We want to continue to see the divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man, who was a man of prayer. His mystical human life was a divine realm, and this realm is the kingdom of God. The genuine and proper prayer should always be divine, not just spiritual. This means that the Triune God prays with us and that we pray by living with the Triune God. He is indwelling us and is one with us. The New Testament reveals clearly that the consummated Spirit, the Spirit of God as the life-giving Spirit and the Spirit of Christ, indwells us (Rom. 8:2, 9-11). Second Timothy 4:22 says that the Lord is with our spirit. The consummated God today as the compound life-giving Spirit indwells us. We are human beings, no doubt, but the divine person was added to us.
For us to be spiritual is inadequate. We have to see that God has made Himself one with us and made us one with Him. Thus, each of us believers is a God-man. In this sense, we are God in life and in nature, but of course, not in His Godhead. This is because we have been born of Him to be of His species (John 1:12-13). We are one kind with Him. Based upon this revelation, we can see that genuine prayer should be the divine expression. If we pray by ourselves, that is the human expression. If we pray by living with God and moving with Christ, we pray from this Person and our prayers are divine. I feel that this is a new revelation to us in these days.
Only a divine person could pray, “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified” (Matt. 6:9). A divine, human person is a mystery. He is altogether mystical. There is a realm in this universe which is divine and mystical. The worldly people do not know this realm. They are in the physical, fallen, sinful, evil world. But we have been separated from being common; we have been sanctified and separated unto our God, who is holy. Now we are in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit.
Matthew’s record is concerning the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens. We have seen the divine fact of His fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Now we want to see His supreme teaching on the mount concerning prayer. Many Bible scholars call this “the sermon on the mount,” but I do not like the word sermon. Instead, I use the term supreme teaching. No teaching in human history is higher than this one. In His supreme teaching on the mount, the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens taught His disciples twice concerning prayer. The first time is in the middle of the supreme teaching, and the second time concludes His supreme teaching.
Many so-called churches today recite the prayer which the Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6 (vv. 5-18), but most do not understand the real significance of what they are reciting. This prayer is critical to the kingdom life, a life that lives in the kingdom of the heavens. This one prayer also is accompanied by four negative charges as warnings.
The prayer is as follows: “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (vv. 9-13). The praying ones must be children of God, born of God, so they have the authority, the right, to call God their Father. We cannot call a person our father if we are not born of him. We have a Father in the heavens who has begotten us. This brief but critical prayer covers a number of crucial items.
To be sanctified means to be separated and distinct from all that is common. On the fallen earth there are many false gods. The worldly people consider our God as being in common with those gods. If we pray for our Father’s name to be sanctified, we should not just utter this with our words. For His name to be sanctified, we should express Him in our living. We must live a sanctified life, a daily life separated from being common. To pray such a prayer requires us to be sanctified persons, those who are separated from being common. We should be distinct, separate, from all of the people around us. In other words, we should be holy. As sanctified people, we should pray, “Our Father, Your name be sanctified.”