Matthew 26:38-39: He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not mine.”

After Jesus was baptized, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There He fasted and prayed for forty days. And when His fasting had ended, He came out of the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit, entered the temple and began to teach. As He was teaching, a man with a demon began to show the effects of his possession. Jesus took control of the situation, delivered the man and continued with His teaching.

If you study the Gospels, you will find that Jesus regularly slipped away to be alone in prayer with the heavenly Father. Before Jesus went to the cross, He first went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed. Jesus knew His hour to suffer on the cross was upon Him; as He prayed, He asked the Father to let the cup of suffering pass from Him. In fact, three times Jesus prayed this request before His Father. He was bringing His flesh into subjection to the will of God; Jesus knew the sole purpose of coming to earth. He even told this to His disciples when He was alone with them earlier. He also told them that after 3 days, He would arise and meet them in Galilee. So we can see that Jesus wasn’t trying to nail down what the Father’s will was, but rather, He was subjecting His humanity to the suffering of the cross. Once He obtained complete submission in prayer, He knew that He would be able to endure the next three days.

Because Jesus had become sin, the Father had pulled away His Spirit (or presence) from Jesus. When His Father pulled away, Jesus spoke these words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was now a perfect man upon that cross. How do we know that? Then, as Jesus hung on the cross, He said, “It is finished” and gave up His ghost. When He said His final words upon the cross and died, the veil was torn from top to bottom. God had split the veil to reveal to all of mankind that He was pleased by the sacrifice of the “Last Adam”.

The wrath of God against fallen man was appeased; the sin debt for all our sin was now paid. Because Jesus prayed and yielded His will to the Father’s will in the garden, before He was hung upon the cross, He then had the grace to endure the suffering so that He could gain the victory for us.

Christians can have faith in Jesus and still have a war in their souls over the lust for sin in their lives. If you have sin in your heart that you want to be set free from, then do what Jesus did in the garden: He prayed until “His” will became the will of the Father. Here’s the key to this prayer accomplishing victory in your heart. Jesus wasn’t praying for God to take away sin; He was praying that He would submit to the Father’s will. Although that was the way Jesus prayed, too many times we ask God to take away our burden (or sin), but we don’t seek Him about His will after the deliverance. If we don’t pray to be able to submit to the Father’s will, then there’s a good chance that we will go back into our old ways.

He didn’t pray once, or twice, but three times. Man is a triune being, and, as such, Jesus was bringing His entire being into agreement with the Father’s will. His victory over sin was won in the garden when He chose to submit to God. James tells us in chapter 4 that we must submit to God and resist the Devil, and he will flee from us.

If you have a war raging in your soul over sin, lust, habits, sickness, or disease, then go to the garden and get your will in subjection to the Father’s will. Because Jesus submitted in prayer to the Father, He had the authority to enter Hades (hell) and take back the keys of death and hell. No longer does Satan have the authority, but all authority has been given to Jesus. Those who refuse to submit will have a constant battle within their soul. Jesus told us to come unto Him, and we will find rest for our weary souls.  —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US