An Incredible Evening of Prayer for Canada

On April 26 2011, House of Prayer Edmonton hosted a special evening of intercessory worship for the Canadian Federal election. We worked quite hard to spread the news and invite as many people as we could. As the evening got closer we had no idea how many people would show up: would people be stirred to gather and pray for the election or would apathy about politics prevail? The other question was how would people engage with the model of intercessory worship that would be quite new to the majority of people? We decided to set up the room for about 50 people, which is double the number that we can seat in marketplace chapel.  We soon realized that we would need to put out more chairs and set out another 50; as more people continued to arrive people went over to the main building of McKernan Baptist to find additional chairs. In the end we had about 120 people come and join us for two hours of prayer and worship for the nation.

So what do you do with 120 people who care enough about Canada that they pass up watching the Stanley Cup playoffs to come and pray? At the beginning we had a time of worship and then a number of the HoPE prayer leaders began to lead in prayer while the worship team played and responded in spontaneous song. Soon we invited people to come and line up at the microphone to offer 10-20 second prayers along the theme of God’s will prevailing in the national election. Immediately there was a long line of people eager to pray and from there people became increasingly engaged with the intercession and worship.

It was an amazing evening, filled with significant intercession for Canada and the Federal election. There were a number of people from across the Body of Christ who came together in unity to exalt Jesus Christ and celebrate Him as King over Canada.  We were thrilled to have a very wide representation of Baptists, Mennonites, Presbyterians, Alliance, Pentecostal, Victory Church, and independent charismatics.

I personally was very honored to be part of this evening. It was exciting to see so many people from such different church backgrounds come together and pray in unity for the will of God in our nation. This was truly in keeping with the prayer of Jesus in John 17, when he asked God the Father that the Church would live in unity!

I believe that this was the first of many future city-wide gatherings for worship and intercession. The Holy Spirit is stirring a desire in many believers for unified expressions of worship and prayer that exalt and honor Jesus Christ and work to establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven!

Our next special evening of intercessory worship will be on Thursday June 9, 2011 at Central Baptist Church. This is part of the AWAKEN 2011 CONFERENCE on June 9-11 that House of Prayer Edmonton is hosting. Maria Collett will be again leading the intercessory worship and Wes Martin, the main speaker at Awaken, will be preaching. I really encourage you to check out the conference website and to join us for this incredible weekend.

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An Assortment of Thoughts

Well today at House of Prayer we began to look at Psalm 33 (each week we chose a different Psalm or a passage of Scripture to focus on in the devotional times of prayer).

The first 3 verses are an introductory call to worship and in verse 3 there is a familiar exhortation to 'sing to the Lord a new song'. Have you ever wondered why the idea of singing a new song is so common in the Psalms? What's wrong with the traditional songs? Why does God want a 'new' song? 

So consider this: a new song about God requires a new revelation of God. Now obviously I'm not talking about brand new concepts of God but when the reality of who God is strikes or impacts our heart in a new way.  The problem is that so often we rely on singing songs of other people that come from their own revelation of who God is. Sure, it's a catchy tune, but it requires virtually no personal revelation or encounter with God.

What God desires is to be worshiped with new songs of praise and the best new songs flow out of new revelation that come from growing in the knowledge of God.

Tomorrow is April 26 and the evening of prayer that House of Prayer Edmonton is hosting for the Federal Election. My previous post was about why we should gather to pray for the election. I'm quite excited about it and will keep you posted about how it goes. 

Why Christians Should Pray for the Federal Election

As most Canadians know, we are headed to the polls on May 2 for a federal election and so I wanted to offer some thoughts about why it is extremely important for Christians to pray for the election. Recently I have been working with House of Prayer Edmonton to plan a special evening of intercession and worship for Canada as a nation and the forthcoming election. What has impacted me is the apathy and general absense of any sense of urgency related to praying for our nation at this time.

Consider this: as Christians we are under the glorious leadership of Jesus Christ, who is the King that rules over all other kings of the earth. The advent of his Kingdom rule on the earth was announced and began over 2000 years ago and ever since Christians have worked to see that Kingdom further established on earth as it exists in heaven. One of the principle ways by which this is done is through intercession for God's will be be done. As wonderful as a democratic system of government may be, the coming Kingdom of God is not a democracy. Jesus is King and his will is the only one that matters!

