Praise on Earth as it is in Heaven

All the accounts of heaven – from John’s accounts in the Book of Revelation, to modern day testimonies of people who have been permitted to see parts of heaven – either during clinical death experiences or by some kind of special intervention of God – all these accounts speak of the fact that a lot of what goes on in heaven consists of praise to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ.

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creaturesand the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
(Revelation 5:11-14)

It occurs to me that when Jesus instructed us to pray “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, that a part of what this means is that we are committing ourselves to a life of praising God. We are asking God that the praises of God will resound on earth as they do in heaven. Of course, we can’t fully attain this, but I am sure we should have a go!

Jesus Christ is certainly worthy of praise. We ought to be thanking and praising Him for dying in our place – paying the debt we could never finish paying off – the guilt of our offenses against God. We ought to praise Him for doing everything necessary to give us eternal life.

We ought to praise God the Father for creating us, for making all good things, and for sending Jesus to rescue us when we went badly astray. There are many things we should speak of and sing of concerning God the Father. The whole Bible is a revelation of His character. God is a God of covenant faithfulness and sovereign power. He is a God of mercy, justice and awesome righteous judgement. And all these things about God are worthy of praise; people and angels in heaven are praising Him for these things right now.

I believe I have underestimated the importance God puts on praise. He wants our praise. Our praise is important to Him. It is a part of God’s will for our lives. It is a part of God’s will for our nations, for our world. We must pray “God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” and we need to co-operate with God in being part of the answer to that prayer. We can do this in both our personal lives – through speaking well of God constantly and singing praise and thanks in our hearts to Him – and in our church life by really getting into praising God and glorifying Him here on earth. This is an important part of God’s plan for us and I believe it is also a powerful form of spiritual warfare which achieves things in the spiritual realm which are greater than we imagine.