Tag Archives: Our Father

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 2b

Prayer, ,

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Before we move on to the next facet of this prayer, we need to look more closely at the words Jesus used and their impact on His disciples. 

“Our Father” immediately connected the disciples with one another on a new level. They were much more than a group of individuals chosen by Jesus to walk with Him. They were family! 

In Jesus’ words, He stated God’s intention, before time began, to have a family… sons and daughters resembling Him…living and working together with Him to administer His earth under His authority. 

This meant that they would enjoy the bonds of family love and family unity in their allegiance and submission to a loving Father. “Fellowship” was what this family was all about. 

“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This fellowship with the Father would be brought about by the Holy Spirit in them, centred in Jesus, and experienced within the circle of the Trinity. Maintained by honesty and transparency with one another, their love and unity would tell the world that Jesus had come from the Father to set things back in order on earth. 

“…In heaven…” speaks of the reconnection between heaven and earth. Adam’s defection had shattered the oneness God had planned. His spirit realm is everywhere since God cannot be confined to any particular space, but humans have lost that awareness and live as though God does not exist. 

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

David clearly stated God’s intention…

“…What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels (“God”, the original meaning), and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭6‬, ‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Bible is the story of everything God has done to restore that connection so that He and His people can live in fellowship and function as one in His universe. 

Revelation reveals the end of the story. 

“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In Jesus’ prayer, then, we are constantly reminded that God functions in a realm that is all around, as near to us as our breath, but separated from us by our fallen humanity. We draw near to Him as we acknowledge who He is, our Father, who we are, His human family, and where we function, our earth joined to His heaven to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven. 

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 2a

Prayer, ,

I used to think, when I was much younger, that Jesus taught His disciples to pray a prayer in the secret place instead of showing off in public like the Pharisees or babbling like the pagans. 

As a lonely teenager, I prayed the Lord’s Prayer in a hotel room, first, because my family was without a home while our new home was being built and, second,  because I didn’t know how else to pray… and God answered my prayer by saving me a few weeks later! So, that’s what I prayed as a new believer, but I dutifully prayed the Lord’s Prayer like a recitation, as often as I remembered, which wasn’t that often, I must admit.

However, I have come to realise, as I have grown in my knowledge and understanding of prayer, that Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this,” but He did say, “Pray like this.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This is a “pattern” prayer, with great truths expressed in seed form, each new thought loaded with the truth that grows, like a seed, as we meditate and pray each thought. 

Let’s start at the beginning. 

“Our Father in heaven…” Imagine the reaction of the disciples to this simple address. They would have been raised on the prayers recorded in the Tanach, and particularly in the Psalms which were the personal expressions of faith and cries for help written down for posterity. Their prayers were mostly the repetition of the prayers of others. 

To utter a simple two-word address to the great God of heaven must have been unfamiliar to them, to say the least! To address God as Father would have been equally unfamiliar.  

One of Jesus’ purposes on earth was to teach His people to know God as Father. John’s gospel, in particular, is peppered with this truth that God is our Father and we are His children by the miracle of new birth…and by faith in Him, Jesus!

Again, Jesus has also come to reconcile the Father’s children to the Himself through His death. 

Look at this !

One of the first things Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection was…

“Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

‭‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Brothers…my Father and your Father…the status of the disciples had radically changed. As the writer to the Hebrews explained…

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In the dispensation of the Old Covenant, and especially in the ritual worship of the tabernacle/ temple, a holy God could only be approached through sacrifice and  the priesthood as the people’s representatives. His people prayed to Him, yes, but in the awareness that He was not obligated to answer because of their sin. In fact, on many occasions, God refused to answer their prayers because they stubbornly defied and disobeyed Him. 

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What, then, had made the difference between the then and the now? Was Jesus saying that His people were entering a new dispensation when they would no longer need to go through animal sacrifice and human mediators to reach God… that He would no longer be to them a far-off deity but a loving Father? 

What would happen to make the difference to them in this life-changing transfer from Old to New Covenant?

Again, the writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer…

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you notice the words, “confidence” and “full assurance”? The disciples, at that moment, when Jesus uttered those words, “our Father in heaven”, were still under the  old dispensation but He was introducing them to a new status. They were standing on the threshold of a radically transforming event. The God who had held them at arm’s length, so it seemed to them, was in fact, the God who embraced them as sons and held them close to His heart because of His own Son. 

