Pray Like Jesus: The Ministry of Jesus

By William F Johnson

Pray and move mountains

Your prayers can change your life, your surroundings, and the world in which you live.. 

 

Discover your keys to powerful prayer.

 

Award-winning author William F. Johnson reveals the keys to effective prayer as he weaves Gospel accounts of Jesus' teachings, prayer life, and perspectives with a personal search for more prayer effectiveness.

 

Follow Jesus as He reveals when, where and how to pray, Learn Jesus' perspectives on love, power, and the spiritual realm and how that affects His prayers. Several of Jesus' prayers are analyzed to uncover more insight in praying with power.

Let Jesus be your mentor as you seek a deeper prayer life.

 

Readers have commented:

 

*****   "This book is wonderful .... it has helped my prayer life and walk with Jesus. I have read it and re read many parts.. it is marked up, and high lighted and will be on my most favorite list of books for many years to come... WELL DONE Bill...you really did an awesom job in writing this book... may we all learn to PRAY LIKE JESUS......"

 

*****   "This was just what I was looking for. It helped me to understand the trinity better and confirmed what I already believed about our relationship with God. It helped me want to draw closer to God. I love the way it's written and I highly recommend you read it."

 

*****   "This an amazing book on prayer. It breaks down how to pray and why we pray. It is one of the best books I have read on prayer and highly recommend it. You will not be disappointed."

 

Your life  will be transformed as Jesus mentors you in your approach to powerful prayer.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aslan Ministries, Inc
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393427803

William F Johnson

William (Bill) Johnson and his wife Rita live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and have been happily married for over fifty years. They have been in ministry together since 1980 and have taught classes and workshops throughout the US and overseas. During the past years of ministry, Bill often ministered to pastors and church leaders.  In 2001, Bill & Rita - along with some sympathetic friends - established Aslan Ministries, Inc. a non-profit corporation with the purpose of encouraging and equipping the church and its leaders. Aslan Ministries Inc. provides counseling, coaching and in-person workshops on discipleship, ministry, prayer, leadership, and spiritual development. Bill began writing in elementary school and has continued throughout his career in industry before entering the ministry. As an electronics engineer and executive, he was responsible for the curricula development, technical writing, and teaching for the military and aerospace fields.  After many years of climbing the corporate ladder and getting near the top in his field, Bill realized he had been climbing the wrong ladder. He then walked away from corporate life and entered ministry. Bill's undergraduate studies were in Electrical engineering, Mathematics, (Georgia Tech) and economics (University of South Alabama) and he has a Master's degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Bill's writing combines personal story and unique insight with an orthodox Christian theology in a style that explains life issues in an easy-to-read form. He is working on a series of books on the ministry of Jesus to encourage and equip the church to continue Jesus' ministry. The first two books, "Pray Like Jesus" and "Heal Like Jesus" are now available. The third book in the series will be out his year with the working title of "Love Like Jesus." In addition, Bill has eight other books available on Amazon. After years of being active in individual and team sports, he now has to be content with being a spectator.

Book preview

Forward

The Christian however is the one who seeks to imitate Christ in thought, word and works, as far as he is able as a human being,[1]

Pray Like Jesus is the first book in the series, The Ministry of Jesus. This series is meant to challenge the reader to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, by learning from Jesus, being equipped by Jesus, and continuing His ministry, as you follow and obey His call.

The Greek word that is translated disciple in most of our bibles is "machetes." (Mathetes) A mathetes was an individual who attached him or herself to a master in such a way as they might eventually become like the master.

That is the role of a disciple, to become like the Master, Jesus.

St. Paul was able to tell his followers in Corinth, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ.[2]" It is too bad we all cannot say that, as we fall short of truly imitating Christ. However, we can search the scriptures and imitate Jesus’ examples as described by the people who knew Him best, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The practice of prayer has always intrigued me. Growing up, we seldom attended church, but we did believe in God and considered ourselves Christian. Prayer, was to me at that time, was calling out to God to save me from the consequences of my poor behavior. Much later, life circumstances led me to seek a deeper relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.

As my walk deepened, a desire for a more effective prayer life developed as I began to realize that my prayers were woefully inadequate. Jesus and His disciples prayed and storms dissipated, prison walls disappeared, people were healed, and the dead were raised. Believing that this was still possible today, I prayed with the confidence I saw in the Bible. While there were a very few notable successes, there were very notable failures. At times, we prayed for a person to be healed and they didn’t improve, they got worse.

The idea, for me, was to blame God for my failures, but how can my prayers become more effective? There are a number of reasons why our prayers are not answered, but we are still called to pray. It is not about us, it is about the Lord. However, it is important for us to pray rightly. We are to be obedient to pray rightly and leave the results up to Him.

How can we be more effective? Is it even possible to be more effective? If it is possible, how can we improve our prayer life? If we believe the Biblical accounts of both the Old and New Testaments, we have to admit that most of us do not pray with the same results we read about. There is obviously room for improvement.

Our best hope is to have a mentor - to learn from someone who has been effective in the past and continues to be effective in prayer. There is no one more qualified to be our coach than Jesus. Not only can we learn from His teachings on prayer, but His attitude about prayer, His actual prayer life, and the content of some of His prayers as they are described in the Bible.

