“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:7
Wouldn’t it be great to see a diverse community of Christians gather together to worship and seek the God who loves to be found! The agenda is very straightforward – we simply need to make time and space to worship and engage with God – nothing more, nothing less.
Psalm 86 says, “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify your name for ever.” Humanity was created to worship God – that is our calling. We usually think of worship as the corporate act of singing songs or standing in a church. This is true, but it is also a lot more than that – it is a lifestyle. A.W. Tozer describes it as an “. . . everlasting preoccupation with God.” In other words every choice that we make; our every word and action should flow from a constant desire to please God.
Scripture also clearly shows us that worship can be the greatest weapon we possess. There are many Biblical accounts of worship being used to change situations, and transform the landscape. In the 21st Century worship has lost none of its power; unfortunately, the church has often failed to grasp fully the potential that there is when a body of believers begin to place Jesus at the centre of their attention and to cry out to him.
This should be the mandate for the body of Christ, to make space to rediscover the pleasure and power that there is when we interact with our heavenly Father; when we really fulfil the purpose for which we were created. It is also to encourage a unity in worship between people of different church backgrounds. Haggai chapter 1 clearly shows that it is only when the people of God learn what it means to work together, in unity of mind and purpose that the “house of God” will be built. It is about building his holy temple of worship rather than our own houses.
FOUNDATIONS
Biblical
Our focus as God’s people should to be on Worship and Intercession, which is the concentrated worship that flows into intercession because it carries the prayers of God’s people, like the fragrance of incense, before God’s throne. As a result, God releases His power to accomplish His purposes for the harvest. Simply put, as Mike Bickle once defined intercession – “God tells us what to pray, we pray it back to him and he does it!”
We can find a description of this in the Book of Revelation:
“…And when the Lamb had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…” (Revelation 5:8-10)
What we see here are worshippers gathered together with harps (which are the symbols of worship) and bowls (which are the symbols of prayer and intercession). This combination of worship and prayer (“Harp & Bowl”) releases the presence of God to bring transformation to communities, and is being experienced and encouraged increasingly across the globe.
Around 1000 BC, King David established a tabernacle in Jerusalem and set a precedent of night and day worship before the Lord that continued at various times throughout Israel and Judah’s history. Each time this order of worship was reintroduced, spiritual breakthrough, deliverance and military victory followed. David writes in Psalm 22 “…you [God] are enthroned in the praises of Israel..”. This worship is the adoration of God by his people that exalts and enthrones him, thereby defeating and dethroning the enemy. In other words, the songs that we sing; the words that we say, and those times we raise our hands and joyfully worship, are not just religious exercises, but if done with a heart of devotion to the living God, are instruments of change. By declaring God’s praises over a situation or community, we are literally enthroning God in the middle of it all. As the glory of God comes in, the darkness has to flee, and transformation can begin.
Bold, persistent prayer is effective. First it changes us. Then it changes the world. Jesus told stories to encourage us to “cry out day and night” (Luke 18) and to persist in prayer.
- Pentecost came to a group of people praying and ‘waiting’.
- Paul urged the Thessalonians to “pray constantly.”
- The early church “joined together constantly in prayer.” (Acts 1-14)
Historical
As we seek to engage with God in this way, we are not alone. King David built a tent, where he placed the Ark of the Covenant, and for almost 36 years ordered that there be worship surrounding it, day and night. David’s generation benefited because of this.
Many years later, monks in Bangor Abbey continued non-stop in Intercessory Worship for 150 years.
In 1727 Count Zinzendorf established the Herrnhut (meaning “watch of the Lord”) in Saxony (modern Germany). He was among a group who agreed to spend one hour each day, at different times, in scheduled prayer. This prayer meeting lasted for more than 100 years and stories of the Moravian Church have become legendary.
You could say that their call was to rebuild David’s Tabernacle, not literally in terms of bricks and mortar, but in the Spirit. Today across the globe, people are being called to do the same and are finding it life-changing.
A VISION WIDER THAN PRAYER:
We can read in Matthew 21 how Jesus entered the Temple and found it had been directed away from its original purposes:
Matthew 21:12-16 (NIV) Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,” ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained [or ‘perfected’] praise’?“
In this passage Jesus sets out the purposes for the ‘house’ he desires to establish on the earth. This will be a place where God’s people will experience the reality of what Jesus said in Luke 18:7-8 “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” His Temple is to be a house of:
Prayer – a place where day and night, God’s people are to be found crying out to him for justice and the Lord’s intervention in the affairs of humanity. In Luke’s version of this incident, just prior to this event Jesus wept over Jerusalem at the devastation he saw – “As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’” (Luke 19:41-44). As God’s people we are to see the state of the world around us and devote ourselves to prayer and seeking his face.
Power – straight after the incident with the money changers, sick people came to present themselves to Jesus and he healed them all. The house that God is building will be recognised as a place of power where the sick are healed and people delivered and restored. Jesus gave his mandate as he quoted from Isaiah 61:1-3 – “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.” Our mandate is no different.
Perfect Praise – Jesus recognised the fact that God’s house is to be a place where he is worshipped; where creative worship by God’s people changes the dynamics of the world around them. In Psalm 22:3 we read of the power behind God’s worshipping people “But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].” (Amplified Bible).
We believe we are at a strategic, ‘Kairos’ moment in our nation at this time, that there is an urgency about this issue and that we, as God’s people, should be committing ourselves to pray for this to come about. We need to hear the Lord together on this and be prepared to lay down our own agendas if necessary in order to see this become a reality. We also believe that the Lord is stirring the hearts of the people he wants to be the initiators of this kind of ministry in the church.
Comments