I wonder how many are as outraged as we are, regarding the Penn State Sex Scandal. Or, will you disregard what we are about to say in this article for the sake of a keeping a forty five year legacy and football sacred? You may think we are being dramatic but our souls are at stake here, for Scripture speaks of God’s judgment on a culture that did not repent from such things.

As Coach Joe Paterno, President Graham Spanier and two vice presidents are fired for a cover-up of over fifteen years involving retired defensive coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing eight young boys, protests are breaking out on the Penn State campus. Shocking as this may be, much of the outrage is not for the victims but instead for the firing of Coach Paterno who knew of the abuse and did nothing. A freshman student that was interviewed said this, “It’s like where do we go from here? We no longer have a president, we no longer have a 45 year legacy.” One individual close to the program was primarily concerned about the impact of the situation on future recruiting for the football program. Has this young generation come to this? The sister of one of the victims is a student at Penn State and she is having trouble attending class because so many are making jokes about the trouble.

We as a nation have made football a god. Let us demonstrate this. In 2002 assistant coach Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky raping a nine year old boy in the showers at Penn State. Instead of calling the police he went home to his father who agreed they needed to tell Coach Paterno. The coach then reported it but nothing was done, and he let the matter drop. Sandusky continued his privileges at the college and maintained his access to young troubled boys and it was allowed for the sake of the football game and a so called “Squeaky clean football program”. How close as a nation have we come to Genesis 19, and Sodom and Gomorrah?

The word “Sodom” means “cesspool, den, and pandemonium.” Does this sound similar to what is going on at Penn State? What has happened to us that students would protest and destroy things for the sake of keeping a coach on staff who covered up rape? Is this an example of a generation that is in jeopardy of losing their souls? Let’s take a look at Genesis 19. Here is a quote from a commentary by Matthew Henry. “Thus many that are under some convictions about the misery of their spiritual state, and the necessity of a change, yet defer that needful work, and foolishly linger. Lot did so, and it might have been fatal to him if the angels had not laid hold of his hand and brought him for, and saved him with fear.” In Jude 23 it is said “the Lord was merciful to him; otherwise he might justly have left him to perish, since he was so loth to depart. The salvation of the most righteous men must be attributed to God’s mercy, not to their own merit.”

Are we righteous men and women and are we outraged because of the abuse of these boys? Or, do we turn our heads and say it does not involve us? How close are we to destruction because we have allowed entertainment such as football to become an idol and a distraction from Jesus? When the two angels appeared to Lot and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah did you know to this day that area remains a great lake called the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea? There is no living creature in it and it stinks, literally. Also, when Lot hesitated, the angel grasped his hand and rushed him to safety. Lot did not want to abandon the wealth, position, and comfort he enjoyed. It is easy to criticize Lot for being hypnotized by Sodom when the choice seems so clear to us. To be wiser than Lot we must see that our hesitation to speak out about how far we have gone with idolizing entertainment stems from the false attractions of our culture’s pleasure and we would sacrifice innocent boys for the sake of a college and a game.

Two facets of God’s character are His great patience and His fierce anger towards unrighteousness and sin. If there is true repentance, God will have mercy on anyone who calls on His Name, even those who commit such overt and criminal acts. He has had mercy on us, and our sin put Jesus on the cross. Fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much and the very presence of God-fearing men and women in a place helps to ward off judgment. We must pray for these men and the children whose lives were ruined through this behavior. And we must pray that the Holy Spirit will bring true repentance and revival to an idolatrous culture that sacrifices our children on the altar of entertainment and sports. The time has come for us to wake up and see what we have done and what we have become. The Lord is calling us to holiness and our time is drawing short. The Lord Jesus is drawing near.

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As I was growing up in the Church, baptism basically carried the implication of a membership ritual, a rite of passage that in our little denomination predictably happened to young people finishing the eighth grade! Rarely did I see anyone baptized before or after that time.

As I look back on that total misunderstanding of baptism, I’m delighted to realize the truth of what it means for us as believers. Baptism is one of the sacraments of the Body of Christ, what I call a “predictable power encounter” in which the Holy Spirit breaks the power of sin in our lives, and infuses into us the ability to say no to sin, to resist temptation and walk in holiness.

This is such good news, because every sincere follower of Jesus that I know deeply wants to be free from sin. We want to get rid of the patterns of sin that systematically destroy our lives, as well as to be free from the occasional sin that trips us up and causes us to feel defiled and ugly.

The New Testament idea of baptism is rooted in the Old Testament experience of Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea, where the Egyptian army was then drowned. In 1 Corinthians 10, we’re told that through that experience, the Israelites were “baptized into Moses,” and the promise of the Lord to them was “the Egyptians you see today, you shall see again no more forever” (Exodus 14:13). The power of baptism was that the influence of evil that is represented by Egypt would no longer have control over the people of God, but that they were now entering into a new power, the power to obey the Lord and live holy lives. Although they would still have to choose righteousness and obedience to the Lord, the power of the enemy was broken, and they no longer needed to fear being taken captive again.

Paul the Apostle writes essentially the same thing in Romans 6, where he declares that when we are baptized, we are joined with Jesus in His death, and the power of sin is broken in us. When we are baptized, we are immersed under the water as a spiritual picture of death and burial, and then we are brought up out of the “water grave” into a new life where victory and power over sin are available through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Notice (this is important!): baptism does not make sin impossible; it makes obedience possible. When we get saved, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit, the power to choose is restored to us. Sin and death no longer are our lords, but Jesus steps into that place. We have the resource to say “no!” to sin, and to say “yes!” to God.

Even as Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit when He came up out of the water, so we can anticipate a flooding of the Spirit’s presence in us – a predictable power encounter that releases to us the power of new life. We can now do what Paul exhorts us to do: “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members (body parts) as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members (body parts) as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion (lordship) over you, for you are not under law but under grace (the power to choose holiness)” (Romans 6:12-14).

If you would like to be baptized at our Family Day Celebration this Sunday, June 5, please call the IHOP-Northwest office at 253-509-4958 and give us your information so that we can prepare. Blessings on you all!

Gary Wiens

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We Won’t Stop Praying

Charisma article by Marcus Yoars

Mike Bickle is a wanted man

Not for a misdemeanor or felony. Not for a political endorsement. On the day I arrive at the International House of Prayer Missions Base of Kansas City, he’s being sought after by New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, who’s in town for a series and is checking out what’s become known worldwide simply as “IHOP.” Though Bickle doesn’t recognize the greatest closer in baseball history, he swaps stories with Rivera to the point that I can tell he’s been here before, many times, and is unmoved by celebrities seeking out him or his ministry.

One look at the IHOP director’s closet-size office or modest duplex house (shared with his mother-in-law) and it’s obvious he isn’t too concerned about prestige, money or fame. Instead, Bickle’s priority—dare I say obsession—is about being wanted by another.

The fixation began in July 1988. That’s when, as a 32-year-old up-and-coming pastor, he realized he was being passionately pursued by God Himself. Through a series of divine encounters, the Lord gave Bickle a mandate that his life’s ministry was to be centered on the Bible’s most intimate message: the Song of Solomon.

It wasn’t exactly a natural fit at the time. The son of a Golden Gloves champion, Bickle is a man’s man—his handshake, “man hugs” and love for football affirm this—and he admittedly considered Song of Solomon something better suited “for the women’s ministry.” Yet as his study of the book morphed from weeks to months to years, he became consumed with a foundational truth unveiled throughout Solomon’s poem: God deeply desired him.

He didn’t just like him; the God of the universe was consumed with love for him, His passion so unrelenting that Bickle didn’t stand a chance running from it. He had been created to experience profound intimacy with God, and everything else was secondary.

