House of Prayer – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:47:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png House of Prayer – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 The House of Prayer – Part 2: The power believers have been given https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-2-the-power-believers-have-been-given/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-2-the-power-believers-have-been-given Sun, 24 Nov 2024 05:07:07 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=31484 “The House of Prayer” – Part 2

The power believers have been given

Posted September 14, 2014

In the first part of this series, we focused on the important aspect of the “house of prayer” being the temple of God and those in whom the Spirit dwells.

While we have all learned many ways to pray in our Christian lives, there are specific guidelines to how we are to look at and apply prayer in our lives as “disciples indeed”.

Yes, we are to be disciples “in deed.” (Truly)

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

“Worship in the Lord’s house”

Jer 26:2  Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

Today we are going to focus on the ‘words commanded’ and spoken concerning how we handle prayer and how we worship in Spirit and Truth concerning prayer in our daily lives.

In this second part of the series, we are going to look at scriptural witnesses and scriptural instructions on how to worship the Father through our prayer.

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship” The contrast being made today will be between “you know not what you worship” versus “we know what we worship”.

The focus on Part 1 was on those who are of the house of prayer, but that group was being contrasted with another group.

When I say “group”, the true spiritual contrast is being made between the natural and the spiritual, the old and new man, the first Adam versus the second Adam.

The house of prayer is compared against a den of thieves.

Mat 21:13  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a denG4693 of thieves.

I ask everyone reading this if “ye” is you? Have you made the house of prayer a den of thieves? Before you answer that, let us examine the thieves who live in a den versus a house.

Here are a couple of examples of where this word ‘den’ appears in the New Testament:

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy: ) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The first example is of those who receive a good report through faith, but they don’t receive the promise. Yet, we know there is only One Faith. The promise we are given concerning Faith is to partakers of the “One Faith”. We’ll get to that in a little while.

The second example is of those who ‘tell the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Jesus Christ.’

So, what separates the thieves who are a den of thieves from those who are the house of prayer as “receiving the promise”?

Luk 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Luk 24:46  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
Luk 24:47  And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Through the Spirit, I will attempt to connect what worship, Truth, Spirit and prayer have to do with one another.

We just read that those who worship God, who is Spirit, must do so in Spirit and in Truth. Therefore, we must know and understand what this means. Otherwise, how can we ever presume to be praying properly so that we are heard by God?

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

So, the Words spoken by Jesus are Spirit and Life. It is also true that Jesus is Truth.

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

How does someone come to Jesus?

“No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father….” And “no man cometh to the Father but by Jesus Christ.”

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” says Jesus.

It is not speaking above what is written to combine all of these verses to conclude the spiritual Truth that the Words which Jesus speaks are Spirit and Life, Words which speak the Truth and are the Way to the Father.

As a matter of Truth, Jesus says this to His disciples, after explaining the spiritual Truth of Him being the Way, Truth and Life:

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Joh 14:11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Joh 14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

After explaining the Spirit behind seeing the Father, and who Jesus is in this process, He tells His disciples (indeed) to keep His commandments.

Now that the stage has been set, let us look toward His words as they pertain to being a house of prayer versus a den of thieves.

Joh 10:8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Mat 6:16  Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:17  But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
Mat 6:18  That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

What do thieves do? They break through and steal treasures. However, the treasure we have “laid up” is heavenly.

Why would Jesus mention this in connection to fasting? When we are fasting for the appearance of “giving of ourselves to the Lord” and to be seen of men to be fasting, our reward is EARTHLY. It is for the FLESH in others to see it and think of how “godly” we are, and it is for our flesh and carnal mind to believe we are “doing the works of God”.

When you connect this idea with prayer (fasting and prayer go hand and hand) when telling someone we are “praying for them” or we are “keeping them in prayer” and we are not doing it as if it were we ourselves in this situation needing prayer. We are doing it to give the appearance of true prayer, knowingly or unknowingly.

Those that have come before the true Jesus Christ are those that are thieves. They come through to steal our reward, because by giving us their doctrines, their ways of praying, their examples of how to fast, we have to realize that our home with them is in a cave or den.

It is not the house of prayer we belong to in this situation.

Why am I mentioning fasting and prayer together?

Psa 35:11  False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
Psa 35:12  They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
Psa 35:13  But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
Psa 35:14  I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
Psa 35:15  But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:

Dan 9:3  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, WITH fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Dan 9:4  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Mat 17:19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Mat 17:21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

How then is our fast (Jesus and His mind concerning fasting) directly coupled with our prayer?

Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and THAT YE break every yoke?

Said in the CEV translation:

Isa 58:4  You even get angry and ready to fight. No wonder God won’t listen to your prayers!
Isa 58:5  Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship?
Isa 58:6  I’ll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused!

What the prayers of the “house of prayer” are coupled with is the POWER we have been given to free those who are bound to wickedness, take away heavy burdens, to let those who are oppressed go free from their oppressors and to break every yoke weighing someone down.

What do we do these things with? We do it with the Word of God! We couple the Word of God with prayer!

In not so many words, we comfort those in need of prayer with the Word of God, with the Shepherd in us, by speaking to them in a voice they understand (His voice), and we let them know we are petitioning the Father on their behalf in BELIEF that “His will be done”.

“Disciples Indeed”

How do we do this? How do we act on what Jesus tells us to do with prayer? Will His example give us any direction?

Joh 11:35  Jesus wept.
Joh 11:36  Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
Joh 11:37  And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
Joh 11:38  Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a caveG4693, and a stone lay upon it.
Joh 11:39  Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Joh 11:40  Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Joh 11:41  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 11:43  And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Joh 11:44  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Have you ever asked yourself how it is Jesus was heard of the Father? It is obvious that Jesus prayed to the Father in secret, but then thanked the Father openly for being heard.

What was Jesus’ prayer coupled with? “Take away the stone…loose him and let him go”. If you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

Before I am misquoted or misunderstood, am I saying that if a person simply believes something when praying for it then that belief will be granted to them?

No, I am not saying that at all.

True Faith only comes from one place, Jesus – the Word of God – and that is why it is so important for the eye to be single.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Eph 4:4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5  One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7  But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

In a previous study, I spoke about grace heavily as it pertains to God working His awesome hands in our lives.

In particular, I compared the Sea of Galilee being north of the dead sea to the spiritual concept that if we have the waters of the Jordan flowing through the Sea of Galilee from north to south, the Sea of Galilee is flowing with life.

The sea of Galilee is where Jesus called disciples to follow Him (Mat 4:17-20). It is where He healed people of various afflictions (Mat 7:31-37) including deafness and dumbness, cast out unclean spirits (Mar 1:23-27), and performed many more miracles including feeding the masses with five loaves of bread and two SMALL fishes.

In Mark 1:35, after having done many miracles, Jesus showed us the importance of prayer.

Mar 1:34  And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
Mar 1:35  And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

I mentioned the Sea of Galilee to point out that it has an inlet and an outlet for the Jordan River waters which flow through it.

However, when the Jordan River exits out of the south of the Sea of Galilee, those waters travel for a distance south and empty into the Dead Sea which has no outlet.

If we are given anything of the Lord whether it be One faith, One baptism, One Spirit, One calling, our One Lord, One Hope, or One God and Father of All, and we do not have an outlet for it, we will be as the Dead Sea.

We become stagnant and lifeless, and nothing flows out of us. How can we be the “house of prayer” and not a “den of thieves” if this is true of us?

How this applies to prayer is that the Lord places a “dead Lazarus”, who someone cares about, in front of us. He places a “deaf and dumb” person in front of us to say “Ephphatha, that is, Be opened,” so that they are healed and raised from the dead.

