If it's fire, it's got to look like fire, feel like fire, smell like fire or something.
A burning fire in my chest, wanting to love and caress.
Well, welcome to Raising Home Fire's Secret Place Training.
My name's Matt Landstown.
Straight after this short teaching, there will be an activation to help activate you
in what is being taught in this session.
And so, really hope you enjoy this session.
Well, welcome to the session.
And in this session, I'm going to be talking about one of the principles that I believe,
or I could say one of the core beliefs that I believe undergird a fruitful prayer life
and a thriving connection with God.
And our heart and my heart with this teaching and with these teachings is to equip you
and to empower you and to help you forward in your connection with God
and in your own personal prayer life.
And the core belief that I want to share today in this session is the core belief
that Jesus Christ's life, the life of Jesus, is an invitation from God to you
to live in the same kind of way.
And, you know, Jesus was both fully God and fully man.
He was the Son of God, or He is the Son of God, and He is the Son of Man.
And in being the Son of God, you know, He could say things like,
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
He's the perfect, according to Hebrews, the perfect representation, the exact example
of what God is like.
If you want to know, what is the Father like?
He's exactly like Jesus, and Jesus is exactly like the Father.
If you've seen the Son, you've seen the Father.
If you've seen the Father, you've seen the Son.
Jesus is what God is like, and that is super powerful.
And the other aspect is that Jesus is the Son of Man.
This is what I want to focus on in this session,
is that Jesus Christ is the most normal human that has ever walked the planet.
He is an example of what God's intention has always been
for what the human life is meant to look like.
Jesus is an example of God's intention for humanity.
And not just an example, but an invitation to step into God's intention,
to step into God's normal, of what the normal human life is meant to look like.
Jesus was the most normal Christian to ever walk the planet.
And in Philippians 2, it says this, in verse 5, it says,
Let this mind be anew, which was also in Jesus Christ,
who being in the form of God, in other words, He was God,
did not consider robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even the death of the cross.
So in other words, Jesus is fully God and He's fully man,
but while He was walking the earth, He laid aside His rights,
His divinity, in order to embrace the fullness of humanity.
And what was the purpose behind that?
The purpose behind that was to be an example to you and I,
and to show you and I what God was inviting us into,
and what God was leading us into through Christ.
And that is the normal Christian life,
or you could say the normal human life,
being that God's intention is for every human to become a Christian
and become a follower of Jesus,
and to know Him and be in connection with Him.
So let me just share a few points around this concerning our prayer life.
The disciples, they asked Jesus a question,
and you can read this in the Lord's Prayer.
They asked Him, Lord, Teacher, Rabbi, how do we pray?
And I believe this is a very important question,
and this really is the question that this entire series is aiming to answer
in as much depth as we can,
is the question, how do we pray?
And Jesus answered, and He said,
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
And He carries on, and it's an amazing example,
or even a framework for prayer,
but the beginning point, in the beginning sentence,
the beginning verse for me is one of the most powerful,
if not for me, the most powerful part of Jesus' answer.
He says, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
And when He says, Our Father,
this to me is profound.
First of all, the whole concept of God being Father,
and being that personal,
is a total new concept and is just amazing.
He's saying, first of all, hey God is Father. Now bear in mind that what Jesus has to say
about God trumps what everyone else has to say about God. Jesus is the highest authority.
Jesus is what God has to say about Himself. He's the Word made flesh. What is the Word?
The Word is what God has to say about Himself, what God has to say about life, and what God
has to say about humanity. The Word became flesh. And Jesus is saying, hey, our Father,
first of all God is Father, but not just God is Father, God is our Father. In other words,
He's not just your Father, He's not just my Father, He's our Father. And in that statement,
this is what He's saying. He's saying that in the same way that you see me being a son
to God as my Father, and the same way you see Him being a Father to me in my life, is
the same thing, the same type, and the same kind, and the same quality of relationship
with the Father that you have been invited to enjoy. Let me and my relationship with
the Father be an example to you, because He's not just my Father, He's also your Father,
and the same level and the same space of relationship and connection and union and intimacy that
you see me enjoying with the Father and walking in with the Father by the Holy Spirit, is
the same type of relationship that you have been invited into. And so at the beginning,
before you worry about any other aspect of prayer or anything else to pray in prayer
or any other method of prayer, the first thing to acknowledge is this, is that He's both
my Father and He's your Father. And the same way He's my Father, He's also your Father.
