Prayer Works Bible Study: June 29, 2025

"The Lords Prayer - Why Believers Must Know The Names Of God"

---

You know, you never get to where you think you know God, even though you know, I mean, I'm sure this is not the first time that we have heard the names of God. That it's just that in this season is taking a significant importance and nature of it in a way that you know.  

You know, never looked at it in that regard and I'm learning, I'm learning a lot too. You know, in just studying and understanding his names and why he has all these names. Because you can't essentially define him in one word or one name.  

He is everything to everybody anyway, anytime any moment. And the reality is that there's just more to God that will ever understand. I mean, I'm enjoying it and I my prayer is that we are all learning and having a greater understanding of who God is.  

Because I think it changes the way we worship, it changes the way we pray. It changes the way we think. It changes the way we associate with him.

You know, I took Ava and her little friend yesterday, you know, to go, you know they play tennis, so I was like, hey, just get away from it all.  

Let's just go and find some place to go and just sit, talk and as I was talking to them, I said there's a difference between knowing that you are good. I say because when you think about athletes, right? Or, you know, even people who sing or, you know, Vee probably can attest to this.  

You know that most times when we are doing something. We do it from the perspective that I want to get better. And if you cook, you never get to a place like this is good. You always think what you did not do in order to make this dish incredible. 

Or you think maybe if I had added this to this song, it could have been that. And when you're done recording, I remember, you know, when Veronica was putting her album out, she was like, how's debating this and that. 

You know, because that's just the nature of our mind that we are always looking at what we did not do well because we believe that if we do those things, then we get to the best because we think like that.  

Then we end up relating God, that if I can but just do that, then I will get to here. But not acknowledging that you are already there. It's just a few things that you might haven't grasped, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're not good enough. 

It just means that you are focusing on the wrong things which we do most of the time than you know, I don't know if anyone of us ever sit and appreciate the fact that we are saved and we love the Lord.  

And we are praying and we are meeting and we are waking up in the morning and we always feel like maybe we need to do that to add to what we are doing in order for this to be great. Because that's our nature. But the effects of the matter is that I don't know if we ever stop and just appreciate.  

That hey, we've been sitting here and gathering for the past few years and talking about Jesus and loving the Lord, but we always think that maybe we add that if we do that, this will be greater because that's just the nature of our being.  

And with that in mind we tend to look at this relationship with God, that if I can, if I can pray more then it'll be great if I can do that, then it will be awesome or I will get to the next level, and sometimes we fail to recognize that we are already there.  

We just don't know it because we think we have to do certain things. This is why the issue of salvation, it says  we are saved by grace, not for not because of our own doing but rather it's him who puts us where we need to be at any given moment.  

So as we are looking at the names of the Lord, my prayer is that we are as much as we are learning about him, we are learning about the love that he has for us through his names. That he decides to name himself all these names in order to satisfy the need for us to be loved.  

So I'm just going to be everything to you, because I love you so much. I'm not just going to be Father Yahweh. I'm going to be a provider. I'm going to be the very essence of peace and presence in your life and I'm going to be Jehova Tsidkenu.  

I'm going to be a righteousness. I'm going to be all these things because that's how much I desire and love you so much. So these names are revealing to us, the love that God has for humanity.  

Now I want I want to teach we want to kind of go through the Lord's Prayer from that perspective of knowing God's names and then knowing why this prayer was made available to us. 

So in Luke 11 you know Jesus before this, he sends out intent. He sends us the 72 then the parable of the Good Samaritan. Right then after that, at home with Martha and Mary. Then the following discourse right after t says one day Jesus was praying in a certain place.  

When he finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray Just as John taught his disciples. I can imagine He is at an earshot. Because the disciples know that he is praying.  

So as he is praying and he just finishes one of his disciples said to him Lord can you teach us to pray. That's the first request teach us to pray in other words, there's a way you are praying that we need to be in touch with.  

Then second thing is just as John taught his disciples. Why John? Because John is the first and the greatest human being to ever live. And he has a way that he has done things for 18 years in the wilderness.  

Where he has taught the people that were around him how to pray and what were they praying for. Based on who we know John is, he is praying for the coming of the Messiah. And the scripture tells us that John was a voice crying out in the wilderness.  

That means he's praying style was that of warring because the scripture tells us too in 11 of Matthew that since the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence and it was taken by force.  

