IHOP Atlanta

It was a freezing cold day in late November 2003. I was bundled up in layers, standing in the Cotton Bowl Stadium with tens of thousands of other believers. While my family gathered in Connecticut for holiday festivities, I had chosen to forgo Thanksgiving and fly to Texas for a 12-hour solemn assembly called TheCall Dallas. I traded turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie for a day of prayer, fasting and mourning. TheCall Dallas was a day of corporate repentance for our nation. It was a time to come humbly before God, asking Him to forgive our sins and release mercy in our land.

 TheCall Dallas was directed by Lou Engle, a father in the modern-day prayer movement. Throughout the day, Lou spoke of radical ones being raised up–ones who would burn with fiery hearts and passionate zeal. Lou spoke of Nazirites–ones who like John the Baptist were called to live lives set apart for the Lord. As he spoke it hit me, “He’s talking about me!” I thought to myself, “This is who I am. This is who I was made to be!” For the first time someone was telling me it was okay to be extreme in my love for God. I realized that day that I was called to be a Nazirite.

 The word Nazir in Hebrew means ‘consecrated one; separated one; a person of the vow.’ Nazirites were ones that were set apart unto God. They were often birthed in times of moral crisis and spiritual decay in the land. When the people of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, He gave them over to the Philistines for 40 years. At the end of that time when He desired to raise up a deliverer, He did it by answering the cries of a barren woman named Manoah. He sent an angel to tell her she would have a son, and no razor would ever come upon his head, for the child would be a Nazirite unto God from the womb. Her son Samson was declared to be a Nazirite before he was even born! (Judges 13:5). When Eli’s sons were corrupting the priesthood and the word of the Lord was rare, God spoke through a young boy named Samuel. Samuel was birthed through the desperate prayers of his barren mother, Hannah. She vowed to the Lord that if He gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor would never come on his head (1 Sam 1:11). When the Lord wanted a forerunner who would prepare the way for His Son’s arrival, He gave a child to barren Elizabeth. The angel that announced his birth proclaimed he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb (Lk 1:15). Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist were called as lifelong Nazirites. All three were born to barren mothers who were desperate for God. In their pain, they cried out to God and He gave them arrows in their quiver–sons who would change history. Out of once barren wombs, mighty deliverers were birthed!

 Aside from lifelong Nazirites, there are many who chose to take a Nazirite vow for a specific time of consecration to God. The three main components of a Nazirite vow, outlined in Numbers Chapter 6, are abstaining from wine, strong drink, grapes or anything produced from the grape vine, growing their hair long, and not going near dead bodies. All three of these requirements had great spiritual significance.

“He shall abstain from wine and strong drink…” Numbers 6:3

Wine was a common beverage choice in that day. It wasn’t a sin to drink wine, and many people drank it as a normal part of their everyday life. Wine was something that was enjoyable, sweet, and desirable to man. By not drinking wine, eating grapes, or even partaking of anything that came from the grape vine, Nazirites were declaring to God “I have no good besides you” (Ps 16:2). They were making it known that they had found something greater than wine. It was God’s love. They forsook even the legitimate pleasures of this life for the greater pleasure of knowing God. Although their vow was for a set time, the heart of a Nazirite desired to live their entire life seeking the Lord through fasting and prayer. They embraced a fasted lifestyle unto God. 

 “He shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.” Numbers 6:5

The Nazirite’s long locks were an outward sign of their inward consecration to God. The length of their hair was a symbol of their heart’s devotion to the Lord. Their long hair was visible to all around them. There was no hiding a Nazirite. Their dedication to God was “put on display” before all. They were burning and shining lamps, who refused to hide their light under a bushel, but chose to rather put it on a lampstand for the world to see.

 Nazirites did not always look like the religious norm. Jesus said to the crowds about John, “What did you go into the wilderness to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet” (Mt 11:8). Nazirites weren’t concerned about impressing others with their appearance, for they cared more about pleasing God with their lifestyle. His opinion was what mattered most to them.

