Pattern of Seven: The Petitions of His Heart

There is so much in Scripture about prayer that only the Word ¹ could contain all the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding concerning it.

Blessedly for us, one who lived and walked with Jesus in His days of humanity asked that He would teach not only him, but his fellow gathered ones, how to pray. He specified in his request just like John (the Baptist) taught his disciples to pray.

We were not left with the prayer pattern John the Baptist taught his followers. He heralded the coming Messiah, that we know. I believe John’s prayers may have focused on preparing oneself for His arrival.

Jesus Came Bearing the Kingdom

When Jesus came bearing the Kingdom of Heaven² to earth, He knew He must depart for a little while. In the few years He had to prepare those who would carry on the message of God’s Kingdom², Jesus spoke of little else. The four gospels are filled with over one hundred references He made to the Kingdom, compared to only two verses where He mentioned the church³. His Church had not yet come into being.

Over 2000 years and counting, Christ is still building His Church today. Dependence on Our Father is crucial.

Jesus’ own life Story is not completed. When He comes the Second time, the remaining prophecies concerning Him will again start the clock of His life on planet Earth till all are fulfilled. Until that Day, what has and will yet occur is immense. Jesus knew the pressures the last days would bring; He had experienced His own. Yet, all the time, we were in His heart and mind, reflected in His High Priestly prayer.⁴

Friends, it is for these very days we are living in that He ensured we’d have access to the petitions of His heart. The way He prayed kept Him strengthened, heard, and close to His Father. He lived out of that prayer relationship as day by day He required Heaven’s resources for His human spirit, soul, and body.⁵  

That is what He taught His disciples before He departed. Jesus knew what lay ahead for them. Oh, how He took care of them, though, in sending Holy Spirit to dwell in them! A Heavenly tag team, still fervent in Their work on our behalf. We are given audience with Our Father by His grace. All because of His Son.

Jesus Gave Us a Pattern for Praying

The seven petitions in the prayer that Jesus modeled reveal a pattern for praying. We are living in a time when the full force of what this prayer truly means is going to be realized by its very necessity.

Pressures of life, and the efforts of the evil one slated for destruction, will increasingly unfold. It is to the benefit of our life to lean in and hear Jesus’ own instruction on how to pray. Its relevance will be increased, personally and corporately, in relation to our cry for an urgent response from Heaven’s realms itself.

As Jesus was driven in His humanity to audience with His Father again and again, He drew on the deep wells of provision and protection, strength to withstand temptation, and enabling to do His Father’s will. He only did what He saw His Father do and modeled the same for us: this prayer’s manner by which He lived.

The Source for Everything We Need

One thing about prayer in the manner Jesus taught: this world is not the source of our life. To put this statement in perspective, I have been gravely concerned about the condition of life in my country and other nations as I witness the loss of jobs, livelihoods, and ability to meet one’s very real needs. Add these increasing numbers to those already in poverty – and the scales are precariously tipping. Jesus knew that.   

There has never been one who is more just and fair than Jesus. Peter (the small rock on whom Jesus said He would build His Church), testified that, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of the One who called us by His own glory and goodness.”⁶

There are many believers who live in the realm of uncertainty concerning Our Father. It calls for faith, the very place we are tempted to think and conduct our Christian life based on ways and means of this earthly realm. Especially in the here and now of what is going on in each of our lives. But Jesus went to the Source.

Urgent Needs Lead to Urgent Petitions

Many have learned through living it what the writer of Hebrews expressed:

When (discipline) punishment is happening, it never seems pleasant, only painful. Later, though, it yields the peaceful fruit called righteousness to everyone who has been trained by it. ¹² So lift up your hands that are dangling and brace your weakened knees. ¹³ Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame in you won’t be put out of joint but will heal. – Hebrews 12:11-3 (The Voice)

Many more are in the fire of discipline and will add their testimony to its truth. Still others struggle to look at or receive the truth that such will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness to all trained by it.

But Holy Spirit was sent to set our lame feet on straight paths, empower our hands to be lifted up, and cause our weak knees to be strengthened by prayer’s bracing power. Heaven’s tag team has not left us powerless, nor lacking any good thing. It was Jesus’ own half-brother James, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who admonished us all, “you have not because you ask not, and when you do ask, you ask amiss…”⁷

“Teach Us to Pray” is about learning how to ask as Jesus did: the cry of a heart in need of an urgent response. If we have not been drawn much to prayer in the past, these days are ripe for our heart cries.

The Word’s Word of Urgency

Before moving into the substance of the seven petitions of His heart, it is important to understand The Word’s (Jesus Christ) word of urgency He was bringing to bear. I thank Brother Ed for his Greek lessons.

The manner in which Jesus prayed was strong petition and supplication to the One He knew could help. In the original Greek, Jesus used an Imperative – which carries the meaning of a command. In the Armor of God series, Paul imprisoned in Rome had a front-row seat to the imperatives of the Roman officers. We too are acquainted with the nature of an imperative. However, its form may also be used in prayer.

When an Aorist is joined with the Imperative, it means the command is to be carried out at once. But, in the form of a prayer – this is key – it is a cry for an urgent response. This is what Jesus taught in each of the seven petitions of His heart. This prayer, so common to us, turned to a cry for Heaven’s resolutions, now.  

 ~ Nancy

 ¹ John 1:1-5 speaking of the Divine Expression – Jesus Christ, Son of God / Son of Man

² Kingdom of Heaven emphasizes where the Kingdom comes from; Kingdom of God emphasizes Whose Kingdom it is

³ Matthew 16:18, 18:17             ⁴ John 17           ⁵ John 5:16-28            ⁶ I Peter 1:3          ⁷ James 4:2b-3, in chapter context 

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