Praying the Lord's Prayer Today

glory!

Introduction

Jesus’s Model Prayer

Don’t magnify your problem; magnify your God.

—JOEL OSTEEN¹

THE SECRET TO Jesus’s success in ministry was a lifestyle of prayer.² Of all the things Jesus’s disciples observed Him say and do, the Bible records only one thing they asked Him to teach them, and that was how to pray (Luke 11:1). We might wonder, Why would the disciples ask to learn to pray rather than to do the ‘big things’ like feeding multitudes, calming storms, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, or walking on water? It is because they saw Jesus pray more than anything else.

What the Disciples Observed

The disciples lived with Jesus. They went everywhere He went and observed Him for three and a half years. Based on the Scriptures, we can deduce that Christ prayed for approximately two to four hours every morning. He also prayed at other times (Matt. 26:36–46; Luke 3:21; 6:12; 23:24; John 17).

For example, the Scripture says, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mark 1:35, NIV). Jesus would get up while the disciples were still snoring and slip off by Himself behind a bush or a rock and pray there for hours. While they were sleeping, He was praying. Then the disciples would get up and say, Where’s the Master? When they eventually found Him, they noticed He would spend as much as four hours with God His Father. Then He would say, Let’s go to Jerusalem or somewhere else, where He would spend two minutes healing a blind man. Notice the ratio. He spent four hours doing one thing and a few minutes doing the other. He continually operated that way, spending five hours praying and two minutes casting out a demon or one minute cleansing a leper.

The disciples probably said among themselves, That’s impressive. He cleansed the leper in sixty seconds, but He spent five hours in prayer this morning. This must mean that what He does in the morning is even more important than everything He does during the day.

The church today hasn’t yet understood this truth. We spend a few minutes with God, and then we try to do many hours of work in His name. Jesus would cast out a demon with just a word. He’d say, Come out, and it would leave. It took about two minutes. Yet in the morning, He had spent five hours praying. How do we cast out a demon? We spend five hours working at it, and then we say, Come out. When the demon isn’t cast out, we tell someone else to take over. We spend all that time trying to cast out a demon, but we only spent two minutes preparing ourselves personally that morning.

Martin Luther, one of the greatest Catholic monks in history, started the Reformation that created the Protestant movement and changed the course of the world. Martin Luther said something to the effect that, When I have a lot to do in a day, I spend more time in prayer, because more work is done by prayer than by work itself. He was right. If I am too busy to pray, I am too busy. If you are too busy to pray, you are just too busy!

We can never really be too busy to pray because prayer makes our lives much more focused, efficient, and peaceful. Learning this principle has been essential in my life. When I have many things on my heart and mind, a lot of confusion in my life, or overwhelming circumstances to face, I don’t try to tackle these problems myself. I go to God in prayer, and He gives me the wisdom and guidance I need to address them.

We often sing, This is the day that the Lord has made. I imagine God is saying to us, If this is My day, then why don’t you come and talk to Me about it? We need to ask Him for our day’s agenda. We do many things in God’s day that He didn’t plan for us to do. One hour with God could accomplish ten hours of work because you wouldn’t be dealing with trial and error any longer. God would tell you what is really important, compared to what seems urgent. He will tell you what you should do now and what you shouldn’t do now. God will supernaturally give you wisdom to address your situation. You will be able to make every act count rather than doing ten things to accomplish one thing. Prayer will enable you to think clearly and wisely. It will give you discernment that you wouldn’t otherwise have. Jesus was succinct in His knowledge of what was important because He spent time with the Father. Hours with God makes minutes with men effective.

The Results of Intimacy with the Father

In John chapter 5 we read that Jesus did a great miracle. He healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. The people reacted to this healing; they were deeply impressed. Some were angry, others wanted answers. Jesus explained something to them that many of us are still trying to grasp. When I discovered the deep truth that Jesus was teaching here, it changed my whole life—my perspective of myself and my relationship to the Father. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working’ (vv. 16–17, NIV). Verse 17 in the New King James Version reads, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.