If we are among the dead, as typified in the Dead Sea, how then can we so these things? However, if “Christ be in you”, you can do ALL THINGS through Him who strengthens you.

Prayer is our realizing that we are ALWAYS HEARD.

How do we know this to be true?

Joh 11:42  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Pro 8:32  Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
Pro 8:33  Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
Pro 8:34  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Pro 8:35  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

There it is! When we are dragged to the Father, through Jesus and the Words of God, we are to DO THE Words! When we do them, we are building our house (the house of prayer) on a foundation which cannot be shaken.

When we are given to come to the Lord to hear His sayings, we can be confident that we are being heard by the Father when we pray to Him.

Our confidence comes in knowing that we answer all things according to the SAME EXAMPLE Jesus gave us and lived by.

“I came to do the works of my Father …. Thy will be done.”

If you have any doubt that the Father hears our prayers always, then weigh your prayers against the way in which Jesus taught us to pray. Here is where we have been given power.

Mat 6:5  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.
Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Have Faith. Our Father knows what things we ALL NEED before we EVER ASK HIM for them. We are presented with a tremendous power to be able to PRAY for ourselves and others, and when we pray, we pray in Spirit and Truth when our prayer is “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

This is True Worship. We acknowledge that all things are being worked after the counsel of His own will.

In the next study, I am hoping that the Lord will bless me to speak about how or why we are, or are not, to pray for the world, how we are to pray or not for the “earth, earth, earth” and how we are to practically “pray without ceasing”.

[Next study in this series is here.]

]]> The House of Prayer – Part 1: Introduction https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-1-introduction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-1-introduction Fri, 22 Nov 2024 05:07:40 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=31486 “The House of Prayer” – Part 1
August 31, 2014

Prayer is often times something very intimate to each of us as we relate to God the Father.

There are many religions around the world which pray as part of their traditions, but as being Christians, like Christ, we must strive to keep the commandments of the Lord and seek to serve the Lord in the ways He has ordained that we seek and serve Him.

Prayer is ultimately our way of connection and communicating with God. Through prayer, we keep our minds and hearts focused on the Lord and on His people.

We sacrifice time; time given to us by the very one to whom we pray, and by making such an important sacrifice, we draw closer to our creator.

Throughout this series, we are going to focus on the many facets of prayer, how it applies to our lives as Christians, why we pray, how we pray and ultimately to whom it is we pray.

“The Temple of God”

God’s people are His house, and His house is called a house of prayer.

Mat 21:12  And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
Mat 21:13  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Mat 21:14  And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

Again, in Mark we see:

Mar 11:15  And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
Mar 11:16  And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
Mar 11:17  And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Mar 11:18  And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

The reference for God’s “house of prayer” is found in the book of Isaiah.

Isa 56:5  Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6  Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

Given that we have all experienced different formalities on how to execute prayer, have seen many Christians in our past experiences do this or do that when praying, and have many varied examples of how we have prayed ourselves, let us now focus on what the New Testament examples are on prayer and how it is that “we are the house of prayer.”

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

We are the temple of God where God dwells.

As with all things in scripture there are negative and positive applications to scripture, natural and spiritual things to consider and the sum of the Word to weigh those things against.

For example, “our body” is the temple of God individually, but so, too, is the body of Christ (our bodies and His body) the temple of God.

This first part of the series is going to cover this aspect of the house of prayer.

Contrary to what most Christians have been taught or think on their own, God does NOT hear all prayers and petitions made to Him.

Jer 11:14  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Eze 8:18  Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Mic 3:4  Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

Additionally, just because you may see the word “prayer” mentioned in English, it is not always apparent that ‘prayer’ is what is being talked about in any given verse.

So, it takes us being Bereans and digging into scripture to find what has been hidden there for us to be shown.  I hope you have your shovels ready :]

“Pray, Prayer, Praying, Prayed”

According to e-Sword, there are 306 verses in the Old and New Testaments that the English word “pray” is mentioned in scripture.

There are 107 verses for the word “prayer”, 20 verses for “praying” and 65 for “prayed”.

I think you’ll agree that is a lot of times that pray, prayer, praying and prayed are mentioned (498 times).

In contrast, the English word “heaven” is mentioned in 551 verses. As you can tell, “prayer” is a very important topic and subject which scripture addresses a lot.

As for addressing all of these scriptures on praying in this series, it simply is not going to be exhausted within this series. There are going to be many thoughts come about from whatever the Lord inspires us all to collectively “hear” and “see” regarding this topic.

For me, I will share with you all what I have been given to share on this topic.

On the surface of it, what then is “prayer”? Well, that is a multi-faceted answer which I hope we can address in this series, but I think there is a group of scriptures that bear out this multi-faceted answer as well as any others.

They are not all that can be said on this, of course, but it is as good a place to start as any.

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Jas 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
Jas 5:12  But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them prayG4336 over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Jas 5:15  And the prayerG2171 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1172 of a righteous man availeth much.
Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayedG4336, G4335 earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Jas 5:18  And he prayedG4336 again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Starting with these verses, we are going to set the foundation for the rest of this series. We have a plethora of witnesses to other examples of what “prayer” means to us as Christians today.

We know that all of these English words have a foundation in Greek. However, we are going to only look at the Greek for as much as it is necessary to determine the Spirit behind what we just read, and we are going to try to keep it in context of “prayer” in the house of prayer.

We will start in these verses with the mention of the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, and we are to take them as an example of suffering affliction and having patience.

When these prophets suffered, they spoke in the name of the Lord, and they spoke about things which must be fulfilled.

Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

The next verse in James gives us an example and that is about Job. It references Job as “counting them happy which endure”. Job is happy because he has, “seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

We know from scripture that the Lord works all things after the counsel of His own will, so when we see the end of the Lord, we see that He has willed that we see His pity and His tender mercy.

We need to couple that with a warning, a commandment, on how to view prayer which comes in the following verses in James, starting in verse 12.

Jas 5:12  But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

In other words, the Lord is sovereign and in control so it is not our place to swear or give an oath, but in what context are these things being told to us?

“Use the example of suffering affliction and patience …. count them happy who endure …. and do not make an oath or swear anything.”

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

The answer to being afflicted is to “pray”?

The Greek word used here in English as “pray” is “pros-yoo’-khom-ahee” and it has a root in G4314 and G2172.

A strengthened form of G4253:

So, one of the roots of “pros-yoo’-khom-ahee” is to be in front of, prior to, and before, but in front of, prior to, or before what?

We will answer that in a moment, but we’ll first look into the second root of G4336, “yoo’-khom-ahee”.

Here are the uses of this word in scripture in context.

A few examples of wish are:

Rom 9:3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
2Co 13:9  For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

3Jn 1:1  The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

The same word translated as “pray” is:

2Co 13:6  But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
2Co 13:7  Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

With the root of these words being established, we can see a clear scriptural example of what G4336 means.

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

So, the answer to affliction is to pray/wish (they mean the same thing) PRIOR TO, BEFORE the will of the Lord is made manifest in a matter.

Examples of this would be affliction that is sent to us in the form of a trial such as financial problems, health issues, emotional or spiritual struggles, etc.

Before we know how these things will end up for us, we are to pray before the will of the Lord is made manifest for whatever the situation the Lord has us in.

Moving along as another example of this we see this in the next verse:

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them prayG4336 over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

“Let them pray over him anointing him with OIL/SPIRIT in the name of the Lord.”

There are articles posted on Is, Was and Will Be that deal with oil and what it means, but oil relates to the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the power of God.

For a review of oil, please visit:

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-wise-took-oil/

The same Greek word as mentioned here as “pray” is G4336. So, let’s move on to the next example.

