Video Podcast : Reformation : House of Prayer identity : City transformation

Here’s another video podcast hot off the stove!  I’m in the IHOP prayer room now… it’s been a while since I’ve been here due to being on the road.  I’m actually hitting the road again tomorrow, but that should be the last trip until 2009.

We’re still praying intently about our next move.  We are beyond excited about everything that’s been happening in Detroit.  Man, people are HUNGRY!  The pastors we’ve met are some amazing people and regardless of whether we move there or not, we’re confident that we’ll participate in a move of God there at some level.  I just talked with Miles Anderson who directs Revolution House of Prayer, and he said he’s 95% sure that we have an important role in that city.

The thoughts range from planting a church to developing a revival center to serving in the house of prayer there to simply traveling there from time to time to stoke the coals on the fire.  If it’s the latter, we can easily base here in KC or in Colorado Springs.  We’re praying about whether to put the house official on the market or not… it’s been for sale by owner, but we have a signed contract with our realtor to put it on the market.  We’ll probably make that decision soon.

I just had a meeting with someone here at IHOP regarding Detroit and the key role that city plays in what’s unfolding in the end times.  The activity there is intense.

Of course, Manitou Springs is still burning hot in my spirit.  The question I have is whether we’d have the resources necessary to develop the momentum we’d need to develop a revival center.  It’s a very different atmosphere there… but I do know that revival is the plan at some point.  It’s a huge vision that will require some serious investment from many people and leaders in the Colorado Springs region.

If we move there, we’d have a temporary place to stay with Amy’s parents… so, the transition for the family would be fairly smooth.

Of course, we’re in a hotbed of prophetic end-time activity right here in KC… so, the default decision at this stage is to stay in KC for another season.  What an exciting and wild life we live!

Oh, yeah… finances are also a rapidly emerging issue!  Please consider if you would become one of our monthly partners.  We’re praying in around $3000 a month so we can pay the bills and feed the kids!  We’ve lost around $1500 this month, so it’s a bit of a crisis… but, God is very much ready to pour out through many channels!  You can donate at www.praytherevolution.com/donate.

Now, some thoughts about the emerging house of prayer/reformed church movement:

Something’s brewing in me about the emerging identity of the house of prayer movement.  I’m convinced that we must see the line radically blur between the ‘church’ and the ‘house of prayer’.  I’ve said it many times, my father-in-law got it right when he told me during our transition from Revolution Church to Revolution House of Prayer, “John, you aren’t transitioning from a church, you are transitioning into a church.”

The true identity of the church is that of the house of prayer and vice versa.

The house of prayer movement is currently viewed as a splinter movement or a para-church ministry.  A key part of my passion and calling is to advance the call for radical, culture cracking reformation in the church.  Somewhere along the line (a long time ago) the church lost its identity as a house of prayer.  So, the ‘house of prayer’ movement is advancing now to fill that gap.  However, houses of prayer cannot simply fill an empty gap of prayer, but rather apostolic leadership must use the vehicle of the house of prayer to bring recalibration to the church.

This is much of what my future book, Pharaoh in the Church, will be addressing.  We see in Exodus that Pharaoh was attempting to make deals with Moses as the plagues kept arriving.  Pharaoh refused to release the ‘church’ into the wilderness of encounter until the very end.  The call is for leaders with the mantle of Moses to reintroduce the encounter in the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness as the primary ministry and activity in the church.

As this morphing between the church and the house of prayer successfully proceeds, we will see every member involved in lengthy, daily prayer as their primary assignment.

I love how Dutch Sheets mentioned in his church something like this: the church is not a house of fellowship, a house of teaching, a house of small groups, a house of children’s ministry or a house of pastoral counsel.  It’s a house of prayer.  That’s what every pastor and every member should be intimately involved in hours a day, night and day.

Someone mentioned to me the other day that a successful transition from the modern day church to the house of prayer will result is some amazing ‘side effects’.  I love that!  Teaching, fellowship, evangelism, children’s ministry, youth ministry, small groups, discipleship programs and everything else is a side effect of being hours in the furnace of prayer!

As it stands now, we are attempting to accomplish the ministry with little or no oil, little Holy Spirit infusion, little fire.

What would happen if it was expected of every member of every church to be in the place of prayer together with others in the body 2-4 hours a day?  What would happen in our cities over night?!  This is the call of the church, and the house of prayer movement must pave the way for that.

Of course, it will take time, wisdom, revelation and a lot of hard work- but, we must start the journey in our churches and cities today!

My teaching “Four Fires” addresses the process in more depth.  I should have it available to listen to soon at www.praytherevolution.com/media.  We must burn individually and corporately… in a deep and intentional way… if we expect to see it happen on a city level.

This isn’t a call to be excited about God, to cheer when we talk about revival or to simply be stirred.  It’s a call to radical, shocking, life altering, culture offending reformation at a very deep level.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Enjoy the video!

John

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