Jim Maxim
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
—Luke 11:2 (nkjv)
Can you picture meeting God in heaven seated on His throne with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit standing right in front of you? Don’t
you think you would fall on your face and bow as low as you possibly could to show Them, the Trinity, just how much you love, honor, and respect Them?
Why should it be any different right now as we live on earth?
I believe that one of the main reasons Christians today don’t desire to pray the way the disciples did is that we don’t really see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the way we should, who They really are in Their power and majesty in heaven.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)
[God’s] immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
(Ephesians 1:19–21)
When Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray, He wanted them to understand the kingdom of God in heaven could be brought down to earth in their prayers. The disciples saw Jesus pray to a heav- enly Father and then they saw what Jesus did from there. They knew He had received power, confidence, faith, and renewed ability from the time He spent with His Father. It can be the same for us!
“YOUR KINGDOM COME…”
In order to grow in our faith and have our prayers answered, what does Jesus tell us? “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). What does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? It means seeking God’s face before I seek God’s hand, seeking God’s face by waiting before Him in His presence, respecting Him, and reverencing Him. It means caring more about having a relationship with almighty God than worrying about what He is going to do for me next, even though the verse also says that He will provide for what we need.
“YOUR WILL BE DONE…”
In today’s English that means, “God, I want it Your way no matter what!” I know you are reading through this book because you want to go to the next level in your relationship with God. You really want to say
to Him, “Not my will, but Your will, almighty God.” You’re on your way when this becomes your prayer of faith because you’re truly believing His will is better than yours—even if it is not what you want!
That’s the difference between having Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or just your Savior. When He is your Lord, your faith and trust in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit leads you to surrender the decisions of your life to Him. Now, I’m not saying that this is always the easiest decision. For me, it takes all my pride and ego and puts it aside because He is Lord and God; it is His will that must be done, not mine.
“ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN…”
Do you think much about heaven? When you do, what comes to mind? Is it seeing God Almighty seated on the throne of heaven with Jesus at His right hand? What does heaven really look like and what goes on there? There are certain things that we know according to God’s Word. Many scenes in the Bible describe the throne room of God, the angels, and the heavenly creatures who cry without ceasing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8). We know there are twenty-four elders seated around the throne of God who fall to their knees crying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power” (Revelation 4:11). Some of these descrip- tions seem strange to us as we go about life on earth, but they set the stage for recognizing God’s holiness and His supernatural power.
Psalm 46:4 gives us an additional picture of heaven: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” What river is that? It is the river of life that flows from the throne of God Almighty! The apostle John wrote, “Then the angelshowed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Revelation 22:1–2). This is the river of God’s power, God’s love, and God’s majesty. It’s this river flowing
from heaven’s throne that Jesus was referring to when He said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 nasb). The river that gives us these living waters has its beginning in heaven!
Jesus was giving us the secret to living a victorious life with the words “on earth as it is in heaven” from the Lord’s Prayer. He was encouraging us to look into the spiritual world first and see how things are done in heaven. He was declaring that this world is subject to heaven’s authority. Remember this verse, “Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matthew 28:18). Then Jesus ascended to His Father to be seated at God’s right hand forever, “ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21).
Reading these words leads me to pray:
Dear God, please forgive us for not seeing Your majesty. God, please forgive our lack of faith. Father, in the name of Jesus, please help us to see You as You truly are. Help us to see things on earth as it is in heaven.
Ask yourself a couple of questions. Can God’s will truly be done on earth as it is in heaven? Would Jesus have said this if it were not true? Why would Jesus want us to have this mindset that God’s will can be done on earth as it is in heaven? Perhaps it’s because He knew we didn’t understand how to pray, that the motivation of our hearts might be right, but we still hadn’t considered our approach to God. Jesus knew that to pray with the mindset “as it is in heaven” was foundational to our prayer life. If we get this wrong, all our praying could be amiss.
Jesus knew that to pray with the mindset “as it is in heaven” was foundational to our prayer life.
In heaven, God’s will is the only will considered. In heaven, God’s supernatural power is revealed. As Christians, we should believe it can be the same way on earth. Jesus is waiting for us to pray the way He told the disciples to pray when they asked Him. I believe that our walk with Jesus can be so much more. I believe that we can experience the over- flowing “rivers of living water” that He promised us when we recognize God for who He is and truly believe that our prayers will be answered when we ask Him to let things on earth be “as it is in heaven.” My brothers and sisters, today let’s ask God to help us believe in Him and see things as they truly are in heaven.
Excerpted from “21 Days of Deeper Prayer: Discover an Extraordinary Life in God” by Jim Maxim with Daniel Henderson, © 2020 by Jim Maxim. Published by Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA. Used with permission. All rights reserved. www.whitakerhouse.com.
Free audio prayers found here: www.acts413.net/deeperprayer