Building a Culture of Prayer Part 4

Here's where building a culture of prayer gets sticky. Controversial. Theological break down.

We can all agree on the power, purpose and need of prayer. It is a cornerstone of our faith.

Maintaining consistent prayer is difficult. Why? Because it's a labor. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, "The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force."

What kind of violence is the peaceful Jesus advocating? Violence against our flesh. Violence against sin, lies and deception of the enemy. Violence against those who lead us astray.

Prayer and fasting are God's violent measures against the way and will of the world.

And we must be violent about taking our time, thoughts, emotions and will captive to prayer and fasting. To the truth of the Word.

Even so, why? How can a church or city maintain a culture of prayer? Vision. We must have a vision of why and how and for what we are praying day in and day out without seeing results or answers.

The vision comes from two paradigms. The love of Jesus for the church and individual believer as detailed in Song of Solomon. And a correct End of the Age view. Understanding Revelation and the 150 chapters in the Word that talk about Jesus return to the earth for His Bride.

See, I told you it was touchy. You cannot maintain a culture of prayer if you do not know, understand and somewhere along the line encounter the love of Jesus. The kind He talks about in Song of Solomon 4:9. If hearing "you're His favorite one" makes you uncomfortable, then you're falling short of His love and His favor and your place before Him.

How intimate and close can we be with someone we believes looks at us with sadness, disgust or anger? He's not the mad, sad God waiting to punish you. Yet so many of us carry that view. Hard to pray to a God like that.

And how can we maintain a prayer culture if we believe we have no purpose and plan to partner with Jesus for His triumphant return to earth? We do. We are not "out of here" before it all goes down. You have to read all the 150 end time chapters to get some kind of picture.

Yes, Jesus said "we can't know the day or the hour" but we CAN know the season. Too many of us cling to that one verse about "not knowing" and burying our head in the sand. There are also plenty of verses where Jesus admonishes us to be like the sons of Issachar and recognize the times and seasons.

Here's one. Matthew 24 Jesus is telling us how to recognize the end of the age. "Wars and rumors of war. Earthquakes." We've had what, seven or eight earthquakes and a major volcanic eruption this year? Wars and rumors of war. Yep.

We are called to partner with Jesus for His kingdom to come on earth at it is in heaven. Beloved, He's coming here. We're not going "there." He's coming to establish His kingdom. The one He bought and paid for on the Cross.

He's only coming "a second time" once. And that's to judge the quick and the dead, to judge the nations and their kings.

If you think Christianity isn't about politics, read Isaiah. Jesus is King! That's political.

Revelation 22:17 says, "The Spirit and the Bride say come, Lord Jesus." That's our job. To pray with the Spirit, "Lord come."

Are are His ground troops, interceding for the earth like Noah, like Moses, like Joseph for God to come and be with us in our darkest hour.

The end of the age will be brutal and dark.God's people praying, having a culture of prayer, rooted and ground in that amazing love we read about in Song of Solomon, will keep the earth from imploding until He comes at the prescribed time.

Ephesians 3 tells us to pray to be in the love of Jesus which "surpasses" knowledge.

Knowing who you are and where you're going is key to life. It is double key to maintaining and fueling a culture of prayer both in our hearts and in our churches.

Do some reading and researching, studying, get a good study on Song of Solomon and the end times. I recommend resources from IHOP-KC.

Check out what we're doing in my community at MyHOP.

Be blessed!

Building A Culture of Prayer Part 1

In the summer of 2002, several youth pastors in our county gathered to begin what we hoped would be a House of Prayer in our central Florida region.

For six and a half years, we labored in worship and prayer two hours, one night a week. Fire Dweller, as we called our group, grew in numbers. We shrunk in numbers. We changed venues. And eventually, we laid the ministry down.

Not prayer. But the venue of prayer.

It's hard to get people to pray. We have such an individualistic attitude toward prayer. We've taken the "spiritual gifts" test and scored low on intercession and decided "prayer is not my gift."

So we offer shout-outs to God as we drive to work or taking the kids to sports and lessons, as we fall asleep at night. When there's a church wide prayer meeting, we don't go. Too tired. Not my "thing." Leave the prayer to the intercessors.

No wonder the Church is weak and straying from the truth.

Prayer is the cornerstone to every believer, to the life of a church and a church community. Prayer is the force that will save a nation. The prayers of the Elect effect more than the actions of the elected.

Does a quiet bride say, "Talking is not my thing. I'll let the other women talk to my husband?" Ha! Never. Why then are we not talking to our Beloved?

We must engage God in prayer. Jesus said in Matthew 21:13 "My house, will be called a house of prayer." We've become a house of shows and events, a social gospel without power.

Paul writes in Romans 12:12 that we are to be "devoted to prayer." In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are admonished to "pray without ceasing."

Prayer is not a specialty on a personality test. It is not option. It's not something others do while you serve in hospitality or pass out bulletins. Prayer is not a "quiet time" with an Oswald Chambers book for fifteen minutes in the morning. Certainly those things are good, but prayer is heart-to-heart, engaging and encountering God for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

Prayer is work. And we are all called to labor in prayer -- individually and corporately.

After laying down Fire Dweller, my husband and I began to talk to a local pastor about what we could do to build a culture of prayer in our city. How can we encourage all Believers to pray? Revelations 5 and 8 is clear that the bowls in heaven are filled with the prayers of the Saints. And to those prayers, God adds incense from His own altar and hurls it back to earth.

God's purposes are fueled by our prayer. You want change in your life, your family, community and nation, you must pray. There is no way around it.

Think of how much more powerful evangelism, hospitality, serving, loving the poor is if it's bathed in prayer. Our "spiritual gifts" are emboldened by prayer not to be used in place of prayer. How often do we start church programs out of a desire for growth, or out of a need, but without real, face toward heaven prayer?

We need prayer. As we meet with Pastor Tim Franklin and his wife, Kelly, and our senior Pastor Gary Stebbins and his wife, Bonnie, we developed MyHop, a house of prayer in our county that is built on a "culture of prayer."

What is a culture of prayer? Churches and believers praying for the Body of Christ, for our region and country, asking for God's heart and revival.

Our vision is: We desire Brevard County to be a House of Prayer consisting of networked churches and believers committed to night and day corporate prayer.

We network with any church or home meeting with a regularly scheduled prayer meeting. We are have a corporate gathering with all networked churches and prayer meetings the first Friday of every month.

We want praying believers. We want to see the church empowered from on High.

Next: Two keys to fueling prayer. Bridal love and the End Times