We have turned away from the persecuted church for too long. We can no longer turn away; we must turn toward our precious brothers and sisters whose lives are on the line. For a long time, many of us have been praying, Lord, teach us to pray. It’s time for an upgrade. We now want to ask, Lord, teach us to pray for the persecuted church. In China, Sudan, India, Somalia, Iran, and many other nations, Christians are being severely persecuted for their faith, and daily some are even being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Read More

God is inviting you to stand in prayer with the persecuted church. What do you say? The first martyr in the early church was Stephen. While he was being pelted to death with stones, he had a remarkable encounter with the manifest presence of Christ. He lifted up his eyes above his raging enemies and saw a most remarkable sight—heaven was standing open, and Christ Himself was standing at attention. Virtually every other place in the New Testament where we see the ascended Christ, He is seated at the right hand of God. Here, however, at Stephen’s martyrdom, Christ is standing as if He is standing in the honor of His servant, Stephen.  Read More

Let’s face it, most of us feel incapable of praying for the persecuted church. We even feel unworthy. Who are we to pray for these precious people whose lives are on the line everyday for Christ? What do we know about persecution?  Read More

On this day, May 5, in the year of our Lord 1912, a significant move of the Holy Spirit came on the church in Tibet. Missionaries reported that over a period of several months, one hundred people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit followed by unusual signs and wonders, including singing in the Spirit, visions, prophecy, holy laughter, falling to the ground under the power of God, physical healings and deliverance.   Read More

When you seek God’s manifest presence from your spirit, you are devoted to prayer. The two disciplines that will help you are (1) being watchful and (2) being thankful. God wants to teach you today to be both watchful for His Presence and thankful for His Presence.   Read More

Everyone prays in one way or another, but God calls us to be devoted to prayer. Not only is the early church an example of being devoted to prayer, but the apostle Paul told the church in Rome that they, too, were to be devoted to prayer. The strongest word in the Greek language for commitment is proskartereo. It is used only nine times in the New Testament, five times in relation to prayer. It is the single word used to describe the prayer life of the early church in Jerusalem before and after Pentecost, and it is the word the apostle Paul uses here to exhort the believers in Rome to “be constant in prayer.”   Read More

Every church prays, but not every church is devoted to prayer. A church that prays, prays sporadically when there are problems, asking God to bless what they’re doing. A church devoted to prayer prays consistently when there are opportunities and does what God is blessing. A church that prays shows the community what they can do; a church devoted to prayer shows the community what God can do.  Read More

Building an upper room requires a double anointing. The first Holy Spirit anointing empowers us to pray and seek the manifest presence of Christ. This is anointing number one and miracle number one. The second anointing is the Holy Spirit empowerment to winsomely gather five to ten others to pray with us.  Read More

Just think of it—the Christ-encountering, history-shaping, nation-reaching, mission-launching upper room of Antioch only had five people at the prayer meeting. How many times have we lamented how few people come to pray? We think that somehow if we have more people, we will have more power in prayer. When will we learn that answers to prayer are not the result of the size of our prayer meeting, but the size of our God?   Read More

God intends every upper room to touch the nations. The first upper room built by Jesus in Jerusalem became a nation reaching upper room within a few hours of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The upper room in Antioch similarly would become the sending base for every mission trip for the apostle Paul.  Read More

Every Christ-encountering upper room is designed to not only touch heaven, but also to touch the nations. On the Day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Holy Spirit on the 120 believers in the upper room, they were not only filled with the Holy Spirit, they immediately impacted the nations. Because of the Feast of Passover, there were thousands of Jewish and Proselyte pilgrims in the city of Jerusalem from the north (Cappadocia), the west (Asia, Macedonia, Rome and Crete), the south (Egypt and Libya), and the east (Arabia).  Read More

The Christ-encountering upper room is not just any prayer meeting. The single factor that sets apart the upper room is that it exists not to ask for God to meet our needs; it exists just to minister to God Himself. When Jesus built His first upper room, He sent His disciples back to Jerusalem with a promise, “the promise of the Father,” that is, the promise of God’s presence by the Holy Spirit.  Read More

