Prayer is related to places, times, occasions, and circumstances. It has to do with our Heavenly Father, YHWH, and His Son, Yahshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah). It has an intimate and special relationship of spirit, truth, and worship. A place of prayer becomes a sacred place, set apart from all unholy and secular uses. As worship is prayer, the house of YHWH should be a place set apart for worship. It shouldn’t be a common place, but a place where YHWH dwells, where He meets with a person, and where He delights in the worship.
When a person makes a covenant with Yahshua HaMashiach to serve Him, then receives the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), he becomes a temple for Ruach HaKodesh, a house of prayer. Prayer is always in place when congregations meet in Yahshua’s name. When prayer is a stranger there, then it ceases to be a place of worship for the Father and His Son. Yahshua put special emphasis upon what the house of YHWH was when He cast out the buyers and sellers in the Temple, repeating the words from Isaiah 56:7,“It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer.”(Mat 21: 12-13) He makes prayer more important than everything else in the Temple of YHWH. Those who sidetrack prayer or seek to minimize it and give it a secondary place, pervert the house that our Savior dwells in and make it something less and other than it is ordained to be.
PRAYER IS PERFECTLY AT HOME IN THE HOUSE OR CONGREGATION OF YHWH
Prayer should not be a stranger or a mere guest in the house or the meeting place of His people —it belongs there. It has a peculiar attraction and relationship to the place. Moreover, it has a divine right to be there, having been set in place in the name of the body of Yahshua by divine authority and approval.
The inner chamber of one’s temple is a sacred place for personal worship. The house of YHWH is a holy place for united worship. The prayer closet is for individual prayer. The house of YHWH is for mutual prayer, concerted prayer, and united prayer. Yet even in the house of YHWH is the element of private worship, since Yahshua’s people are to worship Him and pray to Him personally even in public worship. The house of YHWH is for the united prayer of individual believers.
THE LIFE, POWER, AND GLORY OF THE BODY, IS PRAYER
The life of the body of Messiah is dependent upon prayer. The presence of the Ruach Hakodesh is obtained and retained by prayer. Even the place where the body of Yahshua gathers is made sacred by its ministry. Without it, the body is lifeless and powerless. Without it, even the building itself is nothing more than any other structure. Prayer converts even the bricks, concrete, and lumber, into a sanctuary—a holy of holies where the Ruach HaKodesh is present. Prayer separates the building, in spirit and in purpose, from all other structures. Prayer gives a peculiar sacredness to the building, sanctifies it, sets it apart for Yahshua, and conserves it from all common, ordinary, and secular affairs.
With prayer, the house of YHWH becomes a divine sanctuary, even though it might seem to lack everything else. As the tabernacle in the wilderness moved from place to place, it was always the holy of holies because prayer was there. Without prayer, a building may be costly, perfect in all its furnishings, beautiful for situation (Ps 48:2), and attractive to the eye, but it is lowered to human status with nothing divine in it.
THE BODY IS DEAD WITHOUT PRAYER
Without prayer, a building is like a body without spirit—it is a dead inanimate thing. A building with prayer in it has Yahshua in it. When prayer is set aside, YHWH is set aside. When prayer becomes an unfamiliar practice, then YHWH Himself is a stranger there.
Since YHWH’s Temple is a house of prayer, it is Yahshua’s intention that people leave their homes and go to meet Him in His own house. The building is especially set apart for prayer. Because Yahshua has made a special promise to meet His people there, it is their duty to go there for that specific purpose. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”(Matt 18:20) Prayer should be the chief attraction for all spiritually minded believers that come together. Admittedly, the preaching of the Word has an important place in the house of YHWH, but prayer is the predominating distinguishing feature. It is not that all other places are sinful or evil in themselves or in their uses, but they are secular and human and have no special concept of YHWH in them.
The house where the people of Yahshua meet is essentially a divine place of worship. Therefore, its buildings and the work done in them should be of the same nature. The work done in other places is done without special reference to YHWH. He is not specifically recognized or called upon. In the building where Yahshua’s people gather together, Yahshua HaMashiach is acknowledged, and nothing is done without Him. Prayer is the one distinguishing mark of the house of the Ruach HaKodesh. As prayer (in the name of Yahshua HaMashiach) distinguishes believers from all who are not believers, so prayer distinguishes YHWH’s house from all other houses. It is a place where faithful believers meet with Yahshua HaMashiach.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE OF PRAYER
Since YHWH’s house is preeminently a house of prayer, prayer should enter into and undergird—support and strengthen—everything that is undertaken there. Prayer belongs to every sort of work pertaining to the Body of Yahshua. YHWH’s house is a house where the business of praying is carried on, and so it is a place where the business of making praying people out of prayerless people is done. The house of YHWH is a divine workshop, and there the work of prayer goes on. Or the house of YHWH is a divine schoolhouse in which the lesson of prayer is taught—the place where men and women learn to pray, and where they graduate from the school of prayer.