 In 2007, I went on a year-long Nazirite vow where I felt impressed by the Lord to allow my hair to grow out naturally. I stopped chemically straightening my hair, which I had done since the age of 12, and grew it out as an offering unto God. This was challenging because I did not think my natural hair was very attractive. The Lord used this season to speak volumes to me about my identity and beauty before Him. He gave me a dream where I was in a salon feeling pressure to straighten my hair. As I stood there, someone passed me a note that said, “Never make apologies for your hair.” The Lord was shouting to me, “You never have to make apologies for the way I made you; you’re beautiful to me.” I  love my hair now because I see it as he does. Nazirites find their true identity in the affections of the Lord towards them. “Your head crowns you like Carmel, The king is captivated by your tresses” (Son of Sol 7:5)

 “All the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead person…” Numbers 6:6

Nazirites could not go near a dead person. When their father or mother died they were not even allowed to go to their funeral. This was extreme devotion to God. To have one closest to you die and not even able to go near their body must have been a very painful thing. Yet Nazirites were willing to sacrifice even this to the Lord. Jesus said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10:37). By accepting the terms of this vow, Nazirites were choosing to love God even more than their own father or mother.

 This also speaks of renouncing dead works and legalistic activities. The Lord wasn’t looking for the Israelites to take this vow out of mere religious duty or obligation. He wanted a sacrifice from a willing heart full of love and desire for him. Nazirites choose to lay down their lives for the Lord. Like Jesus said in John 10:17 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” A Nazirites sacrifice was born not out of pressure to please God, but out of heartfelt passion for him. They knew they were loved by God, and their vow was made in response to that love. 

 “All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.” Numbers 6:8

Nazirites were characterized by their pursuit of holiness. Not touching death can also speak of staying away from sinful things that would bring death to their souls. Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death.” The Nazirite vow was one of separation unto God. They weren’t looking to see how much they could get away with. Rather they were longing to see how far they could go in pursuing holiness in the fear of the Lord. They chose to separate themselves from anything that would defile their purity before God.

 A Nazirite’s desire is to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength. It is extremism for God, based not out of legalism, but out of love. It is love that causes the Nazirites to forsake everything for God. It is love that leads them to fast, pray and pursue holiness. Nazirites are arising in America today. There is an army of young and old who are tired of living lives of compromise and half-hearted devotion to God. They are burning men and women, full of fire and zeal for God. History belongs to ones such as these. Their wholehearted love moves the heart of the Father, and it will shift the culture of this nation. Let the longhairs arise! Let America see her Nazirites!

Conferences are so interesting aren’t they? At this point (at my old age of 25), I had decided I was done with the conference thing. So when it came time for the yearly One Thing conference, I was determined that I could get the mp3 afterwards, download it on my Mac, and enjoy all the preaching via I tunes. That was the plan until Mike Bickle sent an email asking everybody to attend the 2008-year end One Thing conference. In all of Mike Bickles years of ministry, I have never seen him highlight and strongly suggest that we all gather together for a conference. I prayed about it and felt a leading from the Holy Spirit that I was not only supposed to attend, but that this year was going to be very significant.

So I drove thirteen hours from Atlanta to Kansas City in my 1998 Champagne Toyota Corolla to attend the conference all the while contemplating what was going to happen. When I arrived I realized that Mike Bickle was teaching on the Book of Revelation every afternoon. Other leaders at Ihop were preaching and teaching in the morning and evenings and like always, I was blown away by the amount of revelation that God has given all these teachers and leaders as well as the fact that so many young adults showed up to hear about the book of revelation. While I was at the conference a sobriety came to my heart like I have never felt before. Across the earth He is preparing the church for His return; different denominations, ages, nations, and races were all represented. If this isn’t enough of a reason to attend the conference I don’t know what is.  But in all honesty even after all the preaching and the teaching through the week, I felt like God had me attend specifically for the final evening.

