The Lord’s Prayer - A Guide
to experiencing the blissful presence of God.

Foreword

If you are stumbling hopelessly around in a dark room, is it reasonable to assume all you would have to do to end your misery is to turn on the light? Does the light know anything about your difficulties, or is it in any way responsible? Or is it the absence of light which has caused the problem? Jesus' purpose in creating The Lord’s Prayer was to show us the way to elevate ourselves above the despair of emotional darkness by taking steps to allow the joyful, healing and redeeming Guiding Light of Christ, emanating from God the Father, into our consciousness. The choice to experience this loving and blissful presence is ours to make on a moment-to-moment basis.

A Guide to experiencing the blissful presence of God.

Jesus gave us The Lord's Prayer.
It is the summation of all His teachings.

The Lord’s Prayer was intended to make us aware of the existence of God’s unalterable laws of cause and effect and the importance of conforming to them. It is the spiritual key to opening our hearts and minds to God’s empowering Love. It would be highly improbable anyone other than one of Jesus’ spiritual perfection could live in perfect harmony with creation’s governing laws as expressed by the Spirit of God through the Christ Consciousness. To continually strive to understand these laws and to endeavor to conform to them is a monumental and empowering, ongoing quest, which will eventually lead us to establish communion with the peace, love and healing presence of God. Jesus possessed the Christ Consciousness in all its effulgence and was the Guiding Light sent by God the Father to lead us out of the wilderness of delusion. His purpose was to help us to understand mortal life is governed by God’s unalterable laws of cause and effect and the Soul of man, being a reflection of transcendent Spirit, is above the subjugation of cause and effect. He bore witness to the fact that the Spirit of God is the creator and the breath of all life and is the governing, guiding, restoring, correcting, purifying, life-giving essence of the infallible laws governing the life and intelligence in all that is now, ever was, or ever will be. The source of Jesus’ miraculous powers was his perfect alignment with God’s governing laws which enabled him to be a mercifully empowered conduit between God and man.

​Thus did Jesus counsel: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God (rise above the insidious power of delusion) and all else (the fulfillment of man’s deepest desire to know God, and the resultant healing of body, mind and soul) will be added unto you (according to your divine birthright as a child of God)."​

Our Father

We are children of God,
created equal and equally loved.

Jesus said, “Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?” He saw God in all. He wanted us to know Divinity expresses itself as the individual identities within the divine temples of our Souls. When we realize this we take an important step toward conforming to God’s unalterable laws of cause and effect. The highest commandments are to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and secondly, to love thy neighbor as thyself. If we are the least little bit prejudiced, or if we have feelings of superiority or inferiority, we bring disturbing thoughts upon ourselves that block our receptivity to God. To find God and to allow Him into our hearts, the first requirement is to love Him with the same intense and comforting love we feel for those who are nearest and dearest to us. If we actually feel Love which springs from gratitude for the Almighty we will have no choice but to love all His children equally, for we will be loving the Divinity within each and every person. Do we really love God and understand all He does for us when we conform to His laws? If we truly understand the precise degree He responds to our thoughts and actions, we would have no greater desire than to love Him and no greater love for anyone or anything. The gratitude we express to God and our fellow beings is a pure expression of Love and is returned to us precisely in kind. In His impartiality, He made all Souls alike and in His image. When we fail to recognize and love the Divinity in others, we misuse our God-given independence and bring retributive, yet lawful results upon ourselves as we reap precisely what we have sown. If we do not feel love equally for all, we will not be receptive to Love in general and we will suffer the despair of being disconnected from God. As He is constant, so should we be constant in expressing our love to others and to the Divinity within them. We should take every prudent opportunity to exchange a heartfelt smile, which expresses a kind thought, with all who come our way. We should cherish our friendships and strive to nourish them with kindness and understanding, for friendships are the highest form of love as they make no demands.

which art in heaven

We are eternally immersed in mercifully
empowering Infinite Love, Life and Truth.

