Be blessed!
Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:9-10.
"Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom COME. Your will be done, on earth as IT IS IN HEAVEN."Jesus taught us to pray that all the glory of His Father's Kingdom would break through and be manifested on the earth, bringing the transference of all of Heaven's purposes and blessings into the earthly arena.
Many years ago, I had a most interesting vision. I saw a massive dam. It was holding back a mighty river on one side, but on the other side was thirsty ground, parched and cracked in the sun. I understood that the river represented the glory of God, and the parched ground represented the world. I knew that it was God's will that the knowledge of His glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and so I said, "Lord, how will Your glory breach that massive wall?" Then I saw it. Tiny broken places began to form in the dam…hairline fractures that seemed so insignificant. But out of those tiny cracks, razor sharp spurts of water began to spray through. The cracking continued and I watched as small chunks of the wall began to fall away. Soon water was gushing in from all sides, and suddenly, in one moment, the mighty dam was swept away and the parched ground was covered. Then the Lord spoke to me and said, "My glory will cover the earth through broken people."
Suddenly, I saw Jesus at the Last Supper breaking the bread of communion, and He said, "…This is my body, which is BROKEN for you…" (1 Corinthians 11:24). When Jesus spoke of His body being broken, He was speaking of the crucifixion.
Immediately the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 nasb came flooding into my spirit: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." What a powerful confession! To be crucified with Christ… this is the brokenness that will result in His life flowing out through ours to the dry and parched world around us. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…."
When we are broken, like Gideon's clay jars, the light of Christ inside will shine out, and those rivers of living water inside of us will come pouring out as Jesus promised they would. But how can we be crucified with Christ? Should we find a band of Roman soldiers and ask them to nail us to a cross? The reality is that Jesus had laid down His life long before He was nailed to the cross. Hear Him praying in the garden, "…Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). This is true brokenness. It's where the real crucifixion takes place, and it is in this laying down of our own will and desires that our prayers become truly powerful.
Psalm 51:17 says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
One of the greatest hindrances to the true revelation of the glory of God in the earth is prayer offered by those who have personal agendas that seek to exalt themselves. They pray, "Not thy will, but mine, be done." God sees absolutely everything. He hears every prayer, but He also looks deep within the heart of the individual who prays the prayer, and clearly understands the motivations of the heart which are behind it! Nothing is ever concealed from His eyes. Prayer of any sort for anything is always going to be subject to His scrutiny. He not only hears what we petition Him to do, but He also sees all — the true reason that the petition is being made. This is what James was referring to when he said:
"You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, THAT YOU MAY SPEND IT ON YOUR PLEASURES" (James 4:2-3 nkjv).
God loves it when we pray the things that are on His heart more than our own. One of the highest purposes of prayer and intercession is to help bring His Kingdom into the earth so that He will be glorified. The truth is clearly illustrated by Jesus when He said, "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, THAT THE FATHER MAY BE GLORIFIED IN THE SON. If you ask ANYTHING in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13-14 nkjv).
Many people have attempted to use faith and prayer in the name of Jesus as a blank check to get whatever they want for themselves. God has given us wonderful promises about asking, believing, and receiving. That is not in dispute whatsoever, but there is a higher calling in faith and prayer. It is to ask for things, that when given, will be used exclusively to bring glory to our Heavenly Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! It's a type of prayer that is not about us, but it is all about Him and for Him. This is the kind of prayer that God desires. Jesus has promised that if we pray that way and with that motivation, "If you ask ANYTHING in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14 nkjv).
In 1 John 5:14-15 nkjv, we find another wonderful promise of scripture. It reads as follows: "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
One of the great secrets of prayer is the discovery of the unlimited power that is available when God's people begin to intercede for things that God has clearly promised in His written Word. Faith and expectancy in intercession are little more than presumption and delusion if they are not firmly rooted in that which is the expressed will of God to perform. Thank God that because of His great love, mercy, and grace, He doesn't give us everything we ask for. If He did so, many times disaster would be the result for us as well as the abortion of His purposes and plans!
God is absolutely honest. He can never lie. He will never promise things that He is unable or unwilling to deliver. We can have absolute, unwavering confidence that when we go to Him in prayer, seeking those things that we know are His expressed will to give and to do, a revelation of His glory and power will soon come. It will never fail. When we know that we know that we know what the will of God is, we can pray that will with the unwavering assurance that the answer is on the way.
When we begin praying for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will break the devil's back and glorify God, the heavens will begin to leak under the weight of His glory. When we begin to passionately pray that souls be saved and that the name of the Lord Jesus be famous in the nations, we can be absolutely confident that Heaven is beginning to move in response. Jesus has promised that when we pray with the motivation that His Father be glorified, He will respond by doing ANYTHING that we ask Him to do!
When we begin to pray, "Not my will, but Thine, be done," our lives become a crack in the wall that allows the glory of God to flow to the earth. The Scriptures declare that one day the knowledge of this glory will completely cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. There could not be a more thorough saturation. Although this prophetic promise is still unfulfilled, we have seen many glimpses of what happens when God's people pray
God bless you
-Jack Loloin-
