House of Prayer [Or Den of Thieves] — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Children's Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other pieces are available by writing World Challenge, Post Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or by calling 903 -963 -8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends.

Touching the Heart of God Through Prayer

Hallelujah. It's been my heart's desire for several years now to touch the heart of God, and I believe that's got to be the heart's desire of everyone who's called by the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to want to touch his heart like David touched his heart.

It's my heart's desire to be known in heaven as a man of prayer. It doesn't really matter what people think here on this earth. I could point to the clock and talk about, as others have in the past perhaps, and I could talk about the number of hours that I've spent before the Lord, but that doesn't make me a man of prayer at all.

I can pray for hours and days on end and never, ever touch the heart of God. It's absolutely nothing to do with the length of our prayers. It's the intensity. It's a life that is gripped by the Spirit of God, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, that God can pour his heart through, and in turn, our prayers are lifted up and we begin to touch the heart of God.

I think there's nothing more important in my whole life right now than this. It's a quest. It's something I ask the Lord not to give me rest until, like Moses did, I can cease from any religious activity in my life, and it's very possible to get a lot of religious activity in our lives and we don't really realize it's such.

And we turn aside and we face that burning bush and meet God face-to-face where he begins to reveal his heart to us, and we come out of that place a new person, a new man. I cherish the presence of Jesus, not only for my life but for your lives, as the people of God.

Nothing more precious to Jesus than we should touch his heart in this last hour of time. It's like that special son or daughter or grandchild, for those of you that are older, that comes into your house and sits on your knee, and it just seems no matter how tough and crusty you try to make yourself on the exterior, there's absolutely nothing that you would withhold.

That grandchild knows it, you know it. That son and daughter knows it, you know it. And even if you say no, it's only with a grin, and they know they can leave your knee and know that they have the thing that they asked for.

It's my heart's desire to touch God like that. I could stop this message right here, right now, and we could begin to pray, oh God, would you let us touch your heart. There's something so special when you begin to touch him, when you begin to know him.

It's like everything else pales in comparison. It doesn't matter whether you're known or not, it doesn't matter, nothing seems to matter anymore but to know him and to touch his heart, to share his heart, to feel his heart.

A Prayer for the Holy Spirit to Search the Heart

I'm going to bring a message tonight that is going to require some searching of the Holy Ghost, to touch our lives. How many here tonight can honestly say that, you can honestly say, I want to be a man or woman of prayer, I want to touch the heart of God, just raise your hand up.

Father, you see every hand, you see the hearts, you know tonight Lord, those who want to touch you, oh God, who want to be known in heaven as men and women of prayer. It doesn't matter what people say on the earth, for a million people could give us all kinds of praise, but Lord God, if we're not touching your heart, if you don't know us as people of prayer, then everything we do on this earth is in vain.

Lord, I ask for a sovereign anointing of the Holy Spirit tonight, sovereign touch of your Spirit upon my life and upon the people that are gathered in this house to hear this message. I acknowledge before heaven tonight, Father, that without your Spirit I'm nothing, without the anointing of your Holy Spirit, it's just words, it won't do any good, it won't convict, I'll be preaching to the intellect and to the will, but God, you want to minister heart to heart to your church in this last hour of time.

And so Lord, I'm asking that I might be able to bring your heart to the people tonight, that I might speak on your behalf, that you could have free course to my life and speak and pour through my life and minister grace and strength and a blessing, oh God, to this people that you desire to draw so close to yourself that you might manifest your glory in your bride in this last moment of time that we're living in.

Jesus, it's not a time for religious games, and Lord, I don't approach you tonight wanting to play any games, oh God, I desire your heart with all of my heart, with everything that's within me, oh God, I desire your heart.

And I know the people here, there are many, many who desire your heart. Now God, reveal to us tonight things that may stand in the way, reveal to us by the Holy Spirit, oh God, issues, Lord, of the heart that stop us from coming before you, that hinder our prayers, oh God.

We know tonight that we're not heard by our much speaking, we know that we're not heard because of the volume or the length of our prayers or the meticulous English, we know that it's a heart that you're looking for, and it's a heart that you listen to, oh God.