Fast-forward more than 20 years and Bickle’s revelation of this passion hasn’t just deepened, it’s expanded in step with an 11-year-old ministry that now involves more than 2,000 people and envelopes an entire suburb of Kansas City, Mo. Not only has the 24/7 prayer center literally become a fixture on city maps, its astounding growth has even local unbelievers asking who’s behind this. And that’s just how Mike likes it.

Fire on the Altar

Technically, the blueprints for IHOP were given years before its official launch on May 7, 1999. The idea for 24/7 prayer has been around since the days of King David, and God instructed Bickle to do “24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David” as early as 1983.

“I had never conceived of such a thought,” Bickle says. “I didn’t have a clue what this meant.”

He began holding prayer meetings, even putting the directive from God on the wall in his church’s prayer room. About 20 people would show up three times a day, seven days a week. This continued for most of the next 16 years throughout Bickle’s rise as a globally known pastor, speaker and author, and even through the “Kansas City Prophets” controversy—which, when you hear Bickle recount the turmoil surrounding him and his church in the early 1990s, is laughable as he confidently asserts that his accusers grossly misrepresented his beliefs and practices. (Googling “Mike Bickle,” however, still proves the vitriolic attacks on him that linger from this sham are anything but funny.)

After years of what Bickle calls “pretty boring” prayer, a series of supernatural events and divine directives prompted him and 20 full-time “intercessory missionaries” to launch IHOP. The idea was novel: the full-time occupation of intercessors who raise their own support and commit to 50 hours a week, half of which is spent in a central prayer room that blends intercession with musical worship, and half of which is spent in either ministry or service.

“This is not a slothful, musicians-showing-up-late thing,” Bickle says of the requirements. “I’m not a singer or a musician, but I am a coach. We have clarity and discipline and goals. And if you don’t do that, you have to quit.”

None of the original 20 did. In fact, by Sept. 19, 1999, worship ascended heavenward around-the-clock from a tiny trailer in Grandview, Mo. “We started a worship set 11 years ago in September, and the music has never stopped,” Bickle says. “We call that keeping the fire on the altar.”

That concept proved invaluable throughout the “trailer years” when a lean staff did whatever it took to keep the fire going, at times playing instruments with gloves in weeklong snow storms with no electricity. Misty Edwards, IHOP’s most recognized worship leader today, was part of the original group and led 12 two-hour sets each week for nine years.

“In those early days, the music being related in our brains to fire was brilliant, because we would’ve definitely been silent many, many times in the night watch,” she says. “We wouldn’t have existed if we didn’t know that we couldn’t stop.”

By the following year IHOP had grown to 100-plus staff members and was attracting a predominantly college-age crowd. Ever the long-term thinker, Bickle knew he’d encounter waning zeal among these 20-somethings (“Intercession will wear anyone out,” he says) and began establishing a long-term model for worship that could keep the musicians and singers motivated through the 12 two-hour sets each day.

“Structure is critical,” he tells me while diagramming orders of worship as if they were football plays, “and that’s what a lot of folks don’t get. They think it will be just endlessly creative, but typically it’s creative for 30 minutes, and then it stalls. You’ve got to launch and land.”

Schooled in Prayer

As regimented as that structure may sound to those who thrive on spontaneous worship and prayer, it’s integral to what happens in the prayer room—which, in turn, is the heart of everything IHOP is and does. The ministry includes 1,000 full-time staff and 1,000 full-time students at the university, IHOPU, yet each person’s role, function and purpose at IHOP begins entirely in the prayer room, where adoring Jesus is blended with rending the heavens on behalf of everything from abortion to Israel to revival on college campuses.

For IHOPU students, the prayer room serves as an essential extension of the classroom. “We have a 24/7 prayer room in which music begins to be one of the primary discipleship tools,” says IHOPU President Allen Hood. “[Students are] learning the Bible faster than ever, they’re singing the Word, praying the Word and crying over the Word. Their heart’s expanding at the same rate as their head. As an educator, I believe this is one of the best greenhouses I’ve ever seen. Because they don’t learn in a vacuum where concepts cause them to be cynical; they learn in a place of worship where it causes them to weep over concepts.”

Skeptics may question the academic quality of a school that leans on prayer as its main teacher, but not to be overlooked are the 36 master’s degrees and nine doctorates represented among IHOP’s leadership. Rich Stevenson, a former Asbury College professor who now serves as IHOP’s director of community life, is quick to emphasize the dramatic results of centralizing prayer in the educational process.

“There’s something about learning in an environment of night-and-day prayer that’s sealing truth in these students at a rate I’ve never seen before,” he says. “To stand before them and teach is daunting because they’ve brought their Bible and their class notes into the prayer room and interacted with Jesus over those things. It creates an unbelievable young adult who knows the Word of God.”

Such a prayer-saturated climate undoubtedly factored into the student “awakening” that erupted out of a 9 a.m. Bible class last November and continued first as nightly, then weekend meetings through early October. The move of the Holy Spirit drew thousands, many of whom reported physical and emotional healings. Broadcast globally on God TV, the awakening not only introduced IHOPU to a new audience, but also played a part in a surge of incoming students that includes those from abroad. This fall the university began accepting overseas applications for the first time, and leaders say they have more than 5,000 international students waiting to enroll.

Properties From Heaven

While IHOP could possibly double in size over the next year, staff members have already seen God’s hand at work preparing the ministry for exponential growth. As Bickle and I drive in his Toyota Corolla around the dozen Grandview properties, he points out entire apartment complexes and housing communities filled with nothing but IHOPers. In 2008, Forbes ranked Grandview among the top 10 fastest-dying towns in the country, and the economic decline opened doors for staff and students to purchase housing at dirt-cheap prices. Just as amazing as the potential for prayer warriors to literally possess an entire suburb in the heart of America are the over-the-top supernatural stories of how God provided each of IHOP’s sites.

“I know, I know,” Bickle says as he sees me shaking my head during one account. “It’s remarkable.”

Remarkable. The man uses the word so often he should trademark it, yet there may be no better way to describe the rich, prophetic and supernatural history behind several key facets of IHOP—a history that took Bickle no fewer than eight hours to recount at the ministry’s 10-year anniversary mark and involves prophecies, visions, trances and God’s audible voice.

From shopping malls to lush retreat sites to churches, Bickle has watched God seemingly drop multimillion-dollar properties into his lap, all without him having to once go on TV or write letters asking for money. Years ago, he vowed to go, do and say anything the Lord asked as long as He supplied the necessary leadership and finances. So far the deal has not only been upheld, it’s repeatedly left Bickle shaking his head—as in the case of what’s known as “the Truman property.”

Covering 125 acres that stretch along Highway 71, the estate was one of many belonging to Grandview native President Harry S. Truman. As the first president to recognize and intercede for the nation of Israel, Truman sold the land to a Jewish couple. In 2007, the couple’s children knocked on IHOP’s door and, without knowing of the ministry’s intercessory commitment to Israel, offered the property for a mere $1 million, despite its $10 million market value. Within days an IHOP supporter had covered the transaction. Adding to the story’s prophetic twist, when the title deed was signed on Jan. 27, 2008, it marked exactly 50 years to the day from when Truman had sold the property.

“The way the properties have come to pass, it’s a clear master plan,” Bickle says. “We got them one by one, sometimes with supernatural provision, with no thought of them being tied together. It was like pieces of a puzzle. We got the outer pieces first, and we put literally no effort into getting any of these properties. They came to us, somebody pointed it out, the money came in within a week or two—we didn’t solicit it—and now 10 or 20 years later, there’s a master plan. The puzzle pieces are coming together. From a global point of view, it’s one big campus from heaven that nobody figured out.”

