When we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10) we are asking God to supplant human kingdoms and wills and replace them with his own, beginning with us. Therefore, it is not artificial to draw a line between these petitions and the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
In view of this, here are 4 specific mission-oriented requests that we should regularly make, which have at their heart the request, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Pray For Conversions to Christ
Christians believe that God converts rebel sinners by transferring them out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col 1:13-14).
John the Baptist connects the kingdom coming with the necessity of repentance, as he preaches, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”” (Matthew 3:2, ESV). This kingdom of heaven is entered into only through repentance and faith, which means turning from self-righteousness and self-rule to trusting in the righteousness of Christ alone and submitting ourselves to Him as our King.
Paul summarizes God’s will for the nations as, “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26) – that is, the obedience that comes from faith in Christ. And this is connected to the theme of the kingdom in places like Genesis 49:10 where God promises that when the king comes, the people will render obedience to him: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:10, ESV).
God is fulfilling his kingdom promises in the present by causing rebel sinners from the nations to repent, trust in Christ, and obey him as Lord – what Paul summarizes as the obedience of faith. The fact that people from all over the world are being converted to the obedience of faith in Christ alone and are being transformed from the inside out is proof positive then that the kingdom age has dawned in the present, even while we wait for the completion of it.
Therefore, to make this petition is to pray specifically with the mission orientation of asking God to convert rebel sinners to the obedience of faith, that they might become citizens of his kingdom and enjoy his favour.
But secondly, this prayer teaches us that we must
Pray for Continuing Conformity to Christ
We must pray for converted Christians – including ourselves – to continue living in conformity to the will of God, no matter the cost to our earthly comforts and conveniences. Continuing in the faith and conforming our lives to follow Christ and his will as revealed in his Word is necessary for entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. Jesus states it clearly in Matthew 24:13, “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
God’s will for us is continuation in the obedience of faith in Christ. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that the will of God is “our sanctification”. Another way to put this is to say that God desires and designs that those he converts to the obedience of faith will continue to have an increasingly consistent alignment between our pursuits and practices here on earth with his perfect will revealed in his Word and being done in heaven by those who have gone on before us and even the angels.
This is why Paul writes to the Colossians in Colossians 3, beginning in verse 1: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1–3, ESV). In other words, our pursuits and practices in the present ought to conform with our position and citizenship in the heavenly kingdom, which we have “in Christ.” That’s what it means for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We need to pray for continuing conformity for ourselves and our brothers and sisters because we live in a world where there are kingdoms and wills in conflict. We are enticed and pressured from the world, the flesh, and the Devil to make and follow our own agenda and to establish our own kingdoms where our desires rule as king. In view of these pressures, we must pray for continuing conformity to Christ.
Third, to pray for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven means that we must
Pray for Churches to Gather, Go, and Multiply with the Gospel of the Kingdom on our Lips
Praying for the local church to gather, go, and multiply is not peripheral to the prayer “your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The local church is the epi-center of God’s kingdom work and will on earth. His kingdom advances and will is done on earth as his redeemed people gather, go, and multiply with the gospel of the kingdom on our lips, summoning the nations to the obedience of faith.
Jesus connects the advance of his kingdom on earth directly to the church gathering together in person. In Matthew 16, after Peter makes that great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus responds, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:18-19). This same phrase about “binding and loosing” is used in Matthew 18, but this time in the context of gathering: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”” (Matthew 18:18–20, ESV). The reasonable conclusion here is that gathering as a church is important to God’s kingdom coming and will being done on earth as it is in heaven in the present age. The gathered church is the way we do the kingdom work of “binding and loosing”.
One pertinent application of this is that, even in light of this pandemic, we ought to pray that the Lord would allow us opportunity, freedom, and even a zeal to gather in person as we have been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom.
But the church is also commanded to go and make disciples by proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. As we carry the gospel, we function as ambassadors of the king. The apostle Peter draws a connection between our position in God’s kingdom as king-priests and our mission as heralds: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).
And we must pray for this work to be multiplied through church plants and revitalizations who would replicate this work of gathering, going, and multiplying. And all of this, that God’s kingdom would advance and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Finally, to pray “your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” means that we…
Pray for Christ to Come and Complete His Kingdom
Though the kingdom age has been inaugurated and God’s will is being done in his people, it is not complete and perfect. Sin, suffering, and sorrow still scrape us up daily. And death, more than all else, reminds us that all is not right with us and the world around us.
But living as sinners in this sin soaked world of suffering, injustice, and death will not last for eternity. Our King has promised to come and complete his work, make all things new, and trample all rival kingdoms and kings. Therefore, making the request “your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it in heaven” is what we pray when we cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
When he comes, he will execute perfect justice. None will escape the notice of Christ, the King. Everyone will give an account to him for every last word, deed, and thought committed or omitted. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11). Embedded within this request, then, is not only a prayer for the salvation of rebel sinners, but a petition for God to exact retribution on those who oppose his rule. In this way, it stands alongside the imprecatory prayers of the Bible.
But for us who trust in Christ alone and follow him, we rightly address God as “our Father” and live knowing that we will inherit this kingdom and all of its blessings in fullness, so we pray for Christ to come and complete the salvation he accomplished and has begun in us in the present. We beseech Christ to come so that in him we might the joy of “pleasures forevermore” at God’s right hand (Psalm 16:11).
To pray “your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is to pray for Christ to come and make the promises of Revelation 19-22 a reality in our experience. Therefore, this is a specific petition that we will always have reason to make until Christ comes, at which point his kingdom will be completely established and his people will perfectly do his will on earth as it is in heaven.