Tefillah
Conversation is essential to having any relationship, including our Abba Father. After our actions, conversations with our family and friends determine our relationships with them. That is the case with our Abba Father as well.
Conventional teaching places great emphasis on prayer in the context of what can or will our Abba Father do for us here on earth. ELB teaches where, when, and what to pray to increase chances of yes as if our Abba Father judged our prayers like a gymnast on form and difficulty. He judges us by how much we love spiritual gymnastics, not how many spiritual somersaults we can each perform.
My point is not to diminish Mathew 6:6, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.” My point is to shift the primary focus to the substance of our prayer. Look around at the majesty of our Abba Father’s creation; the mountains, the oceans, the heavens, and the power of nature, and ask yourself, did he create all of this for us to miss it in the quest for earthly comfort? Let’s start our conversation with just how mighty our Abba Father is.
Our journey begins by examining our Abba Father’s meaning in his primary Hebrew word for prayer, “tefillah.” When we think of conversation and relationship, we seek to capture all of his glory untethered from the simple definition. That is precisely why English and conventional wisdom fail us in our walk with our Abba Father. He is so much greater than that.
Our Abba Father commands us to pray, and the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, so it is understandable how exegeting these individual verses outside the context of the relationship and the Holy Spirit misses the big picture. The Hebrew word tefillah has levels of meaning that the Jewish leaders call the Ladder of Prayer and conventional Christian teaching seems to miss the deeper levels.
“To pray” is the first level of the ladder, which means begging, beseeching, or imploring. Most Christians understand that level but should not separate it from the other levels. The lowest level should not be the primary focus.
Judging Ourselves
Another level of meaning is in the root of tefillah, which means to judge ourselves. Our Abba Father wants self-reflection included in our time of prayer. When we are begging, beseeching, and imploring him, he expects we will search our hearts and examine how we measure up to his standards of conduct. With any humility, it should become immediately evident that we do not deserve whatever it is we are begging, beseeching, and imploring him for.
1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Self-reflection leads us to confession and resolve to better ourselves. But remember, forgiveness is a promise of our Abba Father, as shown in 1 John, and as such, we do not need to beg, beseech, or implore for it. We must humbly converse with our Abba Father in confession and self-reflection, which leads us to grow closer to him.
Removing doubt sources is a big part of my ministry, and there should be no doubt about our forgiveness. It is a promise received with confession and has nothing to do with judgment day. I find great joy in my confession conversations with our Abba Father because it brings enormous relief, joy, and freedom. The enemy of our Abba Father wants us to hang our hearts in defeat.
Avodah
Another type of prayer is “avodah.” It means to serve our Abba Father with our hearts, and it’s acted out as prayer meant to purify our hearts and nature. That is why I love Hebrew so much because the plain meaning of avodah is to work with raw material and refine it. It can be a piece of wood, a rough diamond, iron ore, an animal hide, impure gold, you name it.
The earth contains many treasures we must refine to experience their full beauty and function, which also describes us. We must try to overcome pride, anger, jealousy, and similar bad traits, which may be quite “natural” but still separate us from our Abba Father.
Prayer is the refinery where we remove the impurities of our character. We stand before our Abba Father and the material world, with all its pains and pleasures seeming to melt away. We become aware of the things that matter, and as we pray for life, health, and sustenance, we think of them in their deeper sense, our spirit life with our Abba Father. We feel cleansed and purified, and the feeling of purity and holiness raises our conduct to a level expected for our Abba Father’s children.
We reach the highest level on the Ladder of Prayer when we want the feeling of attachment to our Abba Father. And that is where our soul and spirit nature come into play. Our soul wants to connect with our Abba Father! We are born again into a spirit life with him and prayer. Our conversations with our Abba Father strengthen our connection. I believe that is why the “he is there in Heaven, and we are here on earth” prayer position is so lacking. English fails us again.
Bind Together
The word tefillah also means “to attach or join or bind together” like two pieces of a broken vessel. There is a deep connection with our Abba Father in our relationship words used with him, but we miss it if we are not tuned in and looking for it. Conversations with our Abba Father attach us to him, not him to us.
Many of you have heard of the Mitzvah in Judaism, the 613 commandments Jewish scholars have gleaned from the Hebrew Bible. Mitzvah means commandment; even God’s commandments carry the attachment or relationship component.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 NKJV says, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God . . .” A blessing comes with obeying our Abba Father, and that blessing is the intimate relationship with him. And remember, loving our Abba Father in agape love is obeying him.
Mitzvah, or commandment, is derived from an ancient word that means togetherness. Commands are a mechanism that bonds the commander and the recipient. When a king commands a most humble servant, the humble servant feels honored that the king has taken notice of him and given him a task, something a seemingly insignificant person can do to please the king. It makes him eager to be worthy of the king’s attention and favor.
