Hey guys!
Welcome to the second video of the series called:
How to grow closer, spiritually, to God.
And in this video we're gonna look at the importance of prayer.
But before we get into it, I just need to say something very quick;
People make prayer a lot more complicated than it really is. They add
a lot of rules or kinds of methods and think that it will work.
Or if they use big words, they think that the prayer will work better.
But God looks at your heart.
He doesn't look at the big words you use, or the small words you use
Prayer is just you talking to the all mighty, all powerful God,
honestly and through your spirit.
John 4:24 says;
"God is Spirit,
and those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth."
So with that said,
let's look at what the Bible says about growing spiritually
in God, through prayer.
Let's get to it!
Alright, now, if you watched the first video of this series, you know that
prayer is one of the requirements,
one of the four wheels needed for spiritual growth in God.
And any great relationship requires good communication.
And God wants us to talk to Him!
The Bible says in James 4:8;
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
So how is your relationship with God really?
How do you pray to Him?
Well, let's look at what Jesus says
about how He wants us to pray to God.
He says in Matthew 6:5-6;
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites.
For they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and on the street corners to be seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your room,
close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen."
So here we see that God wants special time with you.
He wants you to go into your room, close the door
and spend time with Him.
And He is unseen -
He is Spirit, so we have to pray to Him in the spirit.
Then Jesus says,
"...then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans.
For they think they will be heard
because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
For your Father knows
what you need before you ask Him."
You see, big or small words, it doesn't really matter.
There is no secret recipe to prayer like
praying with your Bible open
or praying with a cross
or even praying the same things
over and over and think that the repetitions that you use with your words,
will create some kind of miracle.
The Bible doesn't say that anywhere.
When you pray, God is always listening,
but He's looking through your words,
straight into your heart - into your spirit.
He's looking at your INTENTIONS.
And with that in mind,
Jesus goes on and He explains to us how we should pray.
In verse 9 He says, "This then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name,
Your kingdom come, Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory,
forever.
Amen.
And then He says something very interesting
in verse 14. He says,
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins."
Now, just so you know the background here;
We read the same passage in Luke 11,
and we see that it is actually the disciples who asked Jesus
'How should we pray? Teach us how should we pray to God'
And then Jesus taught them the 'Our Father' prayer.
So it also means that you can learn how to pray
and you can grow in your prayer life.
But before Jesus starts to actually
explain to them how they should pray,
He gives them a few warnings.
The first warning is:
He clearly warns them that they should not pray with the intention
to be seen by other people.
You know, you can sometimes see this in the church today as well.
You see this - it's a kind of pride
of the sinful nature of people and they want to be seen by other people;
how they speak in tongues or how they
pray so powerfully.
That is just the sinful nature part.
It's not from the spirit.
It's the same out there in the world;
How people want to be famous or
superstars and playing sport and they want other people to see how great they are.
This is part of the sinful, fleshly nature.
James 4 verse 3 says;
"When you ask,
you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives."
So I'll say it again:
God looks at your HEART when you pray.
So if you pray to be seen by other people with the wrong motives,
you're not praying through the spiritual nature
but through the sinful fleshly nature.
Go and have alone time with God
and when you pray pray to Him through the spirit.
If you do that, then you will also pray with the right motives,
and God will reward you, according to Matthew 6 v 6.
Now, of course just remember this doesn't mean
that you 'cannot' pray in public.
I mean Jesus did that Himself as well
and when He did it, He prayed a little bit shorter but
you can pray in public, but the point here is not to pray
like the hypocrites with the wrong motives.
and then the second thing Jesus warns us against is in verse 7;
"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions
as the heathen do.
For they think that they will be heard for their many words."
You see... heathens never really had
prayer like we do.
They never had a personal relationship with God.
For them, prayer is like mantras;
saying the same thing over and over and over and hoping it works.
And they also use sacrifices.
But in 1 Corinthians 10 v 20 we read;
"Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice
they sacrifice to demons and not to God,..."
So behind every Idol is actually a demon.
So that is why sometimes
their prayers can get heard because it's actually demons doing it.
Demons are very powerful.
They have different abilities,
but I'll talk a little bit more about that in other videos,
but mantras don't work with God
because He wants a personal relationship with you.
He wants you to talk to him with your whole heart
about everything.
Philippians 4 v 6 says;
"Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
So God is against useless mantras,
but that doesn't mean that you can't pray to God about a certain issue,
an important issue, over and over and over...
And sometimes you have to.
Because the Bible also talks about break-through prayer
where you have to pray and keep on asking God about something
until you get that breakthrough in prayer.
Until God opens the door or He answers you.
Matthew 7 v 7 says; "Ask, and it will be given to you"
Well actually, the Amplified Bible translates it a little bit better,
so let me read that for you;
"Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you;
seek and keep on seeking and you will find;
knock and keep on knocking and the door will be open to you.
For everyone who keeps on asking receives,
and he who keeps on seeking finds,
and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened."
So sometimes, you pray about something only once,
and you have that peace in your spirit and you know it's okay -
you don't have to pray more,
but sometimes you have to pray a lot more.
