Family Prayer Watch

Tonight at our House of Prayer we had a "Family Prayer Watch" normally during this time it is the "Children's Prayer Watch" but tonight we brought parents together with the children to pray, study and worship together. I didn't want to take to many pictures because I didn't want to interrupt but here are a few to give you an idea of how the prayer watch went.

In the House of Prayer you can study the Word.

You can bring your laptop to use in your studies or bring a devotional.Seek GodUse the arts and drawing to bring forth what the Lord might be sharing with you. Journaling what the Lord puts upon your heart.The kids and parents came forth with the Word and . . . . . with prayer. They pray the Word.These next two pictures came out blurry but here is Sierra praying . . .
and Landon.
It was so neat to see families coming together to spend time in prayer and worship together.

What is a House of Prayer?
A house of prayer is a group of Christian believers in a city/geographic region who as a group (not necessarily as individuals) spend a great amount of time worshipping God, thanking Him, enjoying His presence and praying to Him in partnership for the many things on His heart. The house of prayer movement is unusual in that its extravagance is expressed in the passion of prayer, the humility of the pray-ers, the continuous nature of prayer and worship, and the focus on the Word that undergirds the worship and prayer.

Where is the concept of the House of Prayer found in the Bible?
This is a pretty extensive topic! However, here's a quick overview. The phrase "house of prayer"is drawn from Isaiah 56:7, where it is used twice: Even those (foreigners) I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.
Jesus refers to this verse when casting the money changers from the temple, as recorded in Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46: And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: ?My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it ?a den of robbers.'"
The heart of the house of prayer is perhaps best captured by David's heart cry in Psalm 27: One thing I ask of the Lord this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in His temple.
King David actually established one example of a house of prayer, called the "Tabernacle of David".
While referred to in many parts of the Bible, the best description of this biblical house of prayer is found in I Chronicles 16:
(1) And they brought in the ark of God and set inside the tent which David had pitched for it...

(4) Moreover, David appointed certain of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel...

(37) So David left Asaph and his brethren there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister continually before the ark as each day required...

How does music and singing fit into a House of Prayer?
We are in the midst of a global worship movement. This movement has everything to do with prayer and intimacy.
We believe that part of prayer becoming enjoyable has everything to do with a spirit of devotion being mixed with worship and prayer. Many of us have tried "rock-pile" prayer meetings, where we just feel like we're chipping away little by little at the resistance around us with very little anointing and power. Suddenly, when worship and song becomes a part of our prayers, life erupts corporately in those meetings. This is by God's sovereign design. Music awakens the heart to beauty, and since God is a musical Being and we have been created in His very image, we've been made with a musical spirit. Almost every person finds solace, comfort or expression in music. Again, this is God's design. In Heaven, music and verbal expression (prayer) are never separated from one another. We base most of our prayer meetings in the house of prayer upon this concept and value. King David upon instituting the Tabernacle knew that worship and devotion were major components of day and night intimacy and prayer. Deep revelation must have come to him of "how heaven hosts a prayer meeting." We are seeking this heavenly model, found in Rev. 5:8. We call this particular model: Harp and Bowl.

HARP AND BOWL
Revelation 5:8 "...the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one having a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song..."
The harp stands for the worship or music of God and the bowls are the intercession of the saints. In heaven, there is a marriage between prayer and worship. Our cry is, "So let it be on earth."
The apostle Paul spoke to the early church in Colossae to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Colossians 4:16) Worship was never a separate, compartmentalized, pre-teaching, warm-up time. It was intricate in their walks with the Lord. How do we encourage one another today with "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"? We believe that the singing of psalms is the singing of the literal word of God, and that the singing of hymns stand for our modern day worship songs, and spiritual songs are spontaneous new songs that arise from our hearts of worship. We seek to apply these three elements into our prayer meetings: the singing of worship songs, singing spontaneously, and singing and ministering the Word of God.