In effect, Christ was saying to those who questioned His healing on the Sabbath, I spent time with My Father this morning. I already had My whole day worked out for Me because I had fellowship with the One who made days. My Father has already healed the people I’m touching. Their healing is the result of My knowing what My Father is doing. I’m just manifesting it. My Father works; therefore, I work. In essence, what we do should be a manifestation of what God the Father has already done.

What a way to live! This morning, in prayer, I saw this sick man healed, so I have come to heal him this afternoon. Why? My Father has already cleansed him. I have come to manifest it.

Look at the next verse: For this reason [the Jews] tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:18, NIV). In other words, Jesus was saying that God was His personal, intimate source. His detractors couldn’t take that.

Jesus explained to them how His intimacy with the Father worked: Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does (vv. 19–20, NIV).

We spend most of our time during the day trying to figure out what God wants us to do, and we waste the whole day. Christ is saying to us, I go to the Father first; I see what He’s already done, and I do it. This is the pattern He wants us to follow. Remember that prayer is the medium through which man discovers what God has already done in the unseen so that He can give heaven permission through his faith to manifest it on Earth. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matt. 18:18, NIV).

When you spend time with God in the morning, or anytime, He begins to show you what’s supposed to be done next. Prayer saves you time. Many of us say we believe this principle, but we really don’t. We put off praying because we think it is a waste of time, or at least less important than our other activities. We also think the length of time we pray isn’t important. Why did Jesus spend hours in prayer? It is because He had a genuine relationship with the Father, and any relationship takes time to build and maintain. God is saying to us, You will get more done in My presence than you accomplish in the presence of other people. You spend all day talking foolishness with others. They aren’t contributing anything to your future. They’re just talking. You sit down and spend two or three hours talking politics. In the end, nothing is solved, nothing has changed, and you’re depressed. You should have spent those hours on your knees praying for the government, the gangs, and all the other situations. We often discover that when we spend time in prayer, God begins to use us to change circumstances.

Manifesting the Thoughts of God

Prayer is coming into union with God’s mind. God showed Jesus everything He was thinking and said to His Son, Go and manifest that for Me. There is nothing more intimate than your thoughts. Words are an extension of our thoughts, but we are our thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 says, As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he (NKJV). God desires not to talk to you, but to think to you. This is what Jesus meant when He said, I do what I see My Father doing. (See John 5:19.) The text implies, I do what I mentally see My Father thinking.

A thought is a silent word. A word is a manifested thought. In effect, Jesus was saying, When I go before God in prayer and spend time with Him, He gives Me His thoughts. Therefore, when Jesus was asked why He healed the sick man, He said, in essence, I just saw that thought this morning. I am the Word. I manifest the thoughts of God. I have to heal this man because that is what I saw.

The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.

—JOHN 5:19–20, NIV

I recommend that you read the entire Book of John. It’s a powerful book. Every time Jesus talked about His work, He kept mentioning the love of His Father. You may wonder, Why does He keep saying that?

Jesus was saying, in essence, My Father loves Me so much that He does not just talk to Me, because talking isn’t intimate enough. He communes with Me. He loves Me so much that He speaks to My spirit and mind. The reason I spend time with Him in the morning is to find out what He is thinking, what is on His mind.

Ninety-nine percent of the time God will speak to your mind through your spirit. Many people are waiting for a burning bush or the appearance of an angel. However, they don’t hear from God because they’re waiting in the wrong way. God doesn’t generally speak verbally. That’s not intimate enough. He speaks directly to our spirits.

For example, you may say, I think I should bake a cake and take it to Sister So-and-So. That’s God. He thought about the cake, and He wanted you to manifest it. God doesn’t normally bake cakes. He uses people to bake them for Him. How do you know it is God who is speaking? It is when the idea keeps coming back to you. If you don’t bake the cake, two hours later the thought will return. You might dismiss it and then learn that Sister So-and-So needed a cake. Yet you didn’t respond to God’s prompting because you wanted something more profound. You wanted a prophet to come to your house and say, "Thus saith the Lord: Bake a