Message #1 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"Jesus' Teaching on Prayer"

by Kaye Johns

There is a pattern, a definite sequence, and to understand Jesus’s teaching on prayer, it is important for us to see the pattern.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples the fundamentals of the righteous life in the Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-6-7], including the basics of prayer: the necessity of a daily quiet time, a model or pattern for prayer, the promise that those who ask, seek and knock will receive abundantly from a heavenly Father Whose very nature is to hear and answer prayer.

It was perhaps a year later that Jesus moved from teaching the basic, beginning steps of prayer to something more advanced--persistence and boldness [Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-8] . It wasn’t until the end of His ministry that Jesus gave the twelve disciples His incredible "you can have whatever you ask" promises to be used in advancing His kingdom.

The sequence of Jesus’s teaching on prayer is important because those new to prayer can’t fully comprehend the necessity of persistence or the conditions required for the prayer promises. It is as though Jesus were teaching three courses on prayer--beginner, intermediate, advanced. We can’t leap into advanced prayer without preparation and expect to be effective, any more than we can expect to do well in third year French without first mastering years one and two. The important thing is to begin at the beginning, and stay with it.

Pray with me now -- Lord, Jesus, help us to build a solid foundation for our prayer lives, for we ask in Your name, amen.

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