Going Global

That campus isn’t just expanding in Kansas City, it’s reaching virtually every nation of the world, thanks in part to IHOP’s relationship with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). Though the 24/7 prayer center has long partnered with the world’s largest missions organization, this year YWAM founder Loren Cunningham asked Bickle to meet with him and strategize on how to call the entire missions movement to prayer.

Together with a team of top leaders, they dreamed of seeing prayer watches in every missions organization and took the first step by establishing one at YWAM’s headquarters in Kona, Hawaii. But when it came to what that should look like, the conversation grew interesting as Bickle advised against the idea of a 24/7 Kona house of prayer. “If you go 24/7, you’re out of the game,” he explained to the group of young leaders. “People visit from all over the world, check us out, then go home and say, ‘I’m going to try to do one of these,’ and within two years utterly fail. Then we lose them for 10 years in the prayer movement because they say they tried it and it didn’t work.”

Instead, the IHOP leader emphasized the need to start with something more easily replicated—a two-, six- or eight-hour-a-day, six-days-a-week version that included “bad worship teams with a broken-string guitar. … The whole world can imitate that.”

Bickle recognizes, as he’s learned from Cunningham, that it’s more important to influence rather than control. He’s not looking to expand the IHOP brand—in fact, more than once we discuss the countless requests his staff gets from people wanting to “start an IHOP” in their city.

“We don’t want to franchise,” he says with a bitter twist of irony, given a recent trademark infringement lawsuit from the pancake-maker IHOP. “We want people to join what’s going on in their own cities; we don’t want anybody joining us. It’s much better that way for everybody.”

He’s proved this for years by allowing people to copy, distribute or plagiarize any of his teaching material, believing it not only causes people to take ownership of the material, it also causes them to argue for and fight for the message.

Preparing for the End

One of those messages has actually become Bickle’s calling card in recent years and furthered the controversy that, for reasons beyond his control, surrounds him. Mention Mike Bickle’s name to most charismatic believers and, aside from prayer or passion for Jesus, they’ll automatically think of the end times. Indeed, Bickle has developed a unique twofold emphasis of the praying church’s call to deeply love Jesus as “friends of the bridegroom” and its role in the end times as forerunners.

As was the case with the Song of Solomon, the latter wasn’t a message he’d planned to give. Bickle calls his end-times thrust a “sovereign accident” that began with a challenge from his staff to do a 10-week series on the book of Revelation. That series turned into a seven-year sermon during which he would preach on Saturday nights and meet with a group of 20 leaders the following day to poke holes in his teaching.

“It ended up becoming a laboratory for understanding,” he says, adding that often the greatest course-changers would come from young students who were out to “prove the old man wrong.” Through this process, Bickle has landed upon teaching historic premillennialism with the added dimension of a victorious church walking in New Testament power, purity and unity.

For all Bickle’s passion to unlock in others the revelation of a loving God, he is equally as zealous to stir up a sense of immediacy and understanding among those who disregard the Bible’s specific, copious directions for the end times, which he personally believes will be seen by a generation already born.

“My generation is profoundly ignorant of what the Bible says about the end times,” he admits. “How can we go decade after decade and continue to be ignorant? Somewhere we’ve got to get intentional about getting somebody understanding it so that in the future they’ll be ready to train the kids who are currently 10 and 20. Who I’m aiming for is my children and their children—and even their children.”

That long-term generational target is also one of the driving forces behind IHOP’s recently expanded vision to combine 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice until Christ’s return. Of the 75 departments that make up IHOP, more than three-fourths are dedicated to action outside the prayer room—everything from orphan care to crisis response to inner-city ministry to training marketplace leaders. This is in addition to a thriving worship label, music school, conference ministry, media institute, Israel initiative, children’s and high school ministries, and an ever-increasing list of other ministries making their mark.

As powerful as each of those is, what sets IHOP apart from most organizations is a corporate cultural of humility that, amid rapid and exciting expansion, understands its core function will always remain in the prayer room.

“If your idea is that people are just sitting there in the prayer room, you’re missing the point. You have to have a revelation of what’s happening in that room or it’s just sitting there,” Bickle tells me before we enter the prayer room for an intercessory set he’s leading with Edwards. As if following a script, we walk in right as she sings what’s become the cry of an entire army of worshippers: How far will you let me go? / How abandoned will you let me be?

It isn’t long before my eyes well up with tears. Not just because I have the sense I’m in a place that’s changing history. No, I’m simply overwhelmed with the same revelation Mike Bickle and 2,000 other prayer warriors share: I, too, am a wanted man.

Marcus Yoars is the editor of Charisma and is still reeling from his life-changing visit to IHOP for this story.

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Charisma editorial by Marcus Yoars

Like it or not, the American Idol syndrome is alive and well in most Western churches today. We see it in the modern worship arena, with many young Christians believing that becoming a worship leader is the next best thing to being a rock star. Somewhere along the way, we’ve reinforced a model that equates spiritual success with stage time.

I’ve seen the same principle at work in the prayer movement, where true Spirit-led intercession is, in certain circles, overshadowed by a belief that the quicker you can lather a crowd into a praying frenzy, the more anointed on the mic you are.

I don’t mean to be cynical, but it says something about the American church when corporate worship and prayer can require as much spiritual discernment as listening to a politician. That’s why my visit to Kansas City’s International House of Prayer (IHOP) for this month’s cover story was a breath of fresh air. I’ve been intimately connected with the prayer movement for almost a decade; and as a worship leader for almost 20 years, I’ve also watched the dynamics change in corporate worship (not just stylistically, but in the emphasis given to what happens musically from the platform).

But after spending time with IHOP’s leaders and experiencing firsthand the corporate worship and prayer culture established there, I’m reassured that a major influencer for both movements is pursuing higher goals than just great stage shows, larger crowds and more spiritual lather. That’s because at IHOP, the platform is not the point.

Don’t get me wrong: Everything at IHOP stems from what happens in the ministry’s 24/7 prayer room, and logistically, the focal point of that room is a worship team on a platform and a prayer leader on the mic. But you’d be hard pressed to find an IHOP staff member-at least one who’s been there more than six months-clamoring to be onstage, despite most of them having grown up in an American Idol culture.

This is the fruit of leadership that places equal importance on the back-row intercessors as on those onstage. At IHOP, the midnight to 6 a.m. prayer shift isn’t for the B-string players; it’s prime time, with or without the crowds to prove that, because it’s for an audience of One anyway.

Mike Bickle and Misty Edwards, probably IHOP’s two most well-known leaders, credit this to a process of identity transformation. “God gives people an invitation when they come through our doors to get their identity right,” Edwards says, adding that the “police force” against fighting for the limelight is IHOP’s unglamorous, 50-hours-a-week-without-pay lifestyle.

It’s obviously working. Amid a generation of rock star wannabes, IHOP is producing a rare, humble people content to let Jesus get all the spotlight. Particularly from the back row.

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Her dream began with me and several others she recognized coming out of meeting in which we had been discussing the finances of IHOP-NW and our possible move into a larger facility. I was standing outside the door talking to her about our financial concerns when I begin to smile. In her dream she could see that my teeth and roots were rotten and this was because of my constant worry and anxiety about finances. But the good news was that I had a retainer in my mouth and we knew that meant that the Lord was correcting this. The Lord showed her and Gary that this was causing me not to be able to chew and digest the Word of God properly.

After she shared the dream I confessed that I recently had not been able to focus in the Bible and even when I read something I did not retain it for long and this really was grieving me. Also, for some time I had not had any dreams that were significant. Having this dream shared with me was embarrassing and I told no one, but the dream was so convicting that I was really humbled. I immediately went into repentance asking the Lord to forgive me. I confessed my fear and worry and asked God to release peace, which He did.

