Are you longing for power in prayer, the ability to get urgent and needed answers? Do you feel deeply tested at times by the unexplained delay in answers to your prayers? Are you longing to know how to pray so that you get answers? I believe God wants your prayer life to be filled with petitions and intercession for others and for the advance of His kingdom. He wants answers to such prayer to become your frequent and thrilling experience. Scripture says, If we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him (1 Jn 5:13-14). John tells us that prayer is essentially a blank check, with one important caveat: We must prayer according to the will of God. This episode explores what it means to pray according to God’s will so that our prayers move the kingdom of righteousness forward and we know the joy of seeing God work.
So far in this series, Don’t Waste Your Life: Rule It for Jesus, we saw that the foundational commitment required to overcome a disordered way of life is the conviction that our inner private world of the spiritual must govern the outer physical world of activity. Then we observed that the only way to connect our everyday lives to God’s mission for us is intentionality. Last week we examined a third requirement for staying focused on our mission: mission clarity observing that Jesus summarized our mission in 9 words: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It is seeking to spread rightness, wholeness, Christ’s righteous agenda over every sphere of our lives and world through our influence. But there are two massive obstacles to accomplishing this mission: Satan and Sin. Even though they no longer occupy the throne of this world they do resist our efforts to spread Jesus’ agenda of righteousness every step of the way. This episode is about how to overcome that resistance through the only force that can overcome evil and establish righteousness in our own lives, the lives of our loved ones, and over the earth—prayer in Jesus’ name.
Just as Adam and Eve were originally commanded to develop the potential of the earth, shaping the expanding population and culture according to righteousness—exercising dominion FOR God, Christ-followers are called to shape the culture according to righteousness. But since Adam and Eve yielded their throne to Satan, sin, and death—those destructive powers were invited into their kingdom and NOW must be overcome to succeed in spreading righteousness throughout their kingdom. We can only do so in the power of the Second Adam, who defeated Satan, sin and death. That is why Jesus’ great commission to recover Adam and Eve’s original calling is preceded by the words, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. THEREFORE go and make disciples of all nations.
The way righteousness spreads through our own heart loyalties, heart attitudes, and into every sphere where we have influence is through the power of the risen Christ, through His Spirit poured out and through prayer in His Name. We must displace the kingdom of darkness. Just as a military invasion begins with cruise missiles and bombing runs, our efforts to advance the kingdom on the ground must begin with prayer in Jesus’ name, the only weapon capable of dislodging the enemy from its strongholds. Prayer is such a potent offensive weapon for advancing the kingdom of Christ over earth, that in Psalm 2 we hear God the Father identify prayer as the way Christ’s kingdom spreads. The Father promises Christ (the Anointed One), “ASK of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” As Christ-followers join Christ in ASKING that his kingdom would advance, the Father promises to act.
The fact that Jesus, the Second Adam, has defeated Satan, sin, and death was proved by the resurrection. Death, the curse brought on us by our sin has been overthrown. Jesus then ascended, meaning He is ruling from earth’s throne. But Satan, sin, and death remain to conduct guerilla warfare until Christ’s final return, when total righteousness will prevail. In the face of this satanic resistance, Paul prays fervently that the Christ-followers in Ephesus would grasp the greatness of this spiritual power (Ephesians 1:19-22). He asks God to give them the eyes to see:
What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
As we seek to spread Christ’s kingdom of restoration, wholeness, righteousness over earth we are resisted by the agents of the kingdom of evil that are too much for US. Paul said it this way, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Paul reveals two vital implications of this reality 1) we must put on our spiritual armor—the belt of truth, etc. but secondly 2) we must PRAY. Eph 6 continues, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints (vs 18). Paul uses one of the words for prayer four times. In his wisdom, God has ordained a primary offensive weapon that overthrows the kingdom of darkness: prayer. One veteran missionary writes:
There is nothing on earth that Satan so fears as prayer. He cannot triumph over prevailing prayer. Satan is more afraid of your praying than of your pure life or zealous witness. One’s life may be a beautiful witness that cannot be silenced, but prayer is a militant force that has the potential of defeating Satan, destroying his works, and driving him out of places and lives he claims as his own. (Wesley Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer.)
When Jesus was asked by his followers to teach them how to pray, he gave them a prayer paradigm, not a phrase to be repeated as a part of the church’s liturgy. The same 5 categories of petition are given by Jesus on two separate occasions, in Luke 11:2-4, and Matthew 6:9-13. Luke is the shorter version, with Jesus giving a fuller explanation of the five categories in the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s see what the fuller version-Matthew 6:9-13, teaches us about effective prayer.
