Prayer Works Morning Devotion April 7, 2026

A Chapter By Chapter Study Of The Gospels:

Luke Chapter 11

33“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, ^g your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, ^h your body also is full of darkness. 35See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

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A very good morning, a very good morning to you, everybody. I pray that you had a wonderful, restful night, that you were rested, and you are ready for another day. Let us go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, this is the day that you have made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. We are crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live. Not yet us, but Christ lives by faith in us.

Your word dwells in us richly. We are able to say, we are blessed, we are healed, we are set free. Sickness cannot dwell in us. The number of our days, you will fulfill. Sin will not dominate us because the seed of the Lord's word, of God's word lives in us.

We believe that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, and he was resurrected on the third day. And now we have this abundant life and the victory that He provides from His death. Therefore, no weapon has formed against us shall prosper.

And we are more than conquerors because of His great love, because of His great authority. And by His stripes we are healed. By faith we live by grace and we believe that salvation belongs to us and out of it.

We're now going to walk and exercise the full measured full authority of this kingdom, so bless us in our daily activities in the things that we do to recognize who you are but also in the things that you are sending us to do.

So we bless you for all that you are doing In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen and Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, if you have, if you can, get a piece of paper and a pen, because this is important.

And while you do that, let's just kind of recap from yesterday. before we go into Luke 11. Remember yesterday Jesus we spoke about Jesus sending the 72 and they go out and did incredible phenomenal work and they came back with their reports to Jesus and taught them and taught Jesus.

We have done incredible great things using your name and Jesus. Thanked God for that. And then when you look later on in verse number 82, in verse number 18, sorry, Jesus then said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice. Do not rejoice that the Spirit submits to you. Don't get excited about that.

Don't get excited that God has used you. Don't get excited that you're doing phenomenal things. Don't get excited about that. But rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Then 21, it says, At that time Jesus is full of joy, through the Holy Spirit said, Praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

That means to his disciples. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. So Jesus is now thanking God for revealing, giving revelation to his disciples and that's why he saw satan fall like lightning, because they got it now.

Then he says, all things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal.

Then, verse number 23, which is a follow-up, is going to be followed up into the next chapter. Then he turned to his disciples and said privately. This is, they are sitting intimately, privately, away from everybody.

Then he said this word, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. In other words, he wasn't talking about natural vision. He was talking about the perspective they have of the kingdom of God.

He says, if anybody has the same perspective as you, they are blessed because they now see what it is that you're seeing. So let's go now to chapter number 11.

What we're going to do today, we're going to focus on the Lord's Prayer and then we're going to focus on seeing. One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. So, this is days after this.

Remember what Luke said in the beginning of this gospel? He said, I'm writing to you the most excellent Theophilos, because I want to give you a meticulously researched story of Jesus' journey on the earth.

So this is meticulous. This is not random. This is carefully researched. And Matthew and Luke is giving to Theophilus a very detailed account of Jesus life. So one day Jesus is praying in a certain place.

When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples to pray. Now, Jesus is praying in the second place when he was done. This is Jesus we're talking about.

This is their rabbi. This is their rabbi, not John, this is their rabbi. But the disciples then looked at him and said, no, can you teach us to pray just as John, not like John, just as John taught his disciples.

And then Jesus does not go, does not teach them the John way. He then actually gives them a whole different model of prayer. John's disciples were praying for the coming of the Messiah.

They were praying for Jesus, so that they would be a pathway for his ministry to sit on. That's what they were praying for. But the disciples now are asking Jesus to teach them that same method.

Because they have an expectation of what Jesus should be. based on historical context and what they've been told of what the Messiah is going to do. But Jesus does not teach them how John's disciples prayed.

Otherwise we could have had this Lord's Prayer written by John but John did not teach them this because John was praying for the coming of the Messiah.

So he said to them, this is what Jesus said to them, when you pray, I'm not teaching you how I pray, I'm not teaching you how John pray, I'm teaching you how you are supposed to now pray.

He said to them, When you pray, say this: Our Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins. For as we also forgive those who sin the gifts, lead us not into temptation.

Now, when you look at the Lord's Prayer, the Lord's Prayer, you can divide it into sections, and in those sections, you will see the broader picture of what Jesus is teaching his disciples.

And the broader picture is a focus of, number one, the Father, who is the Creator, the Father who is friend, and you can, we'll do a teaching on this in Bible study, a Father who is at comfort and mercy, the Father of forgiveness, the Father of love.

Then, He is a Heavenly Father to the single, He is a Heavenly Father to the fatherless, He is a Heavenly Father of the disciplined, those who have decided to be discipled and be disciplined.

He is a Father to those. Then he is also a Father who defends. Then it says, Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed means to sanctify, set apart, to be praised and adored. Revelation, the revelation of his name brings praise and worship, revelation of the character of God.

So he's teaching them that the depth of your prayer should possess these qualities in their word, in the words that you'll be saying to God, because that depth is how I need you to pray like.