A couple of days later, I clearly heard the Lord say to me “Isaiah 57,” and I sensed that there was a connection to this dream. As I read Isaiah 57:3-13 I had revelation that the Lord was speaking to all of us about setting aside our idols. “When you cry out for help let your collection of idols, save you! The wind will carry all of them off; a mere breath will blow them away.” As I reflected on the idols the Lord brought to my mind how I had been fearful about money and that’s where I had put my trust. He started bringing to mind how I was worrying about the finances of our country and what the future was going to bring. He showed me how people were beginning to be my resource and not Him. I knew that this was the reason I was not getting the revelation and breakthrough that I had been crying out for and so I asked for forgiveness. All this happened during our recent forty day fast which was about to end.

That night I had a powerful dream. I was standing near the edge of a shallow bay and I was looking into the water. The water was beautiful and I could see to the bottom. I knew that if I drank the water it would be pure and fill me with great health. I turned to my right to see a man on all fours lifting his leg side ways in the air to exercise. Floating over him on all fours was a trainer with very large muscles. As the man lifted his leg, the trainer was lifting His directly above the man’s as if to be supernaturally causing him to build his muscles. All of a sudden I saw someone throwing big logs into the water and I was alarmed that it would stop the flow of the water and dam it up. But, the trainer – Who I now knew was the Lord – said, “Do not be worried about that person because I will take care of it, you just be concerned about building your muscle.”

I knew the Lord was saying to me and to others to stay in the Word, praying and interceding for our strength to endure what is coming and He will ensure for us that the flow of the Holy Spirit will not be stopped or hampered by the enemy. Then I woke up.

The following night I had another dream. All of the people at IHOP were in a building and we were having lots of fun. I looked outside and I saw a horrible storm like I had never seen in my lifetime. I knew it was a life and death storm and I remembered that my dog Lucy, whom I dearly love, was outside and I had to get her. There was a great body of water like an ocean and not far out I could see a very large ship like a freighter and I knew it was an international ship. Along the bank of the water was a large dock and I noticed that my dog Lucy had just been swept over into the water and was drowning. I quickly grabbed her leash as she went under. I struggled for some time to pull her up and then all of a sudden just her leash and collar appeared. I was terrified and so sad that I went inside crying and screaming for help. And then I woke up.

After praying and speaking to Gary about these dreams we both came to the same interpretation. Lucy represented things that were not eternal and we are not to hope or hang onto them because a great storm which is possibly international is coming. The Lord is saying that we must build our strength and let go of our idols, whether it be Fox News, money, our home, shopping, food, etc. The Lord will show us.

Isaiah 57:13-15 says, “But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and posses my holy mountain. Build up, Build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and lofty One says he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Shortly after the revelation on this word, Gary and I were watching the DVD The Finger of God. Bill Johnson was speaking about the Lord multiplying the food for thousands twice and then shortly afterwards His disciples were in the boat complaining that they had no food. Jesus says in Mark 8:17 “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?

Bill Johnson said we do not have “Kingdom reasoning” because we cannot see things by spiritual discernment because of our idols that we do not even know exist and inhibit our reasoning. This should really concern us because I believe the Lord revealed to me a storm is coming and we cannot be passive or asleep. But the good news is, remember in my dream those that were in prayer and worshipping together were not harmed by the storm and in fact did not seem that concerned about what was going on outside.

After a couple of weeks I finally had the courage to tell the whole story on a Friday evening at IHOP-NW Encountering God Service. I realized as I told the story how the Lord had healed and humbled me because it felt good to real this to others and to help them. The following Monday I received a call from Pastor Troy Green from Elma, WA. This was significant because he was part one of two things that the Lord had done to multiple money for us as we begun IHOP-NW and had almost no money. Well over a year ago when we needed $17,000 to purchase sound equipment he came to us and said the Lord told him to seed into IHOP and give us the money. His church is very small and in a low income area, this was miraculous.

The reason he called last Monday was to tell me about his major encounter with God as he stepped up to the pulpit to preach Sunday on the First Commandment. As he was about to speak the Lord said, “Troy your assignment is building a 24/7 prayer movement, but your passion and calling is to love Me. As he began to preach this the whole church broke down in repentance and weeping and they did not leave the church until 2:00PM.

As he told me the story I began to see the connection of my dreams, the leaders dream, Isaiah 57, Mark 8. The Lord is saying “Love me, just have a passion for me and I will add all the rest. I will take care of the logs the enemy is throwing at you.”

The stock market is up, homes are selling and people are beginning to shop again but do not be fooled by all of this. Do not be afraid either but instead do as I did. Get on your knees and pray for forgiveness and ask the Lord for revelation on what is coming and how to prepare the way. Ask the Lord for dreams and visions, but most of all begin to tell the Lord how much He means to you and how much you love Him. Tell him you cannot live without Him and nothing means anything without revelation and muscle building from Him. Let Him be in control of everything in your life. It is much more exciting and rewarding.

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As we enter this new year of 2009, it is blatantly obvious that we are all facing serious challenges to our faith and life. These challenges come at personal level, as well as in the arena of our professions, our friendships, our workplace, and our centers of worship. On top of all these personal settings, we are clearly facing national and international pressures in a more intense way than most of us can remember. It seems clear to me as I reflect on my own life that the level of commitment to Jesus that sustained me through this past year will not be sufficient for the days that are ahead. I must know Him in a deeper way, and somehow must get hold of His power for the issues that confront me at every level on a daily basis. Perhaps you feel some of the same needs as I do.

I want to draw your attention to a short statement found in Revelation 4:1 – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, ‘Come up here . . .’”

These words were spoken by an angel to John, the old apostle who was exiled on Patmos Island at the end of the 1^st Century. He was in the midst of a radical encounter with God in which he would witness the battle plan of Jesus to take over the kingdoms of the earth, including the implications that this strategy has for followers of Jesus as well as for the entire human race. John was about to see some truly awesome and terrible things, and it is significant for us to see the first things that God decided to reveal to John.

Before the Lord revealed the wonders and horrors that would accompany the coming of Jesus to Planet Earth, the angel was directed to show John the realm of God’s presence: His beauty, His personality, His power, His holiness, and His perfect justice in doing what He is about to do. This strategy was so important to John, and it is important to us as well. Like John, we must become settled in the ultimate beauty, kindness, power, and righteousness of the God who is orchestrating the transition from this present evil age to the wonder and majesty of His Kingdom that is coming to the earth.

A Throne Set In Heaven

Here’s the first thing John saw: there is a throne set in heaven. This is very powerful for us, because it is far more than a nice religious picture or sentiment. There is a place of ultimate authority and power, and it is essential that we know this deeply and personally. The culture that we live in has gone to extreme lengths to eliminate any sense of absolute truth or authority. “No one can tell me what to do!” is the cry of our spoiled-brat society. We have become our own gods, and we are reaping the fruit of our self-worship. The values that have held America together are no longer embraced, and the enemy is strengthening his grip. King David wrote Psalm 11 and declared that “if the foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do?” The answer that David came to is the same for us: there is a throne in heaven, and there is One seated there who is holy, beautiful, righteous, and just, and He is ultimately and personally involved in what is happening here on earth.

God has a clear and present strategy for this planet, for His people, and for all those who oppose Him. His plan is beginning to unfold. His desire is that we would be so settled in the experiential knowledge of His goodness and kindness that we will not be shaken by the decisions Jesus makes as He comes to take His place as the King of all kings, the Lord of heaven and earth.

In the next article, we’ll take a glance at the One who sits on this throne, that we might be filled with wonder and delight as our eyes behold this One who is beautiful and holy.

Blessings on you!

Gary Wiens

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I recently received the following article by Francis Frangipane. Marie and I were powerfully blessed by this word, and wanted to share it with you. Blessings on you!

“The Gift of Woundedness”
by Francis Frangipane
Nov 30, 2008

The world and all it contains was created for one purpose: to showcase the grandeur of God’s Son. In Jesus, the nature of God is magnificently and perfectly revealed; He is the “express image” of God (Hebrews 1:3). Yet to gaze upon Christ is also to see God’s pattern for man. As we seek to be like Him, we discover that our need was created for His sufficiency. We also see that, once the redemptive nature of Christ begins to triumph in our lives, mercy begins to triumph in the world around us.

How will we recognize revival when it comes? Behold, here is the awakening we seek: men and women, young and old, all conformed to Jesus. When will revival begin? It starts the moment we say yes to becoming like Him; it spreads to others as Christ is revealed through us.

Yet to embrace Christ’s attitude toward mercy is but a first step in our spiritual growth. The process of being truly conformed to Christ compels us into deeper degrees of transformation. Indeed, just as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered (see Hebrews 5:8), so also must we. And it is here, even while we stand in intercession or service to God, that Christ gives us the gift of woundedness.

“Gift?” you ask. Yes, to be wounded in the service of mercy and, instead of closing our hearts, allow woundedness to crown love, is to release God’s power in redemption. The steadfast prayer of the wounded intercessor holds great sway upon the heart of God.

We cannot become Christlike without being wounded. You see, even after we come to Christ, we carry encoded within us preset limits concerning how far we will go for love, and how much we are willing to suffer for redemption. When God allows us to be wounded, He exposes those human boundaries and reveals what we lack of His nature.

The path narrows as we seek true transformation. Indeed, many Christians fall short of Christ’s stature because they have been hurt and offended by people. They leave churches discouraged, vowing never again to serve or lead or contribute because, when they offered themselves, their gift was marred by unloving people. To be struck or rejected in the administration of our service can become a great offense to us, especially as we are waiting for, and even expecting, a reward for our good efforts.

Yet wounding is inevitable if we are following Christ. Jesus was both “marred” (Isaiah 52:14) and “wounded” (Zechariah 13:6), and if we are sincere in our pursuit of His nature, we will suffer as well. How else will love be perfected?

Yet, let us beware. We will either become Christlike and forgive the offenders or we will enter a spiritual time warp where we abide continually in the memory of our wounding. Like a systemic disease, the hurtful memories infect every aspect of our existence. In truth, apart from God, the wounding that life inflicts is incurable. God has decreed that only Christ in us can survive.

The Wounds of a Prayer Warrior

Intercessors live on the frontier of change. We are positioned to stand between the needs of man and the provision of God. Because we are the agents of redemption, satan will always seek the means to offend, discourage, silence, or otherwise steal the strength of our prayers. The wounding we receive must be interpreted in light of God’s promise to reverse the effects of evil and make injustice work for our good (see Romans 8:28). Since spiritual assaults are inevitable, we must discover how God uses our wounds as the means to greater power. This was exactly how Christ brought redemption to the world.

Jesus knew that maintaining love and forgiveness in the midst of suffering was the key that unlocked the power of redemption. Isaiah 53:11 tells us, “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”

Jesus possessed revelation knowledge into the mystery of God. He knew that the secret to unleashing world-transforming power was found at the Cross, in suffering. At the Cross, payment for sin was made. As Christ forgave His enemies, Heaven’s power rent the temple veil in two. Christ’s stripes purchased our healing. I am not just talking about suffering, but the suffering of love.

The terrible offense of the Cross became the place of redemption for the world. Yet, remember, Jesus calls us to a Cross as well (see Matthew 16:24). Wounding is simply an altar upon which our sacrifice to God is prepared.

Listen again to Isaiah’s prophetic description of Jesus’ life. His words at first seem startling, but as we read, we discover a most profound truth concerning the power of woundedness. He wrote, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10).

How did the power of God’s pleasure prosper in Christ’s hand? During His times of crushing, woundedness and devastation, instead of retaliating, Jesus rendered Himself “as a guilt offering.”

The crushing is not a disaster; it is an opportunity. You see, our purposeful love may or may not touch the sinner’s heart, but it always touches the heart of God. We are crushed by people, but we need to allow the crushing to ascend as an offering to God. The greatest benefit of all is the effect our mercy has on the Father. If we truly want to be instruments of God’s good pleasure, then it is redemption, not wrath, that must prosper in our hands. If we are Christ-followers, we must offer ourselves as an offering for the guilt of others.

Conformed to the Lamb

When Christ encounters conflict, though He is the Lion of Judah, He comes as the Lamb of God. Even when He is outwardly stern, His heart is always mindful that He is the “guilt offering.” Thus, Jesus not only asks the Father to forgive those who have wounded Him, but also numbers Himself with the transgressors and intercedes for them (see Isaiah 53:12). He does this because the Father takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11), and it is the pleasure of God that Jesus seeks.

Is this not the wonder and mystery, yes, and the power, of Christ’s Cross? In anguish and sorrow, wounded in heart and soul, still He offered Himself for His executioners’ sins. Without visible evidence of success, deemed a sinner and a failure before man, He courageously held true to mercy. In the depth of terrible crushing, He let love attain its most glorious perfection. He uttered the immortal words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Christ could have escaped. He told Peter as the Romans came to arrest Him, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). In less than a heartbeat, the skies would have been flooded with thousands of warring angels. Yes, Jesus could have escaped, but mankind would have perished. Christ chose to go to hell for us rather than return to Heaven without us. Instead of condemning mankind, He rendered “Himself as a guilt offering” (Isaiah 53:10, italics mine). He prayed the mercy prayer, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also” (John 14:12). We assume He meant that we would work His miracles, but Jesus did not limit His definition of “works” to the miraculous. The works He did – the redemptive life, the mercy cry, the identification with sinners, rendering Himself a guilt offering – all the works He did, we will “do also.”

Thus, because He lives within us, we see that Isaiah 53 does not apply exclusively to Jesus; it also becomes the blueprint for Christ in us. Indeed, was this not part of His reward, that He would see His offspring? (see Isaiah 53:10) Beloved, we are the progeny of Christ!

Read these words from Paul’s heart:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His Body, which is the Church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24).

What did the apostle mean? Did not Christ fully pay mankind’s debts once and for all? Did Paul imply that we now take Jesus’ place? No, we will never take Jesus’ place. It means that Jesus has come to take our place. The Son of God manifests all the aspects of His redemptive, sacrificial life through us. Indeed, “as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Paul not only identified with Christ in his personal salvation, but he was also consumed with Christ’s purpose. He wrote, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).

For those who blame others for the decline of our nation, to be a follower of the Lamb, you must render yourself as an offering for their sin. By your wounds they shall be healed.

What a wondrous reality is the “fellowship of His sufferings.” Here, in choosing to yoke our existence with Christ’s purpose, we find true friendship with Jesus. This is intimacy with Christ. The sufferings of Christ are not the sorrows typically endured by mankind; they are the afflictions of love. They bring us closer to Jesus. We learn how precious is the gift of woundedness.

Let’s pray: Father, I see You have had no other purpose in my life but to manifest through me the nature of Your Son. I receive the gift of woundedness. In response, in surrender to Christ, I render myself an offering for those You’ve used to crush me. May the fragrance of my worship remind You of Jesus, and may You forgive, sprinkle and cleanse the world around me.

Francis Frangipane

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It’s been said that a person can be “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” On the surface that sounds like a good proverb, encouraging us to keep our feet on the firm ground of practical living, rather than being captivated by some vague notion of heaven that is more closely related to Greek mythology than it is to Biblical truth. But beyond the superficial perspectives that that hold many followers of Jesus in the grip of ignorance, we find this truth: if we are not heavenly minded in the correct way, we will be no earthly good at all, because we will find ourselves living for the wrong reasons, using the wrong strategies, and aiming at the wrong goals.

