An acceptable part of prayer is that prayer must be made in faith (James 1:6). If one lives a life contrary to God’s will their prayers will not be accepted by God (John 9:31). A person who refuses to live as God would have them to live must understand that sinful life separates one from God and God will not hear the prayers of such (Isaiah 59:1,2). Christians married to each other were taught that if they mistreat each other, their prayers would be hindered (I Peter 3:7). When one prays it must be according to God’s will (I John 5:14). Prayer is a powerful tool in the hearts of Christians that allows us to cast our cares upon God (I Peter 5:17).
Jesus, in Matthew 6, teaches about the things we should be concerned about in our prayers. He begins by telling His audience to offer their prayer to the Father in a way that honors the name of God (Matthew 6:9). He, likewise, would speak about our trust in God by praying for our “daily” bread as well as being forgiving of those who have injured us. He wanted His audience to pray that they would not be led into temptation. If I were to pause here and ask you if those people of the first century world could pray for these things, what would you answer? Bread, forgiveness and temptation were all things that they of the first century world would face, so yes they could pray for these things.
What about verse 10? The words are, “Thy kingdom come”. Are we to pray in faith? Are we to pray according to God’s will? How then would those in Jesus’ audience pray for the kingdom to come? Is it, as per the teachings of the rapture, that the kingdom is in heaven waiting for Jesus to return and set it up here on earth in our lifetime? Would it make sense for Jesus to tell His audience to pray for the kingdom that could not be established for over 2000 years? If we go back and look at this teaching of Jesus, all those things were connected to the lives they were living at that time. Why then teach men to pray for the kingdom to come? Did Jesus expect to establish the kingdom?
He began His public preaching by calling on His audiences to repent because the kingdom was at hand (Matthew 4:17). Some in the religious world have long recognized the problem this creates. In order to keep their audiences in the dark they try to teach that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are two different things. Let us clear away the confusion by listening to God and not to men. Jesus hears that John was cast into prison (Matthew 4:12). Mark notes, after John was cast into prison (Mark 1:14). After John is cast into prison what did Jesus preach? Matthew says the “…kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 4:17). Mark says that Jesus began to preach the “…kingdom of God” (Mark 1:15). It is the same event because it was after John was put into prison.
The kingdom of heaven is used by Matthew while Mark and Luke use the term, kingdom of God. Less there be any effort to confuse people, Matthew writes that we should seek the kingdom of God first (Matthew 6:33). When teaching men about praying for the kingdom to come, within the same verse is the idea of God’s will being done in earth just as it was in heaven (Matthew 6:10). How could God’s will be done in earth unless one establishes what is God’s will? If we raise the case of salvation, what would you say is required of men? May any person of an accountable age be saved without Jesus the Christ? The answer is “no” (Acts 4:12). What is it that Jesus says through Paul that He would save? Jesus will save His body (Ephesians 5:23). Paul writes that the body of Christ is the church (Ephesians 1:22,23).
By the way, what is the church doing here? The best answer from the religious world promoting the rapture is that the church is a substitute until the kingdom age. What was the price tag of this substitute or inferior product? Perhaps you missed it? The price tag of the church was the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). That blood is used to cleanse men from their sins (Ephesians 1:7). If one argues that the church is a substitute then is not the price tag the same substitute?
The blood of animals could not remove sin (Hebrews 10:1-4). When John saw Jesus coming, he declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). All those animals killed in the Old Testament were pointing to what Jesus would do when He died on the cross. He knew that His blood would be shed to buy the church and therefore the church was a substitute plan in the mind of God? The purpose of salvation was determined by the eternal purpose of God (Ephesians 3:11).