Mike Bickle emphasizes the growing call for full-time intercessory missionaries within the body of Christ, highlighting the biblical foundation and historical precedent for this vocation. He notes the significant increase in 24-hour prayer ministries globally, from 25 to over 20,000 in just 30 years, indicating a divine movement led by the Holy Spirit. Bickle encourages believers to support this calling, even if they are not personally called to it, and stresses the importance of prayer as a central activity in the church. He references biblical examples, particularly from the Old Testament, to illustrate the role of intercessors and their vital function in God's plan. Ultimately, he calls for a recognition of individual callings while affirming the necessity of intercessory prayer in the end times.

overview of what it means to be a full-time intercessory missionary. Now, I realize that many in the body of Christ don't have that calling. Matter of fact, the vast majority don't. But it's a calling that the Holy Spirit is emphasizing, and so much of the body of Christ needs to understand the biblical foundation and the necessity of it. Because the Holy Spirit is breathing on this reality around the world right now, godly believers, they want to understand what the Lord's doing and they want to support it. Again, it may not affect their life in a direct way, but they'll know somebody that it does. They'll want to be an encouragement to them, a support to them in various ways. As this reality has been unfolding in the last couple decades, even many sincere believers go, where's that in the Bible? But more and more today, people are saying that is biblical and it's happening around the world. So I feel like that it's important as we embrace this vast subject called growing in prayer, that you would have a biblical answer for something the Spirit is doing in a powerful way across the nations right now. Something I'll mention a little bit later, but about 30 years ago, they did a count, a number of leaders, all the 24-hour prayer ministries they could find in the earth. They went 24 hours, did not stop. Not led by music, but just 24-hour prayer. And to their amazement and encouragement, they located around the nations 25 of them. And I remember hearing the story, there are 25 24-hour prayer ministries. I heard it years ago. Today, there's about 20,000 of them. I mean, many of them are prayer rooms where a person prays an hour and hands off the baton, so to speak, to the next person. But in 30 years, there were 25 that were counted. Not that there were not more that were not known, but it's such a dramatic increase of the Holy Spirit's activity that there's over 20,000 that can be identified today. Beloved, that's a sign of the times. Most of those 20,000 have been started in the last 10 years. I'm anticipating the next 10 years for that number to double. God the Holy Spirit is doing something. It won't look like what we're doing. Every city, every culture will have a different application. It's happening in all streams of the body of Christ, just like it has throughout history. Many believers who really love God and the Word and the work of the Spirit, they're unaware and uninformed about the biblical basis and the historical precedent of that which the Spirit is breathing on in a very unique way in this hour in history. Paragraph A. One of the most significant aspects of the global prayer movement today is the growing number of people that feel called to do this as their full-time occupation, meaning not they go to a prayer meeting once a week, which I think is fantastic. I think that's a glorious thing, but I mean they feel like it's their primary full-time vocation, whether they're in the singing worship part or they're in the prayer room or serving in various ways related to supporting the prayer room. I refer to those that have this vocation as intercessory missionaries. That's just a term we use. It's a term other people use as well. It's not a biblical term. It's a biblical idea, but not a biblical term. We're talking about those who do the work of the kingdom from the place of night and day prayer, and they do the work of the kingdom from the place of prayer while embracing a missionary lifestyle and a ministry focus. Paragraph B. Some people ask me, what is an intercessory missionary? Where is it in the Bible? Where's the title? Again, the calling to this as a full-time occupation appears throughout Scripture, but it appears in principle not in the title itself, not by specific name. Its function is found in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We're going to look at that in a moment, but I want to point out its function is also found throughout church history. It's exploding this reality across the earth today. I'm asking the Lord for a million full-time intercessory missionaries. I don't mean related to what we're doing here, just sovereignly raised up in the nations in all the different streams. Then when there's a million, and I don't know that we'll ever know what the number is, we're going to pray for 10 million because we're believing for a billion people in the great end-time harvest. Paragraph C. The New Testament only gives a few ministry titles specifically. The ministry title that has the most, that's used the most in the clearest description is the Apostle. But we don't find titles in the New Testament like Senior Pastor. We don't find