Prayer, People and Opinions
One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles…
Luke 6:12-13 NLT
Read Time: 11 mins, 3 seconds (238 WPM)
Something you’ll quickly notice when reading through the story of Jesus is His priority of prayer. The Bible says that He regularly withdrew to be with His Father. The Bible says that Jesus would regularly spend late nights and early mornings communing with His Father. Prayer was where He received His power and plans for the day as He was reminded of the promises of His Father.
Jesus didn’t just start His days with prayer; He would often pause His day to pray again. He engaged in what Paul would later admonish us to do by praying continually or without ceasing. He would often pause in the middle of the hustle and bustle of His day to check in and refresh with His Father. Jesus would regularly leave the crowds that followed Him, and instead of being drowned out by the noise of their thoughts, emotions, and expectations, He’d seek the quiet stillness of His Father. He would seek solace from the noise and excitement of pouring into others so that He could be filled. This is an important principle we need to recognize. You, too, need to pause, get away, and prioritize prayer.
I talked to a runner who told me about how, as he was training for a race, he noticed that he was unusually tired and hungry. He talked to a more experienced runner, and the experienced runner asked how much he was eating. My friend said that he was eating about the same as he always would, but the experienced runner cut him off and said that that may be his problem. When you are in a season of expelling more than you’ve expelled before, you have to be filled with more than what would’ve filled you before. The more he ran and trained, the more fuel his body needed. He was weary because he wasn’t prioritizing the thing that would be needed to fill Him.
Could it be that you are experiencing spiritual, mental, and emotional exhaustion because God is trying to take you to the next level, but you haven’t increased your intake? He wants to prosper you, but the prerequisite is a deeper priority of prayer. This season may require more from you. Jesus knew this about His own life, and that’s why He was committed to time with His Father, even if it took some early mornings and late nights that others seemed to have been ok missing.
Prayer Helped Jesus Deal with People
Jesus recognized the weight of His call and the platform that came as He walked in His purpose. Jesus’ anointing came with attention. His power attracted people. His abilities brought opportunity. And while He was intentional about dwelling with, caring for, and loving the people intimately, He made it a point not to rely on their opinions, feelings, or desires ultimately. He dwelt among them but wasn’t controlled by them. One could say He was in the world but not of it. He cared for them and their feelings, but wasn’t controlled by them and their feelings, and this is an often forgotten balance that is sometimes hard to strike.
Prayer will draw your heart closer to the needs and desires of the people you’re called to minister to but It’s hard to be aware of the feelings of those you’re called to dwell with, love, and serve, while at the same time not allowing the thoughts, opinions, fears, or apprehensions they bring to the table to stop you from leading. God is calling you to be around broken people without being unnecessarily broken by them yourself. This, too, is going to take a different prioritization of prayer. Jesus was ok with people being against Him or not understanding HIm because His identity came not from them but from His Father. So many of us are so swayed by the opinions, anxieties, fears, and brokenness of others that we can't be trusted to help them out of their issues without drowning ourselves. Paul says to be careful helping someone else out of their sin because you, too, may fall. Jesus was able to commune with broken people without being negatively swayed by broken people because He knew His identity. This identity was continually edified through His time in prayer.
There’s a common movie trope where someone gains the ability to read minds or hear the thoughts of others. It may be fun or insightful at first, but it soon becomes insulting as they hear all the negative comments people make about them in their head. They often hear who is making fun of them, who doesn’t respect them, or who is planning to betray them, but have to continue to function in spite of their new knowledge. This was what Jesus had to deal with. Imagine knowing the thoughts of those plotting to kill you and still preaching the message they hate? Imagine being fully aware that they won’t understand and preaching and living love anyway? While you may not read minds like Jesus, in leadership and life, you’ll often know the distrust, disillusionment, and disdain of the very people you’re called to smile with and lovingly lead, and it’s hard. It’s hard not to lean toward the praise or away from the criticism.
Just ask Moses, you may be the very liberator they prayed for, but they'll find a way to fight you the most. Ask Joseph. They'll persecute the very person who was prophesied to be in a position to provide for them. Ask David. They'll accuse and talk down on the very person willing to win the battle for them.
This is often a hard truth in leadership that Jesus knew all too well. Jesus knew that what the people needed wouldn’t always be received well, but He kept preaching. He kept going. And this required Him to receive His affirmation from His Father and not His followers. This is why prayer must be prioritized as you progress. After pouring all day, He withdraws to be filled. He leaves the other voices, narratives, opinions, and perspectives to be reminded of what's real with His Father. He doesn’t allow hate to hold Him back. He leaves the crowds to commune, and that’s when He seems to receive more instruction.
Prayer Helped Jesus Pick People
God doesn’t just comfort and encourage Jesus in prayer; He further commands Him.
It may sound simple, but could it be that the answers you’re searching for are on the other side of a prioritized pause for prayer? Could it be that the prosperity you seek is on the other side of the prayer you put off? I don’t think every prayer session needs to come after a mountain hike and last the entire night, but what would happen if we prioritized the presence of God enough to carve out time and energy to seek Him and nothing else for as long as it took to get an answer? What if we enjoyed God enough to sit with Him through the night like one falls asleep on the phone with their boyfriend or girlfriend? Praying for an entire night may seem excessive, and I’m not saying to throw away your sleep schedule for an all-night prayer meeting every night, but what if one night is what it took for your breakthrough? Would it be worth it?
Jesus prays, and it seems like this time with His Father is when He is given instruction concerning the men who will live with Him, learn from Him, and follow Him closely for the next three years before going out to be leaders of His early church. I’m not sure if this is when Jesus decided who would be the twelve or just when the Father told Him it was time to announce it, but regardless, this is a big moment.
