Posts in the category: ‘Product Reviews’
Foundations of Night-and-Day Worship and Prayer
FREE SESSION AND ESCHOOL DISCOUNT!
Check out the final session of Stephen Venable’s IHOPU course, Foundations of Night-and-Day Worship and Prayer! The course in its entirety is available at a discounted rate for the month of February. For more information, and to see other available courses, visit IHOP.org/eschool.
Jesus and the House of Prayer
In this session, Stephen Venable provides Old Testament background for the house of prayer spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 21. He explains that to understand the significance of night-and-day prayer it is important to ground our view of the Church in a biblical vision of the end times.
Taking a sober look at Jesus’ statements in Mark 13 and Luke 21 about watchfulness and prayer, Stephen goes on to clarify that every believer is called to be vigilant in prayer, but not every believer is necessarily called to the full-time ministry of worship and intercession as expressed through the house of prayer in the nations of the earth.
Stephen Venable’s Preview
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24 Foundations of Night and Day Worship and Prayer – Video Excerpt
Description
Acoustic Rhythms – Isaac Meyer (Reviewed)
Acoustic Rhythms is Isaac Meyer’s latest instrumental CD, featuring intricate guitar parts, fretless and upright bass, original rhythms, and stirring piano. Isaac works layers of melody and harmony together to create a truly unique sound. Defying category, Acoustic Rhythms breaks new ground with its honest composition and equally honest production. It is sure to be a constant source of inspiration during times of relaxation, prayer, meditation on the Word, or work.
I have been listening to this CD for two weeks straight. As a writer, this is the type of music I look for and love listening to while I work. Anyone who appreciates meditative, accomplished, or thoughtful musicianship will love Acoustic Rhythms.
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Loyalty (Reviewed)
One of the signs that we are living in the last days before Jesus returns will be when we see the hearts of the fathers turn towards the children and the hearts of the children turn toward the fathers (Mal. 4:6). There is one character trait that I believe will be predominant in the turning of the hearts: loyalty.
In Loyalty, Bob Sorge sets out a working definition of loyalty as a noble, unswerving allegiance, rooted in faith and love, which binds hearts together in a common purpose. Blending this definition of loyalty with masterful storytelling, Bob uses biblical accounts and his own personal history to paint vivid word-pictures of the character of a loyal heart, while also defining its antithesis: the treachery of disloyalty.
In an age of capitalism, greed, self-seeking, pride, covetousness, and fear, disloyalty is common. But God is changing this. God is establishing those like David, men and women after His own heart. David was a man loyal to God in the midst of suffering, persecution, doubt, fear, and oppression. This was possible for David because God was loyal to David first. Loyalty is a gift from the Lord because He is loyal. As a sign and operation of love, loyalty is rare but powerful when it’s operating in the human spirit.
This book is an eye opener. I knew the term and understood the principle of loyalty, but I seriously began doing some soul searching while reading Loyalty. Not only did this book provoke me to desire loyalty in a greater way, but it also gave me a hunger to refuse disloyalty in my heart. Disloyalty is like spiritual cancer; it spreads quickly and painfully unless it is countered by forgiveness, humility, and love.
I absolutely loved this book. Full of wisdom and insight, Loyalty brought issues to the surface of my heart that I didn’t even realize were there. This book is a must-read for anyone involved in ministry, discipleship, or leadership. If you deal with people on a day-to-day basis, you will want to understand and grow in the grace of loyalty and avoid the stinging, deplorable operation of disloyalty at all costs. With questions for discussion at the end of each chapter, this book is a great tool for leaders and anyone interested in learning the reach of a noble heart.
A Review of Stephen Venable’s “A Life of Communion with God” Class
Our culture and this generation are constantly inundated with advertisements. They promise fulfillment, pleasure, and satisfaction, and they are growing more prevalent and more intense as Western culture feeds off consumerism and the insatiable human appetite. Few perceive the danger of covetousness dominating the landscape of the soul and stifling the freedom of the heart. Stephen Venable discusses these issues in his class A Life of Communion with God.
Stephen systematically explores the elements of created humanity and our deep desire for love, beauty, and significance. We were made to feel deeply and to experience pleasure, but we find ourselves in a paradox. We live in the tension of being made for contentment, but being mostly discontent. Nothing we do, no matter how much we experience, how far we travel, how many friends we make, or how many possessions we own, will ever satisfy us completely. Until we give ourselves in abandonment to God, we will not find satisfaction. The contemplatives of old were beacons of light, walking in freedom from the things of this world; Stephen traces the development of contemplative prayer and links it to our high calling of encountering the living God.
