Ep. 5: Hallowing God's Name is a Priority

What does it really mean to pray "hallowed be Your name"? In this episode, I discuss why hallowing God's name is the first priority in prayer — not just a phrase, but a posture of the heart. Discover how reverence, gratitude, and holy fear are the keys to a prayer life that moves from being transactional to true fellowship with God.

Transcript

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Welcome to On This Rock, the discipleship podcast that trains you to follow Jesus Christ. As you listen, we trust you'll gain a deeper understanding of who he is and anchor your identity in Him. Christ in you is the only hope of receiving God's glory. Trade your pebble for the rock of ages. Welcome to the show with your host, author, and seasoned Bible teacher, Nana Anci.

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Hey, loyal listeners. It's so good to be with you today as we continue with the study of the Lord's Prayer. It is a powerful pattern that Jesus gave us a blueprint from heaven, not just something you recite. But a blueprint for fellowship and also consecration. It's really about consecration when you think about it. Jesus is teaching us how to live as priests, how to live in communion with God, and he's pretty much showing us that prayer is a lifestyle. It's not just something you are recite and leave. It's, it's a relationship and it's a relationship Doesn't, that doesn't end when the prayer stops. that's why he starts with the address. The first teaching on the Lord's Prayer I did, which was the, the previous episode was on approaching God as our father. Jesus taught us that if we are, don't approach him as our father, and we approach him as pagans do as people who have not been taught to come before God and to know him as father. Then we will basically come as religious people as if we are still part of the old covenant and not the new covenant that he instituted through his body and his blood. So only the son can show us. The father and the son came to inaugurate a new way to know the father, and it's very important because it's a package. If you come to God as a pagan, you don't get the package that a child gets. A child has access. The first and most important thing is access to intimacy with God to the intimate chambers of God. Children can enter their, their parents' bedroom, but if I show up as a friend or I show up. a transactional religious person who's just, he had to transact something in prayer with God to try to get some request or need met, and I don't have relationship, then I don't have access to intimacy. And a lot of people have prayer lives that are reduced to transactions with God and not fellowship with God. And Jesus gave this blueprint, which didn't start with petitions. He was showing us that for our petitions to be effective, we need to establish relationship. And all these boundaries that he puts in place are boundaries that protect that relationship. So the boundaries, first of all, knowing God as father, it triggers acceptance. It triggers the fact that you're chosen and you're not abandoned. So abandonment is a huge thing that many struggle with in the body of Christ. But when you know God as father, it heals your soul wounds. Your soul gets wounded when you suffer abandonment, when you suffer rejection, when you suffer ship. These are all things that we deal with in our childhood. At one point or another, you maybe at school, somebody rejected you and then you carry this wound, you didn't even know what you had. But often it's through family relationships. go through a divorce, you may experience abandonment. These are all real things that happen, but God has made provision for us to be healed through knowing him as our father. And so we have to come through Christ. And so we talked about a lot of what Jesus did for us to be redeemed and. Our first season. Now, in this season, we're focusing more on priesthood and fellowship because that is how you fellowship with God. The only people could go into God's presence. In the Old Testament, were priests because priests need to be consecrated in a certain way. You need to be, you need to be dressed in a certain way. You need to take a certain vow. You need to, it's like you gotta go through a certain initiation to serve God as a priest. So the Bible says in Revelation one, four, I believe, or five it, it says that Jesus has redeemed us and made us what a kingdom of priests to his God. Peter also talks about that we are in a kingdom of priests. The people in the kingdom are priests. Every citizen in the kingdom of God is a priest. So every child of God is automatically placed in this function of being a priest. Because God is a holy God and we need to follow a certain protocol. So the Lord's Prayer really is about that. So the more I think about the Lord's Prayer, I realize it's actually a way of living in consecration. God is showing us that what we need to do to establish fellowship is knowing him as father by revelation. Then Jesus goes through all these steps that I'm going to go through in the coming months. Today we're going to talk about Halloween God's name as Father, because these are all ways to maintain that relationship. Keep they're all, it's like they're all