I would like to ask you to turn to Matthew 21. There are three sections from Matthew, all very familiar, that we will read from this morning.
Matthew 21:10-13:
And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this?
And the multitudes said, This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.
And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves;
And He saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers.
Let me repeat that last part of Matthew 21:13:
My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers.
Now let us turn again to another familiar section in Matthew: Matthew 16. We will begin at verse 13 to gain the whole context, though it is the latter part upon which we want to fellowship today.
Matthew 16:13-19:
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is?
And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Who is in heaven.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My assembly; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
In particular, we want to focus on that last part of Matthew 16:19:
Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then, in Matthew 18, we have another familiar portion. We will begin at verse 15 to bring in the whole context.
Matthew 18:15-20:
And if thy brother sin against thee, go, reprove him between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established.
And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the assembly: and if he refuse to hear the assembly also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Let us pray.
Lord, once again, as we read Your Word, we come in utter dependence. We say again, as we always say, “Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? Speak, Lord; Thy servants hear.”
Lord, we wait upon You to open to us, by the Holy Spirit, things in Your Word that we would understand from Your perspective. Grant us an anointing to hear Your Word, that Your Word would be opened in a fuller way; and even more than that, by the grace of God, that we would enter into the reality of Your Word. May it be true in our lives—not merely what we hear and receive.
For we ask it together in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I was asked to make an announcement last Sunday concerning the prayer meeting. Those of you who were here heard that announcement, though perhaps everyone was not here.
I was actually supposed to share on another matter today, and that will be for another time. But when we met to pray for the assembly, I was encouraged to enlarge upon this burden concerning the house of prayer: “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” That is the Lord’s declaration.
As I thought about it, I laid aside the other burden and felt that this was right to take up. Now, brothers and sisters, I think we know some things and have heard some things about the house of prayer. I think we know and have heard some things about corporate prayer.
But the burden the Lord has impressed upon me through this phrase over some months is this: Are we, as the people of God, entering into corporate prayer? In our practice, do we know what it means to be the house of prayer, as the Lord spoke of His house? This is the crux of the matter.
Sometimes we know things, we have teaching, and we have thoughts. Even those who meet here and have heard these things can expound some of those thoughts. But, in the end, if we do not enter into the practice of corporate prayer—if we do not know something of the reality of the church as the house of prayer—then all we have is teaching. All we have is knowledge.
So I hope you understand from the beginning that this is the emphasis: that we would see more, but that we would also enter more fully into this ministry and calling of the church.
I am afraid that people like us, who have received great teaching from dear brothers who have seen deeply into the things of God, can hold these things merely in mental apprehension. Then they never become part of our practice. We may touch upon them and discover something about them, but in the end, the Lord Jesus said that His house would be a house of prayer for all nations.
So, when I was asked for the title, that is the title: The House of Prayer. Another way to put it, in terms we are familiar with, is corporate prayer.
What do we understand about corporate prayer? What have we entered into in corporate prayer? Do we know what corporate prayer is really all about?
The Lord has laid three things upon my heart. Now, I do not know whether we will get to all three today. I have been given permission by our dear brother to go longer.
For those of you who were here Wednesday night, our brother Jonathan said that in China, if you speak less than two hours, it is a disappointment. Now, I do not want you folks to get nervous about that. I promise you that we will not speak that long.
But perhaps it does say something about our condition. Think about it. We are so busy and so occupied that the gathering, the place of gathering, the Word of God, and being with one another have become less important to us than watching the clock.
I was stunned when our brother said Wednesday night that sometimes he speaks six or eight hours. That amazes me. I think all of you would be on the floor—or at least gone. Maybe Linda would stay because she does not have a ride home.
But this is the burden, dear friends: we have some understanding, but have we entered into the reality of corporate prayer? Do we know in our experience what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”?
There are three matters on my heart:
First, we need to see the priority that God places upon prayer—the church’s prayer. We need to see the priority of corporate prayer.
