A Love Affair with God – Part 3 by Kurt Steele

We start off today with a brief review. We looked at Our Father who is personally and powerfully put us in relationship with Himself by Jesus Christ’s finished work at Calvary. This is an incomprehensible topic. In fact Jesus prayer in John 17:26 amazes me:
and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them
(Joh 17:26)


God’s love that He has as a Father is in us. He loves us like He loves His Son? Maybe this is why the Apostle Paul crescendos with:

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom 8:37-39)

Our relationship with God as our Father is utterly amazing. His passion for us should draw us to be more and more passionate for Him and glorify Him with everything we have! As the bridegroom in the Song of Songs declares to the Shulamite woman, “You are beautiful, I love you” which pictures Jesus seeing our weakness and crying out, “You are beautiful, I love you, You are beautiful, I love YOU!”

The next line in the Lord’s Pattern of Prayer is “hallowed be Your name”. The word “hallowed” is “hagiazo” in the greek language. The definition is holy, sanctified, set apart, in a class and distinction of its own. God’s nature is in a completely distinct class then anything we know or experience in our limited existence. God is “holy” good, loving, patient, powerful, righteous, just, merciful, jealous, etc. His name speaks directly to His character and His glory. God’s name and His character are synonymous. His name speaks throughout Scripture that He is a covenant keeping God. LORD in our English Bibles (all capitals) is Yahweh, YHWH is the covenant name of God. Occurs 6823 times in the OT First use Gen. 2:4 (Jehovah Elohim). From the verb "to be", havah, similar to chavah (to live), "The Self-Existent One," "I AM WHO I AM" or 'I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE" as revealed to Moses at the burning bush, Ex.3. The name of God is too sacred to be uttered, abbreviated, or written "YHWH" without vowel points. His name is hallowed, in a class of it’s own. What are His names?

Jehovah Jireh: God who by His very nature provides
Jehovah Tsdikenu: God who by His very nature is righteous
Jehovah Shammah: God who by His very nature is there
Jehovah Shalom: God who by His very nature is peace
Jehovah Rohi: God who by His very nature is a shepherd
Jehovah M’Kadesh: God who by His very nature is one who restores
Jehovah Nissi: God who by His very nature is a banner

Here are a few more additional names or characteristics:

Alpha
Revelation 1: 8

King of Glory
Psalm 24:10

Captain of Our Salvation
Hebrews 2:10

Lord of All
Acts 10:36

Ancient of Days
Daniel 7:13-14

My Strength
II Samuel 22:33

Capstone
Matthew 21:42

Power
I Corinthians 1:24

Lord God Almighty
Revelation 4:8

The Beginning
Colossians 1:18

My High Tower
Psalm 144:2

My Rock of Refuge
Psalm 31:2

Rod of Strength
Psalm 110:2

The Good Shepherd
John 10:11

God My Savior
Luke 1:47

The Lifter of My Head
Psalm 3:3

This list should get you started in your pilgrimage into intimacy with God. Jesus starts the pattern of prayer by lifting up and praising the Fathers name. He gives us an example where we need to start in prayer by gazing into the glory of our Father. Meditating on His perfection, beauty, and love. In fact, look at the end of The Lord’s Pattern of Prayer. The prayer ends with where it starts God and God alone, His glory, His kingdom, and His power.

A. W. Tozer pens, "Without worship, we go about miserable." What our world needs today is a God focus and not a man focus. Turning our hearts from our worries, doubts and fears and looking to our Father is the key to amazing and needed transformation in our day. Profoundly, Jack Hayford writes of the power of worship and gazing, "Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped" We need people in our churches to become more like Jesus, conformed to His image. We need to be perfectly weak so that God can be perfectly strong in our lives. Gazing into His eyes and character, makes us like Him. Read I John 3:2:
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
(1Jn 3:2)

Seeing Him as He is changes us dramatically. I give this pattern of prayer on my website www.theultimateonlinesystem.com

By Kurt Steele

http://www.theultimateonlinesystem.com

Article Source: The Christian Article Resource