Hey everyone, this is Todd Volker, and I'll be talking with you again today about our series Be Here, The Story of God. We're looking at how God is not distant, but He is near, and He has revealed Himself through the person of Jesus Christ coming to earth, and through the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that God has revealed Himself. He has made Himself manifest, and that we can draw near to God because of what Jesus has done for us. We're looking at the passage in Matthew 17 of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Today I want to continue on this idea of how to let others experience the manifest presence of Jesus by praying for them. Last time I talked about how I got started in this ministry with the prayer booth and praying for people on the street. Today I want to talk a little bit more about how do you do that specifically? How do you pray for people?
I want to get a little bit more into depth with that. One of the things that we find in this passage about Jesus' Transfiguration is the fact that the Father speaks from heaven exactly in the same way as He did at Jesus' baptism. They go up on the mountain. Jesus brings Peter, James, and John as close as friends, and suddenly Jesus is changed in his appearance.
It's like the veil is taken away just as humanity, and they can see Him as the glorified Son of God. Then Moses and Elijah come, they talk with him, and Peter freaks out with other disciples. They're not sure what to do because they're afraid. So Peter tries to manage the situation.
But the dramatic part of this comes right as Peter is saying this. It says, while he was still speaking, verse 5, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified.
What's interesting is that these are the exact same words that the Father speaks from heaven during Jesus' baptism at the beginning of His ministry. The only difference is this last little phrase. Listen to Him, but the rest of it is exactly the same. So as Jesus baptized, it says that the heavens are open, and the Father speaks and says, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.
Now, getting into the area of praying for others, one of the things people ask me is, well, if people let you pray for them, what do you pray? Like how do you start? What's your outline? And what I like to do is I like to use these same words that the Father speaks to the Son at His baptism and at His transfiguration.
I like to use those same words as I pray over people so they can experience the love of God for them. So why do I do that? Well, first of all, we've got to look at Jesus' baptism, and we see that Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, and John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. Well, the question is, why would Jesus need to be baptized?
He was the sinless Son of God. He didn't need repentance. Why did Jesus get baptized? In fact, John says, I'm not going to baptize you.
You need to baptize me. But Jesus says, let's do this to complete or to fulfill all righteousness. That's the clue that tells us what this baptism was about. See, Jesus' baptism was really for us.
Jesus' life was lived in a perfect relationship with the Father and the people around Him. He lived that life for us, a sinless life in our place. He was baptized in the Jordan for us. He went to the cross and was crucified for us.
He rose from the dead in our place for us, that He might be the first fruits of those raised from the dead. You see, Jesus' whole life and ministry was in our place. He was living the perfect life. He died a death.
He rose from the dead all for us. So when the Father is speaking to the Son, these words of affirmation, He's speaking them to us as well. So I like to pray that over people when I pray for them, and then I usually pray for whatever they're asking for. But I use that prayer to help people experience the love of God.
When we do that, it begins to open them up to what God wants to do. So lastly, why do you pray that over people if they're sinners? Why do you pray for them even if they don't know God? And I'll say, well, people know that they're sinners.
Most people know that they're falling short of God's glory. They're falling short of His laws. That they've made mistakes. They made bad decisions in their life.
But they may not know that God loves them. The Book of Romans says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So I always pray the prayer over them, the love of God. So we need to back up a little bit and we have to say, well, how do we get people to let us pray for them?
Well, wherever you go, wherever you meet people, whether it's in the marketplace or the workplace or at school or the neighborhood or in the family, we're going to run into people who've got things going on in their life, issues, things that are happening that are bothering them that are concerning them. And those are opportunities for us to offer prayer. So what I do is I just ask God when I'm talking with somebody who's telling me these things going to their life, I ask God, give me 15 seconds of courage to ask them if I can pray for them. And then I use the seven words that can change the situation.
And those seven words are, can I pray for you right now? Can I pray for you right now? Now if you ask somebody, can I pray for you? And you leave it at that, they'll think, well, that's okay, you go home and pray for me or when you go to church, you can pray for me.
But if you add those last two words right now, it changes everything. It puts it in the here, in the now. It's the B present. It's the chairos moment.
That's the Greek word for time. That means the appointed time. It changes the situation when I say, can I pray for you right now? And what you'll find surprisingly is that most of the time, I'd say 90% of the time when I ask people, can I pray for you right now?
They'll say yes. So how do I pray? Well, I use that prayer from the Father's affirmation to Son in the Jordan. So let's say I'm praying for Jonathan.
He's telling me, man, I'm having a hard time finding a job. I really need to get some money coming in. I got bills I can't pay. If I say, can I pray for you right now?
And he says yes. How do I pray? Well, I'll pray like this. I'll say, Heavenly Father, I come right now in Jesus name and I want to lift up to you, Jonathan.
He's your son that you love and you delight in him all the time. I pray God that you would provide a job for him. I pray that you would give him that which he needs to meet his financial obligations. I pray you would bless him with a job.
Let him know how much you love him, that you care for him, that you have a plan for his life, that you want to bless him. I pray you'd answer his prayer for a job right now in Jesus name. Amen. Something simple like that.
That's like a 45 second prayer. So here's a few guidelines on how to pray for people when you get permission to pray for them. First of all, I would pray with my eyes open. You know, most of us were taught to pray in church with our hands folded and our eyes closed.
But we want to pray with our eyes open. The reason for this is we want to observe what's going on with that person as we're praying for them. If a person is shaking their head side to side like a no, I need to see that. I would simply just stop and say, tell me what's wrong.
And they can explain what's happening as I'm praying. Or if they're nodding their head up and down like a yes, that tells me, okay, these prayers are hitting the spot. This is going in the right direction. There's other things I might see someone with tears coming down their faces I'm praying for them.
That might be an indication that God is doing something. They're experiencing God's presence in that moment and sometimes tears are an indication. But I want to pray with my eyes open to see those things. Now, that might take a little bit of practice.
But it's a good idea to try to learn to pray with our eyes open. The second quick thing I would say is you want to pray short prayers, short prayers, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, no longer than a minute. And the main reason is I'm praying for somebody in the parking lot at Walmart. If I start praying two, three, four minute prayers, they're starting to lose focus and they're looking around at what's happening out there.
What are people walking by or driving by thinking? So I want them to stay focused on what I'm praying for them. So I'm going to pray a short prayer. Okay, God can do a lot in 15, 20, 30 seconds.
God's not limited by time. So I'm going to try to pray a short prayer. So I'm going to pray the love of God over them and then I'm going to pray for whatever their request is. And then after that short prayer, I'll do one last thing and I'll say this phrase, as I was praying for you, what was happening.
And so they can respond by telling me what they were experiencing. Sometimes they'll just say, well, that was nice or I felt, you know, warm and fuzzy. But a lot of times they'll say things that you weren't expecting like, I need to get right with God right now. Or as you're praying for me, I felt heat go through my body.
We want to give them opportunity to give us feedback as to what was happening as we're praying for them. But as you pray for people, they will experience God's presence. They will experience the manifest presence of Jesus as we pray. Because Jesus told us to pray that the kingdom would come, that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And when we pray for Jesus to come and bring His kingdom, something good always happens. The Book of Romans says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And when we pray for people, they're going to experience that thing that they need, which is to experience a loving God who cares for them and wants to reveal himself to them. Alright, well, we'll talk more tomorrow.