Now we all know we pray against rulers and principalities, where in the heavenly places. John for 18 years is exercising, praying against principalities and rulers in the heavenly places, and the scripture says during that time that John is enforcing with prayer. Says there was violence in the heavens and it was taken by force.  

Now, his disciple says to Jesus teach us how to pray. Just as John taught his disciples to pray. Verse 2 he said to them, when you pray this is how you're going to do it. 

Our Father, hallowed be your name . Right there from the go which name is he pointing to? Right. Hallowed be your name. Now, since we know just from the studies we've been having that God is not one name and part other name, but he is all names in total. 

So he is Yahweh all the way. He is Jehovah, Rapha, all the way he is not half Yahweh half Rapha to come up with this one thing. He is everything, so when he says hallowed be your name. It's all-encompassing of all these names. 

But now look at how prayer is being modeled after, since the very first thing that we have to do, you have to say is acknowledging God's name because this is important. Why is it important?  

Because if you don't know a thing, my people perish because they lack knowledge. So if we don't know the names of God, I'm realizing in this series that we are doing. Every believer should know all the names of God.  

We should. Why shouldn't we? I want you to imagine Calvin you have kids and they only know your name. They don't know your middle name. They don't know your last name. They don't know. How can they know themselves if they don't know you? 

I got to understand myself, know myself well the day I got to know my father's story. It gave me a foundation to sit on. So God's names as much as they are there to shine on us, who he is.  

But they are a foundational premise in which we have to build our lives from, because without God's names, we don't have a name. We are only called Christians because of God's names and what he has done through to us through his names.  

Hence we now have this privilege to call ourselves sons and daughters of the most high. Without knowing his names, I don't know if we can fully understand or contextualize the relationship that we have with God.  

I believe Veronica probably have a greater understanding of what I'm saying because she has a different perspective of what I'm saying right now.  

Just thinking about her own life story, the struggles in which she has to exist in said or unsaid. There is something in here that when she's looking at the view she's just hold on, let me find the charger for this phone.  

Right where you are trying to really understand yourself and you know I'm going to have to fight for this because there is a missing link. 

Now be what you Vee, my sister is what believers feel if they don't know God's names. And I believe that's how we end up sometimes acting frivolously because we don't understand who our Father is.  

So understanding God's names is actually a priority. Because again, the first thing that Jesus is asked when they asked him.

They're desperate to learn how to pray and Jesus response starts with acknowledging our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name very first thing.  

Now I want you to think about we all have gone to school. When you go to your first lesson of history, what's the first lesson? What is history? When you got the first lesson of geography, what is geography? That's how you pronounce it in America, right.  

But in in this expose of how to pray the very first thing that Jesus points to is God's names. In other words, before you pray, you have to have a great understanding of who you're praying to because knowing who you're praying to changes how you pray.  

Knowing who you are talking to changes how you know how many times I go somewhere and I'm meeting somebody, not talking and talking, and then they start asking questions. The next thing they're like, wait you’re coach Zee.  

And all of a sudden, they changed the way they're talking. Because now they either have heard my name somewhere or whatever, right? And same thing happens to all of us. I want you to imagine somebody who has never heard of or has never seen you, and all of a sudden, one day they meet.  

Just like, wait, you are the guy I hear from Prayer Works? Their tone and their approach automatically changes. So when we find ourselves not changing our tone or our thinking or our praying style. Most of the time it’s because we don't have the full knowledge of who God is. 

And brothers and sisters I can testify to all of us, and I'm sure this is true for all of us since we started going through these names, it is changing your dynamic of prayer, your dynamic of conversation with God, your dynamic of worship, your dynamic of how you see your Christian life.  

The very first thing that Jesus taught his disciples pertaining to prayer. The very first place he landed us, Our Father, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. What does that mean? To hollow means to sanctify, to be set apart to be praised and to be adored. That's what it means.  

So in other words, before you start anything before you start your praying style, sanctify, set apart his name, praise it and then adore it. Because once you do that, it changes the next thing that you do.  

It literally does because the names of God defines him, right? So in that prayer, you are literally defining to him who he is based on what he said to you, who he is. So in other words, what follows after whatever you have to us, the Lord of.  

He is already it. Next sentence says give us. So in other words, before you ask for what you want. You have to acknowledge who he is in order for him to give you what he has already declared that I need to give you.  

So give us each day, Our Daily Bread then the next thing, forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for thine is the Kingdom, the power in the glory. 

