THE LORD'S PRAYER - THE MODEL EXPLAINED: PART 6

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This original language to English translation is not very accurate at all. God does not tempt anyone to do wrong things.  It is not His holy nature and God does not sin.  The audience at the time when Jesus was teaching the mechanics of His model prayer were Jews, who used to pray all the time to be kept far from bad things. What this really means in truthful terms, from the nuance of the original Greek word is “Lord, PLEASE do not allow or let me fall into some sort of trial or hardship which could cause me so much trouble and tribulation, that I would suffer a lot of lost – permanently or temporary”.

Temptation should not be confused with trials.  In fact, the actual original word “peirasmos” does NOT mean temptation such as you and I would think.  When we hear the word “temptation” – we think about temptation, as regards sins of the flesh – sex, overeating, uncontrolled spending, drinking alcohol and such human folly. What Jesus is teaching us to pray in this prayer, from HIS own word meaning is very crucial. He means for us,  in the literal meaning to pray, we are not enticed into sin but remember we have the Holy Spirit Who will always open a door of escape. Not just enticed, but this word “peirasmos” also instructs for us to invoke Heaven’s help to not fail and then lapse from 100% Faith and true Holiness! This is some serious business! 

Evil and temptation are aligned.  The devil is not worried about those who are unsaved, since he already has them in his grip, bound for an eternity in hell. Those who reject Christ do find a way to avoid temptation. They do have good moral families and some of them remain faithful to their spouses; do not steal; murder or lie under oath etc. There is a reason for this, however. The lost,  just like all humans ever created, all have the Law of God written on their hearts. The Law or Moral Code are the  same 10 Commandments which the atheists want to remove from the public square, not knowing they will be judged under that same Law and found sadly wanting. Yes, even these people know how to avoid temptation and prison from breaking the law of God and man. Spiritual evil never touch these people. This sort of evil only goes for the people of Christ – the saved, the Elect.....for now! The Day of the Lord is coming for those who have stored up wrath for themselves. Evil and temptation will be judged against the Law of God, which though written on the hearts of men, was rejected by them.

Evil and temptation also are intertwined. They are two sides of the same coin. If a Christian gives in to temptation and falls into some kind of sin – lust, adultery, fiscal shenanigans etc – the coin rolls to the flip side and evil is now part of their lifestyle.  Christ is showing us in this prayer that we have to pray against this. We have to know the tricks of the devil and how to engage in spiritual warfare. Teaching in modern churches on this is woeful and lacking because the majority, especially mega churches focus more on Grace and not the full counsel of the Truth. But God in His Wisdom HAS shown us the way, and it is in Ephesians chapter 6 where the weapons of our spiritual warfare are laid out fully for Christians to grab for free and it’s the Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Click here to familiarize oneself with this full arsenal of spiritual weaponry, and then let us pray thus:

Father in the Name of Jesus Who showed us how to protect not just our physical bodies, families and homes from all evil, but our testimonies and integrity, we thank You that You did not leave us defenseless. We thank You that in the short physical life we have on this beautiful planet, that You not only provide the means to a good life and for our daily needs of food and home, but for the Protection of our very souls! You love us so much, oh Holy God, that You do not wish us to come to emotional and relational harm with our loved ones and fellow man, and most of all with You. So thank You for this miracle of prayer where we can ask for, plead for and even cry out for Help! We need YOUR Help, Lord, to fight the evil of these corrupt depraved and perverted times. We need  Your angels watching our backs as they always do. We will never know how much bad stuff they protected us from until we get to Glory. But now, oh God, we ask that You know only keep us from bad people who will cause us to stumble and even fall, but that You help us to guard our hearts. 

We pray for a firewall of protection around our spiritual hearts, minds, eyes, ears, hands, mouths and thoughts that no weapon – ABSOLUTELY NO WEAPON – no dart, no temptation, no nothing will pierce that Shield of Righteous Faith which You have provided for our defense, in order that we are protected. Keep us from the evil one, therefore, and the evil circumstances, ideas and even people who can cause us harm. Even if there is no way we can avoid contact or temporal fellowship with them, in offices, in public or even our churches, help us to fortify our own faith, bodies, minds and souls so that nothing with pierce the Godly Armor You have provided for us. We love, praise, adore, admire, thank and worship You for Who You are and for the Godly Standard of Power and Righteous living You are, in the Mighty and Powerful Name of the Commander in Chief of the Universe – Jesus Christ, amen.

