THE WILL OF GOD
Message Three
Praying for God's Will to Be Done on Earth
Scripture Reading: Matt. 6:10; Luke 11:1; 1 John 5:14-15; John 15:4-5, 7
I. Although God has a will for everything, He does not act independently; rather, He wants the human will on earth to echo His will before He does anything—Matt. 6:10; 1 John 5:14-15:
A. In the universe there are three wills: the divine will, the satanic will, and the human will; God wants man's will to be joined to Him and be one with Him so that man may express and echo His will back to Him in prayer for the good pleasure of His will—Eph. 1:5, 11; Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 6:10; 7:21; 26:39; Phil. 2:13.
B. God will not act independently, and He will not accomplish His will alone; instead, He will accomplish His will only when His people agree with Him and are one with Him—Col. 1:9; 4:12:
1. If there is only a will in heaven, God will not move; the will in heaven is accomplished on earth only when we, His people, want the will in heaven to be done on earth—Matt. 6:10.
2. Because God acts according to laws established by Him, He will not annul man's will on earth by His own will; He will not usurp man's will and act independently— Josh. 24:15, 22.
3. Everything related to God's move and work on earth can be accomplished only when there is a will on earth that cooperates with Him— John 7:17.
4. God cannot do what He wants by Himself; He does it only with the cooperation of the church; He accomplishes His will through the church.
5. Whenever God's people place their will in harmony with God's will, the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven—Matt. 6:10.
II. God's intention is to accomplish His will through the believers' prayer in union with Him—v. 10; John 15:7:
A. God's people must pray before God will move on earth to accomplish His will.
B. The prayer that is most pleasing to God is the prayer that asks for the accomplishment of His will—1 John 5:14.
C. God wants us to work with Him to accomplish His will; the way to work together with Him is to pray—Luke 11:1; 18:1; 1 Thes. 5:17:
1. The purpose of prayer is that we be one with God's will so that God can work on earth to fulfill His purpose—Rom. 8:26-29.
2. If we do not work together with God in prayer for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, He cannot move on earth to accomplish His will—Matt. 6:10.
3. If we are one with the Lord, we want what God wants, and our will becomes one with God's will— John 15:7.
4. The prayer for the accomplishment of God's will is not asking God to accomplish what we want Him to do but asking God what He Himself wants to do; such prayer is the outlet of God's will on earth—1 John 5:14-16.
D. Prayer for God's will to be done on earth consists of four steps—Matt. 6:10:
1. God intends to do something according to His will—Eph. 1:5, 11.
2. He reveals His will to us through the Spirit for us to know His will.
3. We return and echo His will back to Him through prayer—1 John 5:14.
4. God accomplishes His work according to His will—v. 15.
E. God needs us to exercise our spirit with our resurrected will to pray according to His divine will for Christ to be manifested and enjoyed by us, for the Body life to be practiced by us, and for the Body of Christ to be built up through us—Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 1:4-6, 9, 11, 22b-23; 3:16-19; 4:16:
1. A genuine man of prayer is one whose desires are fully blended into God's desires and whose thoughts are fully one with God's thoughts; he is a man in whom God's desires are imprinted, a man of revelation whose heart is a duplication of God's heart—1 Sam. 2:35; 3:21; 12:23.
2. When we come to the Lord in prayer, we need to allow the Spirit to mingle our desires with His desires, lead our thoughts into His thoughts, and imprint His desires and thoughts into us; then the prayers that we utter to God with His inward desires will be precious, weighty, and valuable to Him and will cause Satan to suffer loss—Rom. 8:26-27; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2, 12; Mark 9:28-29; Eph. 6:10-20.
III. Effective prayers for God's will to be done on earth are the expression of God's desire and intention and are the issue of our abiding in the Lord and of His words abiding in us— John 15:4-5, 7:
A. Prayer is God's heart's desire passing through us and returning to God:
1. The desire in our prayers does not originate with us; it originates with God and is an expression of what God desires—Eph. 1:5, 11.
2. God's desire and intention are anointed into us through the Spirit and thus become our desire and intention, which we express to God in prayer—1 John 2:20, 27; 5:14-15.
3. Our prayer, therefore, is God's desire and intention coming out from God, passing through us, and going back to Him—vv. 14-15.
B. All prevailing prayers—prayers that can be counted effective before God—are the result of our abiding in the Lord and allowing His words to abide in us— John 15:4-5, 7:
1. When we abide in the Lord and His words abide in us, we touch God's feeling and understand His desire—v. 7.
2. After we touch God's feeling and understand His intention, we will spontaneously have His desire that comes out of His words in us—v. 7.
3. His desire will become our desire, what He wants will be what we want, and then we will pray according to this desire.
4. The Lord will answer this kind of prayer, and thus the will of God "will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth"—Matt. 6:10.