Turn with me to Matthew 6 please. He dwells with us in the most extraordinary light. How do you describe it?
I remember in June when He took me into union—He showed me a different perspective of prayer. I do not know for sure, but I had possibly even taught on prayer before learning it from that perspective, but to know prayer and to experience it are two different things.
Paul said in Ephesians 1, “I pray…” I saw prayer from God’s perspective and how holy it is. It is one of the most holy privileges given to man—the privilege of prayer. It is holy because by it you connect to God. He showed me this aspect of His view on prayer and I saw that it was so holy, I wondered how could we ever do it? It was so far above us in holiness, bearing the very essence of God.
And then I saw His great yearning, how He yearned for our prayers, how He yearned for this holy communication. I felt the yearning of His sacred heart, that we might pray. Jesus said, “Pray like this,” and we read it right here in Matthew 6. It seems so matter of fact: Pray like this—like something you would say to a child. But the words that were coming out of His mouth were so holy. It was the instruction coming from a holy God to a people He wanted to make holy as He connected them to Himself.
Pray. It is a holy exercise given to us out of love. May I tell you the truth? Unless you do pray, you can never be holy. You can bear His righteousness because that is given as a gift in your salvation, but you can only become holy through your intimate connection to He who is holy, which is only achieved through prayer. The more you pray, the more holy you may become, but please note that I said, “may” because you can pray much but not obey, and then you lose the value of the holy exercise.
So, it really is a double yoking, right? Don’t you want Him so badly right now? So do I. I could just fly up through the ceiling and go to be with Him and I would beat you all to the punch because I am closer [to the ceiling, standing atop this stage] than all of you—well, except for Chuck [who is very tall].
I think that if a minister could have a gift and only one gift to serve the church, my prayer would be that He would give me the gift to impart truth to your heart. Giving you information is never going to change anybody. If you receive the information like a computer receiving data, you will never become changed. The truth must enter the heart and that is where change begins. We can have lots and lots of information about God. To the writing of many books there is no end, but information alone will not make you holy. Do you want to be holy? If you want to know God, you must be holy. Be holy—there is no other way.
Are you at Matthew 6?
“Pray, therefore like this: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.”
Matthew 6:9 (AMP)
We give all respect to our Father. You see, the word, “honor” in the Church has almost become a cliché. The word “glory,” as in, “we give all the glory to Jesus” has also become so cliché. We think that if we are talking to someone and God has done something beautiful for us and we say, “Well, I give all the glory to Jesus,” that that is what the Bible refers to when it speaks of giving Him glory. But let me share another thought with you. What about instead of using the word “glory,” we use the word “respect.” I give Him the respect He is due. How are you going to relate to Him if you are doing that? Can you easily sin against Him and then come to Him with a heart of frivolity? Not if your heart is drawn to respect Him.
If you want to respect Him, you want to abide in His truth. You want to be filled with the light of His truth so that you can know the One you respect. When we are called to give glory to the Lord, we give it because we are called to live our lives out before Him nobly. We live our lives out before Him with a heart of respect and honor, such as He is due. But then how do you measure what He is due? He is pretty awesome. Are you staying with me? Hallowed be His name is not just a prayer—this is an invitation to life. “Hallowed be His name.” Holy be His name!
The High Priest of the old covenant would wear on his turban the words “Holiness Unto the Lord.” God is looking for a people who intuitively understand holiness—intuitively understand that it is something that cannot be wrought by the works of the soul. They understand that holiness is something that must be wrought by the ministry of the Spirit of God and because they have touched the light, they cannot bear the darkness.
To be continued…
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson
