Today we’ll be praying in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. God wants us to pray for the extension of His Kingdom (primarily through the Church). So we will be praying today and touching the heart of God.
After that we’ll be joining another prayer initiative in Somerset West – a 12 hour stint of prophetic worship – lifting up Jesus over the city. We are excited. Nothing is as pleasurable as being with fellow believers and enjoying Father God. Check it out <a href="“>here.
Yearning for Prayer
Call this another random musing if you will…..
God is developing a steady, stronger, growing yearning to establish an altar of Praise, Prayer, Worship, Adoration, Fire (and so the list goes on) for a place in the Boland area. I cannot explain this growing desire…it has been building for the last five years.
If you have a problem with this sort of “wasteful” ministry….ask yourself one basic question…..
Can we ever Praise God enough? Could we ever Love God too much? If NOT – then we must establish places for His Glory to dwell on the earth. God’s eternal desire is to dwell with man.”
This last week…..
Just in case someone might be interested out there……we had a very challenging week this last week!
1. Our house was broken into – laptop & camera were stolen. We were a bit rocked.
2. Hannah had a hard week – Inga was told by her teachers she had ADD – and needed to go on medication. These people are not trained phsychologists neither do they know my daughter. We remove any lable off of her in the name of Christ Jesus. It’s really a spirit of rejection trying to hit her and bring her down – so she is not going to that school anymore (after tomorrow).
I watched a sermon from IHOP regarding the burden of the Lord that the ministry feels it needs. Only 4% of people born after 1984 are professing Christians in the US. It’s indicative of the rest of the globe really. A REAL yardstick of where South Africa is going without the intervention of God. As many in this country worship the God of sport on Saturdays – we pray at least once a month.
As somewhat of a prayer missionary to this land – South Africa needs the same burden. Next year sees the world cup coming to South Africa. As many are preaching “peace” because of that – God has specifically shown us to give people the REAL picture.
10 years of non-stop prayer…..
Ministry Marks 10 Years of Nonstop Prayer and Worship
Thursday, 17 September 2009 04:07 PM EDT Adrienne S. Gaines News – Featured News
A Missouri ministry known for leading 24-hour prayer and worship is marking its 10th anniversary this week by committing to match its prayer efforts with acts of service and outreach.
During its four-day anniversary celebration, which begins tonight and will be broadcast live online, the International House of Prayer (IHOP) will announce a new justice initiative that founder Mike Bickle (pictured) said will quadruple the ministry’s outreach and evangelism efforts.
“At the 10-year mark, we’re making a commitment by the grace of God to combine 24-hour prayers of justice with 24-hour works of justice until the Lord returns,” Bickle said.
Former pastor of Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City, Bickle founded IHOP in 1999 to be a vehicle for 24-hour-a-day prayer and worship. Since then, houses of prayer have been planted around the world, and some 4,000 people currently raise support to work with the ministry full or part time.
Bickle said outreach has been part of IHOP’s focus for the last seven years, with volunteers evangelizing five days a week throughout Kansas City, hosting healing rooms and feeding the poor. But he said the ministry is moving from an 80 percent focus on prayer and 20 percent emphasis on outreach to a 50-50 model.
In the coming months, he said IHOP plans to convert an apartment complex located near their current headquarters into a Women’s Life Center. The facility will house a crisis pregnancy center, and provide a home for former prostitutes and women rescued from sex trafficking.
Several other properties being purchased in inner-city Kansas City will be used for feeding and evangelistic activities similar to those at the Los Angeles Dream Center, Bickle said. And a 100,000-square-foot shopping center recently donated to the ministry will serve as IHOP’s new headquarters and house a Justice Ministry Center that will include an adoption agency, offices for the Bound4Life movement founded by Lou Engle; and Exodus Cry, a ministry that helps rescue girls in Eastern Europe from human trafficking.
Bickle says the undertaking is “huge” both financially and spiritually. He said it is often difficult for ministries to maintain both a deep prayer focus and a missions emphasis.
“We are just getting to the maturity level as a ministry where we can sustain the outreach while maintaining a prayer life because historically when a ministry gets real aggressive about outreach, and thousands have done it, more times than not they start losing their connect in their prayer life,” Bickle said. “I’m nervous about this.”
But he said IHOP has spent the last 10 years developing a “culture of prayer,” with some 1,500 full-time committing to 12, two-hour prayer times each week. “It’s part of people’s job descriptions,” Bickle said. “We tell them, ‘You are intercessory missionaries; you’re not just [employees].’ Part of their task is to be in the prayer room crying out for justice.”
But even with the risk, Bickle believes God is requiring the ministry to up the ante on justice ministry. “The risk is huge, and … the reason we’re taking it on is, biblically, we’re on the earth for it,” he said. “And the Spirit is pressing us. The Lord is saying over and over, it is now time to be far more aggressive. … Now He’s got His finger on us. He’s upped the intensity of it. And our people really want to. We’ve talked about it for years, and we have no option but to do it.”
During the anniversary services this week, Bickle plans to discuss several prophetic messages the ministry has received through the years and their implications in the present and future. He believes the church is entering a season of both intense persecution and great harvest.
“We think very strongly from the Word and the Spirit that it’s great trouble and great victory-both of them are emerging at the same time,” Bickle said. “It will be the greatest harvest field in America, but it will be the season of the greatest falling away from the faith, or at least from the organized church.”
He said there is a fast-moving trend in the church toward secular liberalism that is happening in tandem with a movement toward radical, New Testament Christianity. And he sees persecution looming.
“It will start out with economic persecution and troubles and pressures, and it will mount to verbal restraints—you can’t cross the line, you can’t talk about gay marriage, you can’t talk about abortion,” he said. “It’s going to mount up from there even in America. We believe that.
“And we believe that there’s going to be an increase in crisis …[and] things that trouble society. We think those are mounting up while the church is mounting up, both of them happening together.”
Just a short note to advertise the free webcast on the ihop website. It’s three days of continual prayer and eNGAGEment with God. Well He’s more than engaged – actually his heart is ONE with us. Wherever you are You can experience the love of God – and love Him back (even without a webstream). But sometimes you need a little HELP.
Check it out here. It starts next week Monday and ends Wednesday.
South Africa – Human Trafficking
We’ll be praying for God to protect HIS children (saved or unsaved) from the ravages of human trafficking. God is moving in South Africa through the goverment & non-govermental organisations raising the awareness level of human trafficking – which is quite amazing. God is at work.
Read all about it here.
Tomorrow we are having another prayer gathering in Stellenbosch. It’s always encouraging praying over an area…..God is the reward….not what He does through the prayer….
Getting to the venue, the preparations, the deliberations and so on and so forth is always difficult. I’ll admit it – it’s difficult to stay motivated when noone else really is. My simple prayer is…..God will you come with your Glory and cover over Your Bride in Stellenbosch…come like wind and come like rain over this city.
Let the Church love the Church
I have felt in the last few weeks impressed with the fact that as Christians we spend way too much time commenting / bashing / criticising or opinionating on each other’s churches. In my home town there seems to be such a spirit of distrust amongst the churches – it is quite sad. I can safely say there is VERY little interaction between churches – and very little combined initiative. It seems the enemy has foothold. We have given it to Him. We have ourselves to blame.
Christ died and gave His life, blood, sweat and tears for the Body of Christ. He loves the Church as a husband loves his wife – and as a husband loves his own body. We, as husbands, are admonished to love our wives as Christ loved the Church.
I ask you then……would you give your life for your brother in Christ or your sister in Christ?
Beyond all of the rhetoric we engage in…..let’s choose to love each other. Let’s pray for the Bride of Christ. This is why in prayer meetings in Stellenbosch we love to pray for the Church – we spend a good 40% of our time just doing that. The Holy Spirit is intent on preparing us for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. On that day we will meet Christ – together – not separated into denominations. The Vineyard won’t be on Christ’s right hand – and other church groups on the left!
We have to love each other to the point of death. Love flies in the face of offense.
