More people will sing the chorus if it is easy to sing. Many worship leaders and chorus leaders get caught up in the complexity and poetry of creating the “perfect” chorus and create more difficulty for themselves. The easier for the non-musical person to sing the better, especially in a prayer meeting. In most situations about 80-90% of the people in any given prayer meeting or church service are not gifted musically, but love to sing and love music.

The Purpose of Choruses in Prayer Meetings

Corporate Prayer Choruses are sung to help everyone in the prayer meeting to intercede in unison. Also, when you sing your prayers your heart connects at a much deeper level than when you speak your prayers.

In a prayer meeting choruses are created spontaneously, are sung AFTER a person has prayed and are PRAYERS (in song) on the same topic of the person that just prayed. They are not generic choruses about anything and everything, but specific to the prayer that was just offered to God. When the chorus is created it should be sung at minimum 8-12 times.

Choruses should be easy on-ramps for everyone to join in so that we can have as many people in the prayer meeting as possible singing the same prayer. They should be easy melodies, with phrases that are easy to remember, in an easy vocal range without forcing too many words in so that it is easy for ungifted singers to participate quickly.

If you haven’t added choruses to your prayer meetings yet, I would recommend finding a worship leader and giving it a try. Once you do you’ll be surprised at the level of enjoyment it brings to your prayer meeting.

On the last day of the Global Bridegroom Fast (GBF) this month (Nov 4th) God moved at IHOPU’s Chapel service as students testified of receiving deliverance from self-hatred, shame and depression as well as receiving physical healings. This move has continued throughout the week in IHOPU classes and in various IHOPU leadership meetings. Since yesterday’s 9am class the Holy Spirit has continued to move with deliverance and joy.

In light of this move of the Holy Spirit we have decided to hold extended meetings through Sunday from 6pm – Midnight. The purpose of these meetings is to wait on the Lord and to hear testimonies of what He is doing.

The link below is posted on IHOP-KC’s homepage www.ihop.org:

“Due to a move of the Holy Spirit, IHOP-KC is holding extended meetings from 6:00pm – Midnight (CST) at the FSM building. Click here to watch the FREE live webstream during these meetings.”

The main emphasis so far seems to be healing and deliverance, although during last nights meeting there were many visitors and many salvations took place as many people made declarations of faith in Jesus for the first time. It is truly amazing to see God move like He is doing.

We will keep you updated as things progress, but in the meantime tune in at the link above and join us to see what the Lord is doing in Kansas City. If you can, we also invite you to take a trip out here to be apart of it.

There are 2 types of targets in our prayers I want to address:

1. People
2. Location

Intercession is defined as “a prayer to God on behalf of another” or a “pleading on behalf of another person.” When we are leading our prayer meetings it is important to remember to bring a focus to our prayers by stating WHO we are praying for.

Target WHO You Are Praying For

When Paul prays in Ephesians 1, he is praying for “the saints who are in Ephesus” (Eph. 1:1). He specifically targets a particular group of people here in Ephesians and does the same in the prayers that are in Colossians and Thessalonians.

Whether you are praying for believers or unbelievers you want to specify the target. This also applies to justice issues. Justice issues like abortion, human trafficking, the poor, or the government should apply specifically to a group of people. When you pray for an “issue”, you should make sure to target who you are praying for.

For example, if you are praying for abortion to end in a certain city you can pray for believers in that city, you can pray for the salvation of unbelievers in that city, you can pray for the pro-abortion doctors and politicians, you can pray for the mothers and the fathers or you can pray for the victims who are the babies themselves.

Specify a Location

Paul not only states that he is praying for “the saints”, but he says “the saints who are in Ephesus.” When we tie a specific location to a group of people we are praying for in a prayer meeting we can increase the amount of faith people will have for God to actually do what we’re asking Him to do. Because of our weak human frames it is much easier to have faith for God to break into the church in a particular city than it is to have faith for God to break into the church globally. When people have greater faith for a particular focus you are leading them in, this keeps more people engaged in intercession and less willing to “check-out” during the prayer meeting.

A location can be a city, a state, a nation or it can be a campus or a specific area within a city. However, the smaller we make the target the more personal we make our prayers which helps to keep more people engaged in intercession for that particular focus.

Focused Intercession Helps Us To See Answered Prayers, Which Fuels Intercession

Another benefit to making our prayers more specific is that we can measure whether our prayers have been answered. If we are praying for the salvation of unbelievers in a particular city or area or outreach in a city and salvations actually happen our faith is dramatically increased because we have seen God answer our prayers.

It may be able helpful when leading others in prayer or in your devotional prayer time to create an outline of your prayer. It may help you to organize your thoughts, which will help others to follow along as you lead the room in intercession.

Pick 2-3 Points (Phrases) to Pray Through
For example, if you pick Ephesians 1:17-19, your 3 phrases may be: 1) “That the Father of Glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” 2) “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” 3) That you may know the hope of His calling”

Make Notes Under Each of Your Main Points
As you write out the phrases you want to pray through, put into your own words what the phrase is saying as well as express how that relates to the current topic you are praying for. It is also very helpful to use cross-refereneces under each of these points further developing God’s heart to fulfill His word.

