Dear Discipleship-first Friends,
I’m going to be honest. I am hit – way more than I care to admit – with the realization that my agenda is my agenda and not God’s. I might have just preached a sermon about God’s will that Sunday, but my life is more about my will. Yes, I desire for God to be glorified, but too much of my heart is devoted to getting glory for myself.
What do you do when you’re convicted like that?
I try to stop and pray. I ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart and help me to honestly examine my life. I ask myself certain questions, and I want to encourage you to take a moment to prayerfully ask these questions of yourself:
- What do you really long for?
- Is God’s dream your dream?
- Does your heart match the heart of God?
- Are you prioritizing and pursuing the things Jesus gave his life for?
- Are the things you’re living for worth Jesus dying for?
- What do you tend to pray about the most?
- What do you long to see happen in and through your life?
Your Real King
In my last post (https://discipleship.org/blog/god-will-period/), I wrote about the line in the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus encourages us to pray, “…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I explained that we need to understand what we’re praying for when we pray those words, because it is a beautiful, dangerous, life-altering prayer. When you pray that prayer, you’re asking God to make his dream your dream, asking for God’s Kingdom to descend from heaven and take up residence on earth and asking God to do that through you.
If – as I have – you realize God’s dreams are not your dreams and you are not primarily praying for God’s kingdom, you have to ask yourself: Who is really your king? Who is truly on the throne of your heart? If you are focused on what you want and your will and your dreams instead of what God wants and His will and His dreams, is God truly your God? Is Jesus really King?
Why don’t we pray for what Jesus asked us to pray for?
I think if we’re honest, we might admit it’s because we don’t really long for God’s Kingdom. We want what we want. We want to be the king of our own kingdom. We want to be the boss of our lives. That’s why we focus on what we want to focus on – because it’s my life and I’m in charge of it.
And God?
Well, he doesn’t get to be on the throne of my life, but… I’m happy for him to be in the passenger seat. He can come along on my journey. After all, I might need his help along the way. He might even be able to help me reach my dreams.
I’ve seen this in my life, and I hate it. God is not king. At times I’ve made him more like my busboy, or janitor, or genie-in-a-bottle, or maybe an admired life coach. We want Jesus as our Savior, but we won’t make him our Lord.
But…
But what if you decided, today, right now, to make Jesus your Lord, your King?
If you did that, his voice would be the one your ear is attentive to. He would be the one who sets the course for your life. You would do what he did and whatever he says to do. You would pray his prayers.
When I was young, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, because my dream was to be successful and have money and power. Over time, God used several people and circumstances to change my dream.
When I was thirteen, I was asked if I would preach one Sunday for our youth service. I happily agreed, but had no idea why they would pick me. The sermon was awful — possibly the worst sermon ever preached. I was supposed to preach for twenty minutes but was done in five and gave everything I knew how to give. I knew it was a disaster, but God used that night to change my heart. When I stepped off the stage, no matter how bad it was, I knew that there was nothing else that I wanted to do with my life other than to preach. God was beginning to change my dream.
I was given more opportunities to speak, and the idea of sharing God’s message increasingly captured my heart. In fact, I recently found an obituary I created for myself for an assignment during my sophomore year of high school. I wrote, Josh traveled the world and preached the gospel and led hundreds of thousands of people to Christ. Ok, I’ll admit… it was slightly arrogant, but God was doing something in my heart.
Then the summer before my senior year of high school, I went to a church camp. There was a pastor in his early twenties who was leading a church about an hour from where I lived. He invited me to move to his town for an internship, to help him start and preach at a college-age service on Sunday nights. I didn’t understand. “You mean… you want me to move away from home for my senior year of high school? Like not live at home? Not finish at my school?” He nodded, “Yeah.” It was a scary moment, but God used that young preacher to speak a new dream inside of my heart. After praying about it and talking to my family, I said yes. I was seventeen when I moved to live by myself in a little apartment and help reach high school and college-age students. God’s dream was becoming my dream.
As I admitted, I haven’t always lived that way, but I am so grateful for the people who nudged me in the right direction, and I’m praying that God gives you people who will help you make his dream your dream as well.