​Like a fish is immersed in water we are immersed in the invisible ocean of eternal and omnipresent Christ Consciousness. God expects us to attune our lives to His ubiquitous infinite Love, Life and Truth, which are the foundation of the Divine laws by which all that rightfully exists is governed. The sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, the plants, the animals, all have an obvious intelligence and know what to do and when to do it. Being as they are not endowed with free will they function perfectly well yet will never be any more or less than they currently are. Mankind is governed by the same intelligent life force, yet being as we have free will, we are often out of harmony with Divine Mind due to the wrong choices we make. Nonetheless, it is this same free will that allows us to grow in spiritual awareness throughout eternity. Unfortunately, if it is not used wisely, it can work to our detriment. Therefore the choices we make determine the quality of our eternal life and account for the amount of or lack of progress we make. Man differs from any other creature being as he is endowed with potentially unlimited awareness. “Mercifully empowering” means that God in His infinite mercy gives us ever-increasing insights and prophetic visions with which to purify our thoughts and actions and as a result, we are able to maintain dominion over our inner and outer worlds. We become increasingly able and willing to conform to His unalterable laws of cause and effect. We turn on His empowering life current by means of our exalted thoughts and actions. We create fullness of life by refusing to allow doubtful and faithless thoughts and actions to block the beneficial flow of the universal Christ Consciousness. We continue to immerse ourselves in the Truth with regard to the responsive nature of God, which blossoms into an intuitive awareness of the unreality of all that is not God-centered. We become as little children, safe in our Father-Mother God’s loving bosom throughout eternity. We realize He is always with us and is constantly creating our lives according to the precise expression of our thoughts, words and actions. When we raise our expectations to the level of God’s love for us, we acquire the power to demonstrate over all manner of difficulties. We reap the untold blessings of His eternally sheltering love and guidance.

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy loving perfection is unfathomably
worthy of humble and devoted adoration.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy Soul and all thy mind” would be much easier to demonstrate if we understood the profound and responsive nature of God, what our relationship to Him is and what is the extent of the power He places at our disposal. Jesus created The Lord’s Prayer for this reason. He wanted us to understand God and as a result, when we focus our thoughts on Him in spiritual contemplation, we will be correcting all the worldly misconceptions by which we are continually led to make undesirable choices in our lives. We will become more capable of opening the aperture, that creates the illusion of separateness from God, which allows His love, bliss, wisdom and healing presence to flow into us. The deeper meaning of prayer is not in asking for specific requests but rather to revel in the fruits of blissful and enlightening God-communion and resultant wisdom. This automatically corrects all our difficulties in life, some of which we are aware of and some of which we are not. We must never place more faith in someone or something other than God or we will violate the first Commandment which will block us from His love, protection and empowerment. The workings of cause and effect are simple: The more we are attuned to God’s laws the more we can experience His love, guidance, and protection. What one must do to rise above the human condition is to continually trust in God and to turn to Him unceasingly. No longer will we be looking for Love in all the wrong places. To achieve salvation is to experience the presence of God and to understand all that is available to us by virtue of his nurturing love throughout eternal life. We will have learned to use the power and the wisdom so magnanimously bestowed upon us for the benefit of ourselves as well as for others.

Thy kingdom come.

Exalted thoughts open us
to the ever-flowing love of God.

Jesus counseled “Ask and you shall receive.” Whatever we ask for which is for the common good of all, we will receive. Likewise, if it is not for the good of all, it will be not in conformance with God’s laws of cause and effect and is, therefore, a wrong request. When we steadfastly deliberate about what we understand the nature of God to be and pray only for knowledge of His will for us we will open the portals of heavenly God-sent wisdom which will be bestowed upon us through intuition and prophetic visions. Within this wisdom will be the knowledge of what is right and wrong in God’s eyes. His kingdom of peace, love, joy and healing presence will then be able to flow into our hearts and minds. In reality, this precious God-communion should be our only request. All else can be left in God’s hands as we trust in His eternally sheltering love and guidance. We can develop the spiritually enriching courage that results from remaining poised and God-centered amidst the many dangers, toils and snares by which we are continually challenged. Instead of life becoming more difficult as it progresses, it gets more rewarding as our understanding of God and his empowering blessings continues to blossom into dominion over difficulties that were previously thought to be insurmountable.

Thy will be done.

We are unceasingly enlightened by God’s
unalterable laws of cause and effect.

God’s will is expressed and witnessed to by His unalterable laws of cause and effect which either reward or correct us according to that which we have created by our own thoughts and actions. The highest reward we can receive which indicates we are in tune with the divine mind of God is to experience Him as love, light, peace and joy, and healing presence, as well as divine guidance. Any discord in our life is the direct result of our erroneous thinking and can be corrected as quickly as we can raise our consciousness to the point where we are willing to sacrifice our self-centered ways for the higher goal of attaining God’s love, protection and empowerment. For those who have not experienced communion with God, it should be taken on faith that it is possible to do so from the many who have. A constant vigilance is required in order to maintain inner-communion on a meaningful level, and also to maintain the constant dedication necessary to see this blissful relationship blossom to continually more rewarding depths. The reality is there is not one single moment when the laws of cause and effect are not being demonstrated by man as a result of his thoughts and actions. We conform to or violate God’s unalterable laws primarily through our thoughts which are the root cause of our actions. We can choose to focus on creating good thoughts and their resultant good actions, for the benefit of ourselves and as well as for others. God’s unalterable laws can be made to work for the benefit of man but they cannot be transcended except by God himself, or by one who has established inner-communion with Him. When one disregards the dictates of conscience they become disconnected from their inner world of harmony with God and suffer the consequences of their misguided choices.