Practice Putting Scripture Into Your Own Words
As we develop the ability to put scripture into our own words we expand our own understanding of the Word of God as well as become more and more fascinated by the longings of God’s heart to fulfill His Word.

Example:

“That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”
“That the innermost part of your spirit would be illuminated”
“That your innermost man would be awakened by the light of God”
“That the eyes of your heart would fully comprehend”

Pray Through Each Point, One at a Time
Now that you have created an outline for your prayer, take each point and pray through them one at a time expounding from your heart and from cross-referenced scriptures the prayer on your heart. As you get to the end of each point pause and then move onto the next point. You will find it much easier for others to follow along with your prayer if your prayer has focus.

Register FREE at Onething 2009’s New Website

A great revival is coming to the Church worldwide, and it will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation. The Lord is raising up a generation of young adults with a foundation of intimacy with Jesus and love for others—a foundation that produces dedication to works of justice, missions, and outreach as they embrace God’s plans for the end times. These forerunners will declare the coming of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This December, many young adults will gather at IHOP–KC’s onething conference to worship, pray, and hear messages that will equip them to answer the call of abandonment to Jesus. Come December 28–31 and join thousands of others with like heart and like mind to pursue the call to one thing.

Here’s a taste of the end-of-the-year conference we have every year here in downtown KC.  We gather thousands and usher in the New Year with prayer and worship vowing to seek the Lord Jesus in radical loyalty as we pledge our allegiance to Him and Him alone.  Check out this short video from last year’s conference:

Interestingly enough one of the most popular articles on this blog is one I wrote on “Creating a Zero-Based Budget.” However, in order to use a zero-based budget you must know approximately how much income you have coming in each month. This works for much of the working world, but for the smaller percentage who are self-employed or missionaries whose income fluctuates from month to month the zero-based budget does not work entirely.

I was previously in the self-employed category and have now been figuring out how to best manage money as a missionary for the past few years and so the following is my attempt (with the help of Dave Ramsey) to create a budget on an irregular income.

Monthly Cash Flow Plan
Your monthly task for the rest of your life is to create a budget for the upcoming month. One very important thing to remember in creating a budget is every month must stand on its own. Before that month happens we must write out on paper what is coming up and plan for it. Every year Christmas is in December and if you have kids school usually starts the same times every year. Next month will be different than the previous month, so our budget isn’t the “perfect month” or the “average of all months in quicken.” We must write out a Monthly Cash Flow Plan for the next month BEFORE it happens.

A monthly cash flow plan is the first half of the equation. It lists out all of our expenses for the next month and lays out exactly how much money you will need to bring home to survive and prosper.

Irregular Income Budget
On this form, simply look at the individual items from your “Monthly Cash Flow Plan” sheet and prioritize them by importance. Ask yourself, “If I only have enough money to pay one thing, what would that be?” Put that at the top of your list. Then, ask yourself, “If I only have enough money to pay one more thing, what would that be?” That’s number two. Keep doing this all the way down the list.

With your list in place, you’re ready to get paid. If you get a $1,500 paycheck, you will spend that $1,500 right down the list until it is gone, recording the cumulative amount spent in the “Cumulative Amount” column. At that point, you’re finished spending, no matter what remains unpaid on the list. That’s why the most important things are at the top of the list, right?

Be prepared to stand your ground. Things usually have a way of seeming important when they are only urgent. For example, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see your favorite band perform live may seem important, but in reality, it is only urgent, meaning that it is time-sensitive. Urgency alone should not move an item to the top of the list!

Below are some downloads to get you started.

Downloads:

• Monthly Cash Flow Plan (PDF)
• Irregular Income Budget (PDF)
• Irregular Income Budget (Excel)

First, decide what or who the target of your prayer is.
For example, you could pray for the Church in your city, the church in another city or maybe you want to pray for the lost in a certain city or nation. This could also include praying for any number of justice issues such as: the ending of human trafficking in a city, the ending of abortion in a city or the poor and homeless in a city.

You may have notice that in most of these examples I included tying a specific city to whatever issue you are praying for. Instead of praying for “The Church”, if you pray for “The Church in Kansas City” you will get more people to track along with you. Instead of praying for “the ending of human trafficking”, pray for “the ending of human trafficking in Bangkok, Thailand.”

The reason I tie the topic to a location is because of human dynamics. It is a lot easier to have faith for human trafficking to end in Bangkok than for human trafficking to end globally.

Second, choose a New Testament prayer or prophetic promise to pray from.
We have a list of New Testament prayers we regularly have in our prayer meetings that we constantly refer to. Choose the prayer or prophetic promise that best expresses what you want to pray for.

Example: If you want to pray that the church in your city would grow in the knowledge of Jesus, you might pick Ephesians 1:17-19.

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power, toward us who believe, according to the working of His might power.” (Ephesians 1:17-19)

No matter what you pray for you should be able to find a biblical prayer or prophetic promise that matches the burden on your heart. It’s also ok not to feel a “burden” for a specific thing to pray for. Just pick one of the prayers or promises in scripture and pray from it. These prayers and promises are always on God’s heart so you can’t go wrong.