It will take a little bit longer until you feel that breakthrough in prayer,
when God answers you.
Alright!
Now, with that being said, so how do we pray to God?
Well let's continue with what Jesus says;
"Our Father in heaven,"
So here we clearly see that when we pray,
we should look to God as our Father.
When we pray, it should be a prayer
between a father-son or -daughter relationship.
So God is not just a judge, but a loving Father.
Then Jesus says;
"hallowed be Your name,"
So right after, Jesus tells us that we should look to Him as our loving Father,
He also immediately tells us that we should respect Him.
Some people just look to God as 'Hey! It's my buddy'
and they just, they bring Him down to their level.
You can't do that.
God is much, much higher
than we are.
And then verse 10 says;
"Your kingdom come"
What does this exactly mean?
I struggled with this when I was younger.
What does it mean "Your kingdom come"?
Well, we read that God created everything FOR Jesus
and THROUGH Jesus.
Colossians 1 v 16 says;
"For by him all things were created that are in heaven
and that are on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through Him and for Him."
So, God the Father, created this whole kingdom
for Jesus.
And the kingdom is here in two ways:
First: To call for all men and women to repent and convert
to Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior.
Number two: a call to fully surrender to God.
Remember, John the Baptist
prepared the way before Jesus and he said
"Repent. For the kingdom of heaven has come near." [Matthew 3:2]
So we have to pray for our loved ones,
for our neighbors
and for those we don't even know,
to come to Christ.
And then to learn how to fully surrender to God.
Then it says;
"Let your kingdom come,
Your will be done,"
So we have to seek God's will in our lives,
not our own will,
because it's imperfect.
But we have to seek God's will in everything we do
because IT is perfect.
And remember He knows what we need before we even ask Him.
The Bible says;
"Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
So when you go to God in prayer,
you have to go with that mindset
and with that attitude,
to give your will over to God's will.
'Why?'
So that you can move and live and walk through the spirit,
continually moving in His will,
to find your own identity and purpose in this life.
Then Jesus says;
"Give us this day our daily bread"
So, we can also ask God
to provide for us for our daily needs to live.
He also explained this a little bit more at the end of chapter 6.
In verse 30 He says;
"He will care for us"
And in verse 32 He says that He knows what we need.
But you know, we also need spiritual food for our spirit.
That is why Jesus said in Matthew 4 v 4;
"Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
So we need spiritual bread.
And Jesus is the Bread of Life.
He says in John 6 v 35
"I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry."
You know...
when you develop that deep relationship with Jesus,
you start to realize; when you have Jesus
you don't need anything else.
Because if you have Him, you have everything you need.
and He can provide everything that you need.
Next Jesus says;
"and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
Now, many Christians believe that
once you become a Christian,
you don't have to ask God for forgiveness anymore.
But you have to ask God for forgiveness.
Jesus is very clear here.
John also talks about this while he writes to the believers,
in 1 John 1 v 8 to 9;
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us."
Now listen to this:
"If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness."
So it's very clear that God does not want
any sin between Him and us.
Because God is holy.
and the moment you sin, you can feel that wall
coming in between you and God. You can feel it
in your spirit.
And then you need to ask God for forgiveness.
But you also have to forgive other people.
If you don't, then God will not forgive you.
That's how serious this is for God.
Jesus explains this again in v 14 and 15. He says,
"For if you forgive other people when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins."
And then Jesus says,
"And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one"
So we have to pray that God will open our spiritual eyes so that we will spot
temptation before it's too late.
Remember, you are in a continuous spiritual battle
between your own sinful nature,
and also the devil and his demons.
Ephesians 2 v 1 says,
"And you He made alive,
who were dead in trespasses and sins,
in which you once walked according to the course of this world
according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves
in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."
So we can clearly see that Satan influences our fleshly nature.
There's a clear link between evil
and our fleshly natures.
So we have to pray to God to protect us
from evil so that we don't give in to our fleshly lusts.
And then Jesus says,
"For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory,
forever
Amen."
So Jesus starts off the prayer by focusing on God the Father and He ends it
the same way by focusing on Him again.
You know, the more you focus on yourself and your own problems and issues
the more unhappy you become.
Have you ever realized this?
But then when you shift
your focus from yourself and your problems to God,
Almighty God, that can actually just sort out everything for you,
when you look at Him,
then suddenly your life starts to change.
You need to put God first in your life - and not yourself.
And you know most of God's promises
fall under one condition,
and that is to put God first.
Jesus says at the end of Matthew 6,
"But seek first the kingdom of God..."
-that's the condition-
"...and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you."
Now, this example that Jesus left us of how to pray,
is so short, but it is so deep and so wide when you really get into it.
And I didn't even explain everything of it
I-I can't because I still don't really understand it the way that God does, right.
But now you know how to improve your prayer life.
Just let it sink in by reading and praying this with me, once more.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors,
and do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory,
forever
Amen.
Wow
Now, remember:
God loves you
and I love you too
BYE