OUR GETHSEMANE by John Yesu
"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. . ." (Mark 14:32)
Gethsemane will forever be remembered as a place of prayer-a place of intense agony-a place where those who should have been praying-were found sleeping. However, Gethsemane is more than a place of tears and sorrows-it is a place of victory!
Being exceeding sorrowful in spirit-knowing his hour awaited him-Jesus went to Gethsemane. There, alone with the Father, He agonized over Calvary. Perhaps the very demons of hell rejoiced as it now seemingly appeared that the Promised Christ has experienced defeat.
However, their joy was short lived as Jesus concludes his prayer with these words-"nevertheless not my will, but what you will."
If you and I walk with Christ, we too will enter our Gethsemane. It may be the heavy weight of a teen-ager that's run away, friends who've walked away, or we're just tempted to give up and turn away! It may be the death of a loved one, the dreaded report verifying cancer, but into Gethsemane-in agony of spirit, and before the Father we come. In our Gethsemane we also sense the enemy rejoicing over the chaos he's created. In our Gethsemane the enemy watches our struggle of faith to embrace truth! He hears our cries for deliverance-and mocks even louder-all hope is lost!
However, the enemy has misunderstood our tears, our brokenness, our burden, our weakness, our agony! What he's viewed as an ultimate victory for the forces of darkness-the Father is about to work together for your good! Like our Lord who went there before us, we've learned that the secret of victory is in surrender-"Father, not what I will, but what thou wilt." With those words our Gethsemane turns from a place of agony-to a place of victory! A place now so special, because it is of the Father's own choosing. There in Gethsemane we take up the cross. We place the Father’s desire above our own-and experience a sufficient grace and peace that passes all understanding!
I write as one whose spiritual journey has taken them into Gethsemane. I’ve experienced those agonizing lonely hours that only God can fully understand. I know what it is like to just want faithful prayer partners who would agonize with me in prayer until victory comes. Through those times I've learned the value of Gethsemane, and the powerful experience of meeting to pray one for another.
It was through a Gethsemane that God birthed a fresh ministry with our church. Each week I have the privilege to meet just to pray with families who are experiencing their Gethsemane. What a moment these times have become for all of us! We seen the Father answer so many prayers, and been given grace to live with unanswered prayers. Yet the real victory has come when God has broken through upon our hearts, and we can only respond-thy will be done!
There is something greater than victory! It is God’s glory!
What is Glory? Glory is a word that defies an easy answer. Think about it for awhile. It is one of those words that everyone knows and yet is hard for people to define. I went to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and found the Old Testament Hebrew definition was heaviness like a fog; the kind of thick fog that you can seemingly cut with a knife. I then looked into the Greek definition of the word glory and found that it meant the presence of God. I actually used them both in my definition. Both the Greek and the Hebrew for an exhilarating definition of the word glory…The heaviness of His presence Beloved that’s where the victory is won! As humans we pray, “Father, you can do all things-deliver us, heal us! Yet we must as the Risen Christ who prayed there before us conclude, nevertheless, not what I want, but Heavenly Father what you want-your will be done!”
I know in my own life, and have witnessed in the lives of others-that victory is won the moment we honestly embraced the will of the Heavenly Father above our own. When we put His glory above our own happiness-His glory above our temporal pleasures-His glory above all! How we approach God’s throne room and how we approach our Gethsemane should be the same We should run to embrace the cross and our personal Gethsemane, it should not be a place where we get dragged into for victory is waiting for us, pleading for us to enter into teach ability at the Master’s side. Yes there is a place called Gethsemane, and for those who follow in the foot steps of Christ-it’s a place of victory! Copyrighted © 2007 John Yesu. All rights reserved | 