Devotion 2: Prayers That Shake Thrones
"And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus."Hebrews 10:19 (NLT)
"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah…prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth." James 5:16-17
Daniel Henderson, a professor of mine from Liberty University, stated in one of his many books on prayer (and in his class with us), “A lack of prayer in your life is your own personal declaration of independence from God.”
Yeah…Ouch! While I believe that statement to be extremely true, I wonder if the reality is that we don’t really believe that prayer works. Does prayer actually change anything? What do we really believe about our God?
Church father, Chrysostom, spoke about prayer:
The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire, it has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the fates of heaven, assuaged diseases, dispelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. There is (in it) an all-sufficient panoply (a full set of equipment), a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings!
We have a full audience with the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the Universe. How do we know this? Jesus died for our access! Before Jesus died, access to God was inhibited by the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. The only one who had access to God was the high priest, and that audience was only allowed one time per year to atone for the sins of the people. The presence of God was with His people in the Temple, but veiled by the temple veil. It was huge, ornate, and thick. It separated the people from the glory of God because no one can be in the presence of God and live.
All of that changed when Jesus died for us. God placed my sins and your sins on Jesus when He died in our place. At that very moment, that temple veil was torn from top to bottom, giving us complete and total access to God Himself through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us!
Now we can come boldly before the Great I Am! The One who has been and always will be. He has made us His sons and daughters, and we have that kind of access. We can pray big prayers, honest prayers, passionate prayers, fervent prayers, prayers for healing, prayers for help, cries for change…and God hears us! Take all of you to God in prayer, boldly and passionately. Prayer moves mountains, it moves rulers, and it moves even God Himself. More than all of this, prayer changes YOU. Take it all to God today and expect Him to move in and through you.