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Sacred Space

by Honey Stone
10/28/18
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Prayer Rooms
I’ve been a part of a few churches that have a designated prayer room. These spaces were set-apart for the Holy. These are not places to be carnal or wicked – of course. These are not places where you socially chat, but instead, you pray together or individually. You could sign up or simply walked in if the time frame was available.

Sacred Objects
In those prayerful areas you could find sacred objects like Bibles or prophetic art. The lighting could be adjusted. A minimalistic array of furniture and décor were intentionally placed within the area. It was comfy and cloistered, but not cluttered.

Sacred Sound
The prayer that took place in that room was quiet or vocal; but this was not place to whip out your cell phone. You did that outside of its door. It’s called respect. You could worship with your voice or listen to a worship CD.

Anointed Atmosphere
The walls and door were anointed and prayed over regularly.  Quite frankly, the atmosphere was pure and clear because people tended to follow the room’s guidelines. It was much easier to hear from God in those rooms.

Set-Apart Homes
I once went to a prophetic-intercessor group that met in a home of a couple. I am certain that the home was set-apart for prayer and hospitality. You could feel the peace, and it was much easier to enter into the flow of the Spirit than in most atmospheres.

The Sanctified Sanctuary
I believe that the sanctuary at any church is a sacred space during the service. It may not have as much of an open Heaven as the other targeted sacred spaces mentioned. This is because all kinds of people enter in; some are saved and some are not. Yet, after a time of worship, the place is typically swept clean.

Submission
All of the places I’ve mentioned are about setting apart time to focus on God. Some people will say that you need to submit to the pastor. Actually, we need to submit to the Holy Spirit.

What makes this challenging is that the majority of Believers in the church are not all that familiar with submitting to the Holy Spirit. So, really, this is not realistic for a large group - especially with new borns entering the doors. If it were a smaller and more closed group than it is more of a possibility.

Children
Sometimes adults get upset when children are in a worship service. Some get distracted and want them removed. There are times when kids do get naughty but there are also times when they do join along quite well. They learn by watching and participating. They are learning to catch the flow.

When I was growing up, we met at the church every Wednesday for kids Sunday School. We mostly looked forward to that night because we got to play tag with our cousins after the cateshism and worship. It was a Finnish church so most everyone was related; some were more distant relatives.

There is nothing wrong with a little play. In fact, at one church I created murals for the play stations that kids could choose each Sunday. Most of the stations were on the various arts These were: Holywood for drama; In His Image for art; the Writer’s Loft for writing, and the Worship Room for music.

Yet, there was a room called Games Central. This particular kids minister leader knew that playing games was a way to build healthy friendships as well. She likely tied in some Biblical concepts.

Play
I believe that adults need to learn to play. They need to learn to play in worship. What I mean is experiment. Some people are so rigid that they believe only the anointed should hold the flags and the rest are to watch. Stay in your lane is the saying now a days. You know what: flags are only activated by faith. There isn’t a lot of danger that someone will get warfare from using a flag.

If the flag is truly anointed then eventually the person will catch some anointing. Moving flags don’t mean anything. It is what is happening inside the person with the flag that means something. There aren’t many ministers that are 100% prophetic anyway - so lighten up.

Mystery
Art is about trial and error. The same with our walk with God. Sometimes we move forward and sometimes we move back. People want to portray a perfect upward linear progression when most likely the walk of faith is quite mysterious.

I realize that Rees Howells and Enoch got it mostly perfect and Jesus was sinless, but the rest had their fumbling. Quite honestly, as an artists, mistakes are just challenges to try something new and different.

It's like: Ooops the red splash is too bold. Well, I guess this whole painting is going to be amplified in color now. You just move on with the mistake and work with it. Sometimes it works out better than the original idea.

We are always stepping into mystery. If we aren’t then likely we are not growing in faith. If you are doing the same thing you’ve always done then you are stagnating.

Addicted
Even if you are addicted to your cell phone, you can stop for a few hours and turn it off.

If you are truly addicted then stop the excuses and/or shame.

Simply bring the issue before God and ask Him to do a work within you to get unbound. Then, Pay attention to what He is doing and saying about this very real idol.

He may simply break the addiction off of you or have you do some acts of obedience. You may have to walk out a process. But please make church and ministry a no-phone zone. Amen.