Also, you don’t have to pray through the entire scripture. You can choose just a phrase or a section of the prayer and use that as a launching and landing pad for your prayer.

In the New Testament there are recorded prayers in scripture that Jesus and the 12 apostles prayed. When you look at these prayers you will notice that they are all positive prayers. When we pray these positive prayers we enter into the delight of asking for the things that bring pleasure to God. The New Testament prayers focus on releasing God’s grace instead of hindering or removing negative realities like sin or demons. There is a positive focus on the impartation of good instead of a negative focus on removing the realities of sin.

Here are some practical tips for praying biblical prayers in a prayer meeting:

Pray to God Instead of Talking to People
Focus on “asking” instead of “explaining.” We’ve all heard the prayers that are a 10 minute introduction to the prayer with 5 minutes of it being a short sermon and the prayer is actually less than 2 minutes. We want to avoid “preaching prayers” that focus on other people in the room and focus on talking to God. Really recognize the fact that God is watching and listening and this will direct your heart toward Him in love and partnership.

Pray for the Fulfillment of Specific Promises in Scripture
There are many promises throughout scripture that have yet to be fulfilled in their fulness and we want to partner with God’s heart for these promises. God wants to fulfill His promises more than we want to ask Him for the fulfillment of them, however he is waiting on His people to come into agreement with His word.

Ask for the Release of Positive Things Rather Than the Removal of Negative Things

For Example:

Positive Prayer: “Father, I ask that your light and truth would break in upon the church in this city.”

Negative Prayer: “Father, I ask that you would remove darkness and deception from the church in this city.”

* God hears and cares about all prayer, whether positive or negative. However, because of our natural tendency to become weary and discouraged, praying positive prayers helps us to sustain prayer over time by helping us to engage in joyful supplication rather than trying to bear the emotional weight of negative realities expressed through negative prayers.

Here at IHOP-KC, before every 2 hour prayer meeting, we have a 20 minute briefing. In the military the mission briefing is used under operational conditions to provide information, to give specific instructions, or to instill an appreciation of a mission. Our briefings operate much of the same way providing information on specific prayer focuses, giving specific instructions related to worship songs or related to communicating between the prayer leader and worship leader as well as instilling vision for intercession or sharing the burden we might have for a specific prayer focus. Your briefing doesn’t have to be 20 minutes, it could be 5 or 10. However, the unity it brings in a corporate prayer meeting makes the next 2 hours much more enjoyable and much less stressful.

Here are some practical tips in having a briefing before you begin your prayer meeting:

• Who should be at the briefing?
  Anyone involved in leading or helping to lead the prayer meeting. This includes, but not limited to, the prayer leader for that meeting, the worship leader, worship team members, sound tech and other intercessors wanting to help lead.
• Who should lead the briefing?
  The prayer leader and/or worship leader
• What should we cover at the briefing?
  At minimum you will want the prayer leader to share the prayer focus. However if you have a worship team you will want to allow time for the worship leader to distribute chord charts to the musicians and go over any specific musical instruction. The briefing is also a great time to give vision (the why) to your core team for persistent, consistent corporate prayer meetings as well as going over different parts of how (the model) to best communicate when you are going into prayer, choruses, small group or ministry time, or going back into worship during the prayer meeting.
• When should we start having briefings since it’s only the 5 of us?
  I would start having briefings as soon as I start having prayer meetings. Even if its just 2 of you that can make it, having 2 people who are on the same page is better than having 5 of you who are all on different pages in regards to the next hour or two you will be praying together. Also, if you introduce it from the beginning it won’t be a new thing you have to introduce after your prayer meeting starts growing.

Give Purpose to Your Passion
Take a few minutes to sit down and write out an action plan for what God has put on your heart to do. Even if its a paragraph or 2-3 points declaring that you want to contend for salvations on your campus. Writing an action plan makes your invisible idea visible to others.

A very wise man once said “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Leaders are those who are going somewhere and refuse to be denied. You may not know how the specifics are going to work themselves out, but you should have a general sense of direction for now and 10 years from now. So write out what you are determined to do.

Commit and Don’t Give Up
After sending out the email with our vision and inviting people to join us the time came for the meeting to begin. Back then we didn’t really know what we were doing, we just knew that we were responding to the call of God to the place of prayer and calling others to that same reality. So we showed up.

Once you have a time and a place setup to meet, follow through on your commitment and be there every time. Lead by example. Give your core group permission to hold you accountable to show up to this prayer meeting. Once the newness of it wears off and you hit a little stint of mundaneness, that is the time for a leader to lead. There were so many times I could have just quit when the prayer meetings seemed to drag on or when I just didn’t feel the excitement. However leadership is a marathon not a sprint. So persevere even in difficulty. Keep bringing before you the vision and the purpose you are meeting together to pray. A leader is a person who does not quit!

24 The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor…27  Diligence is man’s precious possession. (Prov. 12:24, 27)