S76P12 – The posture of prayer: a clear purpose

Isa. 56:6-7

Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants — everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant — even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Prayer was certainly a part of the congregation’s regular services. Sunday mornings began and ended with prayer.  Fellowship meal always began with prayer.  Every now and then, a prayer night would be held for the nation and the city. Every one of those parishioners would have told you that they love to pray.  When they entered house of God, they felt his Spirit and wanted to engage him.  Of course it is important and necessary for the Church to feel that connection in a building among the congregation, but the prayers of those people began and ended at the church doors.  They failed to realize that each of them was a house of God dedicated to him for the purpose of prayer independent of a building made of bricks and lumber.

If the Holy Spirit lives within you, then you are a house of God.  You are his residence, his dwelling-place.  We know from his own words that his house is to be a house of prayer.  We must understand that this is not a suggestion or recommendation but a command.  We were made to remain in communion and communication with God.  Those whom He has chosen have been chosen so that they would represent him in this place. We can do that only if we know and understand his ways.  For us, prayer and its fruit are ways for us to experience God in the physical as He manifests the answers to our requests.  If we were made to be houses of prayer for him, then we were made to reveal evidence of his holiness through the manifestation of his response.

We pray, He moves, we are encouraged, and others see the fruit.  This does not always happen in an instant, but the pattern is pretty consistent. The first step is making sure that this house of God is doing its job in prayer.  If I do not engage him, He cannot move, and this chain of testimony ends before it even begins.  Being houses of prayer really means that we are like spiritual fruit farms.  As we sow in prayer, the spiritual fruit produced provides nourishment for us and for those who witness God answering us.  Let these houses of ours fulfill their purpose and flood the heavens with our prayers.  Father, give us the wisdom to keep our houses of prayer active and fruitful as You have designed us to be.