Acts 1:4-11, Ephesians 2:4-6 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
19 February 2006
All Rights Reserved

In the 1960's the General Electric Corporation spent a lot of research and development on a powered exoskeleton project called Hardiman. Hardiman looked like the arms and legs of a robot with a place in the middle for a man to stand. Photos from the time show black-eyeglass-framed engineers with skinny neckties enveloped in this cyborg with their arms inserted into its arms. The idea was that when the man moved his arm that Hardiman moved its arm. The robot was supposed to just do everything the man did. It was hoped that Hardiman could lift 1500 pounds and be used for loading bombs on aircraft carriers, lifting reactor components in nuclear plants, and performing underwater construction tasks. By 1970 they were only able to get one arm to work according to spec. That plus the fact that Hardiman required a large external set of hydraulic pumps doomed the project.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, funded the BLEEX project in the year 2000. BLEEX stands for Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton. The object is to create a pair of robot legs into which someone may stand while carrying a huge load and have the load feel like just a few pounds. Wherever you walk, BLEEX walks. It would have tremendous applications in the military, disaster relief, and fighting wildfires, for example. Two sizes have been built so far at the University of California and development continues.

Perhaps the most amusing of robotic exoskeletons is being built by a man named Carlos Owens in Alaska. His "mech," as he calls it is eighteen feet high and runs off a large motor. The mech would amplify the movements of the pilot, giving him tremendous power. The first generation mech built by Owens received a lot of publicity since it looks like something from an anime cartoon, but it does not really work. Owens hoped to recoup his development costs by touring with the mech in monster truck rallies where he would belch fire and smash cars. Lately it seems that he has given up because the mech was spotted advertised for sale on Ebay for thirty thousand dollars plus five thousand shipping.

Would you not love the ability to control unthinkable power beyond human ability? Beyond the practical advantages it would simply be an adrenaline rush. You could go down to the junkyard and smash cars, you could demolish a house in a few minutes, you could save people from burning buildings, and rip up tree stumps. You could start a business called MechaMonster Tree, Trash, House, and Car Removal.

There are some who have taught that the Christian's relationship to God is like this. Because we are in Christ, when we move our arm, God moves his arm. By prayer and other verbal means, it is said, we can be inside the biggest exoskeleton in the universe. And because God's power far outstrips any form of mechanical power, we can impact the spiritual realm, including spirits and other people.

This is true as far as it goes. The missing element in this thought is that while the earthly robotic exoskeletons simply do whatever our arms and legs do, the power of God is guided by the mind of Christ. Our "robot" is a Person who cannot be told what to do, and invites us to participate in what he is doing. When we move our arm, he will only move his arm when that movement fulfills a purpose of his own.

1. THE ASCENSION DISPLAYS CHRIST'S SUPREMACY

When mastery like that is taken to its highest degree we call it supremacy. It is the supremacy of Christ which holds out the unthinkable prospect that puny human beings--folks like us--may release the power of God on the earth merely by praying or speaking. It is also the supremacy of Christ which controls the outcome of our prayers so that only things in harmony with the purposes of God are done.

The circumstances surrounding the ascension of Christ into heaven provide a display of his supremacy. In the beginning of the book of Acts Luke wrote about the history of the time period just after the resurrection of Christ: "To [his disciples Jesus Christ] also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Christ laid his life down when he wanted, then he took it up again when he wanted. He appeared in his glorified body to his disciples where and when he wanted.

He commanded his disciples as he wanted: "Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, 'Which,' He said, 'you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'" (Acts 1:4-5). Christ revealed truth in exactly the time and manner he desired: "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority'" (Acts 1:6-7).

The Lord Jesus Christ, in an act of sheer supreme power, baptized his church in the Holy Spirit. This is something we can state but never explain. He also "called his shot" by saying that he was about to do it: "...But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Days later he did it, as recorded in Acts 2:4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance" (Acts 2:4)

The supremacy of Christ is clinched by his ascension: "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9). Where did he go? We will see in our next section, but suffice to quote for now the words of the Apostle's Creed: "He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the [living] and the dead."

This Christ who has supremacy over all of his coming and going will also return for his Church when and in the manner of his choosing, as the stunned disciples were told: "And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven'" (Acts 1:10-11).

2. PRAYER FROM THE PLACE OF CHRIST'S SUPREMACY

Does this sound like a Christ who can answer prayer? Does it sound like a Lord who will empower us when we speak and act according to his great purposes for the world? Yes it does. But before his supremacy does us any good we will have to shed a terrible, false view of prayer. I think that our senses tell us a lie about the position of Christ with respect to us and our position with respect to him. Usually we think of prayer very much like mail. We write or email our requests to someone far away whom we cannot see and then hope that we get a kind reply someday.

The real plan of God for prayer in the church age is so much more than that! He invites us to participate directly in the building of his kingdom on the earth. Paul explained this in Ephesians 2:4-6: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus..." The session of Christ is a picture of the fullness of his authority. In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul described this from the Father's point of view, explaining the state of spiritual authority in the world "which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:20-21).

And where are we in this scheme of spiritual authority? We are seated in the heavenly places with Christ! We are in him! Instead of emailing Christ with requests from far away we can just whisper. We have been invited to be direct participants in the will of God as it is expressed on the earth. Christ spoke profoundly of this in John 16:26-27: "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father."

This is like when Adam was invited to participate in creation by naming the animals. It is like when Mary was invited to participate in the redemption of the world by becoming the earthly mother of Jesus by the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is even better than those things! Those were singular opportunities given by the will of God to specific individuals. Because believers in Christ are seated with him in the heavenly places, we have the daily privilege of building the kingdom of Christ on earth by wielding his power and authority by prayer! Because of the Holy Spirit's gifts of knowledge and wisdom we can look down on the earth from above and see what God is doing. And we need fear neither man nor spirit because we are in Christ, seated with him "far above all rule and authority."

