Mike Bickle of International House of Prayer (IHOP) and Luis Bush of Transform World recently co-hosted a 70 Hours of Prayer gathering with the goal of connecting missions and prayer. The concept for the event came from Transform World and IHOP working together to see missions and prayer connected. The prayer and sharing times of this invitation-only event were streamed live via the Web as well, with the goal of 100,000 prayer groups linked around the world.
The event was hosted at the IHOP prayer room and the Forerunner Church building in Kansas City, Mo. As is common in these kinds of by-invitation events, the connections built between the sessions were strategic as well. The evening meetings were held from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., with many leaders filling 15-minute slots with prayer after their time of sharing.
IHOP is a 24/7 prayer room and training center. Worship and prayer go on non-stop, with many inividuals eventually giving their lives as prayer missionaries.
Transform World has placed a special emphasis on what has been called the “4/14 window,” or children and early teens of that age grouping. There has been a remarkable move of God in prayer among this age-range of children and youth in such places as India, Thailand and Indonesia.
What a lineup was drawn together by the Holy Spirit! Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With a Mission; Paul Eshleman of the Jesus Film Project; Lou Engle of TheCall; Billy Wilson, the new president of Oral Roberts University; Mark Anderson of Call2All; and other missions leaders shared. I was given a time slot and spoke on the 50-state Reformation Prayer Network.
A leader from Egypt spoke on the unity that has come to the church there after the Arab Spring and the difficult times they are now experiencing. One prayer meeting alone on 11-11-11 saw 40,000 Egyptians crying out to God together. In Kansas City, the OneThing youth gathering was attended by 10,000 youth in 2012.
Other speakers, such as Peter Lee, a Korean, spoke of the terrible plight of North Korean Christians. I have to admit I lost sleep that night as I prayed for them and for God to stop the persecution against them.
We heard a great report from North Africa about 32 children who had the same dream about Jesus on the same night. Another woman had a dream that she would find the truth on her doorstep. As it happens, a person had received two Bibles in the mail and didn’t want them and had, for some reason, mailed her one. The postman left it on her doorstep, and when she opened her door to check her front steps after the dream, she found the Bible propped up by her front door. These and many other encouraging reports were shared.
Personally, numbers of leaders from across the world stopped to tell me how much our television program meant to them. Next-generation leaders stopped and asked for prayer. I had a meeting with Movement 133 leaders from college and university campuses. One of them attends University of California, Berkeley; others are working near Harvard University. Brian Kim, who is fulfilling a prophetic word the Lord allowed me to give him years ago, is working to develop houses of prayer on college campuses. They now have 1,000 operating and are working on the remaining thousand-plus campuses.
What an exciting time to be alive! I left the gathering praising God for His goodness and the great work for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that is being done around the world.
Cindy Jacobs is the co-founder of Generals International. She has two doctorate degrees and has authored seven books.
