“Father God, what does your heart look like?” I have been praying that the Father would show me what he sees when he looks at the 120,000 orphans in America, the 1.21 million unborn each year, and the 27 million worldwide in modern day slavery. How does his heart move for the poor and the oppressed from the hills of Kentucky all the way to the Middle East? What is our proper response to the injustice of our day? In a prayer time this time last spring for the fatherless in America we sang this spontaneous chorus: “We don’t want sentiment. What good does it do to feel sorry for them? We need your heart, Father. Turn our heart, Father.” This phrase has stuck to me like a fiery brand upon my heart. Sentiment is not the proper response, but the Father’s heart is. We pray that his kingdom would come, that his agenda would prevail in the earth. It is the Father’s heart that moves the heart of his children.
In 2015 I was able to serve at the International House of Prayer as an Intercessory Missionary where at the core of all the ministry activity I was involved with was centered around a 24/7 prayer room that started in September of 1999 and hasn’t stopped till this day. During my time as an Intercessory Missionary I have learned that sharing the gospel and doing acts of justice must be coupled with worship and prayer. I believe that missions begins and ends in worship. Missions exists because worship does not; this is why we go and make disciples of all nations. Things change because we pray. In the book of Revelation it says that our prayers arise as incense before the throne of God. They literally affect the physical atmosphere as the government of heaven comes to the earth.
Throughout the earth, a groundswell of prayer is building. People in many nations are engaging in worship and intercession twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, mirroring the reality that takes place in heaven’s throne room. In 1984, the number of 24/7 houses of prayer in the world was fewer than twenty-five. Today there are over ten thousand, and most of that growth has been in the last ten years; they are springing up all over the globe at a staggering rate. The Holy Spirit really is moving on hearts to stand before the Lord day and night to partner with him for what’s on the Father’s heart.
The Lamb is worthy to receive the reward of His suffering in Southeast Asia, Africa, and in Eastern Europe! We must have His heart for the nations of the earth. Being on mission is a daily thing for the believer. We do not need a title in an official ministry capacity to be on mission, or to be overseas to be a missionary. All who say yes to the salvation of Jesus Christ have the call to fulfill the great commission. Prayer aligns us with God’s agenda, eliminating ours which gets us fat on our own words.
God is the end of the gospel. It is centered around him; that we would make him- his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness known among all nations. This is why we pray- that the desire of our souls would be for his name.
