Convergences
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)
