Kingdom Focused Prayer

 Greetings Palm View Family!

I am going to be using the next several months to begin introducing some strategies that I have found very effective in the past. I believe that we are far enough removed from the hysteria surrounding Covid that we can make some strong forward movement instead of the little jumps and treading water. There are a total of 7 strategies I want to lay out and then in July, we will spend some intentional time preaching and teaching on them. 

The first strategy that I want to introduce to you is one that I have taught on in the past on Wednesday nights in the past, but we are going to really set an emphasis on this in 2023 and that is Kingdom Focused Prayer. Let me start off by giving a base definition for what I mean. Kingdom-Focused Prayer is prayer focused on God’s presence and kingdom. These are always Bold and Specific prayers which are Persistent, Prevailing, and Corporate prayers. These prayers are focused less on self and more on the kingdom needs.

 Oswald Chambers: “Prayer does not equip us for greater works; prayer IS the greater work.” 

There are many different methods and forms of prayer some better than others, but I believe that the most God-honoring prayer will always rely on a Kingdom-Focused approach. Why? Because this is the model you see taught in Scripture. In Matthew 6:9-13 when the Disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, He teaches them using a Kingdom-Focused approach. The prayers of the Old Testament prophets and leaders also echo a Kingdom Focused approach.  

Clearly, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that it is appropriate to pray for personal needs. Jesus asks God to supply “our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11), which is another way of asking our Father to supply all of our needs.

Jesus also shows the appropriateness of praying for personal needs in giving us petitions that lead us to call upon God to forgive us our individual sins and be with us in temptation (vv. 12–13).

Selfless prayer however is not incompatible with prayer for individual needs, so we should never think that it is wrong to ask the Lord to grant personal requests, knowing that He will do so when they are in line with His sovereign will.

Still, Jesus does not make personal needs the focus of the Lord’s Prayer but rather the kingdom of God.

This is where He starts the prayer, linking the petition for the kingdom to come with a request that God’s name be hallowed (vv. 9–10).

Jesus is using the kingdom of God here to refer specifically to that realm where people do His will freely and joyfully. Because God’s will is done freely and joyfully in this kingdom, His name is hallowed or regarded as holy by the kingdom’s citizens.

Our Father, of course, is King of creation, but this reign is not yet universally acknowledged. To pray that people would regard the name of the Creator as holy is to pray for them to submit to His rule and for His kingdom to come. To pray for His kingdom to come is to pray for His name to be hallowed.

John Calvin comments, “The substance of this prayer is, that God would enlighten the world by the light of his Word — would form the hearts of men, by the influences of his Spirit, to obey his justice, and would restore to order, by the gracious exercise of his power, all the disorder that exists in the world.”

God’s kingdom is the focus of the Lord’s prayer, so we pray rightly only when we ask for His kingdom to come.

Bottom line is this, prayer is not a tool to change the heart or mind of God. The immutability of God (His quality of not changing) is clearly taught throughout Scripture. For example, in Malachi 3:6 God affirms, "I the Lord do not change." (See also Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Isaiah 46:9-11; and Ezekiel 24:14.)

James 1:17 also teaches the immutability of God: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.” The “shadow of turning” refers to our perspective on the sun: it is eclipsed it moves and it casts its shadow. The sun rises and sets, appears, and disappears every day; it comes out of one tropic and enters into another at certain seasons of the year.

But with God, who, spiritually speaking, is light itself, there is no darkness at all; there is no change with Him, nor anything like it.

God is unchangeable in His nature, perfections, purposes, promises, and gifts. He, being holy, cannot turn to that which is evil; nor can He, who is the fountain of light, be the cause of darkness. Since every good and perfect gift comes from Him, evil cannot proceed from Him, nor can He tempt any to it (James 1:13).

The Bible is clear that God does not change His mind, His will, or His nature.

So, if God doesn’t change His mind or plan when we pray what is the point? 

When we pray, we are not asking God to change His mind rather that He would change ours and us to conform to Him. 

Friends,  this is where it gets hard. We MUST stop seeking our will rather the Father’s will be done. When we gather together to pray our primary focus should not be on fixing the things of the world around us rather on the kingdom of God fixing our own hearts to be aligned with His.

God is the high priority in the model prayer given by our Lord.

The best Greek manuscripts omit the closing sentence: “ ‘For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen’ ” (Matt. 6:13). However, there is abundant evidence that these words were used almost universally in the worship of the early church. Some believe congregations recited these words in unison after each petition. If they did, then focus on the kingdom of God is underscored.

 

So, to sum this all up, what is kingdom-focused prayer?

 It is not mere instinctive prayer, but it is Spirit-enabled...

 It is not man-centered, but God-centered...

 It is not self-serving or sentimental, but Scriptural—in both principle and content...

 It is not timid, but bold!!!

 It is not passive resignation, but proactive cooperation...

 It is both solo and concerted...

Kingdom Focused Prayer is the Spirit-enabled cry of God’s adopted children seeking their Father’s glory by persistently asking Him for the nations, their promised inheritance.

 The Reformers prayed big prayers. The Protestant Reformation was initiated, achieved, and maintained by big prayers.

 Martin Luther believed in praying big prayers. He taught, “The Lord is great and high, and therefore He wants great things to be sought from Him and is willing to bestow them so that His almighty power might be shown forth.” Thus, Luther prayed: “Dear Lord, I know that You have still more, You have much more than You can ever bestow; in You I shall never want, for if there were need, the heavens would rain guilders [dollars]. Be my treasury, my cellar, my storehouse; in You have I all riches; if I have You, I have enough.”

God indicates there is nothing too hard for Him (see Jer. 32:27), and so He challenges us to pray big prayers: “ ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know’ ” (Jer. 33:3).

Will you join me this year in Kingdom-Focused Prayer for our churches and our community? Will you pray a big, bold, persistent, prayer that God would change your heart to be in harmony with His no matter what it might be that you have to give up? Would you pray that your life and your breath would be honoring to Him? That the gospel would go forth and lives would be changed through your obedience? Will you pray that with me this year?

Now for the How...

Here is an outline you can follow:

Kingdom-Focused Model Prayer:

 PRAISE:

• Psalm 42
  
  
• Thanksgiving

CONFESSION:

• We cannot confess other people’s sin, but we should stand blameless before God when we make requests.

KINGDOM REQUESTS:

• pray for your church elders/deacons by name

• pray for one aspect of our church’s ministry — whichever is on your heart 

• pray for a lost person to be saved 

• pray for a missionary you know, for a mission country on your heart

GOD’S WILL: 

• for yourself/someone you know

REQUESTS:

• others on your heart 

• your own special requests

FORGIVENESS:

• ask for your own 

• ask God to show you anyone you haven’t forgiven

PROTECTION:

• ask God to protect your marriage/family/kids/ someone traveling/ guard our church from Satan’s schemes.

SUBMISSION: 

• for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen