What God Wants

Good morning,

He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

Psalm 46:10

A member of my church is facilitating a 13-week Bible study, starting this Sunday.  It's called, "Experiencing God", and it's an expanded/revised study based on the very famous book by Henry Blackaby.  The subtitle of the study is "knowing and doing God's will".  As I said yesterday, there are no coincidences with God.  So, I am thinking of doing this study with that group....just when I got my Sunday afternoons back, after practicing for that play for 8 months.  I haven't told the Hubster yet; he'll say that I'm crazy...again.

Let's move on in our study of The Lord's Prayer by examining the next phrase.  Here it is:

"Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven."

Matthew 6:10

Remember, this is from Jesus, who was modeling for His disciples how to pray.  These sentences are the first two petitions in The Lord's Prayer.  They aren't requests for any of our personal individual needs.  These are requests/petitions designed to bring our desires in line with those of God.

What does God want?  What are His purposes?  What is important to Him, on a global level?

God has declared many times in the Bible that He will one day establish His Kingdom here on earth. He will do that in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, a biological descendant of David, who was promised that his descendant would rule and reign "forever" (1 Chronicles 17:11-14). That reign will commence after the great battle of Armageddon and will last for 1000 years, on this physical planet we call Earth.  It will be a physical kingdom.  

We are also praying, in that declarative sentence (6:10), for His spiritual kingdom to be expanded, established in the hearts of people who do not yet know Him.  We are praying for the Holy Spirit to be unleashed, asking that more and more people will come to a heart knowledge of the Truth, that more and more will accept Jesus as Lord and be snatched from a certain eternity in Hell.

At this moment, where is the kingdom of God?  It is most surely in Heaven, while simultaneously being here on Earth in the hearts of Believers.  Jesus said to His followers, 

"The kingdom of God is within you."

Luke 17:21

It is through His lordship in each believer's heart that His kingdom is expanded, one-by-one.

So, when we pray The Lord's Prayer, we are asking God to do what He has already said that He will ultimately do.  We are praying for the ONLY solution to the problems that plague our fallen race of beings.  

Romans 14:17 - - 

For the kingdom of God is not food and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness - - - the only holiness acceptable to God is that provided through the finished work of His Son, and given to us for our salvation.  In and of ourselves, we possess absolutely NO righteousness.  Righteousness is listed first because it is the indispensable "first characteristic" of being part of God's kingdom.

Peace  - - - peace is not listed first, because you cannot have peace without righteousness.  Some Christians go all around the world "working for peace" by meeting the humanitarian needs of people. That is wonderful and necessary to "be Christ's hands and feet".  But, what good does this if we do not simultaneously share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ?  What good does it do if we meet their physical needs, yet leave them bound for Hell?  None.  So, let's not be fooled by this world's version of "righteousness".  There is only one kind of righteous that brings true peace and that changes lives for all eternity.  You wonder why peace has fled America?  It is because God's righteousness, manifested in the hearts of men and women, is largely absent.

Joy - - - true joy comes from only one Source, and that is the Holy Spirit of God.  It transcends circumstances, even the worst that this sin-stained world serves up to us, because it is supernatural.  It is God's gift to those of us in His kingdom. This joy is grounded in our certainty that He is with us through thick-and-thin, forever.

The greatest blessing of this life - - to be God's child, to be part of His kingdom.

Tomorrow:  we'll drill down on "His will".

Almighty One, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had a vision of You.  He saw You seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, with Your glory filling that celestial Temple.  Your throne was surrounded by seraphs, those angelic beings with six wings, who continually call out, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the God of Angel Armies! The whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:1-3) Father, may Your kingdom come, in billions of human hearts and one day, physically on this Earth. In Jesus' name, amen.