September 15, 2010 Understanding the Lord's Prayer Kathleen Maples

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He first directed them to pray to OUR
Father. He's not a cold, distant, hard to reach God, but He is our Father. He's our Parent, and
as such is responsible to care for us, and loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. He's
in Heaven, on the Throne of all power. He's not off doing something, He's not gone traveling,
He's on the Throne, watching over all, answering the cries of His children. Jesus instructs us to
mentally prepare ourselves for we approach our Father, but He is HOLY. Because of the blood
He shed on the cross for us, we who have been born again are made acceptable in His sight. We
have been given His Spirit to live in us, to make us like Christ. He accepts us for His Son's sake.
He loves us because His Son loves us and died for us-but never forget it was the Father that sent
the Son to do that.

Luk 11:2 And he said unto them, When you pray, say, Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be your
name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.

When you look up that word 'Hallowed' it means to mentally consecrate, sanctify, purify. What
He's saying is before you pray, remember WHO you are talking to, acknowledge His holiness,
His purity. You can't just casually approach Him as you would your neighbor or friend. He's
HOLY. We must confess any known sin and ask for forgiveness. This is purifying ourselves. We
don't take anything for granted, and have the attitude, well Jesus died to pay for all my sins,
and God knows about them. No, we can't treat sin lightly. He says repeatedly to His people in
His Word "Acknowledge your sin." (Jer_3:13 Jer_14:20 Hos_5:15) His name is Holy (Psa_111:9) His
name is representative of His authority, His character.

We have to come with deep reverence for who He is. Psa_89:7 says "God is greatly to be feared
in the assembly of the saints; and to be had in reverence of all them about Him." If we come any
other way, we are already in disobedience, and the likelihood of our being heard is slim and
none. We know that we can only come in and through the name and Person of Jesus Christ.
That tells us we can't be proud or think we are anything that we talk to God and He talks with
us. We have access because of His Son's great and bloody and painful sacrifice. We can't ever
treat that lightly or think He accepts us for any other reason. We must remain humble and
honest and reverent.

Father, may Your kingdom come, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does
that mean? It is foolish to quote this prayer verbatim without ever considering what it means.
This is a cry for the Lordship of God, the rulership of God in our lives, in our society, in our
homes, our churches, our land. By default, to pray this we acknowledge that the current
rulership, ourselves of ourselves first, ourselves in our churches, homes, schools, and lands, is
totally inadequate. It's not to be desired. It is completely flawed. We cry out for His will, His
purpose, His pleasure, His desires to be accomplished, not our own. And His ways, His
thoughts are very different from ours. No wonder He said we are to have the mind of Christ.
Just as there is obedience to His purpose and plan and desire in heaven, so we pray for this on
earth. We are made of earth-so first we are saying, Lord, have Your way in me, through me,
and all around me. This is a cry of surrender-our will and desires for His.

Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

In order for the Lord to give us anything, we have to present ourselves to Him. We have to
approach the Throne. We have to come to His Presence, acknowledging His holiness,with
reverence and faith. He can't provide us with what we need if we are always on the go, and
never stop to acknowledge Him or spend time with Him. Then we will become strangers to
Him. What is our daily bread? His Word. Unless we spend time with Him, seeking His Holy
Spirit to open our understanding to His Word it will not profit us very much. In order for the
food we eat to profit us, our body must break it down and carry it where it needs to go, by the
blood, to supply the nutrition necessary to our bodies. When we spend time with the Lord,
eating His Word, allowing Him to open our understanding to what it means, then we will be
strengthened, our faith will grow, our understanding will increase. We cannot apply what we
don't understand, nor can we properly benefit from it. Knowledge without understanding is
dangerous. His Word is life to our spirit. When we neglect Him, we grow weak, dull, and are
easily frustrated and defeated by the things that come against us. The key word here is "Daily".
We can only receive enough for one day. This is God's way of getting us to come back because
He loves us, He wants to spend time with us. He knows only He has what we need. He's so
willing to give it to us if we just come.

Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Father, put away our debts, our faults, our sins against You. We owe you everything, we
acknowledge that. And as You pardon us, we likewise will pardon those who have sinned
against us, who owe us a debt. This isn't talking about money, though if we owe money to
someone we are obliged to pay that debt. This is when another does something to you that is
wrong, you are to forgive them, to pardon it, let it go, so that God will pardon you. No one has
sinned as grievously against us, regardless of what they have done, as we have sinned against
God. There is no comparison, but we must have Divine Help to understand this. If we don't
forgive others, He can't forgive us.

Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

This word 'temptation' means trial that will prove, temptation that will provoke an internal
desire for something sinful. Sometimes God allows adversity, affliction or trouble, to test our
character or faith. He already knows what we are, He knows our heart better than we do but
He has to allow these things to show us what is hidden deep in our hearts so we can see it,
confess it, and repent and then He cleanses us. But, Father, rescue us from that which is evil,
harmful, corrupt. It's Your kingdom, You rule supreme, You have the mighty, miraculous
ability and You alone are worthy of the glory, honor and praise. Regardless of what is done,
what miracles are performed, what good deeds are done, what obedience we do, only God is to
get the glory, not us. It's all His. We can have nothing He doesn't give us. We can do nothing
without Him. So the glory, the credit, the honor, the attention, is to be His alone.

This is also written in Luke 11. After the prayer, Jesus gives them an illustration of persistence.
Then He tells the disciples, you ask, you desire, you require Him. You worship, you pursue,
enquire after Him, desiring to know Him yourself, and you will begin to understand Him. You
will begin to see Him for yourself (know Him). You knock, You come to the Door, you knock,
desiring entrance into His Presence, and He will open it up and admit you. If your child is
hungry, will you not feed him?

Then Jesus says something interesting. He says, in Luk_11:13 "If you then, being evil,
understand how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

Compared to this Holy, pure God, we are evil. Apart from Him, all we have is the nature of the
beast we are born with. This nature is selfish, destructive, proud, envious, and capable of
stooping to unimaginable levels of depravity. Turn on the news any day of the week, and you
see it on display-it's the nature of Satan man has been infected with since he lost the image or
likeness of God in the garden. Now, a person not born again reflects by his behavior certain
characteristics of Satan. Self wants to be beautiful so it gets attention, praise, etc. Self wants
the best of everything and is unconcerned for the lack or suffering of others. Oh, it may
contribute a little money or something to a cause to soothe that conscience, but it won't really
give of itself that which would really make a difference. People, by nature, want the best, the
biggest reputation, the biggest house, money, power, physical beauty, to accumulate material
possessions, desired because someone else has them. Others get caught up in their passion to
make a difference in the world by being activists, or trying to protect animals or the
environment. People can be passionate about things, but ultimately, it's to please themselves,
and they are following their own idea of what is right. There is a way that seems right to
humanity but the end of that way is death. Many that protest killing whales or damaging the
earth don't bat an eye at the thought of abortion. Oh, yes, apart from Him, we are evil. He
alone is good, and that is the only goodness we can ever lay claim to.

Paul himself testified in Romans 7, he knew in himself there was no good thing. Neither is there
any good in us. Even when we do good deeds, there is often a selfish motive behind them, or we
are attempting to soothe a troubled conscience.

When I consider all the things that Jesus just taught and illustrated His disciples, I see a prayer
of complete surrender, a desire to completely surrender our will and plans in exchange that
HIS be accomplished instead, and then, He reveals we are to ask for the Holy Spirit. Only the
Holy Spirit can empower us to reject ourselves, our plans and desires in favor of fully
embracing God and His desires. Jesus also instructed the disciples to pray for the Lord of the
Harvest to send forth laborers.

