Your Kingdom and Will

As Jesus continues to give us the basic elements of prayer, He now adds to the address the first request. He has taught us to address our prayers to God our Father with the realization of Who He is. He is God, Holy and awesome. And He wants to commune with us!

Jesus’ first request of the Father is that His kingdom come! What does He mean by that statement? Jesus is asking, as we should, for the kingdom of God (the work of God) to come to completion! He is asking for the Day of the Lord! The day that the redemptive plan of God is complete. The Day that every enemy is subdued. At that Day, He will have called the righteous to blessing and condemned the wicked to judgment. For His kingdom to come is for His redemptive program to come to completion.

This verse could be translated, “Let Your kingdom come now!” It is a cry for the instantaneous climax of all History! Jesus wants the kingdom now! We must express that desire, too. It is much like the prayer offered by Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:22, “O, Lord, Come!” Interestingly, His coming will mean blessing and reward for the righteous and a curse and the second death in hell for the unrighteous. It will be a Day of life and death, of blessing and cursing, of heaven and hell! And yet our heart cry must be, “O Lord Come!”

The original language for the phrase translated “O, Lord, Come” or “Even so, come” is the word maranatha. It was a one word prayer in the Church of Acts! In 1 Cor. 16:22, the word maranatha directly follows the word anathema. Remember from Galatians, anathema means accursed! In that verse Paul writes “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!” In Greek he wrote “anathema, maranatha!” It almost sounds like a play on words doesn’t it? When He comes some will rejoice; others will be thrown into everlasting torment!

When we seek His kingdom, we are not seeking to influence government or society, we are seeking to bring people face to face with Jesus in the hopes that today will be the Day of fulfillment of God’s eternal plan. In another place Jesus says to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the field because the fields were white unto harvest.(Matthew 9:37) You have probably heard that preached as souls ready to be saved. NO! In the context Jesus is saying that the souls in the harvest are about to be collected and thrown into the fire!! There is not much time before judgment, so preach the gospel as often as we can! Who knows when time might be up?

On one hand we are to pray expecting the fulfillment of God’s plan NOW! On the other hand we are to work as never before to spread the gospel message so that everyone that we are able to give the truth to might hear the truth about God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus continues to teach us how to pray. Stop and think about that for a moment. Jesus Himself is teaching us how to pray! For all the books in Christian bookstores about prayer (as good as some of them are), if we really want to know how to pray we must go to the source! We must go to the One who can tell us exactly how to please God by communing with Him! Jesus is teaching us about God. About His Name, His Holiness, His Kingdom, and now about His will!

We are told to pray that His will would be done on earth just as it is in heaven! I want to start by looking at His will, then we will look at the difference between earth and heaven as it pertains to His will.

What is God’s will? How can we find it? Will God show us His will or do we have to discover it on our own? If we really want to know what His will is then we must search the Scripture. It will tell us all about His will!

This list is not comprehensive, but it will give us a place to start in talking about God’s will for our lives.

It is God’s will :

1. That the elect be saved – Romans 6:23; 8:29-30
2. That we be sanctified and holy – 1 Thess. 4:3, 1 Peter 1:13-21
3. That we be obedient doers of the Word, not just hearers – James 1:22
4. That we love one another – 1 John 3:11
5. That we deny self – Luke 9:23
6. That we worship Him – Rev. 19:10
7. That we keep His commands – 1 John 5:3
8. That we love Him – Matt. 22:37-38
9. That we love others – Matt. 22:39
10. That we walk daily with Him – Galatians 5:16

Indeed, if we are walking in the Spirit, encouraging others, loving God and our neighbors, and we aren’t violating Scripture, we can do whatever we want. Remember, when we delight in Him He gives us the desires (not the object or thing we desire, but the very desire itself) of our hearts!!

Now let us look at the difference between heaven and earth when it comes to His will. Of course God is sovereign, so His will is ultimately accomplished every day. But what affects that will (from our perspective, not His) in our day to day life? We fight our flesh, our sin nature, our temptations and lust. We combat our self-will and our pride. It’s WAR! There is quite a bit here that can interefere with our desires and our obedience to the Word of God. And remember, as Redeemed individuals though we are no longer dead and bound in sin, we can freely choose to sin.

To pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is to truly seek after and desire total surrender to Him and His Word in our daily lives! We are told to pray in a way that reveals the desire we have to put off this flesh and finally leave this corruptible for the incorruptible. To lay sin aside once for all! Wouldn’t that be nice? It will only be possible when God has glorified this sinful body and made us just like Jesus. Then we will be completely and forever free from sin!

It is to be our hope, our aim, to see His will done in our lives as easily here as it will be one day there in heaven. That is what it means to pray that His will be done, right here on earth in my life today, just like it is done in heaven. Nothing can stand in God’s way! Nothing can stop or overpower Him. He is Lord! But are we faithful and obedient slaves??

“Your kingdom come.” O Lord Come! MARANATHA!

“Your will be done.” Amen.