Jas 5:15  And the prayerG2171 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1162 of a righteous man availeth much.

The Greek word G2171 actually means “vow”.  The word used here in the Greek G2171 comes from G2172, meaning wish/pray, as we have already covered.

“A votive obligation” is the focus of verse James 5:15, but that bar is raised from a “vow” which shows an immature understanding of the sovereignty of God versus a mature understanding of the sovereignty of God.

G2171 is from G2172:

“Middle voice” means to act upon itself or for its own benefit. An example of this is “Steven bought himself a car”.

So, the implication of this thought or idea is that when we pray for another we are praying for OURSELVES. We are praying for our OWN BODY.

If I petition the Lord to heal me of my arm being broken or for my strep throat to be healed, I am praying for my OWN BODY to be healed.

Likewise, when I pray for “another to be healed” I am praying FOR MY OWN BODY to be HEALED!

Here are the two commandments of the Lord:

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

That isn’t the sum of what we are being told in this chapter.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1162 of a righteous man availeth much.

“The effectual fervent (ENERGY) BEGGING of a righteous man availeth much.”

Why do I say begging instead of prayer? The Greek word used here is G1162 which has a root of G1189.

When we BEG for our own deliverance, we do so with a very intentional purpose. When we BEG for and petition the Lord on behalf of the body, we are fulfilling the commandment of the Lord to LOVE our neighbor as ourselves.

This can only be done with the maturity the Lord brings our way as we go from immature Christians asking for the basics to mature Christians asking for EVERYTHING knowing the Lord works it all.

James 5:15 and 5:16 show us a contrast in making a vow versus fervently begging the Lord, i.e. “I will make a vow of faith to you Lord if only you do x, y, and z” VERSUS “I BEG you Lord to listen to my petition (of which you have placed in my heart and mind to pray).”  If this is doubtful in your mind, the next verse re-emphasizes this point.

Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayedG4336, G4335 earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Jas 5:18  And he prayedG4336 again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Did you recognize the voice of the True Shepherd in those last two verses?

If one errs from the Truth and is CONVERTED from the ERROR of “HIS WAY”, he shall be SAVED FROM DEATH, and a multitude of SINS shall be HIDDEN.”

“Whatsoever is not of Faith is SIN…and the WAGES of Sin is DEATH”.

“Conclusion of Part 1 of ‘The House of Prayer’”

The conclusion of this study is the emphasis on converting our brother or sister through FERVENT/BEGGING prayer.

We can pray for the things that we need on a daily basis like Elias did for rain, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that according to scripture, but the prayer we are after is a prayer that brings ONLY Truth from the one praying.

In other words, we want Jesus Christ to be the only one that matters in all situations, and there are very particular instructions on how to know we are following this path of righteousness versus our own righteousness.

When we pray, we are to pray a certain way, and that will be the focus of our next study in this series.

Again, there are many, MANY facets to prayer and praying and we have only began to scratch the surface.

Next study, we will continue to “hear” and “see” the voice of the True Shepherd as it relates to us petitioning our heavenly Father in prayer, Lord willing.

[The next study in this series on prayer is here.]

]]> Awesome Hands – part 87 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/awesome-hands-part-87/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=awesome-hands-part-87 Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:59:16 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=10213

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Awesome Hands – part 87

September 30, 2015

 

The mystery of the kingdom of God is contained within all of the scripture.

Jesus told us that we do not need to look here nor there but to look inside because the kingdom of God is within you.

The study for this evening is going to cover the start of the complete judgment of the flesh as passed down by God to Moses and the Israelites.

This is all a type and shadow of the plan of God and how He plans to bring about His judgment on us all, but that judgment leads to salvation of us all.

Isa 56:1  Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

 

Come Nigh

 

Like Jesus, Moses was a reformer. Like Moses, Jesus is a reformer. After passing down all of the judgments that we have been reading in Exodus, the Lord reveals to us not only the commands that Moses and the elders of Israel were to immediately follow, but the commands that we all keep spiritually as the people of God.

Exo 24:1  And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
Exo 24:2  And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

Notice that there are 4 individuals mentioned and then the 70 elders. Moses, his brother and his brother’s children.

Most of Christendom recognizes that Moses typifies Christ in a lot of ways. While all these men represent a family in the flesh, they also show us that Christ is called alone to “come near the Lord” while Aaron and his children are told to worship afar off with the elders.

This is important to recognize because it is Jesus Christ who alone has ascended that mountain and has come near to God. It is Jesus Christ who has descended to bring us the law of liberty from the mountain of God, but what does that look like in our lives as Christians?

I realize that Moses only brings Israel the 10 commandments and eventually the Mosaic Law which is for a lawless and disobedient people, but so too is the law of liberty given to us to bring us out of death into the glorious like of Jesus Christ and communion with God the Father.

What does it mean to be in liberty to have freedom?

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luk 17:22  And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
Luk 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

Have you ever considered that the judgments of God are to judge those things in your heavens that need to be cast down and out of heaven?

Luk 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18  And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Lest we forget, the judgments we have been studying in Exodus all started with this:

Exo 20:18  And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
Exo 20:19  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

Judgment and the judgments being given to us are not for some future time or time period where we can execute God’s commandments then. God’s judgments are for us to learn from and be JUDGED with NOW, but again I ask what does that look like today for us as Christians?

While you consider that question, hear what Moses was given to speak to the people.

Exo 24:3  And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
Exo 24:4  And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5  And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exo 24:6  And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Exo 24:7  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Exo 24:8  And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

Isn’t it amazing that while there is lightning and thundering we are afraid and answer the Lord in one voice with, “we will hear…. we will do”, but if we turn our back, close our eyes and clasp our ears we are able to pretend the Lord isn’t ever present with us.

The strong delusion the Lord has created in us all initially is to be in a position in our Christian walks where we think we are walking, talking and eating with God the Father when in fact we are just doing so with His Son so that we can later be converted and truly serve Him.

It is right after the covenant is made with blood, both on the altar (that is to say the cross) and half of it on the people (ONE sacrifice’s blood was used – that would be Jesus Christ) that Moses, Aaron Nadab, Abihu and all the elders believed fully that were partaking of EATING and DRINKING with God.

They did experience this event, but what they THOUGHT it represented was far from what it really was.

Exo 24:9  Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10  And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Jesus Christ walked, talked, ate and drank with the disciples yet none of them were converted. Does that discount that they walked, talked, ate and drank with Jesus Christ in the flesh? No, it doesn’t.

The same Jesus that they walked with said this:

Joh 5:36  But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
Joh 5:37  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

So, if they were not “seeing God” in a true sense of the meaning, who or what were they seeing? This is an important question and one that directly applies to us today right now in our lives.

They were seeing someone and experiencing these things yet Jesus told us that they and no one else has seen God nor heard His voice.

This question is one that beckons to be answered and the answer is one of are we seeing “within or without”.

See, if we hear or see someone saying “lo here” or “lo there” is Jesus Christ, we are to NOT follow them, but what does that mean? What does any of this have to do with the study today?

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

Our daily lives are constantly being judged. In fact, we are dying daily and a part of the dying process is judging the things the Lord has set in motion in our lives.

Most of the time it seems we fail miserably at being and living the example of being like Christ in this world. At least it appears that way to me as I evaluate my life and living as a Christian daily.

It seems to me that as I am at the foot of this mount, waiting for Moses to tell me what to do and how to obey God, that I often fail to obey and fall while I wait.

But, the Lord has given as set of armor and a weapon in our hand to combat this FALSE judgment.

We have been given communion with God through prayer to recognize that we ARE seeing God when we look within and realize that this failing and falling IS the judgment we often times talk about.

