From the Desk of Steve Shultz:
Mike Bickle is the director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC).
IHOPKC has had incredible influence across the world.
In this article by Mike Bickle, he shares an important word for us: "7 Characteristics of the Praying Church.
I encourage all intercessors across the globe to read through this and pray into it. YOU can make a huge impact right where God has you planted as your prayers go forth! (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)
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"7 Characteristics of the Praying Church"
Mike Bickle, Kansas City, MO
1. The Praying Church Will Be God-Centered
The worship order of Heaven is decidedly God-centered. Night and day, day and night, those nearest God's throne proclaim the truth about who God is and what He does. He desires that His creation would encounter His majesty, love and goodness and that, in turn, they would offer up their praise and adoration for all He is, all He has done and all He will do. Treasuring God and adoring Him endlessly is the priority of the prayer movement. It is the necessary and fitting response to His matchless beauty and immeasurable worth.
Worship is a witness on Earth to the indescribable value of Jesus. The truth of His greatness must be declared in song and in proclamations because it is the ultimate truth on which the created universe exists. This truth of the greatness of God is powerful. God loves the truth, including the truth about Himself. (See Revelation 4:8; 5:11-14; Isaiah 24:14-16.)
2. It Will Be Continual
In Revelation 4-5, the Apostle John describes the heavenly worship order around the throne. In His vision of God's throne room he witnessed celestial beings who "...do not rest day or night, saying: 'Holy, holy, holy...'" (Revelation 4:8). As already mentioned, God desires to be worshiped on this earth just as He is in Heaven – continually and unceasingly.
Moreover, the prophet Isaiah saw a prayer movement on Earth that would not rest night and day until God's purposes were fully established (see Isaiah 62:6-7). In these last days God is raising up a prayer movement that will continually worship Him and cry out to Him for His plans to be executed and His justice to be released (see Luke 18:7-8).
The call to 24/7 worship and prayer is not an invitation to organize it all under one roof. Continual prayer usually is expressed by the Body of Christ together as prayer is offered up from many different buildings across a city or region. The call of 24/7 prayer is to build a prayer culture among God's people across cities and regions so that Jesus receives continual, corporate worship from many different ministries and locations. Each does its own small part, but together all offer night-and-day prayer. (Photo via Unsplash)
3. It Will Be Global
The Scriptures are clear that the end-time worship and prayer movement will extend all across the earth, even to the most remote and difficult-to-reach places. Isaiah prophesied that even in the remote islands of the earth God's people would sing to the Lord in worship and intercession (see Isaiah 42:10). He witnessed worship going forth in the wilderness, or desert places – even in Islamic villages such as Kedar in Saudi Arabia and Sela in Jordan – and that God's people would worship from one end of the earth to the other until Jesus returns (see Isaiah 42:11, 13-15).
Simply put, the end-time worship and prayer movement will be in every place, even the hardest and darkest places (see Malachi 1:11). That means it will be international. King David had a continual, musical worship movement in Jerusalem. About 300 years after him, Isaiah said, in effect...(continue reading)
