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As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog (HERE and then HERE), The Prayer Room is currently running a part-time worship school. One of the students’ assignments is to read Unceasing by Billy Humphrey, the director of the International House of Prayer Atlanta. It was really important to us that in addition to their music training, our students were also getting the DNA of the house of prayer and we couldn’t think of a better book to assign than Unceasing. Today, continuing my What I’m Reading series, this is the book I want to talk about.
IHOP-Atlanta is the only place on the continent outside of IHOPKC running 24/7 live prayer and worship. They’ve been doing this since 2006 and have a strong and fervent vision for the worth of Jesus and the importance of night and day prayer in this generation.
I’ve skimmed through Unceasing before (or at least the old edition entitled Until He Comes) but today during my prayer meetings I took some time to read through it thoroughly. It’s a pretty quick read at only 137 pages, and it clearly lays out the theological and historical foundation of the house of prayer from several different angles.
The first chapter is called “It’s Happening!” which I love because that’s exactly what comes out of my mouth every time I start gushing excitedly about the prayer movement. “It’s happening! GOD is DOING it! Everywhere, all at once, in our generation!”
When we talk about the 24/7 prayer movement, we first must realize that this is a sovereign move of God that is actually occurring right underneath our noses. There are houses of prayer and praying communities pursuing 24/7 springing up all over the world, and although some of them were influenced by IHOPKC, many have never heard of it, and even the ones who are familiar all have their own stories of how God called them into this. (At The Prayer Room, God clearly spoke to our director, “Start a daily prayer meeting tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. and don’t stop until I come back!” and we started the next day in his living room, only later realizing that we had been commissioned to be a house of prayer not unlike IHOPKC.)
In the 1980s there were only a handful of ministries in the world pursuing night and day prayer. Today there are close to 20,000. (He’s said this in the book Growing in Prayer as well as many other times.)
GOD. IS. DOING. THIS.
When we discussed chapter 1 in the school the first week, our students were enthralled by the story of the 24 houses of prayer within one Chinese house church network, all going 24/7 (yes– to my knowledge we’ve got exactly two in the US, and this one corner of China has 24). These Chinese house churches had never heard of any Western expressions of 24/7 prayer, and simply attributed their vision to their desire to see the gospel spread through the nations and go back to Jerusalem. They knew if they wanted to see a move of God that massive, they had better throw all of their energy into as much prayer as possible. The Holy Spirit stirred in their hearts that 24/7 prayer was a logical, rational act of partnership with the Kingdom of God.
Chapters 2-7 walk through the biblical and historical origins of the house of prayer, from the tabernacle of David that was birthed in the lovesick heart of a shepherd, to the cycle of Old Testament revivals that happened every time the Davidic order was reinstated, to Jesus’ zealous declaration that “My house shall be called a house of prayer!”, to various historical monastic expressions of unceasing prayer, to the state of the global prayer movement today. The weight of the biblical and historical evidence is staggering: God deeply desires 24/7 intercession and adoration, and there are certain things in His heart He will not release until His people pray night and day.
The second half of the book develops the core theological reasons for unceasing prayer, if the example of the tabernacle of David wasn’t already enough. These reasons include:
- speedy justice as promised in Luke 18:6-7 (fun fact, this verse was the dramatic marking moment for me to devote my life to the prayer movement)
- the salvation of Israel and watchmen set on the wall to see God’s purposes for her fulfilled (Isaiah 62:6-7)
- ushering in the Kingdom of God (specifically the “not yet” of the Kingdom– yes, 24/7 prayer and worship is a key part of the drama of ushering in the return of Jesus and the dawn of the next age!)
- the Joel 2 mandate for prayer and fasting in the face of impending judgment.
In my opinion, the heart and soul of the book is chapter 8, “The Single Most Compelling Reason”. That reason is simple: JESUS IS WORTHY.
“What is Jesus worth to you? How can His worth be measured? …How can we attribute a price to Him who is matchless, without comparison, without equal, the very definition of beauty and rarity?
…He is worthy of worship every second of every minute of every hour of every day. When I’m asked why we do night-and-day prayer, the answer is simple: Jesus is worthy of it. When the question comes, ‘How can you worship Him twenty-four hours a day?’ the simple answer is, ‘How can we not worship Him twenty-four hours a day?'”
Billy Humphrey, “Unceasing,” p 77, 79
This is it right here.
If every other reason fell away–if David never built his tabernacle, if there was no global prayer movement, if the return of Jesus was still a thousand years off–He would still be worthy of 24/7 worship.
I love the way Unceasing tells the story of Jesus’ humility, that great Philippians 2 descent from the highest heights all the way to become “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-11) Jesus’ humility is one of my favorite things to write about because I see the crux of His beauty right there in His radical love. His worth and His beauty is directly tied to what He has done. “Worthy are You… for You were slain.” (Revelation 5:9)
In response to all He has done and the beauty of all He is, is there any offering too extravagant? Is there any passion too extreme? Is there any commitment too radical?
In light of Jesus’ great beauty and worth, 24/7 prayer and worship just makes sense.
It’s the only thing that makes sense.