In earth as it is in heaven.

Exalted thoughts find expression according to
our understanding of and adherence to spiritual laws.

In order for us to reap the ultimate blessings of God’s unalterable laws of cause and effect, it is helpful to understand how these laws affect us and then try to live in harmony with them. We must continually stand guard over our errant thoughts and actions in order that we can make meaningful demonstrations of the unlimited power and protection provided by divine decree. To the degree we can conform to and thereby implement these God-given, mercifully empowering divine laws, we will eventually realize everything we perceive to be reality is beneficially moldable and adaptable to our thoughts. We do not have to approach God as beggars for what is rightly ours in accordance with His divine laws. We are always in a position to gratefully expect what we are entitled to as a result of our adherence to His unalterable laws of cause and effect. We should pray continually for the wisdom to understand His will and for the courage, unselfishness, and perseverance to conform to His divine government. Eventually, we realize the Soul of man, being the son of God and a reflection of transcendent Spirit, is above the subjugation of cause and effect. When we are identified with our assumed mortal identity, the laws of cause and effect reward us only in accordance with our earned merits. One who is consciously identified with the Spirit within reaps the infinite richness of Divinity which supersedes the encumbrances of mortal limitations.

Give us this day our daily bread.

God soothes us with the loving light of Grace
as our needs are supplied through unlimited sources.

God intercedes for us in order to forgive the negative cosmic consequences of cause and effect. We are rewarded for the understanding of and repentance for our violations of His unalterable laws. As a direct result of establishing an inner harmonious connection with God, we eventually develop an unwavering awareness of eternal life. His blissful presence may be considered the ultimate expression of Grace and is bestowed on us through His tender guidance and beneficence. Therefore, when we repent, as a result of understanding what we have done wrong, God forgives us and alleviates our suffering by rewarding us with His blissful presence. He soothes us with the continual awareness of eternal life as He supplies our needs through different and sometimes unexpected sources. These sources may take the form of people helping us whom we would least expect to do so. We may receive unexpected opportunities or lastly, unexpected spiritual insights that lift us above worldly conditions so we may soar with the angels in a way we never dreamed possible. The reality is, what we “reap” is the precise and direct result of what we “sow.” Therefore, there are no victims. God rewards us with the Amazing Grace of His loving and blissful presence to the degree we conform to His unalterable laws of cause and effect. We do not have to settle for simply neutralizing unhappy occurrences in our lives. We can tip the scales in our favor by thinking and doing a preponderance of good and thereby reaping the favorable results. We can allow the wisdom of Spirit to guide all our thoughts and actions in order that we may align ourselves with God’s governing laws.

And forgive us our debts.

Joy replaces sorrow as light replaces darkness
when understanding is rewarded with forgiveness.

When we understand what we have done wrong we see the light both literally and figuratively. We are forgiven by the Grace of God and as a result, the retribution, in the form of His absence, that was meted out by His laws of cause and effect is nullified. When Jesus healed the sick he said, “Your sins are forgiven thee.” Had he raised the consciousness of those individuals in order to annul the retribution that was the root cause of their illness? Accordingly, we must be willing to examine ourselves in order to decide objectively if we are in violation of God’s laws. When we truly realize “we reap what we sow,” we become willing to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions, and in doing so we take the first step toward being forgiven. His wisdom shines on the darkness of erroneous beliefs that were creating our inability to be attuned to Him in spiritual contemplation. Our sorrow is replaced by the joy of being able to experience God-communion and to avail ourselves of His many empowering blessings. The light of Truth will shine on the darkness of erroneous thoughts and delusive beliefs and cause them to disappear, much as the night disappears with the coming of the dawn. When an expansive and redeeming awareness dawns on us, the God-sent Guiding Light of Christ will eradicate the darkness and suffering caused by our unwitting violations of His unalterable laws of cause and effect. Therefore, God is both law and Love, yet Love transcends law as law can be set aside by Love.

