Why Spend Time in a Prayer Room? (and what do you pray for anyway?)
There is a very simple reality that is essential to understand if you want to know how to navigate the next years successfully.
This reality is why Samantha and I spend the vast majority of our time in a prayer room. We don't pray because we are 'good with God'. We actually pray because we aren't !
This is the basic truth of the gospel: Jesus paid for us to enter in to a new life. That new life requires a different leader. What Jesus bought on the cross was a reconnection to God by the Holy Spirit. "Getting saved" means signing up for this reconnection. However, this reconnection is VERY costly. How much will it cost in terms of your time and money, dreams, worldly success, reputation, standing among your peers?...
...well, everything. It will literally cost you all of that. But, it will get you a satisfying, pure, clean, and free life of meaning, power, and joy.
Everyone has to decide for themselves if it is worth it. The process of following Jesus is entirely voluntary...each step of the way. The most important and crucial step in this process is entering the very narrow gate of Jesus' payment for the reconnection. Jesus is the only way to the communication necessary to lead you into eternal life. He does this by giving those who sign up for the reconnection the Holy Spirit.
When you 'get saved', what happens is you get filled with the Holy Spirit. That means the Spirit of Jesus takes up residency inside YOUR spirit.
If you get saved, you literally get possessed. Not possessed by a demon or angelic spirit...no...by the Spirit of God. God never violates love. That means the Holy Spirit will reside in as much of you as you give Him. But, if you haven't given Him any leadership, you haven't really gotten saved. Even if you said a salvation prayer. Even if you got baptized. Even if you go to church and hang out with Christian friends. Even if you listen to Misty Edwards, Amy Grant, or Petra and try to act like Todd White...if you didn't give any leadership space inside of you to Jesus, you didn't get saved. (If you never gave leadership space to Jesus, you can do that right now. Just tell Him you want Him to lead you, ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and then enter in to the process of trying to hear the Spirit with your heart and the Bible.)
If you DID give some leadership space to the Holy Spirit, you entered into the process of salvation. This process is worked out over time. We work out our own salvation. By trying to give more leadership space to the Spirit of God.
Rebirth happens the same way death happened. First, when Adam and Eve sinned, the Spirit left their spirit then mankind's heart (mind, will, and emotions) began drifting further and further from the leadership of God...finally their bodies died. God's original design was for bodies to live forever.
Salvation reverses this process. The spirit of a person gets reconnected with the presence of the Spirit of Jesus. Then, we invite the leadership of Jesus into more and more of our thinking, feeling, and will. Eventually, as Jesus leads us more and more, we get filled with more life, free of more sin, joy touches our emotions, hope touches our thinking, and humility begins to direct our will. The more of myself I give, the more of Jesus I get, and the more 'right' life feels in the Spirit. But, the more it 'costs' me of what the world cares about. The world presses back against this....especially the worldly church. This is called a cross. No cross=no Jesus leadership. Jesus' leadership guarantees a cross.
Matthew 16:23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” 24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
This is the 'good news', or what we call the gospel. It is pretty simple. It's just you taking to Jesus through the Spirit and trying to hear Jesus through the same Spirit, and then obeying Him the best you can. This causes you to 'bear fruit' (which means to become more like Jesus). This process of coming under Jesus' leadership is the way, or narrow road, to eternal life.
Matthew 7:13“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
This brings us to the basic reality that will help you navigate the coming years. The basic reality is this: There is a great and overwhelming need raising up in the earth. The pain of a world rejecting Jesus leadership is culminating in a great increase in famine, death, fatherlessness, lack of water, war, disease, hatred, division, strife, envy. This overwhelming need is going to result in a serious pressure for self leadership.
What I mean is many are, in impatience, starting to believe that we can't wait for an invisible savior to come and rescue us, and that if we could just unite, we could change the world to relieve the pressure. This, unfortunately, will result in less of Jesus' leadership and even more trouble. This is judgment: God giving people over to their own leadership as they reject Him.
The answer to that trouble is to get serious about getting as much of Jesus' leadership as you can....kind of like getting a lifetime's worth of Jesus' leadership in a few years.