Virtually every encounter with the manifest presence of God recorded in the Bible results in reaching the nations. No sooner did Isaiah see the Lord high and lifted up, than he is commissioned into his prophetic ministry. It is all too easy to assume that when we encounter the manifest presence of Christ, that it is all about us. While we certainly benefit from every encounter, we must guard against becoming self absorbed encounter junkies. It is all about Christ; that is true. But it is not all about us.  Read More

You don’t know your true identity until you discover who you are in Christ. Discovering who you are in Christ is one of the foundational realities of being a follower of Jesus. Until you see yourself in Christ, you will never know yourself. If you don’t know yourself, you can’t be yourself. If you can’t be yourself, you can’t live.   Read More

You don’t know your true identity until you discover who you are in Christ. Discovering who you are in Christ is one of the foundational realities of being a follower of Jesus. Until you see yourself in Christ, you will never know yourself. If you don’t know yourself, you can’t be yourself. If you can’t be yourself, you can’t live.  Read More

God wants you to pray for the harvest and to pray for the harvesters. Jesus lived with a keen awareness of the harvest. He could see the harvest better than anyone. He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). Seeing a discrepancy between the plentiful harvest and the pitiful number of harvesters, Jesus leaned on His twelve to activate their prayers on behalf of the harvest.  Read More

There may be no greater privilege extended to us by God than the privilege of asking for the nations. Not only are we encouraged to ask for the nations, but God promises that He will give them to us. Psalm 2 is clearly a messianic psalm, or a psalm written about Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. From beginning to the end of this powerful psalm, the Anointed One, the Lord, the Christ, is in the spotlight. It is to His Son that God initially says, “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance.”  Read More

The Holy Spirit can pray up a storm in the weakest vessel. Do you qualify? Can you sincerely say, I do not know what to pray for as I ought? If you can say that you have a certain degree of weakness in your prayer life, you are a good candidate for a Holy Spirit upgrade. No one knows how to pray better than the Holy Spirit. Since He lives inside of you, He can teach you to pray however He wants, as long as you let Him help you.  Read More

Healthy Christians long for the visible, bodily return of Christ. They live in anticipation of His second coming. They even pray for His soon appearing. The final time the word come appears in Scripture is an invitation for the second coming of Christ. Jesus no sooner promises to return, “Surely I am coming soon,” than the people of God wholeheartedly respond, “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!” In the original manuscript, it is the Aramaic word, Maranatha—Come, Lord Jesus!  Read More

When Jesus invites you to come, His invitation is instantly empowering. The full force of the resurrection is available when God says come. When Jesus stood outside the empty tomb of the dead corpse of His friend, Lazarus, it became a showdown. Jesus called to Lazarus. Life called to death, “Lazarus, come out.” Despite being dead for four days, the record shows, “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” (John 11:44). What an illustration of the life-transforming power of Christ when He says, “Come.”  Read More

When Jesus invites stressed out people to come to Him, He not only promises them His presence, He promises them peace and rest as well. When you need to depressurize the cabin of your life, there is no better place to come than into the manifest presence of Christ. The invitation is for you, “all who labor and are heavy laden.” When you feel overworked, underappreciated, short on sleep and pulled in too many directions, call timeout. Take a breath. Pray. Come to Jesus in response to His open invitation, “Come to Me.” Come boldly. Come confidently. Come as you are. Bring your frustrations, high blood pressure and migraine headache. Five minutes in the manifest presence of Christ will change everything.  Read More

When God invites you to come to Him, He is not only giving you permission, He is giving you divine empowerment. Never walk away from God’s invitation to come, or you will be missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime.  Read More

You and I are part of “the generation of those who seek Him.” What an honor! Whenever you read in Scripture about the face of God, it can only be referring to God’s manifest presence. God’s omnipresence does not have a face. All who seek the face of God are those who seek His manifest presence.  Read More

Our God is not only a Savior; He is also a Warrior. He is mighty in battle. He has never lost a fight. And He is not about to start now. He is always victorious. As you stand before Christ in prayer today, declare His potency, His power, and His coming kingdom. He is Yahweh Saboath, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He is El Gabor, a Mighty Warrior. He is Christ the Conqueror. Mighty in battle. Always triumphant.  Read More