God’s Will – Heaven on Earth
God’s Will – Heaven on Earth.
“You may expend your whole life in search of the Will of God, His “perfect will,” but you will not find any other perfect will of God than that which God has revealed in Christ Jesus. And that will is mercy, a mercy which involves giving your life for others as an offering to God.” (Brother Rex Andrews, from his book, What the Bible Teaches About Mercy).
God’s Intentions. The Lord God put forth His “intentional will” in Micah 6:8. That passage summarizes His preference for how we live, what He delights in, what reflects His character, what He takes great pleasure in, what He has had in mind for us since He created us. If it were solely up to God, this is what the world would look like: “He has already told you, mortals, what is good in His sight. This is what Lord Yahweh asks of you: to live with justice and fairness in mind; to embrace lovingkindness and mercy; and to walk humbly and obediently with your True God. ”God is intending that we all live that way if it was up to Him alone. But, mysteriously, the Almighty God honors His “permissive will,” allowing each person’s free will to have a big influence in the way we choose to live. Of course, God has the power and wisdom to intervene whenever He wants. Much like sin itself, God doesn’t endorse injustice, cruelty, or pride, and in fact He has gone on record a million times as hating every form of wickedness. He obviously doesn’t really prefer unrighteousness or the results of sin in the world, and He never had the intention to make this a part of His creation. And He knows that evil’s days are numbered. But here we see reality in a sinful world, where God rejects much of what goes on His world. Our pure God permits impurity and brokenness and certainly doesn’t insist on their existence. It’s a mystery what this does to God’s sovereignty. But God is not a cosmic sadist, and so He doesn’t inflict pain, give people cancer, or cause fatal car crashes. He doesn’t will tragedy into innocent lives, He doesn’t inspire mass murders or spread life-ending illnesses. In His short-term permissive will, He allows effects of sin, and He redeems them. God is in the business of redeeming the bad into the good, not inflicting the bad. But God also has an “ultimate will” which reveals His final authority and sovereignty. His ultimate plans are irresistible, and final, and will not be frustrated. God has ultimate control of the universe, in which God gets what He wants. God has already determined that justice, mercy and humility will characterize human interaction when the world is redeemed in the kingdom to come. God’s will of mercy will not be compromised in the end.
“Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As He finished, one of His disciples came to Him and said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just like John taught his disciples.’ Jesus said, ‘This is how you should pray. Pray like this…’ ” (Luke 11:1-2).
The Our Father. If you want to learn to pray like I do, Jesus said, then the first thing you do is get on your knees and start praying. And then He offered a model prayer, a Jesus-approved pattern they could use. So Jesus gave them an outline of what is important to include in their prayers:
“Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Amen.” (Matt. 6:9-13).
Matt Maher – The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours) (Official Music Video)
Teach us to pray. The disciples were certainly well-versed in the historic and powerful prayers of their Jewish faith, but they must have been intrigued about the prayer life of Jesus. They must have seen something different about the way He approached the Lord God in prayer. Evidently, too, there must have been something distinctive about the prayers taught by John the Baptist to his followers. It looks like the disciples of Jesus wanted to pray in His distinctive way as well. The unique relationship between Jesus and the Father must have been on full display in His prayer life, and they wanted to be taught how to pray like Him. Of course, Jesus was completely acquainted with the prayers of the Torah, the synagogue and the Temple, but the disciples wanted more than that. They probably wondered if there was some secret to how God and Jesus communicated with each other.
The Primary Source. So this one unnamed disciple did the right thing as he probably spoke for the rest of the disciples. He went right to the source. He didn’t go out and buy fifty books about how to pray, he didn’t look for so-called experts on prayer around the villages. He wisely went straight to Jesus and simply asked Him. In this case, Jesus didn’t tell a story or speak a sermon in response to the request. He responded by putting them right to work praying. He pretty much said that one learns to pray by praying. If you want to learn to pray like I do, Jesus said, then the first thing you do is get on your knees and start praying. And then He offered a model prayer, a Jesus-approved pattern they could use. So Jesus gave them an outline of what is important to include in their prayers. These are the words and thoughts that are the fundamentals if you want to pray like Me, if you want to live into My way of life, He said.
