Message Title: Praying for God's Will to be Done on Earth
Ephesians 1:10 Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;
Ephesians chapter 1 reveals a lot to us concerning God's will. in verse 10, it reveals the goal of God's will, is to head up all things in Christ.
how can we cooperate with God for Him to carry out His will? the way is "prayer". we pray for God's will to be done on earth. We pray not small prayers concerning ourselves, but we pray the highest prayer, the prayer that God's will will be done on the earth.
prayer is not to change God's mind, or to change something. but prayer must originate with God's will, and the prayers that are answered are the prayers according to God's will.
I. Although God has a will for everything, He does not act independently; rather, He wants the human will on earth to echo His will before He does anything.
we may wonder, why God does not just do it, since He is the mighty God, and He surely can do anything. but God operates according to the principles He establishes, one of which is that He will only act when there is human will in harmony and match His divine will, and, then echo His desire in prayer.
in the universe there are three wills: God's will, Satan's will and human will. Satan's will is opposing the divine will. the divine will is greatly opposed on the earth, where Satan's will is prevailing. if the human will is aligned with the divine will to oppose satanic will, then God's will is being done on the earth. However, if human will is not perfectly aligned with the divine will, by default, the human will is automatically one with satanic will. There is no neutral ground. So as God's people, we are crucial in this matter, to allow God to fulfill His will on earth.
Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
the will in heaven is accomplished on earth only when we, His people, want the will in heaven to be done on earth. This is a serious matter in our choosing. It is even not simply that we agree with God's will. but it has to be that we truly want what God wants, that God's will becomes our will. we need to pray, "Lord, make Your heart's desire my heart's desire."
in Matthew 6, the Lord showed us the principle in our prayer. Before we pray for our own needs, we need to pray for God's needs first. right now, here on the earth, God's name is not exalted but blasphemed. so the church has the responsibility to sanctify the Father's name on earth, to allow God's will to be carried out on the earth, so that His kingdom may come on the earth. this is what we should be praying for. This is the pattern that the Lord gives us in Matthew 6.
II. God's intention is to accomplish His will through the believers' prayer in union with Him
John 15: 7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
God's people must pray before God will move on earth to accomplish His will.
God wants us to work with Him to accomplish His will; the way to work together with Him is to pray. when we talk about "work with God", it is easy for us to think about doing activities, preaching the gospel, shepherding the brothers and sisters, to prophesy, etc. all of which we should do. But the actual work is carried out in prayer, especially in prayer meetings.
Romans 8:26 Moreover, in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
the purpose of prayer is that we be one with God's will so that God can work on earth to fulfill His purpose. this verse tells us that we do not know for what we should pray, though most of the time when we open our mouths to pray, we know so well our "list of prayer items". sometimes, we sense a feeling, a burden within us to pray, but we do not know what to pray. If we just begin with the intention of contacting the Spirit, He will join in us, and He will initiate the prayer that we don't know what to utter. This requires us to spend a good amount of time, just to contact the Spirit, not to jump into the prayer items. We need time to absorb the Spirit, to breathe in the Spirit, and to allow the Spirit to initiate the prayer.Many who believe into the Lord do not actually know what is God's will. Who, here on the earth, is praying to allow the Lord to move on earth? we must be the ones who pray such prayers, to work with God so that He can move to accomplish His will on earth.
John 15:7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
if we are one with the Lord, we want what God wants, and our will becomes one with God's will. This means that we have spent sufficient time with the Lord, and we are mingled with Him, so our thoughts, our will are renewed to be one with the Lord, and we want actually what God wants.
1 John 5:14 And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
1 John 5:15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
1 John 5:16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him, to those sinning not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he should make request concerning that.
when we come to pray, what is the first thing we should do? we should ask the Lord, "Lord, what do you want to do? not what I want You to do? right now, this hour, what is in Your heart, concerning me, concerning Your church? right now, what is Your will?" if we do not ask, we do not know, and we cannot presume that we know.
prayer concerning God's will to be done on earth consists of four steps:
1. God intends to do something according to His will.
we cannot pray properly until we know what that will is. the genuine prayer begins with God's intention according to His will.
2. He reveals His will to us through the Spirit for us to know His will.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord Jehovah will not do anything unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
We need to spend adequate time with His so that He can reveal what is in His heart to us. then we will know His will, then we can pray.
3. we return and echo His will back to Him through prayer.
4. God accomplishes His work according to His will.
some examples in the Bible concerning the above four steps.
1. Daniel chapter 9: when Daniel read the book of Jeremiah, he saw that the captivity should only last for 70 years. then Daniel started to pray day and night. Then God accomplished His desire through Daniel's desire.
2. Matthew 9: 36 to 10:1
Matthew 9:38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest.
here the sequence is, first the Lord was moved with compassion. then He asked the disciples to "beseech the Lord", which means to pray. and the result of the prayer is in verse 10:1, that the Lord sent out the disciples.
3. Ezekiel 36:37 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Moreover for this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
here is the four steps again. first, God had an intention to increase His people. Then He needs man to "inquire of Him"; when we inquire of God, and He will do what He intends to do.
III. Effective prayers for God's will to be done on earth are the expression of God's desire and intention and are the issue of our abiding in the Lord and of His words abiding in us.
if we want our prayers to be effective, these two conditions are necessary. First, our prayer must be the expression of God's desire, not our own desire. Second, our prayer must be the issue of our abiding in the Lord and allowing His word to abide in us.
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