Prayer Ages To Come - The Lord's Prayer July 5 1998

Pastor Curt Crist

3 principles of prayer

1 - discrete aspect. God intended that communication with him should be personal and private
2 - detached aspect. Praying can become mechanical, ritualistic. Vain repetition = empty habit, an overly practiced routine.
3 - dispensational aspect.

People today recite the Lord's prayer most every Sunday. What does this prayer really mean and for whom it was intended? This is not a prayer Christ was praying but he was giving the disciples instructions on how to pray. It would be better called the disciples prayer. Christ never intended for them to repeat this prayer over and over, word for word. He said, after this manner pray, in this way or fashion. To repeat the words over and over is what Christ called vain repetition. This prayer was never meant for the people living in this dispensation of grace. It was intended for the people who were going to enter into the tribulation period. Before that kingdom could be realized, there was a prophetic event that had to take place first. It was not the dispensation of grace, they knew nothing of it, it was hid, kept secret, a mystery. The way Christ taught them to pray had special application to the tribulation period that was right upon them had God not put that program on hold. (Matthew 6: 9-13)

Today as believers we enjoy a Father/child relationship with God, but at the time this prayer is given, Gentiles did not have that relationship, only Israelites were considered the children of God. At that time when the Gentile woman came to Christ, he wouldn't even answer her until she recognized her place of submission under Israel.

Matthew 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

The children were the children of Israel. Gentiles were dogs. To pray to the Father meant that Israel recognized that they had a covenant relationship with God, that they were indeed his children, after this manner.

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Ezekiel 36:19-23 - Holy Name, Great name

Matthew chapter 6 is Christ telling Israel to get back to their program, to realize what they were suppose to be doing among the nations, make God's name holy. Israel's responsibility was to make God and his holiness known to all the world.

Malachi 1:11-13

This (The Lord's Prayer) will be a very heartfelt prayer during the trib. The antichrist will be putting Jews to death for their faith. Their only hope of deliverance at that time will be for the king to come and set up his kingdom. The next prophetic event after the trib is the millennial reign of that kingdom. Do we pray for this deliverance today? Are we looking for the next event, that of Christ setting up his kingdom on earth? Or, are we looking forward to the next mystery event? Christ coming in the air to catch us off this earth to be with him in heaven forever? The disciples prayer was specifically designed to reflect Israel's hope.

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" is a divine definition of the millennium. The kingdom is when the will of God is carried out in the earth to the same degree it is carried out in heaven. The Jews have an earthly hope, they were not looking forward to being in heaven, they were promised the earth forever. The Body of Christ is promised heaven, our citizenship is in heaven.

Revelation 12:6-10 Revelation 13:1, 5, 16-17, Ephesians 4:32, 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28, 1 Chronicles 29:12-11

God the Father will one day be recognized as the sovereign head of all the universe. The disciples prayer is a prayer to be offered by Israel as they face the tribulation wrath of satan.

Prayer is dispensational. The prayer of faith was a taste of the kingdom in time past. The prayer of peace for this age provides the peace of God in the midst of our turmoil. The disciples prayer, is a prayer for the tribulation saints in time future.

[GraceAboundedMore]

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing....
2 Timothy 1:3 ..without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Prayer is an attitude that is a constant communication through out our day ...it's not formal

[GraceAboundedMore]

We are joint-heirs with Christ. So to speak the CEO is in us and we in him. Do we need a man make alter to get nearer to God....NOT!