Jesus said this in his prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This phrase comes along so early in the Lord’s Prayer that we have to assume it is of high priority to the Lord. The kingdom comes when the will of the Father is done on earth as it has been fashioned in heaven. We can deduce from the Lord’s Prayer that Christians should probably pay more attention to seeking out and understanding the will of God on the earth and getting into alignment with that. The Lord’s Prayer does not emphasize an escape to heaven.
With some research, a studious person realizes that the phrase “kingdom of heaven” is not the same thing as “heaven”. The kingdom of heaven in modern language is best communicated as God’s system operating on the earth. A kind of socio-economic framework that is fair to all concerned and empowers everyone to do their best work that glorifies God. There might be some debate about what Jesus meant when he began to preach: “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, but we know for a fact that it is wrong to dumb it down to “stop sinning! Get ready to die and go to heaven”.
It is very clear that God has designs for the world. We cannot afford to lead a life that is detached from the present reality and escape in our imagination by fantasizing about heaven. We are supposed to pray, understand and take actions to align the world around us with thoughts, ideas and frameworks that originate from heaven. You should take responsibility for your world and watch over it as a watchman. The prayer “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” implies that the earth is not perfect, but in any given situation, God’s purpose and solution can be worked out.
Bottom-line: there is a will of God that needs to be done on earth. Who is best positioned to execute the will of God?
