If prayer is indeed a conversation among friends (as “Steps to Christ” suggests), then the conversation between God and Moses surrounding the building of the tabernacle can be helpful.
As a pastor, the times where I have observed this coming together is usually when disturbing news may be on the horizon for a person and family.
If prayer is indeed a conversation among friends (as “Steps to Christ” suggests), then the conversation between God and Moses surrounding the building of the tabernacle can be helpful. God’s desire for His people was to have a place where He could dwell with them. The designed way this occurred was through a tent of meeting. God used very human material to carry out His desire. This is a very biblical model.
God used the most horrific means of torturing and executing a human being as a way of reconciling all things unto Himself. God uses those things generated by humanity as a means of accomplishing His desires. The presence of the tent did not remove the need for the Hebrews to pray. It didn’t remove the personal aspect of walking with this Divine Deliverer. It reinforced the necessity of dependence. God did not set up the relationship with the Hebrews as an either/or proposition. “You either pray at home or come to the tent.” No, He established a relationship that would include both a tent generated by man and a personal connection with Himself. The prominence of this is outlined even more in Deuteronomy 4–6.
When it comes to our own day, is it possible that through the ingenuity of man (originating from the Creator of all creators) God can bring us to places of healing? Is it possible the ingenuity of this Creator of all creators opened the aperture of our own healing both through the medical community extending the healing ministry of Jesus and through our life bathed, immersed and marinating in prayer? And to go one step further, is it possible that since His house is to be a “House of Prayer” that our congregations are to be places of healing? What if prayer and extending His healing ministry become God’s way of reconciling all things to Himself? Isn’t prayer another form of providing healing and a kind of healing that goes to deeper places within our being, places we may not even now know? Prayer as an act of healing becomes a powerful experience to know that “peace that passes all understanding.”
There are prayers born from heartache and prayers that also bring healing, even at times in the same prayer. Thus, every place where God’s people gather can be a space where God extends the healing ministry of His Son.
John Grys is president of Illinois Conference