Marriage Counselor or Youth Pastor. We find those values are supported by the New Testament, but we don't find those titles themselves. As a matter of fact, most of the titles in the church today, we don't find the actual terminology in the Bible. Paragraph D. The Bible doesn't provide a comprehensive list of ministry titles, but as long as the biblical value is upheld, that's the key point, I believe the church has liberty to use the title, the phrase that makes sense in its culture in a applies to what God's doing in their hour as long as it upholds the biblical values. That's why you can call somebody Senior Pastor, Youth Pastor, Children's Ministry Pastor, it's okay. Because again, the Bible doesn't give a comprehensive list of all the titles used in church history. Let's start in the Old Testament. Paragraph Roman Numeral II. Starts with David. The Old Testament provides a lot of information about the occupation of the full-time singer. And I'm using singer and intercessor interchangeably because the singers in the Old Testament context, they were before the presence of the Lord in the place of the intercessory position, the worship intercessory position I'm using interchangeably. Well, in 1 Chronicles 28, it says David testifies that the Holy Spirit revealed to him the function of the Levites, the singers and musicians. He said the Holy Spirit specifically showed me this. And he recorded it at the end of his life as he's turning the kingdom over to his son Solomon. He gives testimony before all the nation. He goes, this wasn't just my idea. It was given to me directly by the Lord. Paragraph B. David was the first leader in the Bible to establish the singer, the musician in a full-time occupation. It says in 1 Chronicles 9.33. This is talking about David. He's 37 years old. He's a young king based in Jerusalem over the nation of Israel. And one of the first things he does when he becomes king over all of Israel, he gets the singers and musicians and puts them in place in a full-time capacity to stand before the presence of the Lord. It's no wonder he was called the man after God's own heart. David's heart was so in tune with God's heart. And of course, we know they worship around the throne night and day in heaven. And Jesus prayed on earth like it is in heaven. And David had a glimpse, undoubtedly, as to something bigger was going on around the throne. That's my assumption. He wanted something on earth that reflected what happened in heaven. And they do it night and day. They worship night and day around the throne. 1 Chronicles 9. These are the singers. Now notice, they were freed from other duties. Full-time occupation. They were employed in the work night and day. It's work. I've had over the 16 years, we just had our 16 year anniversary yesterday. Our 16 years of beginning IHOP. And over the 16 years, we've had a lot of singers and musicians come and join us. Matter of fact, some number, just over 16,000 different people have been with us in a full-time capacity in the 16 years. 16,000. Most of them for a couple years. The majority a couple years or more. So I've had a lot of opportunity to look at singers and musicians. I mean, they're not all 16,000 full-time have been singers and musicians, but the majority. And many of them, when they join, they love Jesus and they love music, but the work of doing it day and night is like, whoa, okay. This is, okay, I love music, but okay, this is real. It's work. How many of you know it's work? Okay, you know. They were employed in the work day and night. They were freed from other duties. In other words, they were not to have an outside job outside of their responsibilities in the temple. It was to be a full-time occupation. Top of page 2, 1 Chronicles 23, David placed 8,000 full-time. I'm going to use my term, intercessory missionaries. That's not his term. They were Levites. 8,000 full-time. 4,000 were called gatekeepers. And 4,000, praise the Lord, with instruments and music, etc. Imagine the 4,000 singer-musician are supported by the 4,000 gatekeepers. They're the ones that kept the temple function going. Now in our context, the gatekeeper, it's the whole, it's all the activities that keep, that support the work in the sanctuary. In our context, it's sound techs. They're gatekeepers. There you go, Chris. The IT team, the media, the ushers, the children's ministry, the bookstore, the maintenance team. Without the maintenance team, there won't be a prayer room. The security team, all of those would be under the category of the gatekeepers. Well, there were about 50% supported. The other 50% that were singers and musicians. That just gives you a little snapshot as to how it worked. Notice what, I mean, look at paragraph D. I want you to notice the intentionality and the sobriety that David had about this task. David was an excellent singer and musician, but this wasn't David's music thing. I can imagine as a young king, he's 37 years old, many of the commanders in the army are older than him, and he gets them all together. The commanders of the army, the political leaders, the financial leaders, and he goes, hey, I heard from God. They go, great. It's amazing. What? We're going to finance 8,000 new staff positions paid by the government. Wow, that's a lot. That's going to take a lot from our army and our military and our building our national infrastructure. What are they going to do? Well, a lot of them are just going to sing night and day before God. Well, David, we know, again, he's 37 years old at the time. We know you're a young musician. You're a good singer. We like it. We've bought your CDs. We like them. I mean, you're amazing, but we can't use the national economy to support your music ministry. He goes, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about something entirely different than that. Look what it says here in 2 Chronicles 29. Now, this is Hezekiah. This is about 300 years later. King Hezekiah is about 300 years after David. He's commenting going back 300 years. I mean, 300 years is a long time ago. Think about the history of our nation. 