Very often our priorities are different from the Lord’s priorities. But if we see what the Lord’s priorities are, and if He opens our eyes to them, then they should become our priorities as the people of God.
That is the first matter: the priority of corporate prayer.
The second matter is really one principle, but it is a profound principle: the principle of corporate prayer.
Brothers and sisters, if we do not know the principle of corporate prayer, then our prayers will either be presumptuous or too weak. We need to understand from the Word of God how we can pray together as the church and what the principle of corporate prayer is.
Thirdly—and I think this may be the most important, perhaps the one we take up another time—what is the practice of corporate prayer?
This is really the substance of the burden. We do have some teaching. We have good teaching. Praise the Lord that He has opened this area to us through dear men of God.
I know Lance has labored in his ministry to make this an emphasis. You know our brother’s book, The School of Prayer. How he said that this is a subject often misunderstood and little practiced.
He said something extraordinary, which I read recently: he knew of only two books written on corporate prayer. One was Arthur Wallis’s book, though that book is more about individual prayer than corporate prayer. The other was Brother Nee’s book, The Prayer Ministry of the Church.
I do not know how many of you have read Brother Nee’s book, The Prayer Ministry of the Church, but I have recently gone back to it and begun to consider some things. Lance gave it the greatest compliment when he said that this book verifies everything he has said in his ministry.
Brothers and sisters, we have the privilege, through Brother Lance, Brother Nee, and Brother Stephen, to have heard things about corporate prayer that are little understood in the church of God today—and, even less, entered into.
So this is the burden: we pray that the Lord will help us not merely to understand more, but to enter in more. I really think that is what will make the difference.
When I heard Brother Jonathan say Wednesday night that the Lord’s coming is very near, I thought: How often have you heard that? Has that truth sunk into us as the people of God? Has it apprehended us and laid hold of us—that the Lord’s coming is at the door?
If we truly took that in, it would change our whole perspective and all our priorities.
I cannot think of a more important thing, if the Lord is at the door, than corporate prayer. Hear the church’s cry at the end of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus.” That is corporate prayer.
The church gets on its knees and begins to lift up to God what is His will, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus.” The Lord, Who cannot deny His bride, comes in response to that cry and comes again to His people.
That is corporate prayer. That is prayer as the house of the Lord.
This is the burden with which the Lord seemed to lay hold of me. I do not think anything will transform us more than this, if we really enter into it as a company of believers.
Often our prayers are so weak. Yet, when you look at the church, He has limited Himself to His church. This is an amazing point: God has limited Himself to His church, so that as she enters into His burden, takes up His will, and is exercised in the Spirit to pray great prayers, then He begins to move.
He is waiting on us. He is waiting on us to enter into this burden.
Let us begin with the verses we read. I think everybody is familiar with the story of the cleansing of the temple. This story is so important that it appears in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The emphasis is so great, and the priority of God is so great, that this account was included in every one of the three Synoptic Gospels with the same emphasis:
My house shall be called a house of prayer.
Sometimes you find a story or teaching in one Gospel but not another, and perhaps the story is slightly different according to the perspective and emphasis of the writer. Matthew wrote from the perspective of seeing the King of kings. Mark wrote from the perspective of seeing the Servant of God. Luke wrote from the perspective of seeing the Son of Man.
Their perspectives differ, but when it comes to this priority, the Lord Jesus made such an issue of it that all three writers recorded the same thing:
My house shall be called a house of prayer.
It is interesting to me that Matthew says, at the beginning of Matthew 21:12:
And Jesus entered into the temple of God.
I do not know what version you have, but the King James Version says “the temple of God.” The 1901 version says “the temple of God.” Young’s Literal Translation says “the temple of God.” The Darby version says “the temple,” with “of God” in brackets.
Why this emphasis? I believe it is very important.
He came to the place that was the temple of God. John MacArthur says this is the only time in the New Testament that the phrase “temple of God” is used in this way. That alone shows us the priority God places upon this Word and this act.
He says it is unlikely that some scribe simply came up with the phrase and added the words “of God,” since a number of the early manuscripts contain the phrase “temple of God.” That is why the versions I mentioned include it.