​The God-seeking individual, by prayerfully intuitive perception, explores the depths of his Soul and gathers all offensive tendencies which are methodically consumed by the flames of fiery wisdom. The innate purity of each of us devoted to Truth emerges from behind the clouds of delusion and shines forth as the eradicating sun of wisdom. For those who possess spiritual readiness, let them experience Truth through the direct perception of purifying and enlightening Intuition. So it is, when we realize the error of our ways, we are forgiven. We are purified by eternally blossoming understanding. Joy replaces sorrow, as light replaces darkness, when understanding is rewarded with forgiveness.

as we forgive our debtors.

Understanding enables us to forgive
and rewards us with peace.

When we have a grievance with someone, the absence of understanding, which would allow us to forgive, clouds our thoughts with the unhappiness of the false emotion of anger and the underlying emotion of fear. We suffer emotional pain as a result of being blocked from experiencing God’s love, light, joy, wisdom and healing presence. When we understand all people are good people who behave badly at times, we are able to forgive. As a result of the understanding that leads to forgiveness, we are rewarded with peace of mind which is a prerequisite for experiencing God-communion. The reality is everyone is basically good and we must love all equally. We may not like their behavior at times, but we must continue to honor the Divinity within them. We must realize “To err is human and to forgive is Divine”. The same understanding we extend to others will allow us to understand our own shortcomings and be forgiven. In this regard, Jesus set a lofty standard for us to aspire to. While enduring the physical pain and agony of crucifixion, he did not want to add to his suffering by allowing himself to feel the mental anguish of anger and fear that would have surely separated him from communion with God. This apparently occurred for a few moments when he cried out, “My God why hast thou forsaken me?” Did he assuage his doubt when he looked up to the heavens and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”? Could this have been the antidote for his mental anguish? Jesus asked the Father to expunge the retribution that would be meted by the laws of cause and effect to those who were crucifying him. Not only did Jesus forgive his persecutors but he prayed that they, who dealt out such merciless and heartbreaking cruelty to him, would not suffer a similar fate. He knew they did not understand the hideousness of their unwarranted persecution of him and he lovingly forgave them, as he prayed for their redemption. He asked the Father to raise their consciousness so their sins, which were a manifestation of their ignorance, would be forgiven. In doing so he set a transformative example for us to follow, as he demonstrated how to free one’s self, through forgiveness, from the paralyzing grip of the painfully destructive emotions of anger and fear. The Truth had set Jesus free and it will set us free as well. We will be rewarded with the peace that emanates from and surpasses all understanding.

And lead us not into temptation.

Our infinite capacity for spiritual expansion
is enhanced by harmonious thoughts and actions.

We can ask God to help us to avoid the dark unsettling emotions created by doubtful and faithless thoughts and actions that block us from His love, light, intuitive guidance, peace and joy. When we become aware that we have an infinite capacity for spiritual expansion we do not want to waste one thought or action on anything other than what has the power to expand our consciousness. We recognize that our spiritual progress hinges on the moment-to-moment choices we make throughout our lives. Consequently, we would rather our spiritual evolution be more rapid and be the direct result of pleasant, rather than the painful retributive learning experiences meted out by the laws of cause and effect as a direct result of God’s absence in our lives. The more we can expand our understanding, the more blissful we will be as we become increasingly able to transcend our self-imposed limitations. We are able to take blissful refuge in the beckoning and effulgent bosom of Spirit.

But deliver us from evil.

Our thoughts and actions
are purified by illuminating intuition.

God delivers us from doubtful and faithless thoughts and actions by speaking to us through intuition and prophetic visions. His awakening Grace is granted to us incrementally and only to the degree, we are ready to receive His rewarding and spiritually expansive enlightenment. He waits for us to be receptive so He can whisper words of wisdom to us as a loving Mother or Father would speak to their beloved child. He awakens us patiently as He waits for us to implement His guidance. We are delivered from suffering and evil as He guides us to comply with His unalterable laws of cause and effect. As a result, we are able to avoid the correcting ill-effects created by His absence, which are the underlying causes of all of our difficulties. Our Souls are incrementally redeemed from the ignorance born of delusion, which causes us to forget our Divine nature and to be absorbed in our vulnerable human nature. As we grow in spiritual awareness, we increasingly perceive the enlightening nature of Christ’s teachings and their inherent ability to make us aware; the unfathomable nature of God is expressed through eternal Love, forgiveness and redeeming guidance. It is only when we realize our unworthiness to receive God’s blessings in totality do we begin to tread the spiritually expansive, homeward-bound path of discipleship.