THE WILL OF THE FATHER

(Credit: East Balsam Baptist Church, Wisconsin)

As earthly fathers, I know that nothing pleases us more than when our children do what we ask them to do. In all cases I know of, we always ask them to do something that will be beneficial to their health, safety and future.  I know of no father in my circles of influence, who does not wish the best for his son or daughter - none. Jesus Himself confirmed that truth when He said which of you fathers, if your son asks you for bread, you will give him a stone? (Matthew 7:9)

Well, the answer is not one of us would do such a thing.  We sacrifice (well most of us do) and live way within our means so our kids can have the best of clothes, food and education. We have no control over what corrupt politicians do to destroy their futures with crushing long term debt (now over $100,000 for each of our unborn grand-children), but in our own way, we can teach and set them on the same course the ant took.

Proverbs 6:6-8 (NLT) says Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. This is a philosophy we can pass on to our children that, unless they're the small minority of honor students with large scholarships to fine university, they should break into life gradually. The ant is an industrious little creature who goes about his work like nobody's business. He is not proud nor does he make waves. He just does what he does and builds, provides and stores up.

Our Heavenly Father created that ant.
Father God also created us to work like that ant, but with His Law written in our hearts, so that even the pagan in remotest Papua, New Guinea, will know right from wrong. 
Father God created us and the creation around us. ALL Creation testifies to His Majesty, Power and great attention to detail. God is in the details - not the devil.
Father God also created us with a conscience to know when we violate that law which He has written on our hearts. This conscience testifies to the existence of the power of sin to move us away from Father God, even while we perform the great work of earthly fathers and industrious ants.

Yielding to the Power of Sin is NOT the Will of Father God, our Heavenly Father and Daddy - Abba! Yielding is not - but OBEYING is! There is no more perfect example than the Lord Jesus "Who offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of his reverence.  Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him!" (Hebrews 5:7-9)

There it is! This is Father's Son - God Who became man, OBEYING GOD the Father...how much more is it demanded of us that WE obey seeing that there is a coming Day when all will stand in the Judgment. Even pagan leaders are good providers and fathers to their daughters and sons, but that does not mean they are in the Will of the Father. If a man, no matter how high up or low down he is, claims he is doing what God put him on this earth to do - he is both a liar and in the end, he is not a good example of God's representative to his family.

What every man who calls himself a christian is not just supposed to, but commanded to do (by Scripture) is to teach his family to listen to, love and trust and obey God. To bring it down to the nitty gritty, the destination in our internal GPS should always be Heaven. This is what real men of God do - prepare to lead everyone in their household to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is the only purpose in life - to know God and enjoy Him forever.

The true success we have in life, is to see ALL of our children TRULY saved, TRULY KNOW WHO the Savior is and that they TRULY have a REAL relationship with Christ. We can know this for sure, on this side of eternity if we ourselves walk in righteousness all the days of our lives.

My wife once told me that we have to be 150% more righteous so that our kids can be 75%. There is some truth in that because they will have to find their own level of living in Christ once we lead them there and show them the road map. This is important for them and their children to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. We do NOT want to be part of the majority who did not heed this warning from Jesus for either our children or us, on that Day -  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven...Matthew 7:21

There will be no excuse then, but there is still time now. We have the Scriptures NOW to instruct us. If we really want to have a truly great Father's Day which will last beyond this one day every year, we will both do the "Will of the Father" as Jesus said in this verse and then ensure our kids live by it!

So what is "The Will of the Father" you ask? Scripture has the full answer - "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40).

The words "looks on" as in "who looks on the Son (Jesus)" literally means everyone who "partakes of, experiences, gazes on, beholds, walks, talks, lives and has a relationship with (theoron in the Greek)....will live forever in Heaven! This is should be our standard as earthly Fathers. Is it yours?

All Scriptures except where noted are from English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. 

