The prayer Jesus prayed just before He went to the cross is the most remarkable ever recorded and it is a wonderful demonstration of praying by the Holy Spirit.
To see just how supernatural prayer can be, all we have to do is look at the Master of prayer, Jesus Himself. The prayer He prayed just before He went to the cross is the most remarkable ever recorded and it is a wonderful demonstration of praying by the Holy Spirit.

When He prayed it, He was about to face the most horrible experience any man had ever known. He was about to be betrayed. He was about to die a painful death. And worst of all, He was about to bear the sin of the whole human race and, in so doing, be separated from His heavenly Father.

Yet, as we read the prayer recorded in John 17, we find He made mention of none of these things. That is because He was not praying from the present, earthly realm. He was praying by the spirit of prophecy about higher realms than that. He said:

Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
(John 17 1-5)

This is very interesting when you think about it. The greatest work God had given Jesus to do was to bear the sin of mankind on the cross.

Naturally speaking, He had not yet done that. But He said, "I have finished the work" because He was not praying in the realm of the present. He was praying about the glorification that was to be His on the other side of the cross, several days hence.

Why was He praying about that? Because that was what the Holy Spirit was showing Him. That was the realm He was seeing and hearing about in His heart.

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me...For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

I pray for them: I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
(John 17:6, 8-11)

Here Jesus begins to pray from the future realm of His High Priestly Ministry about a time when He will be glorified—or fully made known—in His disciples. He continues praying:

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled... As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world.
(John 17:12,18)

Now to you and me, Jesus' statements make perfect sense because we know Judas was about to betray Him. We know that approximately 40 days after this He would issue the Great Commission and tell the disciples to go into all the world and preach.

But keep in mind, none of those things had happened yet. So the disciples who were listening to this prayer must have been thinking, What?! What is He talking about? Who is the son of perdition? What is this about being sent? He hasn't sent us anywhere!

Sometimes, as you pray by the unction of the Holy Spirit, you'll feel just like those disciples. You'll hear yourself pray things from your heart and your mind will say, "What on earth does that mean? That's the strangest thing I've ever heard in my life!" That's because you're seeing things to come and you don't yet fully understand them.

To Our Day...and Beyond
Now let's move forward in Jesus' prayer to verse 20 where He says:

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
(John 17:20-23)

At this point Jesus steps into the realm which contains everyone who would ever believe. That realm includes you and me—and it extends at least 2,000 years beyond the moment in time when Jesus prayed this prayer!

You might think it would be enough to pray 2,000 years into the future, but He doesn't stop there. He prays further about a time in which all Christians will be one and so full of the glory of God the whole world will know Jesus is the Messiah!

To look at the Church right now, you might think that could never happen. But Jesus prayed it, and if He prayed it, we know He saw it in the Holy Spirit. So we can be sure that one way or another, it is going to come to pass.

Finally, Jesus concludes His prayer by spanning the spiritual universe—from before the foundation of the world all the way to the rapture. He says, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

Isn't it thrilling to watch the Master pray? Isn't it marvelous to see how effortlessly He moves throughout the realms of God, speaking forth those things God has declared and planned from ages past for the eons to come?

Let us learn from His example. Let us follow Him, leave earth's limited perspective behind and let the same Holy Spirit who led Him, lead us into the those supernatural places. Let us fall on our knees in faith and cry, "Lord, help us pray!"

Copyright  Lynne Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.