God rails. of putting boundaries so that your fellowship is not broken. Because when you break that sin breaks fellowship. when coming into agreement with an Idol Briggs fellowship. Fear breaks, like fellowship. These are all things that will take you out of the love of God, but Jesus is showing us what we need to do. For instance, when we come to talking about forgiving as we are forgiven, because when we don't forgive, it breaks fellowship. So God is showing us all these things that we need to practice, not just pray about, but live out. Because the prayer becomes not just something you do one time, like I said, like a transaction. It's a lifestyle. It's a calling into a life of prayer. Jesus said his, his church will be known as a house of prayer. This is our identity. We are praying people. That's how we're known. If we're not praying, then we're not living out that function. We're not functioning, and, and, and it means the altar. 'cause every priest has an altar, right? Now altar, which is our hearts, is not, isn't disrepair and other things have gotten gotten in there and we're not in intimacy with God and that affects. How we are heard and whether we are heard, even our confidence in prayer and whether we have weight with God when it comes to prayer. like Abraham who could stand in as intercessors, and Moses and Daniel, they lived a certain life because they had fellowship with God. They didn't just show up and say, Hey, God would, wouldn't you do this? Wouldn't you do that? They had fellowships so they could ask certain things. So Jesus doesn't start teaching us about prayer by telling us to ask God for things, but to deal with our hearts, to deal with relationship, to deal with, to bring alignment, to get to your kingdom, your will before we ask, right? So today's focus is on hollowing God's name. We're gonna talk about the importance of hing, God's name. Jesus taught his disciples that the first priority in prayer. It's a declaration of God's holiness it, it's, it's an understanding that yes, I've come to God as my father, but he's holy. He is the one who is in the hallowed place. God's holiness is his otherness. It's what sets him apart as God. It's the thing that makes him and only him, father, son, and holy go ghost God and nobody else. And it's a thing of beauty because in heaven, when you study that episode on holiness, I think I talk about it there, that Isaiah, when Isaiah had his encounter with the Lord in Isaiah six, it's described when he entered heaven and he had this vision, he entered there by his spirit. He had this vision. Of the throne of God. It was a thing of beauty, but it was also scary. But it's a thing of beauty. The holiness is described as beautiful. It, it's so awesome that the angels there are al always say, holy, holy, holy. 'cause they're seen facets of God that are justm amazing, wonderful. He's, he's so good. Nobody's as good as he is, and everybody in his presence wants to do. Something they want to give themselves over them. They wanna, they want to give him their best. had an encounter where I was in the throne room of God and I, I saw something about the father. Everybody wanted to give him their reverence, submission, everybody. And I knew in that moment that if I did not, I would regret it. It because everybody there want, they were all like, take it, take mine. Take mine. Because he's so good. He's just that good. He's, he's nobody's as good as he is. And I saw that and I came out of that experience, that encounter, and it was a very difficult time and God was asking some very difficult things and I had to go through very difficult decisions. But that vision actually. It made such an impression on me, and even to this day when I come to moments like that where, I, I have questions about my calling or whatever, assignments or whatever. I remember that in eternity, everybody who sees the father wants to give him their best. They all love him. They all love him. So to Hall, God's name is to put him in that hallowed place in your heart. It is to not put something else above him or beside him. It's to treat him as set apart in your eyes. It's to have awe in your eyes. And sometimes if we're not careful, we lose that awe. It's the fear of the Lord. It's the fear of the Lord. It, it's, it's that fear of God that, that holy reverence. Another word I would use for hing, God's name is reverence. It's showing God reverence because he is above everything else. It's amazing. God's messy, it is revealed to those who fear him. Psalm three, 11 to 13 says. For as high as the heavens are about the end. So great is SFAs love towards those who fear him. That's the ESV version. And then it ends with, as a father, shows compassion to his children. So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. So you see why Jesus taught his disciples this first after he taught them the right address to come to God, If this is not in position, if God is not hallowed before us, if he's not, if we don't treat him as sacred in our hearts, if he's not treated as the ultimate, if he's not treated as the one to him, we give reverence and we believe and trust and put our fear in. And this is a holy fear, to what you fear is your God. So Jacob described God as the fear of Isaac because