The Holy Spirit makes a separation between the risen Christ who intercedes for humanity and the Christ who, on living on earth, had to suffer in his flesh and pray not as a son of God, but as a son of man offering prayers and supplications to the only one who I could free you from death. We see it in this verse:
"And Christ, in the days of his flesh, offering up prayers and supplications with great crying and tears to him who could deliver him from death, was heard because of his reverent fear." (Hebrews 5: 7)
If in the days of his flesh Christ could pray like that, then we can also. When it comes to prayer we should not follow steps or pre-established programs, we should pray as Jesus did, with the same emphasis, with that same spirit of Christ.
Prayer is not an evangelical mechanics to achieve things before God or achieve selfish, personal and humanistic goals, it can not be just a tool to achieve health, prosperity or solution of problems; That kind of prayer is not the prayer that comes out of the spirit of Christ with its influence. If Christ achieved the salvation of all mankind, we can make prayer have an answer and for that prayer must have the same spiritual codification.
Prayer must be an offering to God. Jesus offered prayers, supplications, cry and tears to heaven for the one who could deliver him from death and was thus heard. It is sometimes thought that He prayed differently to us, but just as any man felt the weakness of the flesh, he suffered all kinds of temptations but he did not fall into any. Jesus suffered the same temptations as Adam and Eve: desire of the eyes, ambition of life, vainglory of man, but he surpassed them with elegance and forcefulness.
"When Christ was here in the world, he prayed much to God, and with tears he begged him to deliver him from death, because God had the power to do so. And since Christ was always obedient, God answered his prayer. (Hebrews 5: 7)
Jesus prayed as an offering to heaven, thus fighting his weakness. Like every man, Jesus had that sense of natural survival of the species, which acts to avoid what can harm or cause death. However, knowing that he was weak in the flesh, he prayed in Gethsemane to ask the Father to free him from that moment, but in the end he gave up the sense of survival and assumed the suffering he would face in the next few hours.
"Although he was the Son of God, through suffering he learned what it means to obey God always" (Hebrews 5: 8)
But if the word says that Christ was heard and prayed to the one who could deliver him from death, why does he die? Jesus was heard about the resurrection, but he had to die and through that suffering learn to have absolute submission to the will of the Father.
In Christ, the suffering generated obedience, not frustration or bitterness. Every time there is a suffering we must not give room for frustration, let's see the test as the way to perfect ourselves in obedience in order to please God, because what makes believers stronger and better is not their victories, but their sufferings Obedience is the end of suffering.
The gospel is for brave and committed, not for watery and inconsistent. Although salvation is free, it is not cheap, since it was very hard, nobody can think that living for Jesus implies being, having and doing everything one wants, that is not Christianity, it is humanism.
"Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me; but not my will, but yours be done "(Luke 22:42)
Why does Jesus decide to suffer and not decide to die directly, knowing that on the third day he would be resurrected? He suffered because he wanted to pay the debt of the sin of humanity, he wanted to give much more than the father demanded, he decided to suffer for one reason only: love. Love must be the connotation of faith, not to think that sacrifice exempts me from suffering, "he who wants to go after me, deny himself take up his cross and follow me" (Mat 16:24)
This life is not designed to be happy, but to be obedient and in that obedience to be happy. Jesus learned to be happy in obedience and was refined not to tyrannize others or to point others out as weak. He wanted to be perfected to be the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12: 2) the greatest proof of perfection is to be propitiators of salvation in others, it is not in your flesh, it is in your soul. Whoever has a heart for Jesus does not have to show mercy, but love and serve Jesus, that is true reform.
Jesus' prayer was not long, but short and emphatic. The bible is full of great miracles achieved with small prayers. Lazarus was 4 days dead, his body was decomposing when Jesus said Having said this, he cried out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11: 43); but when Jesus told him those words, he not only spoke to his flesh, he spoke to the spirit of God that he had already had and life returned to him. When the spirit of God returns to Lazarus, the first thing he does is rebuild the body because there is no soul if there is no reconstruction of the body and at that moment both (spirit and body) claim the soul.
