Posts in the month of: Apr, 2010
Fuel for the Prayer Movement
What could possess someone to the degree that they would willingly and gladly lay down their life? The answer: something greater than the world has to offer. No one, no matter how noble or selfless, would voluntarily lay down his or her life for something mediocre. There must be an internal resolution that is not based on external circumstances, and a knowledge of the reality of the invisible world. Jesus Christ was such a one, as were His disciples. The apostle Paul was a man possessed. He was not himself.
These considerations motivate the Church towards prayer. God’s ordained way from death to life and weakness to strength involves, among other elements of faith, the simplicity of asking (2 Chr. 7:14; Lk. 18:7-8; Mt. 7:7-8). Why does prayer exist on the earth today? Why is there a symphony of prayer growing louder in the nations? The answer: something greater is coming . . . and it is not mediocre!
The chief concern of the prayer movement is to hasten the coming Day of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:12). When He comes, righteousness will be restored, wickedness will be expelled, life will abound, death will be no more, crying and anguish shall cease, truth will roll like rivers of water, and all nations shall walk in the light of the glory of God. Beloved intercessors, it is not a light thing we do. Every prayer in agreement with the promises of God will effect a change for eternity. Take courage, you watchmen! The day is coming when you shall walk by sight, and all longing for restoration will be fulfilled by a glorified home called the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of God.
When the Jewish captives were released from Babylon in 536 B.C., they returned to Jerusalem after seventy years to rebuild the temple of the Lord. Many of the 50,000 Jews who returned lost heart at the burden of the labor before them. But the Lord established two messengers, Haggai and Zechariah, to prophesy encouragement, and the people “prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah” (Ezra 6:14). Those who labored found hope again from the words of these men. These prophets of the Old Testament were similar to the apostles of the New Testament. They were gripped with an understanding of the age to come, knowing that all things are made right under Messiah’s dominion. By the Spirit of the Lord, these prophets understood that there is continuity between the labors of the present age and those of the age to come.
Are you weary in doing well? Look at the words of these prophets; take heart. Your labors are not in vain. What you are doing now has an eternal effect on history, even in the Millennium. Partnering with God’s purposes through prayer and intercession will release something that all creation now groans for—the restoration of all things (Rom. 8:18–23). One of the primary weapons that the enemy uses against us is the lie that what we are doing is insignificant or ineffective. We must resist the lie that would persuade us to give up. The weakness of our efforts is not a hindrance to the Lord but the primary way that His glory is displayed in and through us! We long for the day of Christ’s appearing and we labor to hasten that day when all will be made right. The hope of our calling is that the Lord will fully answer every cry for justice (Luke 18:7–8).
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” (Rev. 21:3–7)
Our Place of Authority
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ . . . In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ . . . in [whom] we have redemption through his blood . . . (Eph. 1:3–7, NIV)
Wouldn’t you think the Bible would say, “God will someday bless us with every spiritual blessing” once we reach a certain level of spiritual maturity or once we have resurrected bodies? But God says He has already given us every spiritual blessing in Christ. “He has blessed us.” It is past tense. Believe it. This verse is as true for the one who was born again in Christ two days ago as it is for the one who has been walking faithfully with the Lord for fifty years.
In Ephesians 1:3–14, Paul describes our spiritual inheritance in God. Before He made the world, the Father saw us and chose us in Christ. We were loved and desired as sons and daughters before He hung the stars in place. Christ paid for us to stand faultless before the Father when He poured out His lifeblood for us. Upon believing this, we received the Holy Spirit—God living on the inside, think of it—who continually bears witness to the day when we will be glorified in God’s presence as coheirs with Christ.
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, NIV). I don’t claim to know the fullness of what it means to be blessed “in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), but I am quite sure of this: it’s a lot more than we currently realize and live out! It’s as though we’ve been given a billion dollars, but we’re living on ten cents a day. We tend to approach God as beggars, while He sees us as beloved kings (Rev. 1:5–6)! We often live in a mindset that God will someday exercise His authority to heal or deliver us, when we could walk in His authority today! Both are certainly true—the kingdom of God is now (in part) and not yet (in fullness)—but I think we’d be surprised at how much He’s waiting for us take the authority He has given us.
Although I don’t believe we can necessarily “name and claim” the fullness of the effects of God’s kingdom now (for example, we are not immune from suffering, disease, or death until the resurrection), we should always be reaching! We should be always seeking and praying for it to be “on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10, NIV). Do we always pray for healing? Good, but there’s more. God yearns for us to arise in partnership with Him.
