Something has been bothering me for some time about the Prayer Room, and I have finally figured out what it is. It has become common to us. In our church the actual location of our Prayer Room is conducive to Passer By's! You must enter it to go to any area of the back of the church so our youth and children and the staff of these departments must pass through it many times a week. It seems it has also become a place for the lost and found items in the church. We have used it as overflow for events, which is sometimes a necessity; it is used for Quizzing, for Meetings, and alas has even been used for storage when getting ready for a garage sale. It is used as a place to hold bake sales out of necessity, and various other distributions. One Sunday evening my husband and I came early to pray and there were clothes hung all around on the pictures and walls, because some of our people had stayed all day at the church and had to change for the evening service. Don't get me wrong I understand that because of lack of room and completely out of necessity many times this just has to be a multi-functional room. Keeping that in mind...
The particular Sunday we came at 4 to pray, we had just come back from our Leadership Retreat where our evangelist Rev. Ken Cook had spoken to us about "Leaving Common Behind". He talked about Joseph who made an uncommon decision to embrace the Promise. He talked of how we have to step into uncommon places for God to do uncommon things through us. It was one of the more impactful messages of my life. Thus the reason for us being in the Prayer Room at 4 on a Sunday afternoon. As we began to pray I was walking and I began to see all that was going on in that room while I was praying. It was such a common place. Nothing special about it. I began to weep as I realized my prayer life had gotten just like that room. It was something I did because I knew I should, or because I needed direction from God, but it had become very much common. I listened to myself as I prayed the same words I had spoken over and over, and I realized I had gotten it down to a T! The
"Hallelujah's" were perfectly placed, the
"I Praise You's" came rolling out of my mouth, and the
"I Love You's" were something that filled space as I thought of what to say next. I became so convicted and sorrowful for what I had allowed that for a time I was just silent. I have now begun to force myself to remember how I prayed when I first received the Holy Ghost, how much thought and meaning I put into the
"I Love You's" and the worship from my HEART that went into the
"Hallelujah's"! I have dropped many of my habit phrases, and begun to pray an uncommon prayer once again. And oh how I have found Christ to be near to me. So sweet and precious, full of mercy and flowing in and through me into others. I have begun to see others with a spiritual eye, to be once again sensitive to their needs, in short... I feel free of the chains of common, once again. Thank You God for waking me up from my common ground and pushing me into an uncommon, uncharted place with you.
May our Prayer Rooms be filled with such a hallowed presence of the Lord, may our heart be overflowing with a reverence for that room. May we adore walking through the doors, may we enter it first thing when we come to church and linger long. May worship service start in the Prayer Room and may it "Overflow" into the hearts of all who attend each service. May we love that "ROOM" like never before!
I am calling on our Leaders to visit the "Uncommon Room" before every service, and linger long. It is there that Uncommon Revival and Evangelism begins! May it never be treated common again.
