House of Prayer

“And He taught and said to them, Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17, RecVer)

“Even these will I cause to come to My holy mountain and to rejoice in My house of prayer; Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable upon My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7, RecVer)

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still night, He went out and went away to a deserted place, and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35, RecVer)

The house of God is the church comprising the believers. When the word of God says, My house shall be called a house of prayer, it implies the prayer life of the believers. If the believers as the church, the house of God, are not praying how can the house of God be a house of prayer? This was the burden I released for the seeking believers in Madhya Pradesh last week. 

Prayer is so crucial in the Christian life. Paying heed to prayer is one of the biggest tasks and challenges of the Christian life. Satan attacks a believers' prayer life more than anything else. Prayer is the core of Christian life.  In fact, a Christian life must be a prayer life.

One lesson the Lord taught me recently is the experience of prayer. Forsaking the religious way of praying at specific places and postures, prayer must be in the spirit. I used to pray and ask the Lord for many things, but now the Lord has led me to pray in a way of enjoying His presence and listening to Him. In my prayer life, I spent time with Him and listen to him what He has to say. I enjoy my prayer life by listening to His speaking, echoing back His words, and enjoying His presence. Most of my prayer time is in listening to Him. But in a corporate prayer of the church or the family, we released the burden the Lord has given to us. Otherwise, in my personal prayer time, I listen and pray, and pray and listen. Corporately, I reestablish a group prayer in my family, in the office, and also encourage the brothers to pray together more.

For a strong prayer life, I keep track of the time spent on prayer. Now I also learned how to mingle prayer with the reading of the Bible. While reading the word of God, I also learned to touch the spirit through the word. As I read the word of God, I responded to the living word by prayer. In this way, I could read the Bible, and at the same time pray as well. This is so wonderful and enjoyable. In fact, my Bible reading became very intersting and is mingled with prayer. Read and pray and pray and read;  to me, the two go together. My prayer points are the revelations of the word of God,  a response to the Lord's speaking. 

For corporate prayer, I still pray with my family for specific burdens, with the serving ones in the office for the literature burdens, and with the brothers in the church for the church's burden. In these ways, prayer life has been so enjoyable.

In these ways of prayer, the believers can indeed be the house of prayer as a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the church.

Lord, grace me to enjoy spending time with You more and more and be a part of Your house of prayer.