So in other words, how are we going to forgive anyone without God's names? How are we going to ask for anything without God's names? Because it's only in his names that we find forgiveness, that we are also able to forgive.  

It's also in his name that we find strength to be led out of temptations. It's also in his names that we find strength to do everything that he is calling us to do. Now from that perspective, let's look at these scriptures.  

The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into now we are made righteous by him so that we can run into him and find what? Safety. So in just looking at that scripture what parts do you play?  

Just availability correct, because first it makes you righteous and he calls you the righteousness of Christ. And then it says my name is a strong term. Now that I've made your righteous, you can run into me and find safety, on Christ the solid rock I stand every other name is sinking sand.  

So let's look at the Lord's prayer alright. So Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Pause under first step of our praying life, which is praise. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, right that's a priority for you and I.  

Why was this given to us? Because we were not practicing God's will in the earth. That's why he says when you pray, make sure you include this after you acknowledge his names, because his will think about what God's will is. Isn't God's will attached to his names?  

It is attached to his names. So it's a priority. So these names are not just names. I'm realizing right now that they are in incredible priority and one of the things I now know why they are in incredible priority is the fact that not a lot of Christians can name all of God's names.  

And why is that? Because if you don't know the name of a thing it's impossible to define it and to have an incredible relationship that you should if you don't know the name of the thing. Imagine driving a car and you don't know what name of a the type of car that you're driving.  

How do you even go for service? I don't even know where to go. So these names that we are going through are not just for our enjoyment. In them is the core of our Christian journey. Defined in who he is to us. Give us this day Our Daily Bread.  

Now we get to petition right. That's petitioning. Now we are petitioning for things. That's 3, 4, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That's purity we're looking for purity.  

5, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, that's protection. For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, right that's 6 and that's power. So you don't give 23456 without Hallowed be thy name, sanctifying, setting it apart.  

It's impossible to go through this prayer without acknowledging God's names. This prayer, in this Lord's prayer, this teaching that Jesus had for his disciples means nothing. I can’t say it means nothing that's too steep.  

It does not hold the same strength without hallowed be thy name. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Because even if you start from thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven without our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  

So these names, these names that God has given to us in them lies the foundation of premise of how we should pray. And without them Our prayer lives because imagine these disciples. I bet they prayed too, right?  

This is the Galilean boys. But why are they asking to be taught to pray? Because they saw something in Jesus that they haven't witnessed in prayer. So them asking Jesus is recognizing that this is different here.  

We want something like this and then Jesus says this is how you get it. This is how you should say. No, this is how I suggest. Says this is how you should pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  

So these names are included right there says in order for you to pray these names are essential and vital in order for you to pray the way that I am praying. 

And in order for you to get to protection, to power, to purity, to petition, to priority, you can't get there without understanding that God is all those things in his name.  

Because what are you praying to? So praying, understanding God's names it's causing us. It's causing me to understand the full measure of God's authority in his names, so that when we pray.  

You know, Veronica is bullying me when we pray, right the place in which we are coming from is of full understanding of who God is. Because that will definitely change the way you ask. Now look at James, James says you don't have.  

I think Vee read this Scripture a few days ago. Because you ask, you don't ask and the reason you don't ask you ask a miss. What I suggest that we ask a miss is because we don't know these names and the power in which they invoke. There’s a possibility. 

Pastor Zee I have a question. Can you kind of explain further when you said we asked a miss? We have not because we ask not, can you? So James is telling us that the reason we don't have is because we don't ask.  

And the reason we if we do ask, we ask amiss. In other words, we ask according to what we think. We desire not according to what we. So when you look at when you look at the Lord's friend, thy will not my will thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.  

Now one of the things that we've been taught in our faith says yeah, you can ask for a thing, right. We've been told to say that to us for what we want, right? But if we ask for what we want without the Lord leading us to there that's a myth. 

For example I'll use this one. Remember, a few years ago people started hey, write your list of the men you want to get married to, right. And you know, I know there's a lot of preachers that are pushing for this, that list all the qualities.  

The height, the lengths, the all these things, right. And then we go hard on those things and then we get disappointed. Because in that we never stop to ask the Lord, what is your will for me? Because when you ask what is your will for me?  

The scripture says God will give you the desires of your heart. But the desires of your heart God knows and he puts them there first, not you put them there. You don't know what you want. We don't know what we are eating for lunch tomorrow.  

So most times what we ask for is based on what we have heard, what we have seen and what we have experienced. That's why the scripture says Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen, without your faith, it's impossible to please God.  

