Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Jesus prays a very important prayer for his disciples the night before he is crucified. It keeps them safe from the evil one's temptations they do God's ministry on the earth.

My prayer is not that you take them out of this world but that you protect them from the evil one.

Jesus's prayer for protection over the disciples is much like the hedge of protection God put around Job in the Old Testament (Job 1:10) As the disciples went out healing the sick, casting out devils, preaching the Good News and making disciples they were effectively destroying Satan's kingdom and building the Kingdom of God in the earth. It only makes sense that Satan would put them on his most wanted list. The evil one doesn't play around when it comes to defending his kingdom.

His first tactic of defense is recognition. Satan most likely posted wanted posters of the disciples all around the spiritual realm so that all evil spirits would easily recognize them. During Jesus's ministry the evil spirits immediately recognized who he was as soon as they came in contact with him. Jesus had to command them to be quiet on many occasions to keep them from revealing his identity as the Son of God. When the seven sons of Sceva were beat by the demon possessed man, the demon that possessed the man spoke through him and acknowledged that he knew Jesus and he knew about Paul. However, he had no clue who they were, so he beat them till they were naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:13-16) Satan knows who his biggest threats are and makes sure all his minions know too.

His second tactic of defense is temtation. Satan may have backed off while they were strong, but just as he was always looking for a more opportune time to tempt Jesus (Luke 4:13), he was always looking for an opportune time to tempt the early disciples. And tempt he did. He threatened them, beat them, put them in prison to tempt them to renounce Jesus and to stop spreading his word. Because of the prayer of protection Jesus prays for his disciples, none of them fell, but continued advancing the Kingdom of God.

Just as the Apostles were on the front lines of tearing down the kingdom of darkness and advancing the Kingdom of God, so are we today. If we are making an impact, you can guarantee Satan has our name and is passing our picture around. He has a plan to tempt us to keep us from being effective. Let's pray for protection from the evil one for each other using the prayer that Jesus prays over his disciples as an example. Let's especially remember our pastor's and other Christian leaders as they are on the front lines doing battle. We can't afford to lose even one to temptation. We need everyone working together in full power to advance the Kingdom of God.