Lord Teach Us to Pray: Your Kingdom Come - Pt. 1

Introduction

The next section: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

A response to prayer: “I know what you need from me son. I hear your prayers, but I have a question for you—what about me? My people ask me to be involved in their lives but what about what I want? I want them involved with what I’m doing”

So What is He doing? What is His will?

Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: Part 1 The Individual

God’s will for the earth begins with the lives of individuals. In the beginning, God’s word produced everything according to its own kind. Each creation had seed and ability to reproduce after its own kind. Man was created in the image and likeness of God and was intended to reproduce after the image and likeness of God, which would have resulted in the earth being filled with the glory of God.

The fall perverted God’s plan, now the sinful nature in man reproduces a sinful image of Adam’s fallen state instead of the image and likeness of God. But God does not change His mind and as surely as He lives, His glory will fill the earth.

So we, His people pray…“Your kingdom come—Your will be done—On earth—As it is in heaven”

The plan! a created nation from a man named Abraham —Israel. Through this nation, the world was given a  king. God the Son left heaven and was born a man on earth.

And that is the Christmas story. God the Son was born of a virgin, born the King of Kings in the lowest of human circumstances—it shows us His heart. He’s come to save the least of these.

He was born to die, because we were born already dead, because the wages of sin is death. But His death bought sinners new life. They just have to be willing to be born again.

Once they are born again, the Spirit of God lives on the inside of them but this is just the beginning of new life and this is the beginning of His will on earth for the individual.

I. He wants true conversions—His will

1. Ephesians 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise

2. John 1:4 KJV In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

When the life of Jesus enters, the light of God is turned on. That happens through the cross. The baby that was born with life gets born in you.

3. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

II.  The cross is an ongoing work—His will

He’s Changing the heart—inside [soul]

    A. Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 8:28-29

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

   B. Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very  thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

    C. Ephesians 5:26 so that He might sanctify her,  having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

The word is a mirror that does not lie and reveals to us the condition of our hearts:

III. He is fashioning a body to place His head

2. Fellowship with the Spirit

  A. John 14:16-17 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.

The Holy Spirit is the helper

B. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion/ [fellowship] of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit comes through prayer. As we pray, we draw closer to God through the Holy Spirit. As we draw closer, He reveals His will for our lives, but also what He desires from us as His body.

1 Corinthians 6:13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

He fashions the body into the image of Jesus, because Jesus still ministers to humans through the Holy Spirit. And now He uses our bodies to minister through, because we are His body on earth.

The Holy Spirit wants to fashion and mold a body of unity, but Satan wants to separate. Satan wants to sever and dismember the body piece by piece. You are an individual body part. And he wants you gone.

Vision of hyenas while praying for businesses

Separate

Isolate

Eviscerate—eat the insides out. Satan wants to destroy your insides, your spirit man, which destroys your spiritual connection to God.

As a whole the separating, isolating and destroying the insides of individuals begins to dismember the body. The fellowship or communion of the Holy Spirit is severed. Marriages, parents against children. Children against parents, businesses, churches.

Which Art in Heaven

Matthew 6:9-13 KJV

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

… Our Father

…which art in heaven

1. He is exalted, but

2. He’s not far away

He is in the exalted place

Psalms 57:5

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

He resides in the heavenly realm. He is holy. He is powerful, all knowing, and He is seated on the heavenly throne!

Sometimes when we view life from earth, we become discouraged because our situations seem bigger than God. Prayer helps me see through the eyes of God. Prayer reminds me that my God is bigger. The bills get bigger, the checks might seem smaller. The kids are acting crazy. The body feels sick. The husband or wife is mean. These earthly trials begin to take a toll on the human heart. The heart becomes weighted down. The cares of the world begin to wrap around and choke the hope of God’s word:

But

Philippians 4:19

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I just declared God’s word to you a word of faith, truth hope! It should have sounded right, felt right, rattled through you weary bones, if their weary, but it’s got to become your word. Prayer will do that for you! Prayer will make God’s word your word for your life!

We say to ourselves that we’re okay, but the weight of the world makes us mechanical, almost robotic. We still go to church, we still read the word, but we’re disconnected from His life.

• Prayer will reconnect us to the heart of God.

• Prayer will make our faith larger than the devils lies

• Prayer provides an opportunity for intimacy. We speak to Him. He speaks to us. He encourages our Spirit to believe Him for what is impossible in the natural. Prayer increases faith!

