He Lived Forever: Everything begins with Jesus
Pastor Conant was born in 1900. He lived through the advent of the horseless carriage, the car, the rotary phone, the personal computer, the internet, and the mobile phone. Pastor Conant was a man who was never in a hurry. He knew Jesus. His ministry model was so simple: know Jesus, be Jesus. Pastor Conant wrote a small number of books that have run out of print and taught a seminary class to future pastors on the Spiritual Life. The following blog is part of a series called He Lived Forever, it is a delivery of the teachings of Pastor Conant more relevant than every for our lives today.
Costly Prayer
1 John 2:6 “He that abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” Our job as ministers is to be Jesus to others. Jesus shows us how he ministers so that we might follow in His steps. For Jesus, everything begins in prayer.
For me, the best time for prayer is 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. It is in the silence of the morning that I have heavenly sweet communion that every day begins. Jesus began the same way, rising early in the morning to pray. Prayer was a primary part of Jesus’ life and ministry he sacrificed much to make it a primary part of His ministry. Luke 6:12 tells us that Jesus prayed all night to God, the prayer of Jesus—other than the cross—cost him more than anything else in his ministry. So there’s a question I need to ask, If the prayer life of Jesus was so costly to Him, can it be so cheap to me—costing northing, no time or sacrifice? Men, you are being trained for ministry, you will be Christ in this world and demonstrate him to others in your actions and life. You must begin by imitating his costly prayer life.
The ministry of Jesus grew out of his prayer life. Look at how many of his miracles grow out of a response to prayer: his baptism, he prayed all night before choosing his 12 disciples, his transfiguration [need to find more] to name a few. You will be ambitious in ministry and seek to do things for God. That is good but for you to do the things that God wants to do through you, you must pray. If you don’t pray, you have not because you ask not. Prayer is the channeling of the will of God from heaven to earth.
Why Christ Prayed
Jesus prayer because he desired fellowship with the Father. I would say first: the need of fellowship with the Father was such that only long times, long periods of time could satisfy Him. Only long periods of time would satisfy Him. Great desire to be alone with the Father, especially when rejected by an unfriendly world. That's a real need—that we need time.
Second, Jesus prayed like this because he needed to learn dependence upon the father. Every plan and action of Jesus is placed in the Father’s hands. Jesus worked because the Father was working. Jesus had an intimate knowledge of the plan of Jesus. When Jesus became a man he often did not use his omniscience to know the mind of the Father. Instead, Jesus embraced his humanity and prayed deeply to know the mind of Father. By doing this, he shows us how we can know the Father and know the Father’s will.
Jesus so prioritized his prayer with God that on three occasions he sent away the people to whom he was ministering. One such instance is recorded in the first chapter of Mark. Jesus is preaching, casting out demons, he heals Peter’s mother in law, then at the conclusion he leaves to go pray. When Peter finds Jesus he asks “where were you? People are looking for you?” Jesus says “I’m done here.”
Last, Jesus needed to replenish his strength for ministry. He was daily in the combat with the powers of darkness. Exhausting work. It requires renewal in the father. When you're combating the powers of darkness or a great problem in your church—and you will have them—it drains you. And if you don't get filling up later, you're going to have trouble.
If Christ needed this time, how much more do we? Especially in ministry, or when life is draining us, we need time alone with the Father.
Crisis means more time in prayer
Early in my ministry we had a VBS program and a young girl went home and reported to her mother than one of the adults running the program had abused her. The police came and with the girl’s help identified a seminary student who was interning with us. He never admitted to it but through prayer I had reason to believe it was true. He was dismissed from ministry at the church but the local paper wanted to feature this story. Publishing this would ruin the church and the ministry that I had in the town. During this conflict I resolved to spend MORE TIME in prayer rather than give it up to try to resolve the problem myself. The detective handling the case offered the newspaper first access to another developing story in exchange for this one and they conceded. Throughout the days surrounding this ordeal I would have been a dry, emotional wreck had it not been for my connection with the Lord.
When crisis arises in your ministry, spend more time in prayer, not less.
From here let’s move to Isaiah 50:4-6
4 The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
Prayer gives us words for Ministry
This passage speaks of Christ. Morning after morning he was in communion with the Father. He learned the words that He would need for his ministry that day. This is Jesus seeking the Father for the words that He would need each day. If Jesus is looking daily to the word of the Father, how much more do we need to fill ourselves with the word of the Father each and every day so that we might have something to give to our parishioners and congregations? When we fill ourselves with God’s word, God will send someone to you who needs that very word today.
30 minutes a day
I don’t advocate for reading mass amounts of scripture. I read just a little each day. I read until something in the text strikes me. It’s better to read a few verses and meditate on them than to try to squeeze the juice out of the Bible. If you are doing this plus prayer it should take you about half an hour.
Jesus spent much time with the Father because he needed instruction from the Father on what to do next. “My need is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.” What gives me the highest pleasure is to do the will of my Father. I will only know His will if I spend much time in prayer and scripture. We must be listening to the Lord. Men who have been greatly used of God are men who have set times for prayer and keep these times sacred unto the Lord. Daniel was threated with death and still prayed three times daily. Every man who is greatly used by God is one with a rich prayer life.
We ought to pray all day long. My wife will catch me talking and ask “who are you talking to?” I tell her, “the Lord!” We don’t have to wait for assigned times to pray, we ought to address the Lord with everything immediately.
For me, I wake at 3 or 4 in the morning to have a full hour of prayer. I know what you are thinking, “Don’t you ever fall asleep?” No, I keep a cold glass of water nearby to help. But I find on nights of restlessness the best thing to do is to get up and pray. My wife is developing Parkinsons and as a result she snores heavily. It keeps me up, I sit up some nights just making sure that she is sleeping. Some nights I only get 2 hours of sleep, but I praise God for what He has done because on those nights I spend the whole night with the Lord. If you struggle to focus then walk around. A prayer walk is a great way to stay focused.
I am not trying to be legalistic saying you must have a morning prayer time but I am pointing towards Jesus. If we are trying to minister Jesus to others then ours lives ought to imitate his life. And Jesus rose early to commune with his father every day.
