“As” = “in the very same way”
Be very careful with this part - you must think about what you are actually praying. You are praying for His will to be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. In the exact same way. How is His will done in heaven? Immediately – He thinks and it is done. There is no delay caused by an obstructed channel. To His glory – He alone is worshiped. There is no shared glory in heaven.
So when we pray this, we are saying that we want His will to be done in the exact same way that it is done in heaven. This means that we are out of the picture. We are empty vessels that allow Him to flow unhindered into this world – bringing all glory to Himself. When we pray this, we are asking Him to empty us out and we won’t care if no one ever notices us. He is working through us so perfectly that only He gets noticed.
This addresses what I believe to be one of the areas that is quietly killing our churches – Christian competitiveness. We are constantly one-upping each other as we look around – who has the biggest congregation, the best youth ministry, the newest technology, the most professional worship, the coolest Youth Group, etc. The comparisons and the competitions are endless and it is killing the unity that Christ pleads for in John 17. (This is somewhat amusing, because all of the ‘competitors’ are people who have simply chosen to go to these churches. This makes them a better Christian . . . how?)
That small word ‘as’ blows this mentality out of the water. We are asking God to minimize us – and our ministry/church – to make us nothing more than an empty vessel that will allow Him to do His will in the same way that it is accomplished in heaven. Again – there is no shared glory in heaven, but still we scramble for it on earth. Not any more. This prayer tells us to make sure that all eyes are fixed on Him. We are the ‘drink offering’ – poured out on Him yet keeping all eyes fixed on Him. We are part of the aroma of Christ, identifiable, but not identified. We are not the focus of anyone’s attention – not even our own. The sacrifice must always be what people are centered on. As the drink offering, we are poured upon and burned into the sacrifice – the precious Lamb of God, and we are burned into Him.
As John the Baptist said, “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30). If we are to have any advance in our spiritual walk, we must be minimized without regret or even the tiniest bit of self-congratulatory feelings, as if even our self-sacrifice will somehow bring us praise. We are in a very mature place if we can honestly pray “on earth as it is in heaven.” Christ and Christ alone must be magnified. When we magnify something, we don’t make it bigger, we see it bigger. We can never make God bigger than He is, but we can certainly see Him bigger.
The Land of the Living
The wonderful thing is that this is to be done on earth. The expectation of Christ in this prayer is that His kingdom will advance here, that victory will be won on earth, that He will prevail in this present age. David says in Psalm 27:13, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” This is a present-tense prayer, with victorious expectations for today. What God accomplishes in heaven, is to be accomplished on earth – in the same way! This is more than just a hope for heaven – this is battering the gates of hell on earth.
One of the verses that changed my life was Titus 2:12 “(The grace of God) teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” It hit me like a ton of bricks - this is about victory here on earth – right now. The same grace that saved me will be the grace that fills me with power today. The things that hold me can and will come down. Not by my effort, but by that powerful grace that brought me salvation.
Herods Die
There are strongholds that must come down, Herods who are trying to destroy your Christian testimony and the power of the church. But remember this: Herods die. They fight, but they have limited power and a limited shelf-life. The sorcerers of Pharaoh mimicked the plagues of Moses – to an extent. They did not have the staying power to keep up with God. His kingdom can and must advance . . . on earth.
This Time = His Kingdom
In Acts 1, just before Christ ascended, His disciples asked Him if at “this time” He was going to establish the kingdom on earth. They had been up/down so many times to this point that it’s totally understandable, their desire for the earthly kingdom to be finally set up. But the response of Christ speaks volumes. He doesn’t either rebuke them or correct them - He simply sets them straight.
He does this by redirecting their thoughts. “This time,” He said, is still about His Kingdom. It was an odd situation: they couldn’t take their eyes off of the skies when He went up, but they were still caught in their little earthly kingdoms. They had earthly thoughts and heavenly eyes, when they needed heavenly thoughts and earthly eyes.
The disciples were stuck in their own personal agendas, advancing their own earthly kingdoms. They were still waiting on Jesus to lead an earthly revolution. And when He went up, their eyes stayed up where He went. When they were being told to look up they looked down. When they were told to look down they looked up!
They were told to wait for the power to advance His kingdom on earth. To be His witness in
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