Making prayer enjoyable

Many of you will already be able to know from this title that this is your experience and for that I am thankful. But I was reading a prayer call from the International House of Prayer ( www.ihop.org ) about a summons for us to respond to God with all our heart and see His purposes released on the earth today, in light of the evils of society that threaten to engulf the world. (by evil I simply mean things that are not good) I will give the link here. Anna's Link

Is our experience that we simply pray because we have seen God move in the past? is it something that we grit our teeth about and find we only do it when need arises? What I mean to say is, do you only do prayer because it is required of you? This kind of prayer does not avail to touch the heart of God. The only reason that prayer works before God is because you want to touch Him, and He wants to hear from you. That is what I learned. The reason prayer is so enjoyable for me is because I get to spend time with my Daddy. It is the closest and most intimate expression of my life and something that I could not do without. Even in times of isolation and famine, the reason I pray is always because it moves my heart to move God's heart. Or more accurately, it is Him moving my heart to move His heart. This is because He desires to be known. He is the easiest one to ever know. He has no hickups about being offended, or indeed, of times of weakness, or venting out of frustration and anger. He has never had negative self-image and will never be prone to the effects of old age. He is and always will be the only thing that can satisfy, (I keep on telling this to myself) because he speaks to my heart. He wishes to know me more than I want to know Him. He hopes that I will choose to be with Him because He is that good. He yearns and thinks about me when we do not talk. When I'm struggling His zeal (lovingkindness) and compassion are aroused. When I am struggling, he inwardly burns. When I am tempted and coerced to sin, He violently opposes and makes me righteous.

More than that, when I am in love with Him, He likes me. When I love Him with everything, He loves me in return. When I grasp to take hold of His garment, even at that moment I am healed. He not only knows that such a life is the life that He calls us to live, it is the only life that will really satisfy in the end. I mean, who else you know has raised to life from dead? Who else lives inside of You by His Spirit? who else gave His own life so that we would know His love? Even more than that, He desires, yes, wishes, that we would enter into the fullness of His love for us. But for that, we must choose Him, we hardly do anything in light of what He's done. It's only, as one as said before, the thing that God can and will do to the heart that gives itself to Him. Isn't that remarkable? he promises to you that you shall be changed. If you do not, then throw in the towel. He will satisfy, he will come through, and He will see you changed. You will not stay the same way forever, you will be moved, love, and cherish this His most precious union that He has given so that you could be with Him forever.

The things that I want more than anything are to well up in love for Him. I want to articulate the emotions that He feels towards me. I want to make my inheritance His love, and make His inheritance my love. "I am Yours, and You are mine" I mean who else can be? Who else can really in this live, promise to give that kind of companionship and pure holy union with another? This is why He marries us, is because we would come into the fullness of that union that exists between us. He chose you to be able to articulate the fullness of His glory that is available to you in His love.

I often go back to the things that gave me comfort. The things that produce in me some joy of indulging in it. Must I say "indulgence and comfort are not such bad things"? that's what I've been told. I've been told that the way in which to beat sin is by no longer placing any value in it - to no longer do so would rob you of joy. Do you think that joy is so bad anyway? But if you apply that to God, of course you aren't going to come to God to pray. it will seem to be the worst thing that you could possibly do. And as a result you will be robbing yourself of the joy that exists solely in God. You will end up being frustrated, and no longer confident about the thing that you did. You will return to your own vomit. If that is the way that you see God, then you will never come to Him. But in God are fullness of pleasures, in God is richest of joy, in God are pleasures everlasting. In God are purity without blemish, and beauty untarnished. With Him are all the desires that you have in this life fully met and even more. If we could exhaust God we would have a reason to turn from Him, but that is so far from a picture of God that such a person should be pitied.

The real reason that we don't spend hours in prayer to God is because that would be to vulnerably give yourself to Him, and such a thing terrifies us. It terrifies us because we know that walking away from God, His glory, will always change us - for with Him we cannot fault. He is worth it. He is always valuable and prized above every treasure. He is the source of our yearning and the fullness of life streaming forth from everlasting goodness. He is the fountain of pleasure and the light that enables us to see. (Psalm 36:7-9) I want to talk more about this exchange. Do you think that such a thing can be found anywhere else? and why do you buy for what is not bread, and give your money to what does not satisfy? The reason that such an exchange is profitable to you, is in light of the preciousness of it. For you to waste your life on everything other thing is only an indication on what you value most. If you are willing to live for family and for your children, then that will be your reward. But if you live for God then that will be your reward, and indeed will profit not just in this life but also into eternity.

It's to say to God "You abundantly satisfy, and I am going to prove it by making you great in the earth" I am going to give my every waking moment, and every one of my worlds, to you. In light of such things as rugby, or grid iron, actors, movie stars and popularity contests we pay that price because we would like to believe that we could be in their position. In God's place are fullness of understanding (Psalm 73:17) and the promise of life that never ends. in light of this, to make God glorious is not a cost that we will not give. It will be the one thing that results in us actually authentically living. He is the God who dwells in the tent of Shem. He is the God that dwells in buildings. He is the God that dwells in our hearts. Each of these are made authentic because of the words that He spoke. He said to Aaron "I give you an everlasting priesthood" He said to David "will you build me a house of cedar. Behold I will build you a house" He says to countless through the generations the utter urgency and satisfaction of having built Him a house of which He would be worshipped and adored forever and ever. If there were prayers that prayed back in the day for the things that are happening in the earth today, I believe they would get behind the House of Prayer - giving God 24/7 worship and prayer out of enjoyment and fulfilling love. The reason I say that is because the most authentic and trust-worthy believers have all been of the house-hold that "longed for His appearing" and "believed that He would come"

For those who are lost, I had to go there. For those who understand, may God also richly make you able to count the cost joyfully of worshipful love and adoration to our God and Father and to the Lamb. For those who want to know more, that has always been my heart of prayer.