Our Father who is in heaven. And in heaven, I used to think in heaven was this plate that
was a whole other world away, that was this place you go when you die and God has a throne
there and one day you'll get there. But what that word heaven really means is it means,
it's actually got an S on the end, it's plural, it means heavens. It includes the third heaven,
the second heaven, the first heaven, and it's probably more so emphasizing the actual atmosphere
that we live in or the air that we breathe. One preacher said it like this. You can interpret
that verse like this, our Father who is in the air we breathe, and then hallowed be your
name can be interpreted as we stop and acknowledge you. Our Father who is in the air we breathe,
we stop and we become aware of you. It's so powerful. And so before we worry about anything
else in prayer, before we dive into anything else, the first thing is He's our Father,
the same way as He's Jesus' Father, and He's not far away. He's in the air that we breathe.
He's our present Father. He's with us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus in Hebrews 2 verse 10,
that Jesus is bringing many sons into glory. Romans 8 29 says He's the firstborn amongst
many sons or amongst many children. One of the purposes of Jesus coming to earth is this
is to bring many sons into glory. In other words, to bring many sons into the space that
the Father has designed for them to live in, to bring many sons and daughters, to bring
many human beings into their sonship, into the fact that they're children of God, and
into the place that God has provided for them, into their highest and best life before the
Father. He's bringing many sons into glory, and He does that by becoming an example of
what life is meant to look like for us. And so this to me is an amazing principle, and
it's an amazing encouragement when you think about Jesus' prayer life. I've often thought
about Jesus' prayer life. I've often thought about the way Jesus connected with Father
God. I've often thought about, and I think about every day, I think about the way that
Jesus walked with God on earth, and just how amazing that was for Him, and how much intimacy
He enjoyed, and how much He knew the Father. It's pretty amazing to think about Jesus'
prayer life, and to think that that's the same type and the same quality of prayer life
that we've been invited to have, and that God Himself has invited us to have that, which
means it's possible for us to have that. One of the most exciting scriptures concerning
this for me is in Matthew 17, where Jesus actually takes the three up the Mount of Transfiguration,
and in that scripture, we get to see a glimpse of Jesus' secret place. And He takes them
up, and He starts to pray, and as He prays, the heavens open, the glory of God comes down,
Moses and Elijah show up, the Father is there, Jesus is glowing, the three, Peter, James,
and John are like, whoa, freaking out, like, oh my gosh, this is crazy! And they're getting
a glimpse into what Jesus is saying.
secret place look like? What Jesus' communion with the Father look like? What
Jesus' personal connection with Papa God look like? And I often read that
Scripture and I think, man, Jesus, if your life is an invitation from the Father to
me to step into the same way of living, and not just the same way of living but
in the context of what we're talking about today, a divine invitation from God
Himself to step into the same type of prayer life and the same quality of
prayer life that Jesus Christ Himself had and has with the Father, then this to
me is a really exciting Scripture to see. Man, you know, currently I'm
speaking to you right now and my prayer life doesn't look like that yet. I'm not
I'm not glowing. My face isn't glowing with the glory of God, but, man, I'm
feeling the weight of that invitation. I'm feeling the excitement. I'm feeling
the joy of being invited by God to step into that type of and that quality of
prayer life. Jesus' life is an invitation from God to you, and Jesus' prayer life
is an invitation from the Father to you to step into the same type of prayer
life and the same quality of prayer life.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that short teaching. What's about to come up on the
screen is an activation, and in the activation are some questions, and those
questions are designed to take the teaching that you've just heard and to
take that into a deeper space in you, and so I want to encourage you. You will need
three things. You'll need a pen and paper, something to write down answers on.
You will need some time and space, 10 to 15 minutes, and you will need access to
the pause button on your device so that you can pause on the question while you
process it with the Lord. I want to encourage you to take this time and to
process with God these questions that come up, and I pray that this moment
really transforms you from the inside out.