The Lord’s Prayer (2) – Prayer like this

I want to emphasize the three points that are mentioned in the Lord’s prayer or this model prayer. There are three points that I think are very important. Number one, you have the matter of the name of God: “Let Thy name be sanctified”. Then you have the matter of the Kingdom of God, “Thy Kingdom come”, and then you have the matter of the will of God, “Thy will be done”. These are three important points in this prayer: Thy name, Thy Kingdom, and Thy will. These things are related to spiritual warfare.

Let’s cover the Lord’s prayer point-by-point. At the very beginning He says, “Prayer like this”. In some translations you get different connotations. In some cases you get the impression you have to pray exactly what it says, word-for-word, right out of the King James’ translation! I don’t think, that is really the sense in the Greek. Another translation says, “Pray like this”. I kind of like that translation—“Pray like this.” You need to realize that the different English translations translate this differently. Some people get hung up thinking you have to pray the Lord’s Prayer exactly like it appears, from the beginning word to the last word and you cannot stop, you cannot pause, and you cannot interject any other prayer in the middle of it. I have done this myself too. Then some pray all over the place. So there are two extremes. Proper prayer mingles or mixes the Word of God in with your prayer. So it is okay to take part of the Lord’s Prayer and pray it back to God. For instance, consider the words, “Thy will be done”. Sometimes you are aware of a situation where God’s will needs to be done. You may be aware of a situation—a family situation a financial situation, or a health situation and maybe you are not even sure what God’s will is. It is always safe to pray, “God, Thy will be done in right here in this situation just like it is in heaven.”

Okay, let’s go through this prayer point-by-point. The first point it says, “Our Father Who is in Heaven.” Now it doesn’t say, “O God” or “Our Heavenly Father”, but it says, “Our Father”, indicating a couple of things. Number one, “Father” indicates a family relationship, an intimate relationship with God. In the book of Romans Paul says that our spirit is crying, “Abba Father”. It is like our spirit or the spirit of His Son in our heart is crying, “Father, oh Father”. This phrase, “Our Father” indicates an intimate relationship with God. And also it indicates that God wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Now, it also indicates something else. When you say, “Oh God”, or, “Our Father” or, something like that, it is a statement of the existence of God. You see, today the enemy doesn’t want people to think that God exists. For example, in the study of biological systems and biological studies and things like that you have things like evolution taught. To me, when you get into evolution, you find that it is really not a very scientific system; it is a very biased, one-way view. In the first chapter of the book of Romans, it says when people turn away from God they do not like to remember God or retain God in their knowledge. They don’t like to think God is around, but in this prayer there is a statement, “God exists.” Evolution is a system of thought designed to make people think that God isn’t real. If you get into a study of evolution, you will find it is not very scientific at all. Now I realize that when it comes to science, you want to present a lot of different viewpoints. Evolution is one way you can present things scientifically, but when you say it is the only way, you are not really a scientist, but kind of a biased person. But in this prayer we have the statement, “Our Father”, which is a statement that God exists. Not only that, it is an indication of an intimate relationship. Not only that, this indicates God is the source. A father in the family is the one who provides for the needs of the family. God provides for our needs. So in this prayer, “Our Father” is a statement, first of all, that God is real. Secondly, God wants an intimate relationship with us. Thirdly, God is our source.