Much of the marvel behind just how thoughtful God is about all that He does and says is often hidden, right there, in plain sight. An illustration of this can be seen in the LORD's Prayer. Have we ever stopped and wondered why the first three "opening statements" of the LORD's Prayer are actually what they are? Or why they are specifically in that "particular sequence"? If the thoughtfulness of our Father has taught me anything, it is that every last detail of all that is creation, and all that is both His written Word and the expression of His Spirit and life, is not only deliberately intentional, but exquisitely "interlocked". Nothing escapes His beautiful thoughtfulness. And when it comes to the end game of every thoughtful intention of His will, and to all of the possible scenarios and permutations associated with His will being done "on earth as it is in heaven", God is like the greatest Grand Master of chess that ever existed or ever will.

 

    The extraordinary feat of "thinking many steps ahead" that is the supreme accomplishment of chess, is even more formidable when one considers that each move of each game produces a plethora of possible "end games". For instance, when it comes to the possible permutations of each game, each move on a single game represents "a different game within a game". By the second move, there are 72,084 possible games. By the third move, 9 million possible games. By the fourth move, 318 million possible games. In a creation not confined to a mere sixty four squares of space, and with "seven billion people" and "legions of angels" (Matthew 26:53) that are "innumerable" (Hebrews 12:22), not to mention the "scores of fallen angels" that God also has to contend with, when God does move even a single piece on the great canvas of life, before He does, He thinks of every possible outcome way in advance, long before what He has decided to do "in the unseen" then "becomes flesh" for all to see" unfold before our eyes in the affairs and events of every dimension of creation and history. And forget not for a moment either that EVERYTHING that He ever "says" or "does", or has ever "created", has always been and always will be expressed and framed with the sumptuous brush strokes and pregnant fullness of all His astonishing love.

 

     To this point, a perfect illustration that is plain for all to see of the "flawless thoughtfulness of God", one that was demonstrated even before time was birthed, is with the example of God's "perfect contingency plan" of how to get humanity and all of creation back on track should Adam and Eve fall in the Garden of Eden. In the event of Adam and Eve choosing unwisely, it was through the elaborate and sacrificial contingency plan of His Son stepping up and volunteering, even before Adam and Eve and all of creation ever existed, to personally place Himself at great expense in the front lines of ensuring that His Father's will is "done on earth just as it is in heaven", that perfectly demonstrates just how graciously thoughtful His heart is, and how gloriously far-reaching His impeccable "thinking ahead" actually does go.

 

    Having said that, there is a very good reason why the LORD's prayer begins with: "Hallowed be Thy name". And likewise, it logically follows thereafter that the very next key unlocks a myriad of possibilities in the prayer chain, just like the next move on a chess board, is "Thy Kingdom come". And proceeding from the coming of His kingdom, it is ever so deliberate that what follows, thereafter, is "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There is an ensuing relationship dependency between all three opening prayer statements that operate together like a series of cascading gates that can only all be opened when the gate preceding each of the three gates is successfully opened first. 

 

     As such, they are not accidental and indiscriminate comments made in haphazard isolation of each other. They are a deliberate and masterful progression from point A to point B to point C. They follow a clever pattern and a structured thought process that is not random, but entirely whole and complete. This deliberate sequence is the accomplished demonstration of "a sound mind" in all its fullness and glory (Isaiah 11:2). And it has to be, for "a sound mind" is precisely what He gives to all His children  in 2 Timothy 1:7. And He can't give to man that which He Himself doesn't already have. In fact, these three opening prayer elements are "a step-by-step recipe" for ensuing life and love.

 

     From the beginning, then, we start with "Hallowed be Thy name". To hallow is to honour as holy, to consider sacred, to venerate, which is to treat with reverence. This is first and foremost, because unless we think upon His name with love and reverence, we will not be subsequently drawn "to know" the heart and the nature and the person "behind the name". So He gives us a significant glimpse of "who He is", and of His enormous capacity for a thoughtfulness birthed out of an immaculate love, through the spectacle and marvel of Creation, long before we have even ever read the very first sentence of His Word. Which is why He says that "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20). And we know it is "only a glimpse" for He says: "As it is written 'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived' - the things God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9). Only once we have a reverence for His name, only then will we be drawn into knowing "the Him" behind the name, and to encountering "the name" personally.

 

     So from "hallowed be His name", we move next to "Thy kingdom come". And His kingdom comes into existence the instant man's heart and spirit are made new in Christ (Ezekiel 36:26). And why His kingdom needs to come "after" His name being hallowed, and "before" His will being done, is because unless the heart of man and the spirit of man has been made brand new, there will be no inclination of nature and conscience to either walk in His ways, or to think in His ways, for He says My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not Your thoughts. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9). How we first "think like Him" is by being transformed by the daily renewing of our minds. And only once we think in His ways will we then daily "walk in His ways" (Galatians 5:25).

 

     Which comes to the third part of the opening three elements of the LORD's Prayer. Only once we hallow everything about Him, and only once His kingdom has come alive in the heart and soul of man, will man then carry out "God's will" on earth by thinking and walking like Him. And only when man steps up from "the corrupt nature" of fallen man "preoccupied with his own will", and appropriates and apprehends "the divine nature" by being renewed daily in his mind, and by walking in the power of the oil of His anointing through the gifts then come alive in man, will the "will of the Father" then be done on earth through man as it is in heaven.

 

     It is clear from the last part of the first three prayer elements that the will of the Father gets expressed in heaven. And it is plain also, that when it comes to the Father's will, that it is ALWAYS done in heaven too. For it says "Thy will be done on earth as it IS (done) in heaven." And at the end of the day, it is the precise practise of "His will being done in heaven" that is actually the subsequent "frame of reference" for everything that is "love is as love does" being also done on earth. Accomplishing the Father's will also on earth, so that love may abound and abound abundantly throughout creation, is the crux of the order and sequence of the three opening lines of the LORD's Prayer.

 

     Arriving at the end goal of the Father's will of "love abounding throughout all of creation" begins by man first hallowing His holy name. And then, for those for whom His kingdom has come, it requires them filling their cups to overflowing with His love. And, finally, it culminates with them then pouring out that astonishing love on "loving our neighbour as ourselves". In other words, it is through hearts and minds changed on "the inside", that we will see the evidence of that change on "the outside". And the evidence of that change is when the Father's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. And only once our hearts and minds are changed on the inside, and our behaviour is changed on the outside, will we walk in the IMAGE (on the outside) and live in the LIKENESS (in the inside) of our Father in heaven in which we were made (Genesis 1:26). For it is a "good" thing to love. It is our "acceptable" service. And it is a "perfect" work. For then, we will prove the "good", and the "acceptable", and the "perfect" WILL OF GOD (Romans 12:2).

 

     And being "three" proof points (good, acceptable, perfect), and also three prayer points, they are not only "completely perfect", they are also "perfectly complete".

 

 

God's richest blessings, for now and for always. Amen and amen.

 

Wayne Biehn