The way we as followers of Jesus live today should be directed by one reality: Jesus is coming back to the earth to take over the leadership of the planet, and His plan is to give rewards to His people according to how we have carried out our existence here. I don’t know for sure how much thought you have given to the statement you just read, but if you’re like most believers in America, you’ve not given much thought to it at all. The idea of Jesus actually returning to the earth to establish His Kingdom here has probably been a vague thought in the back of your mind, with little or no influence upon the decisions you make moment by moment, and day by day.

But I want to encourage you to think about this with a fresh perspective. Jesus was very clear with His disciples that He is coming again to evaluate the lives of His followers, and to reward them with assignments based on what they did with the stewardship they were given. Consider the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:

14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

Matt. 25:20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, “Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Matt. 25:24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

Matt. 25:26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

Matt. 25:29 “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Most of us have read that parable with very little understanding. Perhaps we’ve known that there is some sort of accountability over how we use our gifts and abilities, but what Jesus is laying out here is very specific and very sobering. He has given each of us a deposit, a stewardship of time, energy, and money, and He expects a return on His investment. For those that are faithful with what they’ve been given, and who invest their resources of time, energy and money in a way that is consistent with His character, there will be tangible, earthly, and eternal rewards. You see, the Kingdom of God is really coming to the earth, and Jesus really intends to have a leadership team that is made up of people that have embraced His agenda during this life. We are not going to spend eternity in a mythological heaven that is removed from the earth and has no tangible reality to it. Jesus is bringing heaven here, and He intends to do the Father’s will on earth in cooperation with people who have followed His lead in this life as preparation for the age to come.

Please understand that I am not speaking here of salvation. We gain entrance into the Kingdom of God by the power of the blood of Jesus, by confession of sin, repentance from evil ways, and by believing in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God. Salvation – entrance into God’s Kingdom – is free and cannot be earned in any way. However, the Bible repeatedly refers to the reality of assessment, the accountability that Jesus, the Lord of the Kingdom, will demand from each of us as stewards in that Kingdom.

Therefore, the choices we make today about how we spend our time, energy, and money, about what we do with our thought life, and how we behave when no one is watching – those choices all have eternal consequences. There is continuity between this age and the age to come, and the individual choices we make from day to day matter more than we can imagine. Therefore it is very important that we gain understanding of what is important to Jesus, and begin to live in that way. We will give an account for the life we live, and the choices we make, and we will be rewarded magnificently if we are found faithful.

I encourage you to read through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and through the first two chapters of the Book of Revelation. That’s where Jesus is speaking to the churches that are prophetic pictures of the Church at the end of the age. He gives strong exhortations in both those sections, but in every instance, the call to obedience is motivated by the promise of great reward in the age to come. Jesus is wise. He created us with a longing for greatness, and He promises to deliver it to us if we will walk in a faithful stewardship of what we’ve been given.

Blessings on you all as you consider these things.

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Some years ago, when I was living in Seattle, I spoke with a friend named Peter Sheenstra, who was the Director of a counseling service in the Seattle area. Curious about his work in this field, I asked him what the most common symptoms of breakdown were in the marriages that he got involved with as a counselor. His reply came quickly and pointedly. He reported that the most common symptom was that the wife, frustrated and unfulfilled in the marriage, would start to nag her husband. She would begin to say things like “If only you would take more spiritual leadership in our home, if only you would pay more attention to me, if only you would help more with the kids, if only you would. . . (fill in the blank), then our marriage would be better.” Please notice that these statements are symptomatic of the breakdown, not the cause of the breakdown. The answer is not merely for the woman to keep quiet; rather, other things must be set in place to prevent the frustration levels from becoming overwhelming. That is the point of this book, and we’ll address some solutions later.

Peter went on to say that invariably the husband would endure the nagging for awhile, and then respond by either silent withdrawal and isolation, or by rising up in anger and wounding the wife, either verbally, physically, or both. In either case, the fractures in the marriage relationship would be exposed, and the couple would eventually come to a crisis point.

I have for the most part enjoyed being a woman, but at the same time I have resented not being a man because of the privileges and honor that seem to go hand in hand with being male. As a business woman it seemed I was always struggling with being heard or being taken seriously. When I won the Women of Enterprise national entrepreneurial award in 1990 I found out that all of the other women who had won experienced the same difficulties. The issue of being a woman with leadership gifts in a man’s world has been an ongoing point of tension in my life. Let me share a simple story that illustrates my point.

My husband Gary and I recently had a day off from our schedule of traveling and teaching, and we decided to take the time to play a round of golf at a nice public course in Kansas City. After finding the best price at lastminutegolfer.com, we found ourselves paired with two businessmen who were partners in a rapidly emerging business based in the area. They were delightful guys, kind and genial, and we had an enjoyable and even hilarious time, even though our quality of golfing left much to be desired. One thing, however, prodded a sensitive spot in my heart—the lack of regard for the presence and well-being of women that is typical of men in our culture. This lack of regard was expressed in a harmless way—the two men simply but repeatedly forgot that I was playing, and when the three guys were finished with their tee shots, these men jumped in their cart and forged ahead, forgetting that I was preparing to hit from the women’s tees. More than half the time Gary had to whistle at them to wait for me to tee off, and they repeatedly apologized for their forgetfulness. Finally Gary remarked that they must not have many women working in their company, and they replied that they did indeed have lots of women employees. I could not help but wonder whether they regarded their female employees as valuable beyond the mere implications for the bottom line.

While the whole experience was certainly not damaging to me, it tweaked an issue in my heart that has been painful to me for some time. That issue is the place that women hold in the cultures of our day, and the negative attitudes in the hearts of men that are expressed in a variety of ways, ranging from simple indifference and disregard to outright rage and murderous hatred. For example, in much of the Church in America, it is rare to find a woman in leadership, or even to have a voice in what God might be saying to the Church. In addition, in the secular culture the plight of women is increasingly horrific. Sex trafficking, the molestation of girls, rape and the physical abuse of women is rampant, and on the rise. Another telling statistic is the rise in the number of single moms raising their children alone because of divorce.

During the summer of 2006 I was in the prayer room at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, crying out to the Lord regarding His women. I was in such a place of pain because the Holy Spirit was highlighting to me the abuse inflicted upon women and female children. I actually asked the Lord if He hated women, if He did not value the female gender as much as He did the male gender. I wondered about all the young girls that are being kidnapped and raped and those that are dying or being beaten at the hands of men, in many cases their own fathers. I wept when I heard the current news report of a father in India who took his six-day-old twin baby girls and buried them alive so that he would not have to pay their dowries when they reached marrying age. He had been upset because he wanted a son, and instead got two daughters. So, he killed them in an unimaginably brutal way.

I also began to ask the Lord why women have such difficulty in the work place and why, apart from a few notable exceptions, they do not have much of a voice in the institutional Church. What are the reasons behind the brokenness that we see? Why are women patronized, marginalized, and brutalized the way they are, and why are men so constantly involved in such negative behavior toward women? The gender war, smoldering for centuries, has exploded into a full-blown firestorm, and I was determined to find the root system of it.

The Lord gave me the most stunning answer to my cry. The root causes behind these problems trace all the way back to the fall of mankind into sin, as recorded in Genesis 3. As we have begun to study and teach the things that you will read in this book, we have been amazed at the amount of understanding and healing that is coming to couples as well as singles.

The issue of the physical abuse of women is not the only thing that bothers me. I am continually dismayed by today’s clothing styles that ignore any limits of modesty. Recently Gary and I were in Seattle teaching at a conference. We were having breakfast in a local restaurant when I noticed a teenaged girl in the booth ahead of us. Her clothing was so revealing that it was embarrassing for me. Later I noticed that many of the girls were dressed in tops that were startling even for my eyes. While watching the news in Seattle we noticed that much attention was being given to the new trend in drive-thru coffee kiosks where female attendants wear sexually provocative clothing. Sales have increased significantly, apparently justifying the decision to dehumanize these girls by making them fantasy objects rather than human beings with any dignity. We’ve also seen that so many young boys wear their pants so low that only their underwear covers them. We continually wonder at the current state of things.