A FORTNIGHT OF PRAYER

DAY 14

FOR FREEDOM - HE SET US FREE

The following are the dictionary definitions of FREEDOM:

1. The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
2. Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. The power to determine action without restraint.
4. Political or national independence.
5. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom. (Source)


On the day we celebrate the biggest Birth of Freedom the world has ever seen, it would serve us well to take another look at what Freedom really means. It was more than just the removal of crazy King George III by the Continental Army, General George Washington and some rag-tag peasants. It was a dawn of a new day where the governed would govern themselves according to a set of Principles and not under some "divine right" of corrupt kings and queens. These principles were all based on the Bible.

Patriot  Preacher Rev. Sam Cooper

It was a novel concept, a new paradigm. It was not to create another theocracy like Rome, but a land where non-believers in God would not just have the same rights and freedom to live peacefully, but could prosper as well. After all, the rain does really fall equally on the righteous and the unrighteous.  During the American Revolution, it was America's pastors who were the conscience of the burst of Freedom and I would even venture to say that the First Great Awakening - the biggest Revival in the world at the time, had something to do with it. This Awakening was spurred by men like Jonathan Edwards - who preached the greatest sermon still in this country (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, July 1741). George Whitefield and John Wesley fired up America for the Gospel and people saw that there was Freedom in the Gospel, through Christ our Lord, for the first time in their lives.


Edwards and Whitefield, two great Calvinists, preached and preached and preached until hundreds of thousands came to real salvation in their souls. They showed that it was Christ Jesus Who had the way to TRUE personal freedom and once their own souls were delivered from bondage, these new converts were so emboldened and passionate about spreading the Gospel, they mentored other men to do the same. This preaching and fiery evangelism took place for decades before the War of Independence actually happened. 

George Whitefield Preached Freedom in Christ

I think the colonists, through learning about the True Gospel for the first time in their churches discovered the definition of Freedom, similar to Item 1 above (The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint). They discovered what you and I already know in our own souls, and that is - Men who are in the grips and chains of sin and depravity are not free because Sin is crouching at their doors and will devour them in their bondage.


But Jesus Christ came to show us the only way, a better way, where we could defeat those personal transgressions and live in true victory. It is the Way of the Cross - the Way, the Truth and the Life. 


It requires men, women and children to realize that we cannot save and make ourselves free, but God can. It requires us to come to the realization that we MUST change course (REPENT), agree with God we're going down the wrong path to destruction, and ask forgiveness for our sins. Then we accept the work, the finished work on the Cross, and turn to the Savior, trusting and obeying Him as LORD and Savior. Don't believe those guys coming out of seminaries like Dallas Theological, Fuller, Hartford or other free grace schools of higher learning, where they say all a person has to do to be saved is "TRUST" in the Jesus and say a prayer! This is a recipe for a false decision and convert. Salvation is an orderly process which requires  Repentance. Jesus wants us to be truly free, and know that we are free so that we can show others how to live free!

Galatians 5:1 says "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery". This yoke of slavery is not just going back and committing the same sin which we were forgiven of, but not allowing ourselves to have our freedoms and liberties chipped and chopped away by men who do not serve the same God as we do. In the modern era, whenever  tyrants wanted to lord it over a people, the first thing to go was religious liberty. The French Revolution was  a good example where pagans like the Jacobins backed by the philosophies, from another world in the Illuminati, and men who hated God like Voltaire and Tom Paine, tried to wipe out Christianity from France. Karl Marx said that "religion was the opium of the masses". His spiritual children - the socialists and communist still have their heathen societies in place in Cuba, China and parts of the old Soviet Union. Even there, God has a small remnant who can still bring hope to the few they are allowed to.


So my friends, on the last day - Day 14 of 14 Days of Prayer and Fasting for America and religious freedom, we should remember a couple things:
1. Religious Freedom came at a price when ordinary men did extraordinary things in the late 1700's, so that they could have a chance to govern themselves, according to a unique system set up by the foundations of Godly principles.
2. Religious Freedom first begins with personal freedom - freedom from your own past and sins, into a life of true peace, joy, happiness and contentment. 