Any congregation that uses words to relate to the house of YHWH for their name, but does not magnify prayer, put prayer in the forefront of its activities, or teach the great lesson of prayer, should change its teaching or call itself something else. Maybe use a name declaring it as some school of thought, a community center, or even so-and-so country club. But, their name should not relate to a place of prayer.
JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LAW
In the process of renovating the temple in about 621 B.C. a Torah scroll was found. EvidentlyManasseh or Amon had destroyed other copies so that the discovery of this one constituted an important find. Hilkiah, the high priest, shared his discovery with Shaphan who also read it.
After reporting on the progress of the restoration to Josiah, Shaphan informed the king of this important discovery and read it to him. How long that scroll had been there, we do not know. But, upon hearing what YHWH required of His people and comparing it with how far they had departed from His will, Josiah tore his clothes in distress and wept.
Then Josiah thought of YHWH, and commanded Hilkiah to go and make inquiry of YHWH. Such neglect, the Book of the Law was too serious a matter to be treated lightly, and YHWH must be sought and repentance made by the king and the nation.
“Go ye, enquire of YHWH for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.” (II Kings 22:1-13)
But, that was not all. Josiah was determined to promote obedience to Torah in his kingdom. So he gathered all the elders of Jerusalem and Judah together for that purpose. When they had come together, the king went into the house of YHWH and read to them all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of YHWH. (II Kings 23:1-2)
With this righteous king, YHWH’s Word was of great importance. He esteemed it as its proper worth, and considered knowledge of it to be of such grave importance that it required consulting YHWH in prayer about it. Further, it warranted gathering together the notables of his kingdom so that he and they could be instructed out of YHWH’s Book concerning YHWH’s Law.
EZRA AND THE BOOK OF THE LAW
When Ezra had returned from Babylon and was seeking the reconstruction of his nation, the people themselves were concerned about the situation. On one occasion, the priests, Levites, and people assembled together as one person before the water gate.
“And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moshe, which YHWH had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the people both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.” (Nehemiah 8:1-3)
This was Torah reading day in Judah. The leaders read the law before the people, whose ears were keen to hear what YHWH had to say to them out of the book of the law. But, it was not only a Torah reading day. It was a time when real Torah instruction was done, as the following passage indicated: “So they read in the book in the law of YHWH distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” (Nehemiah 8:8)
THE SCRIPTURAL DEFINITION OF INSTRUCTION
Here is the scriptural definition of instruction. No better definition can be given. To read the Word of YHWH distinctly—so that the people could hear and understand the words read. Not to mumble the words, nor read them in an undertone or indistinctly, but boldly and clearly. That was the way it was done in Jerusalem on this great day. Moreover, the sense of the words was made clear in the meeting held before the water gate. The people were treated to a high type of expository instruction. That was true Torah instruction—instruction of a sort that is sorely needed today so that Yahshua’s word will have the effect it should on the hearts of the people. This meeting in Jerusalem surely contains a lesson that all of today’s Torah teachers should learn and heed.
No one, having any knowledge of the existing facts will deny the comparative lack of expository instruction in the pulpit today. And surely there are none who will not deplore the lack. Topical preaching or instruction, controversial, historical, and other similar forms of sermons perhaps have their rightful uses. But, expository instruction, the prayerful expounding of the Word of Yahshua, is teaching that is true instruction— pulpit effort par excellence.
PREACHING AND PRAYING
For its successful accomplishment, however, a preacher or teacher of the Word must be a person of prayer. For every hour spent studying or instructing, two hours should be spent upon the knees. For every hour devoted to an obscure passage of Holy Scripture, two hours should be spent in prayer getting your words and thoughts from the Ruach HaKodesh. Pray that Yahshua will give you the message, and then pray that Yahshua will be in the message. Prayer, preaching, teaching and prayer! They cannot be separated. The ancient cry was, “To your knees, O preachers, to your knees!”
Any congregation or meeting place of people that claims to be Yahshua’s people, by all means should put prayer first. The leaders should be in daily supplication as the Twelve Apostles stated in Acts 6:4 “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Remember that the house of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) and your Temple (body) is a house of prayer.
Seek Yahshua today, while you can, because tomorrow may never come.