Matthew 6 verses 9 (prayer of adoration and worship): our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
A. King Belshazzar despised and polluted the vessels that were sanctified for God’s service to drink wine therein in the day of his joy when he commanded his servants to bring the golden and silver vessels dedicated unto God’s service, which his father, king Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem: thus he turned the dedicated objects for unclean purpose to praise the god of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. But at the same night, his ignorant, pomposity, foolishness and irreverent for the objects which belongs to the God of heaven was punished and his life was cut short the same night. Daniel 5. Note: God should not only be reverence, for his name is holy and reverend (Psalms 111:9): but the vessels or the instruments of his worship and adoration should be set aside in sanctification for the sole use of his honor, and not for any improper or irreligious operation, lest we provoke him whose name is jealous to anger.
Is He not the God of all flesh and the Father of all spirits in whose hand is the breath of every living being? If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust: should we not rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits to live? Note: all those who will not presently subject themselves in obedient to the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shall soon be counted as the enemies of his Son who would not that he should reign over them (Luke 19:27): they shall soon be subdued and be made a footstool unto his feet: who has ever hardened himself against him and prospered? None, no one has ever, and none shall ever be – hallowed be his glorious name forever and ever. Job 9:4. Psalms 110:1.
With God is terrible majesty: he changes times and seasons, and with him is the power to kill and power to make alive: with him also is the power to wound and the power to heal: he has power to make rich and the power to make poor: he raised up kings and he dethroned kings: he tears in pieces and none can rescue: when he shut up, no one can opened: none can hold back his hand, neither does he give account of any of his doings – hallowed be his gloriuos name forever and ever. He seals up the hand of everyman, that all men may know his works: he must be worshipped and reverently be served and adored: men should seek him continually and rejoice with trembling before him who is glorious in holiness and fearful in praises. There is none holy as the thrice Holy God: there is none beside him: neither is there any Rock like our God, there is none, holy as the Lord. The Lord our God is a fearful and dreadful God, whose ways are past finding out, and he do according to his will in the armies of the heaven – hallowed be his great and mighty wonderful name forever and ever. The Lord loves his sanctified ones; therefore he chastises them as Father chastises his children whom he loves, that they should not perish with the people of the world. He will not leave them altogether unpunished, though he will forgive the iniquity of their transgression to corrects them in measure, so that they should walk upright to the honor and glory of his name: he will discipline them that they should know how to put the difference between the clean and the unclean; between darkness and light, between good and evil; between sweet and bitter; so that in spirit and truth, they should show forth the praises of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light – hallowed be thy name.
As believers in Christ Jesus, we are the spiritual altars and our bodies should be the living sacrifice to be presented as the living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God for the honor and glory of him who has loved us, and has washed us by his own blood from our sins to make us kings and priests unto God his Father, lest we count the blood of our redemption as an unholy thing, thereby we despises the spirit of grace. Hebrews 10:29. We are the temple of his habitation through his Spirit that lives in us: it is the purpose of our creation and redemption in Christ Jesus: make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalms100:1-4.
Our Father who art in heaven is from everlasting, and he inhabits eternity (Psalms 93:2. Isaiah 57:15): there is no searching of his understanding. Canst any by searching find out God? Canst you find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst they do? Deeper than hell; what canst they know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Job 11:7-9. Isaiah 40:28.
If truly God is our Father in heaven (which he is) we owed him complete reverence and godly fear which he deserves: if Christ is our spiritual Master, he deserves the honor (Malachi 1:6) as our head and the respect of a servant to his Lord. We answer to the name of God and we bear the identity with Christ as Christians: the privileges of the new identity compel and oblige us to bring honor to the name of God in the world (2 Corinthians 5:14-15. 1 John 1:1-3) of darkness which does not know us as beloved children, neither knows him. It is left for us to walk worthy of this name: to act, live, do and speaks as it becomes a child of God that we might bring glory to the Father in heaven. Whatsoever should be done to set his name aside that men’s conscience should be drawn closely in awe of God through us should be done, so that we might silence the ignorant of the foolish men: to exercise ourselves in a pure conscience that is void of offence towards God and man. This was the sole error of David’s walk and intimacy with God when he failed to consider the reproach which his lusts and sexual sin with Bathsheba will bring to the testimony of the name of his God to commit adultery with Uriah’s wife and to kill him to cover his sin: howbeit, says Nathan the prophet, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. 2 Samuel 12:14. Note: it is imperative that we give careful thoughts, not only on our pleasure and intrests in dealings witth others, but to think about the impactful honour or dishonour, praise or reproach, increasing faith or discouragement that such affairs would have on others – believers and unbeleievers alike.
