OUR FATHER

There is a sweetness in your soul when a revelation God gave you is been propagated by a stranger. That the Spirit of God also gave the revelation to others is both comforting and fascinating. I heard a sermon recently by Dr. Gideon Haruna on The Lord's prayer, he was so convinced that the Lord's prayer is basically and primarily a teaching and not just for recitals alone. This position I have long held and while it was so refreshing to meet a stranger declaring it passionately, I equally perceive it as a permission to also speak more about it.

By the special graces of God, I will be writing about the Lord's prayer as a teaching. I will be picking them phrase for phrase and words for words from the beginning to the end. In these writings will be the teachings I supposed our Lord intended for us as I understand them. My prayer is that the same God who confirm the teachings into my hearts will also confirm them into your hearts as you read through in Jesus name Amen.

Our text will be from Luke 11 in the New Kings James Version. It says Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”

In this article we will focus on the phrase "OUR FATHER" (with a picture of a father talking with his family children and wife inclusive attached along. Picture is credited to Alamy photo Stock). The first thing to note here in this declaration is that there must be a personal relationship before you can pray to God going forward. Prior to this declaration-which was actually the first of its kind, for someone to declare God as a father and ask others to do the same- men did not need a relationship to pray, they only needed to follow some rules and steps, observe some rites and procedures or be born into a particular race and they are qualified to pray and be heard. For example if you are a Jew, circumcised, wash your body, face the east or temple or recite some specific citations then you will be heard.

Now Jesus is saying there must be a relationship, and mere acquaintance with God will not suffice, similarity in nature is now a must. It was like the sermon on the mount where he said repeatedly you have heard how it was said of old that thou must not do that and that but now I say to you this and this is the new way of things going forward. Similarity in nature that begins at the new birth and is progressive by the renewing of the mind till you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In the olden days it was very easy to differentiate between those who carry the life of God and are similar to him in nature. Nowadays everybody is a born again Christian. From the sister in choir doing hookup to the pianist gambling on the ubiquitous betting sites, both are considered children of God because they are active in church and pay their tithes from their heinous enterprises.

Majority of the Pastors in my generation will have you believe that activities are very important using James declaration of faith without works as a basis of their arguments. But there were activities in those days when Jesus made the declaration that we must approach God only with a nature or image similar to His. We all know what happened at the beginning, the bible said So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them and how shortly later it was also recorded that And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. From these two verses we noticed that the image of God in man got lost. God gave it to Adam at creation but by the time Adam gave birth to his son after the fall he gave him only the adamic nature. God's holy nature was lost.

For centuries God patiently waited to restore back to mankind the lost image, the lost nature. For this purpose he spared not his son Jesus, his only begotten but gave him up so that by the availability of his life to those who will be foolish enough to belief this lost image will be restored. Without it men will not be able to pray and if men do not pray men are doomed. God came down in the cool of the evening to commune with Adam, and God loved it and missed it when man fell. God created man for his own pleasure, and the peak of that pleasure is attained during communion between the spirit of God and that of man. God will stop at nothing to have this pleasure in each and everyone of us, the question is are we willing to give him this pleasure? When he could not see any fruit on that tree while he hunger he cursed it. Brethren if God does not get the pleasure he desire from your life, the purpose for which you are created you will be banished from his presence for ever and what curse is greater than that.

A lot of us feel praying to God is optional! Some of us even give out prayer points to contractors. These days we have self acclaimed servants of God who are prayer contractors, who collect prayer points from Church member and encourage church members to stand afar off while they go nearer to God on their behalf. It is like a woman asking another woman to help conceive for her husband. Just like Sarah did and the world has not known peace till today. Many of us ask others to be fruitful on our behalf while we remain barren and wonder why we are withering away like a rootless tree. Brethren praying is not optional, we are created to pray, either rising up early in the morning while it is yet day like our Lord did, or waiting in the cool of the evening like God did to Adam. You must have an altar or you will be obliterated. You will be like the grass that is today and tomorrow is no more, that even the soil on which you grow will not know you in eternity.

