Jesus taught the people to pray in Matthew 6:8-13 (Amplified) what we've entitled The Lord's Prayer. He fully intended for this prayer to be answered. Jesus didn't pray simply to hear Himself speak. He didn't teach this type of praying, to His disciples, so they would "sound good." He fully intended for this type of praying to be answered by God.
God stopped in the midst of my praying The Lord's Prayer many years ago, and asked me if I really meant what I was saying. I stopped in amazement and asked God what He meant. His answer was, "Do you really want Me to forgive you the way you forgive others? It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't thinking or believing that this was a real prayer, but I was mechanically reciting words I had learned.
I began to realize that this was a "real" prayer, with "real" results and it began changing the way I prayed to the Father. I began inquiring the Father about prayer and the Word. This resulted with my learning so much that it changed my entire walk with God. The truth of the scriptures began becoming real to me and such things as fasting, praying and fellowshipping with God began taking on a whole new meaning in my life.
The Lord began teaching me about all He had made available to His people, while they are still on earth and everything changed. I wasn't waiting to get to heaven (where all be alright) anymore. I realized how heaven had come to earth in order to return things to God's will before Adam's fall. I began truly thinking about what I was asking God for in The Lord's Prayer especially. I realized that I didn't place any faith in the prayer, but was reciting something I learned.
I initially thought about the part, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and realized God would actually do things on earth that He does in heaven. God would really operate here, just like He operates in heaven. I began understanding God's Word and His will and saw the deception we, as Christians, had been walking in.
Jesus taught us to pray that He would "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." This type of teaching has been a great mystery for many, concerning their Christian walk. We've been taught that God will put things on us to teach us things, so we couldn't discern whether God was testing us or the devil was trying to destroy us. Many of us didn't understand what we've been praying.
If we really could believe that God's will for us here is the same as it is in Heaven, then would we believe sickness, poverty, disease, families torn apart or even children starving to death are how it is in heaven? If Jesus taught us to believe that it's not God Who is "leading us into temptation (or trials and tests), then who is? If God is the One Who will "deliver us from the evil one," then we must know which is which.
We think that things can only be good when we get to heaven. This isn't what Jesus taught and we must understand what Jesus taught about God's chosen fast in Isaiah 58. I believe that this lifestyle of fasting that Jesus walked, will bring about "His will as it is in heaven." Jesus taught how we were supposed to fast and He spoke about the results of this way of fasting in Matthew 6:7-8 (Amplified) saying, "But when you fast, perfume your head, and wash your face, so that your fasting may not be noticed by men but by your Father, Who sees in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open."
We can see the results of Isaiah 58 manifest openly in Jesus' life and the lives of the people He ministered to. We see God's will being "done on earth, as it is done in heaven," as this kind of fasting and lifestyle manifest fully and openly in Jesus' life.
God promised those who would walk His chosen fast in Isaiah 58:8 (Amplified), "Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God), shall go before you (conducting you to peace and prosperity) and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard."
Jesus said in John 14:27 (Amplified), "Peace I leave with you; My (Own) peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." This is the "peace" and "prosperity" that the above two scriptures speaks about, came upon Jesus by His walking in what God had "chosen" as a fast before Him.
We've believed that so many of the things that happened in Jesus' life, happened because He was God's Son, Jesus. These things occurred because Jesus only "did what He saw the Father do." This fast still does work for those who will simply walk it. Jesus said in John 14:26 (Amplified), "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessory, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-by), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place, to represent Me, and act on My behalf) He will teach you all things, and He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you."
Jesus taught a way of life that was chosen by God, about how to walk in His way of doing and being right. We must "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His rightness and all these things will be added to you."
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