Stephen delves deeply into the human predicament and into the pleasures of loving God. The purpose of this class is to set our vision on knowing the depths of Jesus. Communion with God is not esoteric or ethereal, but pragmatic and dynamically related to our development as disciples of Jesus. Our vision must not be captured by what we see around us, but focused upon the person of Christ.
Gaining a life of deep communion can be a long, arduous journey with many barriers along the way. Hundreds of things vie for our attention. Only with proper vision will our hearts endure with diligence as we purpose to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we begin to understand our calling to be transformed to the image of Christ, then everything along the journey makes sense. If not, we may cast off restraint and become ineffective, lawless, and undisciplined. Deep communion with God is the most important vision one can have, not only for ministry, but also for the sheer pleasure of knowing God.
You can take this full class and others online by visiting the IHOPU eSchool.
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man (Reviewed)
Many of us believe in the value of prayer. We buy the teachings and the books, we attend the conferences, but do we enjoy prayer? Prayer is not something that we choose to do simply because it is a good discipline. For those who desire to follow hard after God, prayer is a necessity, much like water and food to the body. We cannot do without it. It is the air we breathe and the heartbeat of the Christian faith. Connecting with God at a deep level is the primary calling of every believer.
I believe one of the primary reasons that prayer is not as enjoyable as it could be is because we do not know where to begin. Much like studying the Word, prayer can be overwhelming at first. There are so many issues and prayer needs, so many injustices and wrong things that need to be made right. How do we even begin such a daunting task?
Mike Bickle addresses this question in his new book on prayer, Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man. We must start with our inner man when we desire to move forward in our prayer lives. God is zealous for our spiritual growth and desires that we would be strengthened in our inner man as we talk to Him day after day in personal prayer.
Using three simple acronyms, Mike helps us to pray the Bible with perseverance, purpose, and desire. He exhorts: “The Spirit will strengthen our inner man by touching our mind emotions, and speech with the might of His presence. We can draw on the strength of the Spirit as a river of life in us by asking Him to strengthen us.”
Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man will help anyone looking for encouragement in his or her prayer life. Whether you are a new believer or an intercessor of many years, practicing the principles Mike shares in this book will bring great spiritual rewards to your personal life. I highly recommend this resource.
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.
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Until He Comes (Reviewed)
“Fervent prayer will be both the catalyst and the essential response to the climax of this age” (Humphrey, 100).1
Jesus taught His disciples about the age to come. He also left them a command to fervently watch and pray until His second coming (Mk. 13:33, Lk. 21:36). Why? It is because, as His friends, we not only have the privilege of “hastening the day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:12) but also the responsibility to do so through fasting and prayer (see Mk. 2:19-20).
Billy Humphrey of IHOP Atlanta explores this reality in depth in his most recent book, Until He Comes. Telling his own history in prayer along with stories from biblical heroes of the faith, Billy winds his way through the history of night and day prayer in the biblical narrative. Beginning with the tabernacles of Moses and David, Billy insightfully explores the historical accounts of night and day prayer that touched not only Moses and King David but also other kings of Israel and the prophets. “Night and day prayer was not something the Lord called David alone to practice. Rather, it was to be the centerpiece of the corporate worship experience for God’s people throughout every generation” (Humphrey, 35).
This is the simplest and most comprehensive single work on the history and significance of the prayer movement that I have read. Billy even sets forth the history of the prayer movement, post-Pentecost, which touched groups such as Alexander and the Sleepless Ones (400 AD), St. Patrick and St. Comgall and the monastery of Bangor (433 AD), the monastery of St. Maurice (522 AD), William the Pious and the monastery of Cluny (910 AD), Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians (1722 AD), concluding with the expanding expressions of night and day prayer worldwide that we see today.
This is a concise, quick read that I recommend to anyone wanting their faith stirred for fasting and prayer, or for anyone wanting deeper, biblical clarity of night and day prayer and the movement that is rapidly growing to heed the call to watch and pray.
1. Humphrey, Billy. Until He Comes. Forerunner Publishing, 2009.
From the Forerunner Bookstore: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Reviewed)
The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World is a compilation of messages given during a conference held in Minnesota in 2006. Read the cover carefully as it is not a book by John Piper (though he is one of the contributors) but rather a collection of messages by many contributors, compiled by John Piper and Justin Taylor as general editors. For avid John Piper fans, you will enjoy his chapter on joy and the supremacy of Christ, but that chapter is the only one written by him.
