24-7 NIGHT & DAY PRAYER

We believe that day and night prayer is non-negotiable. It is near and dear to the Lord’s heart. The only promise in the New Testament of revival in our cities is intricately linked with day and night prayer. In Luke 18, Jesus promises to “speedily send justice (revival)” upon us when there is day and night crying out to Him.

In Isaiah 62, God speaks that He has posted watchmen (intercessors) on the wall (of prayer) who will not cease praying day and night until He makes their city a place of praise in the earth. We believe the spirit of prayer will cover the globe before the Lord's return. We also know that God is raising up a “counter” to the day and night accusation of the enemy against God and His people. The Lord is raising up those who (instead of cursing and accusing ) choose loving and blessing God day and night. It is so necessary.

We believe that there is a spiritual dynamic released when a house of prayer reaches 24/7/365, because one of the primary idols in American culture is time, and involvement in continuous prayer directly confronts and challenges this idol. Visitors to the IHOP in Kansas City consistently comment, “It’s so comforting even when we're not at IHOP to realize that at any moment of the day or night someone there is worshiping God and praying for the city.”

It should be a matter of embarrassment to the church in America that while there is a plethora of 24/7 institutions of lesser value in our society, burning love expressed in worship and prayer is difficult to find on a 24/7 basis in most cities.

MUSIC & SINGING IN THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

We are in the midst of a global worship movement. This movement has everything to do with prayer and intimacy.

We believe that part of prayer becoming enjoyable has everything to do with a spirit of devotion being mixed with worship and prayer. Many of us have tried “rock-pile” prayer meetings, where we just feel like we're chipping away little by little at the resistance around us with very little anointing and power. Suddenly, when worship and song becomes a part of our prayers, life erupts corporately in those meetings. This is by God's sovereign design. Music awakens the heart to beauty, and since God is a musical Being and we have been created in His very image, we've been made with a musical spirit. Almost every person finds solace, comfort or expression in music. Again, this is God's design.

In Heaven, music and verbal expression (prayer) are never separated from one another. We base most of our prayer meetings in the house of prayer upon this concept and value. King David upon instituting the Tabernacle knew that worship and devotion were major components of day and night intimacy and prayer. Deep revelation must have come to him of “how heaven hosts a prayer meeting.” We are seeking this heavenly model, found in Rev. 5:8. We call this particular model: Harp and Bowl.

HARP AND BOWL MODEL

Revelation 5:8 “...the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one having a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song...”

The harp stands for the worship or music of God and the bowls are the intercession of the saints. In heaven, there is a marriage between prayer and worship. Our cry is, “So let it be on earth.”

The apostle Paul spoke to the early church in Colosse to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 4:16) Worship was never a separate, compartmentalized, pre-teaching, warm-up time. It was intricate in their walks with the Lord. How do we encourage one another today with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”? We believe that the singing of psalms is the singing of the literal word of God, and that the singing of hymns stand for our modern day worship songs, and spiritual songs are spontaneous new songs that arise from our hearts of worship. We seek to apply these three elements into our prayer meetings: the singing of worship songs, singing spontaneously, and singing and ministering the Word of God.

What the "Harp and Bowl" model looks like

Its values are based on the following:

Team prayer ministry- emphasis on many short prayers from different team members, rather than a focus on a single leader

Blending singing and praying- the music never stops, and the prayers are prayed by intercessors and then sung by the singers

Praying scriptural prayers- praying the prayers that are found in Scripture, a devotion to the Word, such as praying from the Book of Revelation, Psalms, and the prayers of Jesus and Paul.

Spontaneous singing- singing prayers or responses to God from the heart spontaneously, as “new songs”

A typical Harp and Bowl cycle might look like this:

Worship leader begins with a familiar song that all can unify their hearts and minds with.

• The prayer leader, worship leader and designated singers pray and sing through a scriptural prayer. (such as Eph. 1:17-19)
• The Worship leader returns to a worship song.
• Everyone participates in spontaneous singing, by lifting up your voice with a new song to the Lord.
• Intercessors from the room can then be invited to come up and pray related or unrelated prayers based on Scripture.

One team usually leads 4-5 of these cycles in a two-hour session.