All barriers had been destroyed. The debt of sin was paid. They could step right up to God’s throne, in the heavenly realm He reigns over as King of His kingdom, and  whisper, “Abba, Father!” and be heard. 

PRAYER WORRIER, PRAYER WARRIOR, OR TRUE WORSHIPPER?

Prayer,

There is a movement in the world-wide church that has inadvertantly divided prayer into what I call “prayer worriers”,
“prayer warriors”, and the rest of us.

“Prayer worriers” make up the bulk of Christians who treat prayer either as a kind of spiritual 911, a 60-minute delivery service, or a repair and maintenance workshop! Prayer is the way to save the situation, get what we want, or fix or get things done. Crises, needs, or concerns drive us to ask God for help. Once the crisis is over and the situation back to normal, we settle down to continue living until…we need God again.

“Prayer warriors,” on the other hand, are those people who have a special calling to engage in spiritual warfare against the devil and his works. They are highly esteemed in the church. They are the intercessors who do the work of prayer for the rest of us so that we can live in relative peace and comfort. They identify and “come against” the powerful spirit beings who rule on earth and mess with God’s people. They do “prayer walks” and “Jericho marches” to “pull down strongholds” which loose the Holy Spirit to do His work! When trouble arises anywhere, we must call in the intercessors! There are even international organisations and prayer houses set up to teach people how to be “intercessors”.

How ridiculous this sounds and what an insult to the Lord and His Word!

What does the Bible teach us about prayer in contrast to this imposition of human nonsense?

First, the church is primarily God’s family on earth. They are sons and daughters of God who have been born again into His family through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. They have been made alive and are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit in them.

Hebrews 2:10-14 NLT
[10] “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. [11] So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. [12] For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” [13] He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.” [14] Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.”

There is no hierarchy in God’s family. Jesus is our elder brother and we are all one in Him. There are functions in this family for the benefit of one another, not for anyone to lord it over the rest. Its leaders are servants, not overlords, sacrificially serving its members for the good of all.

Second, God is our heavenly Father who has given us all equal access to Him through Jesus. There are no superior pray-ers in His family.

Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT
[19] “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. [20] By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. [21] And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, [22] let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

From the lips of our supreme model and mentor,
Jesus, came this instruction…

Matthew 6:9 NLT
[9]”Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”

No earthly father restricts access to himself except to special family members. All God’s children are privileged to approach Him personally and individually. He calls us all to draw near to Him. The only qualification is through Jesus.

John 14:6 NLT
[6] “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

James 4:8 NLT
[8] “Come close to God, and God will come close to you….”

Third, prayer has a much higher purpose than dealing with the devil, which Jesus did at the cross…

Colossians 2:13-15 NLT
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. [14] He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

… or meeting needs, which the Father does for us because He knows…

Matthew 6:8 NLT
[8]… Your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

Matthew 6:31-33 NLT
[31]“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ [32] These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. [33] Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

God is a good Father. He takes care of all our needs without our nagging and pleading.

What is God’s deepest desire for His children?

1 John 1:3 NLT
[3]”We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

Fellowship!

John 4:23-24 NLT
[23]”But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Worship!

Through His plan of redemption, God has opened the circle of His divine family, the Godhead… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…to allow us to participate with them in their love and unity. Through His mercy and by His grace, He calls us to come in.

Needs are only triggers to the greater purpose of fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which leads us to worship God in all the wonder and beauty of His person.

Consider these profound expressions of God’s way.

2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT
[3] “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [4] And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT
[20]” For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

This is the way of the true “prayer warrior”, putting everything that happens in this life into its true perspective.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT
[16] “But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
[17] For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [18] So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

This is the goal of prayer…not getting things done, or meeting needs, or defeating the devil, or even establishing God’s kingdom on earth. These are all stepping stones and peripheral to God’s one great goal. Worship! God accomplishes everything He plans in the universe and takes care of all our concerns by His sovereign power and wisdom as we worship Him.

Why is worship paramount in every detail of our lives, even to the simple things like eating and drinking?

1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT
[31] “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Worship is not something we do. Worship happens when we do something! Worship happens when we honour God in everything we say and do.

