The Metaphysics of the Lord’s Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

That was the traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer. The English wording that is used today reflects what was mandated for use by Henry VIII.

This prayer was the answer Jesus gave to his disciples when they asked to be taught how to pray. It is considered a short prayer, by Jewish standards. And, it was meant to be a pattern to be used as we prayed. It is a series of affirmations.

Many people rattle through it like parrots, forgetful of the warning that Jesus gave us against vain repetitions, and, of course, no one derives any profit from that sort of prayer.

The word prayer means setting your mind like a trap so you can catch the thoughts of God. It means to focus, tune in; adjust and prepare our minds and hearts to receive God’s guidance, love, peace, and divine energy.
The purpose of affirmative prayer is not to change God, but to change us.

Prior to this suggested format, our Wayshower, Jesus, had said to be sincere when we pray, “…enter into thy closet; and when you have shut the door, pray in secret.”

Just so you know, the meaning behind “pray in Jesus name” is to pray with the same kind of understanding about God and our human family that Jesus had.

He suggested the time, place or number of words are not essential, but to be open and trusting and with a receptive heart. Jesus changed the importance of all prayers by His emphasis on forgiveness taking the place of vengeance; love taking the place of hatred; and by seeing God is a loving parent, protector and provider.

Many feel the Lord’s Prayer is the most important of all the Christian documents. It was carefully constructed by Jesus with certain very clear ends in view. That is why, of all his teachings, it is by far the best known, and the most often quoted. It is, indeed, the one common denominator of all the Christian churches. Every one of them, without exception, uses the Lord’s Prayer; it is perhaps the only ground upon which they all meet.

The first thing that we notice is that the Prayer naturally falls into seven clauses. Seven symbolizes, in this case, the individual soul. The seven clauses are put together with the utmost care, in perfect order and sequence, and they contain everything that is necessary for the nourishment of the soul.
Let’s look at the prayer line by line:

“Our Father which art in heaven”

This is an immediate and radical restatement of our relationship to God—not as a distant, awesome Power to be approached in fear and trembling, like Dorothy and friends standing before the image of the Wizard, but rather abba, “papa,” intimate and familiar, and so you know, in Aramaic the reference is neither male nor female. We miss the whole point of the prayer if we get caught up in the masculine/feminine idea.
Father is a term of endearment and trust. For Assyrians, to call someone Father is the highest honor one can bestow.
Vibrationally it connects us to the creative energy of all the universe. And that energy is within us existing as divine potential.

Dr. O. C. Smith writes in his book, “Little Green Apples,” … when Jesus uttered the Lord’s Prayer, He began it by saying, “Our Father” – yours and mine – because He knew that this Infinite Presence and Love that God Is, which permeates the Universe and created us, is the same loving Presence that created Him. In other words, what Jesus was seeking to share with us was the Truth that we are all made out of the same substance, the same “stuff.”
Therefore when we pray, we don’t pray to It; we pray “as It.” Jesus said, “I and my Father are One.” He knew there was no place where It ended and He began. That is why He said, “our.” He knew that the same Principle applied to all humankind throughout eternity. We can never be separated from this Loving Presence.

Do you see that in a single blow ninety-nine percent of all the old theology was swept away, with its avenging God, its chosen and favorite individuals, its eternal hell fire, and all the other horrible paraphernalia of man’s diseased and terrified imagination? God exists – and the Eternal, All-Powerful, All-Present God is the loving Father of Humankind.

Next we see that the Prayer says, not “My Father,” but “Our Father,” and this indicates, beyond the possibility of mistake, the truth of the Brotherhood of Humankind. It forces upon our attention at the very beginning the fact that we all are indeed family, and that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither chosen nor un-chosen,” because we all are one.