I like the gospels’ account of Jesus multiplying food for a hungry multitude (Mt. 14:13–21; Mk. 6:30–44; Lk. 9:10–17). The disciples told Jesus to send the thousands away to go find something to eat. He replied, “You give them something to eat.” It’s humorous because He fully knew their faith wasn’t there yet. He put their calling right before them nonetheless, as if to say, “You’re not called to just watch me do all the miracles; I actually want you to do them with me!” Similarly, He didn’t say, “You shall ask me to move the mountain, and I will do it,” but, “You can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move” (Mt. 17:20, NIV). And, “In my name they will drive out demons” (Mk. 16:17, NIV), not “They will ask me to cast out demons.” Of course, asking is part of the partnership between Jesus and His people (Mt. 7:7), but it’s not the only part. Sometimes He waits for us to act upon His Word and take the authority He has given us.
So, I have been “practicing” taking that authority because I believe that authority over darkness doesn’t grow out of nowhere. Admittedly, it feels a little awkward at first. Sometimes, for example, when I verbally take authority over sickness in my child’s body and command the body to be healed in Jesus’ name, I feel as though I’m a little bird trying to bark at a dog. But such an inward image just reveals my little faith. A more accurate picture might be of a little bird that has a mighty lion standing behind it, and when the bird speaks in the lion’s name, the lion’s roar puts that scrawny canine to flight! The more I step out, the more my faith grows. God is patient, and, frankly, I think He’s just excited when we start trying to walk in His authority—like the joy my husband and I felt when our babies first started to walk. We saw their courage! They fell a lot as they stepped out on muscles that had hardly been used. But they kept getting up and stepping out, and we celebrated them all along the way. It takes time, and regular use, to build muscles. God knows this. He is rejoicing over us as we grow.
A word of warning: walking in power is no license for sin. And it doesn’t replace intimacy with God. Spiritual authority is supposed to flow out of relationship with God; it is not a thing given to exalt its bearer but to equip him to serve and go low for others’ sake. It’s possible to spend your life doing works that add up to nothing when you stand before Christ, because they didn’t flow from relationship with Him (1 Cor. 3:11–15). It’s even possible for someone to perform miracles in Jesus’ name but be so spiritually hollow on the inside that Christ will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Mt. 7:21–23, NKJV). But this will not happen if our focus is walking with God.
As for me, I am not letting another year of my life go by without learning more about Ephesians 1:3 and “every spiritual blessing in Christ.” I want to walk in His authority, not just so that my comfort level increases, but so that He finds in me a heart that believes His words and impacts others with His presence. May He find us as ones who believe what He said: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn. 14:12, NKJV).
Oh, may the eyes of our hearts be enlightened to know what is the greatness of His power towards us who believe (Eph. 1:18–19)!
IHOP–KC’s Adoption Agency, Hannah’s Dream Adoptions
Adoption and the Father Heart of God
James 1:27 tells us that “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
For several years, the message of adoption has stirred at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP–KC). Now, IHOP–KC is able to help families through the process in a very practical way. Hannah’s Dream Adoptions, IHOP–KC’s in-house adoption agency, is now serving the IHOP–KC family as well as adoptive families and birth moms across the U.S.
What Does Hannah’s Dream Adoptions Do?
Hannah’s Dream Adoptions operates as a full-service, domestic adoption agency for IHOP–KC friends and family in the Kansas City metro area. Our social workers, with years of experience, complete private adoption home studies, work to match families with appropriate situations, and walk families through post-placement supervision and finalization. We provide domestic adoption home study services to families in the greater Kansas City area, in both Missouri and Kansas.
For those beyond the Kansas City area, Hannah’s Dream Adoptions serves as a consultant. We coach families through the home study process, prepare their profiles, and connect them directly with multiple agencies nationwide. While it is true that many agencies have waiting lists, those lists are often full of people looking to adopt a child with a specific ethnicity. A family open to children from various races or with special needs has a greater likelihood of being matched with a birth mother very quickly.
Birth mothers who are interested in making an adoption plan can talk with our social workers about the best-case scenario for them. This may be an open adoption where the birth mother stays in contact with her baby in a way agreed upon with the adoptive parents, a closed adoption where her identity is fully protected, or, as most often happens, something between these two options. Best of all, we offer birth mothers an opportunity to fully realize the desire Hannah had in the Old Testament—to give her child a place in the house of the Lord.
