Lesson 7

THE LORD'S PRAYER

The Lord’s Prayer is the greatest prayer on earth.  It is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, recorded in the gospels of Matthew (6:9-13) and Luke (11:2-4) when they asked Him “Teach us to pray.”  Every denomination uses it; every Christian may have prayed it.  It is known throughout the world in most languages, yet we know it so well, have said it so often, that sometimes the meaning and depth of the words are lost.

Our Father

The prayer begins with ‘Our Father’, not ‘My Lord’, or ‘Our God’, but my Father, your Father, ‘Our Father’.  That is close relationship and only believers can call God ‘our Father’.  Unbelievers cannot call God “my Father”.  So in order to say the first words it is necessary to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour, and God as our real Father, who created us and loved us even before we were born.

Who art in Heaven

Not somewhere on earth, but in Heaven.  Now Jesus would not have taught us to say, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’, unless it was possible to get there.  How?  It means that it is actually possible to come into the heavenly realm in prayer, whilst we are still alive on this earth.  We can access Heaven in prayer and come up above the limitations of our lives into the unlimited, supernatural presence of our living Almighty God and Father in prayer.

Hallowed be Thy Name

One can greet our Father in Heaven.  This means we can talk to Him.  We can meet Him, worship Him, and tell Him how much we love Him.  We can thank Him for all He has done for us.  We can praise Him for who He is.  In order to come into His presence and speak to Him, it is necessary to come to Him through the Cross, to ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and to confess any sin, so that we may be forgiven.  We can then come through thanksgiving and praise right into the presence of God and relate to Him, speak to Him and listen for Him to speak to us.

Thy Kingdom Come

Where?  Here on earth, of course, starting in my life, your life, our lives.  How?  By receiving Him into our lives, opening ourselves more and more to His glorious presence to fill us, by letting Him into every part of our being.  By asking Him into our hearts to enable us to come much closer to Him.  By asking Him into our minds so that we begin to feel and see life as Jesus sees life, to have His love and compassion for others, to understand others as He does, to allow Him to change our attitudes and our thinking, to ask Him into our bodies so that we begin to walk through life as He walked, going where He wants us to go, serving others for His sake with our hands, to speak forth His words that He specifically gives through our mouths, to simply live for Him in every way.

Thy Will Be Done

In my life first, and then through my life to others.  We need to allow Him into our past, to heal all the hurt, traumas, disappointments etc. to then heal us emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically in every way, to allow Him into our weak areas to make us strong in our weakness.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

How?  Through our lives, now healed, prepared and equipped by the Lord Himself.  ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!!’  How?  THROUGH OUR LIVES.  Only believers can go up into the Heavenly realm to bring the love of Heaven, the joy of Heaven, the peace of Heaven, the healing of Heaven, the miracles of Heaven down to earth to give them out to others.  No one else can.  If we don’t go daily up into the heavenly places in prayer, to receive these wonderful things from Heaven, to give out to our needy world, no one else can. Nobody else will and the world will be worse off because of it.

Ephesians 1:3 exclaims:‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.’ (NIV)

This tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Having received from our Father every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, we can bring these down to earth into our lives and then, as we do the Father’s will on earth, His will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven, through our lives.

We can become so full of our Father’s heavenly blessings, so full of the Holy Spirit, that we begin to serve our Father on earth without even giving it a thought, because we have allowed Him to change us, renew us and fill us with HIMSELF.  It is then that the gifts of the Holy Spirit begin to operate through our lives through healing or prophecy or teaching, or any other ministry that the Lord wants us to bring to mankind on earth.

Give us this day our daily bread

When we live for God we do not have to worry so much as to how we will live, for we have already brought the blessing into our daily lives and businesses.  Our daily bread, though, is not just the physical bread that we eat, but also the spiritual bread that is needed for our spiritual being. Just as our body needs daily food to eat, our spiritual being also needs the daily bread that only the Lord can give to us in prayer. 

John 4:34-35:‘Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.  Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”’

This speaks of another food and that is doing the Father’s will.  Somehow doing the Father’s will brings a sense of fulfilment that no other work on earth can ever give us.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

This is so important, as God can only forgive us if we forgive others.  Our forgiveness should be TOTAL.  One day the disciples asked Jesus, ‘How many times must I forgive my brother?'  Jesus turned to them and said ‘seventy times seven.’  Well, when we have counted up that lot, we will surely lose count! 

Forgiveness keeps you free. Any unforgiveness in our lives will hinder us and may even prevent us from receiving healing from God.  It is therefore of great importance to make the choice to forgive, and that also means to forgive yourself.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

Making a choice to stand firm for Jesus and never to yield to sin will cause temptation to weaken and gives place to victory.  Righteousness in Jesus is victory over all evil.  When we stand strong against every temptation, we will be delivered from evil. 

Isaiah 54:14 says:‘In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you.’For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen

In Revelation 11:15 we read these marvellous words:
‘Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”’

We finish as we began, praising our Father in Heaven for who HE IS!  FOR HIS ALONE IS THE KINGDOM, ALL POWER, ALL GLORY, FOREVER AND EVER.  AMEN.

It is not enough to just say the prayer, we need to live the prayer.  As we live the Lord’s Prayer every day of our lives we come to live in the glorious intimacy, protection, victory and blessing of that prayer in our everyday lives.  The Lord’s Prayer covers the basics of our prayer life while on earth.  Let us live the glorious life to which Jesus calls us to live in His presence in the heavenly realm while we are still alive on earth.

Some Questions to Think About
Why does the Lord’s Prayer start with ‘Our Father’?
‘Which art in Heaven’ – how can we access Heaven while still walking on this earth?
‘Thy Kingdom come’ – in what areas of our personal lives should His Kingdom come within us?
‘Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ – How?
‘And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’ – These statements show that it is very important for us to live in full righteousness.  Why?