One day Jesus walks into the temple and sees that there were many things going on, but there was no praying, so He says:
“My house will be called a House of Prayer for all Nations” Mark 11:17
Jesus was saying that the physical temple should NOT be called a house of preaching or a house of praise, nor a house of charity, but His Church should be called a “House of Prayer for all Nations”!
Prayer needs to be your priority. Prayer needs to be the priority of the church. A church that does not pray will die! It’s only a matter of time! Churches that did not pray have died or are about to die. Christians who don’t pray, will die spiritually, it’s a matter of time.
We, the church of Jesus, are in a battle against darkness, if prayer is not priority in our lives, we will be defeated and we will not advance and we are not going to grow in our calling.
Ever since we started this church in 2008 we have been praying for revival. How many of you want revival in your life? How many want more from God? How many want to experience the supernatural of God?
Revival will not come without prayer! You won’t experience much of God without a life of prayer!
“Surely revival delays because prayer decays’ Leonard Ravenhill
We as Church of Christ in Monaghan have the desire to have a House of prayer going 24/7 – praying for this town, praying for revival , praying for salvation of the lost and praying for the Nations.
How many of you would like to see this happening?
In order to do that, we need intercessors, we need volunteers and we need people committed to prayer and with the kingdom of God.
I believe that from this small church (Shalom) , in this small town, will produce a fire that will spread all over Ireland and over the Nations.
Jesus said, my house will be called a house of prayer! His Temple and His Church must be called a House of Prayer!
We must have prayer in the church, but also remember that we are the “temple of God” and your life also should be a house of prayer where the fire of the Holy Spirit is always burning.
“A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.”
Leviticus 6:13 NKJV
God said: I want fire in the altar ! That was in the Old Testament. But today your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body has an altar, a sacred place, and it must either be burning with fire or it is dead.
I’m teaching you about prayer because God has been talking to me about it and something has been happening in my prayer life that I love!
God put into the DNA of His creation a desire to communicate through prayer. That’s why you are going to find that almost everywhere in the world people , in the jungles or remote tribes who have never heard of God or Jesus or the Bible still say prayers to something.
Because there is something inside of us that desires to communicate with God. There is an inner longing for Him.
The same is with God. The only reason He made us was to fellowship and to communicate with us. We were made in His image with the ability to communicate and fellowship with Him.
The Bible gives a beautiful picture of this in Genesis before the fall.
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” Genesis 3:8 NKJV
After their creation, God would come down at the cool of the day and walk through the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, talking, bonding, communicating with them.
Adam and Eve used to talk and pray every day. But they were not praying about their problems, because they had no problem. They were simply being with Him.
They didn’t have any problems, they had no “in-laws”, Adam had no mother in law, 🙂 they didn’t have any children and they didn’t have any financial crises. They were blessed and they had a lot of food to eat.
They were under the blessing of God. They were not under any evil attacks or demonic oppression, they were happy and the only reason that they’d get together with God was so they could simply enjoy each other’s company.
That’s what real prayer is! Real prayer is not bringing your troubles to God. Some people think that praying is for when you get in trouble. But that’s not it. It was never for that, it was supposed to be about fellowship, being together.
Prayer is about this: He walks with me, He talks with me. God says: now it’s our time together, I came just to be with you.
Now I’m really going hit you hard with this next thing. IT IS A SIN NOT TO PRAY!
“Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I SHOULD SIN AGAINST THE LORD IN CEASING TO PRAY for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.” I Samuel 12:23 NKJV
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. I’m telling you that this verse is basically saying “if I cease to pray for you, and pray for this ministry, and pray for these families, and pray for the lost, and pray for this town, I’m sinning against the Lord.
If you forget your prayers, you’re literally forgetting God !
If prayer is not real to you, it means God it’s not real to you.
If you are part of any ministry in our church but have no life of prayer you will not stay in this ministry long, God will remove you because ministry without prayer always fails.
It’s pray or die! It’s pray or dry up ! It’s pray or you become lukewarm, with no fire on the altar!
If you don’t have a prayer life you cannot know God. Without a life of prayer you are going to work on your ministry through your own strength, your own knowledge and gifts and at the end you will fail.
Families that don’t pray together will fail, couples that don’t pray will have a troubled marriage, christians that don’t have a prayer life have a defeated spiritual life.
“Prayer is not preparation for the battle, Prayer is the Battle !”
Leonard Ravenhill
God said : I want a fire in the altar ! Your body is the temple now. How is the fire in the altar of your life? Is there any fire on the altar? Or has the fire gone out?
Prayer must be a priority, the priority of every christian.
When you read the Bible, that’s God talking to you, but when you pray that’s you talking to God. It’s the most important thing that a believer can do is to develop a prayer life.
Every believer needs a consistent, unbroken habit of prayer every day of their lives.
I’m telling you what is vital to have a life that will lead you as a strong christian to a life of victory.
There is always something else you need to do. That’s why Jesus said,
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6 NKJV
When you pray go into your room , go to a solitary place, go to a secret place, a private place, and Jesus adds: SHUT THE DOOR ! Don’t let people interrupt you.
