My mentor Dr. Mike Murdock of the Wisdom Center said there are six levels of prayer based on the powerful Lord's Prayer as taught to us by our Lord and Messiah Jesus Christ. But the analysis of the Lord Prayer is in seven petitions and you can see them on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer. And so I added a seventh level to the six levels noted by Dr. Mike Murdock in the following order.
- Praise
- Worship
- Priorities
- Provisions
- Pardon
- Protection
- Conclusion.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
When before the Collect the priest alone recites the prayer, the people here respond: Amen.
When after all have communicated the people repeat each petition after the priest, the prayer ends:
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
The seventh level is your conclusion and should end with worshiping God again.
Saying the Lord's Prayer in solemnity everyday is very powerful and gives you two great things, Life Insurance and the Assurance of the infinite Grace of God for a victorious life.
It is important you pray it everyday and in particular in Nigeria, because of these interesting times that fallacy and hypocrisy have become the lifestyles of majority of those who claim to be "Christians" in Nigeria. But only those who are ignorant of the Sermon of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives will be surprised.
The abnormal and strange behaviors of majority of Nigerians with their irrational logic are clearly written in Matthew 24, of the Holy Bible.
What determines our true identity in Christianity is not our claims, but the characteristics of our lifestyles.
You cannot claim to be a "Christian" and have the characteristics of a pagan and the only difference is that while you go to church, the pagan goes to the shrine.
It is all mere eye service and lip service to impress and deceive themselves, because they cannot fool God, the omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
But we have to pray for these "Christians" of abnormal behavior and irrational thoughts, because they are actually possessed by evil spirits and many of them don't have the spirit of discernment to see their predicament. They have eyes, but they cannot see, because their visions have been blurred by their conceit, deceit, carnal egos, greed and mischief.
A young woman of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) church was going to wed the next day and came to see me to tell me. And I knew that she was already pregnant and I told her so. And she wondered how I knew.
"Have you told your father?" I asked.
"No," she replied.
"Please, dare not provoke God by going to wed in your father's Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) without telling him that you are pregnant before the wedding," I warned her.
She nodded. But I did not attend the wedding.
Millions of Nigerians have become partners in crime in dubious marriages based on false oaths of lying lovers and foolish or ignorant parents.
The tragedy of these strange days of strange ways of many Nigerians is the fact that parents and guardians we expect to discipline their children and wards in honesty and transparency are even encouraging them to cheat, deceive, lie, rob and steal and kill their fellow humans without conscience and without shame to succeed in the world and even receive standing ovation for escaping without being caught. Parents have become pimps of their daughters.
From Lagos to Abuja and from the Niger Delta to Lake Chad, you will see the evidence of the following:
0 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24 King James Version (KJV)
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Let us pray:
Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
~ Psalm 144:11
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