What is the Biblical Basis for Night and Day Prayer?

“...for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  Isaiah 56:7

HE IS WORTHY. The angels, living creatures, and 24 elders around the throne of God—those who see Him best—worship Him day and night without ceasing.  Jesus taught us to pray, “Let your kingdom come...on earth as it is in heaven.”

GOD COMMANDED King David to institute 24/7 worship with 4,000 musicians and 288 singers whose primary occupation was ministering unto the LORD. Every time a king of Israel re-instituted Davidic worship the nation experienced revival and victory.  (David 1 Chr. 15-17; Solomon 2 Chr. 18:14-15; Jehoshaphat 2 Chr. 20:20-22, 28; Joash 2 Chr. 23-24; Hezekiah 2 Chr. 29-30; Josiah 2 Chr. 35; 
Ezra & Nehemiah Ezra 3:10, Neh. 12:28-47)

Prayer is God’s chosen tool to release REVIVAL and JUSTICE in the nations. (Joel 2:15-20; Acts 1:14, 4:31; Luke 18:7-8)

“And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” Luke 18:7a

International House of Prayer-Kansas City

What is the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and what do they do?

The heart of IHOP-KC is the prayer room where 24/7 worship and prayer have been unceasing since 1999.  Anyone is welcome to come, pray, read, journal, worship and intercede.  Many are students at the four-year Bible school, interns, or staff members.  Others are members of local churches, visitors of all kinds, or foreign missionaries in need of refreshing.  Many ministries have sprung up out of this environment of “onething” (Psalm 27:4). As we gaze on the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the things that burn on His heart begin to stir our hearts—whether it is justice for the oppressed, salvation for the lost, or healing for the broken.

IHOP is currently home to Exodus Cry, a human trafficking abolition ministry; Hope City, an inner city prayer room and soup kitchen; Hannah’s Dream Adoptions agency; Healing rooms; Strike Teams, which travel to foreign cities and partner with local churches for targeted prayer and fasting for breakthrough; and many other ministries.

For more information and a statement of faith, check out www.ihop.org For director Mike Bickle’s sermons and notes, go to www.mikebickle.org

June 2012 Update: Intro to IHOP internship

Thank you, friends and family, for your prayers and support over the years as I have participated in mission trips and training!  Two years ago when I returned from Mozambique, God called me to Kansas City to the International House of Prayer community.  I saw this as a training ground with plans to do an internship and hopefully join the prayer room staff for a season as a worship leader.  At the same time God brought my husband Jay into my life.  It was clear God’s immediate timing was more about pursuing a relationship with Jay than the internship for the time being.  Many of you were at our wedding on April 9^th, 2011!  J  Since then we have had a great first year, working and enjoying life together.  God provided a great job for me teaching 1^st-6^th grade Spanish at a very nice Kansas City, KS public elementary school, and a timely job for Jay doing maintenance at our apartment complex.

However, we believe the season has come for me to do the six-month internship, to be trained in the Word, ministry, worship and intercession. I look forward to going deeper in living understanding of the Word through prayer and a greater love for our Savior as I seek Him first.           

My objective is to join IHOP staff at least part-time upon completion of the internship.  Jay and I expect to be in Kansas City for the next several years.  However, we have a long-term vision to go to the nations, to reach unreached people groups with the gospel, to bring freedom to the oppressed such as victims of sex trafficking, to establish prayer communities, and ultimately hasten the return of Christ. J

Jay has a gifting and passion for technology and our hope is that his marketplace calling will help support us and foreign missions as well as be another mission field.  We can’t wait to see all that God has for our future!! 

Love and peace in Christ,

Angie and Jay Stratton

Who said this?

Here is your challenge: Read the quote below and tell me, who said this? Was it:

a) Leonardo da Vinci

b) George Washington

c) Jonathan Edwards

d) Napoleon Bonaparte


"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever religions the distance of infinity…

"Everything about Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things.

"The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me; everything remains grand—of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man. There is there a profound originality which has created a series of words and of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed nothing from our science. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life … I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary. The more I consider the gospel, the more I am assured that there is nothing there which is not beyond the march of events, and above the human mind."

SNOW DAY!

Thus begins week two of my job hunt, and my major item on the agenda has been snowed out! That of observing math and Spanish at the local middle school in hopes that it both helps me settle on the age group and subject matter I'd most like to teach (middle or high school? math or Spanish?) and allows me the opportunity to meet a prospective employer (as I hope to be considered for the middle school math position which is open yet have not made headway in gaining an interview!)