Oh Jesus, Jesus, it is written that your house shall be called a house of prayer. Oh God, would you touch us tonight, Lord, let there be an eternal transaction in this service tonight. I ask, oh God, that not only for my life, but the lives of everyone that's here in this house tonight, there would be a change, there would be an absolute transformation, that people would leave here changed, their prayer life would never be the same again.

God, in spite of what I'm about to speak, Lord, if you need to go deeper, go deeper by the power of the Holy Ghost. I invite you, Holy Spirit, to exalt Christ, I invite you to lift up Jesus Christ in the inward man and heart of all who have come to hear tonight.

Jesus, be lifted up, be magnified, nothing else matters anymore. Be lifted up, be heard in the inward man, be received in the hearts of your people, oh God. Hallelujah. I bind every hindering spirit, every power of hell and darkness that comes against the house of the Lord, that comes against God's heritage, his people.

Satan, I rebuke you in the name of the Lord, and I rebuke every power of darkness that you send against the anointed, the cherished of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. We loose an anointing of the Holy Ghost to open prison doors, to let deaf and ears hear, to let bruised hearts receive the healing oil of Christ.

Oh God, you're speaking to us tonight, Lord. Give us ears to hear and hearts to respond. We ask this in the precious and holy name of Jesus. Amen. Mark chapter 11, please. I'm going to entitle this message, A House of Prayer or a Den of Thieves.

A House of Prayer or a Den of Thieves. It's going to take courage tonight to let the Holy Ghost look, but God speaks to us for our good and not for our hurt. He wants our hearts. Oh, it's so precious.

It's so precious. Lately, I find myself being drawn of the Lord, be tired at night and want to go to bed. Sometimes I win, sometimes God wins. But those nights that I have the courage to get back out again and go downstairs where it's quiet and dark and I just find his heart is waiting there for me.

I don't know how else to explain it. I haven't got the words really to tell you. It's so precious. I begin to touch his heart, nothing matters anymore. Mark chapter 11, verse 15 to 17. And they come to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves.

And he would not suffer or allow that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.

It is written, Jesus said, my house shall be called the house of prayer. Now here's Jesus, the son of God, almighty God himself in the flesh, coming into his temple, coming into the place that was set aside to glorify him, was a place that was set aside for prayer, set aside for anxious and hungry and thirsting souls to come in and seek the throne of God, a place where the mercy of the Lord could be revealed, where the kingdom of God could go forward, where souls in captivity could be released and innumerable victories could be won through simple faith and obedience in a loving heavenly father that wants nothing more than to give the kingdom unto his children.

This temple that Jesus came in had one time been a house of prayer and I suppose the religious activity was still going on, incredible religious activity. If you and I could be transported back there tonight, we would see people perhaps by the thousands coming in and out on a daily basis, bringing their sacrifices before the Lord, sacrificing, praying, praising.

You know, sometimes religious activity can look very good in the sight of man, until the son of God comes on the scene and his eyes, the apostle John said, are like a flame of fire. He doesn't see like men see, he sees through all the religious facades, he sees through all the things that men establish and call themselves by the name of God and he sees something that nobody else perhaps is seeing or if anybody is, there are very, very few in that generation that are seeing what the son of God sees.

He says, it's written, my house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves. Now go back in the Old Testament to the book of 2 Chronicles, I want to look at the origins of the temple of God, 2 Chronicles chapter 6, Solomon built the temple of the Lord.

It was in David's heart to build a temple, a house for God but God wouldn't allow David to build that house because David had been a man of war and a lot of blood had been shed through his life and by his hand and he said to David, your son Solomon is going to build a temple for me, a dwelling place for me.

And so the scripture says that David by the spirit gave unto Solomon the pattern of the house that was to be built for God, the pattern of the inner courts, the outer courts, the mercy seat, the whole thing was given to Solomon even though he was young and tender of years by the spirit of the Lord and Solomon went in and built a temple, a beautiful temple for God, the dwelling place of the spirit of God.

And in 2 Chronicles chapter 6 verse 12 we see now we're in the process of the dedication of the temple which began a little earlier but we see Solomon now before all of the people that are gathered in that temple in verse 12, an incredible scene and it says,.

And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands. So we see Solomon now about to pray in this temple that has been fashioned by God, it's been fashioned for God, for the purposes of God and it's a dwelling place for God himself.