This book explores culture, truth, the gospel, the church, and ministry as it relates to engaging our contemporary world. Whether we like it or not, we are in a postmodern era. Growing religious and spiritual diversity constitutes one of the biggest cultural shifts America has ever seen. The aforementioned Minnesota conference, from which this book emerged, convened in order to answer some of the questions associated with this shift by grappling with current cultural context and values. Without abandoning adherence to the Word of God and traditional evangelical beliefs, these messages provide doctrinally sound and pastorally sensitive ways to engage a postmodern ethos.
This is such a relevant book for this generation, and I recommend it to anyone who is connected in any way to the emerging church movement. The church in America is looking for a better way to engage a diversified people, and this work is an excellent tribute to that search in its unwavering commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture and the supremacy of Christ. Our culture would seek to subjugate truth and minimize authority, but “there is nothing in the modern world that is a match for the power of God and nothing in modern culture which diminishes our understanding of the supremacy of Christ” (Piper and Taylor, eds., 25).
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Mourning for the Bridegroom (Reviewed)
“The suspension between the two comings of Christ was not meant for our disillusionment but was ordained both for the salvation of many and for the full maturity of the Bride of Christ, the delay drawing forth our desperate desire for Him. He will come—but when He comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Candler, 7)
The above is a quote straight from the pages of Dana Candler’s newest book, Mourning for the Bridegroom. The reality of the paradox between hopeful desire and painful mourning that we, as friends of the bridegroom experience, is one of the predominant themes of Dana’s journey to discover fullness now while waiting for the consummation of the wedding promised by Christ to His Bride.
Dana highlights some of the struggles and challenges that we experience as Jesus’ friends, reaching for Him in the delay of His second coming. Dana clearly and comprehensively addresses dullness of heart, offense, cultural paradigms, and false expectation. In her meditative style, she dwells upon the blessing of God’s ordained design through His invitation to us to live as strangers and pilgrims in this earth, eagerly awaiting what He has promised through His written Word and through His Son.
Dana captures the essence of contemplative longing by reminding us that Jesus is not a religion, a doctrine, a set of beliefs, or an intellectual idea but a real person and that our mourning is to be rooted in this joy and hope—joy of His promises and hope in His reappearing.
This book should be read prayerfully and contemplatively. With the potential to awaken that mystical hunger for encountering the Living Word and for laying all else aside for the sake of knowing Christ, it is a reminder to return to our “first love” and to press on in the knowledge of God.
I recommend this book as a great resource for reengaging in wholehearted pursuit of the One who so passionately and wholeheartedly pursued us. This is a book that can be read over and over simply because it is, in its purest form, a prayer to be prayed incessantly until He returns!
Available at the Forerunner Bookstore. Click here to purchase.
From the Forerunner Bookstore: Babylon (Reviewed)
Available at onething December 28
Peter Herder, part of the IHOP–KC family, has created a detailed account of the resurgence of the world’s most infamous and sinister city. Babylon is a fast-paced account of the history and effects of humanity’s lust for power, wealth, and glory. Weaving strong, forceful narrative with well-researched, biblical history, Babylon is a synopsis of the entire life of this infamous city, from Genesis to Revelation. Though it could be considered a study tool about the end times, it reads like a narrative, easily engaging the mind, heart, and emotions.
I found this book to be a great read, it was exciting, thorough, and insightful concerning what the Bible has to say about this subject. I had a hard time putting it down! I so appreciated the boldness and clarity of communication about the intensity of the hour in which we find ourselves at this juncture in history. Babylon is a hard-hitting wake up call for all of us to not only know and discern the times and seasons but to speak boldly about the truths of the end times. In an age where wishy-washy pluralism and religious syncretism are quickly gaining ground, it is absolutely imperative for voices to arise and proclaim the Day of the Lord with all of its implications. I found myself stirred to intercede and to prepare for the most dramatic events looming on the horizon.
I recommend this book to any serious student of the Bible, especially to students with a focus in eschatology. Its overarching sweep of biblical accounts concerning Babylon and its simple, gripping style cause this story to come to life. Babylon really is a tale of two cities, marking the difference between Babylon, fallen man’s vain attempt at eternal glory, and the New Jerusalem, the inheritance of the saints of God.
