In my last post, "Will YOU not pray with ME one hour?", I wrote about Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. As I recently reread those accounts (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46), I was particularly encouraged by Luke's account in which we read that our Lord was strengthened by an angel.

Luke 22:39  And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40  And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41  And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42  saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45  And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46  and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Here is the only begotten Son of God, Immanuel, God Incarnate, the Head of the Church, by Whom and for Whom all things were created –– and yet, what a Divine mystery it is to read of an angel coming to minister to our Lord Himself in the midst of this time of prayer! What a Divine reminder to us of our need for such strengthening as we seek God's face in prayer! Not that we ought to be praying specifically for an angel to strengthen us (though God might possibly choose to work that way, according to His sovereign good pleasure), but should we not cry out to God to strengthen us to walk in the works He has ordained for us, including this work of prayer? God forbid we forget that without Him we can do nothing!

Luke speaks of Jesus' agony (Luke 22:44), and in his commentary on Matthew 26, Matthew Henry describes that agony in three senses. One, in "His bearing the iniquities which the Father laid upon Him," and, two, of Christ having "a full and clear prospect of all the sufferings before Him." We know that agony in that first sense applies singularly to our Lord Himself, for He rendered Himself up as the spotless Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. And, in the second sense, though all who are Christ's will suffer, our Lord's sufferings were clearly distinct from ours in that He was bearing all our sins in His sinless body on the tree and was enduring the weight of the full wrath of God which we deserved.

Matthew Henry wrote of a third sense of Christ's agony which does apply to all Christians, that in which our Lord "engaged in an encounter with the powers of darkness" –– though yes, our Savior was engaged in an encounter the likes of which we can't begin to imagine, as all the powers of hell and darkness were unleashed on Him with all the devil's hatred, violence, fierceness, and fury. However, since we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into God's marvelous light, having been born again through the Seed of the woman (through Christ), we are now enlisted as soldiers of Christ who are now at war with the devil. (Gen. 3:15  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.)

The word "agony" in Luke 22 is the Greek word "agonia" (74):  a struggle (properly, the state), i.e. (figuratively) anguish:--agony. (Please note: all references I'm using here are from Strong's Concordance). A related word,  agonizomai, is used to describing Ephaphras' labor of prayer for the Church at Colossae in Colossians 4:12 ("struggling" (ESV) or "labouring fervently" (KJV)).

12  Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13  For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

12  Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 13  For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.

agonizomai (75):  to struggle, literally (to compete for a prize), figuratively (to contend with an adversary), or genitive case (to endeavor to accomplish something):--fight, labor fervently, strive.

Both agonizomai and agonia come from that same Greek root word agon (73):

properly, a place of assembly (as if led), i.e. (by implication) a contest (held there); figuratively, an effort or anxiety:--conflict, contention, fight, race.

So often we find ourselves saying things like this, "All I can do is pray," as if prayer is not work! How we have become dupes of the devil! May God have pity on us and may God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, lead us into all truth, plucking up and pulling down all false doctrine and all our misconceptions we have about prayer, and opening the eyes of our understanding to Biblical truth. As we look at these few definitions above, we can see that prayer is work! Struggle! Anguish! Agony! Contending! Endeavoring! Fighting! Laboring Fervently! Striving! A Contest! A Contention! A Fight! A Race!

Anytime the children of God are agonizing in prayer by the Spirit of God, according to the mind of Christ and according to the will of God, anytime we pray for God's Kingdom to come and the will of God to be done and not our own will, anytime we are praying for the Church of God to grow up and mature unto completion in Christ, and anytime we are praying for the Gospel of Christ to run swiftly, to have free course and be glorified throughout the earth, to the praise and renown of Jesus Christ in all the nations –– we too are engaged in "an encounter with the powers of darkness," we are indeed in a contest, an effort, a contention, a fight against the power of darkness – just as the apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:

12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

How often do we forget that we are not in a fleshly battle and that we cannot expect to wage this warfare as God intends if we attempt to war according to our flesh...

