Ring of Fire Houses of Prayer
The House of Prayer
A massive global revival and harvest is prophesied in the scriptures (Hab. 2:14, Is. 60:1-5, Acts 2:17). This outpouring will be birthed in individual hearts as we receive a revelation of His radical love for each of us, and throughout the world as we each apprehend this love and come together to respond in extravagant love, worship and prayer poured out continuously at His feet and out into the streets.
Revelation chapters 4 and 5 describe a continual, never ceasing flow of worship and intercession before the Lord. In Mark 11:17 Jesus says," My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations…" This is beginning to happen today as the Lord is calling many worldwide to establish 24-hour houses of worship and intercession that minister before Him around the clock, showing His glory in incredible manifestation. The world outpouring that many have sought, cried out for, and worked toward for so long is coming forth as we come together in this move of His Spirit to build the House of Prayer.
We are living in the time of a great move of God around the world. Acts 15:16 & 17 describes the re-establishment of the Tabernacle of David "so that the rest of mankind will seek the Lord, even all the gentiles…". From the time Peter announced this, the thread of the founding of houses of prayer can be followed through Church history.
The Thread Through History
During the persecution of the first century church, many Christians took refuge in the desert, founding communities where they cultivated a life of prayer, service and preserving the word.
Throughout the Middle Ages communities were established where the life of the gospel was nurtured and preserved. Young men and women dedicated their lives to the work of the Kingdom of God in prayer, teaching, community support, outreach and mercy ministry. The establishment of these communities was the primary method of evangelism into the Celtic, Germanic and Norse cultures.
In 1727 in Europe, a small group of people from various religious backgrounds made a covenant to God and to each other to be united in prayer and to a life of faith. Their commitment to prayer set off a revival that changed the world. They became known as the Moravians. The Moravians started a 24-hour house of prayer, divided into separate one-hour “watches of the Lord,” that lasted for 100 years!
The house of prayer that the Moravians established was not simply inward, and self focused, but it reached outward toward the lost and needy of the world. The Moravians evangelized, sent missionaries to the world, and directly and powerfully influenced John and Charles Wesley, among others.
The House of Prayer Today
In September 1999, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, an early work at the forefront of the current movement, began its 24-hour a day schedule of worship and intercession. Since that time a growing vanguard of fledgling prayer ministries have sprung up in cities across the globe with similar vision and purpose. The overall goal is to see a 24 hour a day, citywide House of Prayer in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David established in every major city of the earth, as outposts of heaven planted in the earth, as cities of refuge for the lost and forgotten, as a new kind of base for world missions: that the Nations may come to know Him before the Lord's return.
Robert Stearns Shares About The House Of PrayerRobert Sterns, the founder of Eagles Wings Ministries in New York puts his heart behind the House of Prayer movement: “First and foremost, the House of Prayer is the biblical model of the form and function of the house God has designed for His people, and it represents the primary activity of heaven. In Scripture, the mandate for us corporately to be a House of Prayer is overwhelming. In the Old and New Testaments, we see that God’s consistent desire is that His people be a people of His presence, a resting place for His glory.
Today, the need is great for the Body to become balanced and mature in our intercession, not praying out of human understanding or emotion, but being grounded deeply in the Word of God and the history of prayer. If there has ever been a time for prayer, the time is now. Everything around us in our culture is demonstrating that this is an hour of great unrest and urgency and that most likely, there will be much greater shaking in the days ahead. The end-time battle for the souls of mankind and the culture of nations will be fought in the arena of prayer and worship in the House of Prayer".