300 years ago, what was happening in America? Well, this is Hezekiah going back 300 years. He goes, let me see. He says this. He goes, it says about him, he stationed the Levites, and the Levites are used interchangeably with singers and musicians. Not always, but many times. He stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord, or the temple. It was called the house of the Lord. It was called the temple, and it was called by Isaiah, the house of prayer. Those are terms you could use them interchangeably. They were stationed with cymbals and instruments and harps. Now, here's the key. According to the command of David. That was 300 years ago, and that command was still for all the kings of Israel, still in effect. Why was David so adamant? Because it was the command of God to command David to keep this occupation going. So, paragraph E, after David's generation, all the kings after him. See, David was a thousand years BC. All the kings from David all the way to Jesus. They were all commanded to uphold the occupation of the full-time singer, musician, the intercessory missionary. That was a central function in Israel's mandate from God. Well, in that thousand-year period from David to Jesus, there were many times of apostasy, which means backsliding. In that thousand-year period, Israel fell back and fell away a number of times. There are seven periods in that thousand-year period, seven periods of time, seven generations that had what we could call, quote-unquote, a revival, a restoring. And here's what's interesting. In all seven of those periods of restoration or revival, that's a term we use today, revival. In a thousand years, there were seven seasons of revival. All seven of them, they put the singers back in place and paid them full-time. They established the intercessory missionary, the person that stood before God crying out day and night for the purpose of God to go forth in their land, to worship God because of His worthiness. It's not an accident. In a thousand years, seven revivals or restoration periods, all seven of them are linked to putting back this occupation in its central place in the nation. Paragraph F. Well, the first king after David was his own son, Solomon. Of course, this wasn't a revival. It was still going well from David's day. Look at this, 2 Chronicles 8. Solomon appointed the Levites, again that's the singer's musicians, to praise God as the duty of every day required. It's a full-time job. He's just emphasizing again. Why? Because his father David, the man of God commanded it. Now notice he doesn't say my dad because he sees David as more than just his dad. He saw David in his function, his office, the man of God. The man who heard from God commanded this. So Solomon is actually responding to his father's command as more than dad's command. Dad's way. It was bigger than that. Paragraph G. Jehoshaphat did it. You can read that, 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoiada, the high priest, did it. 2 Chronicles 23, notice he put the singers as established by David. Paragraph H. Josiah, look at the phrase, according to the command of David. Meaning this is something God was, I mean the Lord energized His leaders and gave command and this was something that they were to take very seriously. Well, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, paragraph I, they all did it. But notice it was not because they liked music or had kind of a special place in their heart for prayer. Well, you know, we don't, we kind of do the prayer thing because we're kind of into prayer. It was because it was commanded by God. Something bigger is going on. It's the point. I mean, I think of my own calling to this. It was 32 years ago, 1983, when Bob Jones walked into my office, said the Lord's going to tell, the Lord wants me to tell you a little bit about your future. We're going to have full-time singers and musicians. Night and day. He says, are you a singer? I go, no. Are you a musician? I go, no. Well, the truth is in my heart I am. They just won't let me do it on the platform. One of these days, they're going to see. After my fifth failed audition, Misty says, we'll call you. Don't call us. There's always the Millennial Kingdom in a resurrected body. But the point is, the reason I'm doing this, not because I'm a singer-musician, it's not because music's my thing. I saw it. I saw it as in the Word. I saw it as a command. Again, everyone's not supposed to have a 24-hour prayer room. There's nothing close to that. That's not what I'm saying. But the Lord's breathing on people. He's marking people all over the nations. I mean, the number of leaders I have communicated with since IHOP has started, the last 16 years since I've been talking about this, who have received a dream from the Lord, no relationship to what we're doing here, never heard of us. The Lord told them directly and sovereignly, put singers and musicians night and day. It's happening all over the world. Beloved, something bigger is going on. And though it may not be your job, maybe you're here for a short season, but wherever you go, support it. Champion it. Encourage people to do it, not encourage them to quit. Encourage them to keep moving on, wherever the Lord puts you. Top of page 3. Well, it's not just in the Bible and the Old Testament. It's in many end-time prophecies. And most of those end-time prophecies are in the Old Testament. That's why I'm, I'm still talking about the Old Testament right now. Most of the end-time prophecies are, you know, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, etc. Paragraph A. Before the Lord returns, nobody knows when that is, but the Holy Spirit, it's clear in the Bible, the Holy Spirit will raise up the greatest prayer movement in history. The fact that there's 20,000 identifiable 24-hour prayer ministries in the earth today. Again, many of them are still one person for an hour in a prayer room handing the baton to somebody else. You know, when the, you know, they go from 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon and someone else comes in for an hour. Many of them do that, but many of them now have instruments and music, a little bit. The fact that this is exploding around the earth is a sign of the times. I mean, it's, it's prophesied in the Bible, the prominence of prayer in the generation the Lord returns. And if we've gone from 25 to 20,000, 24-7 prayer ministries in the last 30 years, and again, most of those are the last 10 years. I think, I say, I'll say it again, in the next 10 years we're going to see that number double or more. I mean, it's just, who knows. The Holy Spirit's breathing on this. This is a God thing. I don't mean our version of it. I don't mean what we do here. It's a many, many different ways to do this according to culture and leadership and the resources, etc. Paragraph B, the conflict at the end of the age, it's a conflict at the end, right at the core, it's a conflict between two global worship movements. That's the primary conflict at the end of the age. There's a demonic Antichrist worship movement, and there's a Jesus-centered worship movement, and the two are in collision with one another. That is at the very focal point of the conflict, who is worshipped. It says in Revelation 13, the Antichrist, he commands at the threat of death to be worshipped. He bases the economic system of the nations he has control and influence in, he bases the economics on who worships him. When Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness, in the temptation, what was the point? He goes, you worship me, and I'll give you all the nations. Satan wants worship, that's what the Antichrist wants, but the Father is going to see that Jesus is worshipped in all the nations of the earth forever. What's happening in the houses of prayer, full-time intercessory missionaries, they're catalytic, meaning they're helping the prayer movement in their city, in their geographic area. The most quoted Old Testament prophecy is Isaiah 62. We reference it many times. It says here, Isaiah 62, on your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed or I have set watchmen. The watchmen are clearly intercessors. Well, they're messengers too. They're prophetic messengers, but they're intercessors. They cry out night and day. That's the core definition of these watchmen. They remind the Lord of His promises. They remind the Lord of what He promised to do in the earth, the breakthrough of power. We could call it revival, call it transformation, whatever you want. They, I mean, there's many terms. They remind God what God promised in His Word. That's their definition. And they take no rest for themselves night and day. Isaiah, this is 2700 years ago, he said there's coming a generation where God will appoint people who do this night and day. And how do you know that they're in that generation? Because those are ministries that won't stop until Jerusalem's appraised in the earth. When does Jerusalem become appraised in the earth? At the time of the second coming. Jerusalem is hated and contended right now. I mean, the Jewish purpose in Jerusalem, God's purpose in Jerusalem is detested by many of the nations. Jerusalem isn't appraised in the earth right now. It's a contention in the earth right now. It's going to be more so as time unfolds. But at the coming of the Lord, He's going to cause Jerusalem to be seen as the city of the great King, His own city. And all the nations will be awestruck at what happens in Jerusalem because Jesus and His throne will be there. So when Isaiah said, God, thus says the Lord, I will appoint and set intercessors, they'll keep on night and day until my Son returns and makes Jerusalem of the earth. So he's talking about a time frame, those decades leading up to the coming of the Lord. And I don't know when the Lord's returning. I don't know that I'll see Him in my lifetime. I might, I might not. But I know one thing, more and more ministries are being established who are crying out night and day. And Isaiah said 2,700 years ago, all over the earth, in essence, I'm putting that part in here, they'll, God will raise up watchmen and they won't stop until the Lord returns. In other words, this isn't a momentary, I mean, a temporary movement that's kind of swelling for a moment and then disappearing. It's going to go until, until Jerusalem's appraised in the earth, which is synonymous to the second coming of the Lord, because that's when Jerusalem becomes appraised. So we see this, this movement, it's increasing night and day, 24-7, 24-7, they're breaking out everywhere. And it's not going to pass away. It's not a fad. It's unto the return of the Lord. Those ministries will start and they won't stop until the Lord returns. I'm sure some of them will, but many God-appointed ones will not stop. They will persevere straight to the end. It's remarkable. Romans number 4. So we have Old Testament, the function was in the Old Testament, the Levites for, you know, between David and the return of the Lord, I mean in Jesus' first coming, that thousand-year period, there were many that did it full-time. Then in the Old Testament time, the prophets said it's going to happen in the generation the Lord returns and prayer will be central. It will be a central activity in the generation the Lord returns. Now we're looking at the New Testament. Paragraph A, some people say, well where's the intercessory missionary in the New Testament? My response is, where in the New Testament do you find leaders that don't prioritize prayer in a radical way? The argument is that where in the New Testament do they pray? Where in the New Testament are there leaders who don't prioritize prayer as a major part of their job description? So I can't find any place that, I can't find a leadership paradigm in which hours of prayer were not understood as part of their jobs and their function. So the argument is exactly opposite. Church history, we've grown so accustomed to prayerless leaders that it's odd that God would call people to prayer as a primary function as their full-time job. Now when I say prayer is a full-time job, and I've said it many, many times, I don't mean that's all they do is pray. But they would pray, you know, several hours a day or more or less, everyone, it's all be different, and they do other kingdom work. Prayer is not the only thing they do. When I say intercessory missionary, I mean the work of the kingdom from the place of prayer, not an occasional prayer meeting, but I mean engaged in it in a regular sustained way as part of their lifestyle and even viewed as their job description. Well we start with Jesus, the man who needed prayer the least is the one who prayed the most. I mean that's, that says something. The man who least needed prayer, he prayed the most. And when you notice his teaching on the end times, what is the number one activity in the several passages where Jesus talked about his second coming, the number one activity he called his people to was prayer in the context of his return. He didn't say preach more, although that's a good thing to do. He didn't say do more acts of service, although that's certainly biblical to do, not minimizing those in any way. I'm very committed to those, but in every one of the contexts he said watch, pray. And I asked the Lord over the years ago, that's odd. You know there'll be national calamities and crisis and great revival breaking out and power and kind of like the only thing you say is pray more. Watch. Why? I mean why not, you know, store food or something? I don't know. I didn't really ask that question. But my, and I believe the answer is if they talk to the Lord, they'll have instruction for all the other areas. The wisdom of the Spirit will come for all the other kingdom activities if they're connected, if they're talking to the Lord. Biography, it was a high priority among New Testament leaders. Look at Acts chapter 6. The apostle said we give ourselves continually to prayer in the mystery of the Word. The apostles didn't kind of go to a weekly prayer meeting. They gave themselves continually to prayer. It was critical and central to their job description. The most powerful leaders in the book of Acts, they were the epitome of intercessory missionaries. If that means they embraced X amount of prayer as a routine part of their life, and again I'm not going to put a number on it, but it's not all they did. They did the other kingdom activities. I mean it's clear in the whole book of Acts. But when asked, Peter said this is the thing we give ourselves continually to. In Acts chapter 2 it says they continued steadfast. Well in the apostles teaching they heard the Word and they taught the Word, and fellowship, the breaking of bread, but they added prayer. That was something they called the community of God to do in a steadfast way. Paul embraced night and day prayer. John the Baptist was really engaged in this. Top of page 4. So we have it, the Old Testament. It was established job description. The Old Testament prophets said that night and day prayer would happen in the generation the Lord returns and it would sustain until He returned. The generation where Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth. We find in the New Testament the leaders highly prioritized it. Now I'm going to talk about the anacolin. That's again a term I use. You don't have to use that term. But I mean she's such an extravagant picture. Because not only was she devoted to prayer, but she is devoted to preaching Jesus. To moving in the things of the Spirit. Most of you have heard the anta-exhortation over the years. You know we've had how many