The Lord's prayer gives us the guidelines and the sequence for praying effective prayers. A key point not usually highlighted is God answers our prayer according to the decisions of the spiritual court of heaven where the devil, the accuser, is blocking and attacking our prayers. Knowing the promises and the work done by Christ for us becomes our foundations and faith for our prayers in the Courts of Heaven.Bible Reference: Matthew 6:5-15
The Template for Our Prayers - The Lord's Prayer
For a detailed discussion on the Lord's Prayer, please read The Right Way to Pray Effectively from the Lord's Prayer and An In-depth View of The Lord's Prayer - Learning from Tim Keller. The template is summarized as follows:
- Pray to our Heavenly Father based on the father-child relationship.
- Worship and Praise the Father first.
- Discover the Will of God - read the Bible and listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit for this specific moment and issue.
- Present Our Requests - Our daily needs and the empowerment of authority and resources to accomplish His will for us and through us.
- Intercession for others. Empathize and take on the positions of the people we are praying for. Confessions of their sins if applicable as if we are the sinners. See Daniel's example.
- Spiritual Warfare - Yield not to temptations, delivered from evil, and overcome evil with love. Know the operation of the Courts of Heaven.
- Giving Thanks and Praise to God for His power and glory that all will be answered to glorify God.
The Courts of Heaven
Consider the 2 verses following the Lord's prayer that Jesus specifically pointed out for our attention:
Matthew 5:14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
For those of us who are in the healing ministry, we encountered many cases of healing happening when the sick person chose to forgive those that hurt them. If they could not, we asked them to ask Jesus to enable them to forgive. Healing comes after forgiveness. We can then understand these two verses better. Even though forgiveness is given to us when we accept Christ as our Savior, the spiritual blessings could be withheld if we don't follow the teachings of the Bible, the rules of the heavenly courts. God is the righteous Judge and God cannot violate his own rules. We need to act on the Word of God to receive the blessings and promises from His Word.
These two verses also link us back to 6:13 "Deliver us from the evil one". The best protection is to stay and act within the boundary of God's Word.
In the book of Job, we can see such a Court in operation when the devil must have the approval of God to harm Job.
To know more about the Courts of Heaven, please see The Courts of Heaven | Cornerstone Community Church and Principles for the Courtroom of Heaven.
Lim Liat (c) 24 Oct 2017
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