Not a Formula. It’s difficult to believe that Jesus gave them a foolproof formula in seventy words that are to be repeated whenever they wanted to pray. It seems that Jesus was teaching them how to pray by providing an outline of the fundamentals of the faith. These exact words are to be prayed into, expanded, unpacked in the Spirit. These rich phrases are to serve as a model that represents the basics, and can be embraced as they live them out in their own personal life. These words of the Lord’s Prayer are completely consistent with His Word, so the Scripture is a guide when one wants to put His phrases into other words. Rote learning is the main starting point in learning how to pray like Jesus, but then the words need to be amplified, put into other words that resonate with Scripture and one’s personal life.
Praying our way into the content of the Lord’s Prayer will help us deepen the meanings of the phrases and amplify the inspired words of Jesus in a personal way:
“Your Will Be Done.” We understand, Father, that in order for Your Kingdom to come, You need for Your will to be done. As the King, You need to be obeyed. You have every right to expect this, Lord, since You are the royal Sovereign of the universe. You have every right to expect Your purposes here on earth to be fulfilled. Only You, Lord King, know the best way to manage Your Kingdom. Please help us as we grow in our trust of You and in our ability to lean fully into You. We embrace Your Word, Father, and have come to know that You have revealed Your will clearly in Scripture. We know Your will is for us to submit to You, to be rich in mercy, to promote justice, to grow in righteousness, to increase in humble faith. We realize the importance of living into Your will by growing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We also know that You desire for us to grow into the likeness of Your Son. We ask You, God, that our trust in You will develop to the point of agreeing to Your will even before we know what that will might be. Help us to be like Isaiah, who said, “Here I am! Send me!” before he even received instructions from You. Help us to be like Samuel, who with the faith of a child said, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” before he even knew what You were going to say. May we be like Moses who said, “Here I am, Lord, You have my full attention” at the burning bush when he received his Great Commission. And may we be like Your friend Abraham, who faithfully left his home at Your simple request, not knowing his destination. Teach us how to follow Your will like all the saints, Father, and then enable us to fulfill it. Doing Your will, O King, obeying Your orders, is a privilege and will bring us great joy and peace.
“On Earth as It is Done in Heaven.” Your wish is our command, King of heaven. We stand ready to do Your bidding here on earth just like Your servants who do Your bidding in heaven. Your angels surround Your throne, God, and are poised to obey You, thrilled that they could be of service to You, God. Help us to surround Your throne with praises in our hearts now, Lord, ready to do Your will. The angels stand ready to be a part of Your wonderful Kingdom, and we want to be like them. They are committed to doing Your will immediately without a second thought. They can be trusted to accomplish Your desires completely and with single-mindedness. Your angels find joy and fulfillment in cooperating with You, Father, for Kingdom purposes. Your angels protect and defend the righteous, they minister to those in need. They reflect the light of heaven as they serve You, O King, and represent Your presence. Help us, Lord, to be just like Your angels. Help us to do Your will here on earth just like the angels do in heaven. And may we serve You with a song in our heart, just like the angels who worship You day and night with holy music around Your throne. Help us, God, to serve You just like them, doing Your will on earth as it is done in heaven, with divine purpose and a lightness of heart that reflects the joy of Your heavenly Kingdom.
The glorious thought that closes the Lord’s Prayer in many churches is, “For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.” This thought is consistent with gospel truth, but it actually isn’t in Scripture, and was added by the early church later on. In both renditions of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11), Jesus closed with “Deliver us from the Evil One.” But if Jesus didn’t verbally add closure to His prayer with this line, He certainly could have been thinking it. These words perfectly harmonize with His prayer and adds that note of triumphant acknowledgment of the greatness of God, and how we need to submit to the King, who holds all power, and is full of divine glory.
Amen! Amen! This Hebrew word has a root in the word for truth. Amen can be expressed in many ways in English, and this is how we can show the Father that we agree with all the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Yes! We agree! This is absolutely true! We heartily approve of the truth of these words! We accept these words with all our heart and soul! We truly believe this! We are certain that these words are trustworthy! Truth!” Throughout Scripture, when the person accepting the truth of the words wanted to intensify and amplify and double-underline the truth of the words, they would say Amen! Amen! If ever there were a prayer deserving of increased intensity of agreement, it would be the Lord’s Prayer.
Andrea Bocelli, Matteo Bocelli – The Lord’s Prayer (Live from Monte Bianco)