II Corinthians 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6  being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

How often do we forget that we need the divine power of God to do all things, including to pray? The apostle Paul wrote that as he labored to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, he did so by struggling (ESV) / striving (KJV) (agonizomai) with divine power (not by his own power):

Colossians 1:29  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Colossians 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Many Christians talk about the whole armor of God, they may have even memorized and be able to recite all the parts of the armor –– and yet, how easy is it for us to neglect to take up one of the most vital parts of the armor –– that of prayer?

10  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15  and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17  and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18  praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19  and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20  for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

That is why the devil loves to distract us from using the whole armor of God, and, in particular, this labor of prayer, this agony of prayer –– for the whole armor is God's appointed means for God's people to be strong and to stand firm against the devil's schemes! Should not the people of God be earnest in putting on the armor of God? Sadly, we find many Christians and many churches have fallen into Satan's deceitful snare, and we end up being earnest about and busying ourselves with any and all things, sometimes each and every day of the week (and I'm not saying many of these activities or programs are bad things, per se) –– any and all things that is, except for prayer! How we have become like Martha, and have missed out on the one thing necessary!

Or, let's be clear about this –– if the devil can't get us distracted from this labor of prayer, he manages to distort our understanding of this labor of prayer. Remember that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. Many Christians do talk about prayer, and many Christians may even be engaged in prayer of some sort or another, but do we have a Biblical understanding of prayer? Do we settle for the devil's lie, and view prayer as merely a "domestic intercom" rather than the "wartime walkie-talkie" that God intends for it to be –– as John Piper describes below in this excerpt from his sermon "Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer" (John 16:16-24).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In the work of prayer, it's so easy of us to feel like Paul did in II Timothy 4: "But all forsook me..." To believe that we are the only ones burdened for and praying for reformation and revival. Of course, we know that we are not the only ones, as God always has a remnant; nonetheless, it's too easy to lapse into great depression and despair like Elijah did when we begin to think that we are alone.

In this 21st century, is there is no one who calls on Your name, and stirs and rouses himself up to take hold of You, for You have hidden Your face from us, and have made us melt and consumed us because of our iniquities? (See Isaiah 64:7.)

And though we know there is always a praying remnant, as we look out at the current state of the Christian church in the west, and as find so few people who are calling upon God's name, and so few who are stirring and rousing themselves up to take hold of Christ... it greatly grieves us. And then, in great contrast, we do find so many who are stirring and rousing themselves to do all sorts of other things, all other things except taking hold of Christ! There are Christians who are plenty busy with plenty of activities, and not that all of those are bad or sinful by any means, but how many are busy in this work of prayer?

I recently found myself recently lapsing into uncertainty, fear, doubt, bitterness, and fatigue, and I knew my reactions were sinful and were not coming from a pure heart, and it was a sure sign my eyes and my heart were not rightly fixed on Jesus and on His calling to me.

After the Lord's Supper, we read how Jesus went with all the disciples to the Mount of Olives and then Gethsemane. At that point, He took only three of those, Peter, James, and John, with Him as He prayed. Most of you know the story, how all three ended up falling asleep, while Jesus remained praying.

That rebuke / challenge / command reminded me of one of Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (a.k.a. - ML-J or The Doctor) sermons from his Revival series, which he preached in 1959 at Westminster Chapel (London), in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1859 revival. Lloyd-Jones was seeking and praying for revival; he'd known personal revival in his own life, and some revival showers had also fallen in his pastorate years before at Aberavon (Wales) in the late 1920's and 1930's. In those sermons, he sought to show the crucial need of revival and to stir up the flock of God to be praying for revival. The sermon I was reminded of is titled, "Preparatory Stages in Revival" (Exodus 33:7-11) (which you can listen to online and/or download here: http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/preparatory-stages-in-revival/). In that particular sermon, The Doctor reminds us that throughout Church history, during the first stages of revival, God almost always calls out individuals to pray with Jesus, and that those who are called can't be concerned about what everyone else is doing. Each one of us who has received the burden and the calling to pray, must follow Jesus and be obedient and pray, regardless of what others are doing. As The Doctor said, "Oh, if we wait until the whole Church moves, it will never happen. It will never move. Do not worry about that. God's way is to take hold of individuals and to use them and then eventually the majority will be affected."

