The Lord’s Praying Prayer Effectually, GCK in India

Mathew 6:9-15; James 5:15-16.

There are many recorded prayers in the Bible. The prayers of Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Daniel, and others in the Old Testament are all recorded. In the New Testament, we have the prayers of the apostles, individual men and women, Peter, John, and others also recorded. People have continued to pray from the time of the Bible until today. However, beyond praying, we need answers to our prayers. Jesus gave us a model prayer that will help us to understand what prayer all is about. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:9-15). The Lord’s prayer is not necessarily to be repeated but it is given to us as a model or pattern with principles that we can use to pray. When we pray using this model of Christ, it is a prayer coming from us, through Christ unto the Father. Our prayer is not directly to Jesus Christ, but to the Father through Jesus Christ. The requests and petitions in this prayer first relate to God’s kingdom, glory, and prayer. After this comes the personal petitions that relate to us. The conclusion of the prayer goes back to acknowledging God’s glory and power. The Lord’s prayer teaches us that we should not be selfish in our prayers. The Lord’s prayer is a recognition of the relationship of a child to the Father, of the subject to the King, and the subject to the Master; we are not praying to Him only as Creator or as the potentate and mighty one. Without a relationship, prayer cannot be prayed very well. If we don’t have any relationship with the Almighty God, we will be praying the Lord’s prayer ineffectively.

        1. THE PATTERN AND MODE OF AN EFFECTIVE PRAYER

Matthew 6:9-10; Isaiah 57:15.

Since the Father always hears the prayer of Christ, when you follow the pattern and model of Christ in prayer, then the heavenly Father will always hear you.

• The Prayer to Our Heavenly Father – Mathew 6:9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Romans 8:14-17; Malachi 16:6. When you pray, the first thing to underline in your prayer is that you are praying to your heavenly Father. You should have the consciousness of the presence of the heavenly Father, have the confidence of the power of the heavenly Father, and have the commitment of being submissive to the heavenly Father. While you are here on earth, you believe that there is heaven and that you are a child of the

Father in heaven and you dream that you will one day leave the earth to join the Father in heaven. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). To become a child of the Father in heaven, we come out of sin, evil, and anything that God does not desire or delight in in our lives. This means that we repent of our sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive Him as our personal Saviour, then He gives us the power to become His children. When we become children of God, we will have the assurance, acceptance, and attitude that we are now different from the past and can pray with faith, to the Father, and with focus. When we come to the Lord as His children, we are always conscious of that, and we have one duty or responsibility which is to bring honour to the Lord’s name. While other people may act based on their ignorance and their limited intelligence, our goal at all times must be to hallow the name of the Lord. What we say, what we do, and our relationships should always honour the name of the Lord.

• The Pursuit of the Father’s Kingdom – Mathew 6:10a; Romans 14:17; Mathew 6:33; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. There are three aspects of the Kingdom of God. First is the external kingdom comprising the whole earth that God rules over; He is the Governor of the whole universe. The second aspect is the internal kingdom because the kingdom of God is within us. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17). God plants His righteousness, His kingdom of peace, and His kingdom of joy in your heart. Thirdly, there is God’s eternal kingdom where He will reign forever over the angels and all men, both those who go to hell at last and those who go to heaven. As children of the heavenly Father, if we are going to live a life of praying, we must pursue that Kingdom of God. Our prayer becomes meaningful when it influences our family members so that the Kingdom of God will be real in their lives. It is the pursuit of the kingdom of God that makes us evangelise so that God can translate them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son. When we make the Kingdom of God a priority in our lives and seek it first and its righteousness, material things will not be uppermost in our lives.

• The Promptness in Doing the Father’s Will – Matthew 6:10b; Psalm 103:19-21; Mathew 7:21-23; 1 John 2:15-17. If our prayer is going to be acceptable to the Lord, we must come to the position where we say not my will but thine be done. The heavenly Father always answered the prayer of Jesus the Son because Jesus came to do the will of God. Jesus never did His own will or anything that was against or contrary to the will of the Father. The angels do the will of God in heaven, and as people who claim to be children of our heavenly Father, our desire should be to do the Father’s will here on earth as it is done in heaven. The angels do the will of God promptly and with priority, and so must we. The will of God is the word of God, and the will of God is the sanctification of our hearts. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:15-17). Only those who do the will of God will abide forever.

