Luke 11:2
…Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
KJV
Luke 11:2
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
NKJV (Emphasis Added)
Oh this is my favorite part! We want the kingdom of heaven to come and His will to be done- where? On Earth- how? Just as it is in heaven! Look at this powerful statement in the bible! We’ve read this, we’ve prayed this prayer- but we didn’t understand what we were saying most of the time. We thought it was just a nice simple prayer we would quote- but this is a HUGE petition. Remember the disciples had asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and so, Jesus made sure to teach them this.
There is a reason God put us on earth. There is a reason He made you and then made you a body and then put you in the body and breathed life into you. The bible says all things came out of God (John 1), so if He wanted you to stay in heaven he would not have put you in a body on the earth. God put you here for a reason, and gave you dominion over the earth for a reason. (Genesis 1:26) He wanted earth to become just like heaven. He wanted earth to be impacted with the culture of heaven. Lord, let your kingdom come on earth, let your will be done on earth, just like it is in heaven let it be so in the earth!
That was God’s original desire. He gave man dominion over the earth and He walked and talked with man- but then man (Adam) disobeyed and rebelled against God and declared independence from heaven. So we became a corrupt and self destructive kingdom. But God’s plan didn’t change. Look at this!
1 Samuel 8
4. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
5. And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
6. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
They still didn’t get it! God had not changed His purpose, but the people still rebelled against God’s plan. Look what God says.
1 Samuel 8:7
And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
They chose to learn the hard way. Look at the people’s comparison of why they wanted a ‘man’ king to judge and rule over them… “like all the nations“.
My God, we have not drifted far from this mentality today. We try to compare what we think we need with what we see others have… even though what they have isn’t working. Am I talking to anybody out there? Man rejects God for His own destructive independence. I pray it not be named among you from this day forward.
We need His kingdom to come- to earth! What does religion teach? “Let us leave earth and go to the kingdom of heaven.” Is that what you believe? Now, does that line up with how Jesus taught how to pray? Let Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done- on earth just as it is in heaven. So God wants us to pray heaven down to earth. He wants earth to become just like heaven.
In the Caribbean there is an island called Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola on his voyage between 1492 and 1493. Columbus took possession of the land and named it “La Isla Española” which means “The Spanish Lady”. The name was later shortened and re translated as “Hispaniola”. Spain’s interest in the island was not priority and became increasingly under attack by pirates. As the colonies of Spain were ordered to draw in closer to the area known as Santo Domingo this gave way to pirates making establishments on the island. In 1665 the French colonization on the west side of the island was recognized. Spain ceded the land to the French and the west side became known as modern day “Haiti” while the east side of the island became known as modern day “Dominican Republic”. For comparisons sake, Hispaniola is roughly a tenth of the size of the state of Texas in the U.S. …only a tenth. Yet it is split into two countries.
Why is this significant to the Lord’s Prayer? The history and current state of this island shows you the impact of a government on a place. Regardless of its size- because it was colonized by two different kingdoms- they are completely different in every way. When I was there in January of 2010, we went into Haiti about two weeks after the earthquake, into Port-au-Prince. We stopped at one point to confirm directions to the place we were dropping off the food. A boy come up to us and started talking to our friend and interpreter, Junior. Junior was born and had lived in Dominican his whole life. I asked him what the guy said and he said he can’t tell- he’s speaking Creole. One small island, a tenth the size of Texas, yet they are worlds apart from each other. Two different languages, two different cultures, two different ways of life. Because of the impact of culture from the French and from Spain almost 400 years ago, these two countries are totally different from each other today. If the king of Spain had not made the colonies settle close to Santo Domingo, but secure the whole island- they would all be speaking Spanish today. But because of this incident in history, two different kingdoms affected the culture of the island differently… and it can still be seen today.
Look at this world… economies collapse, people are hurting, people are in poverty, people are lacking resources… we need the kingdom of heaven to impact the earth. We need heaven’s culture, God’s ways, to become our culture… our ways. In Haiti they still drink wine and eat cheese as a social norm because the French did. They speak French and Creole because the French did. In Dominican Republic they speak Spanish because Spain did. When a place is colonized by a kingdom, it takes on the nature, characteristics, and culture of that kingdom. The earth needs to be filled with God’s nature. As it is in heaven, let it be in the earth.
There is no sickness in heaven, let it be in the earth-
There is no disease in heaven, let it be in the earth-
There is no lack in heaven, let it be in the earth-
There is no poverty in heaven, let it be in the earth… just as it is in heaven.
When we understand this concept of prayer and what these words mean- we then understand the impact our prayers have on the earth, because we actually pray heaven down to earth, colonizing the earth, his citizens infiltrating the earth until earth becomes just like heaven. That’s why God said “whatever we bind on earth, now heaven can bind- and whatever we loose on earth, now heaven can loose.” We’ve been put here as representatives, ambassadors of heaven, impacting the earth with the culture, purpose, intent and ways of the king. This is why we are “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:16-18). We’re from another place, placed here to colonize the earth. Pray heaven down! Pray His kingdom come, His will be done- on earth just as it is in heaven.
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