Isa 56:1  Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Isa 56:2  Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Isa 56:3  Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
Isa 56:4  For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:5  Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6  Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Isa 56:8  The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.

As we live our lives daily we should be evaluating which altar we are making sacrifices on. Are we making physical sacrifices to wash the outside of the cup or are we DOING what is pleasing unto the Lord upon the altar and cross of Christ?

You might be thinking, “Steven stop speaking mumbo jumbo”.

Pro 21:3  To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may PROVE WHAT IS THAT GOOD, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Php 4:17  Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Php 4:18  But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
Php 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Hos 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Mat 9:13  But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The living sacrifice and acceptable to God is a renewed MIND which tells us these words of Christ are true.

Heb 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Contrast all of these verses with what you see the children of Israel do in the flesh. Of course it was given to them to do these things at this appointed time, but they are admonishments for us today to learn from and to apply spiritually.

Exo 24:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Exo 24:13  And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
Exo 24:14  And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

There is a season for everything including a time to be taught. However, there always comes a time to put into action and DO the things we’ve been taught.

Notice what happens when Moses “ascends” the mount. What happened once Jesus ascended into heaven? Where did He go?

Act 1:9  And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Exo 24:15  And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
Exo 24:16  And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

It is the day of rest, the Sabbath, which is when Jesus is called out of the midst of the cloud into someone’s life.

For us, as the clouds, we abide with the REST DAILY. In other words, for 6 days the clouds cover the mount and this is a mountain of prayer where we have communion with our Lord and Saviour.

Dan 7:13  I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Mat 26:64  Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Mar 14:61  But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
Mar 14:62  And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mar 14:63  Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?
Mar 14:64  Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

What does this look like to even those who are simple onlookers? After all, we have heard all our lives that FIRE is BAD. Fire represents hell and no one can stand the flame that consumes.

The Pharisees and high priest that question “WHO WE ARE” look on and condemn us to death!

Here is why that happens.

Exo 24:17  And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Exo 24:18  And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Who possibly could survive such a DEVOURING FIRE? The answer is NO ONE can unless the Lord causes them to be able to dwell in the fire. Fire consumes anything it comes in contact with especially when talking about the fire of the Word of God.

Those that are brought through the fire are those that walk and dwell comfortably in it, and they walk comfortably in it because they know what the fiery judgment of the Lord is all about. It is for our good and it is so that we learn obedience just like Jesus Christ. As He is so are we in this world.

Isa 33:13  Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
Isa 33:16  He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

]]> The House of Prayer https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/studies/the-house-of-prayer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer Tue, 11 Nov 2014 03:19:47 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?page_id=8569 Please browse “The House of Prayer” mini-series links below. This series is dedicated to studying various scriptures which deal with prayer, who we are in prayer and the various uses of prayer in our Christian lives today.

]]> The House of Prayer – Part 4: “Vessels of mercy” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-4/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-4 Sun, 28 Sep 2014 13:37:58 +0000 http://iswasandwillbe.wpengine.com/?p=8511

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“The House of Prayer” – Part 4

Vessels of mercy

Posted September 28, 2014

In the previous three studies we have covered a range of considerations when learning how we are to pray, when we are to pray, and why we are to pray according to the new man in us.

In the first study we covered who the “house of prayer” is and the many things we are to do as being this house or temple of God.

In the second study, we covered the contrast of the “house of prayer” with those which are the “den of thieves”. Of course, we have all been the den of thieves any time we take the Word of God and turn it into the idols of our hearts.

In the third study, we covered the biblical admonitions of how not to be as the hypocrites are and how to pray in a closet to be rewarded openly of our Father. We also covered how to pray without ceasing and how this is a lifestyle change, being the new man in downpayment and how we are to live out our “life of prayer”.

In this final part of the series, we are going to see how we are not left comfortless and how we have a champion praying on our behalf. With the comforter on our side who can be against us and prevail?

“Can anyone be against us”

I am going to start off reading some familiar verses to all of us, but I am going to read it out of the CEV translation.

Rom 8:22  We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.
Rom 8:23  The Spirit makes us sure about what we will be in the future. But now we groan silently, while we wait for God to show that we are his children. This means that our bodies will also be set free.
Rom 8:24  And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping.
Rom 8:25  However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.
Rom 8:26  In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words.
Rom 8:27  All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God’s people.
Rom 8:28  We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose,
Rom 8:29  and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so that his Son would be the first of many children.
Rom 8:30  God then accepted the people he had already decided to choose, and he has shared his glory with them.
Rom 8:31  What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us?
Rom 8:32  God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else?

We have the Spirit praying for us in ways we cannot understand. The conclusion of the matter we are talking about in these verses we read is that God is on our side, and no one can be against us.

It may seem obvious, but if someone is against us, isn’t it the Lord Himself who has placed them against us?

Wasn’t it Joseph’s brothers who were against Him? Wasn’t it Saul against David? Wasn’t it Haman against Mordecai?

Likewise, isn’t it the Lord who has placed in us the law of sin which so easily besets us? Hasn’t the Lord sent an adversary to reign in our mortal flesh to be used to tempt us all our days?

How, then, do we gain victory in such adverse conditions?

We pray! We pray believing we will receive ACCORDING to the Lord’s will. We pray that the Lord’s will is merciful upon us. Only, we are not ALONE in prayer!

We are a HOUSE of prayer. We are wood, hay and stubble. We are brick, mortar and stone. We are also a temple which cannot be made with hands.

We have been shaped in inquity and conceived in sin, but we have also been shapened into a vessel of honor meant to be USED in our Father’s house with all sins washed away. We are NOW vessels of mercy!

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25  As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; THERE shall they be called the children of the living God.

Eze 16:9  Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

There was a time that the Lord looked upon our old man, which we were all created naturally to be, and told us that we are not His people, but NOW we are vessels of mercy.

I say to you, vessels of mercy, what is your calling in Life? What are your prayers now, and do you believe in their power? Do you believe?

Rom 9:29  (CEV) Isaiah also said, “If the Lord All-Powerful had not spared some of our descendants, we would have been destroyed like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Rom 9:30  What does all of this mean? It means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that he would accept them if they had faith.
Rom 9:31  It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying to be acceptable by obeying the Law instead of by having faith in God. The people of Israel fell over the stone that makes people stumble,
Rom 9:32  (SEE 9:31)
Rom 9:33  just as God says in the Scriptures, “Look! I am placing in Zion a stone to make people stumble and fall. But those who have faith in that one will never be disappointed.”

I know I have read a lot of verses already today, but I am hoping they grip the strands of your minds and stir up in you a mindfulness of WHO YOU ARE in Christ Jesus.

We have been given a Spirit, a comforter, which prays on behalf of us. Knowing the Lord says He sends such a comforter to us, we should have confidence in our petitions to the Lord.

I hope you all understand that I am not saying we always get what we want when we pray. What we get is what is appointed for us to receive according to the Lord’s will.

The adversary we are facing tells us that prayer doesn’t matter. The adversary that screams from the rooftops to us is the adversary who will show no mercy to you.

However, we are vessels of mercy and vessels of honor to the Lord. His honor is made manifest when we pray to Him in Faith. We must believe we will be answered in order to be acceptable to our Lord.

When we pray without faith are we heard by the Lord?

Pro 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

It is easy to conclude that this is talking about the law in the letter or the law of Moses, but I am supposed to tell you that we are dealing with a different law in the spirit.

Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
Rom 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Gal 6:1  (CEV) My friends, you are spiritual. So if someone is trapped in sin, you should gently lead that person back to the right path. But watch out, and don’t be tempted yourself.
Gal 6:2  You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand.
Gal 6:3  If you think you are better than others, when you really aren’t, you are wrong.

