Standing in the holy place.

     Clean hands and a pure heart are essential for one to prevail with God.  God is holy, and requires us to be holy as well, if we are to dwell in His presence. Any sin held on to, will only serve to shut us out of fellowship with God.
     Clean hands are the result of a pure heart. A right heart will produce right actions, a wrong heart will produce wrong actions. Many come to God in prayer, with wrong hearts and wrong actions. There is a barrier between them and God that will only be removed when sin is repented of.
      A group of men met three nights a week to pray for revival. They would pray well into the early morning hours. One night one of them was impressed to read Psalm 24:3-5, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." This convicted the men and led them to a heart searching and a fresh consecration of themselves to the Lord. This was the beginning of the Hebrides revival that lasted about three years. It was a powerful revival with deep conviction of sin followed by a very real and lasting repentance.
     The key thing was the fact that these praying men knew that if they expected God to hear them, they must approach Him in holiness and purity. The same goes for us as well.