Three Dimensions of Prayer

We have a little dog named Otis. Otis is about 14 pounds with long, shaggy hair. His mother is a dachshund mixed with terrier or poodle or something else. That’s just who Otis is, and we love the little guy.

One day our six-year-old grandson, Jackson, was in the living room with Otis, and he doesn’t know anybody’s around. My wife sees Jackson on the floor with Otis. Jackson is gently holding Otis’s head in his hands and looking into his eyes. Jackson says to Otis, “Otis, if you want to be a superhero, you’re going to have to change the way you think. The first thing you have to do is get a cape. The second thing you need is a superhero name like Super Dog. And the third thing you need to do is learn how to fly.”

I tell people that my grandson understands more than we do about how the Kingdom of God operates. If we want to move in the supernatural, we have to change the way we think.Our natural way of thinking does not lend itself to moving into the supernatural realms—and the Courts of Heaven are in the supernatural realm of God.Jesus put prayer in three different dimensions—Father, Friend, Judge. The first dimension of approaching God as Father is found in Luke 11 and 18. The Holy Spirit reveals the fatherhood of God, heals our wounds, comforts us, etc. We fall in love with the Father and come into greater revelation of how deeply the Father loves us. Jesus says, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven” (Luke 11:2). So, the first dimension of prayer is approaching God as Father.In Luke 11:5-6 (NIV), Jesus says, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.” The second dimension of prayer is approaching God as Friend.Jesus was teaching the disciples the three dimensions of prayer. The first one related to God as Father, which is about getting our own needs and desires met. The second realm is approaching God as Friend, with the picture Jesus painted of a man who had a friend in need and couldn’t help him, so he went to another friend. We are the ones who can’t help, but we can go to our Friend for help—we are in a position of intercession.In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus teaches on prayer through a parable, showing the disciples that they should always pray and not give up. He tells them there was a widow who came before an unjust judge and wanted justice from her adversary. He didn’t agree right away, but he finally gave her what she wanted because she kept nagging him. Jesus told them that God will quickly avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him.The third dimension of prayer is that of approaching the Judge or going into a judicial system. When Jesus spoke of a widow approaching an unjust judge, He was not saying God is an unjust judge; He was saying that if a widow could get a verdict from an unjust judge, how much more can we, His children, come before the righteous Judge, the Judge of all the earth, and see Him render verdicts on our behalf and in our favor.We come before God the Father for our own needs and desires. We come before God as Friend for the needs of others. But we come before God as Judge when we’re dealing with an adversary.- Robert Henderson, author of Accessing the Courts of Heaven