2 Chron 7:12-14, Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 
	As we continue forward in this series on prayer, using material adapted from The Battle Plan for Prayer Bible Study Curriculum developed by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, we want to look at several practical aspects of prayer as the means of the spiritual growth of the Lord’s Church on earth today. So many of us tend to think that what was true so long ago doesn’t apply any longer. Our society has changed so very much in just the shortest span of time. The manner of how people live today is so very different than how we lived just 30 or 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago. Yet, the reality is that what the Lord designed in prayer is just as valid and vital today as it was from the walk of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It still serves the same function and purposes of God.
	Primarily, prayer is the main means of developing our relationship with God. It is our communion with God in order for us to intimately know, love, and worship Him. It is in prayer that we open our hearts unto Him and ask Him to open His heart unto us.
	Prayer helps us to understand what our lives are truly about.  It is not the image that this world paints with its brushes of social media and propaganda and disinformation. Our time spent in prayer with the Lord serves to help us conform our walk on this earth to His will and to His ways. As we abide with Him in our concentrated prayer lives, we will find that we are being more and more brought into line with His ways and His will rather than trying to make Him conform Himself to our ways. It is the matter of the Body doing what the Head requires rather than trying to make the Head do what the body desires.
	  Prayer is also the means whereby He helps us to access and to advance His Kingdom, His Power, and His Glory on this earth. Through a life based in prayer, we are given those resources from Him to show forth His glory and to experience His character and His nature through prayer. The Psalmist encourages us thusly in the 24th Psalm, if you would please open to it. This would also be a great time to stand as we read this entire Psalm together.
	Ps 24. The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the rivers. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Thy face — even Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah. 
	As the Psalmist declares, only those with clean hands and a pure heart may ascend unto the presence of the Lord. It is those who seek His face and receive the blessing of the Lord that is found in the prayer that He will work to His plan and His purpose in our lives, who will see the brilliance of God revealed. As we humbly come before Him and earnestly desire for Him to change our lives, to conform us unto that which is His heart’s desire, to thouroughly cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we will be the active witnesses to His majestic glory. We will be enabled to see Him in the splendor of His glory and His majesty and His might! That is the blessing that is ours as we spend time with Him in prayer. In true, effective prayer, we set aside our petty wants and desires for the sake of His glory to fill our lives and the lives of all those whom we lift up to Him in our dedicated time of worship and adoration. 
	This was characterized for us by The Lord Jesus, Himself in the manner in which He taught each of us to pray. Please turn to Matt 6:9-13 so we can look at this prayer together. 
	Matt 6:9-13, "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]' 
	Jesus begins with the fact that we are talking to Our Heavenly Father. Prayer is the communication of relationship, the relationship with God that is established through our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in Him and by Him that we can come unto the mountain of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart.
	Then we find ourselves offering Our Heavenly Father praise and adoration. Our earnest desire is that He is glorified and hallowed on earth as He is in heaven. As well, there is a complete setting aside of our personal interests and wants with the expressed determination that His will, alone, be done. That means that all our needs for each day is reckoned in His hands.  All our interactions with others is fully set in the manner in which He has dealt with us. Our daily operating stance within our society is based on His guidance and His will and not our own. Finally, our entire focus is centered on the fact of His kingdom and His power and His glory forever and forever.
	Our prayer life is the means of our abiding relationship with God. Because we want to see the glory of God increased on this earth through our obedient service to His will, we pray in full accordance with that desire. This, too, was detailed by the Lord Jesus Christ as He gave instruction to His disciples and to us as in John 14:13. 
John 14:13, "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If we pray in harmony with our established relationship with God in Christ, our prayers will constantly be those that will glorify God in the highest.
	We will know the abiding reality of what it means to pray after the heart of Christ in His life which served to only do that which brought more and more glory to Our Heavenly Father. Such will be the heart, as detailed by Christ in John 15:7-9, with which we live our lives on this earth. We dare not think that we will do it perfectly as did Our Lord, but we will want to do so. We will meet each decision, each interaction, and each situation with an increasing measure of prayer after what the heart of God would desire. 
	John 15:7-9, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 
    	One of the keys to effective prayer is the fact that we pray according to the heart of Christ asking that the Father be glorified. When we do so, we will experience the fullness of joy in the Lord as detailed by Jesus again in John 16:23+24. 
John 16:23+24, "And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. 
	Accordingly, when we pray, our joy will be made full and that will affect our interactions with others. When we are filled with the deep joy of the Lord, we will treat those around us in an absolutely different manner and with the conduct which will show forth that inner peace and harmony of our living relationship with God. We need to pray that we will become a House of Prayer for the sake of our homes and our communities, affecting the whole outcome and adding to the measure of God’s glory in the course of our familial relationship with Christ Jesus.
	Next, let us look at how this was manifested in the early church. In Acts, Chapter 1, verses 12-14, we have the detailed description of how the disciples were in constant prayer after the ascension of Jesus. 
Acts 1:12-14, Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 
 	They were waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit, as promised by Our Lord, yet they were not just passively sitting around. They were devoting themselves continually to prayer with singleness of mind and purpose. They were not elevating themselves over one another but were all together seeking what the Lord would have them do. 
In particular there was the realization that they should choose the disciple that would replace Judas Iscariot. They also had the very real issue of their fear of the Roman soldiers and the Jewish Council which wanted to wipe out the name of Jesus of Nazareth and His followers. Yet they were facing that threat in the manner of prayer and supplication unto God, seeking His guidance and His counsel and His rest and His peace and His comfort in their midst. There was a unity of heart and spirit in the manner of their honoring God and holding true to the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in Whom they had placed their everything.
	Then, after the Holy Spirit had come upon them, and they had boldly proclaimed the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the church grew by leaps and bounds as we read in Acts 2:41-43. Acts 2:41-43, So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 
    	Notice what was happening with the church as they were devoted to prayer and to fellowship with one another. There was a sense of awe to be so joined in a relationship that transcended anything that was heretofore known. They were of one accord and were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ in their daily devotional lives. As a direct result, the Lord was greatly adding to their number. Their life of prayer was influencing the entire city of Jerusalem in the course of seeing how God was manifesting His wonders and His signs through the apostles. 
	The Apostle Paul very plainly told the Colossian Church, in Col 4:2-4, that prayer is to be the course of our devoted walk with the intent and expressed purpose of the Word of the Gospel being spread abroad. Col 4:2-4, Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. 
	Along with the prayer and the submission to the Lord in our heart’s attitude toward each other, there needs to be that reality of thanksgiving. Our prayers are to be filled with thanksgiving unto the Lord for the life that we now have in Him. The very simple truth that we have been saved for all eternity from the doom that awaits anyone who refuses to accept the so freely offered salvation of God in Jesus Christ. This, alone, should be enough to fill our hearts with joy and gratitude. But, then, when we consider the every day manifestations of God’s care and love and provision and grace and mercy and ong-suffering, just to begin our skimming the surface of His so great love, we must be the living expression of thankfulness unto Him. 
That is one of the differences that should mark us as Christians and should be a drawing card to others of the life that is ours in Jesus. Our prayers of joy and worship and thanksgiving and praise and honor should resound throughout our homes and our communities. As we pray for all those whom God puts upon our hearts to lift up for the pre-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit, we should do so with the deep joy and thanksgiving that God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son. As we pray for those specific people, we also thankfully pray for those who are called to spread abroad the word of Jesus Christ, that God would open the doors and the hearts for the gospel to go forth in the power of God’s grace and love and mercy. 
Next time, Lord willing, we will consider some of the specific aspects of prayer including when to pray. So be it!
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rom 14:5-8. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. Amen.