Awaken The Dawn

Refreshment in the Morning

both a divine, prophetic dimension and a very human life context. Did He always automatically know the right thing to do and say? I have come to believe that the Gospels include His active prayer life to show us that Jesus simultaneously experienced and modeled the effi- ciency and efficacy of prayer. Restrained by His human- ness from unleashing the full power of God, Jesus, just as we are, was dependent on knowing and doing the will of God. His life of prayer was genuine and necessary in which He revealed to us that the choice secrets of His teaching and the dynamic manifestations of His power originated from God, the Father who had sent Him. Jesus’ keen perception of people and situations was born from times of prayer, particularly His intercession con- cerning the kingdom of God and the will of God. His brief capsulized statement about the kingdom and will of God in the Lord’s Prayer in most English translations does not do justice to the deep experience He felt: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” 8 A more dynamic interpretation is given by Brad Young, a Hebrew specialist: “May You continue establishing Your kingdom, and may Your will be done.” 9 Jesus taught His disciples to pray this way both by divine inspiration and practical experience. Day by day, He awakened with the heart cry. “Continue Your work through Me to establish Your kingdom, and may I do Your will!” To pray like this each day is to release a won- drous flow of God’s inspiration. Jesus was able teach these truths because He had personally experienced them, adopted them, and lived by them. My point is this: The third Servant Song shows us that the Father instructed Jesus during His early morning prayers. 61