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When Heaven
Invades Earth
Chapter Summaries
February 24- March 1, 2008
Chapter Five
In
this chapter we are provided instruction on how to bring the reality
of God's world into this one, through the Lord's Prayer taught to us
by Jesus and first given to his disciples (Matt.6.9-13). There are
two priorities expressed in this prayer and they are not what we
might expect. Prayer is not to be a self-centered time of emoting
where we tell God all our problems nor is it a time to petition to
get what we or others want or need to free us from pain. Johnson
tells us the two priorities of prayer are:
- Worship – ministering to God out of an
intimate personal relationship.
- Bringing the reality God's Kingdom to
earth and establishing his Kingdom, his dominion over all people
(58). “...if it exists in heaven, it is to be loosed on the
earth” (59).
This
focus is made clear as Johnson goes through each phrase of the
Lord's prayer and helps us see what Jesus was teaching about the
true nature of prayer: He spends much time on the importance and
impact of worship. It affects everything else we do. Heavenly
worship is our model for worship and the heavenly rule of God is our
model for how we pray – binding and loosing here on earth as it
shall have been loosed in heaven. We draw on heaven's resources for
our provision here on earth and the reality of relationships in
heaven, which reflect the character and heart of Jesus enthroned in
heaven, as the model to guide our relationships here in reflecting
his forgiveness and tenderhearted mercies. We express the desire to
come under the rule of God, having our hearts modeled after heaven,
and our complete dependency on Him when we pray to be separated from
evil. God alone can give us His Kingdom because it is solely His
possession. And as we declare this reality we praise Him.
Kingdom Approach to Prayer (62)
Matt. 6.9-11
- Praise and Worship (our Father)
- Praying for heaven on earth
l
Heaven's effect on material
needs (daily bread)
l
Heaven's effect on personal
relationships (forgive us as we forgive others)
l
Heaven's effect on our
relationship to evil (deliver us from the evil one)
3. Praise
and Worship (for yours is the Kingdom...)
That being said,
there are no formulas for prayer in the Kingdom because it is about
an intimate relationship. “Child to Father, lover to lover...
conversation...sometimes spoken... It is through this relationship
that God entrusts to us the secrets of His heart that we might
express them in prayer. Pray until you come to a place of faith (and
rest) and then “exercise the authority given to execute His will
over the circumstances at hand” (66). Intimacy is the purpose of
prayer and Seek His Kingdom first” is the intended goal of
all prayer.
Praying heaven down requires a revolution in our perceptions about
prayer and also a revolutionary perspective of our identity. “God
has apparently given himself a self-imposed restriction- to act in
the affairs of people in response to prayer” and we must agree with
our God given identity as citizens of heaven who “have the
privileged of representing heaven in this world so that we might
bring a manifestation of heaven to this world.,” yet prayer
is not to be a substitute for risky obedience (66).
“God has chosen to
work through us. We are His delegated authority on planet earth and
prayer is the vehicle that gives occasion for His invasion. Those
who don't pray allow darkness to continue ruling” (64).
Prayer + radical
obedience -----> God's release of the nature of heaven into our
circumstances |
