To Pray as Jesus Prayed

By Daniel Odle Sr.

Most people have much experience in praying to God, but far fewer hear the Father speaking to them in the way that Jesus heard the Father. Clearly people would pray much more if their spiritual communication was to the extent that they talk with one another in the natural sense.

To Pray as Jesus Prayed addresses this obscurity with clear Bible teaching. For example, you will learn

how God communicates His voice; why some do not hear Gods voice; which images release Gods voice in your life; how to be established in prayer by the Lord when you hear His voice; how to overcome the groping so common in prayer life.

To Pray as Jesus Prayed shows you what matters most is not what you say to God, but what God says to you. You can obtain rich fellowship with the Father when His disposition, His attitude, and His true involvement is realized in prayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449727901

Daniel Odle Sr.

After graduating from a two-year missionary program in Oklahoma, author Daniel Odle Sr. relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where he focused on street witnessing for many years. During this time, his love for helping unbelievers come to know God grew tremendously. To Pray as Jesus Prayed was born out of a passion to help believers, young and old, realize the desire of the Father to fellowship with them in prayer. Odle and his wife currently reside in Southern California, where they attend a full gospel church with their family.  

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Copyright © 2011 Daniel Odle, Sr.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-2792-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-2791-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-2790-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011917656

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/04/2011

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER ONE

The Desire of the Father

CHAPTER two

House of Prayer

CHAPTER three

Foundation—Spiritual Psychology

CHAPTER four

The Mountain of God

CHAPTER five

Faith and Prayer

CHAPTER six

The Pure in Heart Shall See God

CHAPTER seven

Hearing the Voice of God

CHAPTER eight

Revelation Knowledge

CHAPTER nine

The Holy Spirit and Prayer

Afterword

About the author

Resources

Preface

John 17:11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

John 17:21 That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

To pray as Jesus prayed is to know that the Heavenly Father hears you when you pray and that you hear Him when He speaks. The end result of all prayer is unity with God, oneness with God. This is the desire of the Father and His Son Jesus.

Consider the small excerpt about Enoch found in Genesis. The writer of Genesis only gave two or three lines of Scripture about this man, who walked with God and he was not for God took him (Genesis 5:24). Enoch, the New Testament says, was translated by faith that he should not see death; God took Enoch to be with Him (Hebrews 11:5). Enoch knew God’s desire to fellowship and be one with Him to the extent that Enoch’s faith brought on this change. Also, consider Adam and Eve who were in the Garden of Eden when God’s voice would walk by in the cool of the day. These are two examples that occur very early in Scripture of the relationship and oneness that God desires with His creation, a pattern interrupted by sin. There are other examples in the Old Testament of men and women being united with God’s purposes through prayer. Moses built the tabernacle in accordance with the pattern shown to him on the mount (Sinai). King David drew up the design for Solomon’s Temple as shown to him by the Lord. In these examples, God spoke very specifically His will to men.

What matters is not what we say to God but what God says to us. People often speak to the Lord in request, and those requests are many times from their own understanding and desires. People have this habit because most of the time they do not hear God speaking to them, and this has become their prayer pattern. The only request of a personal nature that Christ made had the suffix, not my will, but Your will be done; this was in regard to going to the cross (Matthew 26:39-44). Accordingly, Christ already knew the will of the Father in this matter.

It is difficult for people to see themselves like Christ as he is described in the following: I do only those things that I see my Father do, and If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. But Christ himself prayed to the Father, I would that they would be one as We are one, (see opening text above). Most people have much experience in speaking to the Father, but far fewer hear the Father speaking to them or have come to know His will for them in the way that Christ did.

The image of prayer in most people’s minds is not one of relationship, communication, and oneness as seen in Christ, but is vague. Until the correct image of prayer is established from truth in the heart of a man or woman, he or she will continue to grope in prayer. Certainly, we would pray much more than we do if we could experience the reward of this spiritual activity to the extent that we do when we communicate with men in the natural sense.

The goal in writing this book is to show the desire and will of the Father regarding prayer as Christ prayed and to show the principles and the skills that must be known and developed respectively. These new insights taken from the Bible will be contrasted with the current conventional understanding of prayer. Revealed are the hindrances to prayer, the results of prayer, and the goals of prayer. Also considered is the spiritual psychology of man and its relation to prayer. Much will be shown about the little known side of prayer, which is God’s side—His disposition, His true attitude, and His true involvement.

The hope is that you will have rich fellowship with God and it will be said of you: He walked with God and he was not for God took him.

CHAPTER ONE

The Desire of the Father

Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Hebrews 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"They will all know Me from the least to the greatest and I will write my law in their hearts," the Lord says (emphasis mine). This is the desire of the Father revealed—that we would all know Him. This same word was spoken in the Old Testament prophetically about the time of the new covenant, the time we are living in today (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This new covenant with the house of Israel is the New Testament established by the blood of Jesus Christ. In Christ, this promise of God is given to all men (Hebrews 10:10-16).

Focus on, as the chapter title suggests, the desire of the Father, that you would know Him and have His law in your heart. His law in your heart is His voice to you. His speaking is in the form of guidance, encouragement, and correction, all in line with His righteous precepts. The voice of God is spoken to your renewed conscience, which will be discussed in depth in Chapter Three. The law written in your heart is not like a book with a written code of ethics; for example, thou shall not steal. The law in your heart is the presence of His Spirit guiding your conscience, at times of choice, into righteous behavior. Due to the fall of man into sin, we are not sensitive to this kind of communication, which is spiritual communication in the deep recesses of the heart. It is important to understand God’s desire, which is to speak with us all the time. This is true for the Christian, for the person who has accepted Christ as Savior through the new covenant. We do not recognize this truth as we should; therefore, fruitful prayer is difficult for many people, having an absence of two-way communication. Related to this difficulty with prayer is the physical sense that you speak to God but He does not speak to you—the one-sidedness of prayer that most of us experience. There are additional reasons we struggle in prayer, but for now we must get a hold of this important truth about the Father’s desire. See in this desire of the Father relationship, which is communication, involvement, cohabitation, and intercourse. As understanding of this truth grows, we will walk in the fullness of this relationship.

In addition to God’s desire to speak to us is His approval of us as sons and daughters in Christ. Knowing that the Father will speak to you as He spoke to His Son, Jesus, is another fact that enhances your prayer life. God approved of Jesus and spoke with him openly. God will speak to you because He approves of Jesus and you have accepted the Son of God as Savior. In the weakness of our flesh, we only expect the level of interaction that we think we deserve, but God’s promise is to be one with us as He was one with Jesus (John 17:21).

What causes this oneness to come about? It comes about through two processes—placement of the Word in your heart and the Holy Spirit speaking to you about the Word placed into your heart. It is by the Holy Spirit that God the Father speaks to us about Himself (John 15:26, 16:13) so we can know the things of the Father plainly as set forth by Jesus:

John 16:25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father (emphasis added).

John 16:26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

John 16:27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and