(Continuing from last week) THIS MODEL PRAYER begins with the first petition “Hollowed be thy name” followed by the second “Thy kingdom” in a kind of inevitable, divine necessity. This immediately raises in the mind, the question of why all man on earth do not bow down before His sacred name? why is not every man on this earth not concerned about Him in the presence of God, worshipping Him and using every moment in adoring Him and spreading His name. The answer is simply, because of sin, because there is another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness. This at once calls attention to the very essence of human problems and human predicaments. Our desire as Christians or believers is that God’s name be glorified even in our distress as in our glory. But the moment we set about doing this, the satanic opposition springs up; reminding us of the whole biblical teaching about evil. “There is another who is the god of this world” operating from the kingdom of darkness, a kingdom of evil, opposed to God the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the only true and merciful God, author and finisher of our faith – opposed to His glory, honour and power.
The consolation of the believer in this situation is that God has been graciously pleased to reveal from the very dawn of history, that He is yet going to establish His kingdom in this world of time, that although Satan has entered it and conquered it (the world) for the time being, and the whole of mankind is under his dominion. God is again to assert Himself and turn this world and all its kingdoms into His own glorious kingdom. In other words, running though the OT, are the promises and prophecies concerning the coming of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of the heavens. And at this particular crucial point of world history, when our Lord Himself was here on earth, this matter was very much in the forefront of the minds of men. Both John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ preached the coming kingdom of God. They both said: “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” at that immediate historical point, He was teaching His disciples to pray that this kingdom of God should come increasingly and quickly, but today the prayer is equally true and applicable to Christians or believers of all ages until the end comes.
By way of summary, the kingdom of God really means the reign of God. This opens three paths of thought about the kingdom of God. (a) In one sense, the kingdom has already come. It came when the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth. This is supported by His argument in Luke 11:20 “If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you” In effect the Lord is saying ‘The kingdom of God is here now; I am exercising this power, this sovereignty, this majesty, this dominion which constitute the kingdom of God’, (b) The kingdom of God is also here in the hearts and lives of all who submit to Him, in all who believe in Him (c) The kingdom of God is present in the church in the hearts of all true Christians or believers. Christ reigns in such people. But the day is yet to come when His kingdom shall have been established here upon the earth. The whole message of the Bible looks forward to that day. Christ came down from heaven to earth to found, to establish, and to bring in His kingdom. He is still engaged in the task and will continue until the end, when it shall have been completed. Then He will according to Apostle Paul, hand it back to God the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). This is what our prayer: “Thy kingdom come” amounts to.
We ought to have a great longing and desire for the kingdom of God and of Christ to come in the hearts of men. It should be our prime desire that this kingdom be extended in our own hearts, because, it is to the extent that we worship God, and surrender our lives to Him, and are led by Him, that His kingdom comes into our hearts. We should also be anxious to see this kingdom being extended in the lives and hearts of other man and women. So that when we pray: “Thy kingdom come” we are praying for the success of the gospel, its sway and power, we are praying for the conversion of men and women; we are praying that the kingdom of God may come today to all parts of the world. “Thy kingdom come” is an all inclusive evangelical prayer.
Beyond this, it is a prayer which indicates that we are: ‘Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God” (II Peter 3:12). It means that we should be anticipating the day when all sin and evil and wrong and everything that is opposed to God shall finally be eliminated. It means we should have longings in our hearts for the time when the Lord will return, when all that is opposed to Him shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, and the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. This is perfectly put as follows in the ending portion of the Book of Revelation: “And the Spirit and the bride say come…” (Rev. 22:17) And do we both author of this and the reader say with our hearts “Even so come, Lord Jesus”.
The Lord Jesus Christ is here emphasizing that before we begin to think of our own needs and desires, we should have the burning desire within us for the coming of His kingdom, that the name of God may be glorified and magnified over all.
THE THIRD PETITION in the model prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ is “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” it is a logical conclusion from the second, as that was a follow up from the first. The result of the coming of the kingdom of God amongst men will obviously be that His will be done amongst men. In heaven, His will is always being done perfectly. We have only a dim and faint figure of this in the Scriptures. In this third example petition of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus turns to the will of God, particularly as it affects this earth. When human beings yield to the jurisdiction of the kingdom of divine grace, the will of God for them is accomplished.
The tense of the verb in Greek, shows that this petition is also anticipatory. The request is for an end to the reign of sin and for the arrival of that moment when the will of God will be universally accomplished upon this earth as it is throughout the other dominions of God’ creations.
The characteristic of the will of God in heaven is what everyone and everything is waiting upon God for, and, anxious to glorify and magnify His name. The angels, as it were, are on the wing, all ready and waiting to fly at His command. The supreme desire of all in heaven is to do the will of God, and thereby to praise and worship Him. This should be the desire of every true Christian or believer upon the earth. And, the Lord is saying here that all on earth should be and do the same. Here again we are looking forward to the coming of the kingdom, because this (third) petition will never be fulfilled and granted until the kingdom of God shall have been established here amongst men. Then the will of God will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. There will be “new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness” Heaven and earth will become one, the world will be changed, evil be burned out of it, and the glory of God will shine all over.
CONCLUSION: In the foregoing paragraphs, we are taught how to begin to pray. These are the petitions with which we must always start. But remember, they are models and the whole of the Lord’s prayer is given to the disciples as a lesson and to all Christians and believers as a model. The one over-ridding principle in prayers to God is that our innermost and greatest desire should be the desire for God’s honour and glory. At the risk of my being misunderstand, I suggest that our desire for this, should even be greater than our desire for the salvation of souls. Before we even begin to pray for souls, before we even begin to pray for the extension and the spread of the gospel of the kingdom of God, there should be the over-ruling desire for the manifestation of the glory of God, and, that all might humble themselves in His presence.
What is it that troubles and worries our minds? Is it the manifestation of sin we see in the world, or is it that men do not worship and glorify God as they ought?. Our Lord Jesus, felt it so much that He put it this way in John 17:25. “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these (referring to His disciples) have known that Thou hast sent me” _ He is saying in effect: ‘Righteous Father, here is the tragedy, here is what perplexes and saddens Me, that the world has not known Thee. The world thinks of Thee as a tyrant, a harsh law-giver, someone who is opposed to everything of the world including its existence and always tyrannizing over it. Holy Father, the world has not known Thee. If it has but known Thee, it could never think of Thee this way Every true Christian should think like this and adopt an attitude towards what will always reflect His glory and honour. We should so know Him that our longing and desire should be that the whole created order should come to know Him.
Finally, it must be asserted vehemently that they are in ecclesiastical error and celestial ignorance who say that the Lord’s prayer was meant only for then disciples of Jesus and for the Jews in some coming age. The folly of such people is that they do not understand nor know God as He truly is, nor do they actually know how to approach Him. The Pentecostal decrees and impartations, if properly conceptualized in the order of the foregoing models will be more effectual and make greater impact on the failing spirits and souls of God’s people, and put an end to the pretensions to Divine Power in a manner that smacks of blasphemy culminating in unpardonable sin.
