Breaking Through to the Heavenlies # 1

Breaking Through to the Heavenlies # 1

Matthew 6:6-13 "But thou, when thou prayest..."

It's hard to talk about prayer - there is a tendency to absorb so much with our minds that it hinders our spirits grasping the reality that is beyond the surface.

It's so easy to have the letter about the Spirit and forget that the letter, even if it's about the Spirit, is not the Spirit. The inner essence is beyond the letter, beyond the feelings, beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. The Spiritual essence gives life.

In our scripture, Jesus, responding to His disciple's request, is giving them a way to pray, and He says "after this manner." It's not the words, it's something beyond the words. It's the whole concept, it's the spirit, it's the attitude, it's the steps of prayer that are laid down here.

The Lord has been taking me back to some things that I thought I knew well and showing me that they were not exactly what I thought they were. Prayer is one of those things. The Lord's prayer is one of those prayers.

It's easy to look at it, and as Tozer said, "explain the obvious." Maybe we have to start there, but we have to go beyond that.

"Our Father," It's the beginning of the relationship. I do not think we can overemphasize this. He has to be our Father. God never deal's with us in a cold relationship. There has to be something more than that. There has to be something living; there has to be something warm - a love relationship, a knowledge of who He is.

The One whom I have relationship, The One who is faithful, with the immensity of heaven's fullness, The One who is faithful and true to His purpose in my life.

As He leads me through places that my mind can't understand. As He leads me through places where my feelings cannot follow - and if He is going to lead me He is going to lead me through all those places - then this must undergird.

There are two things we need to know about God: One, that He loves us, Two, that He understands us. He is faithful, He is true - He is our Father.

Some people go all through life understanding in their mind, and it never ever filters down to their heart. Never becomes something that upholds, Never transmits light from within upon the rest of our circumstances, upon the rest of our limitations, upon the rest of our battles.

We must see past the natural. A missionary with lots of years of experience, told me, "Paul, you need to see beyond the second causes. You need to see the spiritual. There is nothing apart from the spiritual. Everything is spiritual!

Beyond a hard meeting, beyond a rebellious child, beyond a difficult work situation, beyond all the earthly things, we need to see the spiritual. Beyond even the need, and the lack, and the want, and the supply, and all those things, we need to see the spiritual! Beyond all things there is a spiritual reason. "The kingdoms of this world," it says at the end of the Bible, "are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ." Until they do the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the enemy are warring and there is no other real seat of power. It is either God or the enemy. 

"Our Father which art in Heaven." I used to read this and think, "Well, He is a Heavenly Father, He is up above, He's got a realm of power which is above earth." But I think there is something more than that. As the years go by, I am seeing that God, through many circumstances, through tremendous pressures, teaches the soul the enormous distance that there is between earth and heaven. The enormous distance that I must travel if I am going to get to heaven.

Somebody explained once in a meeting, "Well, God's in heaven, man's on earth. God has conquered on the Cross, everything is all right. Just bring your request to God. He knows what you need before you ask, so just say, "Lord, I need this and I need that, and it's done." Well, it's not done - there must be a balance in this whole thing. There is a lot of teaching that would present God as man's helper. The teaching seems to imply, God is here to help you. God is here to lead you. God is here to make sure that your life is a success - "Realizing your potential," "You are loved"... that whole idea. There is a part of that, but as far as I'm concerned, it's very much on the periphery. Just compare it with the magnitude which God wants us to get in the spiritual.

~Paul Ravenhill~

(continued with # 2)