This happens by prayer. But, what do we pray for? Well, we pray for all the places we, individually, resist Jesus leadership, and then we gain humility and clarity to pray for places where we see others could benefit from Jesus' leadership.
This happens corporately and individually, but the Bible says the corporate part is the answer to the end times:
Israel is being shaken among the nations right now. That is why so much darkness is increasing in the nations. It will get much worse. The answer is the gospel. There is no new plan, just a really good reason to do what we were always supposed to do anyway!
This is called 'abiding'...staying in the conversation with Jesus, by the Spirit (which is like the sap that flows between vine and branch.)
John 15:1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Just gathering together is different than abiding together. These are the questions we have to ask ourselves about our gatherings:
1. Are they focused on repentance and sanctification?
2. Do they focus on intercession first for ourselves, then for others in humility?
3. Are they increasing in consistency and frequency...is hunger a fruit of the meetings?
4. Am I hearing Jesus more and expressing His Spirit more, or less?
5. Am I growing in the fruit of the Spirit as I meet with others?
6. Am I willing to be more transparent in a corporate gathering as Jesus' return nears (James 5:16)?
This reality is why Samantha and I spend the vast majority of our time in a prayer room. We don't pray because we are 'good with God'. We actually pray because we aren't !
This is the basic truth of the gospel: Jesus paid for us to enter in to a new life. That new life requires a different leader. What Jesus bought on the cross was a reconnection to God by the Holy Spirit. "Getting saved" means signing up for this reconnection. However, this reconnection is VERY costly. How much will it cost in terms of your time and money, dreams, worldly success, reputation, standing among your peers?...
...well, everything. It will literally cost you all of that. But, it will get you a satisfying, pure, clean, and free life of meaning, power, and joy.
Everyone has to decide for themselves if it is worth it. The process of following Jesus is entirely voluntary...each step of the way. The most important and crucial step in this process is entering the very narrow gate of Jesus' payment for the reconnection. Jesus is the only way to the communication necessary to lead you into eternal life. He does this by giving those who sign up for the reconnection the Holy Spirit.
When you 'get saved', what happens is you get filled with the Holy Spirit. That means the Spirit of Jesus takes up residency inside YOUR spirit.
If you get saved, you literally get possessed. Not possessed by a demon or angelic spirit...no...by the Spirit of God. God never violates love. That means the Holy Spirit will reside in as much of you as you give Him. But, if you haven't given Him any leadership, you haven't really gotten saved. Even if you said a salvation prayer. Even if you got baptized. Even if you go to church and hang out with Christian friends. Even if you listen to Misty Edwards, Amy Grant, or Petra and try to act like Todd White...if you didn't give any leadership space inside of you to Jesus, you didn't get saved. (If you never gave leadership space to Jesus, you can do that right now. Just tell Him you want Him to lead you, ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and then enter in to the process of trying to hear the Spirit with your heart and the Bible.)
If you DID give some leadership space to the Holy Spirit, you entered into the process of salvation. This process is worked out over time. We work out our own salvation. By trying to give more leadership space to the Spirit of God.
Rebirth happens the same way death happened. First, when Adam and Eve sinned, the Spirit left their spirit then mankind's heart (mind, will, and emotions) began drifting further and further from the leadership of God...finally their bodies died. God's original design was for bodies to live forever.
Salvation reverses this process. The spirit of a person gets reconnected with the presence of the Spirit of Jesus. Then, we invite the leadership of Jesus into more and more of our thinking, feeling, and will. Eventually, as Jesus leads us more and more, we get filled with more life, free of more sin, joy touches our emotions, hope touches our thinking, and humility begins to direct our will. The more of myself I give, the more of Jesus I get, and the more 'right' life feels in the Spirit. But, the more it 'costs' me of what the world cares about. The world presses back against this....especially the worldly church. This is called a cross. No cross=no Jesus leadership. Jesus' leadership guarantees a cross.