Isaac feared God. So often people fear things like money. We have to be careful that we don't do that, or we fear people, we fear other people's opinions. We have to be careful that we don't do that because these are, these are all things that could become. Can create idolatry in our hearts because they become, become idols competing with the reverence that we're supposed to give to God and what God said. So treating God as holy is also treating his word as holy. This is so important. A lot of people are not coming into their covenant blessings, because they are not. In the fear of the Lord. They are not walking in that Jesus is described as walking in the fear of the Lord. He carried the spirit of the fear of the Lord. This is described in Isaiah, I believe, Isaiah eight. One of the manifestations of the spirit of God that he carried was the fear of the. And so you and I need to pray for this, that God will give us the fear of the Lord, that we will hallow his name, that we will treat him as holy, that we will put his word above everything else, that we will tremble at his word. That's why Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians two 13, I think he says that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's necessary. One time I was asking the Lord, why is it that you've made all these promises and yet many Christians are not living out those promises. dealing with insufficiency. People are broke, sorts of issues going on, and he gave me one word. Reverence, reverence, reverence. This is the the thing. We need to revere God as God and not revere something else above him or beside him. It's the first commandment of Moses, right? So you see how. The we're not living by the letter of the law, but we still need to follow the spirit of the law, which is to put God first in all things. And that's really what it means. It means you hollow. His name means you hollow his word because he says he has magnified his word about his name, and here he is telling us he keeps covenant with those who fear him. So it's a necessity. We must fear God. You must fear God. So I'm going to talk about. Hollowing God's name in prayer and also Profaning God's name in prayer. Since we're talking about the priesthood, for the sake of time, I'm just going to be able to touch on a, a few key points. But first, let's start with hollowing defined. What does it mean to use that word hall? The Greek word translated as Hall in the Lord's Prayer is. Which means to be holy or set apart. It also carries the sense of separating something from what is common or profane. So you see that the, the contrast to hollowing is profaning, so we've gotta talk about both. If it's not treated as wholly, it's gonna be profane. And God forbid that we profane his name, God have mess on us where we have and do profane. His name, Lord, help us to hollow something, is to treat it as sacred. As I said, God is holy. He is perfect in his nature. He's always good, he is always good. And so the prerequisite for worshiping God. It is treating his name as holy, treating his name as sanctified, treating his name as something set apart. And this is why we need sanctification. So if you haven't listened to the episode on sanctification from Season one, do that because it talks about why we need consecration because we are coming into Covenant, which means attachment agreement union. With a holy God, and it requires that we set him apart in our eyes and that we are selves be set apart, be separated from what is considered unclean. But this tells you an I that there is a protocol because he is a holy God. the priest in the Old Testament, they had to follow certain protocols and these are all given for us. They're shutters and types for us to see and learn about heavenly things and our own fellowship with an invisible God who is holy. So holiness in a disciple means oneness with the holy God. 'cause that is the only way that we can be holy. It's by receiving his holiness. This is, I teach about this in that episode, so I'm not gonna go into that except to say that when we're talking about holiness and defining holiness, we're talking about separating from the profane and setting apart to treat us holy because these holy so it, it involves self denial, it involves consecration, and self denial is really a key part of discipleship. We may not always feel like it, but it's, it's necessary that we die to our old nature so that we can maintain fellowship with a holy God. So what does it mean to hollow God's name in prayer? Hollowing God's name is achieved through actions like thanksgiving and praise when we're hollering God's name in prayer. It is serving him with an attitude of gratitude. It is serving him with joy. Paul writes in Second Corinthians nine, seven, each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful GI giver. So howing God is refraining from a type of sacrifice that is polluted by the wrong attitude. So if we wanna contrast this with the profane, it would be if you're bringing God a sacrifice that is grudging complaining, doing it grudgingly, he says he doesn't accept it and Malachi won. He told the, the Israelites that you are wasting your time. I don't accept this because you're saying sing me is so difficult, it's so bread and sum. Meanwhile, Jesus said his Y is. Is easy and his burden is like, so if it's burdensome, then it's become religious and there's no grace on it, which means we are not operating in the, we're out of harmony and we have to come into the right order of things. We have to restore order so that he is, is leading, he is ahead, right? So that we don't fall into a pattern where we're bearing burdens without grace. 