Devotions

When Christ prayed at Gethsemane, He was demonstrating to His people how to obtain power and authority over all satanic forces. When the disciples tried to cast out demons, those hellish spirits laughed at them. Only when Jesus came on the scene did the demons flee. The only authority they recognize is that of a contrite heart and broken spirit.

Now consider Jesus’ prayers at Gethsemane:

• “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). Here was a declaration saying, in essence, “This is beyond My understanding, and if it goes on, it will kill Me.”
• “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (26:39). Have you ever prayed in extreme agony, with hot tears streaking your face?

At Gethsemane, we find Jesus in a series of spiritual agonies:

• Tears
• Pleadings
• Intercessions
• Prostrations

Yet each is a spiritual episode that ultimately leads to a place of incredible revelation.

We know that as followers of Jesus we are going to experience the same things He did. He is our example in times of crisis and at such times, we are to pray as He did: with faith, knowing God bottles all our tears. Like Him, we are to pray for release and ask God for a way out.

Of course, this is not a daily experience in our walk with the Lord. Rather, it is an encounter with Him, a confrontation where we come to the end of something. In that moment, we stop looking at our circumstances and begin to pour out our soul before the Lord. And in the midst of it all, we believe, as Jesus did, that God loves us and is going to reveal something marvelous through our trial.

Peter’s bold faith enabled him to walk on water to get to Jesus on the sea. But when Peter saw the waves rising around him, he began to sink, and suddenly this fearless disciple panicked and cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30).

Jesus reached out and caught Peter, saying to him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (14:31). Make no mistake; Christ was not wearing a smile when He spoke these words to Peter. He was deeply grieved over His close friend’s unbelief and was demanding, “Why did you doubt Me, Peter? Am I not the Almighty Lord?”

DON’T WAIT FOR A CRISIS

Like Peter, we may move boldly in faith for years before a crisis comes that causes us to fix our eyes on our condition. Worsening circumstances can cause a sense of panic to overtake us, and we think we are going to sink. Yet, all the time God is within our reach.

I asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to move unbelief out of my life, praying, “Lord, how do I cast this mountain out of my heart? How do I rid my soul of everything that hinders Your miracle-working power?” He whispered to me: “If you want authority over every doubt and fear, there is a place you must go.”

THE PLACE FOR ANSWERS

The answer is found in only one place: Gethsemane.

Gethsemane was the garden where Jesus went to pray when His trial became crushing and His cup overwhelmed Him (see Matthew 26:36-46).

• He wept out His deepest sorrows before the Father
• He won the battle over every evil principality and power
• It is where all obstacles must obey His Word

You may have to meet Him at a place of tears but you will come into victory. 

“Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).

Jesus said it is possible for us to move the mountain before us, but it is accomplished only by faith! He gives the glorious promise that whatever we desire, when we pray and believe, we will receive. Can you believe it?

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE?

In my years in ministry, I have observed that very few Christians believe that such a supernatural work can occur. In fact, you may say, “I have tried this and it didn’t work for me. I prayed in faith and I believed but my prayer wasn’t answered.”

I remember a new pastor coming to me confessing his addiction to pornography. This young man loved God and loved his wife, and they enjoyed a good marriage. But he got hooked on pornography and was unable to shake himself loose from it. It began to rob him of all his spiritual strength, and even though he prayed earnestly, he had not been delivered.

FULLNESS IN CHRIST

This young man’s problem was not just an addiction but unbelief. He did not accept that God answers prayer, and his unbelief stood before him like a looming mountain, impassable and immovable. And it was severely hindering the fullness that was his in Christ.

The good news is that this pastor came into a better understanding of how to exercise his faith, he weathered his storm, and he came into a wonderful place of victory in the Lord.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

What does Jesus mean when He says we will do greater works than those He performed? We find a key in the last phrase of this verse: “Because I am going to the Father.” What exactly happened because Jesus ascended to the Father just after His death?

• The earth literally trembled
• Graves opened and the dead emerged to life
• Jesus preached the good news to the dead in Hades

And then Jesus did this for us: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (14:16).

By going to the Father, Jesus would save all who called upon Him. He would provide resurrection life and fill His followers with His very own presence through the Holy Spirit. All He did in the brief time after His death added up to this: He made us one with God. That could only happen “because I am going to the Father.”

This explains the greater works Christ said we would do. In our flesh we tend to think of “greater works” on the same scale as Jesus’ awesome miracles:

• Feeding vast throngs with a few leftovers
• Walking on water
• Performing amazing demonstrations of healing power

But Jesus showed us what that “greater work” is: bringing the light of His gospel—the saving, delivering, life-transforming gospel—to the world.

Psalm 37:25 is an incredible promise to those of us who have been appointed to live in an anti-Christian time in history! “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” The righteous have never been forsaken, and I assure you that you will not be the exception!

Of course, it is important to note that the key to this promise hangs on the word “righteous.”  When you and I came to Christ, we were given what the Bible calls imputed righteousness. The best way I can explain this is through the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15). The Bible tells us that this boy took his inheritance and went far away from his father, in the same way many of us strayed from God in our early years. He ended up in a place of famine and heartache, doing things he never believed he would be capable of. And although he knew he had no merit, one day he just got up and started to return home. To his surprise, when he got close to home, his father ran to meet him—embracing him and covering him with the finest robe in the house.

In the same way, when you decided to return to God, God met you. He embraced you and covered you with the finest robe—the blood that Jesus shed on a cross two thousand years ago.  God cleansed you and gave you a righteousness that you did not earn.

In the parable, the covering came with a ring, representing the power that the son would need in order to be the ambassador his father was calling him to be. He also was given a pair of shoes—implying that his righteousness would involve a journey. He was not called to merely stand on the road and look good and clean. No, he was called to go on a journey with his father!

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.