Imagine you are a member of the crew of an aircraft carrier in the US Navy. Like all the other crew members, you have been assigned a specific task. You might be a mechanic or a landing signal officer. You might have a prestigious position as a top gun fighter pilot or something as modest as a janitor. While the specific roles and functions will vary from person to person, every crew member is ultimately working toward the same objective: to fulfil the mission of that vessel.

In the military, depending on your position and rank, you may or may not be privy to the overall purpose for which your ship has been deployed, but in God’s kingdom our commanding officer has made the ultimate objective clear, and if we keep this mission before our eyes, it will help us to discover and fulfil God’s will for our lives. Regardless of the specific role we each are called to play, God’s plan for our lives will always be aligned with the larger mission, and we can eliminate any initiative that is not in sync with it.

So what is God’s supreme agenda in our world as revealed in Scripture? We need look no further than Jesus, who was in every way the complete and full expression of God’s will in action. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10, nkjv).

The prayer Jesus taught us to pray will one day be answered; God’s kingdom will come, and His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven! Let’s fast-forward in time to see what this glorious fulfilment will look like. Consider the amazing words of 1 Corinthians 15:28: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him [Jesus], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” That God may be all and in all. What could be more complete than this? What could be more thorough than this? No more darkness; no more sin. Only righteousness in every corner of creation, God’s will being done everywhere all the time.

We see prophetic glimpses of this all throughout Scripture, even in the Old Testament. Isaiah and Habakkuk both declare, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14; see also Isa. 11:9). A more thorough covering could not be articulated. It is a total and complete saturation.

The last chapter of the Bible paints a prophetic picture of what creation will ultimately look like. Revelation 21:4 says, “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Isaiah 11:6 describes a time when wolves and lambs and leopards and goats will lie down together and be led by children.

Redemption has been the divine agenda since Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, and throughout human history God has been working diligently and unrelentingly to this end. Both Old and New Testament scriptures contain hundreds of references that run from start to finish in a seamless thread of single-minded intention.

In fact, according to Acts 3:21 every one of God’s holy prophets since the beginning of the world has spoken about the restoration of all things. Those prophecies will be fulfilled, the prayer of Jesus will be answered, and God’s kingdom will come. What a day that will be!

This is what we long for. This is what we pray for. This is what we work for—for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven! Regardless of what we do as an occupation, we all share a singular calling and mission in this life: to build God’s kingdom on earth. This is why our “ship” has been deployed. This is the business we should all be investing in, and if we find ourselves moving in any other direction, we can be sure we are moving away from God’s will for our lives.