What happens in heaven?
The question does not grow out of idle speculation. Nor is it one to be
dismissed with a flippant “Heaven only knows.”
For not only can we know at least a bit about what takes place in heaven
(because the Bible, in a few brief and tantalizing scenes, shows us some
of what goes on), but we must address the question if we are fully to
appreciate why Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”
Heaven
Heaven, as we saw in an earlier study, is perhaps best understood as a
spiritual place, that is, a place without material or spatial
limitations. Heaven is a reality not immediately accessible to human
perception, yet no less real because of our incapacity. Indeed, heaven
is the place where reality is most real, the realm where God is most
fully present.
Characteristic of the visions of heaven John recorded in the book of
Revelation is the following scene: “Each of the four living
creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under
his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who
sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four
elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who
lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and
say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor
and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were
created and have their being’” (Rev. 4:8-11)
Such passages make it clear that whatever else happens in heaven, the
central activity is worship.
Worship in heaven
To worship God is literally to ascribe worth to God.
Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens show that the book of
Revelation gives contemporary Christians “an empowering vision of
worship.” They continue, “Far from being dull and stereotyped,
worship in heaven is exquisitely beautiful, continuously spontaneous and
totally enjoyable.” They list several characteristics of heavenly
worship, attitudes and actions that can guide our own corporate and
individual worship of God.
The worship is responsive. It is caused by God and God’s
actions rather than worked up by human effort. God awakens a desire for
worship (Rev. 3:20; 5:2).
The worship is reverent. It is God-pleasing and for God’s
benefit, inspired by God’s mercy and directed to God’s
pleasure. Unfortunately, some worship styles advocated today focus
primarily on what we get out of our experience of corporate worship.
The worship is inclusive. Revelation gives us a picture of all
nations, tribes and peoples worshiping the God who reveals himself to
his human creation.
The worship is intelligent. The mind is engaged most fully in
heaven. Worship reflects on the themes of God as Creator and Redeemer
(Rev. 4-5). Worship is evoked by the qualities and actions of God:
power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, blessing and sovereignty.
The worship is theological. The book of Revelation may be read
as commentary on the Old Testament in the light of Jesus’ life,
death, resurrection and ascension. It shows how Christ is the goal
toward which the whole drama of human history has been moving.
The worship is aesthetic. Worship in heaven appeals to our
senses in a spiritual way. There are sounds, motion, light, rhythm and
patterns.
The worship is holistic. This worship is not limited to times of
direct focus on God but comprises the whole of life in the city of God,
which is filled with divine creativity, beauty and wonder.
The worship is prophetic. A balance of awe and intimacy,
adoration and access with respect to God is our destiny and should shape
our worship in the here and now. In the same way our present earthly
worship prepares us for life in the heavenly city and perhaps in some
way contributes to the ongoing worship in heaven.
Worship on earth
These characteristics remind us that at the heart of Christian worship
is our relationship with God. As Donald Wilson Stake notes, “What
we do in worship represents an awareness of the relationship between
ourselves and God. We are creatures and God is the Creator of us and our
world. … Worship is our encounter with God in response to God’s
promised presence in Jesus Christ.”
All creation declares the glory of God just by being itself (Psalm
19:1). But human beings uniquely can choose to worship God: indeed, we
are obligated to do so. The primary way the Bible describes our
relationship with God is as a covenant, a binding personal relationship
by which two parties (in this case God and his people) belong together
forever. Worship is one facet of our grateful response to God’s
gracious covenant with us.
In his high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the
internal worship life of the triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit
bring glory to each other, go out of themselves in love for each other
and eternally delight in one another. Our worship thus is not a
desperate effort to bridge an infinite gap and bring honor and glory to
God. Rather, in Christ it is united with the worship that eternally
takes place within the Trinity. Our worship is modeled, inspired and
empowered from above, not imagined, created and worked up from below.
Moreover, as Stake observes, “Worship is an acknowledgment of human
need. By worshiping God, we admit that we are not self-sufficient but
utterly dependent on the grace of God for our sustenance and our
salvation.” His observation relates directly to why Jesus taught
his disciples to pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.”
Prioritizing our prayers
“As it is in heaven” marks a transition in the Lord’s
Prayer. It applies to the preceding requests that God’s name be
hallowed and that his kingdom come and it begins to shift our focus from
God in heaven to needs and struggles that we face on earth, to our
legitimate concerns for food, forgiveness and faithfulness.
The first half of the Lord’s Prayer is concerned with who God is
and what God is doing. Our needs come next. By ordering our prayers in
this way, Jesus teaches that God’s purposes are more important than
our own plans, that we are to seek his will before we seek to have our
own desires fulfilled. When we learn to pray in this way, we will have
learned to pray as Jesus taught.
Once we reach this point, Donald Williams notes, “When God’s
will is more important and we have begun to pray like Jesus, we will be
ready to discover that the Father is very concerned with our personal
needs and desires. … The same prayer which takes us into the
rarefied mountain air of God’s eternal purposes for us is also full
of the down-home aroma of freshly baked bread.”
To pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is to
remain in touch with what is most real. It is to resist our natural
inclination to accept the imitations that surround us and cry out for
our ultimate loyalty. Praying with an awareness of the worship forever
taking place in heaven challenges us to live by kingdom priorities.
As life in heaven is centered around the worship of God, praying as
Jesus taught his disciples will order our own lives around the presence,
power and provision of God.
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Additional Resources
Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens, “Worship,” in The
Complete Book of Everyday Christianity (Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 1997); Donald Wilson Stake, The ABCs of
Christian Worship: A Concise Dictionary (Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992); Donald T. Williams, The
Disciples’ Prayer: An Intimate Phrase by Phrase Journey
through the Lord’s Prayer (Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian
Publications, 1999).
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