        2. THE PETITION AND MEANINGFULNESS IN AN EFFECTUAL PRAYER

Matthew 6:11-13a; 1 Peter 3:10-12.

The petition represents our requests and things we are asking the Lord to do for us.

• Petition for Bread for the Whole Man – Matthew 6:11; 4:4; John 6:31-33, 35, 4750, 63; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11). The body needs the bread because it is the house of the spirit and the soul. It is the body that gives expression to the thoughts of the heart and the plans of the soul. Having the bread is different from possessing the bread to distribute all the nutrients in your body. It is not enough to have the bread but when we take the bread, we are asking the Lord to let it do good in our body, purify our blood system, and be healthy unto us. The prayer for daily bread also teaches us not to worry and that God will supply the needs of tomorrow. We should not be anxious like the people of the world; the God of today is the God of tomorrow, and if He provides the bread today, He will provide it tomorrow. Live one day at a time; yesterday is gone, so close the door against yesterday, tomorrow has not come so leave it where it is until you come to it. The word of God is also bread, and God’s provision is for our body, soul, and spirit.

• Pardon of Debts Through Wholesome Mercy – Matthew 6:12, 14-15; Micah 7:1819; Isaiah 55:6-7; Proverbs 28:9,13. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12). There are two kinds of forgiveness. There is forgiveness for the foreigner who had never known Christ but had just come to know him. After we become children of God, there are times we do things that our conscience will condemn us about and we need forgiveness from God for them. When we ask for forgiveness from God, He forgives us. We have pardon because we give pardon to others. After we are forgiven, we don’t want to go in the path of offending anymore, but we want to thread softly and saintly so that we don’t keep on stumbling and falling into sin.

• Protection from the Temptation of Whorish Messengers – Matthew 6:13a;

26:41; 1 Corinthians 10:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:18. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:” (Matthew 6:13a). The temptation the Lord is referring to is the temptation that will drive us to evil. When Lot was told by Abraham to choose a place, he chose the well-watered plain of Sodom without asking for God’s leading and without knowing the future of Sodom. Because of this decision, he lost all his cattle, all his servants, and even his wife who became a pillar of salt. In every step of our lives and in every decision that we make, we must pray to God to protect us from temptations that will bring evil into our lives.

        3. THE POWER AND MAJESTY OF THE EVERLASTING POTENTATE

Matthew 6:13b; 1 Timothy 6:14-16.

Life commences with God, and while we may fend for ourselves during life, it will eventually end with God. 

• The Possessor of the Everlasting Kingdom – Mathew 6:13; Daniel 7:13-14,27; 2 Peter 1:3-7,11*; 2 Timothy 4:18. Nebuchadnezzar was proud in ascribing the kingdom to himself until he learned the hard way that the kingdom belongs to God. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13b). Because of the grace and revelation that has come to us, and because of the relationship we have with God, we look up in the understanding that the kingdom does not belong to us or any man but to God our heavenly Father.

• The Potentate with Eternal Power – Mathew 6:13; Romans 1:20; 1 Timothy 6:1516; Isaiah 40:28-31. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13b). When we know that our heavenly Father has the power, we will not fear any other power on earth. God has the ultimate and final power to create and sustain, and he subdues every other power.

• The Perpetuity of His Excellent Glory – Mathew 6:13; 2 Peter 1:17; Revelation 5:13; Psalm 73:24-26. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13b). On earth, we see things that are not glorious, but as we are looking ahead, we see the coming of the glory, power, and kingdom of God. Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will come and be the ruler of all things on earth while Satan will be chained and confined to the bottomless pit. When Christ comes to establish His millennial reign, we are going to be a part of it and we will be able to say, “thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” God owns the power that holds the whole universe and that can keep you to the end. When Christ came to the world, He came so that He could bring many sons unto glory; therefore, we, as the children of God, are the most hopeful people on earth because our Father has the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen

Mathew 6:13; 1 Kings 1:36; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Revelation 3:14. The prayer concludes with an amen. The Father says so it will be because this is the prayer that Jesus taught. Believers also shout amen. There is an Affirmation of His Promises, Assurance of His Provision, and Accomplishment/Achievement by His Power in the prayer you pray unto the Father God following the pattern of Jesus.