Now, why is this so important? Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus came to the one place where God had set His name.
When you look at the Old Testament, and at the dedication of the temple, the Lord said He had chosen only one city—Jerusalem—and only one place: the temple Solomon built, the place where He would set His name and where His presence would be manifest.
The Lord Jesus saw the misuse of that temple of God, and He began to cleanse it. You all know the story. He turned over the money-changers’ tables and drove out those who sold, those who made merchandise of the house of God.
Few things in Scripture incite the Lord’s wrath as this did. Therefore, we should pay attention to it. Few things seem to stir Him and reveal His anger upon the earth as this did.
I believe this shows us the priority that was upon His heart. This temple of God was intended for another purpose. It was to be the house of prayer, but it had become Annas the high priest’s private bazaar.
You know, some of you like to go to the bazaar. All the shopping centers that seem to die out become bazaars. I do not know if you have ever noticed that. To me, a bazaar is just a great big yard sale in a building. That is all it is.
But this had become Annas the high priest’s own personal bazaar. In the Old Testament, in Leviticus and elsewhere, the priest had the right to determine whether a sacrifice was clean, holy, and acceptable for offering.
Annas had arranged it so that his own vendors had sacrifices approved by the priests. You could bring your goat or your offering, but it might not be approved. Yet Annas had this bazaar set up in the court of the temple so that his vendors’ offerings were approved.
Not only that, those who had to exchange foreign money were charged a very high exchange rate. You think payday loans are bad.
I only say this to reinforce why the Lord was so angry. His house was to be something else. When He saw what it had become, the word from Jeremiah came to His heart:
Ye have made it a den of robbers.
They had made it a place of merchandise. Yet His priority for His house was that it would be the house of prayer.
Think about something else when you consider this priority. The Lord Jesus, at this moment, could have made any statement about the house of God.
He could have said, “My house is the place where I set My name. My house is to be a house of holiness. My house is to be a house of blessing. My house is to be a house of prophecy.” He could have said anything.
But if you understand the priority the Lord Jesus places upon corporate prayer, you see His heart poured out:
My house shall be a house of prayer.
When I see that this was the one thing the Lord Jesus said, I begin to ask, “Lord, do we know Your house in that way? Is it a house of prayer, or have we made it a house of merchandise?”
Sometimes I watch inspirational television. I think it drives Linda crazy when I do it—not literally, but it bothers her. She thinks I am picking on her sometimes.
I see some whom I consider brothers hawking merchandise and elevating the house of God into a place of merchandise. I wonder what the Lord thinks.
I have seen people say, “I will send you this anointed prayer cloth if you send me twenty-five dollars.” All I can think of is Annas’s bazaar. We have made the church of God, once again, a house of merchandise.
I see these hawkers of prosperity, and I say that in no uncertain terms. They are always taking Scripture and skewing it toward one misemphasis.
Now, I believe in blessing, and I believe in prosperity. But there is a way to take the blessings of God and make them everything, getting us off course from what is the priority upon God’s heart.
Look at some of these people and their lifestyles. Look at their private jets, their numerous cars, and their great mansions. Their excuse is, “Well, I am the one who preaches the gospel of prosperity. Surely I have to prosper.”
They would never believe it, but often they are the ones who prosper. We have made the house of God a house of merchandise.
It should be a house of prayer. It should be a place where corporate prayer is known and experienced.
I believe the Lord was on a divine mission. Of course, we know that in His coming, but here in particular, He was on a divine mission to bring His house back to its original design.
His house was to be a tool in His hand, where He could find a people—a helpmeet—who would so join their hearts with Him and so unite with Him that they could agree for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That is the priority He places upon the house of prayer. It was to be an instrument for Him to use to bring about His will, His purpose, and His end.
Instead, the tool was used otherwise. I do that sometimes. There are some purists here who really know how to do things; I just bungle around when I build things.
Once in a while, I take a screwdriver and use it as a chisel. I know all you real purist craftsmen will go crazy when I say that, but I take the screwdriver and hit it with a hammer—using a tool for what it was not intended.
