As we enter this 40 days of fasting, one of my primary objectives is a heart awakened more fully to what God is doing in our day. One of the great prayers of my life is that my heart and the hearts of everyone I know would be caught up in the story of all that God has done, is doing and is going to do in the earth – the grand drama of redemption. The human spirit was created to be a part of something bigger than our own self-preservation, we long for a sense of purpose and significance that’s meant to be found in the plans and purposes of God. It’s in setting ourselves in that story that we’re prepared to see it unfold with no offense and no confusion, just a heart in awe of what God is doing and a life lived in partnership to see it done with Him.
Though we’re prone to live without giving it a moment’s thought, we are living in one of the most significant hours of history. The Greatest Story Ever Told is unfolding before our eyes its final climactic chapter… and almost nobody is paying attention… yet. What’s beginning to unfold will demand the attention of all in time, but for now it is an open invitation for any who are willing to stop what they’re doing and ask the Lord what He’s doing. Now is an opportune moment for us to step back and take in what God is doing in the earth and to not let it pass us by unnoticed. It is a glorious time to be alive and in Christ, and we are robbing ourselves if we carry on business as usual and miss what God wants to give to this generation.
When I’m speaking of this present move of God, I’m talking about something bigger than the outpouring that began in Kansas City and is now touching different places across the nation. I’m talking about something bigger, even, than what we have seen to this point of the global prayer and worship movement. There is a move of God stirring in the earth right now that promises to be one of the most significant the earth has ever seen, filling the body of Christ and the ends of the earth before it has run its course. It’s been called a prayer movement – and it is… it’s been called a worship movement – and it is… it’s been called a missions movement, a justice movement, a prophetic movement, a signs and wonders movement – and it’s all those things… but it’s bigger than that. What really defines this present movement is not what the body of Christ is doing, but what the Spirit is saying that is stirring us to do all of those things. Proverbs tells us “for lack of vision the people cast off restraint,” but let us catch sight of a little of God’s vision and you will find laborers rising up in all spheres longing to serve God’s purpose in their generation. The lifestyle of prayer and worship, and the outworkings of evangelism, prophecy, healing, missions and acts of justice are all symptoms of a particular heart condition that is beginning to spread throughout the body of Christ.
Without a doubt, it is spreading – at an “only God” rate. In 10 years time with no human oversight or planting program we have seen the emergence of hundreds if not thousands of houses of prayer where previously the concept was virtually unheard of. In 10 years more time the major missions organizations are telling us that over half a million houses of prayer will be planted throughout the earth. As we watch night and day prayer begin to cover the earth we naturally make the connection to verses like Isaiah 62:6-7 that promise the coming of watchmen who “give the Lord no rest day or night.” What’s happening behind the scenes, though, is hearts getting struck with the revelation contained in Isaiah 62:1-5 – the God who “will not rest until,” burning with a glorious agenda for the earth and its inhabitants; and the Bridegroom God who rejoices over His people, delighting in them and longing for them to be with Him in His zeal and in His rest. It’s that revelation that produces in us a burning heart, and it’s that burning heart that thrusts us into the heart of God in intimacy and into the activity of God in partnership.
This move of God is about “until.” It’s about a Bride made ready, a harvest from every tongue and tribe and nation, and a people prepared for the Lord. Its heartbeat is a fiery core of revelation: of the Bridegroom God who is zealous for His people, of the Church’s identity as the Bride of Christ, and of where it’s all going as the King prepares a wedding for His Son. It’s that Spirit-breathed revelation, identity and purpose that is sparking what is taking shape in various streams all across the earth… and it’s that same heart that has the power to touch and shape not just a minority movement of intercessors and worshipers, but the entire body of Christ and the whole of church life… and it’s that heart burning within the church that then equips us to begin lighting fires of change in our communities and our nation. For these 40 days we are setting ourselves before those fires of revelation and asking the Spirit to breathe upon them that our hearts might burn still more and more.