Every year at the One Thing conference, we ring in the New Year by worshiping God and lifting up His name. On December 31^s, 2008 I headed into Bartle Hall, expecting to do what we always do at the One Thing conference on new years eve: dynamic worship and dynamic preaching and then ushering in the new year through worship, praise and thanksgiving to our God. This evening turned out to be anything but commonplace. Mike Bickle began speaking about forerunners. If you are familiar with the International House of prayer, this is not unusual. But this time as he was quoting seemingly familiar passages (Matthew 3:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight), the words were striking my heart like arrows. All of the sudden, the presence of the Lord began to rest on me and tears began streaming down my face. I knew something was about to happen but I wasn’t sure what.

My head was down and I had a slight tremble happening in my body as Mike Bickle began to say it, “ We are going to call forth the forerunners.” He described that the Lord promised Him over twenty years ago that He was going to raise up thousands of forerunners.  Suddenly my head was filled with questions as he began to talk about seven commitments to help young forerunners grow into maturity. The 7 commitments are: praying at least two hours daily, setting your heart (in grace) to fast twice a week, leading diligently in the place of prayer and bible study, doing acts of justice, reading the book of revelation at least once a week, giving extravagantly, and living a life of holiness and purity .He was describing basic Christianity. I came face to face with my weakness, I realized I am not fully walking out Christianity 101.Within a few moments the Spirit spoke to my heart and began to comfort me saying that these commitments were meant to help the young forerunners not to condemn them. He also began to impress on my heart that these commitments would call us to a higher accountability and draw us in to go after our destiny and identity as those called to “Prepare the Way of the Lord”. Mike also began asking those that felt the Lord telling them to commit to this to make it a long-term commitment ten years … twenty years …

I have been committed to Ihop and prayer in a focused way for about five years and I found myself having issues. Questions and thoughts were popping in my head like,  “ I don’t know if I can really do this. Am I really a forerunner? And though I have said in the past that I am committed to this as a lifetime vocation, is it real? Am I going to sign up again for ten years and really do these things?” This was a defining moment for me, because God was asking: Jennifer Lauren McIntyre, How are you going to live? How are you going to live when you are not at the conference when no one is looking? Jennifer, Do you really believe that my Son is returning to the planet and do you want to be a part of it? Then I heard the call, “If you are saying yes to these seven commitments then come up to the front.” To be honest with you, I did not respond right away, I did not jump out of my seat and rush to the front. At this point I felt like the Lord was presenting me with two choices, you are either in or your out. You are either in the game or in the stands. You are either wholehearted or letting your love grow cold (I realize that it might have not have been like this for everyone and that is ok; but this was my personal experience.).

My friend leaned over and whispered to me, “ I am not ready for this.”  I understood how he was feeling. As many were flocking to the front, we were both still in our seats wanting to soak in the significance of the moment. And then I made the choice. It really was my choice, am I going to do this or not? So I said yes again, I responded to the altar call, though a bit tardy. Yes, I sign up again. Though it may be weak, I am going to try and live this out. Because I love this man Jesus and I want to help prepare the way for His return.

For more information and to sign up for the sacred charge, visit www.ihop.org.

God loves to heal. It is His will and delight to take those who are sick, afflicted, and tormented because of this fallen world and raise them up in newness of life. He reveals Himself to Israel as Jehovah-Rapha, “the God who heals you” and discloses himself to Moses on Sinai saying:

“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7

            Ultimately, the ministry of healing is about the declaration of this name among the nations of the earth. Through the ministry of healing the Father wants to make himself known as the Lord God merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. Healing is about the knowledge of God and His obtaining glory for Himself through the lives of His servants.

            This is why teaching on healing and the ministry of healing are vital areas for the church to operate, and are strongly contested by the enemy. Jesus came and revealed the Father and one of the foundational works that testified about who Jesus was as the Son of God and the nature of the Father who sent Him was His ministry of healing. So it is meant to be with us also, we the Church have been commissioned by Jesus to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all creation, and promised that the sign of healing will accompany our proclamation. God wants to release a testimony of Zion, and the future prosperity, life, and health that will be among the community of the redeemed who will dwell in Father’s House!

