Abba, Father.

"Whatever you ask the Father, in My name, He will do it for you."  Why would JESUS command His followers to do such a thing? Those are His words: no ifs, ands, or buts. Why didn't He just say, "Ask Me, and it's yours?"

I am taking the position that the reason JESUS made this declaration was, to re-establish the broken connection with the Father, that was severed when sin entered our world...AND to change our outlook about Him.

What do I mean, change our outlook about Him? Share with me two scenes, if you please. Come back through the centuries to the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24);  let your imagination flow as we envision the situation that has just taken place. After Adam and Eve disobeyed and sinned, several things happened; what I want you to focus on is found in verses 8-10, they were now afraid and hid.

Up to that time, our first parents weren't afraid of GOD. They had a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship with Him. Sin severed that and along with the break came fear.

Since then satan and/or his cohorts have kept up a continual barrage of lies about the Father, and sadly because of our now limited vision we seem so ready to believe them, rather than GOD's own Word.

I have personally heard professed Christians say: "I pray to JESUS, but I won't pray to GOD."  Why not?  "Because JESUS is so loving and forgiving, but GOD the Father is mean and vengeful, just waiting for us to sin so He can get us."

This is the picture satan has painted, by projecting his own attributes onto GOD, he has been able to blame our loving, heavenly Father for all the suffering, sickness, diseases, and death that takes place in our world. And how he gloats at his success.

The second scene I want you to look at with me is, the crucifixion. CHRIST did not have to die on that cross. He could have said "No."  He really could have. But love said,  "yes!" PTL! Our heavenly Family's love knows no limits of season, geography, or culture. It reaches out to everyone, everywhere...always.

Love is personal. But this one word is the most misunderstood and misused in any language. When love is studied in the context of heaven, it is the epitome of the Father's character.  "For GOD so loved the world, that He gave..." ~John 3:16. These are CHRIST's words. Who loves who? GOD, the Father, loves us-you and me-the world. How did He show us His love? By giving His only begotten Son. Now read Romans 5:8, it says: "But GOD showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, CHRIST died for us." ~RSV.

JESUS mission to earth was two-fold. Redemption; and to show us what the Father is really like, what He has always been like and what He always will be like. Many of us were fortunate to grow up with dads who, most of the time, loved us unconditionally. Now if you were to multiply that love, or the kind we wish we'd had, to the highest degree, we still could not begin to understand how much our heavenly Father, YAHWEH, loves us and wants us to talk with Him; and cares about our every care and concern.

Here is another quality to keep in mind when we are battling the forces of darkness, JESUS says in John 10:30  "I and My Father are one."  And again, in John 14:8-10, JESUS told His disciples "If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well."  To which Philip responded,  "LORD, show us the Father..." And JESUS replied even more revealingly, "You still don't know Me, Philip, even though I've been with you such a long time. If you've seen Me, you have seen the Father."

The stark reality is, if we do not love the Father, than neither do we love His Son.

JESUS called GOD "Abba", this is a term equivalent to our modern day word "daddy." Knowing that GOD is our Abba-our loving heavenly Father-should help us to be able to talk to Him with the trust and complete ease of a child-parent relationship. It will be natural.

Our Commander-in-Chief is unique. He knows all the soldiers in His army, every regular and those in the special forces. To win victories against the enemy's deceit and evil cunning, our Commander understands that we need all the know-how we can get, and so He provided this instant access to the Father.

Our Father...what is He really like? As we discover the answer to this it will greatly enhance our spiritual lives, as well as our prayer warfare.

When we truly desire to know Him, we will get into His Word. There is no other way! We must study to show "ourselves" approved... (2 Timothy 2:15). If we do not know our heavenly Father and His ways, our intercessions will be impotent and ineffective.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Open your Bible to 1 Kings 17. This is the descriptive passage of Elijah as he stood before wicked King Ahab,  and said, "As the LORD, the GOD of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." (~1 Kings 17:1). Here Elijah is literally standing on his GOD's Word, because he knew his GOD. And he knew that GOD is always faithful to His Word. In Deuteronomy 28, GOD states what He would do if His people turned away from obeying Him. NOTE verses 23 and 24:

One of the things GOD said He would do was "make the rain of your land powder and dust..."

Elijah was a human being just like us. His nature was like ours. There was nothing supernatural about him personally, but he had power in prayer because he knew his GOD, and he knew his GOD's Word! When the people repented, Elijah prayed, claiming GOD's promise of rain for obedience, and GOD answered. It rained!

All prayer begins with worship of the Father, JESUS laid out that imperative. When we come to the Father in prayer, we are acknowledging One greater and mightier than ourselves. JESUS also began by reminding us that the Father's name is to be hallowed, that is to be regarded as holy, to be reverenced above all others.

"Holy and reverend is His name." ~Psalm 111:9.  Let me share with you some of the Names of our Father so you may revere Him as you should. Study His names in greater depth...His names testify to His character.

Many believe that GOD's name is spelled and pronounced "JEHOVAH". I do not go along with this, especially after reading such works as Unger's Bible Dictionary (Merrill F. Unger 1957, Moody Press, Chicago, p.1177,) which says:

"YAHWEH (ya'we). The Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) tradionally pronounced Jehovah is now known to be correctly vocalized YAHWEH. New inscriptional evidence from the second and first millenia BC point to THIS FACT."

Wycliff Bible Encyclopedia 1975, Vol 2, p.690 (Moody Press, Chicago) says:

"The Name par excellence for the Creator of Israel is YAHWEH, found 6,823 times in the Old Testament."

The Interpreter's Dictionary, 1962, Vol 4, p.923 (Abingdon Press, Nashville) says:

"YAHWEH - The vocalization of the four consonants of the Israelite name of the Creator, which scholars believe to approximate the original pronounciation."

And the New International Version Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan) states in Vol 1, p.26:

"YAHWEH, the personal Name of the Creator, is always translated 'YAHWEH', against the practice in the NIV in rendering it as 'LORD'.  ...it may be the use of YAHWEH in this work will encourage the reader to use the personal Name of the Creator in prayer and praise, as is intended by the most common imperative in the Scriptures: Praise YAHWEH! Psalm 104:35.

We, as Prayer Warriors need to know how we can fully hallow our heavenly Father's name, for the Scriptures often remind us 'there is power in His Name!' Also, according to the Holy Word, no one, neither man, woman, or child can call GOD - or YAHWEH - "Father" apart from JESUS. Only those who are truly born-again have that privilege.