For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold of five cubits long and five cubits broad and three cubits high and had set it in the midst of the court and upon it he stood and kneeled down on his knees before all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands towards heaven.

Here's Solomon having completed the house of the Lord now, they're dedicating the house of God, this house has been built by the plan and pattern of almighty God himself and now Solomon stretches out his hands to pray towards heaven.

In verse 19 I'm going to just show you some aspects of the prayer of Solomon. He says, Lord have regard to the prayer of your people in this house. Verse 19 he says, Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee.

In other words, give regard to my prayer that thine eyes may be opened upon this house day and night upon the place whereof thou hast said thou hast put thy name there to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth towards this place.

And so Solomon is saying, Hearken therefore, verse 21, unto the supplications of thy servant and of thy people Israel which they shall make towards this place. Hear thou from thy dwelling place even from heaven and when you hear, forgive.

And so Solomon is saying, Lord you've established this house and I'm asking you when I begin to pray, it's been built according to your pattern, it's fashioned by your design, I've done it all in obedience to you and now Lord I'm asking that you would hear our prayer, you would regard it, that your eyes would be opened, that your ears would give attention to the prayers that are going to be made in this place.

Not only my prayers but the prayers of your servants, your people Israel. We see some other aspects of his prayer in verse 22, 23, we see a cry for righteousness come out of the heart of Solomon. He says, If a man sins against his neighbor and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear and the oath comes before thine altar in this house, then hear from heaven and do and judge your servants by requiting the wicked and by recompensing his way upon his own head and by justifying the righteous and giving him according to his righteousness.

And so Solomon is crying out to God, you can see this grand spectacle that's happening in the house of the Lord, the temple of God, Solomon's on the scaffold, his hands raised and he says, Lord let this be a place of righteousness, a place that when people pray, oh God, that you will let the evil of the wicked come upon his own head and that you will let the righteousness of the righteous man shine forth and you will declare him to be righteous.

Oh God, in other words, when we pray, you will answer the things that we bring before you. You see in verse 24, Solomon prays a plea for victory over the enemies of God's people. He says, And if thy people Israel be put to the worst before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee and shall return and confess thy name and pray and make supplication before thee in this house, then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again unto the land which you gave them unto their fathers.

In verse 26, he puts out a plea for the nation. He says, When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, yet if they pray towards this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou dost afflict them, then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your servants, verse 27, of the people Israel and when thou has taught them the good way wherein they should walk and send rain upon the land which thou has given to thy people for an inheritance.

Verse 28, Solomon prays for a plea for deliverance from affliction. He says, If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locusts or caterpillars, if the enemies besiege them in the cities of their land, whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be, verse 29, then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in this house, then hear from heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and render to every man according to all his ways whose heart thou knowest.

You see that Solomon is saying, Oh God, when people come in to your presence and everyone knows the condition of his own heart, everyone knows his own grief and his own sore, when they come in humility before you and are willing to acknowledge their state, will you hear from them, oh God, and will you answer prayer in this place, in this house that's been built and designed by your hand.

Verse 32, Solomon prays for his neighbors and for the stranger, he says, moreover concerning the stranger which is not from thy people Israel, but has come from a far country for thy great namesake and thy mighty hand and thy stretched out arm, if they come and pray in this house, hear from heaven from thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for.

Verse 36, he asks for mercy for God's people when they sin, if they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not and thou be angry with them and deliver them over before their enemies and they carry them captive into a land far off or near, yet if they bethink themselves in the land whether they are carried captive and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying we have sinned, we have done amiss, we have dealt wickedly, then if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whether they have carried them captives and pray towards this land, which thou gavest unto their fathers and towards this city.

Verse 39 says, then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place their prayer and their supplication. And now, verse 40 says, now my God, let I beseech thee, thine eyes be open and let thine ears be attent to the prayer that is made in this place.

The Temple Filled With God's Glory

Hallelujah. I pray with all my heart, that that's your heart tonight, to say oh God, I am allowing your hand to come upon my life. I'm allowing the touch of your spirit to mold me and fashion me the way that you desire me to be built.

