Sean Feucht is the founder of Burn 24-7 a grassroots global, prayer, worship and missions organization. I see “The Burn” as one of the signs of God’s unique activity in the combining of prayer & mission. Sean and his teams literally travel around the world igniting the fire of prayer and worship in the context of mission. Here’s a blog from his recent trip to Mozambique: Continue Reading…
Archives For November 30, 1999
If you’ve been in church a little while, it’s likely you’ve been to a rough prayer meeting or two. What I mean by rough is a meeting that wasn’t exactly exhilarating; a meeting that you went away from more burdened than when you came. I’ve been to a few in my life. Ok, if I’m honest, I’ve led a few. The Bible promises that we’ll be joyful in His presence. If that’s the case why are our prayer meetings at times so … boring? I’ve come to find that there are certain elements that can really help our prayer meetings become, dare I say it, enjoyable.
I wrote yesterday on critical components to establishing a specific culture in your church community. One component that is often overlooked is messaging. Many times leaders desire a certain culture, but their messaging actually inhibits the building of that culture. Leaders teach what they know. And so if they desire a certain culture beyond what they know it requires them to learn the messages that will build that culture. It can’t be an empty parroting, they must learn the messages at the heart level. A leader must be moved by the message himself, if he expects to move his hearers. Once he learns the messages, he can then declare them and begin to shift the culture. In developing a culture of prayer I have found several messages that are essential. I encourage you to give yourself to these messages until they move your heart and then begin to proclaim them in your community.
We stand at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. The light is getting brighter as the darkness is becoming darker. The greatest revival and the greatest crisis in human history are both soon to come. It is always darkest just before the dawn and so our hearts remain full of faith because know that a great awakening is soon to sweep across the nations. And though darkness is covering the earth, we look with eager anticipation to God’s promised outpouring on all flesh which will empower His people to bring the gospel to all nations. What a privilege it is to live in this awesome hour of history! (Acts 2:17-20, Mt 24:14)
Isa. 60:2 Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.
What is a praying church? I am asked this question, in some form, regularly. There are mulitple ways I could answer this question, but perhaps the most constructive is to talk about the values of a praying church.
I believe it’s critically important to know the “why” before you find out the “what” or the “how” in just about anything you do. Most of the time leaders want to know “how” to do a ministry without knowing the key premises behind that ministry. If we have a clear picture of the “why”, i.e. the values behind something, the “how” tends to work itself out. Often we spend too much time on “how” because we don’t know “why”. Continue Reading…
The rumblings of the convergence of prayer and missions continue to sound forth from leaders in the body of Christ. In September, 2012 at the Call2All in Kansas City, key mission and prayer leaders like Loren Cunningham(YWAM), Dick Eastman(Every Home for Christ), George Verwer(Operation Mobilization), Steve Douglass(Campus Crusade), Mike Bickle(IHOPKC), Lou Engle(TheCall), Luis Bush(Transform World) and others along with a full convention of delegates came together in unity to strategize the final frontier of world missions: The gospel to every tribe, tongue, people and nation. You can read a brief summary of the event here. The leaders of these organizations represent over 50,000 mission workers. The event was historic from the simple fact that these leaders all came together in unity, purpose, vision and message.
I just returned from a whirlwind trip to the Middle East where I visited four nations, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan & Egypt, in 11 days. The believers I connected with were absolutely precious, heroes in the kingdom, standing strong in the midst of very challenging circumstances. It was an honor to meet and encourage them in the Lord. I think I was more encouraged by them than they were by me.
The atmosphere of each country is unique but at the same time each has one outstanding thing in common. Each has wholeheartedly embraced Islam as a mainstay of it’s culture. This is evidenced by the many mosques that dot the landscape and the Muslim call to prayer that rings out throughout their cities.
One of the great challenges of building a house of prayer is focus. Oftentimes believers celebrate the idea of prayer but don’t actually attend prayer meetings. As a leader the challenge is inspiring people to do the prayer meetings and not just celebrate the idea of prayer. This has required me to have laser focus in building IHOP Atlanta. One of our key building strategies has been, “If something doesn’t build the prayer room we don’t do it.” I know this is incredibly narrow, but for us to build and sustain a 24-hour, 7-day a week, corporate worship-led prayer meeting, we’ve needed to be very narrow. We’ve needed to cut out the distractions and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the place of prayer. As a result, by God’s grace we’ve been able to offer Jesus ceaseless adoration and intercession for the last 6 years. Thank you JESUS!
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