Live Online Q&A
Join us Monday, May 3, at 8:00pm CST for a live online chat with our team of social workers and consultants. You can ask questions directly, as well as benefit from the questions and answers you hear from others. Email us at info@hannahsdream.com if you’d like an email reminder a day or two before.
The live chat event will take place at www.hannahsdream.com.
IHOP-KC Staff Interview – Allison Moseley
Nate: How did you come to the Lord? What is your testimony?
Allison: I was raised in a godly home with godly parents who testified to the truth and reality of Jesus throughout my life. However, when I was eighteen, I left home and went on a Grateful Dead tour. For the next few years I was caught up in a nomadic lifestyle, traveling all over the country.
Nate: What do you mean when you say nomadic?
Allison: I lived out of vans, in makeshift camps, and in woods all around the world. I lived in parks in the middle of cities.
Nate: So, you were a hippie?
Allison: Yes, I was a hippie. I became heavily involved in drugs, drinking, sexual promiscuity, and all the things that go with that. I was trying to find a community. I was very lost, very deceived, and it was all so empty. When I finally returned to the Lord, I was 26 years old.
Nate: At what point did you just realize that it was an empty lifestyle and not what you thought it was?
Allison: I think because of my upbringing, I always knew it was wrong. I always believed in God, but was furiously running from Him. I think that very early on in that lifestyle I knew I was chasing something that could never satisfy me.
Nate: So you had a little nugget of truth, in the back of your mind, always bothering you?
Allison: Yeah, that truth was always in the back of my mind, and my parents were intercessors, constantly praying for me. I was caught in the crossfire of God’s love. I constantly felt guilty, but I would try to medicate that guilt with other things.
Nate: At what point did you realize you couldn’t run anymore; what was the turning point in your heart or in your mind that pushed you to return to God?
Allison: It started in April 1996. I was a heroin addict, and I woke up one morning on the floor in an abandoned trailer in the middle of the Oregon woods. I had a moment of clarity. I looked around me, and there was no one near. I was sober, and I realized that I was dirty (I hadn’t had a bath in weeks), that I was broke, and that I was lonely. There was no one around me that had true affection for me. Anyone that I was with would have thrown me out of a window to get a fix. I felt the Lord speak to me. He began to say, “I have more than this for you.“ I was twenty-six years old. I was a smart girl, yet my life was a constant downward spiral. So I did what any normal person would do. I hitchhiked to a pay phone, called my mom, and said, “Help me!” It took me about two months to get back to Alabama, but I had a radical, supernatural deliverance from my heroin addiction in one day. I was completely delivered, without any side effects. That should not have been possible. So, even before my salvation, the Lord touched me and healed me. I actually didn’t end up getting saved for another two years. I was fighting the truth because of my desire to live life on my own terms. The Lord was drawing me, mostly through the testimony of my parents’ love and through His kindness in bringing me back. One night, I was waiting tables at a bar and somebody gave me a Bible. Later, I picked up a six-pack of beer, read Romans, and turned to the Lord.
Nate: Did you meet your husband Samuel while you were in Alabama?
Allison: Yes, I met Samuel in late October 1998, and I met the Lord about three months later in January 1999. Samuel had a huge part in bringing me to the Lord. He was obsessed with the man Jesus, and he constantly talked about Him. He stirred up all these things from my childhood—memories of the love of God and the unveiling of the Savior. We would dialogue about Jesus for hours. So when I got saved, Samuel was ready to go there with me.
Nate: How did you hear about the house of prayer? When did you come to the International House of Prayer?
Allison: We got married in 1999 and moved to North Florida, where our love for the Lord grew strong. We were involved in ministry, and we met some people who had been tracking with Mike Bickle’s teachings. As we learned about the forerunner ministry, it confirmed some words of knowledge that had been spoken over Samuel. He was at the Passion for Jesus conference in 1997, when Mike laid out the initial plans for IHOP–KC. He was hitchhiking through town when a woman told him, “If you come to this conference, I’ll pay for your dinner and I’ll get you and your friend a hotel room.” He wasn’t even there to go to the conference—he was a hippie looking for a free ride and some food. Later on, we established a house of prayer in Florida. Within that time period, we went to IHOP–KC’s onething conference in Atlanta in 2003. We moved to Kansas City in 2006 after the Lord made it very clear to us.
Nate: Tell us about what do you do here. What does the Lord have you doing in ministry?
Allison: Besides serving in the prayer room as an intercessor, my primary service is working with the Children’s Equipping Center, specifically, with a prayer room intensive for 8–12-year-olds in the Samuel Company. We minister to about 150 kids.
