The essence of the Lord's prayer

 

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

---Matthew 6:33

"21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

---Luke 17:21                   

To seek is to find. And what do we do when we find? I surmised that the answer is in the Lord's prayer. And Jesus gave a clue where to look. He said the kingdom is within you. It means we need not look elsewhere... for in us.. is the kingdom. A kingdom without a king is not. Since the kingdom exist within us, it goes without saying that the kingdom is our Father's domain. Hence, our Father in heaven with all certainty, likewise dwell within us. But rather sadly, inspite of that, his rightheousness does not reign on most of us. The Father's kingdom is never an imposition. Our Father's kingdom is not for slaves, its for the freeman, for GOD's children. Its just there within us for the taking, so to speak. Because you see it has to be us, we must make an honest choice, with own our freewill, that we need the divine to govern our lives. Its not even merely needing, we must act on it by shedding off our earthliness, which for most is a difficult undertaking, thus, almost a remote possibility for many.

Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (Matthew 6). He recited to them the Lords prayer, and part of which is the phrase "thy kingdom come". As we realized that the Father dwell within us, the phrase is an invitation, a summon, via freewill, for the kingdom within to flow and rise above the temporal part of man, to engulf the mind and body towards that fusion with the divine spirit, which is of the Father. 

When we say "Our Father who art in heaven", we are addressing him, that is within us, as the kingdom and the heaven are interchangeably used in the holy scripture. 

The "our" in "Our Father..." is a collective affirmation by the mind and the body, speaking as one, no longer divided, but one in a union, merging into a singularity with the spirit, which subsequently will take reign over man's entire being (Matthew 6:22). It is appropriately the point of holy communion, where a strong emphatetic bond is formed, towards achieving Christ consciousness.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."--- 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

---Hebrews 4:12

We are beings consisting of joints and marrow, which pertains to the physical aspect of man's whole being, the body. The mind, which is the manifestation of the soul, and the holy spirit that has its temple in the material body which at times is denoted by conscience. In Genesis, GOD said, let us create man in our image. Note the word "our", because GOD is three person in one divine essence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the holy trinity. Man was likewise created to have a soul, a body and a spirit. The latter is what makes man different from the rest of all creation. You will ask how can their be a total likeness when GOD is a spirit. The son is the word, and the word has turned into flesh in the person of Jesus. Ergo, the word is the son, the son became man, and the son is the body (John 1:1; John 1:14)

When we say" Hallowed be thy name", we are making a promise, a commitment, a pledge, to make his name holy in all our thoughts, deeds and words. Because in every breath we take we are uttering his name, which is YWHW in Hebrew, meaning "I am, who I am" (Exodus 3:14). His name cannot be articulated by the human tonque. But somewhat, his name echoed when we breath. YW when we inhale and HW when we exhale. When we were born we gasped for air, we breath in through our mouth by crying and then we sounded his name for the first time, and that was the start of life outside the womb. When we reach the twilight of our life, just before we finally close our eyes, we took one last gasp of air, we breath out through our mouth as the soul depart, and then again we sounded his name for the last time. In between, it is the breath of life that carries GOD's name in all moments of our earthly existence. How can one curse, while breathing the name of GOD at the same time. And when its over, the spirit returns to the Father, the body to dust and the soul to its pre-destination.

When we pray" thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven", we are declaring our unconditional submission and obedience to the Father's will. A term of surrender. We are putting an end to a divided mind. An end to the confusion that misled the soul, as to whether it is a body or a spirit. A soul that regard itself as a body, will express the consciousness of the mundane and its desire. A soul who discovered itself as a spirit will express a divine consciousness that lacks nothing because there is satifaction in obedience. It will be seen and recognize in the higher plane of existence, because it achieved purity in its being.

The direct translation of" give us each day our daily bread" is rather, " give us today our bread". The difference is that the former is akin to a blanket requisition. Our Father wants us to connect with him each time. So we ask for bread daily and the bread does not mean "pan de sal or empanada, " it means bread of life. And what is the bread of life? It is the word of GOD to live by and sustain our spiritual hunger for the duration of our wordly existence. When we say"give us today our bread..." , we are asking for discernment and understanding about the true meaning and intention of his words so that we can genuinely exist and abide in truth.

The direct translation of the phrase " forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us" is " forgive us our debt, as we forgive the debt of others". 

It does not pertain to car loan or housing loan or 5/6. It refers to spiritual and moral debt. Emotional injuries, traumas, abuses, wrongdoings and the like. The hurt and pain borne by pride and selfishness and grief brought by greed along with others, caused by deadly sins. We must forgive in the same measure that we beg for forgiveness. How can we take, if we are not willing to give.The amount of forgiveness we give is the amount of forgiveness we get (Matthew 6:14).

The direct translation of" lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil" is "do not put us to the test, and deliver us from the evil one".

We beg the Father' s mercy to spare us from difficulties and hard trials. By declaring our need for him in every aspect of our life, we are asking him for a reprieve, to lighten the pain and suffering in the test of our faith, amid our true promise of faithfulness and total dependence on him. 

We appeal for deliverance from the evil one, as the evil one do exist. It is not just the deeds of man, the evil one rules the world (Matthew 4:8), and his agenda is to distract us away from our true self; to divert us away from the kingdom within; to prevent the communion of man's essence with the divine. You will note, that religions, those that rose outside the vine, points to the horizon for the kingdom of GOD. They never emphasized the GOD's kingdom on earth, that is in the heart of every man. To do otherwise is to lose their relevance and to lose their power over us. Again in this phrase, we sought the Father's intervention to shield and save us from him that rules the material world, through his un-spirited minions (Ephesians 6:10-22), while on the other hand, we endeavor to reach our nearly impossible task of assuming the consciousness of Christ, which is our true spiritual purpose.

Those are the essence of the Lord's prayer. The only prayer endorsed by our lord Jesus Christ. It is more of an invocation, acceptance, commitment and expression of surrender to humility and GOD's will. Its not like a poem, prose or litany of words uttered for dogma conformance, or to satisfy religious narcissism. It is really not something that we may speak at will, because necessarily, it has to be preceded by awakening, realization, believing and acceptance, that there is a divine spark within us, and we are in fact that divine spark, and that we are not just a physical body. It is a pledge towards abidance. It is drawn from the heart. And those are the works we need to contemplate upon, when we find GOD's kingdom and righteousness in ourselves.

Given those, are we deem prepared to live the essence of the Lord's prayer? To join the GOD's kingdom on earth, and reap its rewards as promised in Matthew 6:33? Or, are we like the most, who do not have an inkling of what they are saying? (Matthew 6:5). Who chose to dwell in words rather than in deed? Are we part of those who inadvertenty lie, because of ignorance, brought about by deception by the minions of the great deceiver himself? (1Timothy 4:1).

One of the greatest gift from GOD is the power of the intellect, the freedom to choose (Galatians 5:1). Why even the devil himself has to honor this gift, that GOD had accorded to man. Even him, the evil one, do not want to violate that divine gift, lest he be cursed to complete damnation. Instead, the evil one used the trap of enticement, towards the glitter of power, fame and glory; of comfort and luxury (Matthew 4:8).

We are free to choose, but passivity, silence and apathy means conformity (James 4:17), and that makes- up a choice nonetheless, which is just what the d'evil one needed to win a battle in the great spiritual war.