How is God’s will done on earth?
We implement God’s will on earth by prayer through two important attitudes…faith in a reliable object and the authority of that object to do what that it says or stands for.
First, then, faith must have an object. Faith is an attitude based on the truth that faith’s object exists and that faith’s object can be trusted to live up to its claims.
Many people worship “gods” who, they believe, claim the right to be trusted. The proof of their existence lies in what they do or don’t do.
“Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”
Psalms 115:2-8 NIV
Faith in inanimate objects is a delusion. Faith in the God of the Bible is legitimate because He exists and He acts according to His Word.
“With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it…Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?… “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
Isaiah 40:18-19, 21, 25-26 NIV
God does not do anything unless we have confidence in Him, that He can and will do what He says.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6 NIV
Second, faith is confidence in the authority of the one who speaks…that He has the right to do what He has said. God is God and there is no one above Him. The Father gave Jesus the authority to rule over the nations. Jesus is Lord.
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
So, Jesus authorises His disciples to go, to speak, and to do…in His name.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
He authorises us to do His works and to pray…in His name.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:12-14 NIV
Humans have no authority to say or do anything on God’s behalf without His authorisation. We are only the agents, the voices that relay heaven’s will to earth’s situation. Therefore, we must listen to what God has said. We are God’s prophets.
To speak for God without authorisation and out of our own imagination is both delusional and dangerous.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God exposed the sin of the false prophets who spoke their own words instead of God’s words.
“Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
Jeremiah 23:28-29 NIV
By contrast, God’s Word, spoken from the mouth of the Lord through the mouth of His prophet, to the appropriate situation on earth, is more powerful than the heat of a fire or the blow of a hammer.
A true prophet listens to God and speaks His word faithfully to turn people from their sin.
“I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.”
Jeremiah 23:21-22 NIV
James assures us that the prayer of an ordinary person like Elijah, for example, but righteous through Jesus and according to His word (implied), is both “powerful and effective.”
James 5:16b NIV
God is not obligated to do anything on earth that does not come from His instruction. His will and His will alone is our mandate to speak so that it is done on earth.
Let us never degrade prayer to the level of the pagans who babble about selfish needs and wants. Let’s remember our mandate to rule with Jesus…now…by listening to Him and speaking His word so that His kingdom will grow and flourish and His will be done here as it is done there.