God is now our Father by our faith and acceptance of his Son whom he sent, through whom we have received the adoption of children by the new birth, having poured his Spirit of grace in our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father. God is just, a Father without respect of person who will judge every man according to his ways and rewards each and everyone according to the fruits of his doings. He reiterate on obedience to his word and to the voice of his spirit as the sole proof of our love to him and as a sign of a true devotion before him, bearing or producing the fruit of righteousness and holiness, lest we become delusional children of God, and lest we found Christ as we would not at his appearing and kingdom: as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 1 Peter 1:14-21.
B. Matthew 6 Verses 10 (the kingdom’s priority-divine interest): thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Our adoption as children of God is a call to look out and to prepare for the new kingdom of God to come, by looking for, and hasting for the day of the Lord in consecration of our body, soul and spirit that we may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless before him. The kingdom of God is divided into two parts, namely, the spiritual kingdom which is presently in us (and when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21): and (b) the physical kingdom which is in the future time – thy kingdom come.
Now, we should add value to our position in the kingdom with seriousness and diligent in our present involvement in our local church in a progressive walk and spiritual growth, fruitfulness, faithfulness in godly endurance, labor by our gifts and spiritual ability with steadfast spirit in the present spiritual kingdom, and to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, so that he might count us worthy to obtain and partake in the new kingdom prepared for us before the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34): then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, he that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sows them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 13: 36-43.
To live, seek and to abide in the will of God in the present kingdom should be our goal, that we may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Ephesians 4:12): this is the process of seeking the city to come: for here, we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. The present kingdom (Colossians1:13) calls for individual’s discovery of the will and purposes of heaven concerning them in joyful and loving willingness to submit and execute the will of God accordingly – be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17.
If we are a true subject in the present spiritual kingdom, we must seek to pursue after the will of God in a world where everyman seems to become his own master and god by rebellious spirit against the word of God, demonstrating and showing before the ungodly world that there is a God in heaven whose will should be done here on earth as it is done in heaven. What is the will of God: (a) it comprises of doing what is well pleasing in his sight: (b) it is a lifestyle of non conformity to the world, to keep yourself unspotted from the world, both inwardly and outwardly. James 1:27 (c) abstain from sexual immorality in all its appearances – for this is the will of God, even your sanctification (1Thessalonians 4:3-8) that you should abstain from sexual sins….When God brought his first begotten Son into the world, he says, I have come to do thy will, O God, and your law is within my heart (Psalms 40:8. Hebrews 10:7-9) which was evidence throughout his sojourned on earth through his perfect submission to say what he hears the Fathers’ says, or to do what he sees his Father doing, going about his Father’s business until the end: though he once struggled against the will of God at Gethsemane, yet, he was strengthened to submit to the will of God (Matthew 26:39) even to the death of the cross where he says, it is finished- this is the will of God: I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 6:38.
The kingdom of God within us and the love of Christ in us compel us as God’s children to submit before him through practical obedience to the word, and through the yielding of our body as instruments of righteousness for Christ to reign in us and for us to reign in life with Christ Jesus, if not, sin will reign over us if we obey it in the lust thereof (Romans 5:17. Romans 6:12-13) and it’s capable to rob us of a good harvest of eternal life if we keep sowing to the flesh, for God cannot be mocked, whatsoever any sow, that shall they reap (be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 7-8): let us therefore prepare the way for God in our lives and in all our ways, seeking for the knowledge of his will in every areas of our lives: not going our ways, and not doing our things while calling him Lord, Lord, but not doing the will of his Farther, but to ask in readiness like David: show me your ways, and teach me thy paths. Psalms 25:4. Matthew 7:21-23.
C. Matthew 6 Verses11: Give us this day our daily bread – Prayer for personal need of earthly basic necessities of life.
This verse is not saying that God will not and cannot made provisions of a life time available for us, just as David provided provisions of a lifetime for Solomon the king: but the lesson here from Christ is to live each day at a time without been engross in or trap by the cares and anxieties of materials and financial provision in an unstable and unpredictable world. Life is more than meat and the body is more than clothe, so therefore, learn to live for God in want or in abundance, to suffer need or to enjoy abundance: for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteiusness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Philippians 4:12. Romans 14:17.
The priority of the day is not the meat for the day because he will surely send it one way or the other, but to see to it that we live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Father in heaven is a great provider, every good and perfect gift comes from him who knows what is best for our sustenance and livelihood, and will daily loads us with benefits and give good things to his children: I have been young, David says, and now I am old: I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread: bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits: who satisfy your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Psalms 34:10. Proverbs 10:3.
The kingdom rule teaches us to avoid carefulness and anxiety of any kind, that if we have food to eat and clothes to put on, we should found contentment and satisfaction in Christ (1Timothy 6: 8) Jesus, even as the Lord reassured us that God will not leave us unclothed and malnourished (Psalms 81:8-16). Daily, God feed all the birds of the air and covers the grass in the field to the extent that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed or beautify like any of them, how much more shall he not feed and clothe us? It is God’s delight to take good care of us as the bible says that if the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with raven, why should not the Lion of the tribe of Judah supply and feed us with the finest of wheat and the best of lamb for meat? Nahum 2:12.
It is our daily duty to remind him of our need (cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7) and he has promised to supply for all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us this day our daily bread is an indication that we live daily and depend each every day on him the source and giver of life, who gives us all things richly to enjoy.
D. Matthew 6:12: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Believers must put on bowels of mercy and compassion as garments to walk and live momentarily daily in the spirit of forgiveness (Luke 17:1-4): his failure to walk daily in the spirit of forbearance and forgiveness would hinder his prayer for such is considered to be under the control of the spirit malice and bitterness whereby many are defiled. Forgiveness should be extended and granted even before the offender is made ware iof his offence because the word of God command us to forgive while we stand praying (Mark 11:25), that if we have aught against our brother, to forgive. Pardon and mercy should be pronounced before God as we ignore and overlook the offense (s) done against us, if we are not ready or willing to confront our offender for the injury done against us: the discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.Proverbs 19:11.
It is your wisdom and righteousness to discern anyone assigned by the enemy to trouble the peace of your Israel to avoid therm. How possible is it that a brother should offend you seventy one times seven in a day if he is not possessed by the spirit of strife and hatred? Anyone who poses the risk to your peace in the kingdom should be avoided, for such are the sons and daughters of Belial meant to cause offenses in the kingdom – they are the stumbling blocks of iniquity to be wisely and prayerfully avoided. Should we not seek peace, faith, righteousness and love with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart? 2 Timothy 2:22. Is the kingdom of God not in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? If you are ask to deny yourself to suffer in the flesh to avoid sin as the Lord command to cut off your right hand or your left eye that will cause you to offend, should you not be strong enough to separate yourself from anyone presenting himself as a constant thorn in your flesh, after first and second warning and admonition for the unruly? 1 Thessalonians 5:14. Titus 3:10-11.
