"Prayer is not about words and requests," says Doug Small in Entertaining God and Influencing Cities. "It is not even the first and foremost about intercession. That will come. Prayer is about hosting God in a world from which He has been excluded. In prayer, you declare that God is not only welcome, but He is invited... you host Him in your heart and your home, the church and your corporation." Prayer says, "God, please don't pass me by! Please let a little water be brought that I might wash your feet! How can I care for Your needs, God?" Prayer is entertaining God, hosting His presence in a world that is increasingly hostile to Him. Entertaining God invites Him to reveal His secrets to us as His mysteries are unwrapped in riddles that slowly unravel over time. Their meanings become clearer as days and years go by. He uncovers spirits that lurk behind men and movements. These encounters with God in prayer open up treasures of knowledge we would never know were it not for the initiative of the Spirit.
