Who do you think are the most powerful influential people on earth?
Politicians
Entertainers
Businessmen
Athletes
Scientist
Who? Each of these are influential in their own way but I believe there is another group of people who are the most influential people in the world.
Those who prayed and
– the iron curtain came down
– Isis was stopped
– Hitler was stopped
– the Mon Valley will be changed
Prayer is one of the keys to life for a Christian but for many, it becomes a drudgery or an exercise in futility
During the sermon on the mount, the disciples had often noticed Jesus praying they recognized the impact of His prayers and asked, “Teach us how to do what you do when you pray”
Luke 11:1-4
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”
This is a beautiful prayer but meant to be a pattern rather than a rote prayer and teaches us to understand how to see the mountains moved.
It all begins with what do you believe about your relationship to God? If we are speaking to someone to whom we are unfamiliar how do we know our request will even be heard? How do we know if heard that it will be taken seriously?
Until this moment in time God was known as “I AM, God the provider, protector, judge,” but Jesus showed us the Father
John 14:10,11
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
It is the relationship first that causes prayer to work so Jesus teaches us to pray by saying
“Our Father”
He is not just any Father but He is our Father. There is an intimacy, in that we believe He truly knows and loves us as “our Father” He adores us as His children…we are the same DNA it is seen in the fruit of the Spirit.
We recognize how much He loved us because of the sacrifice He made of His own Son!
So when we are preparing to come to him and we want to see the world changed it must be to a person who really knows us and that we truly know…we have His heartbeat and He has ours…seeing things happen is easy because of relationship and expectation of things happening is natural because of relationship.
We have a genuine Father and the real power behind Him is His love!
Once we recognize Him as our loving heavenly Father we have to take another step if we want to come to a place of answered prayer and changing the world
“Hallowed be your name”
I know this is an odd and archaic phraseology. However, as know we are loved by God and he is our Father we must recognize a reverence and respect for him…If a president, (pick your favorite one) walked into this room would you keep chatting, would you ignore him, would you go up to him with a snarky comment? Would you go to him with your list of demands or would you be quiet, wait for him to speak, would you want to hear what he had to say, would you be willing to discuss with him your needs and listen to his response….would you honor him….Moses took off his shoes…a centurion felt unworthy for Jesus to come to his home. It is not really about actions as much as it is heart….but our actions reveal our heart…when you are coming to the Lord are you recognizing that He is your Lord, in other words, are you in His word, do you honor him with the way you talk, your actions toward others, daily working on your stuff to become more like Him
Colossians 3:17
“And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
When we honor God we recognize his role in our lives, that He really is Lord and we reflect that in all we do. So when we come to him in prayer our hearts are already in a position to share His heart for the world, our communities, our families, and our lives….as we honor the Lord he hears and answers our prayers and at the same time as we live a life that honors the Lord we see our prayers being answered as we have grown to have His heart for every situation in our lives
Next are two types of requests the first being
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
You have heard me share about this verse recently. We are the ones who live and love in such a way to bring to release the Kingdom in the lives of others all around….His Kingdom brings love joy, peace, hope, freedom and so much more and we have it in our hearts.
Jesus’ purpose in telling us to pray His kingdom come first is a faith walk.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. NKJV
When mankind fell we went from being “God-relationship” centered to being self-centered….seeking God’s kingdom first does a couple of critical things
- It shows the Lord we are returning to God-centeredness
- It shows the Lord that we trust him with all the stuff we need
When we are praying God’s Kingdom come we are asking for the hope, the love, the joy, the peace all the things man tries to create but is unable to….God’s Kingdom established will ultimately meet every need of every person
Most of what we think we need is only a poor substitute for what God already has for us in the Kingdom
– His kingdom will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory
– His Kingdom brings right relationships through real love…God is love
– His kingdom allows us to have the fullness of days and success because he placed his dreams and visions in us to fulfill.
We serve in social service ways to meet the needs of people and this shows our love of both God and man but when we are talking about the Kingdom we are talking about changing the hearts of mankind Let me give you an example of what I mean….before I say this I am not against a strong defense, our military or police but this gives you a different take
25,000 children on average die every week from malnourishment and poor sanitation yet if even a portion of the money spent on armaments were to be available for proper water, hospitals, and sanitation we could put an end to these needless deaths
I am by no means promoting disarmament but it is fear, greed, and hatred that cause the spending of this disproportionate amount of funds…If the Kingdom were established in our world; peace, love, joy would replace greed, fear, and hatred.
No one can solve the problems of this world as believer’s we can bring the solution to this world….as we pray then take action and watch God take action the Kingdom of God will be established
See it needs to begin in our hearts first…we can’t change a world if these things don’t live in our hearts…so when we come to God we must come first with our hearts in line with His Kingdom if so we will change the world….more on this next week
Today do you know him as loving, caring Father?
Is your heart in line with His heart in living like you honor Him?
Is your heart in line with the Kingdom or are you still living in fear, bitterness, jealousy, envy, hatred, and anger? Today lets get it right let’s make your prayers and your life world changing