Now if you know that which you desire is that faith or allowing God to put in you the desires that match what he wants to do. Then praying from that standpoint allows us now to align ourselves to what God wants you to do.  

And when you go that route that's when you can say, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done as it is in heaven, when you see that scripture again, it means the reason I always say when you see something being mandated for in the scriptures, it means that we were doing the opposite.  

So when God says that will and that that will be done on Earth, it means God's will was not being done on Earth as it is in heaven. So when he sends Jesus to teach this model of prayer. It’s because all the generations of praying men they were doing it for their own will.  

Otherwise, there's no need to teach it this way if the will of God was being done in the earth. But to get to that, there is a full measure of understanding that we must have on all of God's names.  

It is a priority, brothers and sisters, for all of us to know these names in their entirety. What this stands for, because understanding and knowing who God is changes how you pray, how you believe, how you see things, how you ask, how you cry out to him, how you worship him, how you lift your hands. 

Yeah, how he interact with him. So these names that we are studying, guys, I'm telling you this. We gotta go through these over and over and over and over again because it is the foundation in which we stand on.  

And not knowing it, it's impossible to build our Christian lives the way God wants us to build them. Let's look at John the Baptist because this could really kind of did John knew who Jesus was? Yeah.  

Not John the Baptist, John the disciple. He was one of Jesus closest friend and he spend time with Jesus. But did he know him the way that Jesus was explaining him to know him. He struggled with that.  

How do we know that? Because John, in his entire expose, never writes anything about Jesus. Until Jesus is long gone. Now look at what happens in Jesus crucifixion. Jesus is on the cross, he tells John.  

Mary's son John's mother. John goes on to live with Mary for a long period of time and Mary educates John on the journeys that he took with Jesus from going to Egypt and all that other times that Mary was running away from Heron John did not know any of these things.  

Because he came much later. 17 years later, when John was born. Even though Jesus is walking with these disciples and explaining to them, even though they are seeing and experiencing the power of Jesus.  

John still did not have a clear understanding of who Jesus is. Hence he never writes anything and document anything until 1 John, 2 John, 3 John which came 54AD.  

That's when he writes his letters. But John does not write the Gospels until 74AD. Which is the last book to be written in the Bible. John, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son.  

Now when you read the book of John, that whole entire part is explaining clearly. That's where we get most of who Jesus is or God's intent. For God so loved the world, we find it in Jean, the Kingdom of heaven is like 7 clusters of parable to explain what the Kingdom of God is.  

Now, what had happened for John to write in that manner, because when you read John 1, John 2, John 3. It is very short, just a little letter. That when you read the book of John in the Gospels. It's full of details, very precise.  

What had happened? Because when John is on the island in Pitmans, he's about to die an old man. He guessed the revelation of who Jesus is. He says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and he then wrote the Book of Revelation.  

Based on what he was saying, which changed his understanding of what Jesus was. That's why when you read the book of John in the Gospels is so different in the way it is written than the other three books because he had a knowledge of who Jesus was fully. 

By having walked with him, but also seeing him In the revelation of who God wanted John to see, Jesus as. Hence he write this book to all of us to really read it so we can understand Jesus.  

Did John no Jesus when he walked with him, he did. But when he finally, really got the revelation of who Jesus was. The way he wrote the book of John the Baptist, the Book of John read John 1 and John, 2 and 3, and then read the Gospels.  

And knowing that this is the last book to be written in the scriptures after John after the Book of Revelation. Then realized he had a knowledge of who Jesus was now. When he says John, he says to disciples. I'll go sit on the right hand of the Father.  

They didn't know what he was talking about. But when John sees that in the revelations. He's sitting on the right hand of the Father, advocating on our behalf.  

When he saw the 24 elders surrounding the throne and the book, the Lamp of God. That changed his perspective so that when he starts writing in the Kingdom of God, he's like the Kingdom of God is like 7 parables.  

So I want to ask us guys, I know we're studying these names, but you know what we need, you know what we desperately need. Is the revelation behind these names. Cause men Calvin you can testify on behalf of all of us.  

When he says I am Jehovah, Rapha. You have a knowledge of Rapha that we don't and that revelation of getting healed from cancer, and you don't know how it happened, but you just know it happened.  

That's the information changes the way you pray about healing. There's a belief there's a knowing in you that cannot be taken away from you forever. Now imagine if you ever experienced his presence.  

