it will lead you to a life-changing encounter with Christ and therefore forever rearrange your prayer life into continuing fellowship with our Lord.
While there are many wonderful examples of prayer and passages on prayer throughout the Scriptures, we know of no better model and demonstration of what the heavenly Father desires for our prayer life than the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. And at this critical time in history, we dont need simply more prayer from Gods people; we need specifically the kind of praying exemplified in the life of Christ. Therefore well be focusing especially in these pages on closely observing our Savior in prayer.
In any such study, it becomes immediately evident that theres a significant difference between how Jesus prayed and the prayer life of many Christians today. Recognizing this gap, its easy to feel that His heart of prayer and the dynamic characteristics of His prayer life are things that will never become a part of our own experience.
However, as you become more aware of this gap in your own life, we urge you not to become discouraged . Instead, press ahead to ask, Why is there this difference? and especially, How can I allow the Holy Spirit to change my prayer life to be more like the Lords?
He Himself often withdrew into the
wilderness and prayed .
L UKE 5:16
Be assured that God not only desires that we pray in a Christlike manner, but He also enables us to do so. Through His Holy Spirit within us, the Father is working to conform us to the image of His Son ( Romans 8:29; see also Galatians 2:20), and this transformation will preeminently involve and affect our prayer life.
FOR BEING USED BY GOD
When we look at the people God used in the Scriptures as well as those He used throughout Christian history, we see their lives marked by a deep awareness and practice of prayer with their heavenly Father. In most of the biographies and testimonies from people whom God has used in mighty ways in the past, theres a confession that the key to their work and to the measure in which it honored God is directly linked to prayer that mirrored the prayer experience of Jesus.
We believe this link is needed today as much as ever. Theres an urgent necessity for the requests and supplications of Gods people to reflect the prayer life of Jesus Christ as we see it unfolded in the Scriptures.
From Henry: Now Its Our Turn
Probably no Scripture in recent years has affected me as much as the last verses of Hebrews chapter eleven. Having given us earlier in this chapter a whole catalogue of the great men and women of faith, the chapter concludes, And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us (Hebrews 11:3940).
There are those who have gone beforeand now its our turn. There are those who have carried the torch, who have prayed through the night and wept through the night, praying for revival in our land. However, they did not see what God promisedand now its up to us. If we dont continue the vigil to pray, we delay even more the completion of what was begun by those whove gone before us.
Ive often said to the Lord, O God, many others have begun and never saw the completion of your promises in their generation. O Lord, help me to be faithful in my generation that when I pray, I hear from You and that when I hear from You, I immediately adjust my life accordingly.
Chapter One
O UR K EY TO L IFE AND M INISTRY
T he twelve disciples whom Jesus chose were no doubt men who prayed. They had been raised in a culture that valued and practiced prayer, and each of their hearts must have been prayerfully tender toward God for each man to leave everything and follow after Jesus when He extended His call to them.
