Luke 6:12 “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”

Jesus was faced with the same problem that we are faced with. How would Jesus get His message out that He came to dies for the sins of the world? It is the responsibility of the Church in world evangelism.

What did Jesus do?

The first thing we see Jesus doing: He prayed. (Luke 4:12 “Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray.” So we see that prayer was Jesus’ main agenda. “At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’ ”  (Luke 4: 41,43)  What comes out here is that prayer helps us to keep our focus, because if we do not have focus we will have fragmentation. “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick.” (Luke 5:16,18)

We see the connection between prayer and the power to heal.

Jesus not only prayed alone, but there were times when He prayed with others. “About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.” (Luke 9:28) In Ephesians 6:18 Paul tells us: “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

It might seem unimportant, but the necessity of waiting on God is essential.  A.W. Tozer said: “When I am praying the most eloquently, I am getting the least accomplished in my prayer life. But when I stop getting eloquent and give God less theology and shut up and just gaze upward and wait for God to speak to my heart He speaks with such power that I have to grab a pencil and a notebook and take notes on what God is saying to my heart.”

Secondly, Jesus chose 12 men. “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” (Mark 3:14) I shared about power versus influence and mentioned the following: “Power works by division, influence by multiplication. In other words, the more power you share the less you have, but the more influence you share the more you have.”

What did Jesus do? We read that Jesus spent the night in prayer and the next morning He called His followers and out of them He chose 12 whom He called His Apostles.

We read in John 20:22: “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

One could say that He gave them His influence and they went forth and spread that influence.

Thirdly, He taught them. What did He teach? He taught them the true meaning of discipleship. “Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.’”

This sounds like the beatitudes in Matthew 5, but I do not think it is so because of the following verses. If He is talking about the poor in spirit then why would he mention about being rich and if he is talking about hunger in righteousness then why would he mention about being well fed, etc. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:20-26) Jesus is teaching His disciples that God is first in all things. He is the Lord; He is the King and not self. This is a hard lesson to learn, but one that we must learn if we are going to be successful in God’s work.

Fourthly, Jesus showed His disciples how to influence the world – to live by His kingdom principles. But if Jesus is not the King in our life it will be impossible to do; to love your enemies; to bless those who curse you; to lend expecting nothing in return; not to judge. So often we have a tendency to judge the motives of others and find ourselves acting in the way that we have judged others.

We will face many storms in life and whether we will stand or crumble before the storms of life will depend on our foundation. Are we built on the sand or on the solid rock of the teaching of Christ?

Luke 5:13 “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”

It is interesting to see when Jesus healed the man He did not pray, but just spoke the Word and this leper was made clean. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we would do the works that He did.

Doing the work of the Lord like Jesus we need to keep in mind what Jesus told His disciples when He spoke with the woman at the well.  He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”  John 4:34 (NKJV)

Jesus had a particular work outlined for Him by the Father. He was to go to the cross and give His life for our ransom. This was His work outlined for Him by the Father and His last words on the cross were: “It is finished.” In the process of fulfilling the work that He had been called to do there were many other things that He did: He healed, He preached, He comforted many, He debated and He lived a life that was beyond reproach.

What is our work? This was a question that the crowd asked Jesus and He responded by saying: ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’  Secondly, we read what Paul had to say about the work in Philippians 2:12: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We even see with Jesus that as a man “he learned obedience from what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8) And so we are to do the same.

However, we know that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)  What is the work that God has in advance prepared for us to do? This is something that is of utmost importance and that is making sure that we are doing the work the Lord prepared for us. Jesus said “I have come to do your will” and this should be what we pray as well. When we pray that prayer with all honesty He will show us step by step the direction we are to go so that at the end of our life we too might say: “It is finished!” and we would hear the Lord say “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Matthew 25:21

The key to know and do His work will be outlined for us in prayer. We read in our text “He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” (vs.16) It is no coincidence that we read in verse 17 that “the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

The enemy tries to get us distracted and again this is where prayer comes in to keep our focus on the work that the Lord has for us. Jesus was preaching in Galilee and a great work was being done. Early in the morning Jesus goes to a place of prayer and later everyone is looking for Him. What is His response? ‘He said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”  This is focus and this is what we need in order to do what He has ordained for us.