It is even more so with our Abba Father’s command to pray. Nothing brings us closer to him than an outpouring of our soul to him. There is no greater pleasure and fulfillment. But the key is the “most humble servant” heart. When we are entrenched in our earthly life and just coming to our Abba Father for help, we are not coming with the most humble servant’s heart.
Too many people spend hours in their private prayer rooms with the world shut out but do not have humble hearts. Our Abba Father can do anything he wants, but the people are missing out on his full glory. If we center our worldview of our Abba Father on an earthly life that only worships him and tries to follow his rules, it misses something he has hidden in plain sight, exactly what he created. A Family to love.
Only in the context of an intimate relationship with our Abba Father can we realize his full glory. He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to create our direct connection to him through Christ, and the first disciples could not miss it, but they did not continue to teach it.
Jacob’s Ladder
Let’s look at Genesis 28:12, “And he dreamed; and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” That is the story of Jacob’s ladder. Jacob’s ladder is the Ladder of Prayer. The angels are ascending to Heaven with our prayers and descending with our blessings, connecting us to our Abba Father.
Come to prayer with that picture in mind, not formulas, procedures, or any preconceived notions. As we grow in faith and learn more about what pleases him, add new elements with our humble hearts, not trying to improve our credit score with our Abba Father. We will be amazed at the difference.
Psalm 86
Before we close, I want to examine a famous prayer of King David, a man after God’s own heart. Remember, before Jesus and the Holy Spirit, prayer was everything to the faithful. Studying King David’s legacy of prayers is an excellent way to build our prayer relationship with our Abba Father. I believe we will see it in this prayer of King David (Psalm 86):
“Bow down thine ear, O Yahweh, and answer me; For I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul; for I am godly: thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord; For unto thee do I cry all the day long. Rejoice the soul of thy servant; For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Yahweh, unto my prayer; And hearken unto the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee; For thou wilt answer me. There is none like unto thee among the gods, O Lord; Neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify thy name.”
“For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Yahweh; I will walk in thy truth: Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart; And I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy lovingkindness toward me; And thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol. O God, the proud are risen up against me, And a company of violent men have sought after my soul, And have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. Oh turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; Give thy strength unto thy servant, And save the son of thy handmaid. Show me a token for good, That they who hate me may see it, and be put to shame, Because thou, Yahweh, hast helped me, and comforted me.”
The fact is, David said everything there is to say to our Abba Father. Originality is off the table. One of the best things we can do to build our faith is to make David’s conversations our own. Look at what David is saying to our Abba Father, see his relationship and burn what he has into our hearts.
7 Words of Praise
Thanking our Abba Father is second nature to most believers, and our Abba Father expects it because of all he does for us. We still need to continue praising our Abba Father because it is a missing link in our faith. But if you want the hair on your arms to stand up during prayer, praise our Abba Father for who he is, not what he does.
He is the creator, the beginning and the end, the Almighty, all the things his names say he is. Add this type of praise to your conversations with him, and you will feel the difference. Seven words in the Old Testament are all translated as the one English word, “praise,” which weakens our faith. The seven words bring the verses to life for us.
Tehillah
Tehillah is pure praise from the heart. It is the embodiment of our relationship with our Abba Father. Just let it pour out. Psalm 22: 1-5 NKJV, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises (Tehillah) of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.”
Halal
Halal is another English fail. Halal means to go crazy for our Abba Father. Jump, dance, shout, clap, just throw yourself into going crazy in praise. That is exactly what David was doing. Please ask the Holy Spirit to dance with you. Psalm 117 NKJV, “Praise (halal the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise (halal) the LORD.”
2 Samuel 22:2-4 NKJV, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised (halal); So shall I be saved from my enemies.”
Barak
Barak is the image of our relationship, and the word “praise” cheats us out of the visual that brings the verse to life. Barak means to kneel or bow down to our Abba Father. It reveals our surrender to him, our awe of him, and we cannot help but go down.
Psalm 145:2-4 NKJV, “I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise (halal) Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” ()
Zamar
Zamar means to play a musical instrument while singing praise, not just singing praise. And the meaning goes deeper than that. David is fighting a spirit war when using zamar.
Psalm 7:17 NKJV, “I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, And will sing praise (zamar) to the name of the Lord Most High.”
Psalm 27:6 NKJV, “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises (zamar) to the Lord.”
Yadah
Yadah means to throw our hands up while speaking prayer. It is sort of “halal light.” Again, the word “praise” does not come close to the vision we should have.
Psalm 28:7 NKJV, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise (halal) Him.”
Towdah
In towdah, we also lift our hands, offering ourselves to our Abba Father.
Psalm 100:1-5 NKJV, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise (towdah). Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.”
Shabach
Shabach means to shout praise, put your heart into your shout. Psalm 63:3-5 NKJV, “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise (shabach) You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise (shabach) You with joyful lips.”
