“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)
Heaven and earth. We think of heaven being “up there” in contrast to earth being “down here.” That was the perception through the ages – until Jesus came. He flipped heaven and earth back to their intended positions. He taught us that the secret about heaven and earth is the opposite of what man perceived it was. When Jesus said, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he placed heaven and earth in union with one another by showing us that everything was to be on earth as it first is in heaven. In the beginning we are told that God created the heavens and, then the earth. Heaven was first. Heaven is always first. Everything proceeds from heaven to earth, not earth to heaven.
Yet many of us live the opposite way. Think about it. We are always seeking to ascend, to become more holy, more spiritual, more godly, more pure, more righteous. Think back to the new year resolutions you made for 2022. My guess is that many of them are about becoming more. About seeking to rise and accomplish something higher.
So, you say, what’s the problem with that? The problem is that we have the idea that we need to raise ourselves up in order to become higher in some way. Jesus flipped that and taught us how to start by bringing heaven down to us. The only way we can become holy is to live from the Holy One. The only way we can become pure is to live from the Pure One. The only way we can become good is to live from the Good One. The only way we can become loving is to live from the One who is all love. We don’t attain heaven. We allow heaven to attain us.
God wants us to live from heaven-to-earth, where everything we do originates from heaven and proceeds to earth. He wants us to learn how to allow his Spirit to fill us with everything we need, simply because what he wants to fill us with is that which comes from heaven. Jesus Christ did a great flip in the way we should live our lives. He flipped heaven and earth back to where they belong.
Darlene