Prayer - A Key of the Kingdom

            What is the kingdom of God? It is the realm where Jesus reigns as king and the authority of God is supreme. The kingdom exists here and now in the hearts and lives of believers, as well as in perfection and fulness in the future.
           
         "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom,” Jesus told His disciples in Luke 12:32 NIV. He also told them in Luke 8:10 a NIV, “…“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you…” 

              In Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, Peter answered that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus told Peter that truth had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by His heavenly Father. Then Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 16:19 NIV, “…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…”
           
           Today, I would like to look at an example of where Jesus used one of the keys of the kingdom. In Matthew 14:15-21 NIV we read:

15 “As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

             When Jesus told the disciples to give the huge crowd something to eat, they were thinking in the natural. “We have here only…” (verse 17). Jesus operated in the supernatural. “…Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves…” (verse 19). Through prayer to His heavenly Father, he demonstrated how to unlock heaven’s warehouse and draw upon its abundance.
           
               The wonderful news is that we as believers can do the same. “…truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:12-14 NIV.

             We know that Jesus prayed according to the will of His Father. And we must too. 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”  God’s Word is His will. When we pray God’s Word, we are praying according to His will. Then we will not be asking with wrong motives (James 4:3).
           
​               So dear friend, when you have a need or are praying for the needs of others, don’t be like the disciples and say, “I have only…” but use a kingdom key and pray to the heavenly Father as Jesus did. As you pray in the Name of Jesus and according to God’s will, you can know that the answer is on its way.