Appointed To Bear Fruit: A 90 Day Journeyনমুনা

Jesus Prays for Us

Jesus knew the importance of prayer. In fact, prayer was a regular practice of our Lord. He prayed first to the Father, then He prayed for His disciples, and after that He prayed for the world. Our spiritual lives should also reflect this same pattern. We need to spend personal prayer time with God, asking Him to draw us nearer to Himself. It’s in our prayer times, that He shows us what needs to be pruned in our lives so we will bear even more fruit. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to reveal the sins in our lives that need to be confessed. As we fellowship with the Father through prayer, we will also better understand our calling and the Father’s heart for making His glory known to the ends of the earth. 

Followers of Jesus need to be prayed for as well. We should pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, who have committed to doing the greater works that Jesus wants us to do. If we are to bear much fruit, we need to be bathed in prayer. What do we pray? We pray for unity among the disciples, protection as they proclaim the Good News, and that they will set themselves apart to fulfill God’s mission. Then we pray that the world will open their eyes to the truth about Christ and worship Him as their Savior and Lord.

Disciples of Jesus are truly blessed. Even in times of great trials and difficulties, we can know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are both interceding for us to the Father. The Apostle Paul tells us that even when we don’t know how to pray, “the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:27). When we are abiding in Christ and doing His work, the Spirit is taking the cries of our hearts, translating them into God’s will, and bringing them before the Father. That’s why all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). When we have denied ourselves and obeyed the Word of Christ by proclaiming the Good News, God works on our behalf to fulfill our heart’s desire to glorify His name in the midst of our trials. It is not only the Spirit who is interceding on our behalf; the Son, as our eternal High Priest, is also interceding also for us in heaven (Heb. 7:25). Jesus is still active in Heaven praying for us just as He prayed for His twelve disciples.

Our unity, personal holiness, and boldness are a fruit of divine intercession, and we are strengthened by God to do the work that Christ did, because His ability to keep and sustain us testifies to the oneness of the Father and Son. Our relationship to the Father and the Son reflects this truth. The Father as the vinedresser, and the Son as the vine, are both concerned about the branches. The Father prunes the branches, and the Son gives life to the branches. Together, they work in unison so that we will produce fruit. As we do the work that Christ did, we are revealing to the world that the Father and the Son are one. We pray to the Father in the name of the Son, and we abide in Christ to do the Father’s will. The Father, Son, and Spirit all work together to glorify God through the redemption of sinners.

Application:  How does the knowledge that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interceding for you impact your life and ministry?