Use This?

Please take anything from this website you can use. I am the author, and I give you permission, unless the piece is by-lined from someone else.

My hope is that something God has given me will serve to help you grow in your understanding of our (the Church's) responsibility toward the Unreached Peoples, and perhaps motivate others to join you in prayer.


The dynamics of the first half of the Lord's Prayer [Mat.6:9,10]

1. The first dynamic is obvious. We are honoring God’s name by using the first clause of the prayer:  Father, hallowed be your name!

2.  Secondly, by praying those words we are commanding something to happen!  Greek scholars tell us, the expression "hallowed be" is in the imperative mode. We are imitating God, who brought the universe into being by his command.

3.  How does this happen? Do we have creative power to bring it about? No. Then are we just pretending? No. We are obeying Jesus who told us to pray this way. Paul told us to imitate our Father as most dear children, in Ephesians 5:1.  God will not let our words fall to the ground. He will enable them. His power through our words will effect what Jesus intended. The Unreached Peoples will be motivated to honor the name of the Lord.  That means they will submit to the salvation Jesus offers, since no one can honor God without faith.

4.  When we pray the second clause in the prayer guide Jesus gave us: Your kingdom come, we are commanding the Lord's kingdom to come where it does not yet exist. That is, among the Unreached Peoples.  Jesus was clearly not praying for the saved, the born again believers.  They were already in the kingdom of God! 

5.  When we pray, Your will be done on earth, we are commanding the Unreached Peoples to be saved.  That is God's will for those who have not surrendered their hearts to the Lord.

Again, it is up to God to empower our words.  This he will surely do.  The entire scheme is his own creation.  We are only doing what he has commanded us to do.  And he is not willing that anyone should perish!

When we obey Jesus' instruction, the Unreached Peoples, who were the target of Jesus’ prayer, will be drawn into his kingdom. This was Jesus’ aim. This is precisely God's will for the unreached, as seen in both Old and New Testaments.  [Mentioned in 30 Psalms including all of these: Ps.100; Ps.117; Ps.67. Gen.12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 18:14; Is.56:6,7; Mk.11;17; Ac.3:25; Gal.3:8; Mat.28:18-20; Mk.16:15,16; Lk.24:47; Jn.17:18; 20:21; Ac.1:8; Mat.24:14. And there are more!]

The praying disciple finds himself worshiping as he prays through those first three expressions [Mat.6:9,10].  He experiences profound fulfillment in worshiping God.  He was created for worship. I believe Jesus imbedded worship into the very fiber of this prayer instruction to his disciples. We quite naturally, or supernaturally, find ourselves worshiping God as we pray, with understanding, those first three clauses of the Lord's prayer.

Let's very intentionally worship God as we intercede for the UP.

Jesus’ prayer model is an amazing creation, combining worship and intercession as a sort of love package.

The Father, in his creative power, is bringing about the salvation of the UP through us, as a result of our partnering with him in this prayer. Can any strategy for reaching the Unreached be more effective?  How fulfilling for us who pray!

This is typical of how God works in and through us: He draws us into focusing on him through our worship and our obedience, AND he benefits us in a way that profoundly feeds our hungry souls.

Want to pray today for a UPG being prayed for by 10,000 believers this very day? 
http://global-prayer-digest.org
Click on this link. Then click: "Today's Prayer Topic."