Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
As we continue the steps to constant joy, today we go up to My house of prayer. Remember David’s song of ascents? “I rejoiced when they said unto me: ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’” Psalm 122:1.
And that was where Peter and John were headed, up to the hour of prayer in My house, Acts 3:1, when they stopped at the Beautiful Gate and healed a crippled man who had never been able to walk before. And where did he then go with them? Jumping, leaping, praising, and dancing into My house for prayer, no longer a crippled beggar. Acts 3:8-10. Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7.
Prayer is very important and special to Me. Why? It is there we can share our thoughts; it is there you come to know Me and we develop trust in each other and make plans. I can answer your questions, I can make known to you the path of life, and I can give you joy, My joy, over all the good things I have freely given to you and prepared for you in advance.
I set aside certain appointed times with My people when they were to come to My house and celebrate with Me. One was the feast of Tabernacles when they gathered in the great harvest in the fall of the year and then came to celebrate with Me at My temple (house) in Jerusalem. All built booths of branches and leaves and camped there close by Me and rejoiced in all the good I had done for them. “Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.” Deuteronomy 16:15.
And now each believer is a chosen place of Mine, a garden enclosed in your heart where we meet and celebrate all that is yours in Christ Jesus and the great harvest I am bringing in with you in these latter days.
Think of every time you step aside to pray to Me as an appointed time where I have great things to tell you and much treasure to give you. Sometimes in your darkest moment if you will just turn your eyes off the darkness to the light of My Word and begin to pray and sing in the Spirit your breakthrough will come and you will find the hidden things, the treasures out of darkness.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD your God, who calls you by your name. Isaiah 45:3.
It is in prayer, in the connection of our spirits, I can give you revelation into My Words. It is there I can give you detailed plans and visions of things to be. And it is there I can comfort you, encourage you, edify you, and make you joyful. It is there I dry your tears of sorrow and turn them into tender tears of joy. And it is there you will learn My ways and My voice.
David loved to come to Me in prayer and worship. It was better to him than life itself. He wanted to stay always in the place of prayer where he received all his plans, battle strategies, and songs. He told you of the joys of prayer, “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the delightfulness of the LORD and to inquire in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.” Psalm 27:4-6.
In the place of prayer, which is a place of grace, I will make known to you the path of life; for in My presence is fullness of joy, which comes from the connection and the fullness of revelation of all I have prepared for you. In My right hand there are pleasures forever and I open My hands to you, I stretch them out to you, in prayer. Psalm 16:11.
I make you joyful with gladness in My presence, for there you can cast all care on Me because I care for you. Psalm 21:6. Splendor and majesty are before Me, strength and joy are in My place, My throne of grace, where you are welcome to come anytime of the day and night. 1 Chronicles 16:27. I surround you with songs of deliverance.
And it is there I give you songs of Heaven and teach you how to sing them. How? I exult over you with joy, I quiet your fears in My love, I rejoice over you with joyful singing and shouts of joy. Zephaniah 3:17. All you have to do is give utterance to the songs I sing in your heart.
You may wonder how you can come into the splendor and majesty of My throne room with such confidence, with joyful shouts and singing, with leaping and dancing, you may instead limit yourself to kneel far off and beat your breast like the repentant taxpayer, thinking that is what pleases Me. But that taxpayer from the parable Jesus told was focused on My mercy in asking Me to make propitiation for him as he could not offer the unblemished lamb at the temple for his sins since his sin before the priests and elders was intentional since he was working for Rome and extracting taxes from his fellow Israelites. But Jesus asked Me to forgive you as not knowing what you were doing as He died upon the cross, offering Himself as the offering for your sins, which qualified you all to receive His sacrifice as for you.
And now I invite you to come into the Holy of Holies by the new and living way of Jesus, washed clean and made a new creation, no longer like a crippled beggar or a rejected tax collector, but as My beloved child, a royal priesthood, and glorious spouse, clothed in Christ, and I am well able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of My glory blameless with great joy. Jude 1:24.
