![]() ![]() The Fatherhood of the Lord God was a new teaching that divulged a deeper revelation of the nature of the Almighty God that could only be made known by the True Son of God. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him” Psalm 91:1-4, 14-15, NKJV … “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge His truth shall be your shield and buckler. ![]() I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. In fact, King David sang about this secret place hundreds of years before Jesus spoke these words of instruction to His disciples. The secret place has always been open to the one who seeks Father-God. Jesus often went into the wilderness or up into the mountains to find a place of solitude for His time of intimate communion with the Father. This simple act demonstrates that nothing else is more important to him than his time with the Father. The pray-er is instructed to shut himself away so that his total focus is on the Father. Jesus revealed that the posture of effective prayer is one of a humble heart that seeks the Lord God as Father. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” Matthew 6:5-8, NKJV (EMPHASIS ADDED) For they think that they will be heard for their many words. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” ( Matthew 7:29, NKJV). He taught with an authority unmatched in the history of Judaism. The disciples instinctively knew that there was something different about the way Jesus prayed. ![]() “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” ( Luke 6:12, NKJV). They realized that He made this a priority even if it meant losing sleep. (See John 1:35-42) They had observed His daily habit of seeking private times of prayer with the Lord God even after ministering to the people for most of the day. Since many of Jesus’ disciples had formerly followed John, they requested that Jesus do the same for them. (See Exodus 32:10-12 Numbers 18:5 Deuteronomy 9:7-8) It is apparent from the above scripture that John the Baptist had taught his followers the manner in which he prayed. They wanted to know how He prayed, how He approached the Lord God in the right way so as not to incur His wrath. This question engendered more than asking for mere words to repeat that is what they had been doing for hundreds of years. Jesus’ closest associates knew Him to be a willing teacher, so one of them simply asked, “Teach us how to pray.” Although, Jewish traditions were filled with prayers, the disciples had never seen in any of the members of the Jewish religious sects the magnitude of power that Jesus commanded. ![]() (See Mark 1:35) The disciples wanted to know how He prayed because they constantly witnessed the evidence of Jesus’ prayer life in His teachings and in His healing ministry. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” ( Luke 5:15-16, NKJV). “However, the report went around concerning Him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. As His fame spread among the population, He had to rise early in order to pray before the people came for healing. “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples”” Luke 11:1 NASB (EMPHASIS ADDED). ![]()
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