Here Jesus in making his second point, He ends all the nonsense about a “chosen race: about the spiritual superiority of an one group of human beings over any other group. He cuts away the illusion that the members of any nation, or race, or territory, or class, or color, are, in the sight of God, superior to any other group. A belief in the superiority of one’s own particular group is an illusion to which mankind is very prone, but in the teaching of Jesus it has no place. He teaches that the thing that places a man is the spiritual condition of his own individual soul, and that as long as he is upon the spiritual path it makes no difference whatever to what group he belongs or does not belong.

The implied command is that we are to pray not only for ourselves but for all humankind.
The final point is we get to pray directly to God, without any intermediaries. We have no need for Priests or ministers to pray for us. We can always pray on our own. That does not mean having others pray for you is not desired. Praying for someone is not the same as needing someone to pray for you because of religious restrictions.

“Hallowed be thy name”

Let your name be set apart. To sanctify, to dedicate it for a holy purpose.
The vibrational energy of the name for God is sacred. It vibrates within us in the “sacred place of the most high.” We “hallow” that name by allowing its vibration to define our very being—and by seeing ourselves as temples of God’s energy.

People in the Near East and everywhere, really, tend to use the name of God falsely. They would say, By God, this is worth so much money but I give it to you for thus…” Or, this rug is perfect by God’s name and I will give it to you for x amount of money, tho it is worth so much more.

Jesus was setting God’s name apart, making it holy.

When we recognize, God, Infinite Presence, we recognize the sacredness of our One-ness with Its nature. And as we enter into this Presence in our mind and heart, we align ourselves with Its nature … and It responds to us.

“Thy kingdom come”

Let all divinely, spiritual forces guide our lives. We are to set God’s name apart as the guiding Light for our lives. When we pray that God’s kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven, we are asking God to express through our lives on earth as powerfully as in the higher dimensions of existence. We are making the commitment to allow God to manifest, through our daily lives, in ways that demonstrate recognition of our true identities as a beloved Son or Daughter of God.

The kingdom of God is universal and upholds justice and equality for the entire human family. We must stop looking the other way; stop praying only for ourselves. We must pray for everyone and every nation.

All that God Is, is Good … and this Good is available to us now … but, it is up to us to accept it and “let” God work through us in expressing the Good that we desire. It is the Truth that God can only do for us … what God can do through us … in other words we must heal our mind of anything that prevents us from realizing that the Infinite supports us in our Good.

“Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

When we pray “Thy will be done,” we are surrendering our personal wills to the Divine Will. As we surrender to Divine Will, we do so knowing that our Creator will bestow all things Good upon us. There is no fear, no hesitation in receiving our Good.

Since God has created us with the ability to choose … God’s will for us is to choose … and it will be done unto us as we choose … through our thoughts, our beliefs and our willingness to demonstrate faith.

Instead of choosing to use our free will in selfish, negative ways, separate from God (which causes our trials, from sickness, sin, poverty, to trouble and death), we need to include God in all our plans and actions. Our business is to bring our whole nature into conformity with God’s will. There is where we will find our peace.

With this affirmation we choose to let the inner possibility and the outer manifestation be the same. In Aramaic the word translated as “will” more accurately means “heart’s desire.” Again we are agreeing to—and taking responsibility for—a creative, intimate union with God.

Nothing is withheld from us. Nothing … if we can only believe that we “have it now.” And we don’t have to believe that we have it in the “physical” … only in the “spirit” … and this “believing” is the state of our mind that allows God to manifest our Good in our human affairs … through us … right here where we are … just as we know it is so in mind. In affirmative prayer … we bring heaven to earth … into the situations, circumstances and conditions of our life.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

In Aramaic the text reads “Provide us our needful bread from day to day. Bread is very important in Aramaic homes. It is a food staple. While preparing the bread, the women pray. During a meal, even enemies will speak as friends, never lying while partaking bread.

The term bread as used, means both bread and ideas, truth teachings, understanding in Aramaic.