That is the wrong use. Often, you simply break the tool.
I hope you begin to see the Lord’s priority and the Lord’s emphasis.
Turn back to 2 Chronicles. I would like to share something that I believe has been an emphasis on my heart for a while: 2 Chronicles 6 and 7. The context is Solomon’s dedication of the temple.
First, let me read from 2 Chronicles 2:
And Solomon determined to build a house for the name of the Lord, and a house for His kingdom.
Then look at 2 Chronicles 5:1:
Thus all the work that Solomon wrought for the house of the Lord was finished.
Solomon brought in the things David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the vessels—and put them among the treasures of the house of God.
Then, in 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon says:
The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.
But I have built Thee a house of habitation, and a place for Thee to dwell in for ever.
Notice that word: a settled place for God to abide forever.
As you read this great dedication throughout 2 Chronicles 6 and 7, I encourage you to go home and read those two chapters and meditate upon them, because we do not have time to read every verse.
The emphasis, as Solomon begins to pray concerning the house of God, becomes prayer itself. Prayer becomes the priority in the dedication of the temple.
Let me give you a few examples. Beginning with 2 Chronicles 6:18:
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built!
What a great statement. But notice the change of emphasis:
Yet have Thou respect unto the prayer of Thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which Thy servant prayeth before Thee.
Then, in the latter part of verse 20:
To hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place.
And verse 21:
Hearken Thou to the supplications of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea, hear Thou from Thy dwelling-place, even from heaven; and when Thou hearest, forgive.
This is the emphasis. This is the priority that Solomon placed upon the temple of God at its dedication. This was its original purpose.
When you read these chapters, you see the word pray over and over. When the children of God are oppressed and fall into sin, they are told to pray toward this place. When they come under attack from enemies, they are told to pray toward this place. When God judges His people and they return, they are to pray toward this place.
The whole emphasis in these two chapters, at the dedication, shows that the original purpose was prayer.
I believe this shows us how great this priority is. I mentioned that phrase, “a settled place.” It is spoken of in relation to two things in Scripture.
First, Solomon says that he made a settled place for God to dwell. Then he speaks about praying toward the settled place in the heavens.
Brothers and sisters, that should speak to us. In God’s Word, there are only two settled places: where He dwells in the heavens and where He dwells in His house.
That is the priority. That is the priority.
I am making such a point of this for one reason: we do not see what God’s priority is, and therefore it is not our priority.
I believe this is reinforced again as we come to the New Testament. We read Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, and it struck me some years ago that these are the only two times the Lord Jesus mentions His church by name.
You may think that is odd, but it is the only time He mentions His church. In Matthew 16, it is the universal church. In Matthew 18, it is the local church. In both places, He calls the assembly the church.
When you consider His concluding thoughts in both passages, you begin to understand His priority. What He concludes with in Matthew 16, when He speaks of the universal church, and what He concludes with in Matthew 18, when He speaks of the local church, are one and the same thing.
In fact, He uses the same words:
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
These are His concluding thoughts. When you turn to Matthew 18, you see that He enlarges upon these thoughts regarding the local church and deals practically with how we are to pray.
I believe the Lord Jesus could have said anything at this point. But what He chose to emphasize, what He chose to make His priority, was that this church, above everything else and in spite of everything else—even the gates of Hades—would, in the end, be a house of prayer.
I cannot think of anything that says more than that. May the Lord help us to see His priority.
I do not want to leave this without embedding it in your mind. Can I say it again? Will you throw me out if I say it again?
The reason we do not value corporate prayer more is because, first of all, we do not see it as His priority. Secondly, even if we see it as His priority, it is not our priority.
That is the priority of corporate prayer.
Let us look at the second matter. We need not only to think about this priority and make it ours; we need to think about the principle of corporate prayer.
I do not know where your mind goes when I say that we need to think about the principle of corporate prayer. But we need to understand the ground of corporate prayer. Upon what basis do we pray? What is the principle upon which corporate prayer works?
