A few weeks ago I was on a university campus In East Asia. I was prayer walking with three college students. I gave them the Lord's Prayer Outline I use as I prayer walk on a campus, at a workplace or in a neighborhood. The young men's prayers were sincere and heartfelt for the campus in the first 20 minutes of our prayer time. I prayed through three names of Yahweh. I was hoping to model for them a new approach to prayer. I was then led to begin praying Kingdom prayers, asserting the victory of Jesus in His life, death, resurrection and ascension. Right before I began serving notice to the powers of darkness and calling forth a harvest we paused for a moment. I explained what we were doing as we were praying through the Lord's Prayer.
As I view it, praying through the Lord's Prayer is like climbing up and down a mountain. As we begin praying through the first request, "Hallowed be Your name," we are ascending the mountain. In praying through the names of Yahweh and appropriating the present ministry of Jesus, we are coming to a place of abiding, oneness, with Christ. Once we are in that place of abiding in Christ we are at the summit of the mountain and ready to intercede for the Kingdom. Praying through the themes of the Kingdom is the focus of our intercession through the prayer time. Once we are finished interceding for the people and ministries Jesus has entrusted to us we descend the mountain. The focus our of intercession through the rest of the prayer time is righteousness. We confess our sins. We forgive those who have offended us. We seek God's resources to resist the temptations that may confront us.
It is interesting to me that Jesus speaks of God's provision following His instructions on praying the Lord's Prayer. He exhorts His followers to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. I want to suggest that as we ascend the mountain praying through the names of Yahweh and appropriating the present ministry of Jesus and then intercede for the Kingdom at the summit, we are seeking first God's Kingdom. As we descend the mountain, getting right with God and others through forgiveness, and then calling on His resources to overcome the temptations we will face, we are seeking first His righteousness. Sandwiched in the middle of this twofold focus of prayer, Jesus gave His followers the request "Give us this day our daily bread." In fulfilling this twofold condition, He promises them their provision, "All these things will be added to you." As we pray through the first three requests of the Lord's prayer we are seeking first His Kingdom As we pray through the last three requests of the Lord's Prayer we are seeking first His righteousness.
One of the young men expressed his appreciation for the structure praying through the Lord's Prayer provides in a prayer walk. He had never heard a description of the Lord's Prayer in this way. I was careful to affirm that their prayers in the first twenty minutes of our prayer time was Spirit-led and heart felt. I didn't want to minimize their prayers. I was just trying to take them deeper in their experience in prayer. We continued praying through the themes of, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done." Our one hour of prayer was finished. There was a very real sense of God's presence and as anticipation of faith that our Father heard our prayers!
