Continuing from yesterday’s post on Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) and the first point, “Our Father…”

9 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. (NKJV)

The rest of the Matt 6 prayer is a simple model:

  • Recognition of Who God is.
  • Praying His will be done.
  • Praying for provision.
  • Forgiveness.
  • Deliverance and protection.
  • High praise.

Hallowed be Your name: This is a demand on our hearts to keep the name of God HOLY. To rightly honor Him, give Him the praise due Him, and keep our hearts in a place of loyal devotion to Him. We can pray and ask Him to help us understand this further, for Him to give revelation of His absolute holiness… and He will. (Remember, asking for revelation is asking for something to be revealed and made known, or clear.)

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven: Jesus is stating, pray that the spiritual kingdom of God would be breaking into this earth realm to the extent, that earth starts to look and feel like heaven. Pray for this kind of radical transformation because, in heaven there is no sickness, no sin, and no shame. There is no death, no tears, no pain. Nothing is broken there. There is no corruption; no poluution. There is only light and life and love and truth and freedom and peace and joy.

Heaven is God’s domain. In Heaven, God’s will is fully enacted. The devil and his hoards have no access to it. They were completely banished. They are powerless. So, we pray this prayer as it is the divine disrupter to anything the enemy is trying to do in our lives personally, as we pray nations, and everything in between: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

Give us this day our daily bread: Jesus is our Daily Bread! He is the Bread from Heaven. He is Who we are to be feasting on, daily. But also, this phrase is what we can pray when we have need of provision of any kind.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: remaining in a constant state of humility and tender-heartedness before the Lord always is key. We have been forgiven much. We are the receivers of His grace and mercy. He makes a demand on us that we must offer this to others as well. The verses that follow Jesus’ prayer model (6:14-15) explain that if we will not forgive others, we will not be forgiven. For some people, this is a hard truth to have to reckon in their hearts, but it is still a necessary step in our own freedom and healing.

Do not lead us into temptation: To be clear Jesus is NOT saying God tempts people. Rather, this is rhetorical: help us when we are tempted, to NOT fall into the devil’s snares. For context, James 1:13-15 explains this:

When you are tempted to do wrong, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God cannot be tempted. He will never tempt anyone. 14 A man is tempted to do wrong when he lets himself be led by what his bad thoughts tell him to do. 15 When he does what his bad thoughts tell him to do, he sins. When sin completes its work, it brings death. (New Life Version).

This is why the next phrase in Jesus’ prayer is…

Deliver us from the evil one. It is my strong belief that every single person coming to Jesus needs some form of deliverance/prayer ministry. Every one of us has a pre-Jesus history, included here is our family’s history. Both these affect our freedom and wholeness. Further, some of us still participate with the enemy even after committing our lives to Jesus. If this is willful, no deliverance can be done, the person is inviting demonic oppression. If it is accidental, unaware, then all the more we pray, “Deliver us…” and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to specific areas that need addressing so we can deny any legal access we have given the enemy in our lives.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (This last phrase is recorded in the main text body of the NKJV, but in the NIV and ESV, it is in the footnotes. These text variations exist in our English translations because they exist in the ancient Greek manuscripts.) This last phrase points our prayer back to Jesus. Making praise and thanksgiving something to be emphasized over our asking for things.

While this is a great prayer model, and Jesus gave us the model, prayer is NOT strict formula. Don’t let it become formula. We lose the spontaneous and free nature of relationship with Jesus if we reduce our prayer life to formula. This prayer model is a guide to promote prayer, and promote more of Heaven into our lives.