Focus: The Father's Will

Text: Mt.6:10

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

God's heartbeat

This is one item in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, and it concerns the Father's will. Jesus is asking us to pray to the Father about the Father's will.

In this prayer subject two locations are cited: heaven and earth. When it comes to the location of heaven, God has no qualms. God's will rules in heaven. Everyone is in agreement with the will of God. The will of God is not debatable or contestable in heaven. It is supreme. It is the order of heaven. But when it boils down to the earthly location, that is where God has challenge. Here on earth we have several wills at loggerheads with each other: man's will, Satan's will and God's will. The battle rages on whose will is supreme or should be done. This battle goes on in our minds and lives every single moment. Our day to day decisions and actions say it all. Are we going to do what God wants, what we want, or what Satan wants? And as you know, God is not in the business of forcing or coercing people. But as His own children God wants us to make His will our heartbeat and the pursuit of our lives. Dream of doing God's will and wake up to do it. It's about dreaming of and daring it. It's about prioritizing the will of God in one's life.

Let's take a look at two persons: Jesus and David.

*Jesus was born by the will of the Father. He lived, labored and died for the will of His Father. The cross was the Father's will for Jesus, and he lived and died to fulfill it. In Heb.10:7,9, it is written of Jesus, "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God... Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." Jesus was on earth to do the Father's will. He was passionate about what His Father was passionate about. His whole life was an expression of the will of God. In Mt.26:24, Jesus says, "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him," and in verse 42, He finally prays to His Father, "Thy will be done." He yielded to the Father's will even in death. By serving the will of His Father in the earth He saved humanity and restored the whole of creation.

*As for David, God says, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will... For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God..." - Act.13:22,36. David was after what God was after. He chased after God and pursued His heartbeat. He built a tent for God and provided abundantly for the temple later built by Solomon, his son. Centuries later, James talked about God's plan to restore the tabernacle of David (Act.15:16).

Do you ever wake up every morning thinking of what you can do to touch the world, or is the world only about you and living daily for self-gratification? At what point does God come into your to-do list? Do you wake up with an agenda to offer help to someone or render service to God one way or another?

Let us constantly tell ourselves that a world that is only as big as ME is too small a world. Let us make room for God and His will. Make His will your heartbeat.

Don't just pray for God's will to be done on earth; make yourself available for God to use. You are an agent of God's will. Be in God's action team. There's need for God's will to be done in the earth. The challenge is down here, not up there in heaven. Let God look down and see that you are doing His will down here in our earthly locality - right in the sphere of our existence. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter