By Xiaocao
The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10). Nearly every believer in the Lord can recite this passage of the Lord’s Prayer, but most of the time we just recite it to conclude our worship services or to give thanks before meals while we all neglect to contemplate and understand the true meaning within it. As we get accustomed to this kind of practice, reciting the Lord’s Prayer has become a conventional religious ritual. So how should we interpret the Lord’s Prayer in a way that is in accordance with the Lord’s will?
Usually, when we talk about entering into the kingdom of heaven, we believe that God’s kingdom is certainly in heaven and that the Lord will rapture us up into heaven to meet Him when He returns. But in the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth and that God’s will be done on earth, which is telling us that God’s kingdom will ultimately be realized on the earth, not in heaven. The Book of Revelation also prophesies, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:2–3). These verses say that the kingdom of God shall come down out of heaven, that the tabernacle of God is with men, and that God’s kingdom will be established on earth. We, however, are always looking forward to being raised up into heaven by the Lord and meeting Him in the air when He returns in the last days—this is totally impractical. The air is simply not a place for us humans to stay. Our notions and imaginings really are against the Lord’s words! Recently I read a passage in a book of truth, which says: “When God and man enter into rest together, it will mean that humanity has been saved and that Satan has been destroyed, that God’s work among man has finished entirely. God will no longer continue to work among man, and man will no longer live under Satan’s domain. Therefore, God will no longer be busy, and man will no longer rush about; God and man will enter into rest simultaneously. God will return to His original position, and each person will return to his or her respective place. These are the destinations that God and man will respectively reside in after the end of God’s entire management. God has God’s destination, and man has man’s destination. While resting, God will continue to guide all of humanity in their lives upon earth. While in God’s light, man will worship the one true God in heaven. … When humanity enters into rest, it means that man has become a true creation; humanity will worship God from upon the earth and have normal human lives. People will no longer be disobedient to God or resist God; they will return to the original life of Adam and Eve. These are the respective lives and destinations of God and humanity after they enter into rest” (“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together”). These words tell us that God will come to work and save mankind in the last days. After all the evil forces of Satan are wiped out and mankind’s thousands of years of painful life since being corrupted by Satan is put to an end, those who accepted God’s work and are saved by God will survive the great disasters of the last days and be brought by God into His kingdom, while those wicked individuals who once persecuted God upon earth and the enemies who were disobedient to Him will have been destroyed by the great disasters. People who attain God’s full salvation will receive His blessings and enter into rest in the kingdom of God, and they will continue to believe in God and worship God from upon the earth under God’s guidance and will return to a peaceful and happy life as that in the Garden of Eden. So it can be seen that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will establish His kingdom on earth—this completely fulfills these words “Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
The Lord also tells us that we should first pray for God’s kingdom and righteousness in our belief in God. Therefore, we must pursue the truth and live by God’s words, be able to practice God’s words and believe in God strictly according to His requirements. No matter what trials or refinement may befall us, be they natural or man-made disasters, persecutions, tribulations, suffering or illnesses, we should be able to seek God’s will, not make complaints or betray God, and accept and obey His sovereignty and arrangements unconditionally. Only thus can we be called someone who obeys God and does God’s will, be saved by God and enter into the kingdom of heaven. Just as God said, “Not every one that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21), “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). And the book of truth I read also says, “You must know what kind of people I desire; those who are impure are not permitted to enter into the kingdom, those who are impure are not permitted to besmirch the holy ground. Though you may have done much work, and have worked for many years, in the end if you are still deplorably filthy—it is intolerable to the law of Heaven that you wish to enter My kingdom! From the foundation of the world until today, never have I offered easy access to My kingdom to those who curry favor with Me. This is a heavenly rule, and no one can break it!” (“Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks”). Although our sins have been absolved when we believe in the Lord, it is undeniable that we are still bound by our sinful nature and living in a cycle of sinning and confessing, unable to extricate ourselves. We often tell lies and offend the Lord, and reveal our satanic corrupt dispositions, such as being arrogant and conceited, crooked and deceitful, selfish and contemptible and so on. This proves that the sinful nature within us hasn’t been resolved and that our corrupt dispositions haven’t been cleansed. God’s kingdom is holy and absolutely no one who frequently commits sins is permitted to enter into it. Therefore, we are still not qualified to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Only if we accept God’s salvation of the last days, have our corruption cleansed, are able to practice God’s words and do God’s will, and walk on the path of fearing God and shunning evil, can we be saved by God and enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now we are at the end of the last days and the prophecies of the Lord’s return in the Bible have basically been fulfilled. When the Lord comes in the last days, He will fulfill the prophecy in the Lord’s Prayer, so the most important thing now is how we should welcome the coming of God’s kingdom and greet the Lord’s return. The Lord Jesus said, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6), “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20), “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7), and “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). From these verses we can see that the Lord will speak again when He returns in the last days, that He will use His words to knock at our door, and that the wise virgins are able to welcome Him through listening to God’s voice. So at this crucial time of welcoming the Lord’s return in the last days, as long as we hear someone testifying that “The bridegroom comes” and that He has expressed the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, this is probably the Lord appearing to us and knocking at our door and we should actively seek and investigate it. If we recognize those words as the truth and God’s voice, we should accept and follow Him immediately. This is the only way we can welcome the Lord’s return.
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