Chris and I will be responding to frequent questions that are rising concerning the prayer room - LivingStone House of Prayer. If you have a question please email us directly and we will group similar questions together. Answers will be posted here. You will get responses from both of us. I have found that we often come from different perspectives when we answer questions and cast vision. Some people can hear Chris more easily while others hear me more easily. Feel free to post follow up comments. You will be helping us form a standard FAQ that we will provide in printed form in the prayer room. In this way all of Hope Church takes part in forming the prayer room. Our first question is:
"Why do I need to come to the prayer room to pray? Can’t I do the same thing at home?"Chris: First, let me say that time spent in the prayer room is not intended to replace your personal devotional time, although you can certainly sit in the prayer room and have personal time with the Lord. I sometimes pray over personal issues in the prayer room, but more often, I am doing something very different (studying, interceding for the church of Hampton Roads, singing, meditating on Scripture, etc.). Still the question remains: can’t I do all those things at home? Yes, you could, but I have found the atmosphere of the prayer room to be more conducive to spending long periods of time engaged in those activities. I can pray longer, study longer, and linger longer. Furthermore, my experience typically goes deeper as my own spiritual activity intersects with what is going on at the altar or over the audio feed from Kansas City. My own ministry, whether prayer or worship or study, is strengthened and deepened and extended by the ministry of others in the room. For example, today I was reading through Hebrews and focusing on the excellencies of Christ. Meanwhile the singers on the altar were spontaneously singing through Psalm 84. Many times what they were singing brought a fresh perspective into my own meditation. In fact, at this very moment, I am in the prayer room, and my heart is very tender both toward Jesus and toward you as I listen to what is being sung in Kansas City. If I were in my office, would I be experiencing the same thing?
Another dynamic that I appreciate about the prayer room is that when I am weak, I can stand in the strength of another. How many times has your quiet time with the Lord flopped because you just didn’t have it in you to open up your Bible or to pray? Just this morning I got out of bed at 5:30 to spend time with God. Even though my spirit desired Him, my flesh could not keep up. I spent about 2/3 of the time sleeping and the other 1/3 mumbling through a prayer or listening to what was on my iPod. When I come to the prayer room, if I am feeling tired or weak or angry or whatever, I am carried along by others until my own heart and mind and body can catch a breath and engage. I’m sure many of you have experienced this during Sunday worship.
The result is that I am growing stronger in the Lord as I encounter Him over and over again in the prayer room. Can I encounter the same God and have similar experiences on my own? Yes. But being in the prayer room is helping me to sustain what I cannot sustain in my own strength and through my own determination. It is helping me to overcome personal weakness and the limitations of my flesh, yielding more fruitful ministry.
Ken: I believe we can effectively prayer anywhere because God is everywhere. He hears our voice whether we are washing dishes in the kitchen or in the prayer room. Our access to the God is not limited by geographical location. Our time in the prayer room should never preclude us from praying both privately or with our families at home. In fact, I find that I want to pray more at home, in the car, on vacation, in my office, etc after spending time in the prayer room. Below are some points that I think are important and may allow us to be even more profitable, in your efforts to be
"a royal priesthood and a holy nation."1. On a practical level, there can be many distractions in our homes or offices. The prayer room can provide a more intentional and less interrupted time for prayer. This more guarded place can allow us to go deeper than when we are watching the kids (or the TV) out of the corner of our eye. The prayer room is a great resource available to you, because of that I exhort us all to avail ourselves of it.
2. The House of Prayer is a corporate ministry that the people of HOPE are called to establish in Hampton Roads. As members of HOPE we have a command - a calling - from God to keep this effort moving forward in Hampton Roads. For this reason we all can, and should, invest in the prayer room. Some will invest more directly and intensely than others. You may not become an alter ministry "keeper", but you can easily join the work of LHOP by joining in the work from the seats. Especially with such a broadly applicable ministry like prayer, we can all enter in. Prayer if for us all. By moving a portion of your prayer efforts to the prayer room you stand within the calling God extends to you corporately through your church family.
3. LHOP is corporate. Jesus said that where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am also. There is a strength in efforts that are not solely private. We magnify our efforts as priests when we do this corporately.
4. Your prayer is part of a whole. LHOP is about continuous night and day prayer that is both visible and invisible.
5. When we pray in the prayer room we able to grow and learn more about prayer. For example we refer to the Worship with the Word set as a singing seminary. Again, we have this resource lets use it. In fact we are called to establish this resource so we learn to uphold the corporate visible place of prayer for our cities.
My bottom line is that I want you to pray and pray a lot. If you can only do it from your home then do not hesitate, let nothing hinder that effort. Stand as priest where you are. If you can come to the prayer room join this visible effort that is for you and for others. I recently was reading about the faithful men and woman of faith in Hebrews 11. They acted on promises that they did not always see fulfilled. "God had planned something better for us so that only TOGETHER with us would they be made perfect." (emphasis mine). We are part of what God is doing globally, right now, with night and day prayer. LHOP is our part.