I'm allowing the nature and character of Christ to be formed in my life, so that oh God, when I pray, I know that your ears will be open and your eyes will be looking down upon me when I pray, and that my prayer will not be just some endless rhetoric touching hollow walls in an empty house, but God, your presence will be here in my life.

And knowing that, Lord, you will hear my prayer and you will respond and you will not turn away your face from your anointed. And now we'll see God's response to when his house is built according to his instructions and when the prayer is honest.

One thing I sense about Solomon when he's before God and the people, it's an honest prayer that Solomon is praying. It's a heart-wrenching cry that Solomon's putting up before God. Solomon at this point in his life is hungry for the things of God.

He's hungry for the righteousness of God to be found in his house. He's hungry for the righteousness of God to be found in his people. He's hungry for the stranger even who's coming in to see the righteousness of God imparted and have to turn and say that the God of Israel, he is God.

Now it says in chapter 7, when Solomon had made an end of praying, that fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house.

And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord saying, for he is good and for his mercy endureth forever.

Did you know that's God's desire for your life and for mine? That when we pray that he might be able to send the fire of his Holy Spirit into our lives anew and afresh and let his heart be revealed within our lives.

That we could stand like the Apostle Paul and say it's no longer I who lives, it's Christ who lives in me. That the things that we do, we're not motivated by our own desires anymore, we're motivated by the very heart of God, we're not living for ourselves anymore, we're living for the glory and the purposes of God within our life.

That there would be such a manifested glory of Christ upon his church and upon his bride that the stranger coming into our midst would have to stand and say and acknowledge the Lord is God, the Lord is God and his mercy endureth forever.

What a beautiful type and shadow of the church. That's exactly what this house was, it's a type and shadow of you and I who have now become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. It was fashioned by the hand of God, built by the instructions of God, right down to the last little detail and when it was completed and finished, that's when the prayer began to go up, that's when the fire of God came down.

The people couldn't even stand to minister in the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled this house. And it's God's desire in this generation to have his glory through his manifested son, Jesus Christ, fill you and I, fill our earthen bodies, fill this earthen temple with the presence of Jesus to the point where we'll be consumed with a passion for him.

That's what touching his heart is really all about. But in Mark chapter 11 now, Jesus comes into this house. What a sad indictment. Many many years later, Jesus comes into Jerusalem, into a house that's built for his name, where the same types of things are supposed to be going on.

The religious activity is still going on. People are still bringing in sheep and goats and sacrifices and young turtle doves and they're still coming in and offering their prayers and the high priest is still going in at the appointed times and seasons.

And there's all kinds of activity going on in this house, but all of a sudden Jesus, the same God, you've got to understand he's the same God that answered by fire in the days of Solomon. Now the very same God born and walking in the body of a man walks in and it's no longer the fire of anointing that he's bringing into this temple.

It's the fire of his wrath when he walks into it. He said, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer by all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves. You know, in this generation that we're living in, the apostle Paul, no, Peter in Acts chapter seven, he says, the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands as set the prophets.

You know, the most high doesn't dwell in this house. There's a beautiful, this is a very, very beautiful church building, but when you and I leave, God leaves with us. It's not like it was in the old Testament because we have become the ones who have inherited the promises that the prophets in the old Testament can only ever dream of that Isaiah only saw far off.

We have now been those upon whom the spirit of the Lord has been poured out. He no longer lives in a building like this. When we're gone, God is not here. When we're gone. This is just an empty shell.

It's just an empty building. We bring the presence of God in with us because he lives in these earthen vessels. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. David said, my flesh and my heart fails me, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

In other words, my own natural body would fail me, but God is my strength. He has come into my life and he's my strength. Verse 15 in Mark chapter 11 says, Jesus came to Jerusalem, went into the temple and according to Mark, he found four things which indicated that it had ceased to be a house of prayer.

Buying and Selling in the Temple

Now folks, listen to me carefully. You and I have become the temple. You and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God and the scripture is still true. It says, it is written, my house, which is you.

My house, God would say tonight, is you, it's me, shall be called of all nations a house of prayer. And I'm going to ask this question tonight, is your house a house of prayer? Have you touched the heart of God?

Are you allowing the spirit of the Lord to pray through your life? If God were to walk in bodily form into the sanctuary tonight and walk down the aisles looking at each one of us, would he be able to look at you right in the eye and say, a house of prayer, a house of prayer, a house of prayer?