As we allow God’s energy to flow unimpeded into our daily lives, there is a constant supply of all we need. We do not have to worry over “what we will eat, or what we will wear.” We are to seek attunement with the kingdom of heaven within us and know that all our needs will be supplied before we can even identify them. The God within us sees all of life, is unlimited, and ever-present with us. There is no way we can experience lack, as long as we remain open to the influx of God’s abundant supply flowing to us from a source within ourselves. We are never separated from our Good. It is only our consciousness level that leads to experiencing lack or imperfection.
God provides us with ideas so we prosper. God’s Truth gives us understanding of life, of ourselves, and of others.
This is the first actual prayer request in the prayer—we shift our focus from God to self. It completes a kind of contract: I will birth your heaven and you will see to my needs.

Not only does God answer our prayers for the things we think are important, but for even the smallest of things that we may want or need. God is the Source of everything, and in this statement we are acknowledging that we understand this … and we accept our Good.

Bread means all things (food, clothing, shelter, freedom, knowledge, travel, etc.) required for a healthy, free, harmonious life. It is God’s will that we be healthy, happy, and joyous. God alone is the source. Lack results from seeking our supply from another source than God. Investments, business, employment are merely channels through which God’s good comes.

This phrase signifies the realization that God is our source for all supply. We receive through prayer. The presence-of-God realization is a thing that no one can have or do for us. We must realize God in the present moment and that we are the instruments and expression of God.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Because we have forgotten our true identities, this portion of the Lord’s Prayer has created much confusion. In our spiritual blindness, we believe we are praying for God’s forgiveness. God beholds each of us according to the perfection with which we were created. We are continually making decisions as to how we will live our lives. We make mistakes and create pain. But, the part of us that is God never changes.

God has no need to forgive us. We must forgive our physical self for the mistakes we make while on Earth. Negativity is not a permanent energy. It can be transformed—into the pure energy of God.

Likewise, we are to view those who offend us in the same manner. They, too, make mistakes. We can just as easily transmute the pain, which we allowed our offenders to create in our lives, as we can transmute the pain we created for ourselves.

Failure to forgive self—and others—creates pockets of negativity within our energy field. These pockets clog the passageways to our reception of the constant flow of Good coming to us from our I AM, or Christ PRESENCE. Our spiritual progress hinges upon our willingness to forgive and transmute all mistakes made by self and others. We cannot move forward on the spiritual Path as long as our energy fields are clogged with negativity. It is for this reason that forgiveness of self and others is of such paramount importance.

The Aramaic word means “failures,” “mistakes.” A better way to say it would be forgive us from our offenses as also we have freed our offenders. The tense is important: we must have forgiven others before we can claim our own forgiveness.

“Forgiveness frees us from past error.”

Jesus allowed for human error by including forgiveness as part of this prayer, which is the only way to begin the rectification of human mistakes; and it must go both ways. Whatever mental or emotional message we send to others, we always keep the original thought, picture, and energy. So, we must forgive others as well as ourselves.
We’ll talk more about forgiveness at another time.

“And leave us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

This line doesn’t really make sense in the traditional English translation (“lead us not into temptation”). It is absurd to think that God might lead us into temptation. The Aramaic phrase is rather “don’t let us remain in” temptation. And the word for temptation means “unripeness.”

Since we possess the gift of freewill, it is up to us to be so closely attuned to our Christ PRESENCE that we will not enter temptation. God does Its part by holding, for us, the image of our perfection. We must do the rest. As we seek first the kingdom of God within us, we turn our backs to evil. (Evil here is defined as turning our backs to God.) We deliver ourselves from evil by choosing to hallow God’s name and power, by choosing to assist in creating heaven on earth. Because we possess freewill, God allows us to experience the consequences of our choices, thereby learning to choose the good. In the Bible, “let us” constitutes a command. It is a powerful affirmation of what we intend in our lives. With the words “do not let us,” we are stating our intention to our Christ PRESENCE and thereby, overcome temptation and deliver ourselves from evil.

