The First Petition:

-          Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Hallowed by Your Name.”

-          Invocation – established the intimacy and mystery relationship

-          The mystery – invited to communicate with the Creator of the Universe

-          Total Abandonment – the only answer to the speed of change in our culture

-          Fulfillment only found in complete consecration of ourselves to God

-          A command that requires a rich relationship with the Father.

-          The Lord’s Prayer is at the core of the Sermon on the Mount …

-          Are we trying to live every aspect of the Sermon in our lives?

-          Then we can boldly pray this prayer and with expectation answers.

-          God expects us to urgently request that He hallow His Name

-          Ask Him to make His Name holy – in our lives, our families, our churches, our city, our world

The Meaning of “Name”:

-          name – title, authority, and power – O. T., the essence of the person

-          to know someone’s name is to understand the person’s character and nature

o   Jacob – deceiver, attack from behind

o   Israel – he who strives with God, prince of Elohim

-          Ask God to hallow His name – to make His primary essence fully visible

-          Seriousness of taking the Lord’s Name in vain

-          Wrongful use of God’s Name is a lack of respect for who He is

The Meaning of “Hallow”:

-          Lev. 22:32 – set apart as sacred; make holy, consecrate; purify, cleanse

-          “Taking the Lord’s name in vain - the sin of living in contradiction to that name

-          Keeps other from knowing God as He really is!

-          The essence of God’s nature is on display in how we act, talk, and respond

-          When we pray this, we are expecting God to honor this petition – and – we are to protect the honor of His Name

Implications for Spiritual Formation:

1 – God Clearly Revealed –

-          praying to a God who has a name and a location

-          God reveals Himself by His actions and His Word in Scriptures

-          We can expect further manifestations of His essential being

2 – God’s Grace at Work –

-          we choose to live so Gods holy love will be visible in our life.

-          We become evidence of God’s grace at work in this world

Principle 7:     “Spiritual Formation Is Enabled By the Power of the Cross of Christ”

3 – A Repentant Attitude –

-          we recognize when we obscure rather than reveal God’s true nature

-          a genuine repentant attitude upon assessing our short-comings

4 – Abandonment to God –

-          by praying, we offer our lives in submission to God

-          an abandonment to God’s design – to be used as He wills for us

-          His design outdistances our own designs

-          Placed under God’s guidance and control each day in prayer

-          “Lord, help me raise my sail, and throw away the rudder!”  Brenden St. Patrick

5 – Obedience to God’s Call –

-          offer ourselves daily in total obedience to God’s call

-          a “prayer of intentional obedience” – John Wesley

-          operative obedience + predetermined obedience = power in God

6 – Subordination to God –

-          all personal preferences are subordinated to God

-          while praying for personal requests, but , not for God to bless our personal preferences (John 17:11)

7 – Openness to God’s Reordering –

-          be prepared for divine revelation that may disrupt personal plans

-          begin prayer and life by grazing first of all at God

-          in abandonment we find the greatest freedom – tough to do

-          the relationship with God must be in place first

-          hallowed be Your Name – be prepared to let Him change things so His name can become visible through us

A Revolution in Our Understanding of God and His Call to Holy Living:

            Grasp the invocation with an understanding of the first principles, and be enabled to dare to request that God reveal His hidden holiness to and through you.

Principle 8:     “Spiritual Formation Requires Silence.”

-          no request in the prayer to make us holy?

-          Live in close relationship with God and daily invite Him to hallow His name

-          Holiness is a product or result of a quality relationship

-          2 Cor. 3 and 2 Cor. 4:7 – God’s glory in us, His vessels – clay jars

The Radical Nature of This Petition:

-          brings us into conflict with the standards of our culture

-          re-organize our living, giving, praying, and investing in terms of God’s kingdom

-          pray as we live and live as we pray – identifies us as servants of the Servant

Homework:

-          List as many names for God as you can – by characteristic

-          Look up the verses from the names of God hand-out

-          List elements of you life that need organizing for you to live this prayer

-          Write a commitment statement to God in your journal

Lev 22:31-32

Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy

John 14:9

9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

1 Cor 4:14-17

14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15 Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

John 17:11

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one.

2 Cor 3

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Cor 4:7

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.