I never realized how powerful the Lord's prayer was until I was invited to participate in a Kairos weekend. During the training and fellowship sessions that led up to the mission weekend we gathered round and sang this prayer to the Lord, hand in hand. It was amazing every time we came to the Lord in this way. It quickly became my favorite part. It is powerful to communicate with God the way Jesus taught us to and it inspires, by the Holy Ghost, all the prayer that extends out from this prayer and into all the intimate details of what we pray about with our Father daily.
When you address God as Father, let it be clear that you are addressing the God of the Exodus with everything that means. It means you are talking to the God who said Israel is my firstborn son to Pharaoh, so he had better let them go. You are addressing the God of the oppressed, the one who delivers, the one who parts the sea for His beloved and brings it crashing in on all the evil that pursues it and wishes to destroy and enslave it. When you call on God the Father, you are calling on the one true and holy God who is always with you and not in some detached place 'out there'. You are entering into relationship and you are entering into battle.
You can learn a lot about someone by the way they pray. Jesus prays very simply, but with great power. He doesn't stack up words, he doesn't speak with an idle tongue. Every word is carefully conceived and empowered that it should not come back void. His prayers rip through the principalities and powers like a flaming double edged sword. I am glad He is before the Father interceding for you and for me.
Between this prayer and the prayer disclosed in John 17 we also come to understand what Jesus believed about his own mission and purpose as well as his desires for those the Father had given him to become His body upon His ascension to the throne.
So it is that here Jesus seeks to bring us into His mission in a very intimate way, in prayer. To pray as Jesus prays so that when he goes away we would be able to continue his mission in the world, carrying within ourselves His presence as well as his hope and his faith, having become one with him who is one with the Father. Yes, his people being built together as the dwelling place for God in the Spirit.
Therefore having more than idle words, but words that are empowered by the Holy Spirit let us pray. Pray powerful words that take down strongholds and deliver, words that bring life and new creation. Don't be overwhelmed, you do not know how to speak such things nor do I, but the Holy Spirit in us speaks these words that are Spirit and Truth, within our words. We do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us.
Jesus goes on to encourage us that we can be assured that the Father will not give us something that is not good for us. So ask him for the Holy Spirit that you might pray fervently and in righteousness. The Spirit of God, the one who empowers the Kingdom to come, the one who provides your daily bread, the one who forgives your sins in accordance with how you forgive others and the one who will keep you from the perilous trial. Pray God send that Spirit upon you, then can you go to battle for the oppressed and the oppressor, the downtrodden and the rich young ruler, the widow and the orphan, the addict and the homeless and the criminal and the victim, your friends and neighbors, your family and your community, your pastors and elders. There is indeed much to pray about...
May we go forth in our prayer life with persistence of an annoying friend and in the power of the Holy Spirit and may the Lord grant all things asked in his Name that are in accordance with His will and by the council of His great purposes. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment