What is prayer

Prayer is the aligning of one’s heart with the heart of God, a bending of the entire person to see what God sees, desire what He desires, and then create the requests that gives Him permission to perform what He wills without violating the jurisdication He bequeathed to us. It’s the doorway through which God enters and operates within a rebellious world.

Who should pray

God searches for, calls and woos human beings to become his agents, by means of which he can re-engage with His fallen world. This re-engagement is understood to be God’s mission and the mission of “his people”, beginning with Israel and now more perfectly fulfilled by his ekklesia, dispersed throughout the earth.

The answer to the question of who should pray is therefore “His people” and we should describe more clearly what we mean by “His people”. Every human being is, in a sense, His and there is a sense in which every human being has a privilege to pray, and be heard by God. However, there is a sense in which we can be “His people” because we are “called by His Name”. The people of Israel were called by the Name of Yahweh, and were afforded the opportunity of Yahweh coming close to them in Soloman’s temple and in the tabernacle. This closeness of God triggered amazing prosperity, which in turn became a testimony, and a platform from which to call all the peoples of the earth to Himself.

His Name

Now God has revealed Himself by the Name Yeshua, which is a somewhat filtered view of God in which He reveals Himself as the God of mercy, salvation and rescue. He has also called “a people” by That Name – Yeshua – who therefore represent Him and His interests in the earth under that Name, that assignment, so to speak, the assignment of mercy and salvation. We pray IN THAT NAME.

The Name Yeshua and the inherent intercession associated with that Name has been delegated to the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit who has come in the Name of Yeshua, and maintains the focus of the Body of Christ (the ekklesia) on the salvation mission – the desire for salvation of all men.

So it is the people of the Name Yeshua, who are filled with and submitted to the Holy Spirit who should pray in the power of the Spirit by aligning their hearts with God’s desires (this may, or may not require fasting), and requesting Him to do what He desires to do, as a kind of door opening exercise for His supernatural intervention in mission.

Why, how and what should we pray

1. European societies need to be re-introduced to (direct contact with) God, and this is rationale and the agenda for prayer
2. The most effective way of reconciling Europe to God is to follow the apostolic pattern of mission flowing out of prayer, which then leads to further prayer
3. Prayer houses should serve the church to make it more aware of the mission fields in the city,  and help to empower it to effectively reach entire communities with the Gospel message
4. Prayer houses have been proven to play a key role in fostering inter denominational contact and collaboration within cities, so let’s work with what works.
5. Prayer houses also play a key role in fostering inter city collaboration and in encouraging prayer for international mission needs
6. Prayer houses should multiply like every other part of the living church by providing

For the establishing and running of mission focused prayer houses.

Mission focused prayer houses

Two types of prayer house

There are two main types of prayer houses and my recommendation is that a mission focused prayer house should focus on mission. Even though it might be considered that combining the two would create a richer prayer experience, this may not be the case, and here is the reason why (click here).

Nevertheless, guidelines can be provided for the mission focused prayer house that harmonize different types of prayer into a powerful agreement, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as we can see in the next section on prophetic prayer.

Prophetic prayer

Prophetic prayer means that prayer is not necessarily guided by a prayer list or by a prayer sheet. It can also be that a prayer sheet does not always conform to a standard structure, but responds to prophetic leading during the time when the sheet is being prepared.

This may lead to praying about things that do not appear to be related to mission and the reaping of the harvest. The guideline that covers this is “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. We know that the will of God is

a. that none should perish (the reaping of the harvest) and

b. our sanctification (the purification of the bride).

The barriers to the steps that need to be taken for a person to come into a fruit bearing relationship with God, are guarded by demonic spirits, which are in turn fortified by spiritual strongholds. It is not always apparent to us what those strongholds are, or how to pull them down. Enter the Holy Spirit, leading us to pray about things that may not appear to relate directly to mission, but we trust the Holy Spirit’s commitment to the will of God, that these prayers are instructions for pulling down strongholds that are relevant to the reaping of the harvest.

A mission focused prayer house could provide

• A published program of prayer meetings by mission field
• A published program of teaching on topics which are relevant to effective mission and effective prayer
• Additional services as per the needs of the area e.g. providing a help desk/prayer line/point of contact for mission administration or follow up

A point of contact in my city

It is important for cities to have a point of contact for prayer in support of local missions, two main types of prayer house providing both

Public Access

1. A point of contact for follow up and signposting
2. A register and event list of mission activities
3. A register and event list of mission training programs
4. A prayer guide for local missions
5. Signposting to help the spiritually needy and to maintain focus within the prayer house
6. An opportunity to engage with overseas mission prayer needs
7. A daily program of ministry for local missionaries and for seekers

Access by Invitation only

7. Topical prayer sessions

Get in touch if you would find this beneficial in your city

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