Who do you think are the most powerful influential people on earth? (Review from last week)
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.
Last week we talked about to have an effective prayer we must understand
– God as Father
– have honor and respect for who he is
– we have to live and be Kingdom minded – we have to move from a self-centered mindset to a God-centered mindset and in the process, God will meet all of our needs as we are focused on Hid Kingdom needs
Today we need to visit this part of the prayer
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth, as it is in heaven.
To become the most influential people we must live God’s Kingdom as we pray for it…we must “do” God’s Kingdom
When the world says, “What does the Kingdom of God look like?” they should be able to look at the church and say, “Oh that’s what it looks like!”
So what are we to model Romans 14:17
“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
It is righteousness first, apart from righteousness there can be no peace or no joy.
Think about it many organizations march for peace, but bring none. many try to find happiness (joy) in so many things but find none
There can be no peace, no joy without righteousness first.
In fact, one of the signs of the anti-Christ will be that he will proclaim “peace and safety” 1 Thessalonians 5:3
“For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”
There can be no real peace without righteousness. The world needs an example of righteousness….if the world does not see an example of righteousness they can never come to Christ, they will have no hope, they have no opportunity to truly come to freedom…this is not how God works….I have said this many times but there are still multiple voices out there that do not read their Bible but they say “look at the signs of this and that” but Jesus said these are going to come but this is not the end…the end will only come after the whole world will have had the opportunity to accept or reject Christ…that will only happen if they can see Jesus in us and apart from righteousness they will not see Him.Matthew 24:14
So when we are praying for the Kingdom we need to realize we must have right thinking (thinking like Jesus) right actions (acting like Jesus) and right language (talking like Jesus) to change the world we need the Kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven but that happens only by the world seeing Jesus in our thinking, actions, and language.
How do we develop that?Simply reading God’s word, living God’s word, and praying God’s word
The Bible is the love letter of truth and freedom to the world. The world thinks they know what the Bible says. Many Christians believe they know what the Bible says but in most cases it has not been read let alone studied
You can not live righteously and allow bitterness, laziness, guilt, fear, prejudice, anger, greed, hatred, bondage control you
His truth causes us to be ambassadors of hope, love, joy, peace, grace, and freedom but we must walk in the Kingdom truth to bring it
So when you pray, “Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’…it is not this nebulous prayer it is us acting on God’s word living the Kingdom, righteousness, peace, and joy
This is a key reason many Christian’s prayer life is anemic and many prayers go unanswered.
It is simply getting real with our walk of faith.
We should never be surprised that the world system is getting worse and worse that corruption grows greater every day, that sin is more rampant that mindsets are so anti God
If you read your Bible this has all been stated and prophesied BUT
We are called to be light, salt and the city set on the hill
Isaiah 60:2,3
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you. 3 All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance.
No matter how dark the earth becomes it is not a negative thing for those of us in faith because that is where the light shines the brightest people can see the hope, joy, love, and freedom more clearly
Romans 5:20, 21
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us righteousness, right standing, with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin is going to grow more and more, brokenness will cause more and more sin. We see it in families all of the time but where there is more and more sin, God’s grace is even greater but notice it is once again righteousness that makes the difference
The kingdom of God we are praying for is, righteousness that can then allow peace and joy that is real and the darkness is overcome.
Where are you today?
Can you pray His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven and expect it to happen in your life? Do you have areas in your life where your influence is limited because of a lack of right thinking, right actions, and right language?
God’s heart is that you walk in the light that personally you have hope, joy, peace, love, and freedom always and are then able to bring others to the same.
God wants you to walk this way…most of our lack of walking in righteous is because of pain, rejection hurts from our past..allow the Lord to embrace you and bring healing to you