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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 of 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, way 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:

H7812
shâchâh
BDB Definition:
1) to bow down
1a) (Qal) to bow down
1b) (Hiphil) to depress (figuratively)
1c) (Hithpael)
1c1) to bow down, prostrate oneself
1c1a) before superior in homage
1c1b) before God in worship
1c1c) before false gods
1c1d) before angel

Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root
Same Word by TWOT Number: 2360

And here is worshipping in the Greek:

G4352
proskuneō
pros-koo-neh’-o

From G4314 and probably a derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, that is, (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore): – worship.

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 dog^G2965 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.