Mat 9:37 Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few;
Mat 9:38 Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

If there are no missionaries being sent from your church, then there is a problem. I don't just
mean missionaries who visit your church and get handed money to help. I mean is there none
being taught, discipled, raised up in your church with a burden for the lost in other areas
where there are souls who have not heard that Name above Names? Everywhere Jesus taught,
something was accomplished. The Bible says His Word accomplishes His desire when and
where He sends it. A healthy church that is growing spiritually will, under the leadership of
the Holy Spirit, produce disciples, who in turn are mature and can take the Gospel, themselves
Spirit led, too, to other areas. There will be a love and selflessness in that body of believers
where the life and light of God is poured out to others. There will be preachers, missionaries,
teachers, helpers, all raised up in that body of believers, and it will spread, reproduce, bear
fruit. But if you don't have a sanctified, crucified, and praying man or woman in the pulpit who
has been shut in with God, the result will be predictable and there will be no fruit. That is the
sacrifice so few are willing to make. Many say they love the Lord, name His name, go to
church, but few will step away from their lives and shut themselves in with Him and just be
still, and know He is God and hear what He has to say. But unless we do this, unless we know
Him for ourselves, all we can do is misrepresent Him. I believe this is one reason in so many
churches there is much activity, programs and routines, but very little accomplished of eternal
worth in His kingdom.

It is part of the heart of God-that all men may know and hear. All people, male and female,
adult and child. Then, Jesus told them, the harvest is great, it's huge, and the harvest He
referred to was the crop of human souls on the earth, ready to be reaped by darkness or light,
good or evil. But the laborers are few. Those who are willing to labor and toil and teach and
work in the harvest are few. Pray, make a petition to God that He would bring forth and send
workers, laborers, teachers, into His harvest. (Luk_10:2)

Mat 19:13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them,
and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.

Some people disregard children in the church, not making them a priority. They think it's
enough in Sunday School to teach them little Bible stories, let them color, learn the names of
the Books in the Bible, sing Bible songs, ask them if they want Jesus in their heart then tell
them they are saved. If they come from broken homes, and are unruly because of a lack of real
discipline, a lack of patience and compassion will send them away because they will be set at
nought in the mind of that frustrated teacher who just doesn't have the patience or willingness
to show Jesus to that child because they don't know Him well enough themselves. I've seen it.
And then we wonder why when they become teenagers they are out the door and caught up in
the world. When they brought children to Jesus, the disciples thought this unimportant. They
rebuked them. But Jesus said "Allow the little ones, don't forbid them but bring them, help them
come to me. The character, the pure faith a child has when they are told something that it is
true, that is what we must possess-a childlike faith in God, to enter into His kingdom. He
wants the children. He doesn't want the world and the devil to have them. And it will take
more than sermonettes, and Bible stories and coloring pages and crafts in Sunday School to
accomplish this. The people bringing the children wanted Jesus to touch them and pray for
them. They knew their children needed a touch from the Lord. Prayer. And that's what it's
going to take today. But you hear people say "Well they are too young, they don't understand."
How often we underestimate God.

They need a touch from the Lord and can the One who made them not help them understand?
Sure He can. That is what it's going to take-prayer and a touch from the Lord on that child's
life. They need to experience the reality of God while they are young and tender. A Bible story
to most kids is just like any other story they hear in the library at school. Entertaining and fun,
but they don't take it seriously. They can profess Him as Savior, and say He's in their heart, but
that is a work of the Holy Spirit and we have no right to lie to kids that way.

Luk 18:1 And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to
faint;

Jesus knew people would get weary, discouraged, and give up on their prayers. Many would
blame God for not answering. Many would not persevere and wait on the Lord to answer. But
we must. We must wait on Him, and not ever give up. He showed us the kind of praying that
does not get heard when He talked about people trusting in their own righteousness. They
lightly esteemed others, indeed they viewed others with contempt. They saw others as nothing
worthwhile. Someone with this attitude went to the temple to pray, the Pharisee, who trusts in
his own self worth, his religious deeds, and manner of dress, and a tax collector went about the
same time. God already knows we have no righteousness of our own-our righteousness
according to His Word is like a filthy rag in His sight. (Isa_64:6) Look it up in the Hebrew, and
that word for filthy is a cloth women used at that time Isaiah wrote this to catch their
menstrual flow. Not very flattering to humanity. That says self righteousness, self exaltation is
a stink in God's nostrils. He abhors it. A menstruous cloth is good for only one thing-the trash.

