Teach Me to Pray - Week #23: Power for Prayer and Work

John 14:12,13 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name…”

The Lord is addressing His disciples here as friends to whom He has made known what He has heard from the Father. He will entrust into their hands the care of His work and His kingdom and they will do even greater works than He has done based on His approaching death and resurrection and ascension to God. “Prayer is to be the channel through which that power is received for their work.”

The success and victories of His disciples were to be greater than His for two reasons:
1. He was going to the Father to receive all power.
2. They could now ask and expect anything in His name.

Whoever would do the works of the Father must pray!

“In prayer, power for work is obtained…His (Jesus’) approaching death was to break down and bring to an end the power of sin. With the Resurrection, the power of eternal life was to take possession of the human body and to obtain supremacy over human life. With His ascension, He was to receive the power to communicate the Holy Spirit to His own. The union between himself on the throne and those on earth was to be so intense and so divinely perfect that He meant it literally when He said, ‘He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12).”

“As He asks the Father, He receives and bestows on us the power of the new dispensation for the greater works. As we believe, and ask in His name, the power takes possession of us to do the greater works.”

Murray goes on to say that the lack of power to do the works that Jesus did is because of lack of believing prayer. “Prayer in Jesus’ name is the way to share in the power Jesus has received from the Father for His people…the most important thing for anyone who desires to do the work of Jesus is to believe, becoming linked to Him, and then to pray the prayer of faith in His name. Without this act of faith our work is merely human, carnal…Powerful, effective work first needs powerful, effective prayer.”

Six times in Jesus’ parting words, He repeats the limitless promises about prayer: “I will do whatever you ask…If you ask me for anything, I will do it...Ask whatever you wish…The Father will give you whatever you ask…If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you…Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” (John 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23,24)

Murray finishes the chapter by calling our attention to the fact that the reason we don’t see these promises fulfilled is that we separate them from their context. “The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His name before the Father in connection with doing His works. It is the disciple who gives himself wholly to live for Jesus’ work and kingdom, for His will and honor, to whom the power will come to appropriate the promise. He who tries to grasp the promise when he wants something solely for himself will be disappointed, because he is trying to make Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But the one who seeks to pray the effective prayer of faith because he needs it for the work of the Master, will learn its power because he has made himself the servant of the Lord’s interests…”

I’ll close with a gentle warning connected with this truth – because many of God’s children have been raised with a view of a perfectionist God, these words of the author could be understood through the lens of perfectionism. If so, it can leave us feeling like there’s no hope of ever being able to measure up to the requirements. Earlier in the book Murray emphasized how important it is that we not see God as a stern schoolmaster who demands perfection but rather a Father who loves the attempts of the child to obey even though the child falters and stumbles in his attempts; it’s the reaching for Him and for the highest in Him that moves God’s heart. So take heart – if you have a sincere reaching for God and His kingdom, desiring to love and serve Him with all of your heart, He will hear you and answer you; and in the process, He will teach you more about believing prayer and strengthen your heart in prayer.

“Lord…You have said that because of Your going to the Father You will do whatsoever we ask in Your name. From Your throne You would share the power given You with Your people and work through them as the members of Your body in response to their believing prayers. Power in prayer with You and power in work with others is what You have promised Your people…Teach me to pray so that I may prove that Your name is all-powerful with God, with men, and with demons. Teach me to so pray that You can glorify Yourself and do Your great works through me. Amen.”