Featured Scripture and Commentary
Ephesians 3:14–16 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.
To the title most will say – who is Zeb to say I am praying wrongly. What presumptuousness. Well I am not alone and there is nuance. This DRBBB is based upon EW Kenyon’s understanding of how Paul would have us pray. But then you protest – My favorite saying by Paul on prayer is Philippians 4:6-7 and it sure sounds like he is telling us to plead and beg when he invokes the word “supplication”. What is supplication? It means petition, entreaty, request, plea, appeal, etc. It sure sounds like pleading and begging. Well there is the nuance for you. It is about tone. It isn’t ALL about tone but this kind of prayer instruction is about tone and stature. Beggar prayer is anxious, desperate, pleading, repeating (do we think God is hard of hearing? Paul in Romans says we can groan and the Holy Spirit will articulate it for the Father. Yet we repeat) and it is all about our needs as if we are not complete in Christ, as if God has shortchanged us. It’s about getting “the thing” whatever that might be. So let’s look again even at Philippians 4:6-7. Not desperate pleading but “be anxious for nothing”. Not pleading and repeating but in a spirit of thanksgiving. Not about our need but about our relationship with Jesus. More so about our awareness of who we are in the eyes of God and his Son who died for us. Not about our need for the thing but through Christ Jesus we have peace that guards our minds and hearts that is so peaceful that we can’t even understand it. So what is it that Kenyon saw in what Paul prescribed that most of us miss? Begging does not equal peaceful, trusting, covenantal petition. More so here is the point. It is not “never ask” for betterment, mercy, help, stuff, whatever… it is “don’t live in the asking”. It is the difference between the emergency hotline and knowing who we are in God’s eyes and knowing that God has already provided.
Beggar: we are our need and we are calling God on the emergency hotline.
Covenant partner (child of God):Identity is son and heir and prayer is…. ready for it? Family conversation.
It is as if most believers understand they have sinned and have a sin nature and therefore just are not up to having what God has given us, what his Son died to provide for us out of love and feel they are being presumptuous to the almighty in understanding what He has told us. Remember it is Jesus who started “The Lord’s Prayer” with “OUR Father”. Not just His but Ours. How often when we pray do we fall into that position God has reserved for us from which we can call him “Father”? We might even start the prayer with “Father-God” but then we fall into prayer. We fall away from the table to the dirt outside the gate. Is that what God said He wants from us? Reverence yes! Worship yes! Glorification yes! All of that yes! But from the position He elevated us to when He put His Holy Spirit in us.
So how does this look and sound? What has changed?
“Lord, please give me…” becomes “Father, I thank You that in Christ I have…”
Our focus changes from I NEEEEEEEED this! to I am yours.
Tone changes from uncertain pleading because we know we are undeserving of God’s grace (which is true except for one thing… He gave it to us. He wants us to have his love, favor and mercy) to confident and declarative.
At the core it changes from “my desperation” to “His promise”
And the goal changes from “get something” to claiming what we already have because He gave it to us and wants us to have it.
IF we were not now deserving because God hath deemed it then to pray for it as a beggar would be both the only hope and chance that we have
but also would set us in the position of being at odds with and in the position of being an annoying gnat asking to sit on God’s sandwich.
We should not beg our Father for bread when we are already an heir at the table. We come boldly (Hebrews 4:16) because the blood of Jesus gave you access.
Try this (in keeping with the scripture herein contained)
Start with identity: “I am a son/heir” (Romans 8:17)
Pray the Word back: “Your promise says… I stand on that”
Ask for revelation, not just resolution: “Open my eyes to see what You’ve already done”
Thank first, then request: Gratitude aligns you with covenant reality
Warning:
This isn’t “name it and claim it” magic. It’s covenant faithfulness. You pray according to His will (1 John 5:14)—which is revealed in Scripture. You don’t dictate to God; you align with Him.
As said earlier, we are not beggars at the gate. We are children of the almighty at His table. Pray like it.
As we say on Sunday morning (repetitively week after week but with a reason – it what we need in that context) without God’s grace we are not
worthy of the crumbs under the table but with the instruction of Jesus we boldly pray “Our father… give us this day our daily bread”
CORROBORATING SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 1:15–23, Romans 8:15–17, Galatians 4:7, John 16:23–24, 1 John 5:14–15, Hebrews 4:16, 2 Corinthians 1:20
Ephesians 1:15–23 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe…
Romans 8:15–17 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…
Galatians 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
John 16:23–24 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you… Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
1 John 5:14–15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
E.W. Kenyon saw what many miss: Paul never prayed like a beggar. He didn’t plead for healing, provision, or protection. He declared what was already true in Christ and asked for revelation—that believers would know their identity, their inheritance, their power.
Sadly on both counts, we have heard of the “sinner’s prayer” but we come to the Lord and pray in the manner of “the beggar’s prayer”.
PRAYER FOR WHOMSOEVERS
Father God we come to you with new eyes. There is something new in us. It is You. If we beg you then we denigrate your presence inside of us.
We shall no longer reject Your grace, the stature You have elevated us to with your spirit and the lack of awareness of our inheritance. We come to You not as beggars but as restored new creatures who are living only because Your Son and Spirit reside in us. We don’t come to you as beggars we know are not deserving of Your grace asking you for the things and conditions that have been denied us. If we pray for our needs we pray in dignity you have provided, we pray in confidence that our prayers will be answered. We know that anything we ask for which is of Your will will be granted and anything else that we ask for is not of you so we reject it before we come to Your Holy altar. It is all about awareness. You have given us new eyes to see and now we can see You, we can see what You have made us, we see your gifts already provided. Prayer, glorification, praise, worship – all of these things are not something you are needful for. They are gifts you have given our spirit so we can come closer to you and identify ourselves as you see is. We thank you Lord. We love you.
Last word goes to George Macdonald, highly esteemed by CS Lewis…
The sonship is the deep secret of the world… It is not that the father ceases to be a father because he gives, or that the son ceases to be a son because he receives; but that the giving and the receiving are the outer side of the deep inner oneness.”
— George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