            Healing is a taste of the powers of the age to come, the time when the Kingdom of Heaven will reside on earth with Jesus upon its throne in Jerusalem. Yet today Jesus is set upon His Heavenly throne, and is before His Father continually making intercession on our behalf. It is therefore the right of every citizen of Heaven to be governed by the rules of the heavenly city and its King and not by the rulers of this age.

            Jesus on the cross paid the price for our healing, salvation, and deliverance from all the powers of this fallen world and their works of darkness – including sickness. Now by faith we can obtain that which Jesus purchased, “for by his stripes we are healed.”

            It is the Father’s highest will that as ambassadors on earth of His heavenly kingdom, we would not suffer from the consequence of the curse of this fallen world, whether it is oppression, sin, or sickness. He has purchased us mind, body, and spirit and has a plan for our sanctification, so we must fight the good fight of faith against any manifestation of this evil present age in our lives. Just as sin is a lie from which we are being delivered, disease is a disorder from which we are being healed. The most powerful truth is not what we see with our eyes, but the word of God that renews our minds by the Spirit of truth.

“For the Lord your God is a merciful God.” Deuteronomy 4:31a

Our God loves mercy.  There are so many verses about mercy in the Bible.  But for now, I am just going to write on God’s mercy in judgment.  It is impossible to imagine God in His complete glory, majesty and splendor.  But many people don’t see him as anything but an angry God who sees our every wrong act.  I can assure you that God is not a God who is always angry with you.  Actually, I can tell you He is a God who delights in you with dancing, singing, shouting, spinning, and mercy.

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17                     

The Lord takes great delight in you.  He rejoices over you.  He is NOT a grumpy, mean figure that sits in heaven releasing wrath on the planet because he had decaf coffee, is tired, and isn’t in the mood for kindness.  I don’t know if you have ever pictured Him that way, but it’s the picture we’ll use for now.  So with that picture I have 5 problems.

1.   God is not ever grumpy.  He is God.  Even though He has lived since before time and will live forever and ever, He’s not bored and grumpy, He is the most joyful One there is and in His presence is fullness of joy.  He is a happy God!  (Psalm 45:7, Psalm 16:11, Zeph. 3:17)

2.  He is not mean.  We need to get that idea out of our heads.  The Lord is GRACIOUS and COMPASSIONATE; SLOW to anger and RICH in LOVE.  He also takes great delight in you.  (Psa 86:15)

3.  He is not a God who releases wrath for the fun of it. Many other non-believers have a problem with their counterfeit gods. The gods they worship are hard to please. With God, you don’t have to earn love.  God will release the seals, trumpets, and bowls because he wants to awaken the earth to love.  (Isa 26:9, John 15:9) 

4.   I don’t think God needs coffee in the morning. Even though he spends all day dancing and singing over us, I’m pretty sure He doesn’t need caffeinated coffee to help him stay awake.   (Psa 121:3)

5.  God is always in the mood for kindness! Like I said before, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  (Jer. 9:24)

God is merciful. There is no other as merciful as Him. It’s true that the Father sent His Son to die for us even as we were sinners.  (John 3:16)   Even as we cursed God, he sent his Son to die for us. Can you think of how hard it would be to die for someone who was just plain mean to you? His mercy and love led Him to die for a planet of people who had turned from Him.

“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

James 2:13b

Mercy is victorious over judgment. So it is always okay to cry out for mercy. God is always listening to us and hears our prayers. God shows His mercy to us every day. Let us remind ourselves again that without His mercy, we wouldn’t live or breathe. God is so good to us. In everything, God shows His mercy. He is surrounded by an emerald rainbow, a symbol of the covenant of mercy He has for us. (Revelation 4:3)  From everlasting to everlasting, God is always the same, meaning He is always merciful.

Father,

Help us to be merciful as You are. Let us see that all Your ways are merciful, even if we don’t understand them. I ask that You would remind us every day that You are our sustainer. I ask You to help us repent for our wrongs and run back into Your arms of mercy. Open our eyes to see You not as an angry Judge, but a merciful God.

In Jesus Name,

Amen