Nate: There are 150 kids?
Allison: Technically there are 130, but we have a lot of visitors each week. Our goal at the Samuel Company is to teach kids how to do what we as forerunners do: to build a house of prayer and to commit to a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. Of course, with children, fasting is never about food. But we do talk about making choices. With our kids, fasting means that they might choose to fast computer games or candy, but they don’t fast meals. We encourage them to love God with all their strength. We also teach them practical tools for the prayer room. Kids sometimes come in and don’t know how to pray. They don’t know how to pray from the Word, so we help them with it. We bring all 150 kids into the prayer room at one time, and the very atmosphere changes when they walk in. There’s electricity with these kids. People are seeing them worship with their hands raised and praying with their whole hearts to the Lord. It’s a very powerful experience.
Nate: I love that. There is nothing better than training the next generation in the things of God. So what’s it like to have your whole family here? What are the challenges and rewards of having your whole family involved?
Allison: Originally, Samuel and I had decided that we would do give our lives to God in the prayer room and through the forerunner ministry. After a couple of months, we realized that it wasn’t just about us, but that we were supposed to take our kids with us. In the prayer room, our kids were laying hands on people, and one of our sons was prophesying and just really getting involved. We homeschool our boys, so they get a regular education, but we really love watching them grow in the things of God when they go to the prayer room. We are a family of intercessory missionaries. It’s very rewarding as a mother to watch my kids grab onto the truth of the love and affection that God has for them. They are walking in the strength of that truth.
We have won if they understand the truth of God’s love. Knowing that they are running the race with comrades their own age is good too. They are challenging and provoking their friends and each other to learn Scripture and to pray. My kids were on a forty-day video game fast, and I could hear them encouraging their friends: “We haven’t played a video game in twenty-one days!”
The challenges are in living regular life. The prayer room is a place that my kids like to go, but there are days that they don’t want to pray. Then it’s time to encourage them. Sometimes I just want to check out of the prayer room, go outside, and pick flowers, but the Lord has called us to this lifestyle. It can be challenging to make sure that our kids don’t burn out, but at the end of the day they are strengthened in the things of God.
onething regionals – Queens, NY April 16-17
Invite your friends and family to attend onething Queens, New York, hosted by IHOP–KC’s onething regionals. Join us April 16–17 as we call young adults to prayer, intimacy with Jesus, and the works of the kingdom. Please pray specifically for Dwayne Roberts, Wes Martin, Justin Rizzo, Luke Wood, and the rest of the team as they travel and prepare for this conference. We hope to see you there!
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church (Reviewed)
Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and its Implications is a book by D.A. Carson specifically written to critique and evaluate the emergent church movements’ theological and sociological background in addressing a post-modern culture. The International House of Prayer of Kansas City is in agreement with Carson’s stand to expose non-biblical elements of the emergent church. Although Carson is a critic of the movement, this is a fair assessment of what the emerging church’s stance is on different issues facing this generation as it pertains to how we attempt to do church.
I found Carson’s thoughts both penetrating and insightful. This is a mature evaluation of some of the history and characteristics regarding postmodernism in general and, more specifically, of the emergent church movement’s answer to the postmodern question. D.A. Carson not only brings to light some of the negatives of the emergent church but also sees some positives in the questions being raised by the movement that can help sharpen and define the way we engage the world around us.
This is a stimulating read not only because it gives a good overview of the debate but also because it is pastoral in nature. Carson has an ability to see through the questions and rhetoric and get to the point of what’s going on and what the possible implications could be for an entire generation. In my opinion, this is not a critique born from disagreement, although Carson is clear where he stands in opposition to most of the statements of belief held in emergent circles, but it is born from a love of the truth and from a desire to pastor the many who stand on both sides of the line.
My only disinclination about this work is that, at times, it can be hard to follow. It reads academically and can be challenging to stay engaged with in that respect. After all is said and done though, it is rewarding to see the conclusions that Carson draws. With a topic as enveloped in obscurity as the mostly undefined emergent movement, I think Carson does an excellent job bringing the questions and their answers to the fore. I recommend this book as a relevant and clear work on the emerging church that can be of great assistance to anyone wanting deeper insight on the subject.
Luke18 Project Summer Leadership Program
We would like to invite you to spend a month this summer with Luke18 Project in Kansas City to be equipped as a young adult leader through the Summer Leadership Program.