Today I'd like to bring you a few excerpts from Chapter 13, "Prayer and Revival" from the book "Revival" (Crossway: Wheaton, 1987). The book contains the edited transcripts of the twenty-four sermons Lloyd-Jones preached in the revival series, and Chapter 13 is the published transcript of the sermon I alluded to above. In order to get the fuller sense of the context and the complete teaching, I'd urge you listen to the entire sermon, or to get the book and read the entire sermon (as well as listen to and/or read all the other sermons in the whole series). (In addition to the sermon I cited above, you can access for free the full set of audio recordings of all the sermons in the revival series through the MLJ Trust website (http://www.mljtrust.org/) via this link: http://www.mljtrust.org/collections/revival/. And, if you love the printed page as much as I do, in addition to listening to the sermons, I'd recommend your getting hold of that book, if at all possible.)

And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. (Exod. 33.7-11). . .

It is important that we should understand that Moses was clearly led to take this particular action. He took this tabernacle out of the centre of the camp and put it outside, far from the camp. Now at this point there are many things which must detain us. The first of course, that this was an action taken by Moses, Moses himself. And I must pause with that, because you will always find as you read the history of these movements of the Spirit in the long story of the Christian Church, that generally the very first thing that happens, and which eventually leads to a great revival, is that one man, or a group of men, suddenly begin to feel this burden, and they feel the burden so much that they are led to do something about it. Look at the great history. Look at the Protestant Reformation, that mighty movement, where did it come from? How did it originate? I know that there were precursors even of that – Wycliffe, John Huss and others – but you see the real thing happened when just one man, Martin Luther, a very ordinary kind of monk, suddenly became aware of this burden. And it so burdened him that he was led to do something about it. Just one man, and through that one many, God sent that mighty movement into the Church.

The same thing could be abundantly illustrated from the stories of other revivals. Read again the story of the revival in Northern Ireland, a hundred years ago, that great movement, which led not only to so many conversions, but which quickened the whole life of the Presbyterian Church and the other churches in Northern Ireland, and transformed the whole situations. It did the same in Wales also, and in the United States of America at the same time. Now, you will find that in all these instances, the movement began with just one man. take the man who began the prayer meetings in Fulton Street in New York City in 1857, a most ordinary man, but he felt this burden, and did something about it. The revival in Northern Ireland, started with just that one man, James McQuilken. And the same was true in Wales, with one man only, called Humphrey Jones, who, feeling the power of revival in America, felt a burden for his own country and crossed the Atlantic back to Wales, and began to tell people about it. Now, I emphasise this for one reason only, that this is what I like to call the 'romantic' element in the Christian life and in the history of the Church. That is to me what is so glorious about it. I dare not pass lightly over a point like this because somebody reading this book, whom I do not know, may be the person that God is going to use. And that sort of thing can only happen in the Christian Church, it does not happen in the world. The world looks to the leaders and the great people, but God, as the Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians is constantly confounding the wise by taking hold of the foolish. He 'brings to nought the things that are ', by using the things that are not. It may be anybody. There are no rules about this matter. . .

So then, one man or a group of men may begin to feel the burden. And, therefore, I am entitled to ask whether you have felt the burden? And if you have not, what is the reason? Are you concerned about the situation? Have you got a zeal for the glory of God/ Does it grieve you to see his church as she is? If not, why not? If this is a burden that can come to anybody, has it not come to you? Let us leave it at that, but remember that it may be the action of one man. . .