For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power and the glory.

God is omnipresent,
omnipotent and omniscient.

​For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory refers to the Divine laws which are the perfect expression of God’s harmonious rule as they ubiquitously permeate everything, everywhere and are limitless and all-powerful. They demonstrate God’s scientific perfection which is the cohesive force within all that is seen and all that is unseen, in this and all the worlds beyond. These unifying laws are the expression of God’s perfect will. They are constantly adjusting and correcting for the betterment of everyone and everything, including all that takes place in thought and action. For every thought and action, there is a precise and divinely orchestrated reaction which is the purifying force within all that exists and all that is eternal. All who faithfully seek His eternally sheltering love and guidance, by bringing their thoughts and actions into harmony with His Divine laws, will surely experience the purifying and expansive, sacred, blissful and healing presence of our almighty Creator. Therefore, God is everywhere present, all-powerful and precisely scientific.

If in fact, God is everywhere present He cannot possibly be a detached deity sitting on a throne in some inaccessible location. Is it possible He reaches out to the sinners (those who are unaware of, or are unwilling to conform to His laws), counsels those who labor for higher consciousness and rejoices with those who experience the innate bliss of the Soul? Is He within us all forever whether or not we feel His presence? Does salvation lie in destroying the illusion of individualism which separates us from the blissful power and protection of our beneficent Creator?

forever, Amen

We trust in God’s eternally
sheltering love and guidance.

​​Herein is represented the essence of spirituality and embodies the spirit of Christ’s teachings. “We” signifies humanity as being all of God’s children created equally and equally loved. “Trust” is the essential ingredient of faith, the cornerstone of hope, and the process of spiritual evolution by which we progress from blind faith and baseless hope to spiritual conviction gained through understanding. When we trust in God’s eternally sheltering love and guidance we take comfort in his infinite protection. We lift the veil of delusion that separates us from the peace, joy and healing presence of God within us. To be sheltered and protected from life’s continual onslaughts is an immeasurable blessing. To be eternally guided through prayerfully acquired and magnanimously bestowed intuition is to find solace in the God-given awareness that allows us to navigate the often treacherous and unchartered waters of life. We are able to gravitate effortlessly toward the peace and serenity of His sheltering love. Whoever wholeheartedly desires the tender protection of Almighty God will be unceasingly enlightened by the infinite wisdom of divinely granted intuition. The “second birth”, the necessity of which Jesus spoke, admits us to the land of intuitive perception of God’s will. Through our illumined comprehension, we can enter the Cosmic Consciousness of the Kingdom of God, the eternal abode of ever purifying Truth and eternally limitless Souls.

​Absolute unquestioning trust in God is the greatest method of instantaneous healing of body (son of man) and Soul (son of God). An increasing effort to arouse that trust is man’s highest and most rewarding duty. There is nothing more satisfying than wisdom and truth and the truth is we are eternally safe in God’s loving care and guidance.

The Guiding Light of Christ

​The Guiding Light of Christ, emanating from God the Father, is eternally present in our Souls. We can awaken our hearts and minds to experience the light in a rewarding and meaningful way. The voice of our conscience is the voice of God. It adheres to the truth of the intuitive wisdom within. One can detect when a wrong choice, in either thought or action, has been made by the uneasiness and inner disturbance it creates within us. Virtue is recognizable by the inner harmony it engenders. The Guiding Light is always present and offering us discriminative wisdom which is recognizable by the calm and peaceful feelings it creates. If one does not block their discriminative wisdom by rationalizing wrong behavior and disregarding one’s conscience, they will be led by The Guiding Light. To follow the light of inner guidance is to tread the path of ever increasing awareness. We disengage from the Soul shrouding influence of wrong choices that overshadow our discriminative power to define right from wrong actions. The constant seeker of The Guiding Light gradually transcends his habit bound worldly ways. He is increasingly baptized in the light of Christ wisdom. He is born anew as a partaker of the unerring guidance of The Guiding Light within. He experiences the heavenly vision of God’s all-knowing wisdom as he devotedly gravitates toward ultimate oneness with the ubiquitous mind of the heavenly Father, as expressed through the redeeming light of the Christ Consciousness. God is the eternal fountain and the source of all that is good and true and all that is good and true is made manifest by the purifying waters of the Christ Consciousness.

© 2012 Paul Martin. All rights reserved
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