The moment a person believes in Christ, he or she is clothed with the most powerful robotic exoskeleton in the universe. It was possible for Peter to speak to a crippled man and have him walk and it was possible for Paul to heal thousands with a touch. It is obvious that the power was not in Peter's voice or Paul's hand! They were merely working the exoskeleton of God's power. The church today needs to see that because of the supremacy of Christ it is possible for us to speak God's word and see hearts changed, people healed, demons flee, families restored, and God's kingdom built on earth.

3. HOW PRAYER FROM THE PLACE OF SUPREMACY WORKS

Once we accept that unthinkable reality we must learn how prayer from the place of supremacy works. We are not Christ; neither are we first-century apostles. What explains the difference in the result of our prayers and words? A review of Christ's teaching about the nature and function of prayer in the life of a believer will show us.

In John 16:23 Jesus said: "In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you." The key is asking in Jesus' name. Jesus' name refers to his character and purposes. It will not do to pray: "Lord give me a sports car, a handsome boyfriend or girlfriend, money, and a private jet. In Jesus' name, amen." Even when prayed by a genuine believer, that is a prayer that will not be answered because those things have nothing to do with the kingdom of God.

Jesus taught about this fact repeatedly, such as John 15:16: "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." Jesus Christ is all about the bearing of kingdom fruit on the earth. You are in Christ as part of his pursuit of his own purposes. What this means is that while you automatically get the power of God exoskeleton, that exoskeleton has a mind of its own. The power is available to you and I, but only to do what the mind of Christ wants to do. So just because we move our arm in the exoskeleton it does not mean that the arm will move for us.

Some of us spend our whole Christian lives straining against the exoskeleton because we have not absorbed the purposes of God into our souls. The moment we move the arm in harmony with the will of God the arm moves, the power flows, and mighty things take place!

Do you believe that? If you don't, you are guaranteed that nothing will happen when you pray: "And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matthew 21:21-22). Faith is the indispensable trigger for prayer. Faithless prayer is a waste of time.

And we must always remember that we are not trusting in faith itself. We are also not simply trusting that a particular thing can or will happen. The faith is in the name of Jesus--his character and purposes. Christian faith has a content. He is the content! That means that asking "in prayer, believing" must be in total harmony with who Christ is and what he wants to do at that moment. Often we stumble there. Why should Christ not want to heal someone in tremendous suffering? In his merciful heart he grieves over that suffering, yet some other kingdom purpose may prevent him from relieving it, at least at that time.

In John 14:13 Jesus explains more about praying along the lines of God's power as defined by his will: "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The robot arm will not move unless we are glorifying the Son of God. Understanding what will glorify the Son is not a simple matter. We are forced into a position of humble submission.

This can be frustrating! Why can we not just move the robot arm with the power of God when we want? Even more frustrating is that sometimes God will relax the robot arm and let us move it in our own strength, probably to teach us a lesson. And then we still have only what can be gained by human strength.

Christ himself displayed the manner in which human will interacts with the divine as he wept in the garden of Gethsemane: "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42).

CONCLUSION

So you can see from this survey of prayer from the place of supremacy in Christ that it is not a game. We should not expect for it to be easy, but our Heavenly Father has not been tricky about how his power is released upon the earth. First, we need to see ourselves as seated with Christ in the heavenly places, above all earthly powers, whether human or angelic. Do not believe your eyes! Believe God instead.

Secondly, we need to undertake the work of faith--the work of believing. This is worked out by spending time with God in secret, learning to shepherd our wayward hearts so that all of our hope and trust is in him, and not in anything on earth.

Thirdly, we must become soaked with the knowledge of the character and purposes of Christ through our personal relationship with him. We have the mind of Christ, and so we can just ask him. He is not far away. Most of the time he will say: "I explained that in my word. Go and learn of me."

Fourthly, we must go to Gethsemane to weep our way into the will of God and out of our own wills. Why would we ever think that Christ had to do it, in his humanity, but we do not? Are you afraid of the will of God for you? Do you shrink back from where you think he is directing you? My experience is that I have never chosen a place of ministry. I hear pastors talking about their list of preferences, and I have my own, but God has never followed them. I went from North Carolina to New York to California and back to New York. I did not pick my seminary, any geographical location, or the specific churches I have served. I just went with God. It is safe for you to do the same if you pray your way into the will of God.

Once we have made our way through these first four things we may do the fifth. We need to live like people who have been granted privileged session at the right hand of God with Christ the Son. We need to go out on limb after limb for Jesus. We need to pray, speak, and move the robot arm of God around the earth to build the kingdom of his dear Son. What amazing things does God want to do through us? He would not have placed us in Christ if he did not have great things in mind! Kingdom fruit bursting out all over!

The supremacy of Christ makes the prayer of Christians different from every other prayer uttered on earth. Do our missionaries need the supremacy of Christ to see people lost in spiritual darkness come to Christ? Do our church planters need the supremacy of Christ to bring together all the resources needed for a new church to grow? Do we in our local churches need the supremacy of Christ to lead men, women, and children to become genuine, heartfelt followers of Jesus? All these enterprises are dead without it! We shall see, in the end of all things when all shall be revealed, that nothing happened to build the kingdom except what was done by total reliance on his power. Prayer from the place of Christ in the heavenlies is how it will all be done. If you are a believer, you are already in the exoskeleton. Now learn how to use it for the glory of God.