THE LORD'S PRAYER
Let's look at the Lord's Prayer.

The first thing I want to do is show the entire “Lords Prayer” then we will take each segment and expound on it. I know that this seems to be a long drawn out process but it is easier than you would think.

Luke 11:1-13

1: And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2: And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3: Give us day by day our daily bread.
4: And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
5: And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6: For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7: And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
8: I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
9: And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12: Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13: If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Hmmm, it seems that the “Lord’s Prayer is actually longer than the one we were taught to pray...so is it a prayer or an outline to prayer?

I would like to bring to your attention before you jump to conclusions about where the “Lord’s Prayer” is I chose the third mention in the scriptures to teach first. You will find the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9-15 and Matthew 7:7-11. In all instances you will see that ‘a disciple came to Y’shua (Jesus) and asked him to teach them (the disciples and us) ‘How to Pray’. So this would indicate that it is not actually a prayer but a guide to effective prayer. So with that lets begin to “Learn How to Pray Effectively”

Verse 2
“And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven,”
Verse2b
This is who we pray to “Our Father” this is God/Yahweh, not to a saint or Mary or any other being. Not to a leader (religious or other person) but to God.
Where is He. “which art in heaven” So he (God/Yahweh) is in heaven. Where is heaven it is all around us seen and unseen. (We will tackle this in another book at another time.
Verse2c
“Hallowed be thy name.” Honor His Name above all Names. There is no name greater on heaven or earth. His name is to be revered and glorified first and foremost. So when we go to prayer we need begin by honoring God/Yahweh, praising Him name through praises, songs and dance. This is the best way to begin. Praise not only exaults God but it also builds us up in our spirits and gets us to a place where we can pray from our hearts and spirits with honesty.
Verse 2d
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” We acknowledge that His kingdom is coming and ultimately will be His kingdom here on earth. And that His will will be done. It will be as the Word tells us that those that are with Him will be with Him in His kingdom, in that magnificent house that He has built for us. And those that are not with Him or have rejected Him will spend eternity with Satan in torment and fire.
It also means that if we follow His Word and believe on His Word those things that He has promised us will come to pass. There should be no grey areas in our faith and prayers because there are no grey areas in His Word. His Word is specific in every aspect of our lives. So if it is promised of God in the Word to be ours, then it is ours on earth as well. So if good health is promised in the Word (heaven) to be ours it is to be ours on earth.

How do we get those things promised to be ours in Heaven and earth. We need to continue on and see how to access those things.

Verse 3
“Give us day by day our daily bread.” We ask God/Yahweh to give us His promises day by day, as we offer our prayer and praise to Him, holding Him above all else. With no other “thing” above Him. All we have to do is go to Him in praise and prayer from the very beginning of our day and all of His promises to us are ours. (I personally begin my day with the sinners prayer, knowing full well that I am saved and have the promises of God, I feel that I need to humble myself before God/Yahweh daily in order to access those things He has for me. It also keeps me from becoming prideful and taking His blessings for granted.”

Verse 4
“And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.” We ask God to forgive us our sins, but we can only ask this of God after we have forgiven those who have sinned against us, owed us anything or done anything to or against us. This means that before we can ask for forgiveness we have to “FORGIVE” everyone first. We must do this honestly without any reservations. If we don’t honestly forgive them and only do it for lip service to get forgiveness for ourselves then we are lying to God and our selves. We must FORGIVE everyone including ourselves. We often forget to include our own trespasses, things that we have done and are truly sorry for but continue to bring up or beat ourselves up with. Unless we forgive ourselves of these we are only giving Satan a door into our lives and the authority to use them against us. This is the number one failure of many believers. By hanging on to their past, which was washed completely clean by Y'shua's sacrifice on the cross and hidden by the Word of God for all time, we bring it back into view and by doing so make ourselves unforgivable. Now is this a wise decision?

Verse4b
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” God will never tempt us as a means to cause us to turn away or fail but to help us to prove our faith to ourselves. It is a way that we are able to chose who we serve. If we fall to temptation it just means that our faith in God is not as strong as our faith in Satan’s ability to attack and harass us. The devil can NEVER make us do anything we don’t want to do. If we do wrong we do it by choice. Many times it is easier to just do what is wrong than to turn back to God and do what is right and just. Many of us will no doubtedly be thinking that “This can never happen to me are only fooling ourselves.” A good example of this is where the Spirit led Y’shua/Jesus to be tempted. Notice the Spirit did not tempt Him it only allowed Him to be tempted, this is the same with us. We are not tempted by God but allowed to be tempted. How we react to the leading is up to us. When we do some thing wrong due to temptation it is something that we allowed. We allowed Satan to tempt us and then we allowed Satan to control what we did. We are the only ones with the power to stop us from doing wrong. We have had the knowledge and the ability to choose right from wrong. We ask Him to deliver us from the evil that we know we have done (forgiveness) or will do, inorder to keep our hearts, minds and spirits focused on Him.

So once you have truly forgiven everyone including yourself you are ready to really begin praying. But how do you prepare to pray, what do you pray, where do you pray......