MONTHLY DISCIPLESHIP NUGGET NO.5 IMPARTING A PRAYER LIFE INTO YOUR DISCIPLE by Pastor Ron Ballard INTRODUCTION TO PRAYER One of the greatest things a disciple maker can do for his disciple is to impart a prayer life into him. This can only be done if the disciple maker is a man or woman of prayer and observed by his or her disciple. The disciple learns by our prayers: If he or she sees you (the disciple maker) praying, they will learn to pray by watching you. We learn to pray by praying, not by reading books on prayer. After the disciple observes you praying, pray with them. I can remember memorizing what we called the Lord’s Prayer when I was in school - my home room class would recite it. Although we recited it every day in school, it can only be found once in the New Testament. Later I learned that this is not the Lord’s Prayer, instead, it is the model in which our Lord taught His disciples to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is found in John 17, when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray after witnessing Jesus praying, and also learning that John had taught his disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1). Jesus proceeded by saying, “Pray then in this way” (Matthew 6:9), which literally means, “Pray a long these lines”. His prayer was a general pattern for all prayer. The model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples consists of the following eight elements:
The disciple’s prayer begins with: 1. RECOGNIZING GOD IS OUR FATHER (v.9) God must be our father before we can recognize or address Him as father. One must acknowledge that he is a sinner, repent of his sin and put his faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross - which is his death, burial and resurrection (I Cor. 15;2-3). The scripture also says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. (Romans 10:9). Everyone cannot address Him as father. Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are your father the devil” (John 8:44). Some believes that God is the father of all but this is not true. What is true, we are all His creation. God becomes our father when we put our faith in His son Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. We must make sure that our disciple recognizes that God is our heavenly father by giving your disciples assurance through scripture and praying that the Holy Spirit will bear witness that they are God’s children and He is their heavenly father (I John 5:11-13; Romans 8:16). 2. HONORING GOD’S NAME (v. 9) “Hallow be your name” (Matthew 6:9). In order to honor God’s name we must realize that His name speaks of God himself and is the composite of all His attributes. To honor God’s name is to acknowledge who He is, approach Him with reverence and with a humble spirit that is willing to do His will. God’s name is “hallowed” and that means He is holy and must be regarded as holy. We must set His name apart from every common thing and give Him the place He deserves in our life. To hollow God’s name involves being constantly aware of His presence and by living a life of obedience to Him. (Psalm 16:8) Tell the disciple that they honor God’s name by being His instrument of displaying His holiness in the world by living a holy life (I Peter 2:9-10). 3. GOD BRINGS HIS KINGDOM TO EARTH (v. 10) “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10) The term “kingdom,” is translated from the Greek as rule or reign; God’s kingdom was the central issue in Christ’s earthly ministry. In Matthew 4:23, He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, and in Matthew 6:33, He instructed His disciples to make the kingdom a priority in their lives. When we pray “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for Christ sovereign rule to be as established on earth as it is in heaven. In one sense the kingdom is already hear. That is, it is in the hearts of every believer and it consist of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit according to Romans 14:17. In another sense, the kingdom is yet in the future; this is the aspect of the kingdom we pray for, “Your kingdom come.” When Christ returns, He will establish His kingdom on earth and personally reign or rule over it. God will give the kingdom of the world to His son according to Psalm 2:6-8, and He will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev. 19:16). When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” it is a request for Christ to reign or rule and this is an affirmation that you are relinquishing (giving up) the rights to rule your own life, so that the Holy Spirit can use you to promote the kingdom in whatever way He chooses. When you pray “Your kingdom come,” you are also praying that sinners will be converted and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. (Col. 1:3). We must also invite people to come into Christ’s kingdom by sharing the gospel (Acts 1:8; Mark 16:15), repenting of their sin - which means not only to feel sorry for what they have done but also turn from it (I Cor. 7:9-11) and to commit to Christ and kingdom living (Luke 9:62). When you pray ”Your kingdom come,” you are participating in praying an evangelistic prayer to save lost souls. Some people think highly of the kingdom and can’t wait until the kingdom comes, but have never received the King. Every kingdom must have a king and the king is Jesus! Some call Jesus Lord but they don’t do His will. Lip service just won’t do. We must receive the King and His kingdom and continue in pursuit of His kingdom. Jesus promised to meet our needs if we maintain seeking His kingdom and