As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Luke 9:29
One of my favourite quotes about prayer is the one from Billy Graham where he says that “Before prayer changes others, it first changes us. At its deepest level, prayer is fellowship with God: enjoying His company, waiting upon His will, thanking Him for His mercies . . . listening in the silence for what He has to say to us”.
There is just something about prayer, especially the prayer ministry of Jesus. Jesus prayed at different times in his ministry but one particular experience stood out for me, it was his prayer time on the mount where he was transfigured. The event there characterised three things among many others that prayer does to or for a believer.
First, the bible says that “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning”(Luke 9:29). This clearly shows that prayer actually changes the one who prays sometimes even before it changes things for them. This happened to me one time when I was praying for a promotion at work. I fasted and prayed for three days and after the third day, the lord said to me ‘you have hurt in your heart, until you are healed i can’t commit this promotion to you’. God needed to change me first before changing the situation.
Second, the bible spoke about the appearance of men like Elijah and Moses (symbolic of the law and the prophet); bearing in mind that the law and the prophet is a short form of saying the scripture. As Jesus prayed, the scripture was revealed to him; he received an encounter.
Third, Elijah and Moses spoke about his departure,[a] which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. Here we see instructions, details and encouragement all being received through this visitation that Jesus had. They spoke about his mission and the details of how he would accomplish it not because Jesus was unaware but for further encouragement as a man.
In essence, we are assured of many things as we pray including being changed, receiving encounters and receiving details and encouragement about our mission in life. The devil knows about the beautiful blessings that reside in prayer so he tries his best always to stop us but we must give ourselves to prayer at all cost. Are you ready to pray?
PRAYER
Dear God. Thank you for the privilege of prayer. Thank you because through it you have opened a gate for conversion. Please Lord, strengthen my knee always to wait upon you in prayer.
