For years now this is just about my only prayer, The Lord's Prayer, and I just don't envision ever needing any other. This astonishes me, but that is how I experience the prayer. I don't prefer it this way, it is just how it is. Having said that, I only in these last 5 years have begun to understand the prayer. Before the understanding I am trying to share here, at best it was a series of meaningless words (mumbo jumbo); and at worst it served to lead me very much astray.
THE BOTTOM LINE - this phrase above is the bottom line. Obviously in Heaven we are Perfect - Spirit! Therefore, how is His will done in Heaven? WITHOUT any, ANY of the pull of the Flesh/Lust. ZERO. Well, Jesus with this prayer calls us to follow Him in displacing everything within ourselves now, today, all the time that does NOT consist of Our Father's Spirit/Will. Based on my practice at discipleship so far I can only describe this as eminently feasible. To the 100% level? Who cares. 98% level? Certainly. Not interested? Not Christian. This is the whole thing.
How was Jesus perfect? Only in this regard, and that is everything. Jesus discerned what WAS and WAS NOT Our Father's will; he displaced what was not, and empowered and encouraged that which was.
WHY? What is the benefit? Well, for Jesus and for us what He promised is what I find - more Joy, Life, Love, Peace and Persecution than one could ever hope for - Heaven, a Heaven of personal experience - EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY - no matter what Persecution may be suffered. For me so far it hasn't yet been that tough - just homelessness, subzero temperatures, incarceration, disrespect, the discomforts of sleeping upright every night, extreme isolation.... But still, as mild as these Persecutions are they suggest that Jesus was absolutely correct - We can be in Heaven with our Father IN THIS LIFE REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES. IT IS OUR CHOICE.
ALSO, from the perspective of a lifetime (35 years) as an adult trying to improve the world using every material means imaginable, what is called for in the above phrase IS THE ONLY HOPE OF BRINGING A MATERIAL HEAVEN TO EARTH. Of course it can be done. And Heaven ON EARTH MATERIALLY WILL HAPPEN exactly in proportion to how many of us, how much of the time are purely hosts of His will. Currently Greed/mammon, NOT His Will reigns. We see the results (among the mountains of evidence in the 3rd world: Mining for Bling in the Congo; Congo's Tin Soldiers; Life & Debt, etc, etc, etc. Among the mountains of evidence around you - how much Joy is in your life and that of those around you? Of the seconds in your day how many are Heavenly/Good? How about for your biological children present or future?) Until this is reversed we may move Hell around a bit, but Heaven will be no closer. NOT ONE INCH CLOSER.
LET'S GET ON WITH IT: For ourselves, for our immediate family, for our children, for our neighbors, for the plant, for the future, for God's sake!
