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Watch and Pray Series: In The Garden - Part 1

Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
February 2013

In December, 2008, it was impressed on me during prayer to encourage people to "watch and pray" with our Messiah in these days.  I have continued to encourage others, and myself with quick reminders of Yeshua's request to those who wait with Him. 

Some time later, I was again impressed that it was time to examine more deeply what this simple request means to us today. In 2016, I am reworking the series to accommodate Aweber's new editors because it all appears even more pertinent today.

Thank you for joining me in this quest for greater intimacy and understanding of how we are to "watch and pray" with Messiah Yeshua. Surely the time is coming near.

 

Kumi Ori, Yeshua!  Come for Your Bride soon!

 

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spritit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

Since we see that we are in the last days, and perhaps nearing the Gog Magog war, both by our own prayerful leading and by declaration of a consortium of Israeli Rabbis, these words seem particularly appropriate for us to heed.

May we not forget the importance of the fact that Yeshua Messiah spent His last free hours before his crucifixion in a garden. Gan, in Hebrew, it carries the meaning of a place with trees, surrounded by a fence. Its root wood, ganan, means to defend, cover and surround.  It is used figuratively to protect, and according to Gesenius, it is always used of God as protecting men; as He has called Himself our Sun and Shield. We can see our Father's protection and covering for us in this picture; both in what He provided in the first Garden and here in this garden. Yeshua prepared for His crucifixion in a protected place, which would correct the error made in Eden through His own shed blood, our covering. What better place to be close to YHWH's heart but under His shield.   Messiah's atonement opened the way for us to have access to the Tree of Life of Gan Eden once again, though the fullness of that work is reserved for His return. Father and son, Aleph and Tav, the Son in the Father and the  Father in Him. Echad. HalleluYah!  Our Elohim IS really a Sun and Shield for us in ways we probably don't even realize as yet.

Yeshua exhorted His talmudim/disciples, the ones with whom He was most intimate; Peter, James and John, to wait with Him.  Does anyone have any trouble seeing ourselves in that place?  Just as we have spoken over the years, we have the choice to pursue Him in greater or lesser intimacy. Of course, the other disciples were near by and were well aware that things were to happen this night since He had just told them over supper.  But these three were asked to come a little closer to Maschiach as He prepared, though He still went a distance even from them for His most deep, sorrowful prayer. I've always wondered who recorded His words. Apparently, someone was alert enough to have heard them before they fell asleep.

Perhaps we would do well to ask ourselves where are in waiting with Him as we watch and pray. Have we drawn close enough to hear His Words?  Are we among those who are waiting a little further back, but knowing something is coming?  Have we drawn back to be among those in the world who have no idea that they are in waiting?

Seems to me that the safest place is closest to Him, where we can hear His heartbeat and His Words to us. I guess I'd rather be counted among the three, than the many, and certainly not among the world. Everyone will not make the same choice!  We already know that there are groups as described in the parable of the 10 Virgins, for example.  We have spoken in our community, about the difference between being part of the Body of Messiah vs. the Bride. We recall the difference in the picture of Messiah's work on our behalf, just as it was in Eden. Adam  slept (death) while Eve/Chavah was drawn from his side.  Yeshua shed His blood from His side as He opened the way. The Bride is drawn from the side of the Body, and thus, is not the entire body.
 
This intimacy comes with a price. Are we willing to draw close through study of His Word, through our prayer times, through our prayer without ceasing?  Are we willing to freely offer ourselves now as a living sacrifice of praise?  As Brother Lawrence wrote so eloquently it is VERY possible to keep our inward focus on Messiah even if we are not fully free to sit in silence with Him. This is not to say that personal retreat and prayer with times of silence in which to listen for Him are not also important. Perhaps some will conclude that this price is too high, and will be content to be among those near by. Some may even give it up, and draw back to be among the world at large, sadly.
 
Someone once told me that she was content to just make it in the door of God's House so she would wait to separate herself from the enjoyable things of this world until it was j-u-s-t time enough to make peace with Him before her death.
 
What do you say?

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