Now, we see there is a law of faith and a law of Christ (the anointed). What are we to do with this liberty found in Jesus Christ and the Faith of Jesus?

Jas 1:22  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Jas 1:23  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
Jas 1:24  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Where this all fits into prayer is that we are commanded to be doers of the Word, and we are told to pray and how to pray. Important to remember though is that we have the Spirit praying for us, making intercession for us in ways we do not even know to pray for ourselves.

A simple way to understand the concept of having intercession made for us is to consider that when we pray for something, it may not be for our spiritual good to receive the things for which we prayed. However, we know the spirit will pray according to the will of God and pray on our behalf.

This should give us bold confidence that we are doing what we are commanded to do when we pray “thy will be done”.

We are to pray and worship in spirit and truth, and we know the Words spoken by the Lord are Spirit.

So then, it is important for us to understand that we can be heard by the Lord when we worship Him in prayer.

When we do this, we are directly countering and working against “another Jesus” in us all. Yes, we all have another Jesus which constantly wants to have us look away from the real Jesus who has come in the flesh…. NOT OF THE FLESH.

1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

How then, do we worship and have our prayers be heard? We must “hear the law” and do it.

Again, we must do the opposite of Proverbs 28:9.

Pro 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

Here is worshipping in Hebrew:

And here is worshipping in the Greek:

G4314 means to be toward or against (as in close to something, right against it) and G2965 translates to “dog”, as in 2 Peter 2:22.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dogG2965 is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Anyone having ever owned a dog or having seen a dog and its master can relate to just how much a dog loves its master.

It is unfeigned, it is unconditional and it is unwavering. That love is ALWAYS there.

We are told in Hebrews to BOW, which would be the relation by which slaves and masters would understand one another.

We are told in Greek to be as a dog, which is ALREADY lower than the master while standing on all fours, and to lick and reference the HAND of our Master.

This is how we worship. We worship this way only in Spirit and Truth. When we worship in spirit and truth, we are doing so by reading and hearing the Word of God and mixing that with Faith.

We worship in spirit and truth as a dog who loves its master simply because He is our Master.

This is the importance of prayer in our lives and how it is we are to pray.

When we pray in this manner and keep our mind focused on the will of God, we will be vessels of mercy and honor to the Lord.

Who can be against us when we pray in such a way? We are the house of prayer which the Lord alone has setup.

]]> The House of Prayer – Part 3: You shall not be as the hypocrites https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-3 Sun, 21 Sep 2014 03:41:55 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=8502

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The House of Prayer – Part 3

You shall not be as the hypocrites

[Posted September 21, 2014]

In part 1 of this series we focused on who is the “house of  prayer” found in Matthew 21:13.  In part 2 we focused on who it is that represents the “den of thieves”.

As we have come to learn with these previous studies, it is scripturally true that we all live being both of these “houses”. We are the den of thieves before we are blessed and caused to become the house of prayer.

In today’s study, we are going to dig into the Word and attempt to find out how it is the “house of prayer” prays for the world, and how we “pray without ceasing”.

“They have their reward”

In the previous study, I heavily concentrated on connecting fasting with prayer. However, before fasting is mentioned in Matthew, and even before we are told how to pray, we are told how NOT to pray.

This is an important aspect to prayer seeing as it came directly from Jesus while He walked this earth.

Mat 6:5  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Then, what is being a hypocrite if being a hypocrite equates to “loving to pray standing in the synagogues” and “in the corners of the streets so that they may be seen of men”?

How is that hypocritical?

The prefix ‘hypo’ means “under”, and a “critic” is a person who judges the merits of something especially in a professional way.

To be an “under” critic simply means to NOT have the ability to “sift or decide.” Here is one of the things Wikipedia says about hypocrisy:

“The word is an amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning “under”, and the verb krinein, meaning “to sift or decide”. Thus the original meaning implied a deficiency in the ability to sift or decide. This deficiency, as it pertains to one’s own beliefs and feelings, informs the word’s contemporary meaning”

Being a hypocrite is the practice of doing the same thing you are critical of others doing.

Why would the hypocrites Jesus is telling us NOT to be like be considered hypocrites in the first place? They were criticizing “praying to be seen of men” and they themselves did not have the integrity and ability to decide they were doing the same themselves.

With all of this in mind, how do we apply this understanding to praying in a closet for the things the Father already knows we need?

How do we apply this understanding to praying on behalf of others in the body of Christ with whom we fellowship, those who “come to us”, and those who are of the world?

Mat 6:8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

If we know the Father knows the things we need before we ask them of Him, why do we need to ASK FOR THEM?

We are instructed in the Word to do so.

Heb 13:18  Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Col 4:1  Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
Col 4:2  Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Col 4:3  Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
Col 4:4  That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

1Pe 4:6  For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
1Pe 4:7  (KJV) But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

1Pe 4:7  (ISV)  Because everything will soon come to an end, be sensible and clear-headed, so you can pray.

1Pe 4:7  (WNT)  But the end of all things is now close at hand: therefore be sober-minded and temperate, so that you may give yourselves to prayer.

1Pe 4:7  (CEV)  Everything will soon come to an end. So be serious and be sensible enough to pray

Since we want to be sensible and clear-minded in prayer so that we can ask for things, whatever those “things” may be, how then do we know how to ask properly?

After all, we want a reward which is NOT the same reward as that given to hypocrites.

Listen then to what James was inspired to preach. This is from the ISV translation.

Jas 4:1  Where do those fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your selfish desires that are at war in your bodies, don’t they?
Jas 4:2  You want something but do not get it, so you commit murder. You covet something but cannot obtain it, so you quarrel and fight. You do not get things because you do not ask for them!
Jas 4:3  You ask for something but do not get it because you ask for it for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.
Jas 4:4  You adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.
Jas 4:5  Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says that the Spirit that God caused to live in us jealously yearns for us?

Is God a jealous God? Does the Spirit lust against the flesh and carnal mind?

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

The comparison being made in Galatians is that of the flesh versus the Spirit. The works of the flesh are being compared AGAINST the fruit of the Spirit.

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

“Pray without ceasing”

How do we ask properly, in the Spirit, for our prayers to be heard and answered by our Father Who is in heaven?

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

We must approach the Lord with a single mind on anything we pray for, and we are told to pray without ceasing.

1Th 5:14  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore.
1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing.
1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.
1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings.
1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.
1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you look at the context from which we are told to pray without ceasing, the context will reveal to us that we are to LIVE the things mentioned in the above verses.

We are to CONTINUALLY be in prayer all of our lives, but the way we read it in the King James appears to tell us to “pray without taking a break,” but that is NOT the meaning and is simply not what is being conveyed.

“Warn … comfort … support … be patient … don’t return evil for evil … follow that which is good … rejoice at all times … pray incessantly … in all things give thanks … despise not prophesying …prove all things … abstain from all appearance of evil…”

To prove that this does NOT mean to “do nothing but pray without stopping”, let us see what Jesus did.

Luk 11:1  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

I mentioned praying incessantly for a reason, and that is because we are to always be praying to the Lord for what we need simply because He places us in situations to need Him.

However, this doesn’t mean pray “around the clock” as is proven by all the things Jesus did that were NOT direct prayer as we understand prayer.

We don’t need to look any further than “how” the Lord taught His disciples to pray. Their request was to be taught to pray by the Lord, just as John had taught his disciples to pray.

Only, Jesus taught them a much different way to pray than what John the Baptist ever could. We have the Luke version of the “Lord’s prayer”, but right after that we see:

Luk 11:5  And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
Luk 11:6  For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
Luk 11:7  And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
Luk 11:8  I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
Luk 11:9  And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Luk 11:10  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Luk 11:11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Luk 11:12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Luk 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

The key to understanding “pray without ceasing” is found in Jesus’ own words in Luke 11:2,  Matthew 6:7 and Mark 11:24; “when you pray….”.

Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Luk 11:2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

When we pray, and this should be a continual LIFE of prayer, we are to pray a certain way.

We are to ask for the Spirit. We are to pray for things which glorify God. All that we do, we do to the glory of God.

So, when we pray for the body of Christ, when we pray for “all men” that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, we do so praying, “According to thy will…thy will be done.”

Since we should now be seeing that prayer is a way of Life, do we pray for the world?

Is “praying for the world” the same as “supplications, prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks for all men” as mentioned in 1 Timothy 2:1-4?

What does the sum of the Word say?

If we are “as He is so are we in this world,” how do we follow Jesus to the cross as it pertains to prayer?

What was Jesus’ prayer on the cross? It was, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  “Them” would be all of humanity.

We must all “prove all things”, so notice this verse:

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Joh 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

It should be self-evident that if Jesus had prayed for His flesh, He would have prayed to not be crucified. However, He prayed, “Thy will be done.” We have been given His Word to know how to do this.

He prays for “us” to be kept from “the evil”.

When we examine this all closely, we know there is something that is in all of the world, and it all leads to sin.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

The love of the Father is to KEEP his commandments. The love of the world is to keep the law working in our members.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

When we pray to the Father for anything, He knows what we need before we ask. He wants us to continually and fervently speak to Him in prayer.

What He wants us to pray for is for His Spirit to cause us to do His will in all things.  Considering this, is it EVIL or WRONG to pray for physical healing, physical bread and water, or anything that benefits our flesh or the flesh of others as long as we have the proper mindset when asking?

The answer is NO.

How can that be?

All that is in the world is in us all, but when we pray, and we pray properly according to Godly prayer, we are NOT PRAYING for the lusts of the flesh to be pampered and nourished so that we can fulfill those lusts.

We are praying that our flesh be nourished and benefitted so that the KINGDOM of God can be represented, and that just like Jesus Christ, we can be used to PRESENT the Kingdom of God to the WORLD in others.

This is how Jesus Himself taught us to pray:

“Our Father which are in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others; lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Look at those different aspects to how we are to pray when we pray. We are told to pray for “daily bread”. Of course this is both physical bread and spiritual bread at the same time.

The Father has caused all that is happening in our world to happen so that He can ultimately fulfill the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth. Jesus came in the likeness of man so that all men will be saved.

Yet, there is still the sum of the word to consider when wondering if we should only pray for those in the body, who we know, or should we also pray for those who are sent to us to pray for.

Let us see what the Word says.

Mat 8:2  And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mat 8:3  And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Mat 9:18  While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Mat 9:20  And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

Mat 9:27  And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.
Mat 9:28  And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Mat 9:32  As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

Mat 9:36  But when HE SAW the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

There is an undeniable pattern that has been so beautifully laid out for us if we only take hold on it.

It is when “there came” those in front of Jesus, that those which were BROUGHT to Him were given the blessing of having been brought to Jesus for HEALING.

Now I know this is speaking of physical healing, and we know, even from the sum of this series, that spiritual “greater things than these” are where our focus should always be.

However, if someone has been sent to us who is in need of physical bread because they are STARVING to death, and we give them spiritual bread instead/only, how can we possibly consider that as loving our neighbor as ourselves?

Jas 2:14  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
Jas 2:15  If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
Jas 2:16  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Jas 2:17  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

We must have works that go along with the Faith with which we have been gifted. Only, the works are the works of Him who has SENT US and not our own works.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Joh 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Joh 20:23  Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Whenever someone is sent to us, to come before us in Spirit, we know that it is NOT a coincidence. All things are worked and caused by the Lord.

As such, we must recognize that when we “see the multitudes”, it is because we have been placed into the position to “see them”.

We cannot have the mindset to simply not pray for them because they are not “of us” when one who is not “of us” asks for prayer. We must be “as He is” and be moved with compassion in prayer.

Here is the reason we are given.

Mat 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

We do not know which leper of the “ten lepers” placed in our path will come back to say, “Thank you for praying for me.” What we do know though, is that whatever we are presented with in our daily walks with Jesus is placed there so we can be laborers in His harvest.

We are not to be as the hypocrites are and simply appear to pray when what is truly needed is a life of Godly prayer. In this, the Lord will cause us to be used mightily for His kingdom.

In the next study, we are going to search the scriptures to see how the Holy Spirit we have been given helps us in prayer, and how the entire “house of prayer” interacts with “another Jesus”.

[Next study in this series is here.]

]]> The House of Prayer – Part 2: The power believers have been given https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-2 Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:50:36 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=8484

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“The House of Prayer” – Part 2

The power believers have been given

Posted September 14, 2014

In the first part of this series, we focused on the important aspect of the “house of prayer” being the temple of God and those in whom the Spirit dwells.

While we have all learned many ways to pray in our Christian lives, there are specific guidelines to how we are to look at and apply prayer in our lives as “disciples indeed”.

Yes, we are to be disciples “in deed.” (Truly)

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

“Worship in the Lord’s house”

Jer 26:2  Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

Today we are going to focus on the ‘words commanded’ and spoken concerning how we handle prayer and how we worship in Spirit and Truth concerning prayer in our daily lives.

In this second part of the series, we are going to look at scriptural witnesses and scriptural instructions on how to worship the Father through our prayer.

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship” The contrast being made today will be between “you know not what you worship” versus “we know what we worship”.

The focus on Part 1 was on those who are of the house of prayer, but that group was being contrasted with another group.

When I say “group”, the true spiritual contrast is being made between the natural and the spiritual, the old and new man, the first Adam versus the second Adam.

The house of prayer is compared against a den of thieves.

Mat 21:13  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a denG4693 of thieves.

I ask everyone reading this if “ye” is you? Have you made the house of prayer a den of thieves? Before you answer that, let us examine the thieves who live in a den versus a house.

Here are a couple of examples of where this word ‘den’ appears in the New Testament:

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy: ) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The first example is of those who receive a good report through faith, but they don’t receive the promise. Yet, we know there is only One Faith. The promise we are given concerning Faith is to partakers of the “One Faith”. We’ll get to that in a little while.

The second example is of those who ‘tell the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Jesus Christ.’

So, what separates the thieves who are a den of thieves from those who are the house of prayer as “receiving the promise”?

Luk 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Luk 24:46  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
Luk 24:47  And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Through the Spirit, I will attempt to connect what worship, Truth, Spirit and prayer have to do with one another.

We just read that those who worship God, who is Spirit, must do so in Spirit and in Truth. Therefore, we must know and understand what this means. Otherwise, how can we ever presume to be praying properly so that we are heard by God?

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

So, the Words spoken by Jesus are Spirit and Life. It is also true that Jesus is Truth.

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

How does someone come to Jesus?

“No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father….” And “no man cometh to the Father but by Jesus Christ.”

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” says Jesus.

It is not speaking above what is written to combine all of these verses to conclude the spiritual Truth that the Words which Jesus speaks are Spirit and Life, Words which speak the Truth and are the Way to the Father.

As a matter of Truth, Jesus says this to His disciples, after explaining the spiritual Truth of Him being the Way, Truth and Life:

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Joh 14:11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Joh 14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

After explaining the Spirit behind seeing the Father, and who Jesus is in this process, He tells His disciples (indeed) to keep His commandments.

Now that the stage has been set, let us look toward His words as they pertain to being a house of prayer versus a den of thieves.

