“Our Father.”
There is a spiritual revolution in those words. Jesus didn’t teach His disciples to start their prayers with “O God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses” or “O Maker of heaven and earth” or even “O great Spirit who sees all and knows all,” but “Father”—and not just “Father,” but “our Father.”
He didn’t start it with “My Father,” so that people might mistakenly think it was supposed to be only “Jesus’s Father,” but “our Father,” expressing the fact that “you are My brothers and sisters and God is our Father.” Paul, who received the revelation of this, amplified what Jesus said here, explaining, “You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba [we would say “Daddy”] Father'” (Rom. 8:15).
It is what Jesus prayed in the garden as He asked that He might not have to suffer the cross in Mark 14:36. In essence, He asked, “Daddy? Father? I’ll do whatever You want Me to do, but couldn’t We save humanity some other way?” He was calling on the intimate relationship He shared with His “Daddy” while appealing to the authority of the head of His household, who was His “Father.” Bowing His knee to each, He went to the cross, but because of the quality of His relationship with the one He could call “Daddy,” He didn’t go alone.
By instructing us to pray, “Our Father,” Jesus told us we had the right to go to God in this same capacity. If you learn nothing else from this book, I want you to get your mind around this revelation: You are God’s child, and He wants to have a relationship with you like a father to a son, a daddy to a daughter. God wants to hear your prayers and see that prayer develop in you the power of an overcomer.
As Pete Greig, one of the founders and leaders of the 24-7 Prayer movement, described it: “Prayer is about power. Prayer is about miracles. Prayer is about breakthrough. Prayer is about the extension of the kingdom. But more than any of that, prayer is about being intimate with God. It is about the lap of the Father, and being chosen by Jesus.”
The beginning of confidence in prayer is realizing that there is someone on the other end who not only wants the best for you, but who also wants the same relationship with you that a parent has with a child.
He wants to see you born whole, admiring your every little finger and toe; see you grow; see you learn to walk; see you learn to fend for yourself; and never be farther away than a phone call or a text message as you mature and go out to fulfill your purpose in the “family business.”
He wants to hear what you have to say; He wants to see your needs met; He wants to answer your questions; He wants to give you understanding, wisdom, and revelation; and He wants to meet your friends. He always has your back, He always has wise advice for you, He has words of encouragement and edification, and He has the power of the universe to use on your behalf when He sees fit. All you have to do is make the connection with Him.
Excerpt from The Prayer Warrior’s Way (CharismaHouse) by Cindy Trimm.
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