1 Timothy 2:1-2 is the famous Scripture (among others) that calls us to pray for kings and those in places of government. While this is important at all times, it is especially important at times when leaders are being selected through a general election.

We may or may not be personally interested or engaged with the current political dialogue that is happening in Canada, but as Christians we must bear this in mind: God is at work in Canada to bring everything into submission to the leadership of Jesus Christ. Jesus has an inheritance in Canada and God the Father is working to give him that inheritance. Beyond a duty, it must be our earnest desire to pray to see the will of God established and this is particularly significant when it comes to decisions related to who will govern our country.

We may or may not think that this election will change anything in the configuration of Parliament but that is not the relevant criteria for deciding whether or not we should pray for this election.

At a time of selection of the leadership of a national government, Christians must take their God ordained stand before the King of Kings and intercede that the Lord's will would be be established on earth, in Canada, as it is in heaven.

With that in mind, I would like to invite Christians from Edmonton and the surrounding areas to join together for an evening of prayer for Canada and the federal election.

Here are the details:
    Night of Worship and Prayer for the Federal Election
    Tuesday April 26, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
    McKernan Baptist Church - West Building
    11125-76 Ave.

Lord Jesus, may your Kingdom come in Canada and may your will be done, on the earth as it is in heaven! Amen! Come King Jesus!

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A New Chapter of HoPE

Tomorrow night we begin a new chapter in the journey of House of Prayer Edmonton. We are beginning to open the prayer room every Tuesday night from 7-9 p.m.  I am excited that the time has come when we can have more evening hours that will accomodate a number of people who can't make it at the other time blocks. I am also excited about the special format that will happen on Tuesdays.

We are going to have intercessory worship from 7-8 p.m. each week with musicians and singers helping to lead the way. Then we will have a time of teaching at 8 p.m., followed by a time of individual prayer ministry.

Tomorrow night I will be speaking on "God's zeal for the House of Prayer".

We have sensed the Lord saying to us that it is now time to begin to lift our voice and proclaim and teach from the Scriptures the Lord's heart for the houses of prayer. We are living in historic times where all around the world God is raising up communities that have prayer and worship at their center. House of Prayer Edmonton is one small part in God's grand plan that is unfolding before our eyes! This is in direct fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and is a sign of a significant shift in the understanding and expression of the Church in the earth.

I know that sounds dramatic, but it simply is dramatic!

I will be doing a large chunk of the teaching on Tuesdays, along with other core leaders at HoPE. It really will be an exciting time. If you live in the greater Edmonton area I would like to extend an invitation to you to come and join us on a Tuesday night!

It all begins tomorrow!

Preparing to Return

The internet access here at IHOP-KC is rather limited so it's been a bit hard to post many updates.

Today is actually when we are all returning home, so I'll try to share some of the highlights:

We have been quite overwhelmed by the generosity of the leaders that we connected with. It certainly exceeded our expectations. We were able to spend time with Wes Martin, Justin Rizzo, and Corey Russell who invited us to be part of the IHOP University weekly chapel service. We were also invited to sit in on Justin's team briefings which was fun!

As well we had a special time of prayer where two of staff from the IHOP prophecy teams came over for a special time of prayer over us as a team.

Pete and Colleen Jackson have shown us around to a number of local restaurants that we would never have known about.

Obviously the largest part of the trip has been spending time in the prayer room and engaging with God. Our team couldn't get enough and has spend many hours each day in the prayer room, enjoying the various worship leaders and blocks of intercession.

It has also been a long trip and we are missing our families and feel ready to come home. Overall it's been a great trip and I look forward to a lot of lasting impact and fruit from it. Probably the only think we have not enjoyed on this trip has been the weather. It certainly has not been much of a break from home in Edmonton! The temperature is slightly warmer but with the humidity the cold is very bitter indeed!

So that's about it. We have one last day here and the fly home tonight. Looking forward to getting home!