Joh 10:8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Mat 6:16  Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:17  But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
Mat 6:18  That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

What do thieves do? They break through and steal treasures. However, the treasure we have “laid up” is heavenly.

Why would Jesus mention this in connection to fasting? When we are fasting for the appearance of “giving of ourselves to the Lord” and to be seen of men to be fasting, our reward is EARTHLY. It is for the FLESH in others to see it and think of how “godly” we are, and it is for our flesh and carnal mind to believe we are “doing the works of God”.

When you connect this idea with prayer (fasting and prayer go hand and hand) when telling someone we are “praying for them” or we are “keeping them in prayer” and we are not doing it as if it were we ourselves in this situation needing prayer. We are doing it to give the appearance of true prayer, knowingly or unknowingly.

Those that have come before the true Jesus Christ are those that are thieves. They come through to steal our reward, because by giving us their doctrines, their ways of praying, their examples of how to fast, we have to realize that our home with them is in a cave or den.

It is not the house of prayer we belong to in this situation.

Why am I mentioning fasting and prayer together?

Psa 35:11  False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
Psa 35:12  They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
Psa 35:13  But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
Psa 35:14  I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
Psa 35:15  But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:

Dan 9:3  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, WITH fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Dan 9:4  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Mat 17:19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Mat 17:21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

How then is our fast (Jesus and His mind concerning fasting) directly coupled with our prayer?

Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and THAT YE break every yoke?

Said in the CEV translation:

Isa 58:4  You even get angry and ready to fight. No wonder God won’t listen to your prayers!
Isa 58:5  Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship?
Isa 58:6  I’ll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused!

What the prayers of the “house of prayer” are coupled with is the POWER we have been given to free those who are bound to wickedness, take away heavy burdens, to let those who are oppressed go free from their oppressors and to break every yoke weighing someone down.

What do we do these things with? We do it with the Word of God! We couple the Word of God with prayer!

In not so many words, we comfort those in need of prayer with the Word of God, with the Shepherd in us, by speaking to them in a voice they understand (His voice), and we let them know we are petitioning the Father on their behalf in BELIEF that “His will be done”.

“Disciples Indeed”

How do we do this? How do we act on what Jesus tells us to do with prayer? Will His example give us any direction?

Joh 11:35  Jesus wept.
Joh 11:36  Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
Joh 11:37  And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
Joh 11:38  Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a caveG4693, and a stone lay upon it.
Joh 11:39  Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Joh 11:40  Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Joh 11:41  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 11:43  And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Joh 11:44  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Have you ever asked yourself how it is Jesus was heard of the Father? It is obvious that Jesus prayed to the Father in secret, but then thanked the Father openly for being heard.

What was Jesus’ prayer coupled with? “Take away the stone…loose him and let him go”. If you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

Before I am misquoted or misunderstood, am I saying that if a person simply believes something when praying for it then that belief will be granted to them?

No, I am not saying that at all.

True Faith only comes from one place, Jesus – the Word of God – and that is why it is so important for the eye to be single.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Eph 4:4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5  One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7  But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

In a previous study, I spoke about grace heavily as it pertains to God working His awesome hands in our lives.

In particular, I compared the Sea of Galilee being north of the dead sea to the spiritual concept that if we have the waters of the Jordan flowing through the Sea of Galilee from north to south, the Sea of Galilee is flowing with life.

The sea of Galilee is where Jesus called disciples to follow Him (Mat 4:17-20). It is where He healed people of various afflictions (Mat 7:31-37) including deafness and dumbness, cast out unclean spirits (Mar 1:23-27), and performed many more miracles including feeding the masses with five loaves of bread and two SMALL fishes.

In Mark 1:35, after having done many miracles, Jesus showed us the importance of prayer.

Mar 1:34  And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
Mar 1:35  And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

I mentioned the Sea of Galilee to point out that it has an inlet and an outlet for the Jordan River waters which flow through it.

However, when the Jordan River exits out of the south of the Sea of Galilee, those waters travel for a distance south and empty into the Dead Sea which has no outlet.

If we are given anything of the Lord whether it be One faith, One baptism, One Spirit, One calling, our One Lord, One Hope, or One God and Father of All, and we do not have an outlet for it, we will be as the Dead Sea.

We become stagnant and lifeless, and nothing flows out of us. How can we be the “house of prayer” and not a “den of thieves” if this is true of us?

How this applies to prayer is that the Lord places a “dead Lazarus”, who someone cares about, in front of us. He places a “deaf and dumb” person in front of us to say “Ephphatha, that is, Be opened,” so that they are healed and raised from the dead.

If we are among the dead, as typified in the Dead Sea, how then can we so these things? However, if “Christ be in you”, you can do ALL THINGS through Him who strengthens you.

Prayer is our realizing that we are ALWAYS HEARD.

How do we know this to be true?

Joh 11:42  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Pro 8:32  Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
Pro 8:33  Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
Pro 8:34  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Pro 8:35  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

There it is! When we are dragged to the Father, through Jesus and the Words of God, we are to DO THE Words! When we do them, we are building our house (the house of prayer) on a foundation which cannot be shaken.

When we are given to come to the Lord to hear His sayings, we can be confident that we are being heard by the Father when we pray to Him.

Our confidence comes in knowing that we answer all things according to the SAME EXAMPLE Jesus gave us and lived by.

“I came to do the works of my Father …. Thy will be done.”

If you have any doubt that the Father hears our prayers always, then weigh your prayers against the way in which Jesus taught us to pray. Here is where we have been given power.

Mat 6:5  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Mat 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.
Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Have Faith. Our Father knows what things we ALL NEED before we EVER ASK HIM for them. We are presented with a tremendous power to be able to PRAY for ourselves and others, and when we pray, we pray in Spirit and Truth when our prayer is “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

This is True Worship. We acknowledge that all things are being worked after the counsel of His own will.

In the next study, I am hoping that the Lord will bless me to speak about how or why we are, or are not, to pray for the world, how we are to pray or not for the “earth, earth, earth” and how we are to practically “pray without ceasing”.

[Next study in this series is here.]

]]> The House of Prayer – Part 1: Introduction https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-house-of-prayer-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-house-of-prayer-part-1 Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:22:19 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=8387

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“The House of Prayer” – Part 1

August 31, 2014

Prayer is often times something very intimate to each of us as we relate to God the Father.

There are many religions around the world which pray as part of their traditions, but as being Christians, like Christ, we must strive to keep the commandments of the Lord and seek to serve the Lord in the ways He has ordained that we seek and serve Him.

Prayer is ultimately our way of connection and communicating with God. Through prayer, we keep our minds and hearts focused on the Lord and on His people.

We sacrifice time; time given to us by the very one to whom we pray, and by making such an important sacrifice, we draw closer to our creator.

Throughout this series, we are going to focus on the many facets of prayer, how it applies to our lives as Christians, why we pray, how we pray and ultimately to whom it is we pray.

“The Temple of God”

God’s people are His house, and His house is called a house of prayer.

Mat 21:12  And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
Mat 21:13  And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Mat 21:14  And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

Again, in Mark we see:

Mar 11:15  And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
Mar 11:16  And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
Mar 11:17  And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Mar 11:18  And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

The reference for God’s “house of prayer” is found in the book of Isaiah.

Isa 56:5  Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6  Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

Given that we have all experienced different formalities on how to execute prayer, have seen many Christians in our past experiences do this or do that when praying, and have many varied examples of how we have prayed ourselves, let us now focus on what the New Testament examples are on prayer and how it is that “we are the house of prayer.”

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

We are the temple of God where God dwells.

As with all things in scripture there are negative and positive applications to scripture, natural and spiritual things to consider and the sum of the Word to weigh those things against.

