For 15 years, it's the one thing I've tried the most times to say — and the one thing I'm still farthest from saying well.

Continually, consistently, my spirit leaps. My words stumble.

Now, it's welling up in me again — the yearning to speak out about this key truth that changes everything. Father, send the words.

Activating truth
Do not think of truth as facts to know. Truth emanates from God. It pulsates with his life. Truth unveils facets of all creation and of the Three-in-one who created it. Truth connects time and eternity. It links the physical world and the spiritual one. It triggers genuine love. It sparks encounters with God that totally undo us and utterly renew us.

Potentially, truth can change everything. Yet, like seed, the inherent power of truth lies dormant until activated by faith.

In 1994, God activated a key, life-changing truth in me as I studied the verses in Matthew 6 commonly called the Lord's Prayer.

Immediately, I grasped what he was showing me — yet did not understand it at all. I recognized its significance — yet had no idea how far-reaching its implications. Doing extensive Bible study, I searched for understanding as for treasure. I found important clues. They pointed me in the right direction but could take me only so far.

Eager to tell what I was learning, I began to try. I knew just enough to be dangerous. It was as if I'd discovered an unknown seed, watched it germinate — then started writing articles describing how the mature plant looked and what fruit it produced. It was as if I held a loaded gun for the first time — then started offering classes in marksmanship.

In spite of my naiveté, I did one thing right: I responded to the wooing of God's Spirit as he taught me to pray one prayer above all others. He led me to pray this prayer, not once, not occasionally, not even first on my prayer list, but rather to offer it as the continual cry of my inmost being.

The words I prayed didn't sound explosive. I had no clue what fruit they would produce. Yet I meant them.

The key prayer that still erupts from deep within me has sent my whole life on a different trajectory — into the deep things of God and out to do exploits with him that I never could have conceived.

"God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us" (Eph. 3:20 MSG).

Notice!
Jesus uttered the most well-known prayer in scripture. We call it "the Lord's Prayer," yet Jesus didn't pray it. Rather, he taught it. He said:

"This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one'" (Matt. 6:9-13).

If familiarity breeds contempt, we can easily treat this prayer contemptuously. Thinking we know it, we read right over it.

I invite you, the deepest part of you: Notice.

Notice that these verses don't teach confession or thanksgiving or praise. While other scriptures show other facets of prayer, the Lord's Prayer contains key petitions. Here, Jesus taught us what to ask for.

Notice also that he taught who to pray for. The second half of this prayer includes four requests. Look back and find them. Reading each request, we naturally notice the petition itself. We focus on what we're asking for. But now notice who we're praying for: "give us," "forgive us," lead us," "deliver us" (italics mine).

If you were to list those for whom you pray, might the list include: Yourself? Family? Friends? Enemies? Coworkers? Sick people? Hurting people? Christian people? People who don't know Christ? Church leaders? Missionaries? The people of your city, state, country? Government leaders? Business leaders? Nations?

No matter how long or short your list, mentally draw a box around it and title it, "Us." Jesus taught us to pray for people. It's good and godly to pray for "us."

Yet notice: Jesus also told us to pray first and foremost for someone else, someone who doesn't usually appear on our prayer lists at all. Jesus said,

"This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven'" (italics mine).

Walking the earth, Jesus showed us the Father. Demonstrating prayer, Jesus called on "our Father in heaven." Jesus taught us to pray to God. That doesn't surprise us.

Ah but Jesus also taught us to pray for God. That startles us.

Reread or recite the Lord's Prayer. Notice that praying for God doesn't mean you tip your hat to him, politely gesturing his way before launching into lengthy prayers for "us." The entire first half of this prayer focuses on praying for our Father.

That's not meant to make us legalistic. It's meant to show us that prayer doesn't look like we thought it did. It's meant to call forth petitions that originate in our spirit — and accomplish more than we can ask or imagine.

Praying from your soul
Typically, we pray from our souls. We pray for people (including ourselves) because people have needs. Indeed, people have a vast array of needs - little needs, overwhelming needs, physical needs, financial needs, spiritual needs, emotional and mental and social needs. We go to God, asking him to meet needs we've experienced or heard about or seen. We keep lists to make sure we include all the people and needs we feel responsible to cover. We plead with greater passion when we have a deep emotional connection for the people or the need. We ask for what we think will meet each need best.

When we pray for people, we tend to pray from our souls. But you cannot pray for God from your soul. You cannot mentally figure out how to do it. You cannot summon up an emotional connection. The only emotion you may feel is offense. People everywhere have needs so vast and heavy that you could spend all day every day praying and still not scratch the surface. Yet, you're supposed to pray first and foremost for the God who has all power and all knowledge, who created everything, who owns everything — who has no needs?

