Intensity in Prayer

And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Luke 22:44 (NIV)

There are moments in our lives when we are pressed by the urgency of a matter, and such times require an exertion of energy at a level we may not be used to. Jesus experienced such a moment when He was about to be crucified. It was spiritual pressure He was feeling, and it required an intensity in prayer that we never see in His praying anywhere else.

"His sweat was like drops of blood." This statement lets us into His spiritual state in prayer: He had invested all the energy of His spirit, soul and body in that prayer. The scene portrays perfectly what our attitude must be at particular seasons of our lives, what I call destiny moments, when the demands of destiny, of the prophetic word and of the promises of God press us into the chambers of prayer, where our words are infused with so much force and spirit that it seems our very breath escapes us.

Elijah had this experience when he put his face between his knees. Moses felt it when he lay forty days before the Lord. Daniel expressed it through twenty-one days of fasting in sackcloth. Spiritual intensity expresses itself in many different forms, but your greatest investment will be in prayer.

So the next time you open your mouth to pray concerning God's promises, your needs or those of your loved ones, add passion to your prayers. Intensity is the life of all praying, fuel to the flames of prayer. Let it propel you into deeper realms of prayer.