conferences in 16 years? I don't know. But at every conference I give an anta-exhortation. Because this is absolutely central. Not because I want everybody to do what we're doing. But I want this idea. Wherever I influence anybody I want this idea in their mind. So that leaders though they may not be doing it themselves, they're supporting it. They're calling it forth. They're celebrating it. Not resisting it. I'm talking about this lifestyle. This occupation given to God. In this crying out before Him. Luke chapter 2. There was one, Anna. She's a prophetess. So we know she operates in the things of the Spirit. Dreams, visions, signs, wonders. That's what the prophetess did. The prophets were known for operating in the realm of the Spirit. The dreams and visions realm and the signs and wonders realm. She lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. Now she's 84 years old and she's been a widow since her mid-twenties. Now she's in her mid-eighties. And it describes her lifestyle. She did not depart from the temple. Which again the Bible and I mean Isaiah and Jesus called the temple the house of prayer. That was the title they gave the temple. The spiritual title the house of prayer. She didn't depart from it but she served God with fasting and prayer day and night. Now she technically departed. She didn't sleep there. There was no quarters for Anna to spend the night and you know have her meals there. That's not what they meant. It meant that she was in attendance at the prayer services, the prayer gatherings night and day. But the part I want you to notice is she served God by doing this. Because some people when they think of night and day prayer they think of well it's a disconnect from everything else and just kind of enjoying the Lord. And there is an enjoying the Lord dimension because the Lord's enjoyable. And when we have a right view of the beautiful God who loves us like He loves His own Son. Beloved that's enjoyable. That's moving. But it's more than personal renewal and refreshment. God is served. What way is God served? The spiritual atmosphere meaning the angel demon realm is shifted. It moves when people on the earth pray night and day. When night and day prayer goes forth in the cities greater Holy Spirit activity is released. Angelic activity more is released. Demonic activity is hindered. God is served. It's not just that we feel refreshed. Some people join or participate in the prayer movement only for personal refreshment. And I think that's good at first. But it needs to go beyond that. God is served. There's a bigger dimension though I believe that the personal enjoyable refreshing is very important and we never want to outgrow that ever. But we don't want to limit it to that. Notice that three dimensions of the grace of God were happening in Anna's life. She's a prophetess. So there's the signs and wonders, dreams and visions. She's an intercessor. Verse 37. She doesn't depart from the temple night and day. But in verse 38 she speaks about Jesus to everyone that has a heart to hear. She's an evangelist. So in Anna all three dimensions of this come together. And this is why it's such in one short passage a snapshot of what I call the intercessory missionary. They're in attendance in the prayer room. Not that they have to be in the prayer room. Though she went actually to the corporate prayer gathering. Though you can do it at home for sure. I talk to the Lord a lot at home. She was involved in evangelism. She was involved in intercession. Paragraph C. Anna is representative of the intercessor that has grace to do this for long hours. I mean Anna maybe did it five or ten hours a day. That's purely speculative. I have no way of knowing. Some people say she did it 18 hours a day. I go hey she was in her 80s. Give her a break. I mean she did take a couple naps here and there. But she I bet she did it some hours a day. I don't know how many. It doesn't really matter that we know. But it it takes the grace of God to do this. You know in our context we have a sacred trust. Where we do it we do two prayer meetings a day. That's four hours four hours a day we're in the prayer room. We're reading our Bible. We're meditating. Some people are doing other things. And but we're there. I mean that's significant. That's a huge amount of time in my opinion. That's huge. That's not small. That takes the grace of God to do that. Doesn't have to be 10 hours a day you know for this thing to be real. And we don't have to do it as much as Anna did it. Because Anna wasn't leading a worship team. She wasn't you know overseeing the security team. She wasn't processing all the accounting all the money through the accounting office. She wasn't doing all that. And so there's other dimensions going on in this role. I'm asking the Lord to raise up a million modern day Annas. And again when there are a million. And I don't know when I'll ever know that number. But in a few years I'm just going to up it to 10 million. I'm just going to assume the millions there. I mean we don't want to count. We don't want to you know a census. How many? Who? I don't know. God knows. And that's all that matters. But my point is more than a few. But we're believing God for a billion in the New Harvest. So even then a million or 10 million is a fraction. You know it's a percent. Even a fraction of a percent. Some people they think, well you know that prayer thing. I've talked to folks over