The third distinguishing praxis of Hebraic Christian Global Community is its unwavering commitment to prayer as a primary focus of community life. The ancient Hebraic family considered its corporate life to be centered in the Beit Tefillah, the House of Prayer, which is perhaps the most ancient title applied to both the temple and the synagogue (Isaiah 56:7).
Prayer is the answer to the innermost passion of the human heart for communication and communion with the Creator. It is the eternal call from the Father that his children stand before him and engage in conversation and fellowship with him, extending their worship to him and receiving from him the impartation of his gifts and graces. The mature believer has come to understand that everything is accomplished by prayer and nothing without it.
Corporate prayer occurs when the community that has engaged itself in fellowship and in study comes collectively to meet God. They stand together before his presence, to yield in submission to him, and to seek the divine impartation of the wisdom and strength necessary for accomplishing his purposes in individual lives, in the community, and in the earth. While it includes petition for divine provision to meet human need, it more predominantly focuses on application and submission of the human will to the divine Word and will..
It is in the community that believers fulfill the prayer instructions from Jesus himself by praying collectively (not individually), “Our Father … give us this day our daily bread … forgive us our sins … lead us not into temptation … deliver us from evil.” In the assembled praying community, the divine requirement for “holy convocation” is fulfilled when community becomes the congregation. In corporate prayer and worship, institutional, theological, ethnic, social, economic, and linguistic distinctives melt into a familial bond that is expressed in the words “Our Father.” In the corporate community, prayers of worship and submission, of praise and petition are received in a pure family context from a loving Father whose arms are open wide to receive all who come to him in faith.
Prayer and worship are part of a great mystical continuum, flowing from one to the other and back again. This great truth was reflected in the arrangement of the furnishings in the tabernacle of meeting, which systematically led the progression of faith through prayer and worship into the very presence of God.
It is also in the context of the assembled congregation that the community becomes God’s corporate witness in the earth through the public confession of faith in the one God of creation. This affirmation reminds the community of its raison d’être, the very reason for which God himself has summoned the individuals and the collective community into relationship with him (Isaiah 43:12). For Israel from ancient times until this day, this is the thrice-daily proclamation of the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). For the church it is the affirmation of faith that there is but one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 8:6). While every individual member of the community of faith can make such an affirmation (and often did in the face of personal martyrdom for sanctifying the name of the eternal God), this exercise of witness is most effectively given as an assembled community.