When you come to Me, come knowing you are in Covenant with Me in Jesus, an everlasting Covenant of love that will never be broken. And that makes all the difference. We are bound together as family and you now have My Name. Ephesians 3:14.
And notice that Jesus comes with you to usher you into My presence as your great High Priest and as your good Shepherd. He brings you to the source, to that spring of living water flowing from My throne. And there I wipe every tear from your eye. He brings you to the eternal fountain of joy. Come to prayer with a spirit bucket ready to draw water with joy from the springs of Salvation. Come on a treasure hunt for My magnificent promises. Come to drink.
David sang of prayer as a place to drink from the river of delight and from the overflowing abundance in My house, do you come to prayer ready to receive as he did? “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the overflowing abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; and in Your light we see light.” Psalm 36:7-9.
When you come to pray, come with a heart open to receive. Come knowing I have things to impart to you and great and mighty things to show you that you could not know otherwise than by the prayer connection. Bring a tablet to write down My Words to you so that you remember them later. And come with a mind set on the Spirit and not on the flesh.
How do you know where your mind is set? If you just want to spend the time begging and crying trying to get a result you want but being in doubt whether I will grant your request, this is not prayer according to what I mean by prayer. This is painful for both of us and makes fellowship impossible. It makes you a critic instead of a partner and friend. This is the way Gideon conversed with Me at first, but as he spent more time with Me, he became one who honored and loved Me. He saw Me make him into the champion, the hero of Israel, that he had always dreamed of being.
By prayer, I do not mean talking at Me but talking with Me. I do not mean limiting your prayer time to making novenas and reading prayers out of “prayer books” that others have written, that may not contain pure Word. If you are looking for a “prayer book” to help you, I give you a whole book of prayers inspired by My Spirit called the book of Psalms in the Bible and many prayers of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, early church gatherings, godly men and woman, and kings, and they will help you to pray but there comes a time you must just talk to Me like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David did, as a beloved friend.
But the only way you really can effectively pray is with My Word. Petitions, supplications, and requests should all be based on promises to you in My Word, which are magnificent and plentiful. And when you pray according to My Will, which you find in My Word, I hear you, and when you know I have heard you, you know what you have asked for is yours. 1 John 5:14-15. And answered prayer is a joy. I make you joyful in My house of prayer.
You can find an answer of what to pray about everything in the Bible. There is nothing that is not there. And My Word will give you joy. Pounce on the promises as yours in Christ as one does on great spoil. Psalm 119:162 (“ I rejoice at Your Word, as one who finds great spoil.”)
If you do not have what you have been so adamantly asking Me to do, do not get disappointed and give up, saying it must not be My Will to heal you, or whatever, you are asking for. My Word is My will for all time. I am the LORD your healer and I have not changed My Name and never will. But you will note when I give you that promise, I include that to be able to fully receive it you must be listening to and keeping My Words. So if you are not receiving, then you need to inquire of Me what is hindering My answer, for if you are asking for something I promise you such as healing, forgiveness, or provision, I have already given you these things in Jesus and there is some reason you are not receiving them into your life.
They are all piling up at the door to your heart, I am sending them as showers of blessing but there is some reason you are not drawing them in. If you are rooted and grounded in Christ you should be drawing up all the treasures that I have freely given you in Him from Him.
All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Mark 11:24. If you are not finding this true in your life, there is more I tell you that must be done for you to be able to open your heart to receive, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” Mark 11:24-25. Pull out all the bitter roots that are hindering your ability to freely receive what is flowing to you. There is no joy in growing bitter roots, only disquiet, anger, and resentment. They will block your healing though I am pouring down on you.
Have you ever sent a document to your printer and it does not print? You keep thinking somehow your printer did not receive the command so you keep sending it. You then find you need to put in a new ink cartridge or there is some other hindrance that sometimes you can fix by just turning off the printer and starting it again, but when you remove the hindrance or blockage, suddenly all the documents you sent to the printer pour out.
