Jessica says: “Spiritual warfare and prayer is about discernment. This is an important tool and character of prayer that we need to be walking in and using all the time. The word armor in Hebrew sounds like the word Sharon. It’s spelled S H R I O N. And again, that’s meaning to protect, to make secure… The Aramaic to that, is a word called Zanga, Z A N G A H, and that’s not just referring to armor, but it’s referring to military might, military equipment.”
Welcome to Grafted: Jewish Roots of Christianity! My guest is Jessica Knock.
Jessica Knock is a passionate co-founder and seasoned leader in both ministry and broadcasting. Alongside her late husband, Shane Knock, she dedicated over 40 years of service as an itinerant preacher and missionary. Together, they pioneered several impactful projects, most notably co-launching the Hollywood Classics Network on the Sky Television platform in Europe and the UK. This groundbreaking initiative marked the first-ever faith-based movie, comedy, and family channel, blending silver screen favorites with Christian content and ministry programming, designed to evangelize the Gospel across the airwaves.
In 2020, Jessica took her wealth of ministry and broadcasting experience to new heights by founding EWHAL, Eatin Wild Honey and Locust, an online Torah-based teaching ministry. With a heart for shepherding and equipping the Body of Christ, she has made it her mission to bring a Hebraic understanding of Scripture to believers in today’s world—particularly in these prophetic times. Through EWHAL, Jessica has fostered the growth of Torah communities both in-person and online, and she actively hosts and introduces the appointed feasts in regions such as the UK, Australasia, Europe, and Africa. Her work continues to inspire and empower believers to walk out their faith with a deep, rooted understanding of the Word of God.
Jessica and I talk about spiritual warfare, prayer, and understanding our authority in Christ.
Welcome to Grafted: Jewish Roots of Christianity! My guest is Jessica Knock.
Jessica Knock is a passionate co-founder and seasoned leader in both ministry and broadcasting. Alongside her late husband, Shane Knock, she dedicated over 40 years of service as an itinerant preacher and missionary. Together, they pioneered several impactful projects, most notably co-launching the Hollywood Classics Network on the Sky Television platform in Europe and the UK. This groundbreaking initiative marked the first-ever faith-based movie, comedy, and family channel, blending silver screen favorites with Christian content and ministry programming, designed to evangelize the Gospel across the airwaves.
In 2020, Jessica took her wealth of ministry and broadcasting experience to new heights by founding EWHAL, an online Torah-based teaching ministry. With a heart for shepherding and equipping the Body of Christ, she has made it her mission to bring a Hebraic understanding of Scripture to believers in today’s world—particularly in these prophetic times. Through EWHAL, Jessica has fostered the growth of Torah communities both in-person and online, and she actively hosts and introduces the appointed feasts in regions such as the UK, Australasia, Europe, and Africa. Her work continues to inspire and empower believers to walk out their faith with a deep, rooted understanding of the Word of God.
Welcome to Grafted: Jewish Roots of Christianity! My guest is Rachel Links Kushner.
Today, Rachel and I are discussing Hanukkah and how Messiah is the Light of the world.
Rachel Kushner is the Chief Enthusiasm Officer of Links to Messiah, where she brings a unique blend of passion, faith, and experience to her role. Raised in a Messianic Jewish home, Rachel has the special perspective of celebrating both Jewish and Christian holidays, shaping her deep understanding of diverse religious traditions.
A certified and experienced educator, Rachel is dedicated to teaching families and nurturing a love for learning. Her heart for service extends to her active involvement in a Bible-teaching church, where she contributes her time and expertise.
Affectionately known by some as the “Child Whisperer,” Rachel has an exceptional ability to engage and captivate the attention of young children, making learning fun and meaningful. Her work reflects her commitment to both faith and education, as she inspires those around her with enthusiasm and warmth.
Today, I have guest blogger–Penny Cooke. She is an author, Certified Biblical Life Coach, and has been a women’s ministry leader for over 25 years. Her passion is to encourage and equip women with the Word of God and see them empowered by His Spirit through prayer for this battle we call life. I met her at a writers conference a couple of years ago when she won an award for her book, Pursuing Prayer—Being Effective in a Busy World.
I will include her social media links and the Amazon link to her award-winning book on pursuing prayer. Please enjoy her post today!
Pray then like this… Matthew 6:9
Do you ever find it difficult to pray, find the time to pray, or know what to pray? Do you know people who seem to pray all the time? Who has time to pray like that when there’s so much else to do? Shouldn’t we just be able to pray once and see results? It all seems so mysterious.
