The Lord’s Prayer (Part 1)
Matthew 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Introduction: I welcome you again to another week as Scriptures speak. We are looking at the prayer Jesus taught His Disciples on the Mount. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer”. We are not going to rush studying the Lord’s Prayer the way we rush to recite it after fellowship but look at the prayer much deeper as Holy Spirit helps us.
🙏 May the Holy Spirit enlighten us as we study at His feet in Jesus name.
🛑 Saying the Lord’s prayer should not be mechanical but with revelational knowledge in the place of prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is not a memory verse to be rushed after Prayer, but a Prayer to be said with deep understanding.
I notice that saying the Lord’s Prayer during or after fellowship or prayer meeting is fading away and being replaced by “Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. I guess we consider the Lord’s Prayer too long and we prefer to quickly share the Grace with “surely” in order to save time and rush out.
🛑 Looking at our text, Jesus said; After this manner therefore pray ye:
A. Our Father which art in heaven
Do you see God as your Father?
In my experience as a father with children and servants in the house, my çhildren enter my room anytime and freely take whatever they need but servants cannot. This is a natural phenomenon. Children have knowledge of their father whereas, servants do not.
John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Up till now, only my children sit in the Living room to watch telly or do anything they desire but even servants without restriction to the living room, watch telly from a corner outside the living room.
❓Why? knowledge of not being part of the family create barrier.
Likewise, Christians without knowledge of being children of God cannot freely talk and move with consciousness of being part of the family of God.
John 1:12(NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
Most Christians are without this revelational knowledge and therefore behave like servants. They are subject to oppression from fake pastors and others who claimed they hear from God all the time. These are servant-Christians that refuse to grow in the knowledge of the word of God for whatever reasons.
🛑 These servant-Christians are not different from servants under worldly manipulations like many today under false prophets and pastors.
Galatians 4:1,3 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
If you want to grow from spiritual childhood, you must desire the sincere milk of God’s word NOT enticing words of men that are without sincerity.
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1 Peter 2:2 (NLT) Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,
Without doubt, knowledge of God’s word will terminate any form of ignorance to deny any Christian the benefits of seeing God as Father.
Isaiah 63:16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
🛑 The Redeemed of the Lord will see God as Father because;
1️⃣. We are created by Him.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
2️⃣. Being fatherless and widows has not denied us of our Heavenly Father.
Psalm 68:5 A Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
3️⃣. We talk to God more confidently than earthly father.
Matthew 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
4️⃣. We don’t live in fear of anything.
Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
5️⃣. We have inner witness of being children of God.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
6️⃣. Knowledge of redemption by the Blood of Jesus Christ NOT by corruptible things.
1 Peter 1:17-19 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
We can see now that calling God Our Father which art in heaven goes beyond mechanical recitation in the place of prayer But with revelational knowledge.
B. Hallowed be thy name.
To hallow means to honour, reverence, consecrate, sanctify and keep holy. This means as long as we are children and priests of God, we must not profane or disrespect the Name of the Lord in His service. Several men of God use the Name of God to defraud people thereby bringing His Name to disrepute among unbelievers.
Hear instructions of God to His priests from the Scriptures
Leviticus 22:2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me: I am the Lord.
Any Christian who doesn’t have reverential fear for the Name of God will battle with wonderful plagues. This may be fearful but it is the truth written in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 28:58-59 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE Lord THY GOD; Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
The way we hallow or sanctify the Name of God among the unbelievers will bring fear of God to them which often leads to salvation.
Isaiah 29:23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
The Name of God is Holy and only those with humble spirit keep His Name holy at all times and circumstances.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
If Christians do not hallow, reverence or sanctify the Name of God among unbelievers, but bring jesters to His sanctuary, God Himself will sanctify His name even through the Church since gates of hell cannot prevail.
Ezekiel 36:23(NLT) I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign lord, then the nations will know that I am the lord.
Irrespective of great exploits God is using us to do in this world, just like Daniel, God’s Name must be Hallowed among the heathen to show that we are nothing without Him.
Daniel 2:19-20 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
Can you boldly say the Name of God is Hallowed or Reverenced in your life? It is not by mere recitation but in action through obedience to God’s word.
C. Thy kingdom come.
To profess that God’s Kingdom should come, we want His rulership in our lives. We don’t want to be ruled by sinful nature inherited from Adam to escape death.
Romans 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
To call for the Kingdom of God is not just recitation after Prayer but total submission to God’s rulership to keep devil away from our lives.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
One thing to note is that, whether we allow God to rule in our lives or not, no man can withstand His plans.
2 Chronicles 20:6 And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Despite God’s throne in Heaven, He’s got the whole world under His control. Asking Him to rule in our lives makes us fit into His plans and purpose.
Psalm 103:19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
When a Christian does not give space for God to rule in his/her affairs, devil takes over and make him/her cry in suffering whereby unbelievers blaspheme God believing that God cannot deliver.
Isaiah 52:5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord ; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
No matter what is possessed, any Christian that will not be ruled by God ends up as an animal to show that all power belongs to God.
Daniel 4:32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
It is wise and expedient to allow God rule in all our affairs to prevent disasters in life.
We shall continue the Lord’s Prayer next week.
✋ Maranatha.
