The Answer to the Lord’s Prayer

David W Palmer

God wants us to have a lifestyle that invests its highest priority into seeking his kingdom (words) and his righteousness (light, seeing, view—ensuring our proposed actions and words are in line with his will). He wants us focused on heaven, his word, and his revelation. Remember, Jesus said this is the “one thing” that is “needed.” God’s plan for us is to be continual harvesters of his word-seed, and reproducers of his [genetic] seed. His plan is that we become the spiritual womb where his logos word comes to life and takes on flesh:

(1 Peter 1:23 NKJV) Having been born again, not of corruptible seed (“spora,” parentage seed) but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. (Parenthesis mine.)

This lifestyle of focus on the written word and overflowing his living word is exactly what God wants from us. Why?—Because this is the mechanism through which his kingdom comes to earth. How, after all, do kings reign? They speak their words; loyal subjects enact them. Jesus said that his reign happens when those who are “of the truth” hear and respond to his voice in their hearts: “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37 APE). Wherever this happens, it defines the domain over which the king reigns. If God’s words are faithfully expressed and enacted on earth, this means that God is king here. This is the answer to Jesus’s famous prayer:

(Matthew 6:9–10 MKJV) “Therefore pray in this way: Our Father, who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Can I suggest that we devote our lives to this as a priority? Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Mat. 6:33 DKJV). He implies that we should prioritize our role in bringing God’s rule to bear through his word. He also said that Mary had chosen what was wise—she sat at his feet listening to his words; and Jesus added that it would not be taken away from her (Luke 10:39–42). From this, we see that Jesus agrees that hearing his word in our hearts is our top priority.

The Right Attitude

However, I must add that the way we hear is also crucially important. We are not merely to hear it to tickle our ears, find evidence to support our own ideas, or to win an argument. We should listen to discover what to believe, and what to obey (by faith). The following passage emphasizes this—with the implication that we listen with the intent to do:

(Proverbs 4:20–22 MKJV) “My son, listen to my words; bow down your ear to my sayings. (21) Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart. (22) For they are life to those who find them, and health to all his flesh.”

Note the phrase: “bow down.” From this, we infer that God wants us listening with an attitude of submission and surrender to his greater wisdom and thinking. Remember, his thoughts are not our thoughts. We will always have to yield humbly to his way, as it is not ours; it won’t be “natural” to our “natural man” (1 Cor. 2:14), and it will always involve some self-denial (Luke 9:23). True worship, therefore, is a lifestyle of continual surrender to his will and his way—his word.

The Key to Abundant Overflow

Having established that we need to flood our hearts with his word—believing it, renewing our minds with it, and intending to obey it—we need to begin consuming it, ravenously. To emphasize how many ways we can do this, I have developed a slogan:

“Eat the Word,

Drink the Word,

Sleep the Word (listen to audio bible at night),

Think the Word,

Say the Word,

Learn the Word,

Study the Word,

Practice the Word,

Quote the Word,

Meditate the Word,

Digest the Word,

Memorize the Word,

Imagine the Word, and

Do the Word;

You can sing it, shout it, say it, or pray it.

The word of God is God: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God” (John 1:1 KJV).

To help you engage fully in God’s kingdom, I encourage you to use the principles that Jesus expounded in a positive way:

That with which we overflow our heart will come out of our mouths—without a doubt.

What we say, believing—will happen.

Seeing that this is the absolute truth, and that it is the way things work in this life, let’s engage both these laws positively. Let’s simply put so much of God’s word into our hearts that it overflows. Of course, we need to fill it exclusively with the word; not a mix of God’s word and the world’s word, or else what comes back out won’t be pure.

Furthermore, we need to do this as true worshippers—those who want God’s will and his kingdom to rule our lives and our planet. Additionally, we need to love him, his ways, and want to yield to him forever. If we do, and if we then continuously pour his word, his vision, his values, and his love into our hearts, then this is the easy way to have it continually coming out of our mouths in overflowing faith. This is the Living Word of God—the word that the Holy Spirit will enact in our lives. We will then walk in the blessing. Praise the Lord!

Jesus’s prayer is for God’s kingdom to come on earth—for his will to be done here as it is in heaven. When fully answered, this will be the most amazing time of peace, joy, blessing, and love possible. This will truly be a fulfilment of:

(Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

(2 Corinthians 6:16, 18 NKJV) … For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people. ... (18) I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”

Today, let’s continue to believe for Jesus’s prayer to be fully answered: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” (Mat. 6:10 MKJV). And let’s yield ourselves fully to being used by him for this purpose. Having been born again by his word seed, let’s continue to sit at his feet, take in his living word, and grow it in our hearts to a harvest of obedience, miracles, faith, life, light, wisdom, and character reproduction. This will be our part in God working through us to answer the all-important “Lord’s prayer.”