In this book we will study the scriptural accounts of Jesus’ ministry of prayer and use illustrations from real life to provide the readers with tools to increase the effectiveness of their prayers. The intent of this book is to encourage the reader to become an apprentice to the Master Prayer, Jesus, in the hopes of becoming more effective in prayer.

Effective Prayer

In late August of 2008 hurricane Gustav crashed into Cuba, recording the highest wind gusts ever recorded in that area of 211 mph. It was the third anniversary of hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall which destroyed New Orleans and much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. All of the computer models were forecasting that Gustav would have a disastrous impact when it made landfall on the central Gulf Coast somewhere between Houston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama. The models showed that the storm would intensify to Category 5, bringing destruction to the very cities and towns which had not yet fully recovered from Katrina’s impact.

On August 30 – with horrific memories of Katrina on his mind - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation order for the entire city and the governor of Louisiana issued an order for nearly two million people to evacuate in advance of the storm.

Meanwhile, as those evacuations were taking place on the coast, one hundred and sixty miles to the north - inside the walls of the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility – a KAIROS Prison Ministry team had just completed a very special forgiveness service. Each participant, inmate and team member, had completed a time of personal reflection leading to forgiving those persons in their lives who had hurt them deeply. Murderers, drug dealers, abusers, joined pastors and businessmen in praying to forgive bosses, enemies, friends, and/or family members. It had been a powerful service. As one of the leaders stood to give the closing prayer, he was immediately led to pray against that threatening storm in the Gulf.

Forgiveness is one of the requirements for effective prayer. Lack of forgiveness quenches the Holy Spirit. Prayers in many churches are ineffective, because of the lack of forgiveness. How can you rebuke a storm outside when there is a storm raging inside?

That night inside the prison walls, this band of a hundred men prayed that the storm in the Gulf would dissipate and be reduced in intensity. It would have been inappropriate to pray that the storm swerve away and hit somewhere else. We prayed for the Lord to rebuke the storm.

The next day, we all had a bit of spiritual pride when Gustav - instead of intensifying over the warm gulf waters - dropped to a Category 2 storm before making landfall on Sunday, September 1st. The eye wall of Gustav came ashore in the evacuated areas west of New Orleans, thus minimizing its impact to life.

On Monday evening, my brother called from California to ask how we were doing. The remnants of Gustav had passed near our home. My brother had been at a large Christian gathering in Anaheim, California where they had prayed that the storm would dissipate. He commented, Prayer really does works! On Tuesday, I opened an earlier email prayer bulletin from another ministry. The letter read,

We believe that the Lord has given us authority to pray the death & destruction out of the hurricane and to command the winds to be diminished, and that is what we are doing. We are asking all of you to join with us in our intercession for the Gulf Coast and the East Coast.

It seems that there were a number of people all over the world that were praying that or similar prayers. The Holy Spirit had inspired many to pray.

During the Cold War, I witnessed - at close hand - the construction of the Berlin wall. In the army, stationed in Germany, I had participated in a small way in the Allied response to the building of the wall. In August of 1961, the day after the wall went up, the US Army moved a regimental combat team into Berlin – having to pass through East Germany with tanks and mobile artillery. It was not only to reinforce the garrison in Berlin, but to be a show of force.

In the late nineteen eighties, a group of Christians, Intercessors for Germany, led by Berthold Buecker began to bring West German people together to repent. They believed that unity in prayer could destroy the strongholds of division that kept the Berlin wall in place. Later, though no one orchestrated it, East Germans began to come together in Leipzig, interceding fervently for their country.  They were at great risk because the Stasi (Communist Police) were watching and recording.  Thousands gathered in the church and throughout the city to pray for Germany. It was too late to stop the pendulum of history. In November of 1989, dismantling of the Berlin Wall began. In 1992, the demolition was completed making way for the reunification of Germany.

Over the next several years we heard from literally hundreds of people who had been in Germany and prayed that the wall would come down. Each one took some satisfaction in their part in praying down the wall.

We can always be pleased when our prayers are answered; whether we pray for a hurricane to dissipate, a wall to come down, or for some tyrant to be defeated. But we also have to realize that it is not about us. Though our prayers are effective, it is all about being a part of the Body of Christ and responding to the Holy Spirit as He calls us to pray.

The interesting thing about this is that the Holy Spirit speaks to many at the same time and causes them all to pray the same way. The resulting prayers go up to God as a divine chorus rather than a solo aria. The effectiveness of our prayers is based upon our submission to the Maestro as He conducts the concert.

There are other times when God leads an individual to pray one on one. It is still God directing the prayer, but for a specific purpose or for a specific individual.

The church meeting, in San Diego, had lasted three long hours as we hassled over the budget and the future of the day-care center. My wife, Rita, and I were tired and ready for a good night’s sleep. I had an important early morning meeting. We had been serious about following the Lord for only a few years at that time and were trying to let Him lead our lives.

As we left the church and walked to the car, I felt a sudden urging that we could not go home yet. I told Rita, that we needed to go to the hospital to see Bob.

She responded, It is too late. Kathy won’t be there.

Bill and Kathy were friends that we met when our kids played Little League baseball. Kathy’s brother, Bob, had recently become a cause for prayer. Bob was a neat guy. He had the personality and appearance of Santa Claus without the