Jesus set a perfect example and model for us to follow. He showed us what it is to truly walk in supernatural power. He also showed us His source. Jesus was continually being moved with compassion and faith, releasing supernatural virtue everywhere He went.
All around Him the sick were being healed and oppressed people being set free. The blind were receiving their sight, the lame were walking, the deaf were hearing, and even the dead were being raised back to life. Now that’s supernatural power!
We know Jesus received this power after His forty days in the wilderness. He went in filled with the Spirit, but after a time of testing, He came out under the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:1–2, 13–14). But it didn’t end there. Throughout His earthly ministry Jesus was continually withdrawing from the crowds to be alone with God. As He poured out God’s power to help people, He was continually being filled Himself. This was the secret to His sustained, unlimited power.
In many portions of Scripture you will see a direct connection between Jesus’s secret prayer life and His public display of power.
When Jesus taught us how to pray, in Matthew 6:6, He told us to go into a private place and pray to our Father in secret. God who sees in secret will reward us in the open.
A father in the faith, Lou Engle, once shared with me, “Matt, what you do in secret will one day be put on the stage of history.”
He was telling me how important my private life was before God. How I lived in secret would impact my public ministry. My private prayer life would have a tremendous impact on how God used me publicly. The same is true for all of us.
Kathryn Kuhlman, a woman who moved in tremendous power from God to heal the sick, once shared, “The greatest power that God has given to any individual is the power of prayer.” Another great healing minister, Smith Wigglesworth, said, “I never get out of bed in the morning without having communion with God in the Spirit.” He also said, “I don’t often spend more than half an hour in prayer at one time, but I never go more than half an hour without praying.” Prayer was a lifestyle for him.
An example of Jesus’s walk of intimacy and power with God can be seen in Mark 1:32–42. After a night of healing and setting many people free, Jesus went out in the morning before the sun even rose to a deserted place to be alone in prayer. Right after that time of prayer, again He traveled and continued to preach and set more people free. In this instance He also healed a man of leprosy.
We see a pattern. Prayer, power, prayer. The power of God will be sandwiched in between our prayer life.
It’s a lifestyle. Sometimes Jesus prayed at night. At other times it was in the morning. Since Jesus had to be ready at any moment to minister into a situation, I believe He cultivated a habit of continual communion with God. He had His times of consecrated prayer, but His spirit was always listening for God’s voice and guidance.
Your relationship with God and times of prayer cannot be put into a box, religious formula, or pattern. Here’s a good rule of thumb. Find time to be alone with God in between the times He pours His power through you. Seek to always cultivate His abiding presence in your life. Prayer will become as natural as breathing.
Matt Sorger (www.mattsorger.com) is a prophetic revivalist who travels worldwide preaching and teaching God’s Word and bringing a fresh impartation of His Spirit through national conferences, prophetic healing revival services and international miracle crusades. He has seen thousands saved, healed and delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit. This article was excerpted from his book Power for Life.