Sure there are many of our citizens, then and now, who did not believe as we do. These men and women did, and some still do, contribute to the Great Experiment called America. However, as time and events move closer to the end of all things, we will see increasing evidence of them versus us. It is only by usurping our God-given and Christ-bought-at-the-Cross Freedom they can achieve whatever plans they have to serve themselves. Always remember, the power of men to lord it over others is only temporary and here for a brief time on this earth. But we, our calling, our destination, our Salvation, is permanent. We are set free for eternity and while we may have troubles and tribulation, hold fast - help is not only on the Way, but He is with us always, my fellow Christians! Greater is He Who is in us, than he who rules the current world, for a short time. Sure pray for those who are lost and who oppress other, and pray them into His capable Hands, but always keep our eyes on the Greater Prize - Christ, our Hope and the Glorious Day coming when we see Him Face to face! WHAT A DAY THAT WOULD BE!


Thank you to the wonderful saints in the United States, Canada and South Africa who stayed and prayed these past fourteen days as we purposed on this mission for Religious Freedom and Personal Freedom in Christ! The Lord heard our cries of repentance, submission and intercession for the lost, hurting and the oppressed. If you wish to join a group of prayer warriors on Twitter sometime, usually every Wednesday morning, you can pray with some mighty prayer warriors from the US, UK and South Africa there, by using the hash tag #EuropeAfricaUS.


May God bless and keep us all and may God continue to shine His Mighty Face on the United States of America! Father, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, thank You so much for the privilege of being in Your Presence and for the honor and duty You gave us to pray for Your Grace, Mercy, Righteousness and forgiveness, not just these past two weeks, but each and every day of our lives. Thank You for the Freedom to do this, and for the country You allowed me to set up over 230 years ago, which has allowed Your saints not just to flourish here in the US, but to spread that love and the bountiful goodness of this land around the world to others in need!

Thank You for Your Awesome Son - the Savior - the Lord Jesus - the God Who became a man that He may see and live like we did, so He would be our High Priest, Intercessor, Prophet and King before the Throne daily, as we pray to You, through Him. It is He - the Lord - Who has set us free. It is He - the Lord- who has given us Eternity.  It is He - and He only - to Whom we bow the knee, in reverence, submission and hope to live a life free from the flesh, and one full of the Spirit of the Living God Who has sealed us until the Day of Redemption.


Father, make Your Face to shine once again upon America, remove the dross and let the true jewel shine. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness and forgive us for participating in the sinful evil culture of not just Hollywood, but the filth of an MTV generation through music, books, films and theologies which have now corrupted churches and millions of people who have deceived themselves into thinking You are pleased with this Laodecian-like behavior. 


We pray today for the return of Preachers, Evangelists and prophets like Whitefield and Edwards and Moody who would stand on the Gospel and not run megachurches like businesses with their private jets and million dollar houses and clothes. 


We pray for a rising up of the Body in a movement of prayer, sacred assembly and revival like Ezra did as the remnant returned to rebuild Jerusalem 2600 years ago.


We pray for leaders now and in the future who will follow Your will and conduct themselves accordingly...and Lord leaders who not just appear in churches during election season with a christian mask on, but men and women who live and govern, in they forget, is their temporary stewardship, according to the Word of God. Even if they do not believe as we do, Lord, You have already written Your Law in their hearts and they are doubly accountable because of their higher position of authority and their consciences should dictate their conduct. Lord, show those, who follow the broad road and lead others into things You did NOT ordain in Your Word, show them their works will be judged accordingly, if they do not repent and turn to the Savior.


We pray finally Lord for this country, that it will return to You before it is too late. You have given us ample warnings in these natural disasters, which the lost have taken to calling "Global Warming". 

We pray most of all for our children - that they may be protected from a corrupt society which seeks to educate them in every manner of depravity and ungodly conduct dressed up in the sheep's clothing of tolerance and alternate lifestyles. Bring Godly intervention to the sleeping church, which has allowed this to happen and not say a word about it.


Father God, bless this day, give us strength and hope, most of all give us the Perseverance of the saints of God to make it through these days so we can not only flourish as a Body spiritually, to the end, but we can lead many to a saving knowledge of Christ, in Whose Name I pray, amen.

(images by google & ndptf, co springs)