Then you ever experience Jehovah's Tsidkenu Jehovah Shammah. Roi, you know Roi, you know what I'm talking about that you know what Rapha means. That we if we call on a healing prayer session. You're like, yeah, I know about that and all of that and know about that. 

I have lived it, I've walked it and he has revealed it to me what that name is. So next time when you say our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You say, thy Kingdom come, thy will. You know what you are talking about and you know it and you know it.  

We need revelation of these names, apart from knowing them, the deeper we walk and stand on them, the greater the level of revelation in which we were walking and I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, this will change the way we pray.  

It will change the way we sing. It will change the way we worship. It will change the way we interact with God. But again, the lesson that we want to learn today. When they saw what Jesus was doing in prayer.  

Their were hearts were taken and they wanted to know how are you praying in this manner so effectively and Jesus says, well, the very first thing you've got to know God's names. You gotta set them apart.  

You gotta sanctify them. You gotta praise them. That I adore it and if you start your prayer like that then step 2,3,4,5,6 you work on them because he is all that. Because in that Lord's prayer you will find all these names right there.  

You'll find all his names from protection. Find all these names from provider. It's right in there. Give us today Our Daily Bread. Isn't that Jehovah Jireh? That's why the scripture says the name of the Lord is the strong tower.  

The righteous run into it and find safety. Stand on the name of the Lord. So Vee this teaching these scriptures. Let's I think we'll probably need to just kind of write a whole entire something on the names of the Lord.  

A whole entire just book dedicated to God's names. Their meaning and everybody should know them. We really have no choice because when the scripture says grow in the knowledge of who God is, what does that mean? It means growing the knowledge of who his names are.  

Because at some point after you encounter Rapha you are going to have to encounter peace and after you encounter peace, you're gonna have to encounter provider.

Then at some point when you stand before him and you'll be like, man, I know you provided you a peace over here.  

You were Shammah, Rapha, over here, Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jehovah Jireh over here, and I can testify that I've experienced it all.

Now that's a place of power and it will change the name the way you pray and I think it's important and as long as we live, I think every year we need to do a whole entire study on just the names of the Lord, plus the Lord's Prayer, Amen, Amen. 

My prayer is that we recorded this. I'm sure we do and I think we need to go through it. Write some things Vee I  want do a whole entire study of this because I'm amazed the number of Christians who don't know God's names.  

In church, 20 years never encountered Rapha. Never encountered Jehovah Shammah. In fact, don't even know that he is called Jehovah Shammah.

I'm sure if we were to walk around and just ask, are you a believer here? Can you name? Can you give me God's names? Just list some of them that you know.  

So that means we are not experiencing the full measure of what he wants us to experience about him. I think we're going to teach, I'm going to teach a series on what children should expect from a father and what fathers expect from children because we got to know it.  

Because if he's our Father, we have to know God's expectations. Inasmuch as we have expectations for our children and they also have expectations for us, and we need to know those things.  

So that these lives that we behold because we all know God gave us each and every single one of us a purpose, right? To do things and part of that is powered by his name. It's powered by his name.  

And I think we need to link your purposes in life with one of God's names. Because it powers your purpose. A person who loves to comfort people. How do you do that with that one of God's names? The comforter.  

So that means you need to know God is a comforter. We all know now that in Calvin's hands, there is healing. We know that based on what the Lord has done and showed him. So his level of belief and passion towards healing has sky rocketed.  

That if somebody shows up and they say, hey, this is what I'm struggling with. I can guarantee you he has a level of compassion that none of us have pertaining to that and that is powered by God's name. 

Jehovah, Rapha to have that level of compassion is powered by his name, and in order to pray for somebody else, is powered by his name. So we're going to end here. Let's keep studying these names.  

And then I think there's lot more to be learned from this, there's a lot more. And I think we need to do our due diligence so that we have a greater understanding of who God is, Amen, Amen. Let's pray.  

Heavenly Father, our Blessed Redeemer, we thank you for continued revelation. You never seem to amaze us that every time that we gather, you always have a word for us. Even if we are to end this prayer meeting right now and start another one in 10 minutes, we are guaranteed of a word from you, that's how much you love us.  

So I pray, Lord, in this season that we are studying your names, may you continue to reveal yourself so strong to us so that we can walk in the full scope and measure of who you are. 

We bless you and we bless everybody and in our quest to acquire knowledge continue Lord to reveal yourself so strong to us. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for who you are in the name of. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.