Please pray that the Lord will open a door of employment for me. In order to be with my family during the end of December, which to me is the highest priority due to my father's recent diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, I had to give notice at my previous position teaching preschool and Kindergarten Spanish. Honestly, I am very happy at the prospect of something else. I do not feel at my highest working with mass 2-6 year olds, eleven classes a day, and keeping their attention long enough to learn a foreign language is another thing altogether! Very draining. As Jay goes back to finish his college degree next Monday, my situation in Kansas City is changing from that of a indefinite temporary season to four more years minimum, which also increases my desire to find a means of income more suited to my temperament and giftings!!!

My hope is to find a school district who will hire me to teach math or Spanish and co-apply to the state for a temporary authorization certificate. This can be renewed as I follow the requirements of taking a minimum of nine education credit hours per year. Teaching would keep me on a similar schedule as Jay, enabling us to hopefully do overseas missions most summers.

As we begin a new year, most of us usually take a moment to reflect on the previous year....Last year at this time I was contemplating moving to Kansas City, beginning to job search (deja vu!), and beginning to get to know Jay. Now he is finally living here all the time, I am job searching, and we are getting married three months from yesterday! The more that changes, the more that stays the same...I also am happy to be living in a nice house with four single women, three of whom are involved with the House of Prayer. How wonderful it is to live with godly people, such an encouragement, after living by myself most of last year! And for more encouragement, I believe Jay and I will be joining a marriage teaching focused small group called "Love & Respect" with IHOP-KC which conveniently runs from next Monday till late March. When I skipped an opportunity to do this course in seminar form in Mozambique to lead a weekend bush trip, I had a feeling I would come across it again at a more fitting time!

I pray that God would give you and I both a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened that we may know the HOPE to which He has called us, the RICHES of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of His POWER towards us who believe! (Eph. 1:17-19)

IHOP-KC in the News

IHOP-KC was featured as the cover story in November’s edition of Charisma Magazine. The article is entitled “We Won’t Stop Praying.” This edition also includes a highly favorable editorial about IHOP, as well as an article by Mike Bickle called, “Why the Church Must Pray.” There will also be a Conference Call with Mike on prayer on November 16, at 8 pm CST. To read the digital magazine online for free, visit the Charisma site at www.charismamag.com.

It's pretty cool!  IHOP-KC has gotten a lot of controversial press in the past, and there's still a lot of online stuff saying that we are a cult!  This is nice to be spoken of VERY positively from such a widely-read Christian publication.

On a personal note, I'm in the last few days of my online IHOP-KC eschool class on Song of Songs.  Pray that God breathe's life in to my final paper!  I will be outlining a portion of the Song in detail with Scriptural cross-references to Biblical symbolism, and then writing a 3-5 paper on how that particular passage identifies to my life!  It is a little intimidating to compile my commentary/outline...Mike Bickle's on the whole song is 152 pages!  Prayer welcome.  :)

Angie :) <><

I'm Getting Married!!!!

"My cup runneth over....!"

I'm sure most of you already know through facebook, but....I AM ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED!!!!

On October 15th, Jerald Jay Stratton, III, aka "JJ" or to me "Jay", took me star-gazing at a nearby lake.  He brought a blanket and candles and treats (including my fav extra dark Lindt truffles ;). We slow-danced as jazzy Ella Fitzgerald played on his laptop, and he began to tell me what I meant to him.  I felt him reach into his pocket and shuffle something behind my back before he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  I said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" ;)  He proposed with a family heirloom ring, which I learned minutes later when we called my parents was in fact my grandmother's engagement ring!  I bawled.  It was beautiful, and such a blessing!  All my grandparents have been gone for many years, so it is so special to have my maternal grandmother's ring.  It is also an extravagant blessing for us financially and much bigger than I ever expected.  Haha!  :)

We will be getting married in St. Louis on April 9th, 2011.  Pray for us as we plan for the wedding and more importantly our marriage and future life together!  The Lord is stirring our hearts and minds to certain avenues over these next 4-5 years which we are very excited about---but more specifics to come on that later!  In the meantime, we've enjoyed spending each weekend together in these past two months since he officially moved to Kansas City.  He still works four ten hour days all over southern Missouri during the week, mostly out of Rolla and Springfield.  I'm looking forward to when we will see each other every day...but this is a great improvement to every third weekend!  It has been great to attend Forerunner Christian Fellowship (with IHOP-KC) together and enjoy time in the prayer room.

Other highlights over these past two months have been seeing family and friends at several weddings in the St. Louis/Illinois area.  First we celebrated with my cousin Debbie as she wed a wonderful man from Kenya.  Then two weeks later my very good childhood friend Jonathan Block married at the family farm where I spent many hours adventuring during summers growing up.  Then two weeks after that, we visited Rolla and stayed with Martha and James Cameron and went up to St. Louis for Jay's company team building day at Dave and Buster's.  Beforehand we met my parents at a few reception sites, and were happy to find the least expensive option to be very beautiful (and be running a special for April!)

Now to Him who richly provides for all our needs according to His riches in glory be blessing and honor and praise!  :)