Praying

Revoke means “call back.” Provoke means “call forth.” Invoke means “call in.”

An invocation, at the beginning of our meetings, is intended to ask our God to come to the meeting. That seems a little pretentious for someOne Who is everywhere.

If there are three of us in a room: you, me and our dad, and I say to you, “Let’s talk to dad,” and then start addressing dad like I am addressing an envelope, its just weird. When we enter a room, He does, too. He doesn’t leave when we do, but He’s still with us!

Amen is a foreign word that means something like “so be it,” or “come to pass.” When we end our own prayer with that, it seems a lot like ending a phone call and hanging up the phone. Since we are talking in prayer to someOne Who says He wants to be one with us, we don’t really need to dial up or hang up, do we? Couldn’t we just always talk to Him like He is always with us? If you and I are talking to each other in the same room, we wouldn’t ever say “goodbye” and then not leave, would we?

If you say something to Him, and I say, “Amen,” the word becomes more prophetic, and less terminal. The conversation can continue; the connection is still live.