Christ is coming back to remove and destroys all the false brethren causing troubles and offenses in his churches, disturbing the peace of his brethren and causing others to sin through their misbehaviors and evil attitudes though they are called Christians. I want you to learn wisdom from the conversation between God and Moses from the book of Numbers Chapter 14, verses 11-23 where God suggested to his humble servant to wipe away the rebels from Moses life and to make him a new set of obedient people, willing and ready to cooperate with him to lead to the Promised Land. Moses rejected God’s idea, but chose to stand between the Israelis and God as a good shepherd and intercessor would do, and he prevailed. Moses failure was that he seems and shows himself to care for the people more than God who has created and knows them in and out. Were not the same people that God sought to save him for responsible for his ministerial failure as their constant provocation exposed the weakness of Moses character – uncontrolled anger? God saw through the unwillingness and stubbornness of the hearts of the Israelis to change to remind them of his constant forgiveness and the number of times he’s been forgiven them; and though he kept to his word with Moses to forgive them, nonetheless, le left them to wander and to perish in the wilderness for forty years. The truth is, has Moses had respect for God’s decision, he should have made it to the promised Land through the co-operation of the new set of people God suggested to make for him to lead peacefully and obediently to the land of Canaan. God want to separate the provocative Israelis from the life of Moses, but Moses was too emotional to separate himself from his provocative brethren: who knows if he enjoys being provoked? But can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3. Numbers 14:11-23.
E. Matthew 6 Verses 13 a: and lead us not into temptation ((prayer for spiritual power to triumph daily and constantly over all evil – evil in each day; evil people, evil places and the flesh) but deliver us from evil.
Inherited sin is the sin of Adam and we’ve been forgiven of it through the redemption that is in the blood of Jesus: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14): but what about the flesh that lust and fight daily against the Spirit in us? For this, we need to walk in the Spirit, if we have to overcome the folly, deceitfulness and pleasure of sin or the works of the flesh: no man should say he is tempted by God when he is tempted: God will never tempt any man with evil, neither tempt he any man: for every man is tempted by his own lusts, and when lust has conceived, it bring forth sin, and sin, it bring forth death. There is stumbling block of sin in each and every one of us (flesh) which we ought to ask God to give us power to bring under subjection and to subdue. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
The trials that we face and the temptations that we endure are common among children of God; the same afflictions of the gospel are accomplished by our fellow believers in the world (1 Corinthians 10:13. 1 Peter 5:9): our Lord himself was tempted in every aspect of life we can possibly think of, but yet, without sin. We can go before him to help us against our temptations, trials and lusts, for he that had once defeated Satan, the tempter in all temptations, knows best how to overcome him, and because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:18.
God has promised to make a way of escape for our temptation by the same temptation before us, if we would gladly follow the hard path and choice outlined by the example of Christ victory over sin who suffered himself in the flesh, that whoso ever suffers himself in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1-2. Note: none should have any confidence in the flesh, for the flesh profits nothing, neither does it produce anything good from us to please God: let us pray like David once prayed: search me and know me O God, and deliver me from any hidden evil and lusts in me (2 Kings 8:12. 2 Samuel 11:2): and from the wickedness of the evil men of this world (1 Samuel 24:13): give me power through grace to triumph over the evil that is found in each waking day of life, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
F. Matthew 6 Verses 13 b: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory (acknowledgment prayer of the supremacy and Sovereignty of God) forever. Amen.
God is the rightful owner of the earth and the fullness thereof and there is nothing that any man or group of men could do to change his plans for the inhabitants on earth. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all as the Governor over the nations on earth. Psalms 22:27-28.
The kingdoms of this world are his, (the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. Psalms 24:1-3) their glory and honor comes from him as well: there is no power that exists, except from God and there is no person that lives except by him: for we all live and die unto him. We must therefore daily walk and live in the consciousness of his sovereignty in a child like spirit of submission to divine providence(s) in all things before him without any carnal uprising or murmuring against the God of heaven and earth in whom there is no rising up. There is power with God to lift up and to bring down –God has spoken once, yet, twice have I heard, that power belongs to God. He gives strength and power to the weak and weary. All power in heaven and on earth are his, let us thereof look up unto him for any help and blessing because he is able to do above all that we ask or think according to his power that works within us. His beloved children are presently endued with the power of the world to come (Hebrews 6:4-5. 1 Peter 1:5) to preserve and keep them through faith from being overcome by any oposition or spiritual fatigue in the pilgrimage, that they may be made strong by the everlasting arm unto his eternal kingdom against all odds, and from all foreign and strange powers of darkness for the call and hope to inherit eternal glory, that they will never lose focus of that prize and honor to share in the glory with Christ laid up for them before the foundation of the world. Daniel 4: 29-37. Job 9:1-12.