Turn with me again to Matthew 16. I will read what I believe is the one central principle.
Matthew 16:19:
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then turn to Matthew 18. It is striking that the Lord concludes with the same thing. Matthew 18:18:
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Now, brothers and sisters, this word verily has meaning in Matthew 18. If you look in your concordance, it is only the Lord Jesus who uses this word in the Gospels.
It is used when the Lord Jesus wants to add emphasis. When He comes to His expression of the local church and what that local church is to be, He says, “Verily, I say unto you.”
Look it up. The word occurs again and again in Matthew, Mark, and Luke as the Lord’s own special emphasis. But when you come to John, He uses a double emphasis. Over and over, His words are, “Verily, verily”—“Truly, truly”—“Amen, amen.”
Think of one example, concerning being born again:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
So here in Matthew 18, the Lord adds His emphasis when He comes to the end:
Verily, I say unto you.
This is the principle upon which His church is to pray.
I do not know about you, but I think last words are important. The Lord concluded with this. He could have said anything, but this was His emphasis.
One of my favorite books, which you may not have heard of, is Last Words of Saints and Sinners. It is a good book. It is important to see what the last words are. Sometimes they are the most important.
Parents know this. When you go out, if your children still listen to you, you give them your final instruction: “Now, you remember this. The last thing I want to tell you—remember this.”
Last words and concluding thoughts are the Lord’s emphasis.
What does this principle mean? Some of you have not read many of Brother Nee’s books. I think that is your loss, to be honest. Some seem to wear it as a badge of honor when they say, “Well, I do not read Brother Nee.” I am sorry for that. Read all the brothers. I read many brothers, but I am thankful for Brother Nee.
I think of 2 Timothy, where Paul told Timothy, “Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner.” Brother Nee seems to have understood, at least as early as 1941, what many others have failed to enter into.
He understood this principle, and he said that this principle means: earth governs heaven.
That is extraordinary. You may think, “That cannot be true. Brother Nee must be in some great error. How can earth govern heaven?”
But notice the words of Scripture:
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Earth comes before heaven. You might think—though you dare not think it—that the Lord must have misspoken. Surely He meant it the other way: what is bound in heaven, you bind on earth.
But that is not the way He said it. Twice He emphasized it and concluded with it: earth governs heaven.
That is an extraordinary principle. It seems to me that the Lord Jesus, in all His wisdom, has looked for a vessel—His church—and wants that vessel to come alongside Him, join with Him, and understand His will.
Then that church can begin to bind on the earth, loose on the earth, and, in fact, bring the will of God from heaven to earth. What an extraordinary principle.
The Lord Jesus never misspeaks. He said:
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Can you imagine? This is what we are called to. This is what we are called to.
Let me try to illustrate this from Scripture. Turn to Isaiah 45. Perhaps this will help.
Isaiah 45:11:
Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker: Ask Me of the things that are to come, concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command ye Me.
I believe this verse in Isaiah opens up the principle of corporate prayer in a real way.
First of all, notice that He says, “Ask Me.” That is the first thing. When it comes to corporate prayer, we do not simply begin to pray. We ask Him. We seek to know the will of God.
Then, once we know the will of God, the second command comes into place:
Command ye Me.
Brothers and sisters, this is earth governing heaven. As the people of God, when we assemble for this singular purpose and priority, we are to seek Him and know His will.
Once we know His will, we are to say, in the name of the Lord, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
There need to be great prayers. There need to be executive prayers. There needs to be a standing—not in any way we like, not pronouncing anything we like—but once we know what His will is, the principle of corporate prayer is, “Command ye Me.”
It seems almost startling when you read the verse.
Turn to Ezekiel. I will read a similar verse: Ezekiel 36:37.
Thus saith the Lord God: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
Notice: “I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.”
In the end, heaven moves. In corporate prayer, heaven moves and responds, and He will do it for them. Nevertheless, He says, “I will be inquired of by them.”
Do we know this principle of corporate prayer in that way? Does it seem beyond us?
