Careful What You Pray

Tony Hauck
Church in the Rock - Melbourne


I Kings 18 records the time Elijah called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, then called up rain after holding it back for three and a half years. Chapter 19 describes his fleeing to the wilderness after a threat from Jezebel. Lest you be too hard on him, keep in mind he’d just wiped out 450 of her demonic prophets and broken Satan’s long hold on Israel. I know I’ve never encountered that kind of spiritual backlash. But there is something Elijah did wrong, and it had to do with his attitude. At that critical time, Elijah interceded against Israel.

Rom 11:2-5 "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel,saying, "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars,and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace"

There are two things to consider here. First, even though he accurately saw Israel’s problem, he was willing to write all of them off. Look at verse five. There is always a faithful remnant. Second, he wasn’t praying. He was just answering God’s question. That means whenever we talk to God, even if we’re just complaining, it’s intercession. Contrast Elijah’s attitude with Moses’ when God did have reason to write off all of Israel.

Exo 32:10-14 "Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation." Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: "LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? "Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people." Moses appealed to God’s word, His plan, His glory, and His mercy to give Him a reason to continue to bless His people. If we’re going to be intercessors, we need to be careful how we talk to God about His church, His bride.

Help! I Don’t Know What to Do!

Tim Franklin
Freedom Christian Center

Jesus declared in Mt 21:13, “My house, will be called a house of prayer.” We often focus on the prayer part of that passage, and we should. But think with me for a moment: Jesus is the one speaking, and His statement is “My House!” Wow! Jesus has a house! He has a dwelling place that has an identity and it can be found! It is called the House of Prayer. David initiated the House of Prayer under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God wanted a house and He found a man to build it—David.

Prayer is not an option! Worship is not an option! These represent the place of encounter with the Living God! It was David who said, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the LORD.”

What I often find in the House of Prayer are people who do not know what to do. Let me try to answer this: “What am I to do in the House of Prayer?”

1. Intimacy. It simply means to engage God. In other words He has your attention and you have His. You can compare it to intimacy in a marriage. Intimacy in a marriage is when a couple engages each other. You have her attention, she has yours.
2. Intercession. In its simplest form intercession is me finding/hearing what God is praying and then praying it back to Him. It is a powerful form of agreement in prayer. What is Jesus praying about? Hearing that prayer and praying it back to Him. The prayer targets we cover in our MyHOP gatherings are things that we as leaders feel like God is putting on our hearts to pray and we pray it back to Him.
3. Antiphonal praying/singing. Many people get lost here! Because they are now singing they feel they are no longer praying. The power of antiphonally singing our prayers is that we are filling the bowls of heaven (Rev 5:8). We hear the worship team sing a prayer that has been prayed at the microphone. Most generally they repeat it several times in song format. During that time we who are engaging God begin to sing the same prayer. “Lord we delight ourselves in You!” One singer can sing that and 200 people can antiphonally sing the prayer back at them! Heaven hears! Instead of ‘one cup’ of prayer going into a bowl it now becomes 201 ‘cups of prayer’ going in the bowl.
4. Devotion. Many times in the atmosphere of Corporate prayer, we simply soak/get immersed/or positioned in the Presence of God. Interesting spiritual dynamics are released when we gather corporately together to seek Him and declare His greatness. In a crowd, I can suddenly find myself alone with God—enjoying Him, or He enjoying me. In a crowd, I can be alone receiving revelation from Him for my family, my work, or ministry. In the corporate anointing we are stimulated to pursue God because we are in a room with a bunch of like minded people who going after Him.
5. Dwelling. If His house is a House of Prayer, it is His dwelling. If we come with the mindset of entering His dwelling, not a church building, we then walk straight into the first two points on our list: intimacy and intercession. He lives forever to intercede and His love is eternal toward us!

There is plenty to do while in the House of Prayer if you know what you should be doing. If you feel lost in the House, follow the team; they are going somewhere and you will be glad you came along!

Voice of the Lord

Pastor Tim Franklin - Freedom Christian Center

April 29, 2010

Ps. 29:9 “The voice of the Lord causes the deer to give birth…”

Awesome is the voice of the Lord! It strikes terror in the heart, like the roar of the lion. It soothes and comforts like a mother over her child. It creates, it destroys, it raises up and brings down. Awesome is the voice of the Lord! Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice and listen and follow.”

In Psalm 29, ‘the voice of the Lord’ expression is used eight different times. The Voice of the Lord is over the waters, is full of majesty, breaks cedars, divides flames of fire, shakes the wilderness and makes deer give birth. Awesome is the voice of the Lord!

I heard the voice of the Lord say today, “there is a slowing down of spiritual birthings.” Upon hearing that, I immediately thought of Ps. 29:9 “that it is the voice of the Lord that causes the deer to give birth.” It is amazing, the things that have come forth in the earth because people have heard the voice of the Lord. Churches get started, ministries come forth, governments shift, people are born again, healed and delivered ― all because of the voice of the Lord.

So when I hear God whispering that there is a slowing down of spiritual birthings, my spirit man immediately begins contending for the hearing of God’s voice in our region. We must hear His voice! He has plans for us! There are blessings and prophetic words hanging over our region. We must hear His voice and bring forth those visions with strength.

Forward movement stops, village life ceases, spiritual climates digress, and corruption of culture, family, and society begins to take place when God’s voice is not heard. When His voice is not heard we lose sight of His vision for us, our community and our nation. Amos said strongly in 8:11 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord God, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. (NKJV) That was not good for Israel and it is not good for us.

Would the deer give birth without the hearing of the voice of the Lord? Would the wilderness shake? I want the things of God to accelerate in our region not slow down. I am contending for breakthrough! I am contending for revival! I am contending for ‘God activity’ all over our county. I am contending that His voice be heard in our land! Rise up intercessors! PUSH! Rise up church! PUSH! Rise up and PUSH! Bring forth what God has put inside of you.

Do not back down, let up, turn aside or quit! Rise up and PUSH!