In this prayer Jesus made seven petitions to God the Father: (1) That Jesus may be glorified as the Son who Glorified the Father (2) for restoration to eternal glory (3) for the safety of believers from the world and the evil one, (4) for the sanctification of the believers (5) for the spiritual unity of believers (6) that the world may believe (7) that believers may be with him in heaven to behold and share his glory. This prayer from the Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father demonstrates clearly the plan and purpose of Jesus Christ on earth. Every believer should read and study the words of this prayer. It is the basis of the Christians spiritual life, the Gospel, eternal security and sound doctrines.
John 17
These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said:
“Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee:
As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him.
And this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou have sent.
I have glorified thou on the earth: I have finished which thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto 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 that thou gave me and they have received them and have known surely 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 (unbelievers), but for them (believers) which thou hast given me: for they are thine.
And all mine are yours and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these (believers) are in the world and I come to thee. Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou have 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 have given me I have kept, and none of them is lost, (eternal security) but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now I come unto 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 hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world but that thou should keep them from the evil one.
They are not of this world even as I am not of this world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through thy truth.
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 has 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 in one; and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and has loved them as thou has loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou loved me before the foundation of the world.
O, righteous Father, the world has not know 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.
