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.