Then he goes on to say, Thy kingdom come. Proclaim his kingdom. His kingdom is prophetic. His kingdom is in the heart and lives of men. Comes by, he comes into individuals.

His kingdom is in our midst. Lived out through us, is lived out through us. It's not a passive kingdom, but it's a kingdom that is in full operation. It is living in the Holy Spirit. It is power and it is full authority.

So when he says, thy kingdom come, I want you to understand this is the way you ought to function and operate in this kingdom. And your prayer should include the fact that you have to operate this way.

Then give us today our daily bread. That means go from adoring God to asking for what you need in this kingdom. So daily bread, it covers your daily essentials, your physical, food, clothing, social, financial, spiritual.

Everything that you need for this day, you ought to pray for it. Not just to walk in it, you ought to pray for it. So he's teaching them this model because they desire to learn how to pray.

And they're like, no, that's not the way I'm going to teach you. I'm going to teach you the way that you should pray. Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. In other words, clean before the Father and others, be clean before the Father and others.

The scope of forgiveness, look at the scope for all. Forgive us our debtors as we also forgive our debtors. We are forgiving all, for God forgive us all.

The conditions for forgiveness by God are, there's conditions in this forgiveness is that forgive others, forgive you, you want God to forgive you the same measure in which you forgive others.

So that's a definition of reconciliation with God to man and man to man. Forgiveness, it's a reconciliation, man to man and God to God. God to man confess, repent, and then forgive, and then God forgets.

God to man, when we pray for forgiveness from God, we confess, we repent, then God forgives, and then he forgets. Then forgiveness between men to men is we confess, we repent, we forgive.

But it's hard to forget that we are obligated to forgive. This is why we are told to forgive, because it's difficult to. Forgiveness is a command, it's not a choice. Otherwise, we would it will be easy.

That's why it is given as a command. The test of forgiveness, the test is how you feel towards the offender afterwards. That's the test. If you want to know you've forgiven a person, the test is how you feel after you are forgiven.

If you're still holding stuff in there, then you haven't. You've got to deal with it. Forgiveness is not really a choice. It's a command that God wants us. It's an act of the will. Love in action.

God's love in a man's hearts, that's what forgiveness is. God's love in a man's hearts. So that's why Jesus is teaching his disciples then he says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil one.

Six reasons we confront temptation, tests and trials, to reveal our inner nature to us, to exercise us, to exercise us in spiritual and psychological mind warfare, preparation for patience and for possession.

Perfect purity purifies our faith. Provision for victory. Reward for endurance. Six reasons why we have to confront temptation and tests and trials. We are supposed to confront temptation, tests and trials.

Not run away from it, confront it. So he's teaching them that this is the method in which you ought to pray. In other words, you're praying life, as much as it should be adoring, loving, and caring, it should also be aggressive in nature.

This is how you ought to pray in this kingdom. That's what the Lord taught his disciples. Then Jesus said to them, suppose, you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

And a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked in my chair. are already in bed, I can't get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

This is a relentless job. You cannot stop praying and asking, it is relentless. Because the audacity of asking God, when He has done so much, will ignite him to give when he, because he still wants to bless us, the audacity of doing it.

That's what he's teaching them, that your prayer has to have a level of audacity in it, that surely the Lord can do what he promised to do. Now, let's shift to verse number 33, then we pray.

No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body, your eyes.

Your eyes is the lamp that provide light to your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. If you ever go to the doctor for anything, they shine the light in your pupils, because it shows them what your whole body is doing.

The healthiness of your body can be seen in your eyes. Isn't God amazing who created human beings that when you look at a person's eyes, they can report how healthy or unhealthy the person is?

But you can look at a person's eyes, you can see whether they are hurt or they are joyful. You can look at a person's eyes, you can see a glow in them. You can look at a person's eyes and see sadness.

You can look at a person's eyes and see sorrow, grief, without them saying anything, because your eye is a lamp unto the body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.

But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. This is a powerful statement, brothers and sisters. See to it then that the light that is inside of you.

Can you imagine light can be darkness? Now, this is a very incredible, phenomenal lesson right here. Because Satan masquerade as an angel of light. He presents himself like he is something.

He is the light, but he is not. So when Jesus is addressing that, he says, see to it then, that the light within you is not darkness because light inside you can be darkness.

Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it is dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines. it's light on you. Oh my God! Brothers and sisters, Jesus is talking about physical eyes, but he's also talking about spiritual eyes.

Spiritual eyes cannot that we have a perspective of, I want you to imagine how this chapter starts. It gives an incredible model of how we ought to pray.

And then as he goes in his teaching he gets to this place and he says you gotta realize that your perspective of what I'm giving to you is going to transform the life that is inside of you.

And that light Once you are transformed, you will not be hidden under a bow. Instead, you will stand on a stand and shine. In other words, it will be easy for people to see God's light inside of you.