Our mind must be free and open to the Divine impulse of ideas and guidance. As long as we are thinking someone owes us something … or that we owe someone something … our mind is not “free” … it is being disturbed by an un-truth … in the spirit there is no debt for on this higher level, we are One … these debts are spiritual; shame, blame, guilt, etc. … and in the moment we free ourselves from the false belief in karma, our mind is open to the influx of power and guidance of Spirit.

“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” This was added later.

The Aramaic might more accurately be translated as “Through you the kingdom, through you the energy of life, through you the harmony of all things.”

With these words, we are affirming our intention to maintain a consciousness of the kingdom within ourselves. From this kingdom will flow our abundant supply; it is the Source of all our Good. We are affirming our intention to allow the power of our Christ PRESENCE to flow through us and to do the works God would have us do. Jesus explained repeatedly, “I can do nothing on my own … whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. “We are to be the channels through which God finds expression on this planet. The power for all we do is to flow from our Christ PRESENCE.

To believe our personality self possesses the power to achieve our goals is to fool ourselves and to create scenarios in which we adopt false beliefs about who we are. Likewise, the glory for our good works belongs to our Christ PRESENCE. When a rich ruler called him “Good Teacher,” Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

This sums up the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of God. God is working by means of us, but the Power belongs to God. We recognize that Divine Intelligence is working through us and can perform difficult tasks. The Omnipresence of God in our lives transfigures every aspect of our lives, turning sorrow into joy, age into youth, dullness into light and life. We glorify God by letting God’s light shine through us.

It has been stated over and over again that “nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so”… the temptation to put ourselves down and the temptation to put someone else down … both which creates a negative atmosphere in our minds. Our thoughts cannot be focused on that which is for an expansion and increase of Good in our life if we are dwelling on the negative. All that we are is Good [God].

All Life Is God … there is none other. All Power Is God … any seeming other-power is an illusion of our minds. Whatever we accomplish, is for the glory of God … for without the Spirit of Life within us, working through us, as us and for us … we can do nothing. The Master Mind Jesus stated, “I of mine own self … can do nothing” … and neither can we.

The Aramaic term AMEN means ‘to make firm’, ‘sealed in faithfulness’. It refers to anything that is true, lasting, never ceasing, eternal, perpetual and faithful.

It says, I am committed, I will be faithful. “It is a Hebrew word meaning certainty, truthfulness, and faithfulness.” AMEN also means “So be it.” When we end our prayer with AMEN, we are affirming our faith that the answer is already present in our lives. We are certain of this Truth. “So be it” is our fiat, or command. Prayer is not pleading for favors from a distant God. Prayer is a means of co-creating with God—of bringing forth that which is already ours to claim, our rightful inheritance as a Son or Daughter of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is Affirmative prayer in that each statement creates an “action” in mind … an action that creates an expansion in mind of our relationship with God … empowering us to live a more fulfilling and abundant life.

This prayer brings us some simple realizations: 1. God’s presence is like a loving parent who is forever present and concerned about the welfare of the entire human family; 2 We are all children of a gracious heavenly presence that has provided for us all in all ways; 3. Gods’ sovereign presence (kingdom) and will are to be expressed on earth; 4. We must understand the value of forgiveness, for ourselves and others; 5. God, as a benevolent parent, helps us not to enter into temptation but delivers us from error; 6. God alone has the kingdom, power, and glory to accomplish all that we need;

Now I’d like to give you the translation from the original Aramaic:

O cosmic Birther, from whom the breath of life comes,
Who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration.
May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest.
Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
Let Your will come true in the universe (all that vibrates) just as on earth (that is material and dense).
Give us wisdom (understanding, assistance) for our daily need,
Detach the fetters of faults that bind us, (karma) like we let go the guilt of others.
Let us not be lost in superficial things (materialism, common temptations),
But let us be freed from that what keeps us off from our true purpose.
From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act, the song that beautifies all and renews itself from age to age.
Amên. Sealed in trust, faith and truth. (I confirm with my entire being)

Let’s take these thoughts into prayer.