The word Pharisee means separatist and very religious. The Pharisee stood in his pride and
arrogance and prayed, not even realizing the heavens were brass over his head. God would not
hear him because he justified himself while throwing off on other people. It's ironic the
Pharisee claims he's not like other men, such as extortioners. Jesus told the Pharisees and
scribes in Mat_23:23 they were hypocrites because they would pay tithes from even the tiniest
income they gained from their herb gardens where they sold these seeds and spices mentioned
in this verse. They considered it proof of their zeal for the law. Still, they ignored the more
important aspects of the law such as mercy, justice in judgment, and faith. No faith? No mercy?
No justice?

He said they strained at a gnat (KJV) but it should say "strained out a gnat". They would
carefully strain anything they drank to make sure they didn't accidentally drink anything with
a gnat or other small insect in it which was considered by the law unclean. (Lev_11:41-43) Yet,
Jesus illustrated they put a lot of effort into the little, easier things, and ignored the heavier,
weightier matters of the law, thus the illustration of the gnat and the camel. Typical human
behavior. Take the path of least resistance. Then He went on to tell them they made sure they
looked clean on the outside, but inside they were swelled up from being full from extorting
from others and had no self restraint. They were completely self indulgent. In Mat_23:14 Jesus
said 'it's all a pretense, you shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to
be righteous by making your long prayers heard..."

Adam Clarke's commentary quotes Josephus on this and the insight surely lends gravity to the
judgments Jesus warned were coming their way for their awful behavior.
 "This sect," says Josephus, (Ant. l. xvii. chap. 3,) "pretended to a more exact knowledge of the law, on which
account the women were subject to them, as pretending to be dear to God. And when Alexandra obtained the
government, (Jewish War, b. I. ch. 4,) they insinuated themselves into her favor, as being the exactest sect of
the Jews, and the most exact interpreters of the law, and, abusing her simplicity, did as they listed, remove and
dispose, bind and loose, and even cut off men. They were in vogue for their long prayers, which they continued
sometimes three hours; that perhaps they sold them, as do the Roman priests their masses, or pretended
others should be more acceptable to God for them; and so might spoil devout widows by the gifts or salaries
they expected from them. Now this being only a hypocritical pretense of piety, must be hateful to God, and so
deserve a greater condemnation."

That is flat out exploitation of the poor and weak through deceitful measures. Now here's this
Pharisee in the temple, praying he's glad he's not an extortioner like other people, and unjust,
or an adulterer-or even like this publican (tax collector). He went on and on, standing before a
Holy God who sees and knows the wickedness of his heart and the hypocrisy of his words,
without any regard for his fellow man standing within ear shot of his critical and
condescending prayer.

How many times have we been guilty of this? We pray like we are God's holy children, but we
get offended if someone curses in front of us. And it is offensive, don't get me wrong. But
examine your heart here. Do we turn up our nose when we see a young person with tattoos
and piercings and multi colored hair? We hear the homosexual debate raging, see their
militant in-your-face behavior, and think ourselves better than them when in reality the only
goodness we have is the measure of the Spirit and Word of God that lives inside us. Do we just
get offended at them or do we have compassion, and recognize they are bound in a darkness so
thick only the power of the Holy Ghost can break it? Jesus said in the last days there would be
much strife, contention, debating, families splitting up, wars, rumors of wars, nation against
nation, ethnic violence, racist behavior. This black against white, hyphenated American thing
smacks of Satan's divisive tactics. It's divide so he can conquer. Indian Americans. They are
taught from birth they were cheated and enslaved by the white man who took away their land.
This breeds resentment and bitterness because they are not taught that America was founded
on decent principles, and it was a good country for a long time. The best in the world. Black
people insist on being called African American when they were born here, not Africa. Many
have been taught from birth about a heritage of slavery and abuse at the hands of the white
man, so they harbor bitterness and resentment, and feelings of anger. Not all, I know, but you
hear it on the news, and it's fed by the manipulations of the media and politicians. Now there is
the Hispanic illegal immigrant, to further stir up division, resentment, and separation. The
resentment is fed by the government granting them special privileges and tax breaks, even
though they break the law and this breeds resentment and anger in others. Jesus warned us all
about this. (Mat_24:6, Mat_24:10, 2Ti_3:1-4) This is deliberate manipulation of the government,
inspired by Satan, to divide this nation from within, so it can be conquered. Even in politics.
It's left against right, and nobody wants to work for the common good of the people because
selfish minds have been corrupted and in their arrogance and presumption, think themselves
smarter than others.