the years and I understand it. Because I remember when the Lord first told me 32 years ago. I went, huh? I remember saying to Bob Jones, what will we do all day? He goes, well it'll be 24-7 worships and singers, musicians. I go, but what will we do? He goes, well I think we'll sing and worship and stuff. I went, really? And I remember distinctly going in my mind, weird. And I remember thinking, I don't want to do that. I really mean that. I said, I don't want to do that. I mean the Lord He won out. But I know, I get the, what? I get that response. That was my response. I get it. So when people do that I don't say, how dare you? I go, I get it. Let me tell you my story. Some folks are thinking, well is it a real job? I go, when's the last time you spent hours a day in a prayer room crying out for somebody else? Most folks that I've talked to over the years, I mean even in real honest heart-to-heart conversations, they just think of it as enjoying good music. Kind of disconnecting. I go, no, no, it's labor. I mean maybe the first few weeks or few months you're kind of really into just enjoying the music. But sooner or later you get into the work of the intercessory missionary. Some folks think, well they go to a prayer room, they'll love less. I found it's just opposite. When you go into a prayer room, you connect to Him who is love, you love more. You can't connect to the man who is the consummation of love and not love more. Again, it's the idea that well they're just disconnecting to hear some good music. Now if that's all they do, I understand that concept. But that's not what an intercessory missionary does. They're connecting to the heart of that man. I mean if someone's son has a demon, they don't just need a hug. I mean a hug's nice. They don't just need a meal. It's good to give a meal. They don't just need a sermon. They need someone to cast the demon out of that kid. I mean we need to see a greater dimension of power. Jesus said this kind only goes out through prayer and fasting. There's a prayer and fasting dimension to greater manifestations of power. And I don't, the equation isn't perfectly clear. But we know they are connected. You want to really love somebody? You go pray and fast for their family for two, three days and you'll find out like I really import myself out for them. And I don't mean that everything less than that is not love. I'm not saying that at all. Because they need the hug. They need the meal. They need the sermon. I give sermons. I appreciate sermons. But there's another dimension. When you're contending for a breakthrough of power and someone that has cancer or someone that has a demon or someone that has a crisis situation, they need a power demonstration, not just encouragement. Though they do need the encouragement. Again, I'm in no way minimizing that. I completely value the ministry of encouragement. It's one of the top ministries in the body of Christ. But my point is, this isn't about disconnecting from real needs to be isolated to listen to good music. This is about engaging in the labor of the kingdom in full engagement. That's what this job is about is what I'm talking about. Paragraph D. God's kingdom is accomplished in prayer. It's accomplished inside the prayer and outside the prayer room, the work of the kingdom. There's three dimensions of mission's work. I mean, there's more than three. I'm just giving the broad strokes so you don't limit it to one is the idea. There's the continual prayer, the night and day prayer for justice in the cities of the earth. There's the mercy deeds. That's the hug, the meal, the encouragement. And there's the preaching of the gospel. They all go together. The deeds of compassion go together with the faithful preaching of the word that go together with the night and day prayer for justice. When all three come together with all the implications in the cities of the earth, more of the kingdom activity takes place. Prayer causes the work of outreach to be more effective. When the spiritual atmosphere has changed, the sermon that moved ten people now moves a hundred people. Because there's a shift in the demonic kingdom. There's a, the demonic resistance is driven away in greater angelic and holy spirit activity. I like what Oswald Chambers said. Prayer does not fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work. Prayer is not just personal refreshment. It is. Again, when you, when you talk to the most beautiful, who has all power, who loves you, you're going to get refreshed. But I tell you, it is work. Prayer is the work. It's not just to help the work. It's part of the work itself. Well, paragraph F, throughout church history, there are 2,000 years of church history, and I have it in my book, Growing in Prayer, chapter 27. I chronicle a whole lot. There are so many dynamic examples throughout church history of 24-hour prayer ministries. I mean, it's remarkable. If you don't know about it, you think, you know, it's something brand new happening. No, it happened all through the Old Testament, and it happened all through church history. I mean, the most dramatic examples in Bangor, Ireland, which again, in my chapter 27 of my book, you can, you can, if you want to know some of these examples, and John O'Hall, he's an expert on this subject. I mean, he's really studied it out quite thoroughly. But in Bangor, Ireland, there were 3,000 full-time monks that kept night and day the chanting and the singing of the Psalms, night and day, and it went on, catch this, for 300 years. Beloved, we're at year 16. 