My driving force is my love for Jesus, wanting to know His heart and love
Him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and wanting others to
encounter His love through me. It is because of my love for the Lord and what
He has called me to do that I desire to lay down my life and spend my strength
to build His house of prayer in the Northwest.
Why a house of prayer? Towards the end of His ministry time Jesus
declared, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark
11:17). The Lord is using houses of prayer all over the America and the world
to raise up young people to walk in intimacy with Jesus and the power of the
Holy Spirit to reach people in need.
The Lord’s heart is broken over the injustice and corruption in the earth. As people that follow and love Jesus, our
hearts should break with what breaks His heart. After all, if Jesus did not
care for and love us, He would not have dwelt in human form and died for our
freedom and healing; He did not just die for us, but for every man, woman and
child.
We need to be people that are connect with Jesus heart for broken people,
Christians that cry out in prayer and intercession. We need to cultivate eyes
that see what Jesus is doing in the world around us through prayer, so that we
can partner with Him, and so that He will release resources of power and
healing from heaven. This is the model that Jesus displayed for us: He was
connected in intimacy with His Father, and did only what He saw the Father
doing. We need to be Christians that display and bring the kingdom of God into
every area of society. Bigger churches, more programs and ministries are not
the answer; greater intimacy with Jesus—people that have cultivated heaven’s
perspective and heaven’s power. Where are the ones that will upset cities and
nations for Jesus just as Paul did (Acts 17:6)?
Jesus trained 12 men through relationship; they were his friends that He
sowed His whole life into. His time spent with them was not primarily about teaching
them a model of ministry, but about knowing Christ Jesus, personally. In Acts when the Jewish elders and scribes
tried the disciples, they “observed the confidence of Peter and John and
understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and
began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
The answer to a lost and dying America is a people who spend time with
Jesus cultivating intimacy. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus
did not talk about a new model or a new strategy for church growth. Instead He
summed up the law and quoted a very familiar scripture: “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind” (Matt 22:37). When we are connected to Jesus’ heart in intimacy, inevitably
we will have His heart for people that are lost and hurting; we will find
ourselves in intercession and prayer for others.
Intercession means “an interposing or pleading on behalf of another
person.” An example of this is in Genesis 18 when Abraham stood in front of the
Lord four times, interceding for the life of Lot and his family. Another example
of intercession is in the life of Moses.
In Exodus 32, the nation of Israel had turned their back on God, they were
worshiping a molten calf. Angry with Israel, the Lord decided to destroy the
nation and make Moses a mighty nation. Moses responded by pleading with the
Lord and reminding Him of His covenant with Abraham. It says in Psalms 106:23, “Therefore, He that
would destroy them (Israel), had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach
before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them.” Moses was a foreshadowing of Jesus. In
Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to
him.” Jesus is the Great Intercessor. In
Isaiah 59:16, the coming of Jesus as one who intercedes or stands in the gap is
foretold, “And He (the Lord) saw that there was no man, and was astonished that
there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and
His righteousness upheld Him.” Jesus came and lived a life interceding for us,
and paid the ultimate price in intercession, that is giving Himself up so that
we would be free. The author of Hebrews says about Jesus that, “He is able also
to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives
to make intercession for them, (Heb 7:25).” Jesus is our model for a lifestyle
of prayer.
When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray He said pray in this way, “Our
Father who is in heaven hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-10). Jesus instructs all believers to pray for His
kingdom and His will to be done on earth. His kingdom is one of peace, justice
and righteousness (Is 9:7).
Jesus is rising up houses of prayer where His kingdom and power can go
forth into our cities and towns to bring hope and healing to those in need. I
want to be a living example of the Lord’s prayer that His Kingdom, love, and
power would flow through me to heal those in need. For this reason I spend time
in the prayer room cultivating intimacy with Jesus, studying His life, praying
for the northwest and individuals.