Jesus’ disciples must have wondered some of those things too, because they asked Him, “Teach us to pray.” In response, He gave them what is called, “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13). Did He give us this prayer to recite, one and done? I don’t believe so. Besides, He had just told them not to recite vain repetitions (v.7 NKJV).
The Lord’s Prayer is beautiful, but I think there’s more to it than we grasp when we recite it. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t teaching us a prayer, but how to pray – the elements to include in prayer. What are those elements and why are they important to us today? The book, Pursuing Prayer – Being Effective in a Busy World, teaches those elements using an acrostic for prayer. Here is a brief overview of that acrostic:
P – Proactively Pursue Prayer
Jesus left us an example of intentionally getting away from it all to pray (Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:28). Scripture urges us repeatedly to proactively pursue prayer (Matthew 26:41, Luke 18:1, Ephesians 6:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, and 1 Timothy 2:1).
In today’s busyness, we need to be proactive about a lot of things if we’re going to get everything done. It is no different with prayer. And if we have so much to do, shouldn’t prayer be on the top of our list?
Jesus told them, “Pray then like this…”
In today’s busyness, we need to be proactive about a lot of things if we’re going to get everything done. It is no different with prayer. @penny_cooke #PursuingPrayer #ThisSideofHeaven
Jesus began His prayer with worship, “Hallowed by thy name.” Worship helps us remember who God is and what He has done for us. It builds our faith and also our faithfulness. God repeatedly warned Israel, “…beware, lest you forget the LORD…” and “…you shall remember well what the LORD your God did…” (Deuteronomy 6:12, 7:18)
Psalm 100:4 tells us, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving…” Remembering generates thankfulness and thankfulness produces worship.
A – Acknowledge Sin
This is the “forgive us our debts” piece of the Lord’s Prayer. This does not suggest a brief and general, “Forgive my sins,” but a time to acknowledge and confess specific sins in our lives, and to repent. To repent is to adjust our lives to the ways of God.
Confession is a vital part of prayer, which is often overlooked when we pray short, on-the-go prayers. David recognized, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:28).
Y – Yield to His Will
This covers the “Your Will be done” part of the Lord’s Prayer.
To yield is to submit, to surrender or relinquish control and trust Him whose ways are best. When we pray this part of the Lord’s Prayer, we welcome His will and His kingdom into our lives. It is to, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” Then the promise: “…all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
E – Enjoy His Daily Bread
Praying for daily bread is about knowing where our provision comes from and trusting God to provide. It is to have faith that He will do what He said He will do, pertaining to daily bread or any other promise He has made to us (John 14:14).
Ultimately, God longs to give us Himself. He gives us Himself through Jesus, the Bread of Life. He provides daily physical bread for our physical life, but He also provides daily spiritual bread for our spiritual life.
R – Rest in the Waiting
We want quick, instant everything nowadays. We expect things to happen now, and we’re always in a rush. We’d do well to hurry up and slow down.
God is never in a hurry. He sees the end from the beginning and knows exactly what and when things need to be done for our prayers to be answered. And He is much too concerned for our spiritual wellbeing to give us anything one minute before its time.
When we trust and wait patiently with thanksgiving, our anxiety is replaced with His peace. We can rest when God’s peace guards our hearts and minds, no matter how long it takes our prayers to come to fruition (Philippians 4:6-7).
When we trust and wait patiently with thanksgiving, our anxiety is replaced with His peace. @penny_cooke #PursuingPrayer #ThisSideofHeaven
How much more effective do you think our prayers could be if we proactively prayed this way more often? That’s not to say there aren’t times when all we can squeeze out is a weak, “Help me, Lord.” I’ve certainly had those times, and I’m sure you have too. I assure you, He hears those prayers. Psalm 34:18 (ESV) tells us, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
But in general, when you look at our world today, wouldn’t you say we need more prayer, not less? How do you think our families, our country, and our world could be changed if more of us prayed more like this more often?
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16b NKJV
Would you like to enrich your prayer life? Would you like more power and more answered prayer? Penny’s Six-week Bible study, Pursuing Prayer – Being Effective in a Busy World is ideal for group or personal use. Pursuing Prayer uses the acrostic for prayer to help us understand more deeply what Jesus taught when He gave us The Lord’s Prayer and how important its elements are in our prayer lives today. This book will inspire and motivate us to more fervent and effective prayer.
