We Enter In to be Released
Prayer has a percussive rhythm to it. As prayers of thanksgiving, petition, proclamation, and declaration go up into the eardrum of the divine, a weighty, rolling wave of the prophetic comes back down in our hearing. To the spiritual ear, it sounds like a Timpani or bowl-shaped kettle drum being stroked with two mallets, creating the distinctive low, rumbling sound often used to build tension or add dramatic effect in orchestral music.
Our words, rarely sufficient in and of themselves, act as one mallet. God's responses serve all sufficiently as the other mallet. The Holy Spirit initiates and quickens our melody and timing, bringing us into a harmonic tabernacle of sound and space, where the spiritual realm invades our bodies and our world.
When the "Ask Us to Pray" prayer team prays at 6AM every morning, Monday through Friday, we are unaware of how this spiritual symphony will be conducted. We fight past sleepiness, ache, distraction, and the unfocused assaults of random thoughts and insecurities because we know the conductor.
This is a part of entering in, of coming boldly before the throne of grace and mercy, not riding on our own steed, but in the knowledge of the God we serve, with all thankfulness for the salvation and righteousness he imputed to us. As this knowledge overtakes us, we begin to put off our grave clothes of offense, hurt, and confusion.
The weightiness of the presence of God says, "I AM HERE," and we buckle under it and bask in it for a time and two times, it seems. When each of us senses that we are remembering him and magnifying all that he is with reckless abandon of our self-consciousness, we enter into the Tabernacle in heaven; we take our seats in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire the sentiments and requests of the prayer leader who raises our banner in prayer, "Glory be to God!"
The first movement of prayer empowers the prayer leader to clothe several direct petitions in a paced sonata of holy exposition, the collective development of agreement, and a recapitulation of the exaltation of the Lord Most High. We get in agreement concerning the people, places, and things we are connected to or have received requests about.
The second movement of prayer is slow and lyrical, with a lilting, songlike theme, a theme given to us from on High. It is words and thoughts braided together, words and phrases that spark decision and aid direction and instruction in us from the Lord. The prayer leader invites others on the line to offer a prayer, prayer request, or word of encouragement being discerned in the Spirit.
The third movement is a dancing minuet of fortifying scripture verses, inspirational reflections, and executable marching orders, marching us into the space of the day where we will be tried, tested, called upon, and delivered. On today, we lingered, inexplicably. We had not yet felt a release from the Tabernacle.
The joy of likemindedness, of sweeping touches from the hand of God as we reflected on him, they held us in a tarrying posture that felt energizing, freeing, easy, and resilient combined. Words fail it, but we try to sustain it, not wanting to depart until the call of duty sounds.
Today, January 20, 2025, our new president, Donald J. Trump, will be inaugurated; damage from the L.A. fires pontificated over; a deep freeze in the South considered, to which all we laid at the altar, interested only in God's perspective, his will, his way, bringing heaven to earth on continual repeat.
Our core morning group is varied, a pastor and prophet of the living God, an anointed prayer team leader, a mother-teacher warring in the Spirit, a guidance counselor set free for this generation, and a scribe called and at attention. We have learned that we dare not stand in the outer courtyard looking in. We throw off every tie that binds us to go inside, to go deeper in experience, to come up higher in perception, and to look out at the world we are released to.
Our noon-time prayer team also sends up timbers of prayer at 12 Noon each day, Monday - Friday, to continue to commandeer the atmosphere, that God's kingdom comes and His will is done!
If you grant us the privilege to pray for you, we will welcome the contentment of waiting on our Lord so that we can tell him all about you. He answers because "He is Here."
For prayer, send requests to askustopray@gmail.com. To join us, dial 1-651-369-9484. Enter the code 321254 when prompted.
Shalom, Beloved
