Welcome back! We are finishing up a 4 part series on prayer. If you have not read the first three, I encourage you to go back and read those before you read this one. The first week I told you my testimony of prayer. The second week we began to dig into the Lord’s Prayer to learn about the character of God. And last week we continued on our journey through the Lord’s Prayer and discovered what exactly is the kingdom of God. This week we will finish our series on the Lord’s Prayer by starting out with the line that says, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
The Daily Bread
Give us this day our daily bread.
Again, the verb tense here is aorist. It’s already a done deal. He has already given you your daily needs.
In fact, His name is Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides. Did you know that Abraham didn’t give God that name? He didn’t say, “And now, O Lord, I am naming you Jehovah-Jireh!”
Nope, it actually says in Genesis 22:14:
“So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”” (Genesis 22:14 ESV)
God’s name Jehovah-Jireh is a place of provision. His name is a realm, and inside that realm is all the provision you need. Just pop into it. You already have access to it, “in Christ.” And guess what else? Jesus is not just a person; he’s a realm too. His realm is called Heaven.
Jesus is Your Daily Bread
Jesus is your daily bread, by the way. He said in John chapter 6 that He is the bread that came down from Heaven. That’s a reference to manna in the wilderness, which showed up every single day except Saturday. Every time they went out early in the morning to gather the manna food, it was already there. They got up early in the morning to commune with the Bread of Life.
Why else do you think Jesus made it a habit of getting up early and going out to pray? That was His daily bread too!
Prayer is daily bread. Jesus is daily bread. Encountering Jesus through prayer every single day is our sustenance. It’s how we can overcome the obstacles that come our way. It’s how we can resist the dark forces that come against us and tell us we’re casting out demons by the prince of demons. It happened to Jesus; it’ll happen to us!
Forgive
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
Ah forgiveness! Daily asking for forgiveness and declaring forgiveness is a wonderful thing. Ask for grace and pour out grace.
Again the first “forgive” verb is in the aorist tense, so the forgiveness is a done deal. It’s already happened and covers us past, present, and future. We have been forgiven, so we forgive. The second verb “forgive” is the active present tense. It’s happening right now through us.
“You have forgiven us of everything, so we pour out forgiveness now…”
This principle is so important that Jesus expands upon it after the prayer in Matthew
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV)
Don’t Give the Devil a Foothold
Forgiveness is so important, that if you choose not to forgive, you give the devil and/or his demons legal authority to inhabit your soul. This is based on the parable from Matthew 18:21-35.
This teaching also connects the “debts” language in the prayer to the “trespasses” language after the prayer. When someone sins against you, a debt is created in the spirit. Now, you used to have legal rights to claim that debt before you were saved. But after salvation, you give up all rights to take revenge or vengeance, because God now takes up your case and works it on your behalf. So in essence, when you forgive, you are releasing the person to God Himself to deal with.
Does this mean relationally that you invite the offending person back into your inner circle to harm you again? No way! Put up appropriate Godly boundaries in your life from the people that suck the life out of you and drag you down to hell’s theology.
Temptation and Deliverance
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
God doesn’t lead us into temptation or ungodly trials. Again, the verb “to lead” and “to deliver” are both in the aorist tense, so it’s an acknowledgement that God hasn’t led us into temptations, and He has already delivered us. “To lead” also means, “to bring into” in other parts of the New Testament. God doesn’t bring us into temptation, and He never will.
In fact, the Apostle James clarifies this for us:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (James 1:12-18 ESV)
Temptations Will Come
Temptations and trials will come because we live in this world. But we are blessed when we remain steadfast or persevere through temptations, just like Jesus did in the wilderness when the devil tempted Him those 3 times.
James corrects a view of God that says, “Oh well, God gave me this horrible thing in order to teach me a lesson.” God doesn’t give you horrible things. In fact, James continues on and says, “Don’t be deceived!” Why? Because every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.
Deliverance is a Gift
Do you know what one of the gifts that the Lord gives us is? Deliverance!
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” (Colossians 1:13 ESV)
“He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:10 ESV)
“Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24b-25a ESV)
Deliverance is a process. We’ll be talking about deliverance more and more over the upcoming weeks. Just know that because we are born into this earth and into our earthly families, we were born connected to iniquity. We all need deliverance. We all need to be disconnected from the kingdom of darkness. And all of our soul parts need it too.
Kingdom, Power, Glory Forever
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
In the book of Revelation, we see several times that beings in Heaven spontaneously worship God. Here are a few of the references:
“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:8 ESV)
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11 ESV)
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’” (Revelation 5:11-12 ESV)
“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13 ESV)
Prayer:
Lord God we praise you. We thank you that you are in Heaven, and we are in Heaven in Christ. Thank you that we are with you seated in Heavenly Places. We thank you that we can have that perspective. We want to give glory and honor to your great name because you are the great and mighty God. You are El Elyon, God Almighty. You are Jehovah Gibbor, the Lord who is Mighty. Lord, there are so many names of yours that display your strength.
We declare your kingdom has come, is coming, and will come. We want to see your kingdom come into our households. It is our desire to see your will be done in our households. We want to see your kingdom and your will manifest in our families, families, friends, workplaces, and every situation we find ourselves in. We want to see the rivers of living waters flowing out of us so that when we step foot in a situation we know you are there. You are moving and working and pouring out Heaven around us. We want to see our earthly environments transform to heavenly environments. Help us to believe these things are actually possible.
Transform our minds to cause us to think this way. We acknowledge we have needs and you have already provided for them. You are providing for us, you have already provided for us, and will provide for us in the future. We need you, Jesus Christ, daily. We need the bread of life, and we need your Word as spiritual food everyday. Thank you that you have already forgiven us through the cross of Jesus Christ. Through his shed blood all of our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. We acknowledge that and thank you for your forgiveness. Help us to forgive others. Help us to release the wrongdoings, offenses, and pour out grace. We give you our burdens and cast our cares on you because you care for us. Help us to take up your yoke because it’s easy and light.
We acknowledge that you don’t lead us into temptation. The fiery trials are not something you brought us into. Some of those things we chose. Some were done to us. You are a really good teacher and have taught us through all of those things. We know we will have trials and tribulation, but you have overcome the world. Jesus left his peace for us. So as James instructs us to endure under those fiery trials to receive the crown of life. Thank you for giving that to us.
Thank you for delivering us from the evil one, and thank you that you are continuing to deliver us from evil. Deliver us from evil mindsets, ideology, and theology. Transform our minds by the Holy Spirit. Make the truth of your Word come alive to us. Yours is the kingdom, honor, power, and glory forever. We love you and bless your name. Amen.
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