Prayer a way of life

Prayer

Prayer is the easiest to perform yet the most under utilized spiritual discipline.
• You can do it most anywhere and at many different times during the day.
• It requires only that you focus on God
  for a few minutes.
• Yet our busy and distracted lives prevent prayer from having it's transforming impact in our lives.
  
• Now I'm talking about any kind of prayer here.
  • There are many different kinds of prayer.
  • And the Tabernacle Prayer is my favorite by far.
  • But TP is like a college education vs. a grammer school assignment.
  • I believe all prayer is good. And more prayer is better than less prayer.
  • TP will offer a skeleton framework.
    1. Getting it's pattern from the progression the High Priest followed as he approached the Mercy Seat
    2. It provides a framework where the necessary changes in the heart of the intercessor of prayer warrior as prayer is offered,
    3. and petition is made.
  
  

  
  
  This week, a familar verse... an often lost subtlety...revealed in the Amplified version. These kinds of things only apprehend your soul when you are praying them.

  Review in Matthew where the Lord is encouraging us to be prayers:
  
  
  • 
    Mat 7:7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.
    

  Keep on Asking

• 
  There are several profound lessons in this verse that become very clear in the Amplified.
• "Keep on" is one.
  • Your pastor has probably mentioned this from the pulpit a time or too.
  • "Keep on" means "keep on" asking until something happens.
  • "Keep on" until there is peace about it.
  • "Keep on" until a specific answer is clear. Or "keep on" until your heart sees things differently.
• So keep on praying every day about it until something happens.

One or two prayers about a situation vs. "keeping on" says more about your lack of understanding about how prayer works

than it says about God answering prayer.


Now that of course lends itself to the Tabernacle prayer because by practicing the Temple prayer,

the Holy Spirit (your best teacher) teaches you to develop a daily prayer discipline so you get maximum benefit from your time with God.

And more importantly the Lord experiences maximum blessing from your focused and

consistent worship of him according to His pattern of worship.

But there is more in the (amplified) version of this verse:
• Mat 7:7 Keep on asking and it will be given you;
• keep on seeking and you will find;
• keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.
  

  
  Whoa... knock reverently.... what is that? Here the Lord is revealing a secret to approaching Him. God your father, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who formed you in your mothers womb, he deserves reverence.
  

Dictionary says:

reverence - 1 : honor or respect felt or shown : DEFERENCE; especially : profound adoring awed respect

2 : a gesture of respect (as a bow) synonym see HONOR

• We Americans are very poor at honoring or being reverent to anyone.
• Yet God says that if you want to really please him,
• show him the reverence that is due his name... even in prayer.

Now I could write a book about this but suffice it to say in this setting that

there is a proper protocol to approaching the president of the United States.

And there is a proper protocol to approaching God.

I believe that the biblical pattern of reverence is

best revealed in the Tabernacle of Moses and

best exemplified by Jesus Christ.

It is by far the best and most throughly documented pattern of worship in Scripture.

So give it a try and watch what God does when you approach him reverently.

Until next time ... stay in His House!
It's where the action begins!

this is a repost of http://templeprayer.blogspot.com/2007/03/secret-advantage-of-tabernacle-prayer.html

Blessing over Hands

Berakhot ... the Hebrew thought for blessing when used as the "Blessed are you Oh Lord God King of the universe... implies the question ?May I have permission to enjoy this?? as well as Thank you for the provision.
Prayer... implies that I am the one that is changing as the result of this petition..
This is important because we typically pray with the intent to "Get God to do something or change something!!!!"
Torah portion this week promises that God will remove the obstacles (enemies) in the land a little at a time. Seems to indicate that we will have to grow to be able to take over the land (territory.) In prayer we simultaneously change a little to correspond to the the difference between before and after we pray & then we "authorize the forces of our King to move in behalf of us or the ones for whom we pray making creative changes as are necessary to complete the burden of our request."
Faith is that spiritual force that "carries our hope" over the time lapse between the prayer spoken and the prayer actualized.

Putting it altogether we have the thought that the heart felt (emotionally heated) prayer of the righteous man(person) avails (is powerful to accomplish the task) much.

Exodus 23

29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

• 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
  
• 31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.