So, inevitably there is a kind of separation. 'Ah,' says someone, 'are you going to divide up the Christian Church?' I am not dividing it. What I am saying is that when the Holy Spirit of God begins to deal with any one of us, there will be this separation. It will not be paraded, it will not be the Pharisees' 'I am holier than thou' attitude. No, once a man begins to be burdened for the glory of God and the state of the Church, he immediately feels this call to consecration, he 'goes out' as it were. We must not overemphasise the physical aspect. It had to be physical there, but it is the principle that matters. Oh, what I am trying to say is this. In a day of grievous immorality, ungodliness and irreligion, such as this, in a day when vice is not only shouting at us, but is arrogant and is boasting, when it is being thrown at the people everywhere - all I am asking is whether we know anything about the call to a separation from that kind of thing? We are living in days when, as Christians, we are called to go the second mile. Ordinary Christianity is not enough, more is demanded. Are we not beginning to feel that nothing can deal with this situation but a manifestation of true life and living, holy living, as it is under God? That is what these men felt.

So Moses put his tabernacle outside the camp and a long way from it. 'It must be separate,' he said. 'It has got to be holy.' And another emphasis I would draw from his action is that he is showing clearly the need of some unusual action, and of some extra effort. Now there are two things that always happen in this early stage of revival. The people who are concerned about revival, in a true sense, are not just out for a little bit of excitement, or interest, or some happiness, or phenomena, or coming with an attitude of 'something marvellous is going to happen and we are going to have a great good time' That is not how they think about it at all. And if you, my dear friends, are simply thinking about meetings, and excitement, and something wonderful, you have not begun to understand this matter.

The first indication of a true and a genuine concern is that we are aware of our unworthiness and uncleanesss. We have got to separate ourselves. We have got to set up this tabernacle somehow somewhere outside the ordinary. It has got to be exceptional; it has got to be unusual. We have got to go out of our way. Now, this is the question that I want to impress upon your minds and to leave with you. In these days of exceptional evil, are you doing something exceptional? Or are you just content with coming to the services in the house of God, and doing some routine things? Of course, in the time when the Church was being blessed and all was well, people came to the house of God, they worked in the mission societies, they taught in the Sunday schools, and did all that as part of the ordinary work of the Church. I am not talking about that. What I am asking is this: have you felt that, because of the times through which we are passing, you are called to do something exceptional, to go out, as it were, to take some great deliberate action, that in a way separates you. That is the great lesson here.

And then, that I may complete this review here, I am rather interested in what we are told about the remainder of the people. They saw that Moses and one or two individuals used to go out of the camp to the tabernacle to pray. In verse 8 we read,

And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

There is something very wonderful about this. All they did was to look on with interest. They were aware that something was happening, but they did not know what it was and they did not understand it. They did not go out of the camp with Moses into the tent of meeting with God, and pray, and intercede. All they knew was that Moses had taken the tent outside the camp and that he and certain others periodically visited it. So they just stood at their their tent doors, watching Moses as he went and talking about him, wondering what he was doing and what exactly was happening. Now the appalling thing is that the right place for the tent was in the midst of the camp. But it was not there.

As you read the history of the Church, you will find this repeated. At first just a few people feel the call, and separate themselves, and then the others begin to say, ‘What is happening to so and so? Have you heard about this man or that woman?’ They stand at their tent doors and they look on. They have a feeling that something is happening. But they do nothing at all. Oh, if we wait until the whole Church moves, it will never happen. It will never move. Do not worry about that. God's way is to take hold of individuals and to use them and then eventually the majority will be affected. But at this stage, they simply have this vague general awareness that something is happening, and they begin to look on wistfully at the action of Moses and his few companions. . .

And so, as we finish our study of  stage one, we must ask ourselves, whether we have arrived at that stage. Do we know anything about that tabernacle and this call to separation and to urgent intercession? Those are the two things holiness and intercession on behalf of the mass of the people, and waiting in the presence of God, expecting more and more.