Call To Battle

Call to Battle

Your will be done. Matthew 6:10

MOST PEOPLE READ THIS VERSE with an implied addition to the end: “as opposed to mine.” It’s true that even when we strongly believe God has planted his desires within us, given specific promises about them, and told us to pray them in faith, we should still submit to his higher purposes and assume his right to redirect us. Everything we pray comes under the umbrella of his will above all other wills. But the juxtaposition of wills is not only between God’s best for us and our independent impulses. It’s between God’s purposes and every other rival. We are praying for his will to be done over and above all else.

That means we think more comprehensively when we pray this prayer. “Your will be done (as opposed to the world’s, the enemy’s, the agendas of powers and rulers, the systems and processes that function against your ways, the decisions of fickle people),” and on and on we can go. We are not merely praying for God to have his own way in our lives. We are praying for his agenda to be accomplished in this world, for his purposes to be exalted above all human designs and maneuverings, for his heavenly hosts and earthly children to advance his Kingdom and purposes here and now and forever. We are honoring his ultimate desires and plans.

That turns this prayer from a submissive retreat to a rousing battle cry. It claims territory for his Kingdom in our families, churches, communities, workplaces, industries, governments, public discourses, school systems, social structures, cities, nations, regions, and our own lives. All of these areas become arenas in which this prayer can be prayed, believed, and applied. When we pray for God’s will to be done, we are praying for all other wills to align with it or fall away forever. When we pray for his Kingdom to come, we are praying for rival kingdoms to go. And we pray in complete confidence that he hears and answers.

Satan dreads nothing but prayer.