For example, “our body” is the temple of God individually, but so, too, is the body of Christ (our bodies and His body) the temple of God.

This first part of the series is going to cover this aspect of the house of prayer.

Contrary to what most Christians have been taught or think on their own, God does NOT hear all prayers and petitions made to Him.

Jer 11:14  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Eze 8:18  Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Mic 3:4  Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

Additionally, just because you may see the word “prayer” mentioned in English, it is not always apparent that ‘prayer’ is what is being talked about in any given verse.

So, it takes us being Bereans and digging into scripture to find what has been hidden there for us to be shown.  I hope you have your shovels ready :]

“Pray, Prayer, Praying, Prayed”

According to e-Sword, there are 306 verses in the Old and New Testaments that the English word “pray” is mentioned in scripture.

There are 107 verses for the word “prayer”, 20 verses for “praying” and 65 for “prayed”.

I think you’ll agree that is a lot of times that pray, prayer, praying and prayed are mentioned (498 times).

In contrast, the English word “heaven” is mentioned in 551 verses. As you can tell, “prayer” is a very important topic and subject which scripture addresses a lot.

As for addressing all of these scriptures on praying in this series, it simply is not going to be exhausted within this series. There are going to be many thoughts come about from whatever the Lord inspires us all to collectively “hear” and “see” regarding this topic.

For me, I will share with you all what I have been given to share on this topic.

On the surface of it, what then is “prayer”? Well, that is a multi-faceted answer which I hope we can address in this series, but I think there is a group of scriptures that bear out this multi-faceted answer as well as any others.

They are not all that can be said on this, of course, but it is as good a place to start as any.

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Jas 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
Jas 5:12  But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them prayG4336 over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Jas 5:15  And the prayerG2171 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1172 of a righteous man availeth much.
Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayedG4336, G4335 earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Jas 5:18  And he prayedG4336 again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Starting with these verses, we are going to set the foundation for the rest of this series. We have a plethora of witnesses to other examples of what “prayer” means to us as Christians today.

We know that all of these English words have a foundation in Greek. However, we are going to only look at the Greek for as much as it is necessary to determine the Spirit behind what we just read, and we are going to try to keep it in context of “prayer” in the house of prayer.

We will start in these verses with the mention of the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, and we are to take them as an example of suffering affliction and having patience.

When these prophets suffered, they spoke in the name of the Lord, and they spoke about things which must be fulfilled.

Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

The next verse in James gives us an example and that is about Job. It references Job as “counting them happy which endure”. Job is happy because he has, “seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

We know from scripture that the Lord works all things after the counsel of His own will, so when we see the end of the Lord, we see that He has willed that we see His pity and His tender mercy.

We need to couple that with a warning, a commandment, on how to view prayer which comes in the following verses in James, starting in verse 12.

Jas 5:12  But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

In other words, the Lord is sovereign and in control so it is not our place to swear or give an oath, but in what context are these things being told to us?

“Use the example of suffering affliction and patience …. count them happy who endure …. and do not make an oath or swear anything.”

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

The answer to being afflicted is to “pray”?

The Greek word used here in English as “pray” is “pros-yoo’-khom-ahee” and it has a root in G4314 and G2172.

A strengthened form of G4253:

So, one of the roots of “pros-yoo’-khom-ahee” is to be in front of, prior to, and before, but in front of, prior to, or before what?

We will answer that in a moment, but we’ll first look into the second root of G4336, “yoo’-khom-ahee”.

Here are the uses of this word in scripture in context.

A few examples of wish are:

Rom 9:3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
2Co 13:9  For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

3Jn 1:1  The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

The same word translated as “pray” is:

2Co 13:6  But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
2Co 13:7  Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

With the root of these words being established, we can see a clear scriptural example of what G4336 means.

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.G4336 Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

So, the answer to affliction is to pray/wish (they mean the same thing) PRIOR TO, BEFORE the will of the Lord is made manifest in a matter.

Examples of this would be affliction that is sent to us in the form of a trial such as financial problems, health issues, emotional or spiritual struggles, etc.

Before we know how these things will end up for us, we are to pray before the will of the Lord is made manifest for whatever the situation the Lord has us in.

Moving along as another example of this we see this in the next verse:

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them prayG4336 over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

“Let them pray over him anointing him with OIL/SPIRIT in the name of the Lord.”

There are articles posted on Is, Was and Will Be that deal with oil and what it means, but oil relates to the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the power of God.

For a review of oil, please visit:

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-wise-took-oil/

The same Greek word as mentioned here as “pray” is G4336. So, let’s move on to the next example.

Jas 5:15  And the prayerG2171 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1162 of a righteous man availeth much.

The Greek word G2171 actually means “vow”.  The word used here in the Greek G2171 comes from G2172, meaning wish/pray, as we have already covered.

“A votive obligation” is the focus of verse James 5:15, but that bar is raised from a “vow” which shows an immature understanding of the sovereignty of God versus a mature understanding of the sovereignty of God.

G2171 is from G2172:

“Middle voice” means to act upon itself or for its own benefit. An example of this is “Steven bought himself a car”.

So, the implication of this thought or idea is that when we pray for another we are praying for OURSELVES. We are praying for our OWN BODY.

If I petition the Lord to heal me of my arm being broken or for my strep throat to be healed, I am praying for my OWN BODY to be healed.

Likewise, when I pray for “another to be healed” I am praying FOR MY OWN BODY to be HEALED!

Here are the two commandments of the Lord:

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

That isn’t the sum of what we are being told in this chapter.

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and prayG2172 one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayerG1162 of a righteous man availeth much.

“The effectual fervent (ENERGY) BEGGING of a righteous man availeth much.”

Why do I say begging instead of prayer? The Greek word used here is G1162 which has a root of G1189.

When we BEG for our own deliverance, we do so with a very intentional purpose. When we BEG for and petition the Lord on behalf of the body, we are fulfilling the commandment of the Lord to LOVE our neighbor as ourselves.

This can only be done with the maturity the Lord brings our way as we go from immature Christians asking for the basics to mature Christians asking for EVERYTHING knowing the Lord works it all.

James 5:15 and 5:16 show us a contrast in making a vow versus fervently begging the Lord, i.e. “I will make a vow of faith to you Lord if only you do x, y, and z” VERSUS “I BEG you Lord to listen to my petition (of which you have placed in my heart and mind to pray).”  If this is doubtful in your mind, the next verse re-emphasizes this point.

Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayedG4336, G4335 earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Jas 5:18  And he prayedG4336 again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Did you recognize the voice of the True Shepherd in those last two verses?

If one errs from the Truth and is CONVERTED from the ERROR of “HIS WAY”, he shall be SAVED FROM DEATH, and a multitude of SINS shall be HIDDEN.”

“Whatsoever is not of Faith is SIN…and the WAGES of Sin is DEATH”.

“Conclusion of Part 1 of ‘The House of Prayer’”

The conclusion of this study is the emphasis on converting our brother or sister through FERVENT/BEGGING prayer.

We can pray for the things that we need on a daily basis like Elias did for rain, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that according to scripture, but the prayer we are after is a prayer that brings ONLY Truth from the one praying.

In other words, we want Jesus Christ to be the only one that matters in all situations, and there are very particular instructions on how to know we are following this path of righteousness versus our own righteousness.

When we pray, we are to pray a certain way, and that will be the focus of our next study in this series.

Again, there are many, MANY facets to prayer and praying and we have only began to scratch the surface.

Next study, we will continue to “hear” and “see” the voice of the True Shepherd as it relates to us petitioning our heavenly Father in prayer, Lord willing.

[The next study in this series on prayer is here.]

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