That's what we want. for people to look at our natural eyes and see healthy, but also to see a spiritual side of you that is glowing because of the light that is inside of you. And that light that God is talking about, that takes Christ in us, the hope of glory.

So eyes are important. This is why we have to guard the things that we set our eyes on. Because it's easy to violate your whole body because of what you saw. Some things you cannot unsee.

Vision, perspective is so important because how you perceive a thing. Think about the disciples, the question they asked Jesus. Teach us how to pray like John. They are the perspective of what prayer is.

And Jesus was like, no, let me turn your perspective to something else. That perspective here is great, but it's not the right one for where you are. You don't need to pray like John's disciples.

You need to pray like Jesus disciples, and I'm about to teach you how you ought to pray, from now and forevermore. This is why this prayer is canonized and put in the scriptures, and there is no John's prayer that is canonized that you see in the Bible.

All we know is that John prayed. He was rhamnaceous, he had a method of doing it, because he was preparing people for the coming of the Messiah. But the record that we have is the record that Jesus taught his disciples in order for them to gain the light.

They needed to do the work that God had prepared for them. So let's pay close attention to what we look at, what we see, and the perspective in which we have pertaining to the gospel and the kingdom of God.

So that, ultimately, you can be the light that can be put on a stand, that cannot be hidden, so that you shine light in darkness. Why do we need light? So that where there is darkness, people can see.

That's why you need to be light, so that when you are shown in dark places, there is light. Remember what Jesus said in the previous chapter? Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

So which means that when people gain a new perspective of life, because of your light, they become blessed. That's why Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray.

It's because now people get to see the light that you are carrying because your eyes and the perspective that you have of the kingdom is going to make your job and your journey easy.

Brothers and sisters, reread this chapter, understand it, because in it carries the wisdom of God that He has placed for us to walk in, so that the job that He has for you and I to do becomes easy, because we will be the light.

That's why the scripture says we are the light, we are the salt, Amen, Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your wisdom that you set in motion thousands of years ago and still rings through today.

Thank you for educating us in matters that concern you. And we know we are on a journey that will one day end when we get into your presence but Father our desire while we are here on earth is to be the light to be the salt in the midst of this dark world.

Because it is dark, too many perspectives that do not care at all about spiritual things even sometimes in the church. So help us in our efforts for we desire to grab hold of this teaching that you taught your disciples.

So as we journey along, our perspective continues to be enhanced of this kingdom. We pray for revelation knowledge. That's what we desire, revelation knowledge. To teach, to speak, and to educate. and to aid us in this journey.

Father, I pray for love to abound and peace to continue to abound. Thank you for dying on the cross as we continue to commemorate your resurrection. It's so easy for us to go through these rituals and forget.

But Father, I pray that may we never forget your resurrection. May we keep it up in our forefront, at the forefront, as we glean into the work of this kingdom, knowing that all this is made possible because of your submission to the cross and to die as the Son of Man.

So that we don't have to die. So we continue, Lord, to thank you as we commemorate resurrection. We continue, Lord, to bless you for what you have enabled us. And I pray, Lord, that grace, love, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost be our daily bread.

Now, we pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us as we forgive those who wrong us.

Lead us not into temptation continue to deliver us from the evil one, continue to deliver us, Lord, so we can be healthy from sickness and disease, continue to deliver us, Lord, from bondage, hurt, past hurts continue to deliver us from rejection.

Continue to deliver us from unhealthy relationships, continue Lord, to deliver us from past challenges, continue a lot to deliver us from the things that we miscalculated.

Continue a lot to deliver us from the things that have challenged us and we have found our way sometimes in the wrong places, continue a Lord to deliver us from past mistakes.

And lead us not into temptation. that deliver us from the evil one, for thine is the kingdom. The power, the power to heal, the power to give us grace, the power to transform us, the power to transform people, the power to bring reconciliation.

The power to heal Mother Russell, the power to heal Sarge, the power to heal Mother Roberts, the power to heal all of us. The power to strengthen us, the power to encourage us, to embody us.

For Yours is this kingdom. And we pray this prayer, sanctify us as we go throughout this day, protect us from harm and danger and Father, we will be so quick to give You glory.

Now, Father, we pray that you account for everybody today. Those who might be dealing with any issues, sicknesses and diseases, those who are in need, account for everybody. Show up, Lord, and provide for our daily needs.

And we ask this prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless you. Bless you so much in everything that you are doing.

The work that you are doing, the care that you are giving to others, aging parents, the care that you are giving to your children.

May the Lord bless you, equip you and give you strength and wisdom. May the Lord bless you at work. May the Lord bless you in ideas. May the Lord bless you with sanctified bodies.

May the Lord bless you with healthy bodies and we'll see you back here tomorrow, 7 a.m. Central, 8 a.m. Eastern Standard. Have an incredible, phenomenal day and blessings to you and your family.