Satan’s power and ability to affect our lives entered our earthly realm when he deceived Adam and Eve into listening to him and disobeying God. And that is his plan for us also. If he can’t get us to disobey God now, he will work on others around us.

His strategies influence people around us, through them, he inserts chaos and confusion into our lives. He releases lies of hopelessness and despair into our atmosphere. He draws our focus on the problems—But when I read God’s truth, I learn— Satan is cast down:

Luke 10:18-19

18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

And when I pray, it stimulates my faith to believe what I read. No, you’re a liar Satan. You’re cast down. I take authority over you—liar!

The broken Law gives Satan legal right, and the Law gives strength to sin (1 Corinthians 15: 56) Jesus’ sacrifice took away the power of the enemy by taking away the power of the Law:

Colossians 2:14-15

14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Jesus defeated the powers of darkness. He stripped them of their ability to have power over this earthly realm (Make people get up and show them as the earthly realm). He has given His power and authority to us (believers) to trample over the powers of the enemy, so that we can accomplish the work of God on earth. If Satan can keep us burdened, we will be preoccupied with earthly cares and not engaging the spiritual battle, but Jesus said:

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Satan says: “That won’t work!” But in prayer, I hear God’s voice remind us of His word, “Satan is a liar and the father of lies. If you will trust me my child, I will get you through this trial.”

Peter said:

1 Peter 5:7-9 NASB

7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

“That won’t work, you need medicine for this problem.”

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

Satan does not have authority over your life. He cannot steal from you, kill you or destroy you. He cannot have his way with you because Jesus defeated him at the cross, and prayer will will give you strength to believe God’s truth and reject the enemies lies.

He’s exalted but he’s not far away:

Psalms 46:10-11 KJV

10 Be still, and know that I am God:

I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

God’s people believe He is w/ them. He lived w/ Jacob (Israel) and He lives in Christian.

Matthew 1:23 NASB

“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

Ephesians 2:5-6 NASB

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

He’s not far away from us, and we’re not far away from Him. The word of God says that we are in Him, and He is in us. We are spiritually connected to God through the cross. But intimacy is another level of relationship and requires time spent in the presence of another— the cross opens the door to God’s presence, and prayer says, “I’m walking in.”

I’ve noticed that the more time I spend in the heavenly presence, the less I’m bothered by earthly problems, and it becomes harder for Satan to fluster my feathers with carnal cares.

We have to be careful that we don’t allow earthly cares to distract us from what is important to God. God concerns Himself with spiritual matters. Yes, the spiritual affects the physical. But the danger is that we can become so consumed with earthly cares that we lose our focus on the spiritual.

1 Corinthians 6:20

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 3:16

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

John 4:23

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father  seeks to be His worshipers.

How will we worship Him in spirit and truth if we don’t seek the truth in his scriptures and connect spirit to spirit through prayer?

God is looking for people to connect w/ him Spirit to spirit.

God made a way to not be far away. Jesus paid the debt of sin so that His Spirit could live in our bodies.

Prayer will make this truth a reality to our hearts. Prayer produces intimacy and intimacy with God results in a desire for consecration and separation from the world. Jesus already died so that we can have victory, but the further we stay away from the presence of God and the closer we remain to the world, the less desire we have to be consecrated and separated and the more we become deceived that compromise and complacency are okay.

James 4:8

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The closer you get to God. the more convicted you will be about ungodly behavior. The more sensitive we are to his presence, the more aware we are when we fail and the quicker we repent.

In these vessels He brings His presence from  heaven to earth and through us He changes the lives of others, then we have a heavenly purpose and when we gather here, these buildings now have a heavenly purpose:

Matthew 21:13

And He *said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”

The world is lost and hurting. The closer we draw to God, the closer he draws to us and the more of Him we have to offer the hurting world.

In this Acts passage, we learn from Paul that the world is blindly searching for God, but He’s not far away:

Acts 17:22-27

22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

He is one call away. The reason that most of you are here this morning is because this truth has settled in your heart. He was right there. There was a time you didn’t know it, but then someone told you and you called on Him and then He was there. He was in you. You could feel Him. Did you hear what I said: “You called on Him, and His presence entered you. Did you hear what Paul said, “There is a whole world of people out there that are like we were, wandering around, feeling around, groping and looking for some new thing to feel our hearts and make us happy and the whole time, He’s right there. He’s not far away and prayer will make that real enough in your heart to where you want to tell someone about it.

“Well, I already do tell people about it.” Well then hallelujah prayer will bring an anointing that will release the anointing of the Holy Spirit into the words that you say for the Lord! Don’t delay start to pray!