Stop Misreading the Bible: The Lord's Prayer Isn't The Prayer, It Is How To Pray The Prayer; i.e, The Attitude In Which To Pray It

More on the Lord's Prayer Being a Statement of Faith in God's Three Standing Orders:

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-12; Luke 11:1-3) is that because God knows our necessities, we must become his ministers. It isn't about getting; it is about giving.

The Lord's Prayer less a prayer than an attitude to pray in. It is recognition of God’s three standing orders: That his nature must be being hallowed; his kingdom must be being restored; and that his will must be being done. The “Prayer” is the attitude of faith and surrender we are to pray in because of these standing orders.

While I was praying for the gift of tongues at Grace Bible Church in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became my baptism in the Holy Spirit, I was shown that the life I have is God’s life. I saw that I was animated by God and had, up until that moment, done whatever I pleased with his life. This was the rebellion of self-lordship.

I had never so much as thanked God for giving me life, nor had I ever asked for what purpose he had made me. He must have had a reason, and I had not a clue. I might have wondered why at some point, but I had never pointedly asked him and then waited for his answer.

In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I asked. I distinctly remember saying, “This is your life. You animated me with your life by your grace. I belong to you. You had a purpose for making me to live. Whatever you made me for, that is what I shall do. You are Glorious God; I am mud.” I quit my rebellion and cast self-lordship out of myself. I went into free-fall, not willing even to hold myself up. With surrender as far as could find it, I submitted myself to God. Bless God, I didn't fall flat on my face, but still I shut up and waited for his orders.

In my mind's eye, I was kneeling head bowed at a felled tree. I sensed the glow of God’s glory spreading across the sky above me. I was utterly submitted, utterly dependent upon him. My inner ears were reaching, scanning consciousness for his voice. If God never said another thing to me, I suppose they would have had to carry me out of the way for the next service. After a minute or two in that ominous silence, though, I heard the softest of voices say regarding this relationship, “Remember this, and it is all right.”

I was forgiven and accepted by God. To say that I was elated would be the greatest of understatements. As his spirit’s quickening infused my bowels I entered an ecstasy. And here is a most important point often mentioned by Neville, “If it works, then you have found him.” Well, it “worked”: I had found God and the ecstasy of real life. 

That is the Lord’s Prayer. It is mental recognition that life is according to his standing orders: "As in heaven, so also on earth!” In the Lord's Prayer, we surrender to the purpose of God: “Whatever you want me to do, that I will do.” We find serenity in him, then we help provide it to others.

You thought the Lord’s Prayer was for daily bread? It is for daily purpose.

“To do your will is my bread, O Lord.” Our “bread” is what we are to be doing. That is what we are asking him to give us today--“Give me the desire to do whatever you purpose for me to do with the eternal life you have graced me with." (Interestingly, Chuck Misler's translation of Proverbs 30: 1 is, "The Mighty Man said, 'God is with me; God arrives with me to be consumed.'")

“That bum at the off ramp, tell him that I love him and give him a twenty for me. Call and tell your mother that you love her nearly as much as I do. Give an illiterate the power to read and write his own language. Give yourself to the service of your fellow man AS ME, for I love every one with love beyond your comprehension. I can hardly wait to do as much as I can for him, and I shall do it through you.”

The Lord's Prayer a la Fenton's translation is asking God to let us in on the project. The life he has given us is one with us now--we two have become one flesh, and it is the power to create, for it is HIS spirit. (Of all oddness, it is the consciousness with the power of Mind and Speech--Deity within us, yet inasmuch as it has become us, it is us, the recipient of itself [I hope you can follow all those flips.] The upshot is that all this is a dream subject to his manifestation.)

God's life creates by imagining. “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37: 4-5). He gives us his desires to dream on, then brings the dreams into reality.

The Lord’s Prayer is a weighing of our anchors, the release of our burdens. It is saying, “Okay, that is enough of me and my affairs, of my selfishness and fears and rebellion. You are Almighty God. You gave me life and animated me for your purpose. What is it? Let’s go!”