'cause his grace makes it easy. For us to carry them. So really the key point I want you to take from this is to hollow God's name and prayer is to come to God with the right attitude is to serve with an attitude of gratitude and all. So the altar of Hebrew's rights that we must have grace to serve God acceptably and the Greek word used in Hebrews 1228. Translated Grace is carries, which carries the sense of thankfulness. It can be translated as being thankful. So the same word is used, like in the Greek they say gracia. And it's also the word that we're, we use for gratitude. So it's important that we remember that our gratitude can bring us into grace. And grace is what saves us. It brings us into that, that realm of God. It's grace where we have fellowship with him and everything else that we try to do religiously and and thinking that we have a sense of entitlement to things is gonna kick us out of that realm. It's gonna put us into the realm of the flesh where we come under oppression. But if we wanna live in communion, then we need to have a heart that. Puts God first, love God. It it's to love on him. It's, it's, it's a heart that's devoted to God. So we're talking really about inner devotion and sometimes when we go through life's troubles, this is what the enemy wants to rob us of. He wants to rob our love. He wants to take away that reverence because he wants to take away that joy of the Lord, that that devotion to God, he wants to replace it with. Arguments with complaining, with feeling like God is not good. God is not just, but often the issue's, not really God's end. 'cause God says he's already provided everything we'll ever need. in two Peter one, two, and three says, he's already given us everything through Christ, but there are conditions to some of these promises that we have to meet. And really reverence is number one. Reverence is number one. Faith is is another one. We can't enter grace without faith, which means we have to be submitted and so everything turns on. Repentance, changing our attitude so that we come into the right attitude so we can maintain fellowship with. I, I just remember like Daniel's story, the Bible says when Daniel prayed, God heard him and answered him, but his prayer was intercepted. And so if Daniel had set by, by spiritual warfare in the heavenlies, and the, and stronger angels had to come fight for the answer to come down. But, so Daniel could have been like, oh God, you're not faithful. You didn't answer me and changed his whole attitude. But no, he persevered. He persevered in prayer. He didn't give up on waiting. On God because he knew God had said something. He had faith. So he was seeking God based on faith. So he kept that reverence, faith first really. And then he kept that reverence and he stayed in that position until the answer came. He didn't give up. He didn't. He didn't let the devil talk him out of, continued to wait on God. So that's an important thing that we need to keep in mind, this attitude, wherever we've slipped into in gratitude. We need to repent. We need to change our way of thinking, our perspective. We need to ask God to change that perspective because it'll bring us into idolatry, which is self worship and self worship. Anything we put above or beside God immediately takes away his reverence. When we start to put our will above his will and self will will kill reverence. So we gotta submit in the fear of the Lord. How in God's name is, is really submitting to him in the fear of the Lord. It's, it's really treating his word as holy, never speaking against that, never coming against his character. So what's the opposite of that? Offering? Defiled and unacceptable sacrifices. That is the profane part, which you touched upon. And as I, as I said in Malachi one, six. God complained against the Jews. He says a son honors his father and a seventh his master. If then I am the Father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you, priest who despised my name, yet you say, in what way have we despised your. Wow. That's the new James version. And then he describes how they despised his name. He said, you've kept the best for yourselves. You bring these sacrifices that are lame, that are broken, that are, that are not okay. You're like half hearted sacrifices. In other words, half hearted worship, half hearted praise. But in your heart, you, you, you're singing with your lips, but in your heart, you, your hearts are away from me. You don't like me, you don't, you think bad about me, you accuse me in your heart. And that siding with our accuser, we just, Satan. So we have to be careful how we think about God in our hearts, especially when we, we go through trials, And so he lists all these ways that they had profaned his name and said that he was rejecting their sacrifices. So there is a sacrifice God can reject when it's coming