Daily Diary May 6th, 2016

The Lord's Prayer

One Sunday morning I was preparing a message to speak at Harvest Fellowship Church. The Holy Spirit brought me a revelation about the Lord’s Prayer. I had previously heard a pastor talk about the prayer from the Bible and how in the prayer it says that Jesus taught us to pray. I began to pray with my wife the Lord’s Prayer daily. It wasn’t the exact prayer but it was the order and the submission to the prayer and its authority that I believe Jesus meant for us from the bible.

     To look at this revelation I am listing the Lord’s Prayer from the New King James Version:

Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, power and glory forever Amen!

The prayer is about exalting God first, giving him rule and authority in our lives. Asking for forgiveness next and asking for his will to be done in our lives ahead of our own.

The problem that we have as humans in the flesh is that we are not in the spiritual frame of heart and mind when we pray the prayer so that God can move based on His Word. It is simply lip service and does not come from the heart.

     If God is not truly Lord of our lives, I believe this is how God often hears the Lord’s Prayer when we pray. Because he is listening to the heart!

• Our father who art in Heaven, Selfish be my ways

• Your kingdom come, MY will be done on earth as it is in heaven (doesn’t matter what others think, it’s about )

• Give us this day our daily bread: Even though I have not followed your word or trusted you in any way.

• Forgive us of our trespasses, as I have no intentions of forgiving others of theirs, I am always right or won’t admit it even if I’m wrong.

• Lead us not into temptation I can, and will do that by myself. Very successfully. I will also continue in the temptation until I fall on my face.

• But deliver us from evil even though I speak it towards others and invite it into my life as many ways as possible.

• For what I want is my kingdom and glory forever and I am committed to it, and I would rather you change so I can have what I want Lord, because it’s simply not fair! Amen

The point of this analogy is to bring revelation to submission. In the above prayer the word “I” is the focus. In the analogy I received when writing this interpretation, the word “I” was mentioned 15 times. It appears either in the “I” form or “MY” form.

If we draw attention to the Lord’s Prayer from the Bible we will discover that “I” is not mentioned. In fact the word thy or thine meaning God’s will is mentioned only. It is clearly a prayer about submission and granting God authority. He is asking us to pray in a way that lines up with God’s will and His plan. Only in accepting that God is right and praying from our heart the true meaning of this prayer, can we understand its impact and power it has for us.

Carrie and I began to pray the parts of the prayer and add it to our lives. We use the order of the Lord’s Prayer from our heart. The order is this:

We pray and ask for God to be on the throne of our lives. We give Him thanks and honor for being our savior. We ask for HIS will to be done for us daily. He has a better plan than ours and we ask for it to operate. We ask him to protect us and meet our needs the way that HE would want them met. We then ask for forgiveness of our sins and the things we fall short of the Glory of God in. Including the things we are deceived in and haven’t gained enough knowledge or “Revelation” of to bring to the understanding of repentance.

Then we remind the devil of our salvation and tell him that we are in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ. In him we have victory and claim our right to be blessed and move in power of the Holy Spirit. We do this with authority recognizing that we are failures in our past and are not worthy of the blessings. We also realize that God gave us the example that we would never be worthy. He promised this to us when He sent His Son. If we were capable on our own ability He would not have had to send HIM and therefore, HE died in vain. We claim our right that HE bought for us even though we are failures. We recognize the relationship with Him and how much HE loves us to claim this right. Even if we have made mistakes, we walk in conviction to please Jesus by our obedience.

Then we pray for our family and our children. We ask for their salvation and “their” covenant with Jesus. We realize that they need nothing more than God’s plan for their lives. We have to be as submitted to “their” needs being able to be met by God just as much as our own needs as parents.  

At that point we finally mention what we “feel” our needs are in prayer. By this order and our submission to authority we realize that HIS plan is better. We can only pray for what we “Think” is important, knowing that it is very possible that these visible prayers we believe are the ones to base our direction on. That is OK, but often it is a partial direction that we must strive towards and be submitted to the changes that God may bring into the picture. We have to accept change by faith. We must be moldable enough in the things we “see” to be able to change daily as we submit to his plan above our own.

In God’s plan we must take action. The submission to God does not mean that we don’t do anything and wait for our future and destiny to fall out of the sky. We must move forward daily towards our goals and be molded and turned along the way. A vehicle cannot be turned if it is sitting still. Take action and allow God to guide you toward your destiny!