Once you remove the hindrance, all the blessings that have been storing up will pour into your life. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice. Isaiah 60:5.
But you can only find the solution if you will open your heart to Me in prayer and listen to My answers.
Do you remember how Jesus told the Samaritan woman to drink of that precious water of life that would satisfy her inner thirst for purpose and joy in her life? That would bubble up in her like a fountain leaping up to eternal life even now? By worshipping in Spirit and in truth.
Spirit means praying in faith and not by sight, and truth is My Word, which sanctifies you. John 17:17. So to get the full benefit of prayer you must pray prayers of faith and pray using My Word so you are set free. But there is even more to praying in Spirit and in truth. A way to draw water from the deepest depths in Me that are only revealed by My Spirit to those who love Me.
“The secret of the LORD is for those who revere Him, and He will make them know His covenant.” Psalm 25:14.
And I have given you a very special gift and an awesome way to pray. I give you My own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to pray with you and in you in spiritual words that I understand. Romans 8:26. And as you pray with My Spirit in your spirit giving utterance to spiritual thoughts in spiritual words, you, with Him, are praying out My Will for your life. And this prayer is drinking right from the river of life flowing from My throne. This is tongues, your own language of the Spirit.
For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to Me; for no one understands, but in your spirit you speak mysteries. 1 Corinthians 14:2. When you speak in tongues you edify (build up) yourself. 1 Corinthians 14:4. So if you are lacking in joy, pray and sing in tongues to build yourself up in that bubbling spring of life-giving joy and let My Spirit in you quicken even your mortal body. Romans 8:11. New life in the Spirit, in your spirit.
When you pray in tongues, you are not speaking worldly wisdom but My wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which I preordained before the ages to your glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7. There are many things I have planned for you that are beyond all you can ask or think, and to walk these out they must first be revealed to you through the Spirit; for the Holy Spirit searches all things, even My deepest depths, My bosom from which My Word is generated and gives birth in manifestation.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so My thoughts no one knows except My Spirit. And it is by My Spirit stirring the hearts of godly men and woman that I have shared My written Word with you in the Old and New Testament.
And each of you who have received Jesus, have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Holy Spirit who is from Me, so that you can know the things I have freely given to you, which things you must also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13.
But a carnal person, that is, one whose mind is set on the flesh and not the spirit, does not accept the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things. For I have given you the mind of Christ, which is the anointing, His Spirit on you and in you. 2 Corinthians 14-16. And He is anointed with the oil of joy. Being filled with My Spirit is being filled with joy, the river of delights. Gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. Both of which we will discuss on a higher step to constant joy.
And as you pray in tongues pray that you may interpret. And I will show you how, giving you a word and then another one until you have the thought. Otherwise when you pray in a tongue, your spirit prays, but your mind is unfruitful. So alternate as you pray with your spirit in tongues, intersperse it with your native tongue that you speak to communicate with yourself and others, so that you pray with your mind (soul) also. And do the same as you sing with the spirit, intersperse the spiritual words you sing with words that well up in your heart in your native language. 1 Corinthians 14:13-15.
This is a very joyful and effective way to receive revelation and direction when you do not know how to pray out what is within you and to solve what is before you in your daily life as you ought.
There are times when a darkness will be trying to come upon you and despair begins to fill your soul, what do you do with that? Come to Me in prayer and I will give you the light you need to again have hope and joy light up your heart. I have set this out for you in a Psalm. The psalmist asks his soul, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me?” and goes on to ask again, “Why do I go mourning under the oppression of the enemy?” And his answer? The place of prayer. “O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling place. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.” Psalm 43:2,5,3-4. Together we can rejoice. But you need to join My songs with yours. Sing, it will bring you up to Me and Me down to you.
I love you. And that is what prayer is all about. Love is joy.