Seeing that prayer is not optional and it is only permitted when there is similarity of nature...what manner of men ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness as Peter said? We ought to put away from us everything that makes us ungodly and dissimilar to God. There is a verse I love so much and dread so much at the same time. The verse says you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. One day, my daughter not knowing I was behind the fridge in our dinning room was telling her brother while they were about to eat breakfast that if you want Daddy to like you and do anything for you just be excellent academically to which my son replied, "are you just realizing that". I quietly retraced my steps into the kitchen but that stayed with me ever since.

Brethren in the same manner, I want us to know that what Jesus want us to learn from this declaration is that there must be a personal relationship with God before our prayers can be heard by God, if you want God to like you, and do anything for you, then be like God in nature and image. The bible says the prayers of a sinner is an abomination to God, likewise the prayers of any persons whose nature is not the same as God's is an abomination to God. We must be like him and we can not contract prayers out. It begins from a personal relationship. All our efforts to circumvent these path to God with payment of tithe and offerings, consistent attendance and activities are not acceptable. Only similarities in nature will suffice. No wonder God seems not to be hearing our prayers again. We have gone about creating our own ways of praying to God while ignoring what he has said.

For I bear us witness that we have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For we, been deliberately ignorant of God’s righteousness, have tried to establish our own righteousness, and have not submitted to the righteousness of God where prayers is concerned. Jesus has declared that it is "Our Father" and there is no other way besides that. If you are not having the seed of God in you, don't bother opening your mouth. It is a waste of effort except of course if you are repenting. He must be your father or your prayers will not be considered. It is my earnest desire that we will take this seriously and be born of God and grow as a child to that point where we can comfortably say Abba Father with our spirit bearing us witness that we are indeed a child of God. Amen.

Finally, we will not be doing proper justice to this phrase if we did not dwell on the term 'our' for a while. Some biblical text did not contain "our' before the father and one may ask why our if the relationship is personal, won't "my father" be more appropriate. I supposed God wants us to have it at the back of our mind from onset that his goal is to bring many sons to glory. Christ did not die to save one person but as many as possible. The work to save others starts from the moment you are saved. The moment the image of God is restored in you, your obligation is to look to bring others in and it begins in the place of prayers. Personal prayer is essential and corporate prayers is necessary. The bible says though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

There are problems only corporate prayers can solve, and that corporate prayers should solve. These problems affects us at the personal level but they can only be solved through corporate prayers. When we get to "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" we will realize how powerful the "our' in the "our father" is. Individualistic tendencies is not allowed going forward. Elijah may have prayed earnestly for rain not to fall for three and half years and God obliged him, now going forwards the keys of the kingdom of heaven will be giving to a group of people who collective calls God our father!

The greatest weakness of the Church today is denomination, and it is getting worse every day. In our days you hear things like the God of this church, the God of that church, and thereby destroying the power in the unity the word "our" connotes. Oh! Brethren how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! The power in the prayers of the church lies in the word "our". You wonder why we are been kidnapped, rapped, maimed and killed in Nigeria. Do you wonder why years after years despite our prayers at the church level our elections are producing only terrible leaders at all levels? It is not because God is now weak and powerless. It is because the "our" in the Nigeria Church's Lord's prayer is none existence, every denomination seek to promote its denomination's agenda during election while outwardly appearing to be seeking that the will of God be done and there by throwing away the "our" and the enormous power that comes with.

Jesus said whatever the church bind on earth, he will bind in heaven but it must be bound by the people who collectively call God "our father" who are united in counsel and purpose. People made up of individuals who are like God in nature, likeness, carry the seed of God in them, loves righteousness, hate iniquity. Brethren these are the teachings in the "our father" of the Lord's prayer. It is good for us to recite it but it is better if our hearts can resonate with the words and our spirit can bear us witness. If not we are none of his.

You may recite the Lord's prayer all your lifetime and still be a stranger to God but the moment you receive the life of Christ and begin to love what God loves and hate what God hates when you open your mouth heaven takes notice and considers it. I pray we will take note of these prerequisites to prayers as contained in the "our father" opening phrase of the Lord's prayers and trust God to work them into our lives individually and corporately in Jesus name Amen. Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.