The Scripture the Lord gave me for this next season is Luke 12:49, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  Jesus speaks this verse during a very lonely time of His ministry.

At Caesarea Philippi Jesus revealed both His messianic identity and His messianic mission but no one is listening. Moments after declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Peter rebukes Jesus for His statement concerning the Cross. No one is listening to Jesus. From this time until the last supper the disciples will be arguing over who is the greatest. At the end of His earthly ministry during this lonely time Jesus gives us a glimpse of His heart longing.

Jesus wants to bring fire on the earth. His very longing and goal was to fill human beings with the fire of the Holy Spirit. His goal is to put the very life of God in the soul of humanity. Not God with men but God in men. There is something greater than God with us. It is God in us, the life of God in the soul of men and women.

John the Baptist’s main identification of Jesus in the four gospels was to describe Him as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt. 3:13-17, Mk. 1:9-11, Lk. 3:15-16, Jn. 1:29-34).

So closely was Jesus’ messianic ministry connected to the Holy Spirit that John declares the purpose for His baptism was to reveal who Jesus was and that the revealing of Jesus would occur when during baptism the Holy Spirit would descend and remain upon the Messiah. Unlike the Old Testament prototypes(Gideon & David), Jesus had the permanent endowment of the Holy Spirit. 

Though John emphasized Jesus as the Baptizer with the Spirit, sermons on the Holy Spirit are few.  It is simply a false notion that you can love Jesus without giving any focus to the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are inseparable. They are one essence.  The Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is One in Three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, share one nature.  Norman Geisler describes it this way, “The three Whos (persons) each share the same What (essence).”

God wants to make His home in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He wants human beings to be the very Temple of God, the very dwelling place of the Almighty. The climax of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:26 is that the Father’s love would be in us and that He would dwell in us. This is unthinkable! The One who fills all eternity wants to dwell in us.

A remarkable thing in history is taking place.  The Body of Christ is coming into greater levels of unity and cooperation in the place of prayer and mission.  Within the last three months I have personally witnessed unity on unprecedented levels.  In July eight leaders from YWAM and IHOP-KC met to discuss the convergence of the prayer and mission movement.  In these meetings I witnessed the presence of the Holy Spirit build strong relationships and mutual cooperation.  Mike Bickle, Loren Cunningham, John Dawson, Lou Engle, David Hamilton, and I walked away from our time in Kona, Hawaii with a sense of God’s divine strategy to bring prayer and missions together for the last great thrust in finishing the Great Commission. 

Immediately after the Kona meetings, IHOP-KC hosted the National Day of Prayer executive leadership, comprising dozens of evangelical prayer movements from around the country, for a three day night and day gathering of prayer for revival to come to our nation.  Leaders like Yvonne Bright, Dick Eastman, Dave Butts, and Dr. Glen Sheppard led the gathering in teaching and prayer.  Dave Butts summed up the theme of the gathering in the following excerpt:

The theme that continued to arise during the planning of this initiative was “preparation”. There is a strong sense that God is calling us to the walls of our communities and nations to watch and pray as an act of preparation.  It may be preparation for something that God is going to do that will shake the nations. It may be preparation within the Church, a calling to holiness, purity and repentance. It may even be preparation for the Lord’s Return. All we know is that God is calling us to Watch and Pray in order to prepare us, and to prepare the way for something that is coming.

No more had we finished Prayer Watch 2010 when Kona’s spoken and prayed intentions would soon actively play out as IHOP-KC and YWAM World Impact Tour partnered all September to evangelize Kansas City.  Multiple campaigns and crusades led to hundreds coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus.  In fact, one evening at the Awakening services I was able to share the Gospel and thirty individuals answered the call to receive the Lord.  I cannot even begin to describe the childlike joy and wonder as we watched hundreds from our communities come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.  Almost weekly we are in dialogue with major movements concerning partnering for the spreading of the gospel through prayer initiatives, ministry to the poor, and city-wide gospel campaigns.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (Jn. 17:20-21) 

One of my greatest joys is leading the International House of Prayer University. It is such a privilege to steward the hearts and minds of the generation the Lord has called to prepare the earth for his return. As the days in which we find ourselves grow darker, God is establishing centers of equipping for the future leaders of the body of Christ. IHOPU is in the midst of an astonishing season of growth. The Lord is truly pouring out His favor on our school and blessing us exponentially. As we prepare for the beginning of a new school year, I’d like to share a few recent IHOPU milestones.

On April 10^th our IHOPU students returned from a significant ministry trip. Several months after the initial outpouring of the Spirit here in Kansas City, the Lord began to speak to the IHOPU leadership team about New England. Specifically, we felt an invitation from heaven to target college campuses in that region through forty days of strategic prayer, fasting and ministry. Historically, New England has been the birthplace of the greatest revivals this nation has experienced – the First and Second Great Awakenings. In the beginning of 2010 the Lord spoke to numerous faculty and students with the same message: it is time to ask for a third Great Awakening in this nation and to see revival break out in New England again.

Deliverance and Emotional Healing (Colorado Springs, CO)
I had plans to go out for a friend’s birthday but felt the Holy Spirit leading me to stay home. I turned on the webstream, hoping for good music for my devotional time with the Lord. While the woman who grew up as a pastor’s kid was sharing her story, my heart began to ache as I realized the dryness of my heart and my slavery to performance and the fear of man. I fell on the floor and wept and wept. Tonight, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit unlike anything I have ever experienced, and I have been commissioned to proclaim the gospel boldly. My heart had been dry for so long, but I was delivered tonight! I have been delivered from the bondage of performance and from the fear of man. I feel as though my heart has been made new.[1]

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We are in a new season – a season of divine disruption. As we near the three-month mark of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, many of us are no doubt struggling to find a new rhythm of life and wrestling with the question of how we ought to respond to this move of God. On the one hand, our hearts are experiencing greater levels of love, joy and freedom than ever before; on the other hand, our frail frames are struggling to adjust to many new demands. These two conflicting realities can create a dissonance or disillusionment within our own hearts.

The Hood home has dramatically changed since an outpouring of the Holy Spirit began at the university two weeks ago.  Revival meetings are occurring most evenings to midnight and people are coming from all over the world.  Charisma magazine recently completed an article on the outpouring.  I will post it on my website, http://allenhood.com. Below is an article written by Dr. Wes Adams.  Dr. Adams is a Bible scholar and accomplished author, writing on subjects such as revival and city transformation.

Thousands of Christians from across the U.S. have been flocking to Kansas City, Mo., where a Bible college class at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) has sparked nightly revival services.

On November 11, during a 9:00am class of first-year students, led by Allen Hood and Wes Hall at International House of Prayer University (IHOPU), the Spirit moved in their midst with physical healings, deliverance, and a spirit of joy.That class, on November 11, continued for more than 15 hours. The word spread quickly, and nearly 2,000 people spontaneously gathered in the auditorium from all over the Kansas City area, as deliverance and physical healings increased. The meeting continued well past midnight. Recognizing that the Spirit was moving, the leadership of IHOPU canceled all classes for the next few days so that we could gather to receive all that the Spirit wanted to do.