God is saying: This is our time and I must be a priority in your life.
Don’t try go through your busy schedule and hope to fit prayer in. Because you are not going to pray and you will never have a prayer life.
You need to first set a time for prayer and then work everything else into your agenda. Every other priority needs to work around your prayer time.
Prayer must be the priority in your life.
You need a time of prayer. Are you listening to me?
If you don’t have a time of prayer you are not going to fulfil God’s plan, and you won’t make it in the ministry either.
Without prayer you are going to fail! I’m not being mean, I’m telling you the truth. You need a time to pray.
Life runs on schedules. You don’t go to work when you feel like it. We’re always on a schedule. You don’t get up and get ready whenever you feel like it. You have schedules for everything in your life, to get up , go to work, to eat, to study and everything else in your life, except prayer, because it’s not a big deal and it’s not that important to you.
How many of you ever go to work even when sometimes you don’t feel like going?
But you know what I’ve learned? There are times when you are fired up, you’re really excited going in to work, and there are times you go because you have to, but you get paid either way.
That’s how prayer is! God says: if you show up to your time of prayer, if you put the time in, even when you don’t feel like it, you will get rewarded and you will receive more fire in the altar!
Then go to your prayer place even if you don’t feel like it.
When you read the Bible you will see that the greatest miracles in the Bible happened in the HOUR OF PRAYER . It was 9 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, because those were the established prayer times at that period. That is because the prayer times were linked to the offering and sacrifices in the Old Testament.
HOUR OF PRAYER
2 Kings 18:36, Daniel 9:21, Daniel 6:10, Acts 2:15, Acts 3:1 , Acts 10:3
If you do it and establish a time of prayer miracles will start to break out in your life.
Prayer is priority. There is a “time” of prayer and there is a “place” of prayer!
There must be. When the disciples said: “Jesus, teach us how to pray” Jesus took them to a solitary place. The Bible mentions how He used to go to a solitary place to pray many times.
“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
Mark 1:35 NKJV
I can pray anywhere, when I’m working or I can pray in my car! I understand you pray when you are going to work, but – there needs to be a sacred place; it can be a bedroom, your backyard, in your office. You need a prayer place and everyone knows that when you’re in there you shouldn’t be bothered.
Jesus prayed in the mountains often, He found solitary places. He climbed up a mountain, He prayed in the desert, He prayed in gardens a lot, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives.
He did not want to be in public places. He prayed in solitary, private places.
There has been so many experiences with God in my solitary places. I think almost 100% of all experiences I had with God were during my prayer time.
Don’t think that I went to pray because I’m super spiritual or because I was in peace and happy.
No, many times I went to my solitary place because I was anguished, I was troubled , because I was under a great burden, my soul was in pain, my heart was heavy.
Don’t you think your pastors are “Super Man” and “Wonder Woman” , no – we pray because we are weak, we pray because we are tempted, I pray because I face troubles every day, I pray because many times I don’t know what decision should I take.
I pray because I am confronted every day by the devil, by the world , by unbelievers and also by believers.
I pray because my soul is anguished when I look to the church’s situation, because of the lack of commitment of many members of church, my soul is anguished for the lost that are dying and going to hell without Christ.
I’m opening my heart to you, because you may think I’m special and “supper spiritual”, but no I’m not !
A couple days ago my soul was in pain, Fabiana and I went to Rossmore Park and after time of prayer we were quiet and silent before the Lord, just with Him, without saying a word and so God spoke to me and said: Marcio rest, I’m with you in this circumstance and I will give you victory. After that, I still had the problem, but my soul was in peace.
I don’t think your life is so much better than mine that you don’t need to pray! I know we all struggle with our children, family, job and temptations.
““Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”” Matthew 26:41 NIV
The lack of prayer is the reason many are falling into temptations and living a sinful life.
A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. Leonard Ravenhill
You pray or you die! It’s prayer or drying up. If you don’t have a prayer life you cannot know God. Without a prayer life you are going to work your ministry through your own strength, knowledge and gifts and your ministry will get stuck and die.
If you forget your prayers, you’re literally forgetting God !
If prayer is not real to you, it means God it’s not real to you.
How is the fire in the altar of your life? Is there fire on the altar of your life or has the fire gone out?
Beloved ones, we are at the end times, there is another war starting (Russian and Ukraine) and some believers are still sleeping. We are living through hard times now that hell is coming up against us, against the church, and we need to stand in prayer.
Please wake up, I plead with you, I urge you come back to prayer, come back to Church Prayer Meetings, come back to the secret place because prayer should be the priority of your life.
“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
James 4:17 NLT
We need to repent from this sin! We have prayer meetings at many times: in the mornings, we have prayer meetings on Saturday evening, on Sunday before our Service, we have 12 hours of prayer every month of the year (from 7am to 7pm and many don’t care about it and reject prayer!
If you forget your prayers, you’re literally forgetting God !
What is your answer to God today? What will you do about this word received from God?
There is priority in prayer. There is a time of prayer and there is a place of prayer!
What will be your time of prayer? Where will be your place of prayer?
May God bless and make you a House of Prayer!