Message #8 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"Jesus' Teaching on Prayer"

by Kaye Johns

Jesus taught His disciples how to pray with the model prayer, which is familiar to many as the Lord’s prayer. He taught us to include as part of our prayer, the statement "Thy kingdom come." [Matthew 6:10, KJV] What did He mean? We can repeat the words, but Jesus was giving us more than a sample prayer. He was giving us a pattern for prayer.

Jesus taught many things about the kingdom of God, but one seems especially appropriate in this context--that the kingdom of God is within us [Luke 17:20-21]. If we are children of God, who can call Him "Our Father," we have the kingdom of God within us, for Jesus has sent His Spirit to live in us. He promised that as He is in the Father, we will be in Him and He will be in us [John 14:16-20]. Jesus taught that He is the true Vine, and we are those who are to abide in Him as branches that draw their very life from the vine.

Jesus’s life in us puts the kingdom of God within us. For His kingdom to come in us, day after day, we must be filled with the Spirit [Ephesians 5:18]--and this happens only to the degree that we are surrendered to Him, emptied of self. As part of our daily prayer, we must surrender all that we are.

Pray with me now -- Father may Your kingdom come in and through our lives today; we yield all that we are, that you may live in us and through us, in Jesus’s name, amen.

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