The Place of Zion
Psalm 84
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
Hebrews 5:7: In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.
Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened.
Prayers open heaven in terms of the will of God. When we pray the Kingdom of Heaven comes into the earthly realms igniting the Power of God for signs, wonders, and mighty deeds. Prayer brings us into the place where Adam and Eve walked in unity with God in the garden each step guided by the Holy Spirt in purpose and divine design. When they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that unity with God was broken. The blessing of purpose became the curse of futility. Because of Yeshuah, we now have reconciliation with God to walk in divine purpose and design. We find the Way, the Truth, and The Life, in the stillness: alone with our Lord in the sanctuary of our hearts. Matthew 14:23
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
Yeshuah needed to recharge to continue His work going about “His Father’s business” and will. Jesus needed direction and to be filled with the Spirit in all power and authority to accomplish the purposes and design of God. If we seek to do the same as apostles and followers of Christ, does it stand to reason that we follow our Lord’s example and go to the mountain by ourselves and pray alone? When I pray, I go to Zion, the House of the Lord located in the secret place of my heart. Zion, is The Kingdom overflowing with Living Waters of possibility and promise. I drink from those waters in my prayers with the expectation that the will of God with spill out onto the situation I invite Him. My tears mingle with those waters while at the same time His presence empowers me to carry out His bidding; I let go my own agenda or understanding of the matter. He never has failed or forsaken my prayers. I go up to the mountain of the Lord.Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.
But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?”
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
There are times in our lives that we would give anything for “this cup to pass” from our trails and tribulations. It is in these cups that the perfect will of God for our lives is found. The cup that we do not wish to drink from will always bring resolve and radical acceptance in working out our salvation and working in the fruit of the spirit. The Word tells us that we are refined and molded through the cups of what comes to us in many experiences, encounters and relationships that touch the core of our being in very taxing and painful ways. In the midst of pleading to God to take away the cup that the Lord was facing in His crucifixion; He was in prayer and supplication to the point of blood. May we pray in such a way in our trails and tribulations with the full knowledge that we carry our own cross for the “joy set before us.”
The joy is accepting our adversity in all confidence that God knows what He is doing. We have an opportunity to trust God or choose to trust ourselves. I have learned that it is far easier in reality to Praise God every step of the way with confident expectation because this is the lesson in the trial and the pain, the heartbreak, and the bitterness to become desperate to the point of tears of blood, for God and His will in all things. Jesus presses in and presses in and presses into the point of being crushed in the “winepress” because that is where He actually finds the strength to continue. In essence the path to the cross is the destination to the will of God; and we travel there with confident expectation in His faithfulness, promise, and purpose.
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.
They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.”
And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words.
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
The Lord’s Prayer contains all the elements of prayer. The first being piety, reverence to God our Father. “Our Father, . . . . hallowed be thy name.” The reference to Zion, the Kingdom of Heaven, the place of His dwelling, ” who art in heaven.” It was the priority of Yeshuah to do His Father’s will. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“ The third mention regards “our daily bread.” What is our daily bread, but provision in this earthly realm? It is also our fellowship with Yeshuah, who gives us the “hidden manna” to feed our souls; He equips us for good works, healing, revelations, the Spirit of the Lord, the Understanding of the Spirit, the Wisdom of Heaven, the Power of His Might, The Knowledge of the Kingdom language, actions, in terms of the nature, ways, power, and authority of God, the Spirit of Council, and the awe and reverence, The Fear of the Lord.
When we “dwell” as in a residential walk in The Place of Zion, we are in fact bringing more of the Kingdom into the earth. The place of Zion is located within, yet it is also located in The Holy of Holies in heavenly realms. The Place of Zion is a habitation, not contingent on performance for entrance, but on Grace, for all to enter the new covenant gateway of Loving God and one another. The place of Zion is the place Jesus takes us to in prayer because we are united in the Spirit with God. The Holy Spirit within us allows us into Zion. “The father seeks those who will worship Him in ‘Spirit and truth.'”
Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds,
Jesus blessed the bread–this blessing is also a symbolic multiplication of the signs, wonders, and mighty deeds Jesus wishes to perform in our lives though the power of prayer in The Place of Zion as the plans and purposes of God unfold. This prayer also ties in to “The Lord’s Prayer” as well. Jesus desires to multiply blessings, resolution, in joyful expectation in our lives. I believe it is possible to see this kind of multiplication in the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we are transformed from Glory to Glory. Glory is knowing God, becoming like Jesus in our nature and ways. What we need to understand in the prayers of Jesus is the fact that He always ASKED THE FATHER. Jesus wished to underline the idea that as free will children, we need to remember to ask and let our requests be known. This accompanies the idea that we need to depend on our Father for ALL things concerning our lives on a material and spiritual level.
Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them.
Make no mistake, Jesus teaches us to lay hands on one another and pray–there is a reason for this. Through the laying on of hands, Jesus taught his disciples to receive the power of God in healings, baptisms, prophecy and the like united and in agreement with the request to the Father. You can be sure the will of the Father is to see you blessed and operating in the full measure of the gifting He has for your life.
Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Jesus is in heaven right now making intercession for us–I imagine He is assigning angels to carry His wishes on our behalf. Sometimes I have asked Jesus to send angels. Last week my 98 year old mother-in -law was in a coma on her death bed. At one point, when I sensed her to be in a great deal of pain, I asked Jesus to send His angels and surround her with His light. She passed away almost immediately following my prayer. I had been singing in the room the greater part of the day. I was not singing while I silently remained in prayer. My niece and I were the only two in the room with my mom. However, during her last breaths, my niece promises that she heard singing and thought it was me. I told her, “no, those were the angels singing.”
I have heard the voices of angels on more than one occasion. Others have seen them, and perhaps we entertain them without knowing. One time I was parked beside a car and noticed the couple going through their laundry in the trunk–there was no laundry mat near and they seemed to be searching the pockets. I had the impression that they were looking for money. I was utterly compelled to give them some cash, handing them a twenty dollar bill, their mouths open in unbelief. As I was pulling away in the parking lot, I saw a tall man in a red plaid shirt walking parallel with my car. I wondered at that, why was he doing so? When he caught my eye, I saw him mouth the words, “Thank you.” When I looked in the rearview mirror, he was no where to be seen. It was at that point, I discerned he was an angel. I think of that incident each time I pass that parking lot.
I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
I can count on the fact that Jesus is praying for us, for me, and that the Father hears Him. Let us be followers of Jesus and go to our Father and ask, make no mistake, He will answer. His answers may not be according to our personal agendas but He will never fail you or forsake you. I believe in Jesus Christ, Yeshuah the Messiah the One whom walks with me every step of the way. According to my “word” the testimony of His showing up in my life, over and over and over again.
but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
We are called to pray for one another, I can actually sense when someone is praying for me. The Lord inhabits our praise and He hears our prayers. There is power in praying for one another.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
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