A. Our Father in heaven. Jesus begins by reminding us of the ENVIRONMENT for prayer. We are beloved children. Our God loves it when we come into his presence to pray. His help, and spiritual power don’t have to be pried out of tight-fisted hands. Through Christ we are God’s adopted children and, as it happens, our particular father LOVES TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS TO HIS CHILDREN, especially spiritual power through the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Lk 11:11-13)! It is noteworthy that Jesus had used nearly identical words in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:9-11), but in the Luke account, Jesus substitutes Holy Spirit for good gifts. Both are true. God loves to give good gifts to his children. But the best gift is the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. I believe that Jesus viewed prayer much more as reporting to our forward battle station and launching a prayer assault against the kingdom of darkness for the advance of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness than as emailing headquarters with a list of our needed provisions. It IS emailing that list (give us this day our daily bread). But prayer, as God designed it, is relentlessly fighting the enemy who wants to destroy you and your family and besmirch the reputation of God. It is being the man, the protector, that God designed Adam to be. “Your sonship,” says Jesus, “means being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who is the producer of spiritual fruit in our lives. The first prayer principle to remember, is that we come in prayer to a father who loves to give good gifts to his children and especially the power of the Holy Spirt to those who ask.
B. Hallowed be your name. This is petition #1 and reveals the RIGHT MOTIVE for prayer. May your name be honored. May you be glorified. May your name be held in high esteem by the whole world. Jesus modeled this aspect of praying at the beginning of his prayer in John 17, When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son THAT THE SON MAY GLORIFY YOU.” A few verses later, Jesus reveals that this desire for The Father to be glorified was the focus of his life, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do (Jn 17:4). At the heart of the request, “May your name be hallowed” is “a burning desire that the whole world may bow before God in adoration, in reverence, in praise, in worship, in honor, and in thanksgiving” (The Sermon on the Mount, Martin Lloyd-Jones). The more our prayers are rooted in our desire to see the name and reputation of God honored, the more power they possess. Prayer made for the sake of God’s reputation has such power that God gave a victory to evil King Ahab over the Syrians because his reputation was challenged. In 1 Kings 20:28 we read, And a man of God said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Syrians have said “The Lord is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” Scripture then records an astounding victory by the Israelite army over the Syrians.
C. Your kingdom come. This is the second petition. After getting the motive for my requests correct, the next petition is for the very thing that Jesus told us in this same sermon was our mission, namely. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. “The focus of your praying,” says Jesus, “should be the advance of my kingdom of righteousness over earth.” Praying “May your kingdom come is the primary purpose of PRAYER because it is the primary purpose of Christians’ LIVES. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness in human hearts and in the culture all over the earth, every square inch of which, King Jesus claims as his own. As we saw last week, tragically this major category of petition is sometimes misinterpreted, through an escapist mentality, to mean that we are to pray for Christ to come back soon (since the current things are going to hell in a handbasket).
But we know that this is the wrong interpretation of this petition because in the subsequent phrase Jesus explains what he means by this petition: His words are Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This phrase is sometimes seen as an additional petition. But when you compare the Matthew and Luke versions of the prayers you see that Jesus taught the same five categories of petition on two separate occasions—but gave more detail in Matthew’s account to explain them. The phrase Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven is not mentioned in Luke which gives the barebones five petitions. So, this phrase is intended to explain what praying may your kingdom come means.
It is important to realize that the Bible uses the term, God’s will, in two different ways. God’s will can refer to God’s SOVEREIGN WILL, by which he has ordained whatsoever comes to pass. This use of the term God’s will is employed by the Apostles in their prayer in Acts 4: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea… truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate… to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (vs 24-29). God’s SOVEREIGN WILL was for mankind to commit the most despicable evil imaginable, putting God’s Son on the cross. But the Bible also uses the term God’s will to refer to what is called God’s MORAL WILL or his PRECEPTIVE WILL—from the word precept, as in Psalm 19:9, the precepts of the LORD are right rejoicing the heart. This is the will of God in the sense of what he wants, what pleases him. Paul employs the term this way in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: For this is the WILL OF GOD, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality.
This confusion of the two terms God’s will is especially felt when it comes to praying, “Your will be done.” Often this expression means surrendering to whatever circumstances the sovereign God has ordained for you—a good thing. But the biblical concept of “praying according to God’s will,” does NOT mean trying to figure out what God is going to do anyway and praying for it. That makes no sense. When the Apostle John promises us that “if we ask anything according to his will, we will have the requests we asked of him,” John is NOT saying “try to figure out what God is going to sovereignly do and then pray that.” Then, what DOES he mean?
