Category Archives: Reblogs

The Lord’s Prayer: Its Two Settings

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

The study of prayer would not be complete without examining the Lord’s Prayer. It is no doubt the most comprehensive piece of work on prayer ever composed.  Here in this very short prayer Jesus has woven every possible principle of prayer together and has given it to us to show us how to pray.  It is the best and simplest prayer tool we could possibly have.  John MacArthur, in his book, Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer, said, “It [The Lord’s Prayer] is an absolute masterpiece of God’s infinite wisdom to somehow encompass every conceivable element in prayer and reduce it to one simple pattern.”1

In this first blog on the Lord’s Prayer, as an introduction, I want to talk about its settings. In upcoming blogs we will talk about its sources, its form, and generally what it teaches us about prayer.

The Two Settings of the Prayer 

 Since…

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How to Use the Lord’s Prayer to Aid You in Prayer

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

If you are struggling in prayer and are not sure that you are praying as you ought to (as God wants you to), I suggest that you use The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) as an outline for your prayer.  Start with the address—“Our Father in heaven.”  Take one or two minutes to meditate on those words (depending on how much time you have).  Then pray in your own words anything that comes to your mind.  No doubt, if you have meditated on “Our Father in heaven” that is the topic the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind.  Next, read and meditate on the first petition—“Hallowed be Your name.”  Then pray according to how the Holy Spirit leads you on that topic.  Meditate and pray through each petition and also the doxology.

If you like you can break the prayer up differently.  For example, instead of taking each petition separately…

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And Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

We have been looking at the Lord’s Prayer and we have been trying to practice praying as our Lord outlined for us. We have come to the part where it says, “And lead us not into temptation…

So, after we have prayed for daily bread and forgiveness, we are made clean and strong, ready for duty and for battle.  But before we go out into the world we must pray that God would lead us and protect us.

The petition here for leading is really a plea for mercy—that God would not lead us into situations where it would be too difficult for us to bear under trials, so that we would give into sin.  The second part, that He “deliver us from evil,” is the answer to the first part.  That is, if He does not lead us into temptation, what He does is the opposite—He delivers us out of…

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And Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive Our Debtors

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 Here is the petition that is the most needed to maintain our relationship with God.  It is the petition that helps to keep our mind and soul pure so that we can commune with Him in prayer.  Hence this petition for daily forgiveness makes it possible to be satisfied with our daily bread, and also makes it probable that He will guide us and deliver us from evil when we ask Him.

The forgiveness that we ask for is according to our debts to God.  For God has given us His laws and we have not obeyed them, we have not been righteous as He requires.  Thus, because of our sin against God, we owe Him a huge debt of consequence.  How can we pay this debt?  It is so immense, so gigantic that we will never be able to pay it back.  Therefore, all we can do is…

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3 Things to Pray That the Holy Spirit Will Do For Us

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will do these three things for us and in us:

1.  Bring us into communion with God

Since we know that God is spirit and that He is omnipresent, we can be sure that He is always with us and in us.  The Bible tells us that we cannot escape from His presence (Ps. 139:7-12).  We also know that since He is a person, we can relate to Him as a person.  For these reasons, it is possible to have a great and lasting relationship with Him.

The only problem is that our sinful flesh often gets in the way, and therefore, we often reject Him.  But our flesh need not be a problem.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and so, we can simply confess our sins, repent, and come back into fellowship with Him.  And the Holy Spirit is…

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Four Things to Pray That the Holy Spirit Will Do For Us

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 

As Christians we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. But it is up to us every day to ask Him for His help. Here are four things we can ask of Him.

  1.  That He will give us power over temptation.  The Bible says that if we live by the Spirit—that is, if we have our mind set on what the Spirit desires and we do what the Spirit tells us—we will not carry out the desires of the flesh (Rom. 8:5; Gal. 5:16).  It seems so easy.  But the reason why it often turns out to be so hard is because we try to live by the Spirit without asking for His help.

We cannot live by the Spirit or set our mind on what the Spirit desires without bowing our head in prayer—constantly asking for the Spirits help.  Pray for His help and power!  And…

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The Beast from The Earth (Revelation 13:11-18)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

Revelation 13:11-18. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 15 And it was given to him to give breath to the…

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How We Can Pray For the World: Three Areas of Prayer

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 

Just before Jesus ascended to heaven He told His disciples that as soon as He arrived He would send the Holy Spirit back to them.  Then He said, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (Jn. 16:8-11).

What does this all mean?  Well, let’s break it down.  Since Jesus has left, we know that the Holy Spirit has come.  And by this passage we know that He is now working to convict (or to convince) the people of this world of three things: of sin, righteousness, and of judgment.

SIN

He works to convict them of sin, Jesus said, “Because they do not believe in…

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The Beast from the Sea (Revelation 13:1-10)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

We will turn our attention toward the beast from the sea, also called the Antichrist. He may be examined quite extensively from three chapters in Daniel, from 2 Thessalonians, and from six chapters in Revelation. Here we will look primarily from just Revelation thirteen. We will start with the first six verses.

Revelation 13:1-6.And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.

Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. 2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain…

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Who is the Holy Spirit? 5 Descriptions

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

There are several ways the Holy Spirit has been described in scripture.  Here are five descriptions:

As Wind

On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came suddenly as a “rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2-4).  This wind—the Holy Spirit—filled the whole house where believers were gathered together for prayer; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Thus we see that the Holy Spirit, just like the wind, is invisible, mighty, and awesome.  And even though we may be unaware of it, He still is moving all over the world.  He rushes in to fill and empower every heart that is prepared by prayer.  I believe He makes His presence especially powerful to those who gather together in one accord.

As Water

In John 4:13-15 and in John 7:37-39 we see that Jesus offers living water to all who thirst.  This living water in fact was and is the Holy…

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