Because he's not dwelling in the Old Testament temples anymore. He's dwelling in us. There were four things that Jesus found in this temple, which had indicated it had ceased to become, to be a house of prayer.

And number one, there was buying and selling going on in the temple. It says, he cast out them that sold and bought in the temple. The apostle James says, you adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Jesus says in Matthew chapter six, let me just read it to you. Matthew chapter six, verse 19, he says these words, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust does corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust does corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye.

If therefore your eye is single, your whole body shall be full of light. If your eye is singly focused, that means on the glory of God, to see the very nature and character of Christ born within your life, your whole body then will be full of light.

But if your eye is evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve God and mammon. We've got to make a choice in our lives when we come to Christ. We serve Christ with all our heart, soul, mind and strength or we serve money with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

But you cannot serve both. You can't divide your time and affection and attention. He says, therefore I say unto you, don't take any thought for your life. What you shall eat or what you shall drink or put on is not like more than meat in the body, more than clothing.

Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap or gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought or that means by worrying can add one cubit unto his stature or in other words, one inch or 18 inches unto his height.

And why do you take thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not more much clothe you, O you a little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or with what shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Seek first the kingdom of God. All kinds of buying and selling were going on in the temple. And I feel with the grief of God in my heart that so many people have lost touch with God because there's so much buying and selling going on.

So much concern with commerce when we should be concerned about touching the heart of God. You know folks, you know one of the litmus tests, some people would say, I don't love money more than I love God.

Well, it's an easy thing to test in your life. If you spend more time thinking about business than you do thinking about Jesus Christ, then your heart is filled with covetous practices. That's what the scripture says.

You love money more than God. There's no getting around it. Where your treasure is, there's where your heart is also. That's what the scripture says. David said in Psalm 62 verse 10, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

The apostle Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ came to deliver souls from a world of darkness that had become his enemy.

And God forbid in my life that I should be found buying and selling in this last hour of time. Not that we don't have to do business. Don't misunderstand me. We have to do business here in this world.

Everybody has a job and the Bible says that if a man doesn't look after those who support those of his own household, he's worse than an infidel and has denied the faith. There's a practical aspect to this, but folks, you know, when you crossed over the line and God knows when you crossed over the line, there were certain things that I'm sure needed to be done in the temple, but they had crossed over a line and they had joined affinity or become friends with the world and there was overt buying and selling.

Jesus called it a den of thieves. Those may in that generation may have called it necessary financial transactions in the.

House of God, but this is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two.

The Love of Pleasure as a Substitute for the Love of God

You've taken away the place of prayer and you're spending all your time with commerce. Hallelujah. The apostle Paul says in first Timothy chapter six, he exhorts the church. Turn there please. Quickly.

First Timothy chapter six, verse six. He says, godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment or clothing.

Let us be there with content, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and the snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drowned men in destruction and perdition. Verse 10 for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But then he says, but thou man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness and godliness and faith and love, patience and meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life where unto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Verse 17, he says, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Hallelujah. When Christ comes into your temple, what does he find buying and selling? Or does he find somebody who's detached from the world acknowledging that we need to work to live and there's a certain amount of commerce necessary to survive in this world.

But if your heart, and this is what happened in that temple, the hearts of the people were engrossed with buying and selling and it had ceased to be a place of prayer. You see, you can't be engrossed in the things of the world and share the heart of God.

That's why a person who's covetous really can't pray. And when they do pray, they're generally praying about themselves and their own needs. Secondly, he threw out the money changers, the money changers.

Now money changers are people who change money from one form to another. I mean, that's a simple definition. I'm sure there were people coming in from other places and societies and they needed money changed.

I know I needed money changed when I came into the United States of America from Canada. You want to call it that needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot back for what I brought in. These people recognize that the love of money is wrong.

They come to that place. They understand that the love of money is wrong. And so they indulge in that form of what I would call self delusion. They change from the overt desire for money to the pursuit of pleasure or things that bring pleasure.

In second Timothy chapter three, verse four, the apostle Paul talks about the last days. He said, people are going to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. In verse five, it says having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away money changers.