A House Prayer

‘Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ (Mat 21:12, 13).

  

Whenever the church gets to a stage where its focus turns from a hungry and a desperate pursuit of God, to a gratification of self and pursuit of personal material needs, the church is in serious need of revival. The focus of the church should be on God and pleasing Him, but not on the sinful nature of self and pleasing it. ‘Christ found some of the courts of the temple turned into a market for cattle and things used in the sacrifices, and partly occupied by the money-changers. Our Lord drove them from the place, as he had done at his entering upon his ministry, John 2:13-17. If Christ came now into many parts of his visible church, how many secret evils He would discover and cleanse! And how many things daily practiced under the cloak of religion, would He show to be more suitable to a den of thieves than to a house of prayer’ (Matthew Henry).

Going through Church history; (from the first century revivals to the Welsh and Azusa street revivals until now), every revival was preceded by a praying church, one that was hungry for more of God. The same principle applies to the church today. If the church can make an impact and prepare the world for Christ’s second coming, we cannot afford to replace prayer with anything else. If Jesus could not make an impact without prayer and is believed to have prayed for about twelve hours in Mat 14:13-25, then the church needs not try achieving anything without a devotion to prayer. Jesus quoted Isaiah 56:7 ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer’ and a portion of Jeremiah 7:11, ‘but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ when He saw what was happening in the temple. When the church gathers in a place of worship as it were in the early church, it is meant to be a time of spiritual fellowship and communion with God, through the sharing of His word and prayer. It is supposed to be a time of spiritual renewal (Acts 6:4).

Whenever a church gives heaven its attention, that church also gets the attention of heaven. Many local churches begin with a strong emphasis on prayer and hearing from God but sometimes the unfortunate happens and the focus gradually shifts to materialism and application of formulas. Their mentality moves from, ‘thus saith the Lord’ to ‘this is what will bring in money and more people’. ‘It doesn’t matter the activity you are involved in, if you are not in touch with the Word and prayer, you soon lose your color (value)’ - D. Oyedepo. The importance of prayer in the church cannot be overemphasized. Our ability to commune with God and hear His directions for the church, is that which makes a church. As the church prays we become sensitive to God’s guidance and the will of God is realized and done on earth as it is in heaven (Mat 6:9-13). The early Church valued prayer and as a result they were empowered and literally guided by God in their day to day endeavors (Acts 2:1-4, Acts 13:1-3).

God is looking for people who will restore the place of prayer in their local churches and bring revivals across the globe; you can be one of those. Thus saith the Lord, ‘And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication…’ (Zech 12:10). Arise and receive the grace for prayer today. The next lesson will be entitled, ‘The Power of a Praying Minister’.