Jesus prayed, but not always…

Jesus stayed constantly connected with God, his Father. This proved the source of his life and power. But Jesus didn’t always pray when facing challenges. Sometimes he just spoke words directly, and let the words themselves do the work.  

When Jesus faced sick people he didn’t pray for their sickness. I looked through all the accounts in the Gospels and I couldn’t find one instance where Jesus prayed for the sick. Instead, he took authority God had given him, authority over pieces of broken creation, and he spoke at the problem. And that fixed it.  

I was startled when I first discovered this pattern. I read and re-read the Gospels, particularly Mark’s account and I came away amazed at the number of times Jesus used words as tools of authority instead of direct prayer. He prayed, a lot, in secret and away from the microphones, late at night and out of sight. Prayer bolstered his power supply. But when he engaged a problem he tapped that power and used words AT the issue.

A while back I tackled this subject in a personal study. I went through Mark’s Gospel and found a series of nine commands of authority that Jesus uttered in different situations he faced. He said these words to change things, and remarkably, things changed. It struck me that I face similar challenges every day. You probably do as well. Sometimes my impulse is to struggle to fix it myself. Sometimes I simply resort to praying. But Jesus showed me another way, a kind of “prayer of faith,” or “authority declaration” that I could employ as he did. Actually, it’s not my authority or right that does anything. But I can borrow Jesus’ words in his stead and face the challenge down.

Out of my personal study and the trial and error of borrowing Jesus’ word as I faced daily challenges I wrote a report outlining what I discovered. Over the next few days I’ll post portions of this on the blog. You can also download it free it in its entirely on my website. I call it, Fight Like Jesus. Get a copy and pass it around.