The Prayers of Jesus

We "almost" understand the need to pray, but still stagger at the attitude of Jesus to prayer.  He felt the need to pray.  In His humility, He had a complete reliance on the Holy Spirit in Him and His relationship to the Father.  How can we do less? By the grace of God and His long suffering kindness, we still manage, but we need to work on that complete reliance on the Holy Spirit.  At least, let me speak for myself, I do.  I am a repenter, and I have earned that by practicing it daily.  I don't understand the power the old nature has to cause us to fall back on human reasoning and experience instead of that complete reliance on the Holy Spirit to be our Guide and Teacher, but it takes diligence to guard against that very common weakness.  The world cannot understand that reliance and it becomes their greatest criticism, but Jesus said that they could not know the Holy Spirit.  John 14:15-17 ¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."

Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.  ¹⁰ Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.  ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  ¹³ And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.   In Luke 11, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus gave them this prayer.  I believe the prayer teaches us to pray and not just what to say.  If we live with and approach The Father with the reverence and respectful love that is in the phrase, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, we will know our need of prayer for it positions us to Almighty, Holy, Loving Father.  The next phrase, Your kingdom come, is what I want to dwell on in this blog.  This was the focus of Jesus walking in His ministry as the Son of  Man.  It is the focus of God for this realm that man see and recognize, know and live in the Kingdom of God.  God's teaching of covenant to Adam became the basis of government in that beginning time.  Cities began to be built, nations came into being, kings began to rule and covenant was the basis of all government and relationship.  But though man used covenant and knew what covenant meant, they turned from God's control to follow their adamic nature.
But God had His people who honored Him and obeyed His Word and bowed in reverance to Him.  

God's covenant with Abraham opened the door to God forming a nation that would be His.  Israel was governed by God's Law and acknowledged Him as their King until they wanted to be as the other nations of the world and have their own king.  Many of those kings led Israel farther away from God and ignored His Law.  God's path to lead man into His purpose was forgotten and ignored.  David was a man after God's heart and with him, God made a kingdom covenant that, when obeyed and honored, would allow God to once again bring His kingdom into focus for man to abide in and God's control to be honored and obeyed.  Through the obedience of John, the Baptist, the proclamation could be sounded, the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom.  When you pray, Thy Kingdom come, you are in agreement with God and acknowledge His Kingly right to rule over your affairs.  Our nation was founded with this acknowledgement.  Our founding fathers knew and understood what a king was to a nation.  They knew the need for a king.  They acknowledged God as their King and gave us the freedom to follow Him.

This freedom to follow our King is something Satan wants to nullify.  He gets churches to restrict it, he gets governments to restrict it and he works with condemnation and accusation to restrict it in those who seek to follow the King.  God has provided all you need in Jesus.  Trust Him, honor Him and let the Holy Spirit guide you into a life of prayer, for, the King is coming!

What is Our Testimony?

Revelation 12:11 ¹¹ They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
I have often meditated on this verse and I consider our testimony the manner of the way we live our lives.  If we identify with Jesus in all the aspects of our life, our manner of life will reflect Him.  The humility of Jesus was not that He accepted poverty, homelessness and the quality of life at that particular time, but that He was so focused on the Father's Will, he did what the Spirit spoke to Him to do.  He did nothing more than that, and He never did less than that.  True humility is to do the will of the Father even if it looks foolish, accomplishes nothing in the eyes of men, strips us of man's approval and costs us everything.  It does not demand that we understand what God is doing but simply that we obey His Word.  True humility can be bold and courageous, or silent and misunderstood.  It can mean speaking the truth when doing so will be disastrous for your "image".  True humility does not have a self image to protect.  It dares to love as God loves without recompense of reward.  It means pressing forward to stand to proclaim what God is speaking though people may think you are "arrogant"!  It is a doctor praying for a man to be healed and live when God says pray, even though he has already pronounced the time of the man's death.  It means believing God in the face of all contradiction.  True humility will not love self more than being like Jesus even if it means your death.

What can Satan or man do to a man who fears nothing but God?  Jesus knew our salvation hung on His obedience to God's purpose for His being on earth.  His love for the purpose of God to create man in His image empowered Him to suffer any humility, degradation and shame, and unbearable agony of taking on our sins and death.  In the light of God's work to bring us to His victory, of what value is man's pride?  It was pride that caused Lucifer to be cast down and it is his desire to see man walk in that same pride.  But identifying with Jesus' redemptive sacrifice and His true humility will allow you to overcome your own nature and limitation and see Satan defeated.

The Focus of Thanksgiving

Colossians 3:17 (Amplified) And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.  This identification with Jesus, the Victor and Lord of all creation, is the path to your own victory over circumstances.  I have been fascinated with the subject of beginnings for we face this over and over in our lifetime.  The beginning of  learning to live with new siblings, the beginning of school, life after graduation and the beginning of work and earning your own money, beginning life with a spouse after marriage, the beginning of parenting, the beginning of retirement, facing life after losing a spouse, losing a friend or a job or a home, facing new commitments or relationships are all beginnings but are all a part of your life.  How you face these circumstances will be the measure of the peace and happiness you will have in your life.

I often hear people say they do not know how they would face (any situation) without the Lord.  It is our reliance upon Him that carries us through our circumstances.  But identification with Him moves us into the realm of victory and peace that triumphs over our own natural responses to difficult times.  When the "word of our testimony" is an identification with the victory Jesus won for us, we overcome more than the problem we face.  We see a triumph over our own nature as we surrender it to the Blood of the Lamb.

Remember when God speaks of beginning, He is identifying with us!  Philippians 1:6 (Amp)
⁶And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

Beginnings to Completion

Revelation 1:8 (NLT) ⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  Your Bible starts with the words, "In the beginning God...."  The last word is "Amen".  God, Who has no beginning, begins all things.  As the Author of covenants, His covenants with man are open ended, to lead to, and be fulfilled in the next covenant.  I see three of His covenants with us, two have been a part of our lives and the third is yet to be opened but will take us into and through eternity.  Each covenant gives man a new identity with God.  The Abrahamic covenant, made with Abraham, made him a father of nations.  From Jacob came Israel, the nation chosen by God to reveal Him to the other nations.  From David, with whom God made the covenant of an everlasting kingdom, came Jesus, Whose covenant birthed the Church and gave us the identity of members of His Body, the Body of Christ.  From those who keep His covenant and identify with His sufferings and His glorious resurrection, will come the Bride made ready for her Bridegroom.  There are many names given for these.  "Those who overcome", the "Sons of God", and those "who endure to the end", are some of the identifications of the Bride.  I am not teaching "selectivity" as that is something left only to God.  But I do emphasize having the faith of Abraham to believe you are included in a covenant with God, and, therefore responsible for giving to Him a covenant response.  Mary said it for us, "whatever He says to you, do it."  (John 2:3)

We all have "beginnings" in our lives.  We need to recognize them as doors of opportunity to see God's work of fulfillment in our lives.  Identify with God in all areas of your life and let Him lead you to completion.