Matthew 16:23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” 24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
This is the 'good news', or what we call the gospel. It is pretty simple. It's just you taking to Jesus through the Spirit and trying to hear Jesus through the same Spirit, and then obeying Him the best you can. This causes you to 'bear fruit' (which means to become more like Jesus). This process of coming under Jesus' leadership is the way, or narrow road, to eternal life.
Matthew 7:13“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
This brings us to the basic reality that will help you navigate the coming years. The basic reality is this: There is a great and overwhelming need raising up in the earth. The pain of a world rejecting Jesus leadership is culminating in a great increase in famine, death, fatherlessness, lack of water, war, disease, hatred, division, strife, envy. This overwhelming need is going to result in a serious pressure for self leadership.
What I mean is many are, in impatience, starting to believe that we can't wait for an invisible savior to come and rescue us, and that if we could just unite, we could change the world to relieve the pressure. This, unfortunately, will result in less of Jesus' leadership and even more trouble. This is judgment: God giving people over to their own leadership as they reject Him.
The answer to that trouble is to get serious about getting as much of Jesus' leadership as you can....kind of like getting a lifetime's worth of Jesus' leadership in a few years.
This happens by prayer. But, what do we pray for? Well, we pray for all the places we, individually, resist Jesus leadership, and then we gain humility and clarity to pray for places where we see others could benefit from Jesus' leadership.
This happens corporately and individually, but the Bible says the corporate part is the answer to the end times:
Hebrews 10:22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. 26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
How do I know what to pray for specifically? The answer comes from the conversation with Jesus! Prayer produces more prayer. I get serious about the conversation with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and the Bible. The Bible, when illuminated by the Holy Spirit, shows me where the Spirit is separate from my heart. It shows me the divide. Then I pray that Jesus and I would not be separate, but rather one:
Hebrews 4:11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Letting Jesus' word and Spirit search me and then lead me is called 'entering in' to rest. This is the main point of a prayer room: entering in together and stirring each other up to get ready to meet Jesus by learning to admit where we aren't in His leadership right now. This gives a standing to intercede for others who are outside of Jesus' leadership in truth...not hypocritically calling others into something I am not really in myself.
This makes the person who does it ready to be at peace, calm, and clear when the world is blowing up and gathering in confusion.
This is why a prayer room, or David's Tabernacle is a safe place in the shaking of the world:
Amos 9:9“For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.
10All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
11“On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old;
How do I know what to pray for specifically? The answer comes from the conversation with Jesus! Prayer produces more prayer. I get serious about the conversation with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and the Bible. The Bible, when illuminated by the Holy Spirit, shows me where the Spirit is separate from my heart. It shows me the divide. Then I pray that Jesus and I would not be separate, but rather one:
Hebrews 4:11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Letting Jesus' word and Spirit search me and then lead me is called 'entering in' to rest. This is the main point of a prayer room: entering in together and stirring each other up to get ready to meet Jesus by learning to admit where we aren't in His leadership right now. This gives a standing to intercede for others who are outside of Jesus' leadership in truth...not hypocritically calling others into something I am not really in myself.
This makes the person who does it ready to be at peace, calm, and clear when the world is blowing up and gathering in confusion.
This is why a prayer room, or David's Tabernacle is a safe place in the shaking of the world:
Amos 9:9“For surely I will command, And will sift the house of Israel among all nations, As grain is sifted in a sieve; Yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.
10All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
11“On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old;
Israel is being shaken among the nations right now. That is why so much darkness is increasing in the nations. It will get much worse. The answer is the gospel. There is no new plan, just a really good reason to do what we were always supposed to do anyway!
This is called 'abiding'...staying in the conversation with Jesus, by the Spirit (which is like the sap that flows between vine and branch.)
John 15:1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Just gathering together is different than abiding together. These are the questions we have to ask ourselves about our gatherings:
1. Are they focused on repentance and sanctification?
2. Do they focus on intercession first for ourselves, then for others in humility?
3. Are they increasing in consistency and frequency...is hunger a fruit of the meetings?
4. Am I hearing Jesus more and expressing His Spirit more, or less?
5. Am I growing in the fruit of the Spirit as I meet with others?
6. Am I willing to be more transparent in a corporate gathering as Jesus' return nears (James 5:16)?
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