Notice what happens inside you when you pray the words: Give us. Forgive us. Lead us. Deliver us. You're praying for "us." You can't help but identify, mentally and emotionally. That's a soul connection.

Do you feel the same resonance when you pray these words? Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.

We can parrot these words that Jesus taught, and we often do. But try as we might, we can't mentally grasp what we're asking. We can't emotionally relate to God's name, his kingdom, his will.

Praying from your spirit
Good news! The most powerful, effective prayers arise, not from your mind or emotions, but from deeper within. Indeed, they originate from God himself. When you know Christ as Lord, his Spirit lives in you. "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10).

The Spirit calls to your deepest part, your human spirit. You choose whether your spirit will respond, or whether it will continue to be overruled by your boisterous and opinionated soul. As you give your spirit freedom to respond to Christ's Spirit, you find yourself impelled by something stronger than emotion and more certain than knowledge. As your spirit echoes the yearnings of God's Spirit, you long for your Father's name to be hallowed and his kingdom to come. You pray for God.

Often, to your amazement, your soul joins in. It echoes your spirit-yearnings. Your mind and emotions participate joyfully in what they could not start. However, when you are led by the Spirit, not the soul, you don't quit praying for God or yearning for what he wants when he takes you places that make no sense, places where your emotions scream not to go.

What's more, when you begin to pray for God from your spirit, you begin to pray for people in the same way. Where before you asked for what you thought they needed, now you ask very different things. You begin to see root issues God wants to address. You begin to glimpse what he is doing. You begin to hear what he is saying. You petition with greater wisdom, power and authority, as Jesus teaches you, Spirit to spirit, how to pray.

Asa's prayer
One day, reading 2 Chronicles 14, I noticed: A king named Asa, who lived long before Jesus walked the earth, demonstrated the kind of praying Jesus taught.

King Asa had a desperate need. His country Judah had a desperate need. A Cushite army of 1,000,000 men marched toward Judah, intending to conquer the people and devastate the land. By comparison, Asa had a tiny army. The Cushites had 300 chariots; Asa had none.

He took his troops out to meet the enemy, drew them up in battle formation — and cried out to God. Asa didn't relegate prayer to the intercessors back home — though they too surely prayed. Standing on the battlefield as commander-in-chief, he did the most crucial, strategic and wise thing he could have done. He prayed. He didn't cry out in panic to whatever god might be available. He called on the Lord his God:

"LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. LORD, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you" (2 Chron. 14:11).

Asa brought a specific, desperate need to God. Asa cried, "Help us." He cried out in behalf of himself, his army and his country. Yet notice the focus of his prayer throughout, the thrust from beginning to end:

"LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. LORD, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you" (italics mine).

Asa used God's covenant name three times in his short prayer (LORD). He twice acknowledged the LORD as "our God." Every phrase of his prayer pointed toward God. Asa did not use God's name as a ploy to get what he and his people needed. Asa did not try to manipulate the Lord. God who knows the heart saw Asa's fear and concern for his people and his land. Yet God knew that the words of Asa's mouth reflected the cry of his inmost being. First and foremost, Asa yearned for God's reputation and God's rule.

If he had prayed from his soul, Asa would have emphasized the enemy's dire threat and the people's great peril. He would have cared little that Judah's defeat would damage God's name. Asa would have ended his plea: "Do not let this vast army prevail against us." Instead, Asa asked, "Lord . . . do not let mere mortals prevail against you."

Not only did Asa pray to God, he prayed for God.

In so doing, he prayed the most powerful petition possible in behalf of himself and his people. In answer, "The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah" (2 Chron. 14:12).

Cry from your inmost being
In upcoming issues, we'll look more closely at the petitions Jesus taught us to pray for God in the Lord's Prayer. Be forewarned: No matter how much you study them, you won't fully understand them. Emotionally, they won't grab you. Ah but spiritually, they can ignite you in a way that sends your whole life on a different trajectory.

Even now Christ within you invites you to experience something stronger than emotion and more certain than knowledge. He calls to the deepest part of you:

"This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'"

When you pray first and foremost for God, you engage with him as he: Connects time and eternity. Superimposes the spiritual world onto the physical one. Triggers genuine love. Encounters people in ways that totally undo them and utterly renew them.

When you pray first and foremost for God, everything changes. Most of all, you.

As your spirit resonates with the cries of his Spirit, he acts - for the sake of his kingdom, for the honor of his name.

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