What Would It Look Like?
Jesus said to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
What would that look like? If Jesus were our King and we were asking God to help us do His will and bring His Kingdom to earth, what might we see?
I think we’d see what we see in the life of Jesus in the gospels.
Wherever Jesus went, people were loved, sins were forgiven, the sick were touched, hearts were healed, and dead things came back to life.
Wherever Jesus went, the rejected were accepted and the outcasts were invited in. The ignored were noticed. Those living in a prison of shame were set free.
Wherever Jesus went, the good news of God’s grace was proclaimed, and people experienced the greatest healing force in the universe, the unconditional love of God.
Wherever Jesus went, darkness was pushed back, and the light of God shone bright giving people hope.
Wherever Jesus went, places that looked a lot like hell were transformed by the touch of heaven.
That’s what we’re praying when we pray this prayer. That we would live like Jesus lived and love like Jesus loved. That God would use us to do His will and bring His Kingdom wherever we go… that Jesus would truly be King.
Hell Will Not Prevail
One time Jesus asked Peter what people were saying about him (see Matthew 16). It was a little like Family Feud. 100 people were surveyed. Top answers are on the board. Peter, who do people say I am? Peter responds, “Weellll, you know, some people think John the Baptist annnnd others that you’re Elijah or one of the prophets returned. Let’s see, what else…” Then Jesus looks Peter in the eye, “‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say that I am?’” (Matthew 16:15)
I love that. Not who does your mom think I am, or your cousin who’s super spiritual, or your boss or pastor. Who do you say I am? I’m convinced Jesus is still looking deep into each of us and asking that same question.
Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
In other words, Peter affirms that Jesus is Lord, the King who God sent to bring His Kingdom.
Jesus tells Peter he’s given the correct answer then says, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
I’ve heard sermons on that verse where the pastor preaches, “This means Satan won’t be victorious in your life. He will attack, but he’s not going to win. He won’t have victory over the church.”
Although that’s a great sermon, that’s not what Jesus was saying. He said, “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Gates are not an offensive weapon. You have never seen a movie with a bunch of warriors running at their enemy carrying gates.
Gates are used for defense.
Jesus is saying that when we start being bringers of God’s kingdom, we will bust through the gates of hell. It’s not that “Satan won’t have victory over you,” it’s that you will have victory over him. You will bring light into the darkness, invade hate with love, overwhelm fear with faith, and Satan and his measly gates don’t stand a chance.
That’s what God is calling us to be and to do.
If you listen for the voice from above, you’ll hear it.
That’s how God responds to this, “your kingdom come, your will be done” prayer. He turns you into someone who invades hell with heaven, who shares the gospel and shifts people’s future residence from hell to heaven. That’s what it means to come under King Jesus.
Use Me
When we pray this prayer, we’re not just asking God to do something, we’re being bold enough to say, as Isaiah did,
Here I am God, use me.
I want to be the answer to this prayer.
I give my life to you, God, because you are my King.
I want what you want God, and because I’ve listened to your voice, I know it’s for me to do your will and bring your kingdom wherever I go.
There are so many problems around me Lord. Make me the answer.
There are hurting people, abuse, poverty, loneliness. Make me the answer.
There are so many people who need Jesus. Make me the answer.
Jesus, you prayed for workers to go out into the harvest field. Make me the answer.
When we pray that prayer, we are making God our King and declaring that we want His kingdom, not ours. We are giving Him full control over our lives.
To pray this prayer, we’re going to have to set aside the petty things we focus our lives on and worry about. The importance of so many things will fade: how much money is in my bank account, who’s saying what on Facebook, when will I be able to retire, where are we going on vacation next year, who’s going to win that election, when can I get that new iPhone?
Instead, we’ll become obsessed with God’s kingdom plan and how He wants to use me in it, with God’s lost kids and how we can share Jesus with them, with where I can bring light to darkness, with eternity.
We will live for God’s dream and listen for His voice as He shares it. Our influence will increase as we overflow with his love. Our lives will become bigger and will matter for eternity.
So, let’s do it. Let’s pray it. Let’s live it.
Your Kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
For King Jesus,