with hypocrisy. is dishonor like an and sfi, in the New Testament they dishonor the Holy Spirit and, and oh my, did they pay for that? They were made an example to show us that God really despises that because they withheld from God. And one of the ways we withhold from God is to withhold our bodies because we surrendered to Christ to be our Lord. And he says in, in, through Paul. In Romans 12, one, present your body, serve me. Give up your life for me. And people wanna live however they want. Do whatever they want. And when we do that, we are withholding because we're saying, well God, I'll give you this much, but I wouldn't give you that much. I'll do this, but I wouldn't do that. our self will is really what stands in the way of reverence. So to really revere God, we've got to, We gotta be willing to surrender and we have to come before God in the right spirit. So a, a good example of people who came before God in the wrong spirit, who came before God flippantly and faced judgment. A good example are the two sons of Aaron made up and Abi in Leviticus. Ten three and number 16, five. We read about this. They thought they presumed on God, they were presumptuous. And this is a very common thing in the body of Christ where we know a little bit of word. We had some fate here and there, so we presume that God is gonna do X, Y, Z, but he didn't say that. And because we had some knowledge, we moved ahead of him. We moved into action in some way, and he was, and judgment came because he said, no, you moved ahead of me. I didn't tell you to do that. Now these guys thought they had a right to enter God's presence because there were successes to their father. So they came Anyhow, they came with fire. God called profane fire. They came with pride, a spirit of pride and presumption and self-will, and, and it, it was described as unauthorized or strange fire. And God judged them by destroying them with his fire. And he made an example of them and he put the fear of God in the, in the people. And there's also the story of Kora in number 16, who rebelled against Moses. And, decided that they too could do what he did. And so they, they took a stand. dangerous thing really to rebel against spiritual leadership. Even if they're doing wrong, we must show reverence because they stand in as representatives of God, and when they disregarded Moses' warning it, it cost them. It cost them, and they died. And there was a plague that came on the, in the camp. And so Aaron and Moses had to go into prayer for them to intercede for them. So all these Old Testament examples show us that God really doesn't take lightly the wrong coming to him in the wrong spirit or coming to him flippantly, and that it matters that we hollow his name. It really matters. This is a primary priority in prayer, and so let's end with prayer. Let's end with a confession that, God, if there's any way that we have not hallowed your name any way we have disregarded your holiness and treated it as a light thing, forgive us. Forgive us, and teach us to be holy. Teach us to, to revere you, restore the awe back in our eyes so that we serve you with the right attitude. And if you can't remember any attitude at all, remember gratitude. Gratitude will bring deliverance. Gratitude is a sign of faith. So gratitude will bring you into grace because like I said, we come into grace by faith and gratitude shows that you. giving thanks to something that's already taken place. So it's actually a very easy way to get into the blessing that God has for you because you're not, you, you're not wandering, you're not doubting, you're not questioning. You step in, you step in and, and, and he already said. Psalm hundred that we enter his gates with Thanksgiving. So gratitude will bring you into the presence of God. So hollowing, God's name is praising God. It's loving on God from a sincere heart, and it'll bring you into His presence and it'll bring you into his provision. So Father, if there's any way that we have sinned against you by dishonoring you. Dishonoring you with our self will, with, with our stubborn self will forgive us if there's any way that we have profaned your name and your character by before, others by, by not living out your holy nature. If there's any way we've approached you flippantly, served you lightly. Withheld from you, complained, argued with you, and brought you lame sacrifices and, and not the best. And not the best of ourselves, and not put you first in all things. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us and teach us to hollow your name. Put the fear of the Lord in us. Give us the fear of the Lord. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. If this blessed you. As always, don't forget to share, subscribe. Like if you are watching this on the YouTube channel, you can subscribe and like there. If it's through Bus Prout can do it there too, or through Women on the Rock. And do check out our ministries and support Samaritan on the re, on the Rock, support us so that we can reach. People who are disadvantaged in Ghana with the gospel in a very practical way. So if you are so moved, do support us and do subscribe to our channels and spread the word. God bless. Take care. Bye.

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