Jesus' Hidden Pattern Of Prayer

By Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth

"I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength." Proverbs 8:14

We close our "Pray As You Go" series this week with this special message of the power of Jesus' way of prayer.

There is a locked, hidden pattern of prayer that works within the Bible that Jesus Christ used. I'm going to give you an example of how to unlock some of this prayer potential that is within you. I'm going to tell you the story of the raising of Lazarus. In that, there is a locked, hidden pattern that can help you unlock your life.

Let me give you the setting for what was going on. Lazarus had been dead for four days when Jesus arrived at the tomb. Now, I would like you to picture the scene. There are hundreds of wailing women crying their eyes our. Then we see the curious crowd--not so much a faith-believing crowd, but a doubting crowd. They doubt with everything inside of them that a miracle could possibly take place. Then we see the grim, gray, rock-hewn cave with a large, circular stone rolled in from of the opening. [John 11:39-44].

"Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.'

"Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, 'Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.'

"Jesus said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?'

"So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, 'Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. I knew that Thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.'

"When He said this, he cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out.' The dead man came out, his hand and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth.

"Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go."

First of all, how does Jesus address God? Jesus addresses God in a different way than we sometimes address God. He addresses God as if He were an immediate, close, available, mighty and loving Presence.

The basic pattern for prayer is in six steps.
  1. "Take away the stone." The very first step is to take away whatever barrier exists in your life, your mind, and your heart. Open your eyes and your mind and your heart to betterment. Agree with God that improvement is possible and consent to whatever changes this may demand of you. Prayer, you see, does not change God. It changes us.
  2. "Jesus lifted up His eyes." This means He lifted up his vision and His perspective, as well as His sight. What a thing to do in prayer! Sometimes the people praying never get to this point. They are so locked into the problem that they just beg God to save them from their problems. Their eyes are center on the problem. Never once do they give God the credit for possibly being able to bring something higher into their life. Jesus saw that with God working through Him, something more was possible.

    My friends, in the highest form of prayer, we do not ask that God lower God's sight to ours, but rather we seek to raise our sight to God's. Raise your sights, to see through God's eyes, to think through God's thought, to hear God's words.
  3. "Father, I thank Thee." Now Jesus has a Bible just like we do, but His Bible was the Old Testament. Jesus read the Old Testament He was familiar with it. The Old Testament teaches to thank God. The Jewish people thank God as a matter of habit. The difference here, and it's a big difference, is that He didn't thank God after Lazarus came out, but, through his faith and vision, thanked God in advance. There is a world of difference in that.

    Have enough faith in your life to know that when you pray, you're not wondering, "Gee, I wonder if God heard that? Did God hear me that time?" Have faith to permit God to work through you. Have faith enough to give thanks in advance. The ultimate prayer is giving thanks continuously.
  4. "He cried out with a loud voice." This is the voice of unquestioning assurance. This is the voice in you that knows. I often ask people, "How would you act if your prayer was already answered?" They have answered, "Well, I would be exuberant. I would be on fire with God." I would then tell them to act that way right now because it has been answered. It has to come through you--YOUR FAITH.
  5. "The dead man came out." The things that are impossible to you and me as mortal women and men are possible to God. Anything IS possible for you, with God working through you, if you are God-filled. The Bible says, "Where on thing I know: where I was blind, I now see; whereas I was once dead, I have come alive again; whereas I was impoverished, I am enriched, whereas I was abandoned, I am loved and accepted. Old thoughts and old things become as waters that have passed away. Behold, all things are made new."
  6. "Unbind him and let him go." Even through this dead man lives and has walked forth, he is still bound to the old thinking that got him there in the first place. He still has it wound in his consciousness and all that has been heated is the effect. Go beyond just healing the effect to healing the cause. To heal the cause we have to unbind ourselves and loose ourselves from that type of thinking. So many times we see a person healed of some disease and then a couple of years later they get it again in a different place. You have to go inside and, if necessary, turn yourself inside-out and unbind yourself. Completely become new when the old things have passed away once and for all.