Too many in the church want to get political to solve the problem, forgetting they are not to be
of this world, that America is not our home. We are to travel through this nation as strangers,
not putting down roots, not getting attached, if anything, seeking God to cut the ties that bind
us to this place. Help us refocus our eyes on heaven, on the Master. My point is, as Christians, if
we come before the Lord with resentment or hostility toward another group or race of people,
or a feeling of smug superiority to others, we are just as this Pharisee. And his prayer was an
abomination to God. (Pro_28:9; Pro_16:5) God can help us with this. I understand all too well the
struggle not to resent the intrusion of illegals who take jobs that are needed, that are one
excuse the politicians use to raise taxes, etc. A very dear friend of mine was murdered in 2004
by an illegal. I had such a hard struggle there for a while and I had to pray and have Divine
help not to resent them and hold bitterness in my heart against them. God can help us with this,
but we have to be willing to let the ugly resentment go.

Then you have the publican. They were the most hated among the people of Israel. They
collected public taxes for Rome. They often demanded more from the people than Rome did,
because that was how they made a living-extortion of their own people. Most of them became
wealthy due to this practice. The Jews despised them, for this was a form of oppression. They
were like the IRS. Anything produced, exported or imported was taxed. It was an unfair
system, full of fraud with no remedy for the people who were exploited. They always
overcharged the people to make a profit whenever they had a chance, and would often try to
bring false accusation of smuggling to try to obtain hush money. They could seize and open
letters on any whim or suspicion. People viewed the publicans with contempt, because most of
them were dishonest, all were despised. In Judea, it was even worse. These were fellow Jews,
hired by the Romans to collect taxes from their own people. They were viewed as traitors.
However, not all were unscrupulous. This parable illustrates this. Here we see a humble and
contrite publican, standing in the temple, too ashamed of his sins to even lift up his eyes toward
heaven as he struck his own chest in frustration and cried out for mercy. He acknowledged he
was a sinner. He must have hated what he was.

Jesus said this publican went home justified rather than the Pharisee. He humbled himself and
admitted he was a sinner in need of mercy. Hallelujah!

Psa 34:18 The LORD is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite
spirit.

When it came time for Jesus to choose the disciples, He first spent the night in prayer, alone in
a mountain. The next day, He set out to find and call each disciple. After He fed the multitudes,
when the people saw the miracle in feeding them He did, they wanted by force to make Him
their king. He hurriedly sent His disciples away and went up into the mountain away from
them to pray, alone with God. He prayed all night. This was a temptation. He faced every
temptation known to man. The people wanted to make Him who was King of Kings and Lord of
Lords their king by force because He had miraculously filled their bellies-and it had nothing to
do with the Word of God He spent 3 days teaching them.

Everyone wants to be accepted and some are willing to compromise to gain that acceptance-
even if it's based on a wrong premise or if they're accepted for the wrong reason. No one likes
being rejected. He had spent three days feeding them spiritual truth, the Word of God-
something very precious to Him. For whatever reason, they stayed and listened. I believe that
word had spread He was a miracle worker and I believe that was what they were waiting for.
They wanted to see the signs and wonders more than to hear the truth. Whatever food they had
with them when they first got there was gone by then, and they were hungry. Scripture even
says in Joh_6:14 when they saw the miracle Jesus had done, they called Him prophet, and they
meant by force if necessary, to make Him their king. Prophet. How many religious people in
their Pharisee like arrogance give themselves lofty sounding titles today? Too many.
Prophetess so and so, Prophet so and so. It smacks of arrogance and presumption. If we have to
build ourselves up in the eyes of men by giving ourselves titles we have nothing. This is only to
gain attention, and respect, deference, just like the Pharisees, who also had nothing. It's
wrong.

But there was that temptation to be accepted through compromise. What did He do? Walk
away from it and spent several hours until somewhere between 3 and 6 am (the 4th watch) on
the mountain alone in prayer with His Father. He'd sent His disciples away, He told them get in
the boat and go to the other side. (Mar_6:45) We're talking about how and when and why Jesus
prayed here.