Colossians 3:17 NLT
[17]”And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”

Paul stated this truth simply and clearly to the pagans in Athens…

Acts of the Apostles 17:28 NLT
[28] “For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”

The more we recognise this truth, as Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing,” the more we acknowledge God in all our ways, the closer we come to true worship.

And the outcome? Moving in harmony and oneness with the Lord, He lives His life and accomplishes His will through us. As Jesus did on earth, our lives become prayer and worship happens!!!

Matthew 4:4, 7, 10 NLT
[4] But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
[7] Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”
[10] “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’ ”

THE LORD’S PRAYER – WHERE IS GOD?

Book Reviews, ,

THE LORD’S PRAYER – WHERE IS GOD?

“Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9

How difficult is it to talk to someone when we don’t know where He is? “Our Father in heaven…” we pray but where is heaven? For most of us heaven is “up there” but where – on another planet somewhere or in another galaxy or somewhere beyond the universe? This makes praying to a Father whom we can’t see and whose whereabouts we don’t know, much more complicated and unreal.

The God we address in prayer is unseen.  He is Spirit – John 4:24 and we cannot and must not try to create Him in our imagination. He has no physical form. We can know only Him by what He does and where He has been. We have to learn from God’s revealed truth about Himself what heaven really is.

There are Scriptures that indicate that heaven is not a geographical place but an unseen realm which is all around us but which we cannot see and only partially experience because we humans are flesh, imperfect and separated from that realm now. In Psalm 139:7, David cries, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” and Solomon lamented, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built.” 1 Kings 8:27. According to Jeremiah 23:24, “’Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” and the Apostle Paul confirmed, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28.

There are times when the veil between flesh and spirit thins out momentarily and humans can see into the spirit world. Elisha and his servant Gehazi were surrounded by the Syrian army in Dothan. Gehazi cried out in fear because they were trapped and at their mercy until Elisha assured him, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:16, 17. The veil thinned just long enough for Gehazi to see with his eyes what Elisha saw by faith.

According to Genesis 2:7 God breathed into man the breath of life (His own ruach – breath, spirit) and man became a living being. Man, therefore, has in his lungs the very breath of God.

Just as we need to change our awareness from ourselves to God, we also need to change our awareness from God somewhere far away and inaccessible to a God who is as near to us as our breath. Prayer is therefore, first, becoming aware that I live in the environment of God. He is spirit, He fills the entire universe, and I am, therefore, immersed in His Presence like a fish in water.

THE LORD’S PRAYER – A PATTERN TO COPY

Christian Life, ,

THE LORD’S PRAYER – A PATTERN TO COPY

“This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9.

We have looked, first of all, at what prayer is not. It’s not about words or needs; it’s about awareness. Now we need to examine what prayer is.

As we are discovering, prayer is more about awareness than about asking. What we are asking comes into line with a greater awareness of God, who He is and what His focus, His heart and concerns are rather than ours.  Because it is natural for us to be absorbed with ourselves and our needs, it is necessary for us to have a pattern that shows us how God envisions prayer rather than what we think it is or should be.

Prayer is not unique to the Christian faith. It is an inborn need in every human being, no matter what god people believe in, worship, and serve. However, those who worship anything or anyone other than the true and living God are unsure of the attitude of that god towards them and do not know how to get his attention or how to please him. Our priority, therefore, is to identify who we are becoming aware of.

To train ourselves to become aware of God is not enough because “God” can be anything we have created for ourselves from our life experience, our environment, and the influence of other people. Since prayer is about changing our awareness, we must find out who this God is, not from our perspective but from what the Bible says. God is, first, our Father, our life-source, our Creator, the one who breathed His own life into us and to whom our spirits are fused by faith, through the Holy Spirit, so that we are one with Him. He is the one on whom we are dependant for life and everything that our life involves (2 Peter 1: 3ff).

He is the only true God, the one who described Himself as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness, forgiving sin…” (Exodus 34:6) He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not to be confused with any other god. Hebrews 11:6 – Those who come to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

To address God as “Father” is to differentiate between Him and all other gods. Since we are His offspring, we are bound to Him by an unbreakable union. Our rebellion in Adam has broken our fellowship with the Father but not our connection with Him as His children. We cannot be “unborn” but we need to be “born again” into the realm where He reigns and where we have come back under submission to His rule.

To pray, “Our Father” is to become aware of the God in whom we live, and to whom we are fused by faith so that our lives are indissolubly joined to Him, our Source.