This is What God’s Will is For You – The Lord’s Prayer Part 4

“The Lord listens to prayers, not advice.”

Confronting, sure, but stop to think about what’s at the heart of that distinction about our approach to communicating with God.

In the fourth episode of The Lord’s Prayer podcast, Hope Morning’s Ben McEachen chats with theologian and author David Hohne about God’s will.

Just a small conversation, then.

Reaching the “on earth as it is in heaven” bit of the world’s most famous prayer, David and Ben discuss how we can know God’s will, what it has to do our own will, and being able to handle the gap.

The big idea

“On earth as it is in heaven” links with and informs everything that comes before it in The Lord Prayer.

“If we pray appropriately, we are always praying that God’s will would be done in this particular situation or matter,” David said.

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God’s will is not as mysterious as you might think. Read John 6 and Ephesians 1 to find it distilled to the Messiah King who gave us “The Lord’s Prayer”.

Talking points

• Jesus gave us “The Lord’s Prayer” in a specific order, beginning with “God’s presence, God’s rule and God’s will”.
• David said that these three elements are grouped together by the “on earth as it is in heaven” request, to cry out for God to be worshipped correctly “down here”.
• As Ephesians 1 reveals, God’s will can be boiled down to summing “up all things in the Messiah, the things in heaven and the things on earth in him”.
• The return of God’s king Jesus shall usher in the full display of God’s will on earth as in heaven, as “sin, death and evil” are expunged.
• Before Jesus’ return, we pray for the principle of God’s kingdom to be “perfected” on earth.
• According to David, a chief way to do that is pray for Jesus and God the Father to be glorified, not ourselves.
• “As his children, he has given us the right to bring our requests, but we remember that we are his children, not his masters,” David said.
• We should “lean forward” towards God’s will coming in its entirety and “live a life of protest” against whatever is opposed to God’s will.

Explore more

• Luke 22:42 – Jesus prays to his heavenly father that “your will be done”, even as he asks for “this cup to be removed from me”.
• John 6 – Jesus said “my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day”.
• Ephesians 1 – The “super big picture of God’s will for your life, my life and for the whole universe”.

Let’s pray

Our Father in Heaven. Your name be honoured as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Guide me into deeper understanding of how your will is channeled through Jesus and this impacts every area of existence. When I am confused or angered by the way my life is not working out, give me the strength and trust to know your will on earth remains what I should uphold and prioritise. Transform our relationships, thoughts and actions to ensure your will in heaven increasingly permeates the earth. Amen.

Listen to the full Your Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven episode in the player above or the video below. Subscribe to The Lord’s Prayer podcast.