Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Why We Pray

WHY WE PRAY

If you walk into the International House of Prayer Northwest in Federal Way, Washington, you enter into an emerging intercessory ministry associated with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, since September 19, 1999, the fires of intercession have been burning in the Kansas City base, and this fire is spreading rapidly to the cities of our nation. You will find teams of young adults in their teens and 20s, as well as older folks like me, ministering to the Lord in the prayer room, singing well-known worship songs, creating spontaneous songs directly from the Scriptures, and weaving short, spoken prayers with the phrases of the songs. Ministering from a perspective of intimacy, they give expression to the longing in their souls to know God and be known by Him.

These young people are part of an emerging community of intercessory missionaries who are giving their lives to the work of prayer. They are declaring the purposes of God over the cities and nations of the earth and seeking to understand and agree with His intentions for the remaining years of human history. During the course of this day, in the same way it happens every day, hundreds of people will come through the prayer rooms of America’s cities and participate in this adventure in intercession. Many will be on the staff of the Houses of Prayer, individuals and families who have raised their own financial support to give themselves to a life of intercessory worship. Others will come from the surrounding metropolitan areas to participate in this new expression of the leading of the Holy Spirit in the American church.

This form of prayer is called the Harp and Bowl model of intercessory worship, and it is but one expression of the emerging prayer movement that is exploding all over the earth. In a way unprecedented in human history, the Spirit of God is stirring the hearts of Christians everywhere to seek Him in prayer. As the Director of the International House of Prayer Northwest and one who has been privileged to travel around this country and around the world to call believers to a life of intimate prayer, I am becoming increasingly aware of the scope of God’s search for true worshippers who will seek His face and His will for the earth.

With the chaos and foment that is stirring all over the earth as I write this – political riots in the middle East, drug-related warfare in Central America, political wars in our own nation – there has never been a time in which focused intercession along with night-and-day worship has been more necessary. God is stirring the prayer movement even as He is stirring the nations in preparation for the return of Jesus to planet Earth. Long ago the Prophet Isaiah spoke that God would raise up intercessors that would give Him no rest until Jerusalem was the shining city of bright righteousness that He created it to be. The day of the fulfillment of that promise draws ever nearer, and believers in His Word must take their place in this assignment.

I urge you to find a place of prayer near you, and become a regular part of that ministry. If it’s in your local congregation, great! If there is a House of Prayer near you, go join yourself to it, and make it a priority in your schedule. The Day of the Lord is drawing near, and we are called to pray.

Blessings, GW