In doing what the Lord has outlined for us to do there will be many questions, doubts, uncertainties that will arise and wisdom will be needed. James tells us that “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5-6

Without a habit of prayer – we are lost. Just like Jesus went to a place of prayer or in the wilderness where He could be alone with His Heavenly Father, so it is with us. Find that place of prayer and visit it daily – otherwise you will find that your work is in the flesh. And in the last days when it is being tested it may be found to be hay, wood and stubble that will be burned up. Let us build on a solid foundation – a foundation of prayer.

Luke 2:42-45 “When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.”

How often we make the same mistake – thinking that Jesus is with us when He is tarrying someplace else. It is very important to make sure that all I do, what I think, etc. that Jesus is with me and not tarrying someplace else.

One of the problems with tradition is that we get set in our ways and often we find the Spirit of Jesus moving in a different direction and we do not notice and so carry on the same way trying to accomplish the work of God in the flesh.

We find this in the history of the church and especially when it comes to missions. In the first wave of missions William Carey (known as the father of Modern Missions) went out like Abraham not knowing where he was going, but knowing that God had called him to launch out. In being obedient to the Lord – New Mission Societies came into existence. Also, the Bible Society was started so that the Word of God could follow the mission endeavors. Much of the mission work during that time was being established along the coastlands of the different continents.

In the second wave of missions Hudson Taylor went to China and saw that most of the work was being done along the coastland. He decided that he would change his dress from European to Chinese and go inland. In this new paradigm, new structures were needed to achieve what the Spirit was doing. So we find New Mission Societies were being established – the China Inland Missions, Africa Inland Missions, etc.

In what is known as the third wave of missions, again new paradigms were needed. Cameron Townsend handing out Spanish Bibles in Central America gave a Spanish Bible to an old man who did not speak Spanish. The old man spoke to Townsend asking: If your God is so great why can’t He speak my language? This led Townsend to do research and found that there were many different languages and so the Bible Translators work was started as well as many other missions meeting this need to get God’s precious Word into all the languages of the world.

The reason I mention these different waves of missions over the past several hundred years is that we were slow in seeing what the Father was doing and moving along with Him. We see the same thing in the church today. I can predict what will happen in most of our church services every Sunday and maybe this is what the Lord wants, but perhaps the Lord might want to do something else, but because we get caught up in tradition we do not see that Jesus is tarrying someplace else.

Jesus said: “My Father is still working, so I am working, too. Most assuredly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.” (John 5:17,19 WEB)

We all are to be ‘watchmen and watchwomen’ and we need to be asking the question: What is the Spirit of Jesus doing? I first came into missions 57 years ago, and since then missions have changed. What and how is God working today?

Some years ago, I was in a conference in Dubai where they set aside some people to help facilitate the Chinese Christians who were moving along the Silk Trail on their way back to Jerusalem. When the Operation Mobilization ship DOULOS was in South America the goal was to see Latinos also moving towards Jerusalem. In so doing along the way they evangelized Southern Europe as well as Northern Africa. We know that in the last days Jerusalem will be the hot-spot for the world and with all of the movement taking place today, both politically and economically, God is doing something very special.

But what about our own personal life? What is God doing in us? How is He working in us? After almost 60 years of being a Christian, in the last couple of months God is working in my life to become more flexible in certain areas, and working in my emotions when I am under a spiritual attack, but I know that I need to keep asking myself how Jesus is working in my life to mold me more into His image which I long for.

What about our families? Our children? Our grandkids and in-laws? What and how is God working in them? Do we know so that we can work along with Him, especially in prayer? The main question is: Are we moving with Jesus when HE moves, are we tarrying with Jesus when HE is tarrying? This is our goal! This is my desire!