“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”
Matthew 6:9 NIV
Before we move on to the next facet of this prayer, we need to look more closely at the words Jesus used and their impact on His disciples.
“Our Father” immediately connected the disciples with one another on a new level. They were much more than a group of individuals chosen by Jesus to walk with Him. They were family!
In Jesus’ words, He stated God’s intention, before time began, to have a family… sons and daughters resembling Him…living and working together with Him to administer His earth under His authority.
This meant that they would enjoy the bonds of family love and family unity in their allegiance and submission to a loving Father. “Fellowship” was what this family was all about.
“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
1 John 1:3 NIV
This fellowship with the Father would be brought about by the Holy Spirit in them, centred in Jesus, and experienced within the circle of the Trinity. Maintained by honesty and transparency with one another, their love and unity would tell the world that Jesus had come from the Father to set things back in order on earth.
“…In heaven…” speaks of the reconnection between heaven and earth. Adam’s defection had shattered the oneness God had planned. His spirit realm is everywhere since God cannot be confined to any particular space, but humans have lost that awareness and live as though God does not exist.
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 23:23-24 NIV
David clearly stated God’s intention…
“…What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels (“God”, the original meaning), and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”
Psalms 8:4-6, 8 NIV
The Bible is the story of everything God has done to restore that connection so that He and His people can live in fellowship and function as one in His universe.
Revelation reveals the end of the story.
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
Revelation 21:1-3 NIV
In Jesus’ prayer, then, we are constantly reminded that God functions in a realm that is all around, as near to us as our breath, but separated from us by our fallen humanity. We draw near to Him as we acknowledge who He is, our Father, who we are, His human family, and where we function, our earth joined to His heaven to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven.