Your Will be Done

Your Will be Done 
Heard on High
Terry R. Baughman

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 NKJV). 

Essentially, prayer must be offered in the authority of the name of Jesus. Whenever we ask in His name we are assured that He hears us and we have confidence that He will respond to our petitions. When He answers we know that His will is being done in earth as it is already being accomplished in heaven. The Lord’s example models to us the effectiveness of prayer according to His will; that His purposes in earth will mirror the performance of His plan in the heavens. As John revealed, “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14).

Knowing God and the intent of His purpose allows us to have an insightful understanding of powerful prayer. When we know Him, we know His will. When we pray according to His will, there is a promise of a positive response to our requests. 

How can we know God? How can we know His will and the divine intent of our prayers? We often think it is impossible to know God to that extent where we may have intimate knowledge of His plans and purpose. However, Paul expressed this was exactly God’s desire for the church. He said, “God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him” (Ephesians 3:9–12).

God’s desire is that we might have an intimate understanding of His thoughts and His ways. It is His desire that we may pray effectively and in unity with His purposes. When we pray earnestly and effectively, that being in His Will, we will find our prayers to be powerful. 

James spoke of Elijah’s prayer that stopped the rains in Israel for three and a half years. Yet, when Elijah prayed again, in conjunction with God’s plan, the rains returned and God was magnified in the nation. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:16–18). The key for Elijah’s day and for ours is that we might understand our times, observe what God is doing, and know His Word through a study of Scripture. We may then pray according to God’s Will and in unity with His purpose. 

It was said of the Sons of Issachar that they, “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). May God grant us that wisdom in these latter days to know what is the will of God and the mind of the Spirit. Let us pray according to Christ’s pattern, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Praying in faith, His will be done!
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Theme passage:
“We know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:15).

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