Find out more at https://www.pennycookeauthor.com where you can download Penny’s FREE ebook, Pursuing Prayer Devotion and Coloring Page.
Penny is the author of Pursuing Prayer – Being Effective in a Busy World, a multi-award-winning Bible study (New Hope Publishers, 2019), most recently a First Place 2020 Selah award (Bible Study category). She has been a contributor to Heart Renovation – A Construction Guide to Godly Character (Lighthouse Bible Studies, 2018), and Let the Earth Rejoice devotional (Worthy Inspired, 2017). She has written for CBN.com and Thoughts-About-God.com and has been a columnist for Blessed Living Women’s E-Magazine. She also enjoys blogging about things of life and faith at pennycookeauthor.com.
Penny and her husband live in Florida and have three grown children and seven grandchildren.
As he got up to answer it, he realized how late it was. “Who could be here at midnight?” he thought. As he opened the door, there stood a friend who had traveled a long way and was both tired and hungry. Realizing he had nothing in his house to feed his friend, he hurried to his neighbor.
As he pounded on their door, the man shouted he had company who just arrived, and he had nothing to feed him. The neighbor called out, “Leave me alone, I’m in bed!” The man who had company did not give up. He continued to shout his need until his neighbor gave him what he wanted.
Before Jesus taught this parable in Luke 11:5-8, he taught the Lord’s Prayer. With that prayer, He showed us the way to pray. However, the parable explains how we are to pray. It’s not just the words we use, but the persistence we show.
In Luke 11:8 (ESV), Jesus said about the neighbor who didn’t want to get out of bed, “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence (or persistence) he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” What does this mean? The neighbor didn’t get up because his friend asked him for food; he got up because he knew his neighbor was not going away until he got what he needed.
The Hebrew equivalent of the word impudence is chutzpah and it means brazen tenacity. We can better understand this if we know the meaning of these two words, too. The word brazen means to be bold and without shame[1] and tenacity means to have determination. [2]
Is this how you pray? I honestly can’t say it describes all my prayers. In some rabbinical (Jewish) literature, they describe Moses’ intercession for the children of Israel as if he took hold of God’s garment and pleaded with Him to pardon them. [3] This is chutzpah. This is what Jesus taught.
In Luke 8:43-48, Scripture tells us about a woman who knew Jesus could heal her of a bleeding disorder if she could only touch His garment. There was a great crowd around Jesus; people were pressing up against Him making it almost impossible to get close.
Yet, her brazen tenacity didn’t let a crowd stop her from getting to the feet of Jesus. When she touched his garment, Jesus knew power had gone from of Him. After the woman came to Him and told Him why she touched Him, Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
The blind beggar in Luke 18:35-43 didn’t stop yelling for Jesus to have mercy on him even though people told him to be quiet. When Jesus asked him what he wanted, he replied, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” Jesus said, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” The beggar had brazen tenacity. He would not be silent, so Jesus stopped to talk to him.
Like them, our brazen tenacity evidences our faith. There are stories throughout the Gospels about people who did not take “no” for an answer by pushing past boundaries to get to Jesus. These were only a few stories in which Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.”
What about the times our faith and tenacity don’t get our prayer answered in the way we hope? We all know someone who didn’t get healed or lost a child or spouse from a terrible disease. Or maybe it’s you whose prayer has not been answered. Does Jesus love us less? Did He not hear our cries in the dark or at the altar? We don’t always know why we get a “no” or “wait” from our Lord.
In her book, To Live is Christ, Beth Moore explained that in the Bible Jesus healed for two reasons. One was to prove His authenticity. He was and is the Son of God. The second reason He healed was when natural methods were not possible. [4]
The healing or the suffering? God knows which one it is. He doesn’t want us to suffer, but if our suffering takes us deeper into our relationship with Him, then it’s worth it. He knows our ultimate healing is in Heaven. But that does not mean we pray with any less brazen tenacity. Like the man who needed food from his neighbor, keep pounding on Heaven’s door.
Is there anything you have not asked the Lord because you thought it wasn’t worthy or because you felt embarrassed by it? In the verses which follow the parable in Luke 11:9 (ESV), Jesus said,
“Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”
Jesus doesn’t want us to stop asking, seeking or knocking. Approach His throne boldly knowing He hears you and He loves you. Never give up. Pray boldly with shameless determination.