It seems like this night with His Father is when Jesus is given the instruction to pick from among His followers who would be His main team. This night in prayer seems to be the catalyst that leads Jesus to clarify who would be His core. While every moment with God may not bring some sense of life-altering revelation, what if the moment you’re neglecting was the moment God wanted to reveal something as big in your life as the disciples were in Jesus’s? What if the prayer you’re neglecting led to clarity about who you should marry, who you should partner with in business, or who you should befriend? What if a deeper prioritization of prayer was what was between you and clarity about your call? When the Spirit prompts you to withdraw, listen. You have no idea what the reward may be.
Prayer Helps You Stick to the Plan
While prayer seems to be the push for Jesus to decide or declare who His disciples would be, we gotta be honest about something. On paper, this is a terrible group. Like for real. He has a skeptical doubter in Thomas. How is Jesus supposed to trust him to be among the bold first adopters of His message? James and John are nicknamed the sons of thunder and asked Jesus if they could call fire down from heaven to burn up a city of people they likely didn't like. And Peter kept a sword and was ready to kill. How was He to trust them to lead with love and gentleness?
Matthew was a tax collector, someone who was likely known to cheat his own people for personal gain. How would he be trusted among the people he was called to lead? Simon was a zealot, who scholars believe was a part of a militarized and radical Jewish nationalist group that sought to overthrow the Roman oppressors. Matthew is working with the oppressive government to steal from his people, and Simon is working with his people to overthrow the oppressive government. This is like a house slave turned assistant for the slave trader working with Harriet Tubman. How are they going to get along? And then Judas, the man who would steal from the donations people made to Jesus’ ministry, that Jesus knew from the beginning would lead Him to death for 30 coins.
Peter would betray Jesus. James aspired to be the highest in the kingdom. Phillip and Andrew saw more problems than possibilities when Jesus would feed the five thousand. Nathanael didn’t believe any good could come out of Nazareth. They didn’t get Jesus’ mission. They didn’t always trust His methods. But they were called to preach His message, and while that is good news for us because it reminds us that God uses broken people like us, it’s a hard pill to swallow as leaders. Why? Because communication with God will often lead to conviction to carry out commands that don’t make sense.
If I were Jesus and the Father told me to pick this group, I would have serious reservations. This is like drafting the worst players to a team on purpose. It doesn’t make sense, but this is what Jesus was led to do.
My message to you is that prayer won't just prepare and protect you. It will often lead to you being pushed to do things that don’t make sense. In moments of prayer, God will speak, and the instructions won’t always be understood or seem fun. When God spoke to Samuel for the first time, it was bad news, but Samuel boldly followed anyway. Many of the prophecies in the Bible follow that same pattern. What God says won’t always make sense or be fun, but if He said it, we must follow.
I love that, regardless of how uncomfortable the instruction, Jesus goes first thing in the morning to act on what the Father told Him to do. He didn’t procrastinate or put it off. He obeyed, and this is another reason we need to prioritize prayer. We need to be able to trust and hear God's voice clearly enough to courageously follow His commands.
Jesus had to go back to all of his followers and choose twelve of the worst to be a part of His core team. We already talked about how so many others didn’t understand or believe in Him, and now He’s following His Father by making a decision that His followers would likely find fault with.
One of the scariest and hardest parts of leadership is following God when He leads you to make decisions that don’t make sense on paper or will anger others. It’s hard to lead courageously when God calls you to things that the people closest to you don’t understand. But prayer will lead to you being pushed, protected, and prospered.
God may tell you to step out on the sea, stand up to the statue, or open your window as you pray. And while we know that even if it looks like it leads to earthly death, it’s worth a heavenly reward, it doesn’t always make listening to God's leading easier. It’s hard to say no when everyone else says yes, or say yes when everyone else says no. It’s hard to follow God when He says to fight your sources of funding. It’s hard to go against the grain and follow the narrow path of faith, but God wants to help us through it.
Prayer Will Remind You of What Was Prophesied
Prayer doesn’t just prosper and push us. It props us up and provides strength for the journey. The more quality time you spend in God's presence, the better you hear His voice and the manner in which He moves. The more clarity you get concerning His call, the more courage you can carry as you follow. Consistency in the presence of God is imperative because He will remind you of what He already said! When you’re mistreated, mishandled, and misunderstood, He will remind you that He has overcome this world. When you feel lonely and distant, He will remind you that whether you make your bed in heaven or hell, He is with you and that nothing can separate you from His love. When the world is crumbling around you, He will remind you that He is your refuge and strength and that He is a very present help in times of trouble. When everything seems to go wrong, He will remind you that all things work together for the God of those loved and called by God. When you don’t get it, He will remind you that His thoughts are higher than you can imagine and better than you can fathom. He will remind you that He has plans to prosper you and give you a future and a hope. He will remind you that those who sow in tears will reap in joy. He will remind you that death is not the end of this story. His Word will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.
Could it be that many of us are discouraged because we don't prioritize prayer enough for Him to prophesy about what’s on the other side of our trials? Maybe we pray enough to hear the plan but not enough to be reminded of the promise. What I love is that Jesus didn’t just get instruction, He got inspiration. In prayer, He was reminded that He was called to something greater, so that He could make it through difficult seasons. He was reminded that all authority was given to Him. He was reminded of His Father's plan and consistency in carrying it out. I want you to be reminded of the same thing. God is promising you prosperity at the end of this. What looks like death will lead to resurrection. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep praying.
Questions to consider:
When was a time in your life when the strain of the season required you to up your intake with God?
How can you get away from the noise, clutter, and opinions of this world to seek God's voice without distraction?
Have you ever had to trust God while walking out on something that didn’t make sense to you or others? How was that situation?
How has prayer pushed, protected, and prospered you in the past?
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