284 years to go. 3,000 full-time in the first, at one time, and at the beginning generation. I don't know how many over the years, but enough to sustain it for 300 years. We're talking serious. There are many examples throughout church history, from the Catholic to the Protestant to the Celtic to the Orthodox. All the different spheres of the body of Christ have had 24-hour prayer ministries. This isn't like a new thing that we came up with in an internship or something. This thing has been rooted in church history. In other words, the Lord has shown His zeal for this in capturing leaders through history for this subject. Paragraph G, the intercessory missionaries today, again, I gave you the, in my book, I say 10,000 because I wanted to be more conservative. 10,000 24-7. That's why I wrote the book, but I've talked to top leaders. I mean, we've done the stats, and they go, no, it's well over 20,000. I go, well, I'm going to put 10,000. They go, no, put 20,000. I said, no, I'm going to say a little bit softer and let it be more, you know, better news. Well, in chapter 28 of my book, I chronicle a lot of those. I don't mean 20,000, but I mean a lot of ministries breaking forth in the earth. Paragraph H will end with this. Everyone is not called to be an intercessory missionary. Now, even folks in our own midst, I'm not an anton. When I say intercessory missionary, Anna is the most extreme. I mean, we're, everyone that's accepting a full-time role here, we're accepting that position, the intercessory intercessor. We're not all, you know, the Michael Jordans of the prayer movement, the Annas. I mean, she's the most extreme of all. But we're in the spirit of doing prayer and doing our work. That's what I mean. Now, not everybody's called to be an intercessory missionary. We're all called to pray, but it's not to be everyone's occupation. Let me tell you what the greatest ministry calling is. I absolutely have the greatest ministry calling. Listen carefully. Do the will of God in your life. The greatest calling for you is the will of God in your life. If you step away from the will of God to go be an intercessory missionary, Lord, and the Lord says, wait, I called you to be in the marketplace. What are you doing? Now, you can do it for a season. But my point is, some people say, well, if I leave the marketplace and go full-time in the intercessory missionary, that's better. I go, no, it's not better or worse. The will of God is the best. One season this, one season that, maybe 10 or 20 years this, 10 or 20 years that. I don't know. The will of God is the place of success. Some people come and do this for a few years, then they go in the marketplace, and they kind of hang their head down, oh, I couldn't make it. I go, what? You're doing it. Number one, you gave several years to prayer. And number two, you're doing the will of God. You're doing it. What's the it? I don't know. I thought if I left staff, I was a creep or something. No. It is the will of God, because that's how God created you, and he'll lead you. So, embrace your own calling. But my final point is, most people don't have this call. I mean, maybe a million or two do, or maybe more. I don't know. But there's a billion believers. Support. Don't talk a friend out of it in the days to come, or a family member. Help them. Do it in a biblical wise way. Don't find Bible verses against it. The enemy's trying to take this out of their heart anyway. Try to help them. Say, hey, you know what? It is Old Testament, New Testament, church history, end time prophecy. You're right. There's stuff that is part of what's on God's heart. So, understanding this will equip you to be a blessing if it's not your calling. Amen and amen. Let's stand before the Lord for a moment. I'm going to ask the Lord just to confirm in your heart your own calling. Not intercessory missionary calling. Maybe you're called to education, or you're called to homeschool your children. You're supposed to not be in the marketplace or full-time house of prayer. Your ministry's in your home, and you go to some prayer meetings here and there. But I'm going to ask the Lord to confirm the calling of God on your life right now. Father, we come before you. Lord, and we ask you, Lord, for your leadership in our life. We love your leadership. Whatever you say, wherever you send us, we say thank you. We love your leadership. We want to do your will. You are the wisest. Your will can't be improved upon by doing something that seems noble that's not your will. So, I bless, Lord, every calling in the marketplace, in education, in the home, in the neighborhood, in the sports arena, Lord, in the media, in the house of prayer, all the movements of God in your kingdom. I ask you to bless them. I ask that people would be built up as they do the will of God and not accused by the enemy. I silence the voice of the accuser. I silence the voice of fear. God's called some of you to step out into this, and you're afraid, and I want to take authority over fear. Others of you, you're supposed to move out of the house of prayer, and I want to take authority over the spirit of accusation that says you're doing something wrong. I want to bless the will of God in your life, wherever you serve in the kingdom, whatever city or nation God puts you in. In Jesus' name, amen, and amen.