Matt 6:9-13
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.   -KJV

Last Friday night it was raining as I was rushing to be on time for a Marketplace Conference at church. Still half a mile away I impatiently waited for the light to change and then took off for the next. Before I got half a block ahead to the next light, The Lord had downloaded to me a better understanding of the Lord’s Prayer. After that I was no longer in a hurry except to get as much of the new insights down as possible.

In essence the Lord told me: “you have been praying the Lord’s Prayer all of your life…now it’s time to live it!” Within the prayer itself is a summary for victorious ‘Kingdom living’. Funny thing is that none of it is really new and its been there all the time and a lot of this stuff you probably already know.

Anyway I going to put up an outline of some of these thoughts in a series of posts. 

“Our Father…which art in Heaven”

Jesus didn’t say “my” father or “the” father, though most of the time we look upon God as being ‘The’ Almighty God and Father of creation. But Jesus specifically said “our” Father and included his disciples as part of his family—the family of God.

This had to sound strange to folks raised upon the Old Testament scriptures and at a time when Priests didn’t dare enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple without repenting and fasting first and even then without having a rope tied around their ankle so that they could be pulled out in case the Lord God zapped them. In fact it sounded rather heretical to the scribes and Pharisees.

We hear the words ‘our Father’ so much in church that it is way too familiar. Sometimes the real implications of those words do not properly sink in. In Jesus Christ every believer becomes part of the family of God. His Father is now our Father and we are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ. Yup, and sometimes we fight just like a family too!

But think about it—the Creator of the universe is our Father. Remember Jesus said that he doesn’t give rocks to his children when they need bread. He really does take care of his creation, the birds, the flowers, and even more so he only wants the best for his children.

In our day the title ‘father’ is so messed up for many of us because of the way we were treated or ignored by our natural parents. Also some of us were orphans and never did really experience a father in our lives while others of us wish that we hadn’t.

Because of our past, many of us have trust issues that make it difficult to receive the Love of Our Father in Heaven. therefore intimacy with God doesn’t come all that easy and we end up putting Him in a box that will only be unwrapped after our death.

Yet when Jesus died on the cross the curtain separating the people from their God in Holy of Holies in the temple was slit in two for all time. In Jesus intimacy becomes possible and the almighty creator touches us and dwells within us with his own Spirit and we become members of his family and the new temple of God.

It is time for the church to get this down—all of the church. I believe that the ‘Fatherhood of God’ and greater intimacy will be part of the Kingdom message of a ‘New Awakening’ coming soon near you. All of creation awaits for the church to understand more fully what it means to be and act like the children of God and cry out—Abba Father! (Romans 8:12-19).