This Kind of Prayer Marks You For Uncommon Favor
When I began to dig into the story of David in the Scriptures, I was struck by the revelation of his method.
Simply put, David was a king, but he actually began his kingship looking more like a priest. David actually paid people a great deal of money to pray and worship Yahweh.
The more I studied David’s method, the more God began to connect the dots for me—David’s favor in Jerusalem came about as a result of the relationship he built with God in the secret place. When his kingship manifested, the anointing that was on him was not the only thing that gave David success. It was also the culture of prayer and worship he created that made a place for God to inhabit that brought success. David’s anointing led him to implement a method that would be the recipe for God to move in Jerusalem in unprecedented ways. In fact, the longest reign of peace and prosperity in Israel was when David sat on the throne.
If you know anything about the role of a king in the Old Testament, it was unheard of for a king to wear an ephod and play the part of a priest, yet King David did just that. David was concerned with one thing in His life more than anything, and that was to create a habitation for the presence of God. He was a man after God’s own heart. In the Scriptures we see his progression through Bethlehem, Hebron, and on to Jerusalem as the progression through one single glaring core value in his life—to host God’s presence through intimacy, prayer, and worship. It was unheard of to spend as much money as David spent on prayer and worship, yet he did because he had his priorities set on God the Father.
If you read the early sections of the book of Revelation, you will find that even right now at this very moment, Heaven has literal elders who exist to worship the Lord God Almighty at all times. Where are the churches with elders whose job description is simply to be the lead priest who focuses on God’s presence around the clock? We have replaced His presence with programs. God wants His family back to gather around His presence. If intercession is as unappealing to you as it was to me, ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation (see Eph. 1:17) and begin to beseech God to give you a passion for what Heaven is passionate about. When you put up a prayer Tent (whether literal or simply a designated room) and make it the focus of everything you do, you will find out very quickly how the Tent both stirs up warfare around you while also attracting uncommon favor on what you are doing.
Creating a Culture of Habitation for God
As you begin to establish a culture of prayer in your sphere of influence, you can rest assured that you will go through some interference from the enemy. It’s simply a part of the process and it’s always worth it.
James says that if we draw near to God, then He will draw near to us (see James 4:8). God is indeed enthroned on the praises of His people.
A friend and mentor of mine, Gary Hippolyte, runs the House of Prayer in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. When he and his wife, Linda, started their prayer ministry in that area of Haiti, anything that could go wrong went wrong for two or three years. The Father did not tell Gary that Croix-des-Bouquets had more voodoo temples than anywhere else in Haiti. Gary and Linda faced so much warfare in Haiti in those early years that it seemed like they had made a mistake by even going there. Yet they persisted, and the stories from those early years read like something out of the book of Acts. My point is this—as you embark upon creating a culture of prayer and worship in your church or business, you will likely become very familiar with Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms.”
There is nothing that the devil hates more than a family, church, or business establishing a true culture of prayer and worship that has zero celebrity spirit attached to it, where the Holy Spirit is the leader and the assignment is to simply minister unto the Lord. For a church or business in the West, this whole idea seems ridiculous because, for many people, they simply don’t understand the point. I have lost count of how many times I have either led events or attended events that have been well attended because they were centered around healing or deliverance. We hosted such an event at my church, Bridgeway, a few years ago and there were over 1,500 people in attendance. But when I call prayer meetings, a fraction of that many people show up. Yet it is at these prayer meetings that the literal glory of God manifests unlike in other gatherings.
One of the passions of my life is mentoring business leaders. I love nothing more than seeing the Father use marketplace leaders to extend His kingdom. Over the years I have seen two key principals help leaders in the marketplace to see God touch what they are building.
These two principals are:
resign any and all ownership of the business to God—literally name Him CEO and put that in a document, and
establish a culture of prayer in the business. This sounds quite simple, yet it is ignored by many business leaders—leaders who do in fact love God very much. Until a marketplace leader places God as the literal leader of the business and develops a culture of prayer in that business, he or she can actually be hindering God from moving and not even know it.
Did David have so much success because he was anointed? I don’t think so. David gave everything over to God and established a literal culture of prayer and worship in Israel. If you look objectively at both the marketplace and church in today’s culture, you will have a hard time finding many places that do that. The Father is looking for leaders who will do what King David did in terms of establishing a true culture of God-focused prayer and worship. When this happens in organizations, things change for the better and God begins to do things in those companies and churches that other organizations don’t see happening.
Instead of leading whatever God has called you to lead through your anointing or intellectual capital, go ahead and create an ecosystem driven by His presence. Jump into the biblical narrative of David and see how he did it in his tenure over Israel. Ask yourself why Jesus spent so much time in prayer. Perhaps in a world where so many people find little purpose, this can be the first step in discovering one of the reasons we are here in the first place.
