You will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Jn 14:20

when was the last time you made anything happen

outside of your body, without using a part of your body?

we are about to start praying for 6 months straight.

why you may ask?

speaking for myself, I would say there is a verse

that has pressed significant value on my heart,

in regards to the importance of prayer.

Ephesians 5:30

“for we are members of His body,

of His flesh, and of His bones.”(nkj)

again, when was the last time you made anything happen

outside of your body, without using a part of your body?

keep in mind what john wesley said

“God does nothing but

in answer to prayer”,

this is very interesting to me.

especially paired up with Eph. 5:30

and the question in asked.

lets think this through. and look at some more verses

to help us understand what we really are?

and why we should do what we do?

1st, Col 1:24 “…for the sake of His body, which is the church.”

2nd, 1 Cor. 12:27 “Now you are the body of Christ,

and each one of you is a part of it.”

Obviously I chose those two verses to point out one thing,

we ARE the body.

we are the physical, tangible, audible, body of Christ.

this truth is rarely accepted. I personally have trouble accepting it.

and honestly I don’t have all the answers about this,

but I know that in order for us to understand how God sees us,

how we should see each other, and WHY WE SHOULD PRAY,

we NEED to believe we are the body of Christ.

and His blood runs through my veins.

now, about Ephesians. five.

by now you have probably figured out that Ephesians five,

specifically the verse I am referring to, is about marriage.

and you may say,

“danmike why would a verse about marriage

make you think about 24-7 prayer?”

and I would say, “good question..”

I think the reason, my heart goes to this verse when we talk about 24-7,

is because of the verse that we are using as our theme for 24-7 prayer,

“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” Jas 4:8.

we are calling it “Near”

a season, that hopefully leads to lifestyle,

a lifestyle of nearness to our Father,

nearness to our Savior,

nearness to the Spirit,

so bare in mind that verse Jas 4:8.

and the question still is,

"what does 24-7 have to do with marriage, and being the body of Christ?"

ok, so the last ten or so verses in Ephesians chapter five

are specifically drawing our attention to the

relationship between the church and Christ,

which is a husband and wife relationship.

Paul ends the passage by quoting God in Gen 2:24, which say’s,

“For this reason a man will leave is father and mother and be united

with his wife and the two shall become one flesh”

Call me crazy but that say’s to me we are united with body of Christ.

If our relationship with Jesus is a husband wife relationship, vs. 25,

then we are united and have become one flesh.

you are the body of Christ,

and when was the last time you made

something happen outside of your body

without using a part of your body?

unity of the church becomes so much more significant

to us if we believe that God wants to use His body to do things.

who wouldn’t want to use there body to do things?

who would want to split up there own flesh and blood,

because the hand said to the leg “I disagree with you.”?

who would starve his own body?

and God is not going to do anything without using His body.

so I believe unity with Christ makes us His body

and that is why we need to have 24-7 prayer for the city.

you might say, “why should I pray to my body”

because of vs. 23 and 24,

“For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church,

His body, of which he is the Savior. 24) now as the church submits to Christ..…”

that is saying to us, the church/wife, of Christ/husband

you must listen and submit to the husband/Christ.

we the body/church/wife CANNOT know what to do without asking the head!

it's common sense

so we draw near to Him and He will draw near to us,

and tell us where to go,

what to do,

who to pray for,

who to talk to,

who to listen to,

who is a man of peace,

who isn’t,

and so on and so forth.

God has good desires,

but he will not just carry them out without using us.

Matthew 18, Jesus say’s

“whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,

whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

I tell you if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for,

it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

why does this matter? because God chose to give us free will,

and He won’t mess with that.

He is telling us through His Word that if we bind things here,

heaven will respond,

and if we lose things hear

heaven will respond

and if we agree on something here,

heaven will respond!

heaven responds to what we, the body, do and ask for here on earth.

That is why it is important to ask God what to ask for,

and that is why I believe in 24-7 prayer.

Christ is using His body to administer justice in our neighborhood,

and it is because we turn to Him to hear His words.

do believe in prayer?

prove it..

prayer means so much more then what we think.

Believe that God wants to tell you what to do.

Act upon what God tells you to do.

“faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” Rom. 10

-D. Thompson

He came to serve.

Read John 13.1-17

Notice in vs. 1 how it says,

“he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (niv)

All other translations say,

“And he loved them to the end.”....I like them both.

Because in one hand we have a phrase I can’t comprehend.

"He now showed them the FULL EXTENT of his love."

This is God were talking

about here. What is the full extent of

Gods love? This verse is saying

the full extent of Jesus’ love comes to life

when He...

vs. 4 he got up from the meal,

took off his outer clothing, and wrapped

a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured

water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet.

He now showed them the full extent of his love, by serving them.

And on the other hand, the text also reads

“and he loved them to the end”

That is also hard from me to understand…

Mostly because of what Jesus was going through at that moment.

Look back to the beginning of verse 1,

“Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father..”

Jesus knew life was about to become harder then any other

moment in his life on earth. Not to mention the horror of anticipating

full separation from the Father.These next moments alter the history

of mankind forever. These moments being the pinnacle

of why he came to earth... Just try to imagine the weight he must have felt

that night. Just one chapter earlier Jesus says in 12:27

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father

save me from this hour? NO, it was for this reason I came

to this hour. Father glorify your name!”

To add to pain, he also predicts later in chapter 13 that one

of his best friends was about to betray him.

Yet we still have this statement

“he loved them to the end”

Even when it got hard to get up in the morning.

Even when they disagreed.

Even during betrayal..

“he loved them until the end”

That is amazing.

And how I so easily forget what the Master did next.

He washed JUDAS’ feet!

I don’t know if I would even consider washing Judas' feet.

Could you? Who is Judas to you?

Maybe someone has betrayed you

Maybe someone has “stabbed you in the back”

Maybe Judas is constantly fighting with you and hurting you.

Maybe He has stolen from you.

The Word is teaching us to serve, and to be servants.

Not just to serve our enemies, but to serve our brothers.

And how often are we turning our relationships with our

brothers and sisters, that are meant to bring living water, and

shade to our lives and the people around us, into

broken bad memories of relationships that truly had promise,

relationships that could have been so powerful. All because

we won't tie that towel around our waist, get on our knees, and

wash the feet of our brothers.

This isn’t just some new concept.

Jesus says,

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and

to give his life as a ransom for many!” (mark 10:45)

Acts 4: The first church, the first Christians, the first people

in Ministry, were selling all they had so that there were

no needy persons among them. They were constantly serving each other!

There was a time when going into the Ministry

was for the purpose of serving.

There was a time when becoming a Christian

required great sacrifice in order to serve others.

Eph. 4:11-16 “It was he who gave some to be apostles, prophets,

evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to prepare God’s people

for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built

up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge

of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole

measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Don’t you see? The whole measure of the fullness of Christ

is attained by serving vs.12 “works of service.”, and Jesus is showing us

how to have his fullness, by washing his disciples feet.

“ Who being in very nature GOD, did not consider equality with God something to

be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a

servant,..” Ph. 2

To be like Christ means to be servant leaders.

Be an example to the world of the life changing power that is

in the humble servant. The freedom that is in the servants heart.

We are called to love, and serving is loving, and loving is serving.

"how do we know what love is? Through Christ laying down his life

on our behalf, and we should do the same for our brothers.." 1 John 3:16

And to finish the story, Jesus says, “I have set you an example

that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth no servant

is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one

who sent him.” vs 15-16 Meaning if we are Jesus’ followers no one

is greater then his master, and if my master did something I am not

so great that I don’t have to do the same.

Be a servant.

vs. 17 “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

-D.Thompson