Oh, dear ones, I think many of us know something about it, but we have not entered into this principle.
If we do not understand this principle, we will go to two extremes. We will either be presumptuous, or we will take a stand that is not right.
I was reading something John MacArthur said. Some of you appreciate him. He said that Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18:18-19 has suffered serious misinterpretation throughout the history of the church.
He said that the most extreme example is the Roman Catholic doctrine that the church has divine authority to forgive sins. He has authority. We do not.
We recognize what He does, agree with it, and pronounce it in the name of the Lord.
The second thing he said may strike closer to home. I know it does for me. He said that many charismatics use these promises, along with passages such as Matthew 7:7 and Matthew 21:22, to claim from God every imaginable blessing and privilege simply for the asking.
Now, dear ones, the principle of corporate prayer is that we first know what the will of God is. Then we stand in the will of God. We pronounce the will of God over a situation.
I can give you another example from Scripture. You remember when the Lord Jesus walked upon the earth and said, “The fields are white unto harvest.”
Then He said the most extraordinary thing:
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest.
If it is the Lord’s will that the harvest is white and that souls should be reaped, surely He can do it without us. Surely He does not need our consent. Surely He has all power.
But this one illustration shows us the principle of corporate prayer. He turns to His own and says, “Pray ye that the Lord of the harvest would send forth workers into His harvest.”
This is the principle: we are to pray what the Lord has on His heart.
Often we come to a corporate prayer meeting and say, “I do not know what to pray.” Well, pray what is upon the Lord’s heart. Discover what the will of God is.
When you discover the will of God, agree with that will, and take your place, you can say, “In the name of Jesus, Lord, we say this is Your will. Do it.”
He says in Ezekiel 36 that He will do it for them. So, to me, that is the principle of corporate prayer. May the Lord help us to see it more fully.
I think we are going to stop here. I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, to meditate upon this and to consider very carefully what has been said.
I have no doubt that it has not been said perfectly, or even with full understanding. But I believe in my heart of hearts, as I have wrestled with this issue, that it is upon the Lord’s heart. I believe it.
I believe this matter of corporate prayer is something in which we need to see His priority. If we see His priority, it will transform us and transform our prayer meeting.
Secondly, I believe that if we have a right understanding of the principle—that in knowing His will, inquiring of His will, and agreeing with His will, we can pray the strongest prayers in the name of the Lord and say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”—then things will change.
I have no doubt, because the Lord makes it very clear that things will change.
These are the first two parts. Next time, we will consider the practice of corporate prayer.
When it comes down to it, that is the real key. As I said in the beginning, I think we have some understanding—especially here, where we have been privileged to hear these saints of God, to have these writings, and to understand something of God’s purpose.
We are so privileged. But, in the end, the issue is this: Is it our practice? How do we enter in?
When the Lord Jesus concluded His thoughts on the local church, His whole emphasis was upon practice. May the Lord help us.
Lord, we bring back to You all these thoughts. We are asking for new light on this matter of corporate prayer.
Lord, if we have not seen Your heart, would You open our eyes? We even want to say, Lord, according to Your Word, that we want to bind those things that keep us from seeing what is in Your heart—whether it is our opinion, our rebellion, or our insistence upon a certain way.
We ask You, Lord Jesus, in Your name, that You would open to us the thing that is upon Your heart.
Lord, we pray that we would learn how to pray together in the right way: great prayers, great requests. May that people for whom You are waiting—Your body, joined with its Head—begin to cooperate in such a way that we would pray as we ought to pray and stand as we ought to stand.
In the end, may we affect the coming in of Your purpose and not its delay.
Lord, if these things are too great for us to see, we pray that You would grant us more and clearer vision.
In the end, we do not want our priority to be different from Your priority. We do not want to spend this life and never fulfill our true service as the house of prayer to which we have been called.
Would You, Lord, open our eyes? Would You help us in this matter? Would You bring us into a deeper experience of it?
And would we love, as You love, the house of prayer for all nations.
For we ask this in Your precious name. Amen.