righteousness in our life. 4. GOD’S WILL BE DONE “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) “Your will be done,” literally is whatever you wish to happen, let it happen immediately as it is in heaven. We are saying I am actively committed to God’s will. Sometimes God allows negative circumstances to happen in order to get us to yield to His will and turn from our will, because He love us and want the best for us (Jer. 29:11), and to produce the fruit of righteousness in you (Hebrew 12:11). We must remember that everything that happens is not God’s will - such as, lives destroyed by murder, families broken by adultery, abuse, disease, etc. Though He may use those things to accomplish His purpose (Romans 8:28). When you truly pray for God’s will to be done, you are aggressively pursuing His will for your life and are rebelling against Satan, his evil world system that opposes God, and everything else that is at odds with God’s will. 5. GOD TO PROVIDES OUR NEEDS “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) Everything we have is from the Lord and we should be thankful. Matthew 7:11 says, “The evil one knows how to give good gifts to those who ask him.” According to James 1:17 “Every good gift comes from above.” Even unbelievers receive God’s goodness every day he wakes up, but they don’t acknowledge it. Romans 1:21, says, “Although they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.” Jeremiah 5:7, says, “When I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery.” “Give us, this day our daily bread” is a statement of dependency on God and acknowledgement that He alone provides all of our life basic necessities. We must tell our disciples don’t ever take God’s provision for granted; look to Him daily and receive His gifts with a thankful heart. 6.GOD PARDON OUR SINS “And forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12) Man’s greatest problem is sin because it renders him spiritually dead, Alienates him from God, his fellow man and plagues him with guilt and fear; eventually damning him to hell for all eternity. The only solution is forgiveness, and the only source of forgiveness is Jesus Christ. Christ bore our sin and made it possible for us to be forgiven and have eternal life through faith in Him. (John 3:16). The phrase “forgive us,” implies the need for forgiveness and the term “debt” (in the Greek language) means a moral or monetary debt, but here it refers to our sins. When you sin, you owe to God a debt because you have violated His holiness. As a believer, you have not lost your salvation but you will be chastened by God if you don’t repent (Hebrew 12:6,10). The scriptures speak of two kinds of forgiveness: Judicial and parental. Judicial forgiveness means that God forgave you of all sins - past, present and future - and has pronounced you righteous for all eternity. This is why nothing can separate you from the love of God. (Roman 8:38-39). This alone ought to motivate us to fall on our knees and cry out to God in prayer. The parental forgiveness is granted to believers by their loving heavenly father as they confess their sin and seek His cleansing. This is the kind of forgiveness Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6:12. A believer’s sin does not rob him of his salvation but it does affect his relationship with God. If a child disobeys his father, the father is still his father but the intimacy of the relationship is lost until the child seeks forgiveness. We should make confession a part of our daily prayer life, so that sin will never affect our relationship with God. “ As we forgive our debtors” The fact that God has forgiven us and saved us from eternal hell, this should motivate us to forgive others. Yet there are Christians who still hold grudges. We are to forgive our debtors. Never let a grudge stand between you and another person; It will rob you of the full joy of God’s forgiveness. 7. GOD PROTECT US FROM TEMPTATION AND DELIVER US FROM EVIL “Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one” The word “temptation” is a Greek word that can be translate as a trial or temptation. God permits trials in our lives in order to refine or build spiritual character in us. James tells us that trials strengthen us and proves the genuineness of our faith. (James 1:2-4) Temptation is what Satan or our flesh uses to incite us to sin. When we pray and ask God not to lead us into temptation and from all evil ones, we are asking God to deliver us from the possibility of sinning against Him in the future. 8. GOD IS PRAISED FOREVER “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matthew 6:13) The phrase is an anthem of praise. First, “Yours is the kingdom” is saying, God you are my King and your kingdom is my focus. “and the power,” you are saying God you are all power and you depend on His powerful might. “and the glory,” you are expressing to Him that His glory is your goal and whatever you do or say is for His glory. “Amen” simply means “So be it.” CONCLUSION The best way to impart a prayer life into your disciple is by teaching them how to pray and let them catch it by observing you practicing a life of prayer. Principles on how to pray are available by simply contacting Pastors Legacy Ministries.
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Dr. Ron BallardPassionate about discipleship and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, Dr. Ballard's Monthly Discipleship Nugget News Letter is designed to inform, encourage, and equip all believers for the work of discipleship. Archives
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