During that same time period we were listening to Dr. James Dobson’s show on radio. His guests were the All-Star baseball player Albert Pujols and his wife Deidre. Deidre was explaining that she travels with her husband most of the time as a protection for both of them. She went on to talk about the sexually explicit emails she receives directed at her husband and the scantily-dressed girls that she sees at the baseball games. Dr. Dobson acknowledged the change that has taken place in women today, adding his observations on how they fight and curse like never before. Although the program served to highlight this very issue in a strong way, no practical solutions were offered to bring correction and resolution to the matter.

It seems to both Gary and me that women young and old are desperate to find a sense of their own identity and destiny, but are feeling an ever-increasing load of despair and heartsickness. The noisy and brazen sounds coming from broken people like Rosie O’Donnell are nothing more than cries from shattered little girls longing for significance and power. It is as if something inside them is saying, “Will someone notice me and think I am great and beautiful?” It seems that, even in the face of a long history of abuse and neglect, women are bent on getting man’s approval one way or the other even if it is destructive to their heart and soul. The purpose of this book is to explore the reasons behind these issues, and to propose some radical ideas that, if taken to heart, will profoundly change the hearts of both men and women, and affect the status of women everywhere. We believe that the truths stated here—if embraced and acted upon—will result in a restoration of what God had in mind when He started the whole thing in the first place.

Our prayer is that you will read this book with a heart that is tuned to the heartbeat of our Father God, and to the mind of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. The good news the Bible brings us is that there is a way for us to achieve greatness in our lives. The Lord will not leave us alone in these struggles, but will send His Holy Spirit to show us the right way to grow in self-esteem and authority. What does He have in store for us as His people, and particularly for His women in the days and years to come, as we prepare for His return to the earth? May the Lord bless you as you search for His heart.

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Each of us has our own story of how Jesus laid hold of our lives, and most of those stories involve some sort of rescue process. Like the Biblical Esther, the refugee girl who became the Queen and ultimately the effective intercessor, we were held captive by the power of the enemy until the King summoned us. We were invited into the process of being prepared for His pleasure, and we found that the initial blessings of the King’s house were far superior to the depressing and defeating atmosphere of the refugee camp. We were rescued and brought out of darkness into the light of Jesus’ presence and power. We received healing for our spiritual and emotional wounds, perhaps for our physical bodies, and our hearts were restored to a measure of wholeness just by being in the King’s house.

This is the point at which many of our stories bog down, and we find ourselves in an increasingly stale position. We’ve been redeemed from death, snatched from the enemy’s fire, yet we have not laid hold of the compelling reality of our destiny. We have unrealized hopes, unfulfilled prophecies, and fading dreams, and we are not sure how to get past the spot we’re in. The faith that seemed so alive when we first encountered Jesus is now dormant and barely smoldering, and we live in the constant temptation to pretend that our lives are vibrant when in fact we know they are not.

How do we find help to get out of these spiritual ruts, to escape the spiritual boredom that opens the door for all sorts of wrong stuff? The answer is in the story of Esther, who used the pressure of a difficult circumstance to drive her to her appointed destiny as an intercessor, as a partner with her King in the salvation of her people.

In Esther’s story, she was quite content to live in the Queen’s quarters, and to have occasional access to the King at His bidding. Her needs were met, her circumstances were blessed, and she was infinitely better off than she had been in the refugee camp. However, she did not comprehend that her destiny was to hold a much higher position of authority. God had a design for her life that was far beyond her expectation, that involved a place of authority and influence that she could not imagine. In addition, she had a secret that would prove to be detrimental in her own self-perception. She was Jewish, a fact that had not been made known to the King, but that would play into her role as the intercessor for her people.

The key component to this story is the introduction of pressure in the person of an enemy of God’s people. A man named Haman emerges with great authority in the King’s house. He is an evil man who hates the Jews because of a heritage of war and animosity between his ancestors and the people of God. Haman uses his place of authority to contrive a strategy against the Jews, his goal being to exterminate them. In this story, Haman is a prophetic picture of the anti-Christ, a real man who is emerging at the end of the age, and who will personify evil beyond any character in history. God’s purpose with Haman and His purpose with the anti-Christ is the same: to drive the King’s Bride into her destiny of authority, and to bring judgment on evil in the world.

As Haman publishes his plan to annihilate the Jews, Esther is forced into the center of the drama. It becomes clear that she is the only one who can turn the King’s heart to change the situation in favor of the Jews. Esther’s problem is that she has this secret identity. She herself is Jewish, and that identity condemns her by law. She has a secret that by law and in her mind condemns her, that separates her from the King. She is being required to expose her secret, to test the King’s heart, and to risk everything she is and has in order to appeal to the King. Under any normal circumstance, she would not do this. However, the circumstances are no longer normal. There is a serious threat, a death sentence that will be carried out unless she comes forward and takes the authority she is meant to have. There is an urgency of intimacy that forces her into a place she would not go without the pressure.

This is what is happening to many of us as followers of Jesus. The pressures of life at the end of the age are increasing. It no longer seems possible to approach our lives in a “business as usual” kind of way. Drastic measures are required, and we are being driven into a level of intimacy and authority that none of us ever imagined. There is bad news and good news to this. The bad news is that the pressures are going to continue to increase until we respond and take our place of intimacy that leads to authority in prayer. The good news is that we will indeed respond and step into the identity and destiny God has prepared for us.

But it always boils down to personal choices that must be made in the crucible of daily life. Will I take the time to make intimate friendship with Jesus the top priority of my life? I mean this not merely in a theoretical sense, but in the real day-to-day choices of how I spend my time, energy, and money. Will I turn away from things that separate me from the King? Will I dress myself in righteousness and truth, and trust the King’s heart to love me in a way greater than His law?

Esther made these choices, and the result for her was that the King’s heart was powerfully moved by love to protect her and to rescue her people. Esther stepped into her rightful place of authority, and the enemy was completely defeated in the process. She became glorious in her maturity, a full partner in the King’s act of redemption. We can make these choices as well, and we must make them. There is an urgency to intimacy in our time that goes beyond our own comfort and drives us into our destiny. God is allowing the pressure to grow until we take our place, and He will not relent until we come to the glorious fulfillment that He designed us for.

Press into the Lord. Make your time with Him the first priority of your life. Disclose yourself fully to Him, for you will never know the ecstasy of unconditional love until you let Him know who you really are. Learn to listen to and obey His voice. Speak back to Him the things He shows you in His Word, and order your life around what He says. You will find that your intimacy with Him will increase, your joy will deepen, and your authority in prayer will expand. It is urgent that we do so, and we’ll be glad that we did.

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This past weekend we celebrated Memorial Day, 2008 with a barbecue in our yard, to which we invited about forty friends and family members. A number of those who came are involved with us in the beginnings of the International House of Prayer Northwest, which is just beginning to be established in the city of Tacoma, Washington. A group of us was talking together about the emerging prayer movement around the world, and especially the little prayer groups that are popping up all over the greater Seattle area. There is an explosion of interest in night and day prayer, and the reality of that was the focus of our conversation.

The first question that comes to me as I consider this fact is, “Why?” Why are people calling on the name of the Lord as never before? What is causing the hearts of human beings to turn toward the Lord in unprecedented numbers and take the time and energy to seek Him?

