"The Greatest Prayer" Kathryn Kuhlman John 17 Part 9 and John 17 Series Completion

Today, I shall read in full the Lord's Prayer of Consecration as recorded in the 17th chapter of John. This will be our last heart -to -heart talk on this chapter. It's been a very sacred time. It has been so sacred that... Often when I have spoken with you regarding portions of this prayer, I have felt like whispering rather than speaking loudly. It was just as though you and I were sitting in silence and listening to Jesus talking to the Heavenly Father. We come now to that part of the prayer that means so much. That 15th verse, I pray not. And always, I feel that when Jesus said, I pray, he meant it in the sense of, I desire. And he's saying here, and he's talking about you and he's talking about me, he's talking about his own. For in this prayer, he's not talking to the Father about the unregenerated, the world. He makes a distinction. He says that you and I are in the world, but we're not a part of the world. I pray not, I desire not that thou shouldest take them out to the world, Keep them from the evil. I'm just human enough that I'll admit to you that many a time in my life at the close of an altar service and I've stood on the stage or on the platform and I've seen men wiping away the tears from their eyes and I've seen the glorious joy of salvation on their faces. I've heard them as they've stood there with uplifted hands, having just found this beautiful new experience of regeneration. Their hands uplifted, singing, I surrender all. And I've just been human enough to have wanted to pray. Wonderful Jesus, take them home to glory right now. You know, because... you almost felt that it was such a good moment for them to go, you know? Many a time I wished that we could have had the rapture at that moment. And their salvation was so assured. When we gave the benediction, it was almost like sending them out into the world and like little babes. I felt like the mother standing there and I would have given anything in the world if I could live the life for them. If in that hour of temptation, I could stand in their place and fight the evil one for them, you know? I suppose that's the way a mother feels about her child. A daddy feels about his son. They'd give anything in the world if they could fight the child's battles for them. And I think the most unkind thing that a parent can say is, I don't want my child to go through what I went through. Because the thing that you went through were the things that made you strong, that helped you to grow. Turning back the pages of my own life, I would have been very much of a spiritual weakling today had I not had to go through the deep waters. How in the world could I have helped you or anyone else who had troubles? How could I know what it felt like to have a broken heart if my own heart had not been broken? How in the world could I comfort someone when death comes? in that family if I too had not experienced the death of a father, of a mother. You know, don't shrink from the hard things. Don't seek an easy life. Because, you see, as someone says, it's pilots, great pilots. are made in the times of storm. And it's in an hour of crisis that you really realize what you're made of. What you really have on the inside of you. These are the things that help you to grow. No. Jesus. Asking the best for his own. Now remember, we were his children. His heirs. He's talking about those who are joint heirs with him. He is talking about a precious gift now that the Father had given him. And we are that gift that he was talking about. We're his possession. We're his bride. The Bible likens us to his bride, and he's the bridegroom. And he's asking the very... best of the Father for us, for you and for me. And in asking the best, he said to the Father, I desire, watch it, that thou shouldest not take them out of the world. Don't keep them from sorrow. Don't keep them from heartbreak. But that thou shouldest Keep them from the evil. Oh, that's glorious. I think I've read that over and over and over again. That's so beautiful. They're not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Lee says, I'll tell you, Father, what I desire. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. He's made every provision for you and for me to go through anything that happens in our life and come through victoriously. It will stay with truth. Thy word is truth. Oh, to me, this is thrilling. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. Their business is in the world. Sanctify them. Separate them through thy truth. And then, that there might be no misunderstanding, in the lengthening years, he said, thy word is truth. He goes... Further than that, I want you to see something that to me is so very remarkable. He was not only praying for those who were so close to him as he prayed that he could reach out and touch them. He was not only praying for you and for me, but he goes further than that. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word. Pause just a minute. There will come a time when we come to the end of the time of the Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the world for the time of great catching up. is the time the Holy Spirit leaves and he takes the church along with him. Then comes the seven years of great tribulation. The Holy Spirit will not be here. There will not be the convicting power of the Holy Ghost. And yet, as you read the book of the Revelation, John saw, he gives us the word through the Spirit, that during the great tribulation when Antichrist rules and reigns, there will still be literally thousands upon thousands thousands who will not take the mark of the beast. There'll be thousands who will not bow the knee to Baal, who will not accept the rule and the reign of the Antichrist of Satan. There'll be literally thousands during the tribulation who will be saved. And how will they be saved? Through their word of testimony. And Jesus, looking down through the telescope of time, remembered them, even as he expressed his desire to the Father, that they too might inherit that which he had made possible for them. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their. Word. It's all inclusive. Now, we come to the grand finale. I will. I determine. In other words, he's saying, this is my will. This is my determination. This is my decision. That where... I am, they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory. Where was that? Go back to what he was saying about himself. He was going to the cross and through the cross to the glory. My determination. My will. concerning my own, is that they shall have fellowship with me in the glory of the cross, and so in the glory that results from the cross. In time, with me by the way of the cross, and in the cross, and in the ages to come, with me forever. and ever in the glory that is yet to be revealed. In other words, the best is yet to come. Now, for the very first time, I'm going to read the entire 17th chapter. Sit there in silence. Whatever you're doing, just pause for just a moment. It's a sacred thing. We're listening. It's Jesus talking to the Father. These words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son. that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have... Finish the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were. and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee for i have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have surely known that i came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me i pray for them i pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and i am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep to thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them. Through thy truth thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. And neither... pray i for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou father art in me and i in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me i have given them that they may be one even as we are one i in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect and one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and that loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me. for the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it. that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and i in them the greatest prayer ever prayed when literally the divine son of god as much as though he were not deity and divinity. Only hours before being crucified, before two thieves, talks to the father, his father. And to me, that sacred part, of this prayer. Oh, how he must have felt within himself. Oh, the glory, the thrill in knowing that he had completed the work that he'd been sent to do, that he had not failed when he said, I have finished the work. which thou gavest me to do. One of these days, when life is over, I will have preached my last sermon. I will have led my last man, or woman, or perhaps a young person. to the saving knowledge of Christ. I will have wiped away the last tear. I will have given my last radio message. I will have made my last telecast. I will have had my last miracle service. prayed my last prayer. I pray to God that I can stand in his presence and say, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.