Luke18 Project’s Summer Leadership Program is a four-week training program designed for college students, campus ministry leaders, and young adult leaders (ages 18-29) who desire to plant prayer furnaces on their college campuses or local ministry contexts.
Over 100 years ago, God raised up the Student Volunteer Movement out of North America and Europe; it touched the ends of the earth, as 20,000 students were mobilized to preach the gospel in foreign lands and to give themselves to “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” These students gave up comfortable lives and the so-called “American dream” to abandon themselves wholly to the purposes of God in their generation.
We believe that the Lord is again raising up a radical student movement that is committed to unrelenting prayer and aggressive missions so that the Lamb who was slain may receive the reward of His suffering. Our desire is to help equip this next generation of prayer and missions leaders to advance the kingdom by planting prayer furnaces and to finish the task of world evangelization.
The Summer Leadership Program is a unique opportunity for students and young adult leaders to be equipped in the context of night-and-day prayer at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. You will receive in-depth and hands-on training from leaders like Mike Bickle, Lou Engle, Allen Hood, and others on how to plant and fuel prayer furnaces.
There are two identical four-week tracks that you can choose from:
• Track I: June 14–July 10, 2010
• Track II: July 12–August 7, 2010
Luke18 Project’s Summer Leadership Program will equip you with the training and experience to successfully plant and fuel a prayer furnace in your own campus or ministry context. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in the IHOPU student awakening.
For more information and to download an application, please visit www.luke18project.com.
onething Tacoma Recap
1,500 gathered for the onething young adult conference in Tacoma, Washington, just outside Seattle. The Lord moved mightily as we witnessed hundreds experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. Many were filled with joy, laughter, fire, and zeal to see the name of Jesus exalted in the Northwest. This weekend was particularly marked with unity in prayer, healing, and deliverance.
One of the purposes of the onething conferences is to ignite prayer and fasting in the region where the event is held. In this hour of human history, the Lord is raising up a prayer and worship movement in the Church all across the earth.
In Tacoma, we witnessed many congregations and denominations joining together in worship and intercession for revival in Tacoma and the surrounding area. God met us, and I believe many were stirred to continue to pray and cry out as they meet in the place of corporate prayer. The Luke18 Project was there as well, doing follow-up ministry to spark and fuel prayer furnaces in the area. God, build Your house of prayer in the Northwest!
This morning, I read roughly fifty testimonies that we were able to record from the events of the weekend. One man, who had been in pain for over twenty years from a motorcycle accident, was instantly healed on Saturday night. He had pain in his left leg that extended from his ankle to his hip. He said that he could feel the fire of the Spirit on his leg so strongly that his leg was hot, almost too hot. Then suddenly, all pain in his leg and ankle was gone!
Many were delivered from sexual addictions, a spirit of religion, self-hatred, and the performance mentality of trying to earn the love of God. People were touched by the palpable presence of God, and some were filled with the joy of God.
On Sunday morning, I met a woman who was excited about her impending visit to the doctor to confirm the healing her damaged kidneys and liver. She had been in pain and was taking a great deal of medication. The Lord touched her body on the first night of the conference with His powerful healing presence. Two days later, she was still pain-free and convinced that the Lord had healed her body. She was filled with joy and testified that the night after the Lord touched her, she woke up laughing and joyful, still feeling the presence of God.
Pray for the churches in the Tacoma/Seattle area to be strengthened, and for the house of prayer to touch the Body of Christ.
Check out IHOP–NW at internationalhouseofprayernorthwest.org
IHOP-KC News Video
IHOP-KC News April 2010
Title
IHOP-KC News April 2010
Description
Coverage from the IHOPU student awakening, the New England outreach, the St. Patricks Day parade outreach, the summer Awakening Teen Camp, and the free Mike Bickle online resource library.
March has been a busy month. This edition of IHOP–KC news features coverage from the IHOPU student awakening, the New England outreach, the St. Patrick’s Day parade outreach, the summer Awakening Teen Camp, and the free Mike Bickle online resource library. Enjoy!
Final Week of IHOPU Meetings in New England
The forty-day Daniel fast of focused prayer for the power of the Spirit to move on college campuses across America is almost over. Please join us in prayer in this last week of the fast for the Holy Spirit to fall on campuses in New England and across the nation.
The IHOPU team will be leading meetings in New England this week as follows. All are welcome.
Monday, April 5–Thursday, April 8, 7:00pm, Massachusetts
Lion of Judah Church
68 Northampton Street
Boston, MA 02118-1823
Friday April 9, 6:00pm
Tremont Temple,
Converse Hall
88 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02108
