Our Father who art in heaven.

Matthew 6.9-10.

In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, it begins with Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς/Páter émon o en tois úranua, “our Father who’s [located] in the heavens,” Mt 6.9 ’cause we’re addressing—duh—our heavenly Father.

Matthew 6.9 KWL

“So pray like this:

Our Father who’s in the heavens!

Sanctify your name.”

Some Christians wanna make it particularly clear which god we’re praying to. Partly because some of ’em actually think they might accidentally invoke the wrong god (and y’know, if they’re Mammonists or some other type of idolater, they might). Sometimes because they’re showing off to pagans that they worship the Father of Jesus, or some other form of playacting. But Jesus would have us keep it simple: Just address our heavenly Father. There’s no special formula for addressing him; no secret password we’ve gotta say; even “in Jesus’s name” isn’t a magic spell—and you notice “in Jesus’s name” isn’t in the Lord’s Prayer either. You know who he is; he knows who he is; he knows what our relationship consists of; that’s fine.

As I said in the Lord’s Prayer article, Jesus isn’t the first to teach people God is our Father. Many a Pharisee prayer, and many Jewish prayers nowadays, address God as אָבִינוּ/avínu, “our Father”—like Avínu Malkéinu (“our Father, our king”), recited during fasts and the high holidays. If we have a relationship with him, and we should through Jesus, we should have no hesitation to approach him boldly. He 4.16 He loves us; he wants to be gracious to us; let’s feel free to talk with him about anything and everything.

God’s will in heaven and earth.

Jesus next instructs us to pray,

Matthew 6.10 KWL

“Make your kingdom come.

Make your will happen both in heaven and on earth.”

The Book of Common Prayer has “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The KJV has “thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.” Christians tend to interpret this to mean, “As in heaven, so on earth.” We presume heaven already follows God’s will, and we’re praying earth do likewise. (That is, unless we’re determinists who imagine earth already obeys God’s sovereign will.)

Thing is, we’re reading an awful lot into that word ὡς/os, which we translate “as.” We never bother to ask the fairly obvious, hidden-in-plain-sight question: Does God get his way in heaven?

“Of course he does,” is the knee-jerk reaction. If God gets his way anywhere, certainly it’s in heaven. Because God’s the absolute ruler of heaven. Either it’s where his throne is, Ps 11.4, Rv 4.2 or heaven itself is his throne, Is 66.1, Mt 5.34 with all the armies of heaven ready to carry out God’s commands. 1Ki 22.19 We imagine God’s kingdom already exists there. The issue for us Christians is bringing this kingdom to earth. That’s why we pray, “As in heaven, so on earth.”

Thing is, if heaven’s where God absolutely, sovereignly always gets his way… um, why’d a war break out there?

Revelation 12.7-9 NLT

7Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. 8And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. 9This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.

We imagine God always gets his way in heaven, but at some point in heavenly history he clearly didn’t. Satan defied him. Just as Adam and Eve disobeyed him on earth, Satan challenged God’s will in heaven. Just as Adam and Eve had to be banned from Eden, Michael had to chuck the devil, and a whole lot of its confederate angels, out of heaven.

Y’see, God is love 1Jn 4.8 and wants to love his creation, and wants his creation to love him back. If beings aren’t granted free will, they can say they love—I can program my phone to say “I love you” on a timer—but involuntary behavior isn’t love. To get actual love, God had to take the massive risk of imbuing his creatures with free will. And not just his creatures on earth; he granted free will to his creatures in heaven.

The fact Satan fell, indicates it’s not just earth which has a sin problem. So does heaven. And heaven needs to be fixed just as much as earth. It’s why God is creating New Heaven. Hopefully you’ve read Revelation’s happy ending:

Revelation 21.1-4 NLT

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Have you ever noticed the scriptures’ various statements about New Heaven? How, at the End, God’s gonna wipe away the existing heavens, and make them new too? Is 65.17, 2Pe 3.13 Now, if heaven’s already perfect, why would God do any such thing? He certainly wouldn’t need to. Destruction for its own sake? That’s entirely unlike God.

Used to strike me as weird too. That is, till I realized heaven’s not perfect. That’s why Jesus has his followers pray, “Make your will happen both in heaven and on earth.” Both places need fixing—and to be made one, so God can live in New Jerusalem with his people forever.

Jesus hasn’t gone to heaven where things are shiny and perfect, and is just waiting for just the right time to roll ’em out to us. He went there to prepare a place for us. Jn 14.2-3 It wasn’t already there. It needed building. Arguably he’s still building it. Popular culture imagines him taking us to it when we die; Revelation describes him bringing New Jerusalem to New Earth, to us. Either way.

So when we’re praying for God’s will to be done in heaven and on earth, we’re praying for God’s kingdom in this world… and we’re praying for God’s kingdom in New Heaven. We’re praying for the present and the future. We’re praying the kingdom at the End is as perfect, as full, as God wants it to be. Since he wants to save everybody, 1Ti 2.4 we’re praying as many as possible get in!

Yep, our prayers affect the construction of New Heaven. Because these prayers change our attitudes. Change how we’re gonna think about God’s kingdom. Change how we’re gonna contribute to his kingdom. Make it not just his kingdom, but our kingdom.

If we want New Jerusalem filled, we’re gonna participate in its filling. We’re gonna invite more people into the kingdom. We’re gonna share Jesus with more people. We’re gonna include more people in our kingdom activities. We’re gonna make more disciples for Jesus. We’re gonna strive to actually do God’s will. New Heaven begins with what we’re doing here on earth.

We mustn’t just passively pray, “Thy will be done.” We gotta do God’s will, and go get New Heaven some future inhabitants.

So keep praying this.