May 12, 2021
Wednesday
Luke 11:1-13 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
[Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”
5 And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
If you had a friend, come to you and tell you of a need, and they ask you to meet it, simply asking, “I need bread, can you give me bread?” Many times, you will do your best to help but only because you’ve been put on the spot. We call this, “saving face.” So, if a friend were to come to you, would you have bread to give them? You have a Father in Heaven who cares about you! He always wants to help. He is never “put on the spot.” Our perspective of our Father is way too small. He does not want you worrying about where you’re going to live or what you’re going to eat or how you will take care of your family. He wants you thinking about one thing only, seeking His kingdom and your part in it. If you’re focused on that, He will do His part and take care of your needs. He is big enough to do it all! In this passage of Luke 11 the focus is not on us. In Matthew 6-7 we have almost the same teaching. But He is emphasizing getting “bread” for yourself. You can’t give to someone else what you don’t have. The greatest deficiency in the church today is a lack of “bread.” Bread is provision. Provision is whatever you need, spirit, soul, or body. If your child is sick and needs healing, can you deliver the bread? You either have it or you don’t! If we decide to accept what we see in the church today, we will never go past it. The first step to revival is refusing to accept things as they are. If you know you don’t have the “bread.” You know where to go get it! Establish a consistent daily prayer life. This is how you receive your bread! We as sons and daughters have access to Him. And as long as we have that, we have access to bread. He does not HAVE healing. He IS healing. He does not HAVE love. He IS love! He doesn’t HAVE grace. He IS grace. He don’t HAVE peace. He IS peace! Everything that we need, He is that. In His presence is everything that He is. We are lacking the presence of God in our lives and our churches!
Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
You repented and were converted when you got born again and stepped from darkness to light. You moved from one kingdom to another. You now bare an image that comes from Heaven. Your sins were blotted out. This is enough to worship God for the rest of your life! The word “times” in this verse is synonymous with seasons or sessions. The word “refreshing” is referring to a recovery of breath. So, you have sessions of recovering your breath and it comes from the face of the Lord. You stand face to face with the Lord and let Him breath spirit and life back into you! Everyone needs that recovery of breath! It’s the same picture as God breathing life into Adams lifeless body and he became a living being. The church has been out of breath for so long! They have had to try to imitate it with smoke and lights and a big show! They have tried to catch the imagination and soul of man by entertaining. There is no presence of God so they’ve had to counterfeit, produce, manufacture something. It’s gone on so long now without producing fruit! It is of man, how could it? Anytime there’s a lack of presence, there is a lack of prayer. If you don’t have any bread, it’s because you don’t pray. The disciples in Luke 11 saw that when Jesus went to pray, He came with bread and presence. And they wanted the same results. “Lord, teach us to pray!” This is when He taught the model prayer that we see in that passage. The problem is, to get the results that Jesus got, you have to have a different perspective of your Father. People go to God begging Him to do something for them. That’s not God. You don’t have to talk God into doing things, He wants to do far more than you want Him to. That hasn’t dawned on us yet. We still have more faith in His ability than His willingness. That’s because we don’t know Him very well. That’s why Jesus started like this, “Our Father.” You have to get to know Him as your Father. You are never a bother to your God! Until you know your Father, you can’t trust, you can’t believe, you can’t have faith. It should be the most natural thing in the world for a Christian. The reason you don’t pray is because you think it won’t be answered or you think you won’t get results. All God has is yours! That is the picture of your Father! It gives Him great pleasure to give it all to you!