Between the Prayer and the Promise

by Julaine Christensen | Uncategorized

Scripture reminds us in James that in this life there will be trials and tribulations but He has overcome the world. In other words, they will be there, but Jesus will see us through.

Many of you, like me, have wanted to go so much deeper and higher in Christ. You have travailed for God to take you to new places. As I meditated on Matthew 26, several things became revelation to me.

I did some other reading on this chapter from authors I admire and together with them, realize that God is saying some very important things here concerning this desire to go higher in Christ.

As the story opens, Jesus and His disciples go out to the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30-46). Jesus addresses His loved ones with the fact that soon they will be offended and stumble and fall away; in fact, it was a warning that it would happen that night.

You see Gethsemane was not just a battle in Jesus’ life but it would ultimately be a battle for the disciples that they would never forget. Peter boldly and emphatically tells Jesus that He will never forsake Him. The others may but Peter says, “I will not.”

In fact, Peter says this twice even after Jesus assures him that it will happen. Jesus was trying to say there is a battle of the flesh coming your way and what is really inside will be exposed. Get ready.

Watch and pray as it is right around the corner. However, as we read further in the scriptures, we find that the disciples continually fall asleep, do not heed Jesus’ warning and remain unaware of the events that lay ahead.

Jesus, however, begins one of the greatest battles of His earthly life. Gethsemane means, “the press, the place where only the greatest pressure produces the oil from the olive.” It was the place of pressure to expose what was on the inside.

God has been truly dealing with me about my insides. You see we have heard it over and over again in service after service that Jesus is not concerned with your outward appearance but only our inside. I am certain that many do not even begin to understand how much that is true and what it really entails in our life.

The press of Gethsemane exposed the true heart of the Son of God. The Father wants to also expose the reality of our own hearts. When the press of the world begins to weigh us down, we sometimes feel that God has left us, doesn’t care and if we allow it, hopelessness rears its ugly head.

Scripture reminds us in James that in this life there will be trials and tribulations but He has overcome the world. In other words, they will be there, but Jesus has won the battle and will see us through.

You see, when trials come, the press of life squeezes the real ME to the surface and many times I am faced with the fact that these things are truly written on the tablets of my own heart.

It is painful to see what is really there and even more to allow the knife of the Holy Spirit to begin to cut away at this part of my flesh. Jesus fought this battle in the Spirit. Do I love my life more than God?

In Hebrews 4:15 we read that Jesus was tempted in all ways but did not sin. Jesus actually went through this battle with the flesh just as we go through our battles. He prayed until the flesh no longer controlled that area of His life.

What is exposed in Jesus’ life is that He loves His Father more than his own life so that He could lay down His life. Gethsemane’s press exposed His motives. Actually His power to resist this temptation to not follow the will of the Father unto death was revealed through what He loved.

The oil from the press broke open and proved that His love for the Father far outweighed His love of self. Therefore, His greatest desire to obey the Father would now be accomplished.

The answer to our prayer to know Him more, to be like Him, to go deeper and higher in Him, lies in the middle of the prayer and the fulfillment of the promise—it is THE PRESS. God is pressing on something in our life that keeps us from this deeper level. It will cost us the death of that thing in order to go higher in Him.

Are we really ready to count the cost? Are we able to pray, Lord, I pick up my cross today and follow you? You do in my life whatever it takes. Go after the inside so that the outside of me is truly an expression of a deep inside work.

I pray that this ministers to your very heart and that you will join with the Holy Spirit and allow God to do a true work deep on the inside of your being. I don’t want to play the religious games.

I truly want God to change me. Will you consider what He may be doing your life? Don’t be afraid to allow God to go after the deep things so that you can go higher in Him.

Copyright © Julaine Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Julaine Christensen is an author, psalmist, revivalist, and teacher, and she has spent her life serving the body of Christ as a "mother" to the church. The mission of her apostolic ministry has always been to equip sons and daughters to seek the Kingdom of God through worship, prayer, prophecy, and relationship with the Holy Spirit.

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