In Ezekiel 22:30 is recorded a time in which the Lord God articulates through the prophet the sins and failings of the nation of Israel. He is poised to bring judgment on the land, and the anguish of His heart is that there is no one to “stand in the gap,” to stand before the Lord on behalf of the land. Though He finds no one at the time and judgment is released upon the land, this is a prophetic picture that later would be completed in the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, the one Man who would stand effectively before God on behalf of the people of the earth.

This posture of standing before the Lord God on behalf of other people is the essence of intercession. It is the ongoing work of Jesus, even as He is in the presence of God today. We as His people, His Bride, are being summoned by the Spirit of God to join with Jesus Christ in this labor of intercession. We are invited to stand as His partners in the priestly ministry of holding the nations before the throne of God, that He might pour out His mercy instead of His wrath upon human beings.

Because this is so, it is imperative that we have a clear understanding of the heart of God concerning intercessory prayer, so that we might fulfill our destiny as His people with maximum effectiveness and joy. Before we do this though, we must begin to move away from false perceptions about prayer and consider some prevalent—but inaccurate—ideas about intercession.

Mistaken Ideas about Intercessory Prayer

Like most Christians, I have been aware for a long time that prayer is an important part of my life as a follower of Jesus. The problem was that I didn’t like to pray. I didn’t enjoy prayer, whether in the context of corporate prayer meetings or in my virtually non-existent personal prayer life. Although my heart was stirred by the testimonies of others about prayer, my motivations were almost always in the realm of guilt, shame and religious pressure.

When I first began to hear about people who would give themselves to prayer in an extravagant way, I vacillated between holding those people up as heroes in my mind and succumbing to a self-condemning attitude of hopelessness. Since I really don’t enjoy being depressed, I would simply put the matter out of my mind and get on about the business of ministry. When I did pray, I focused almost exclusively on what I needed God to do, either for me personally or for the ministry in which I was involved.

My suspicion is that many believers find themselves in this same boat. We know we should pray but we don’t like to pray, and the fact for 21st century Americans is that unless something is enjoyable at some level, or unless it has a relatively quick payoff, we simply won’t engage in the activity long term. In order to address this dilemma, I want to present some suggestions of what intercessory prayer is not, so that we might then be able to look with clearer eyes at what it is.

Prayer as Christian Duty
Perhaps the most common misconception about prayer with which believers struggle is the idea that prayer is our duty. Somehow, we have gotten it in our minds and hearts that God is a religious entity Who, unfortunately, just happens to be the all-powerful Lord of the universe. Therefore, though we don’t really like to talk to Him, we sort of need to anyway. We don’t really understand why God wants us to beg Him for our provisions. Our emotional perception is that since He is somewhat disinterested and distant, He must be persuaded to give us what we need.

I’m reminded of a little poem written by a friend years ago. Entitled “Protocol,” it is a poignant assessment of duty-bound prayer. It goes like this:

I hold my hands like this to pray,
Was told to do four times a day.
With friends I talk and reminisce;
Only God wants my hands like this.

In reality, this kind of dutiful exercise is completely opposite of God’s heart for His people in the place of prayer. We are told through the prophet Isaiah that at the end of the age even those who are foreigners to God’s covenants will be brought to a place of joyful prayer. Consider these words:

Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants–
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant–
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
and make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Isaiah 56:6-7

Notice the themes. Prayer will be initiated by God. It will be about loving the name of the Lord and experiencing joy in the house of prayer, a ministry in which all the nations of the earth shall participate. Religious duty is not the motivation for intercessory prayer.

Prayer as a Tool for Changing Things
The perception of prayer that seems the most common today is that it is God’s way of changing things. While there is truth in this statement, in itself it is an inadequate perspective of prayer. Since I will explore this theme more fully in another article, I will treat the issue only briefly at this point. It is my perception that most intercessory prayer today is stimulated by the awareness that so much is wrong with the world, and that God must be persuaded through fervent and even anguished prayer to extend His hand and bring about change. The measuring stick for effectiveness in prayer is the degree to which the circumstances around us change, either in personal situations or in relationship to any other specific external state of affairs.

As an underpinning of this desire for personal and social intervention, much attention has been given recently to discovering the root sin problems of geographical areas. The “spiritual mapping” process yields much understanding as to the generational “sins of the fathers” that have polluted a city or a region. Once that information has been obtained, intercessors attempt to discern the identity of the spiritual principalities and powers that have exerted their influence in the region. The intercessors then repent from the sinful choices of which the forebears were guilty in order to bring about a measure of restoration.

Certain kinds of “prophetic acts” are often part of the practice of spiritual mapping, such as administering salt to river waters that flow through a city or marching around certain geographical areas with musical instruments such as rams’ horns and tambourines. In some cases, efforts are put forth to address the demonic principalities and powers that have authority over a particular city or region, although this has become a less frequent practice in recent years. John Paul Jackson, in his helpful book entitled “Needless Casualties Of War,” demonstrated that this activity can be very damaging to those who involve themselves in it.

This kind of prayer has had significant and measurable effect in cities all over the world. George Otis, Jr., a well-known student of church growth and revival, has produced two videos, both entitled Transformations that give objective and observable evidence of the impact of city-wide prayer based on this methodology.

In this method of prayer, however, there is a danger that the continual focus on an area’s sinfulness and the spiritual forces of darkness behind the problems may have a negative impact on intercessors. There has emerged in many places a sense of overwhelming fatigue and even despair that is gripping numerous prayer warriors, and I am convinced that much of it may come from focusing on the wrong things. When the focus of prayer is consistently placed on what is wrong in an area, we tend to develop eyes that see only the corruption, and we may lose our sense of the beautiful.

We were created to become what we behold, and God’s intention is that we gaze on the beauty of His Son, Jesus Christ, and become like Him in the process. Then, in the context of intimacy with Jesus, filled with His Spirit of compassionate power, we will begin to accompany Him as He visits the cities of earth and brings the restoration of all things to the will of the Father, one person at a time.

Prayer to Increase Our Boundaries
A few years ago, the runaway best-selling book on every chart was a little 96-page volume entitled The Prayer Of Jabez. Written by Bruce Wilkinson, it is a meditation on the two-verse historical record of a man named Jabez, whose life story is encapsulated in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. To be sure, Jabez was born into a difficult situation. His “story” is tucked in the middle of the genealogies of Chronicles, and the first thing that sets him apart is that his mother named him. This indicates that she was probably a single mom, either widowed before his birth, or perhaps even an unwed mother. In the Middle Eastern culture of that day, this would have been among the worst possible scenarios.

Jabez’ name means “to cause pain.” Now there’s a heritage for you! Beset by pain, Jabez is spoken of in the biblical text as being “more noble than his brothers,” since he calls out to God to increase the boundaries of his life so that he will be blessed and not cause pain in the lives of others.

The beauty of this prayer is that it begins to touch the desire of God’s heart to bless His children, particularly those who realize the brokenness of their lives. This passion in the heart of God for the well-being of His people is the right motivation for prayer, and I have personally been blessed and encouraged by the use of this prayer. There are individuals who pray the prayer of Jabez over my life daily, and I am tremendously grateful. I want to explore this deep desire in God’s heart to bless His own more fully in the paragraphs to come.

The prayer of Jabez, however, quickly can become just a newer version of the “bless me” theology that has degenerated into selfishness over the years, with God becoming no more than the cosmic Santa Claus. The good news about this little prayer is that millions more are praying because of it. The danger is in staying focused on our own blessing instead of having our eyes filled with the wonder and majesty of the Person of Jesus as we entrust ourselves to His generous care and provision. Once again the focus of prayer becomes the changing of our circumstances, rather than having our hearts ravished with the beauty and majesty of God.

The desire of God’s heart is to have a relationship of loving intimacy with human beings. Our role in that relationship is the one we must grapple with as we continue to explore the question of why we pray.

In our next article, we will suggest another and perhaps better way to approach prayer. Check back with us over the next few days!

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