Kingdom Language – Practicing Prayer
Prayer is not a requirement before a meal or in a church setting. It is not a complex group of words when strung together correctly gets God to move on our behalf. It is our conversation with our Heavenly Father. It is a time to lay your burdens at His feet and hear a word from Him. Prayer is the Language of the Kingdom—the conversation between a creature and its Creator.
No doubt have heard about prayer, so I don’t believe that we are going to spend a great deal of time on definitions. What we will do is dig into the Word and find out what it says about prayer.
Read Psalm 141:2, What is our prayer likened to?
According to Isaiah 56:7, what is the house of God called?
Prayer is one of those special topics that borders on the intimate where you and God are concerned. Prayer can and should have times that are just between you and Him, not for public consumption.
The How of Prayer…three things
First, prayer is about engaging the Whole Trinity. We pray to the Father through the Son and in the guidance, direction, and power of the Holy Spirit. We must be aware of the fullness of God – and not box ourselves into religious duty, but engage in relational dialog.
Second, Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but as for a broken spirit who can bear it?” Life is about breaking your spirit. Busy days, our plans, goals, failures, hurts, and the work of the evil one – a broken spirit is deadly. When that is done we are done. Prayer is a prescription against this disease. Prayer is about exercising your spirit. Prayer is about training your spirit to walk at a higher level. Prayer is about calming your spirit to that place of peace and rest that we cannot understand, but so desperately need. Prayer strengthens the life of your spirit.
Finally 1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Most of us would probably say that we are body, soul, and spirit – putting flesh first in our list of descriptions. But according to this verse, we are the opposite – spirit – soul – and body. So in our exercise of prayer, we move from a flesh-driven prayer life to one that is spirit-led.
What is okay to pray about?
Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
According to this scripture, it is okay to have conversations with God about EVERYTHING! – Say Everything out loud right now. EVERYTHING! That means that our Heavenly Father wants to converse with you about all things that are going on in your life. None of it is insignificant to Him no matter who you are, how old you are, or how trivial you think it might be. He wants you to be anxious for nothing…..give every concern to Him.
One thing human beings tend to do is to pray our request and the solution all in the same prayer. We lift our burden and a few possible suggestions as to how God should deal with it. That is not prayer; that is complaining and manipulation. God does NOT need our help or our suggestions, he needs our obedience! Besides, He knows what is best for us – even more than we do.
So incredibly efficient is our God that He has told us in this verse that He will answer every prayer. The answer is a precious three words…Peace of God… When we are anxious for nothing and have given everything to Him in prayer the promise of His Peace – is the answer to our prayer. We may be in the middle of personal turmoil and nothing seems as if it will ever be set right again and when we truly give it all to Him an indescribable peace blankets our hearts and minds. The external situation may not have changed, but our internal structure stands in Peace. The Power of Prayer for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The Lord’s Prayer
The most common prayer that people recite is what we know of as The Lord’s Prayer. It is taken out of the book of Matthew the 6th chapter. You can probably recite it right now. It is ironic that in verse 7 we are told, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.” It strikes me as a contradiction in some structures that we repeat the next verses (9-13) exactly the way that we are told NOT to in verse 7.
Verse 9 sets up the prayer by saying “In this manner, therefore, pray:” the word manner means – in this way, or fashion it like this. So it is a model for a focused conversation with our Lord. In this manner…We can take the prayer model as an outline to present our requests before God. Every one of them fits within this framework – but this is not a prayer just for repetition – that benefits you nothing. Go – Pray – Speak to your Father –He has all kinds of time for you.
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name”
Know and understand in your times of prayer WHO you are praying to and approach it with awe, reverence, and worship. He is the Father of ALL creation. He is Holy and His name should be treated with that in mind. When we go to prayer – remember who He is and who you are.
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
I heard someone say once that it is written in the original language “Come thy Kingdom, be done thy will.” We are here at the service of the King to do His will in the Kingdom. When we pray we pray in a manner that lines up our heart with the will of the King for purposes of His Kingdom. We are seeking heaven’s blueprint, heaven’s perspective, and help in doing what we are called to do. As we pray the concerns of our heart; we seek God’s will for them, not our desires.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
The adage, “One Day At A Time” comes to mind. We deal with one day at a time – One step at a time – little by little we move through this life. This also focuses us on the fact that we are to be in prayer EVERY day. It does not say, “Give us this week our weekly bread,” but DAILY. Our best interests are met when we spend time receiving every day from the Father in prayer.
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
To focus on our walk throughout the day as one of forgiveness is vital for us all to remember. If we pick up an attitude of forgiveness, then we are less likely to be offended. When we don’t go around picking up offenses because of situations or people, we can live in a more constant state of joy and peace.
“And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”
Temptation is always out there, but God always offers us the perfect path of righteousness. When we are called to prayer there is a place for warring against the enemy. The Holy Spirit will show us where temptations lie and where the evil one is working. We must acknowledge that the evil one is the enemy of our soul – Our victor and guide is the Holy Spirit. When we pray in this manner, we are asking God to reveal those places where we may not see and are asking Him to put a heavenly light on dark, dangerous snares set for our destruction.
“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. AMEN”
This is rather like the bookend for the beginning. In our prayer time, we need to remember who He is and Whose we are. Our focus is His kingdom and His power because He is glory – FOREVER….Not just today or at that moment, not based on our actions or our prayers, but He Just Is – Forever Glorious. And forever, we are His – AMEN.