Jesus told His disciple, “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” “Watch and pray,” simply means to keep awake and draw near to God.

Doing this in a disciplined way will result in our fulfilling the five action verb instructions found in the Gospel of John. These will lead us into an overcoming, victorious, and triumphant life in Christ. In other words, keeping awake and drawing near to God in a disciplined manner will cause us to be less likely to fall into temptation and sinful behavior. The five action verb instructions that Jesus spoke of found in the Gospel of John are, “Abide in Me,” “Dwell in Me,” “Keep My commandments,” “Continue in My words,” and “Follow Me.”

Here are some more scriptural action verb instructions that lead to victorious living in Christ which are my present goals and aspirations in God, as well as my request of God when I keep awake and draw near to Him in prayer.

1) That “by the mercies of God I will present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is my spiritual service and be not conformed to this world, but transformed through the renewing of my mind, that I might prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

2) That I will “keep my body under all subjection lest after I have preached to others, I myself would be a castaway.”

3) That “through the mighty weapons of God I will pull down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”.

4) That I will “deny myself, take up my own cross daily and follow Him. For he who seeks to gain his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will gain eternal life. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”

5) That I will “submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from me. That I would draw near to God so that He would draw near to me.”

6) That “the God of peace will sanctify me wholly spirit, soul, and body unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is He who calls me who will also do it.”

7) That I will “love my wife as Christ loves the Church” - unconditionally, committedly, caringly, caressingly, and consistently.

8) That I will “love my children and not rebuke them harshly provoking them to anger” or “damaging their spirits,” but rather bring them up in the nurture and admonition (gentle reproof) of the Lord.”

9) That “the righteous requirement of the law (which is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, and that you would love your neighbor as yourself), would be fulfilled in me as I walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”

10) That God’s divine destiny, anointing, call, and choosing of my family and me would be fulfilled in our lives both individually and corporately to His good pleasure and glory.

Jesus said, “Satan has come to kill, to steal, and to destroy. But I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Paul said, “If we were saved by Christ’s death, how much more shall we be saved through His life.” Jesus also said to the Jewish leaders of His day, “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but you won’t come to me that you might have life.” Could we be guilty of the same erroneous behavior? Our eternal life is to be found through communing prayer with God. It is a relationship and fellowship with Him around His Word and in His Spirit. It is where His very life, love, faith, hope, power, beauty, strength, righteousness, peace, joy, justification, sanctification, and glorification which have been imputed to us in Christ Jesus is imparted to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is where we gain the triumphant victory over self, Satan, sin, sickness, poverty, and death. Let us therefore keep awake and draw near to God so that we might experience the abundant life, the victorious life, the triumphant life in Christ who is indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life.