Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7.
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Prayer is very special and very sacred to Me. It is the way we personally connect. That is why I speak of it often in My Word. And I give you guidance on what it is and what it is not. And I have given you the gift of the Holy Spirit to pray with you, in you and for you, for you do not always know what to pray for as you ought.
I tell you to pray without ceasing, to look to Me for direction at all times, to entrust your plans and works to Me, to seek wisdom from Me, to intercede for others, to pray My Will into the earth, to ask for good things, to call on Me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things, to keep alert in prayer, and to turn your heart to Me and stay connected to Me.
But there is a certain kind of praying that I do not call prayer at all. My Son, in recounting the story of the two men who went to the temple to pray, said that the Pharisee prayed to himself. His prayer focused only on himself and his own worthiness and did not focus at all on Me. He was not interested in hearing from Me, and did not really believe that he would, and he felt he knew all the requirements of the Law and was keeping them. But he deceived himself.
To pray in a way that changes and enables your life and the lives of others you first of all have to believe that I am listening to you and that I will answer and speak with you. You have to know that I am with you, that when you seek Me you will find Me right there with you, and that I hear the minute you speak to Me, and that in fact, I was already in communication with you and watching over you even when you were not focused on Me, such as when you are sleeping or busy with tasks and talking with other people. Day and night, I am there with you, I never slumber or sleep, and I am listening and I am trying to tell you things that will protect you from harm and direct you in the way you should go at ALL times.
So first you must know I am always focused on you, at all times, and that I am always open to conversation. As it is written, “From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.” Psalm 121:2-3. “The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.” Psalm 121:5-8.
I am committed to you from the moment of your conception in your mother’s womb to all eternity. My loving care and hovering over you never ends, and really, it always was. I have loved you with an everlasting love and before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. Jeremiah 1:5. I chose you before the foundation of the world that you would be holy and blameless before Me. Ephesians 1:4. In My heart you always existed, though the manifestation of your existence came much later at just the appointed time.
Some people think that it is hard to get My attention on them so they go through all kinds of rituals to get in contact with Me and then once they think they have My attention, they never give Me any room to speak with them but just recite prayers by memory and by reading them to Me from a prayer book, or, like the Pharisee, just doing all the talking. I appreciate any efforts to be with Me and honor Me, but just be careful that you are really conversing with Me or you will not advance spiritually in the relationship with Me. My Son warned you about this, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Matthew 6:7-8.
It is fine if you want to petition Me using My Word, in fact that is the way to receive for I watch over My Word to perform it and the angels hearken to My Word, they obey the voice of My Word even in your mouth. And using My Word in prayer and sending it out to the earth and into people’s lives is an excellent way to put My Word to work and to authorize Me to bring it about. I ask you to pray for My Kingdom to come and My will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. I want you to take the dominion I have given you over the earth and bring My Kingdom to earth.
Prayer is an attitude of the heart. It is a flow of honor, fellowship, partnership, intercession, worship, revelation, revitalization, and impartation. In prayer we develop in maturity of relationship where each knows the other and walks in the beauty and integrity of that relationship. It becomes a mutual exchange where you call on Me and receive mercy, grace and help in time of need and I call on you when I need you to intercede in prayer or to take action in the earth for Me. Like I did with Moses to deliver and lead the Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt to the freedom and abundance of the Promised Land. There are times when I will need you to stand and declare things, witness to people, or take down strongholds. There are times I need you to advise people of dangers ahead or things to come. I want you all to be prophets. But you have to know how to hear from Me and to walk with Me in agreement to be one I can trust to run with My Word into the greatness of your calling. I cannot entrust My power to just anyone, but only those I know and who know Me. Gideon had to learn My ways and be confident of My presence and concern before I entrusted him with My power. We developed a relationship of mutual trust before anything happened that he longed for. And then I worked through and with him to bring the desired result. But it came in dialogue between us, which is prayer. But you will note that he viewed My relationship to him as sacred, one which he treated with reverence and honor. His first response was to offer sacrifice upon an altar and be amazed that I had come to him and he had lived. I honor those who honor Me. Prayer cannot be true prayer without mutual respect, loyalty and honor. Without a good opinion of Me and knowing that I give good things to those who ask, that I am there for you and that you are precious in My eyes and that I have already given you the good things you seek in Christ Jesus, that you need only to come and receive them, you will not pray but will beg, cajole, accuse, and complain.
What do you pray for? How do you pray? The best answer is to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, but for a framework My Son gave you a way to pray (Matthew 6:9-13) and He lets you witness a prayer He made to Me the night before He gave His life for you (John 17). The anointed prayers of My apostle Paul are a good model also. You would do well to incorporate all this into your understanding of prayer, and the Psalms are a very good way to learn to pray in a powerful way, but if you are really interested in conversing with Me it is not at all difficult. I am your father, your spouse, your beloved and your friend, and these are the ones you are closest with even in this life, but besides being all these to you, I am your LORD and your God, who is worthy of all honor, power, glory, and adoration. I am pure love and pure light. So approach with confidence and intimacy but also with reverence and awe. And that is the way I come to you also. “You are precious in My sight, you are honored and I love you.” Isaiah 43:4.
I love you. Connect with Me in the unceasing flow of prayer. Just come, and I will make you joyful in My house of prayer. “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’” Jeremiah 29:12-14.
O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. if I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my embryo; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. Psalm 139:1-18.