WHY HOUSES of PRAYER 7 Reasons Why I Believe God is Raising up Houses of Prayer

There is a tremor of heavenly veritas echoing up from the catacombs of the Western Church culture - largely coming from young adults where entrance into the church enterprise is low, but zeal for encountering God is high. In small communities as well as large, the Holy Spirit is raising up vital expressions of New Testament Christianity composed of believers whose nuclear center is the pursuit of the power, heart and presence of God. Many of these expressions identify themselves as a House of Prayer. 7 Reasons Why I Believe God is Raising up Houses of Prayer 1. It's PROPHETIC. Its been established as a bright and shining lamp (John 5:35) for this season - and it knows the mandate that God has given it as a prophetic sign to the breathless church. It has prophetic precedent. Its identity is derived in large part by a prophetic, forward gaze toward the destiny of the Church, ordained to stand with Jesus as His mature Bride at His second coming. It is also, presently producing prophetic messengers calling for zeal and repentance within the American Church culture. 2. It puts the PRIMARY aspect, Relationship with God in rst place within the organizational structure - and minimizes professional pastoral and institutional mediation of that dynamic.The structure that it does have, is geared to encourage and empower each individual believer in primary encounters with God rst, administrating Kingdom ministry second, (if at all) empowering individuals for any number of specic ministry endeavors that the Holy Spirit directs them into. It's PREPARATORY. Through night & day intercession, it is preparing the harvest to be gathered into Jesus Kingdom. It is also preparing an oil-lled Bride (Matthew 25:1-13) who is fullling 1Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers and is zealous to testify of Jesus beauty through the shaking, judgment and end-times trials that are soon to come. It is EMPOWERING believers to true, faith-lled, Spirit-lled, love-infested, resurrection-power Kingdom praxis, where obedience is wholehearted & mature: so that Godly character and delity to Jesus is motivated out of passionate and prolonged encounters with His heart, rather than out of principled duty, or fear of punishment. It's PREVAILING while the institutional Church is Failing. The Western Church is in a state of spiritual crisis. The spiritual maladies that are neutralizing our

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ministries are real, specic and consequential. Jesus has specic remedies for individuals and organizations that are mired in a human-powered "industry mind-set" to Church. Houses of Prayer are one way that the Bride is responding to revelations of her (Revelation 3: 14-22) poverty.Add to the fact that Houses of Prayer are reproducing themselves & multiplying throughout the western world, all the while institutional Church entities are struggling to maintain their numbers. 6. It is PRAYERFUL. While the power-starved, conventional church is wrapped up in the business as usual pursuit of politics, structure, techniques and discussion groups the House of Prayer movement is fasting and enriching itself in deep, focused communion with the author and the builder of the Church Himself, Who is ordaining them to bring up the presence of God to the people of God that they may be greatly empowered to do the work of God. Its PERSONAL: both in its ORGANIZATION and its DYNAMIC. a.) Organizationally,it is a grass-roots movement that is being established, not by the will of some ecclessial authority, or because of some grand, administrative strategy, but as the Holy Spirit draws any group of INDIVIDUALS, educated and ordained or not, to pray & seek God. b.) The House of Prayer DYNAMIC is also PERSONAL. In the activity of prayer and worship the countenance of the Lord shines and examines the heart of each individual believer (Psalm 11:7) whereby we yield ourselves to Gods very personal process of taking out the heart of stone and putting in the heart of esh. (Ezekiel 11:19,20)

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JSB May, 2011

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