Prayer: The Divine Love Language
Why do we pray? Is it because we are in need of something? Is it because we’re sitting down to another meal? Is it because it just happens to be Sunday? All of those are certainly valid reasons to pray, but it’s much more than our common understandings and uses of it. Prayer is the love language between humanity and God. Although we couldn’t possibly cover enough material on prayer in one article, we’ll see how prayer is threaded through the story of scripture from beginning to end.
Eden: The Garden of Fellowship
In the book of Genesis after The Lord formed and breathed life into Adam it says that He placed him in the garden of Eden. It was there that they would walk and talk together as friends, like a Father and son. After The Lord made Eve from Adam’s side this fellowship continued to flourish.
Eden was the garden connection between Heaven and Earth; it was literally Heaven on Earth. Adam and Eve ministered to The Lord in a priestly manner. That means that their ‘tending’ of the garden wasn’t taking care of fruits and vegetables but rather a ‘protecting’ or ‘guarding’ to keep it a holy and sacred place of fellowship. This is the type of relationship that The Lord desired from the Israelites (Exodus 19:6).
Walking and talking in the cool of the day with The Lord was Adam and Eve’s ministry to Him. As we understand the relationship between a husband and a wife to be the closest human connection, the relationship that The Lord desires to have with us is indescribably close and very personal. The ‘I Do’ vow in marriage is just a small glimpse into the heart of The Lord’s ultimate desire for us.
Moses the Intercessor
To be an intercessor literally means to stand in the gap or to intervene on someone’s behalf. We see this several times in the life of Moses. The first time we see it is when he intervenes for a Hebrew slave that is being severely mistreated. This, of course, sends him fleeing for his life after killing the Egyptian taskmaster.
The next time we see Moses stand in the gap is when he’s standing before Pharaoh telling him, “Let my people go!” Despite Moses’ speech impediment and his general apprehension, there’s something in him that causes him to come to the defense and aid of the defenseless. Moses was embracing his identity as a deliverer, leading his people out of captivity.
After the Israelites were led out of Egypt, The Lord expresses to His people the desire of His heart: to have them as His royal priesthood; a holy people set apart unto Him. Sadly, the people become deathly afraid of this and delegate Moses to be the intermediary on their behalf. The Lord’s anger is stirred up enough that He tells Moses that He plans to destroy the people and start over with Moses’ family but Moses vehemently steps in and says, “Do not destroy your people! Your name will become a byword amongst the unbelievers.” (paraphrasing Duet. 9:26–29)
David: The Vow that Changed History
King David’s love for The Lord started back in his youth while he was still tending sheep in the pastures, playing his harp and writing songs. David’s zeal even translated into his undignified and unashamed dancing as the ark of the covenant was being brought back into the possession of God’s chosen people. Despite David’s mis-steps, his passion for The Lord always brought him back to seeking first His kingdom.
There came a time in David’s life where all seemed to be well, and yet he was not satisfied that the ark of The Lord was sitting in a tent while he lived in a palace. He even vowed that he wouldn’t give rest to his eyes until he could build a place for the presence of The Lord to be hosted. David said, “Zeal for Your house has consumed me…”
The Lord never asked for David to do this, but it was out of the overflow of his passion and love that he was so consumed to see this happen. Of course, we know that it would be left up to Solomon his son to carry out the construction and dedication of the temple. However, The Lord still blessed David to deploy singers, musicians, gate keepers and others to sustain 33 years of night and day, round-the-clock worship and prayer. David’s vow had found a secret place into the heart of The Lord: priestly ministry.
Jesus’ Great Desire
Intercession is part of the identity of Jesus; He is our great intercessor standing at the right hand of The Father. It would be easy to just pick any example of prayer from the life of Jesus but the one that comes to mind is in John 17. Jesus prays, “ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given to Me [as Your gift to Me], may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
There’s so much in there, but what we see is that Jesus’ desire, His aim and focus, is to unify humanity to divinity so that we can experience and stand in awestruck wonder of His glory. Said another way, He gets really pumped up at just the thought of restoring humanity back into the unashamed intimacy that was only possible in Eden. Such innocence and purity of mind is only possible by The Holy Spirit.
Some translations label this passage of scripture as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer; we should take careful note of it. We may find ourselves in the midst of our busy lives here and there, to and fro trying to ‘do’ things for The Lord and simultaneously losing sight of His great desire.
The Victorious Bride
In drawing the body of Christ to Himself, Jesus desires to make us more like Him. A most fundamental way He will do this is to, in Love, draw us into prayer as the world has never seen. At the end of the age, Jesus will transition the earth from this present age to the age to come and drive evil from the earth forever.
A victorious Church attains to unity, intimacy, and maturity, resulting in the greatest revival in history (Eph. 4:13). This prophetic, praying Church will walk in great power as it is used to bring in the end-time harvest and transform society in various places. The prayers of all the saints during the tribulation will even release the trumpet judgments! (Rev. 8–9)
He has a plan to intervene to confront oppression and corruption in a way that He has never done before (Rev. 19:2). God’s judgments will remove all that hinders love so that multitudes are saved and matured in love. He uses the least severe means to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest level of love.
Discovering Our Eternal Occupation
It is said that we don’t think of Heaven rightly or often because we don’t know too much about it. However, the Bible has plenty of Heaven to speak of. It takes understanding and thinking of Heaven rightly (and often) to help us discover our identity as a priestly people.
Through the millennial reign of Christ and afterwards into the ages to come, we will still have need to ask The Lord for comprehension of the never-ending depths of His love for us; it takes The Spirit of wisdom and revelation to reveal it to our hearts! Gifts of prophecy, evangelism, preaching and other things will all fade away one day, but what remains is a divine love language: prayer.
Saying Yes To The Great Invitation
Even after writing this article, I am made even more aware of my need to continue in further cultivating my own prayer life. Take time, even right now, and determine for yourself going forward to pray regularly, not religiously. Schedule it in on a calendar if you must, but our approach to prayer should look more like a relationship rather than an obligation or pious duty. Say ‘yes’ to the invitation of Love, Friendship and Family that The Lord is extending to us even now.