Not long after He chose the disciples and called them, He had been in Galilee, healing the
diseased, the possessed, forbidding the demons to speak because they knew who He was. He
was getting ready to go to other parts of Israel, away from Galilee. This was a place where
many Gentiles lived as well as Jews. It was a northern province of Palestine, along with
Samaria and Judaea. After the Israelites of Samaria were taken into captivity by the Assyrian
armies, and Judah fell to the Babylonians, the area of Samaria and Galilee was resettled by
other nations conquered by the Assyrians. Just as they deported Israel to other, foreign lands,
so they deported other people they conquered to resettle Israel's land. By the time of Jesus,
Galilee had a considerable Gentile population, though Jews lived there, too. The Jews from the
southern provinces, closer to Jerusalem, considered themselves pure blood Jews, not a mixture
like the Samaritans and not Gentiles like those of Galilee and looked on these people with
contempt. Here the Lord first publicly preached in their synagogue, in Nazareth. The disciples
were chosen from Galilee-two of whom were tax collectors.

In Mar_1:35 Jesus gets up early that morning, long before daylight, after healing and delivering
so many in the preceding days, and went into a lonely place and there prayed. He was
preparing to leave Galilee and take the message of the Gospel to other parts of Israel. Before He
left, He spent some time in prayer. He had been pouring out Himself to others. He was in a
place where He had no one who could truly understand Him or was like Him. His Father was
His comfort. Time alone with His Father in prayer was vital to Him. He did not consider prayer
a duty, it was His line of communion with His dearly loved Father. Have you ever spent all
night on the phone or sitting up talking with your best friend all night? Oh, Father I want that
kind of prayer life. Where my heart constantly longs to be in His presence, where my mind is
ever toward Him as I go about my day, always anticipating getting alone with Him frequently,
whenever possible, even if it means losing sleep. That is love. That is desire-like a bride for her
husband. Just to be in their company is the most exciting thing in their life. Sharing intimacy,
sharing their hearts, expressing their love in ways words can't describe, but their hearts
recognize. I love my mother dearly. I can spend hours talking with her-and 99% of the time our
conversation is centered on this magnificent God we serve. He is the Desire of our hearts. We
often feel His Presence descend as we feast on His Word together, and discuss Him and what
He's been teaching us. We delight in Him. And when I leave my mother's presence, I always feel
like I've been with Jesus. Because He said where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I Am in
their midst. It is hard to find someone that just wants to talk about Jesus. There are so many
problems, so many cares of this life and it seems to consume the thoughts of so many.

He tells us in Mark 11 that God's House (whose we are) shall be called a house of prayer. It
should be given to the praise, worship and communion with God. It should be something
consistent, continual, and out of this would flow the life and light of God to others who were
still in darkness. We surely must be filled with the Holy Spirit to be a House of Prayer. He said
we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Apart from the help and understanding of the
Holy Spirit we don't know how to truly do this. But Jesus said the people had made His
Father's house a den of thieves. It had become a hiding place of plunder, where truth was
stolen from the people, light was covered and they were left in darkness. Sounds like there was
no prayer, no communion with God there. The teachers of the law didn't know Him. They were
only in it for what it could profit their finances and reputation and as a means of power. They
took the Word of God and taught it how they with carnal minds thought it should be taught and
the result was the people were in darkness.

In Romans 8:26-27 we are told the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer with our weakness, our
sickness, our moral frailty and failings. The Word clearly tells us we don't know what we
should pray for like we should, but the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, on our behalf
because He does know what is needed. He investigates our hearts, knows what is there, and
intercedes for us as God would have Him to. In the process, He deals with us about what He
finds in our hearts, tries to stir us to prayer so He can talk with us, and help us overcome
whatever He finds that is unlike Christ. This is something that works for our good. The Bible
tells us the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, (Jer_17:9) so we must
have the Holy Spirit search it. He alone knows what is hidden there that we may not
understand or be aware of.