Praying “according to God’s will” usually means praying accoring to his MORAL WILL, his PRECEPTIVE WILL--praying for what he WANTS, what is RIGHTEOUS. This interpretation becomes clear when we compare it to what John heard Jesus say in the upper room in John 15:7-9: If you abide in me, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Praying according to God’s will is praying for what I KNOW is God’s will FROM SCRIPTURE. It is asking according to God’s MORAL WILL—what Scripture says pleases God. If a friend is having surgery, it is appropriate to ask that the surgery would go well with no complications—and God often answers such requests. But God’s sovereign will may not be for that person to have a complication-free surgery, even though many prayed that he would. But if I also, pray that through the Holy Spirit, God will strengthen that friend’s faith in him throughout the hospital stay—I know with absolute certainty that God will answer my prayer to strengthen his faith. That is prayer based upon what we KNOW is God’s MORAL will. That is prayer based upon Scripture. Now let’s return to our study of the Lord’s prayer, specifically…
D. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Remember, this is Jesus’ explanation of what praying Your kingdom come means. Jesus says that praying for God’s kingdom to come means praying that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. This can’t possibly refer to God’s SOVEREIGN WILL because God is already sovereign over both earth and heaven. Rather, Jesus is referring to God’s MORAL WILL—righteousness. In heaven, God’s MORAL WILL is perfectly fulfilled—there is NO SIN. So, praying Your kingdom come is praying for God’s kingdom of righteousness to spread over the earth. Thus—the very first petition of prayer, after getting our motive right, is to undergird our mission of seeking to spread Christ’s agenda--the very righteousness of the kingdom of HEAVEN--over every sphere of life on EARTH.
E. The remaining three petitions in the Lord's Prayer are for a) our everyday needs, b) a forgiving heart, and c) alertness to how Satan might tempt me are covered in Season 2 Episode 10 1/10/21 entitled How Jesus Wants Us to Fight Through Prayer. But in this episode, I want to get more specific about this second petition: May your kingdom of righteousness spread over earth. Prayer releases spiritual power when its focus is 1) spiritual battles and 2) the work of the Holy Spirit producing Christ-like attitudes. We see this in Paul’s prayers.
- Col 1:9-11. We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might.
- Gal 5:22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
- Eph 3:17-19. I pray that you, firmly fixed in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ—and to know for yourselves that love so far beyond our comprehension. May you be filled though all your being with God himself!
SAMPLE PRAYER LIST
MYSELF
- Self-control, sugar, treadmill
- Sexual purity—sex drive directed only fully towards Sandy, intoxicating love life
- Prayer warrior
- Be joyful in little trials and irritations— character is what Jesus wants
- Be strong and courageous as Joshua was at age 80
- Cherish Sandy and romance her well
- Love here well--see & fill Sandy’s needs—put them first ahead of my desires
- That King Jesus would ride victoriously over the country using our ministry’s resources on behalf of truth, righteousness, and meekness (Ps 45:4)
SANDY (Wife—Mostly from Titus 2:4)
- Spiritual fruit of self-control
- Be a “husband lover”
- Be a “children lover”
- Purity—steer her romantic desire to me
- Respect her husband
- Her Bible study to nourish her
- Her outreach and opportunities through OAA and BALT WS
- Her impact in the lives of kids via music—little hands, children’s choir
KIM (Adult daughter—Much from Ephesians 3)
- Strengthened with power through Your Spirit in the inner man so that Christ might dwell in her heart through faith
- That she might have the STRENGTH to comprehend how long and wide and deep and high is the love of Christ for her
- That she be filled throughout all her being with Christ himself.
- Relationship with her fiancée and wedding plans to honor you
- Help he agape love many students—her influence for you.
- Her influence and outreach among the staff at her middle school
- Ministry at MOSAIC in leading worship and outreach to Afghan family
- Chances to share Christ at CrossFit.
“If you abide in me,” says Jesus, “AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified (his name being hallowed), that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
For Further Prayerful Thought.
- How does our mission to spread the righteous kingdom of Christ over the earth, discipling the nations relate to Jesus statement in Matt 28:26, “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me?”
- What do you think is the significance of Jesus telling us that our very first request in prayer is that God’s name be hallowed?
- In your own words what does it mean to pray, “May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heave”?
- How should Jesus’ promise, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” shape your prayer life?