Luk 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be weighed down with carousing,
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Luk 21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luk 21:36 Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

How important it is we not get caught up in this life, consumed with worries and plans that tie
us to this world system and interfere with our time of prayer and fellowship with the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God. We can get so burdened down with responsibilities and problems
we weren't meant to take on ourselves if we don't follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We
can end up spiritually dull, stressed with headaches and health problems by overindulgence.
We can over indulge in worry, fretting over bills, health, kids, the economy, the elections, etc.
We can end up with too many problems, (which sometimes results from us doing the leading
and decision making instead of God, and suffering the consequences). Often as a result of this,
we drift from God, from that life sustaining communion, and our convictions and obedience
begins to slip, and we are drawn back into things of the world looking for relief from the stress
of our lives. The Scriptures uses the word 'drunkenness' here. But it simply means to be
intoxicated, enthralled by whatever it is in the world we've sought to for relief from the stress
and consequences of our over indulging ourselves in whatever area that may be. It could be
shopping, resulting in too many bills, unwisely managing the money we have available to us. It
could be with food, or with our time. We can spend too much time watching TV and grow
dangerously lax with God. Our mind will soon begin to feed on and enjoy the entertainment of
the world we watch as we grow more distant from God, backsliding and not even realizing we
are growing cold in the last days we live in. He's been warning them about the last days, the
rampant deception, violence, natural disasters, the lack of family love for one another, the
betrayal and ease with which many will be offended and stumble and fall away from the truth.
He warns them to stay awake, don't be lulled spiritually to sleep. That right there is a red flag
warning-there will be an environment where the temptation to fall asleep spiritually will be
working. And I've just described in a few ways how it can happen. Be alert, on guard, and
pray always, bind yourself to the Father, to His promises, hold God to His Word, and pray
ALWAYS that you will be judged worthy to escape, (to seek safety in flight) all these things
that are going to come to pass and unlike the angels that fell from their first position, retain
your position as a child of God, accepted in the Beloved. Pray you will be able to stand,
established, in tact, before the Son of Man. In other words, pray when you are weighed before
God you are not found wanting or lacking.

Jesus asked His Father in John 14 that after He left and returned to heaven that the Father
would send us the Comforter, that He would be sent to our aid, to plead our cause, intercede,
defend, and teach us and be our ability to be witnesses for Him, to be our advocate before the
Father in the place and position of Christ. In Joh_16:26 He reveals to them there is coming a
day (the day of Pentecost) that the disciples won't have to rely on Jesus to petition the Father
on their behalf but they can themselves go into His Presence and in His Name, make their
requests known. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one, in complete unity with each
other and with Him and the Father-united in purpose and desire. He prayed we would possess
God's desires, fulfill God's plan and purpose, not our own. There can never be unity when each
man or woman follows their own agenda. And it requires the power and life of the Holy Spirit,
His Divine influence and help for us to get over ourselves, our selfishness, and desires, to reject
them in favor of His. He has promised to do this, to make it a reality, to make Christ in us and
through us revealed as reality. Let us come, depend on His power and ability to do this,
trusting and knowing that all that matters is knowing Him and the ministry that will flow out
of that relationship to others who are in darkness and need desperately to see the life of Christ
in us, that Holy Spirit that is the light to humanity, the only hope of glory they will ever have.
When the Holy Spirit is the One in charge of the church, and teaching each member
individually, they will all say the same thing, they will all understand Scripture in the same
way. There will not be any foolish debating what this verse means or what that one says
because when you are taught by the Author of this Book, you won't be deceived, and you won't
be debating and striving, trying to prove a point to someone else. That's just pride on display,
because some folks just have to be right or get the last word. How we need Him.

Act 1:8 But you shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth.

That word witnesses translates from the Greek as martyr, one who is a historical and legal
witness who can bear record of Another, who proves the truth in their willingness to suffer,
even to the death for their faith. Human beings cannot accurately represent Jesus Christ. He is
infinite. We've never seen Him with our natural eyes. But this Holy Spirit has. He knows Him.
He was sent to show Christ to us. He was sent to make Christ real to and in us. And when HE
directs us, and speaks through us, and can manifest Himself through us, others will see an
accurate witness of Jesus Christ.