God's Invitation to Greatness

“Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19).

Establishing a House of Prayer in your church or city is pursuing greatness in God’s sight.  You are involved in one of the greatest things you can ever do for God.  He wants to transform our thinking and understand His invitation to greatness.  Think about it - What do we really want - fame before man or before God?  Lasting greatness is not in the praise of man but in the affirmation of God.  He has placed within our heart a longing for greatness.  He looks at the heart; He looks at our obedience and motives.  He sees our hidden heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  He sees what we do in secret, in the hidden place of prayer.  Jesus wants to unlock our hearts and minds so that we are fully alive in Him.  And this is how he will reward us (Matthew 6:6).  Most of what we do now will not be fully known until the age to come. 

When we build a House of Prayer, we are building upon a foundation that cannot be shaken (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).  We are pursuing greatness in God’s sight.  When we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will be judged by the motives of our hearts and the established thought patterns behind our actions.  God is evaluating our hearts.  Moses prayed, “Please, show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18-19).  He understood the true meaning and purpose of life.  When we meet God face-to-face will He ask us, “How much did you seek me?”  “How much did you love others?”  “How much did you let me transform your heart in the prayer room?"

Let God measure the success of what we do.  He is looking for faithfulness (Luke 16:10-12, 1 Corinthians 4:2) and relationship (Luke 10:20, Matthew 7:23).  We must be faithful stewards as we pray and prepare our Houses of Prayer.  Our goal is to help prepare the Bride for her destiny (Eph 5:225-27).  Our identity is found in being a friend of the bridegroom.  He must increase and we must decrease.

We do not possess the fragrance of Jesus through education or money.  God is raising-up the uneducated and unknown to turn the world upside down (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29).  The power of the Kingdom will not come through the best training programs in the world.  It will come through those who train in the desert, in that secret place of prayer.  Moses had the best training in the world (Hebrews 11:24) and was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but he needed 40 years in the desert.  Daniel had the best education, but it was in the secret place where he became wiser than all the wise men of Babylon.  He was steadfast and prayed three times a day even when it endangered his life.  Nothing - absolutely nothing - could hinder his commitment to prayer, not even a den of lions!     

In Acts 4:13-16 we see the boldness of Peter and John because they had been with Jesus.  Others realized this and marveled.  They were uneducated and untrained yet their lives were ones of power.  These men had the vision and commitment to pray and spend time with God.  They accepted God’s invitation to greatness.  As we wait for the coming of God’s Kingdom we can walk in that same power, but we must see with eyes of vision God’s great invitation to us.  We must have hearts of commitment to pray and advance the prayer movement.  We need to believe that God wants to spread 24/7 Houses of Prayer throughout the entire world.  We must have vision for our city and our church.  God is inviting us to greatness in His Kingdom.   

Positioning Your Life for Greatness

“Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all” (Mark 10:42-44).

Spreading the vision for prayer and starting a House of Prayer in your church or city will take a great deal of faithful serving.  It will take hard work and endurance.  There will be times when you wonder if you are doing the right thing or if it will ever happen.  The opposition from the enemy will be great.  But this is God’s personal invitation to greatness for you.  God designed you for greatness (Matthew 5:12, 18:4, 11:11).  Deep in your heart you desire greatness, significance, dignity, nobility, honor, and impact.  You want to be great in God’s sight.  You are learning to live for His Kingdom purposes. 

The Sermon on the Mount is all about the lifestyle of the Kingdom.  In obeying it, we position ourselves for greatness.  We pursue obedience in our speech, our physical appetites, our time, our money, and our eyes.  We renew our inner man for eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-127).  We work to become faithful disciples of Jesus through our heart obedience and our ministry impact.  We respond to all that the Holy Spirit shows us so that we may be worthy of our calling (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).  Our eternal destiny is to possess Godliness and become like God in character (Ephesians 5:2, Romans 9:29). This can be cultivated in the prayer room and the development of our secret life with God.  He sees our heart.  Seeking to lovingly obey is never in vain.  We should seek to live out the 8 beatitudes in our daily life.  He is looking for a people who obey Him wholeheartedly.  The Sermon on the Mount is the core vale of God’s Kingdom and the litmus test to measure our true success in life.  We are on a journey to greatness.  Matt Chandler from the International House of Prayer writes about God’s invitation to greatness:

“The Sermon on the Mount is the litmus test to measure our success in life, spiritual development and ministry impact.  Our foundation call (internal) is to live out the 8 beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) as we pursue 100-fold obedience (Matthew 5:48, 6:22).  The beatitudes are like 8 flowers in the ‘garden of our heart’ that God wants to fully blossom…. God invites us to greatness without regard to our outward achievements or the size of our ministry impact.  Rather it is based on the development of our inner man in love, meekness, and revelation or in righteousness, peace, and joy in the spirit (Romans 14:17).  Without the paradigm of being on a journey to greatness, the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle is much more difficult to sustain.  Living in light of receiving reward in heaven and being great in God’s sight is a major theme that is emphasized in Matthew 5:5, 12, 19. 46, 6:1 4, 6, 18, 20, 7:2.”

The prayer room helps us to become great in God’s eyes rather than mans.  It helps us to pursue the journey to greatness.  As you attempt to get involved in His House of Prayer in your city or church, realize that it requires humility and a servant’s lifestyle (Matthew 20:26-27).  Those who lead in Houses of Prayer open the way to God’s pathway of greatness.  They must be willing to go through difficult and refining situations that seem unbearable at times (Isaiah 48:10).  Jesus went through the cross for the joy set before Him.  We must trust his leadership of God, live in His grace and for His glory (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 12 Corinthians 4:17, Romans 818).  We are partnering with Him and are seeking heavenly rewards instead of earthly ones (Matthew 6:1-20).

I heard about a famous professional baseball player who said that the aim of his life was to hear his manager say to him, “You are the greatest player I have ever coached.”  He was motivated by the hope that one day he would hear his manager’s affirmation.  How many multitudes of athletes feel like this?  But how much more should we as Christians be motivated by the hope that one day we will hear our Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness’” (Matthew 25:21).  What more could we ever want?  In starting and maintaining Houses of Prayer we are seeking for God’s “Well Done” in our lives and are involved with what God’s cherishes and esteems so highly (Matthew 25:21). 

Establishing 24/7 Houses of Prayer helps to bring God’s people into a love relationship with Him and helps them establish a close partnership with Jesus on earth. This brings glory to God in the deepest sense.  Prayer is rooted in humility and takes time and energy.  But when you do this, you are investing your time and energy in order to help others grow in righteousness, peace, and joy. 

Let’s press on with diligence and faithfulness (Philippians 3:12-14).  He will help each one of us to be faithful in the face of pressure, obstacles, and difficulty.   He will help us endure the mundane and smallness of working day-by-day and week-by-week as we get started.  This matters to Him.  We are living for a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.  It’s a daily adventure in pleasing God.  It’s all part of God’s invitation to greatness in His Kingdom.  This invitation brings transformation in every area of our lives.  Our hearts and our thoughts are transformed. 

God is developing us in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12.  He is our source, and we are absolutely dependent on Him.  Let’s wholeheartedly pursue his fullness and hunger and thirst for His righteousness.  We are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10, 4:12, 1:28-29, 1 Thessalonians 5:22-23).  We are seeking to be obedient and perfectly established (1 Peter 5:10, 1 Timothy 6:13-14).  We are seeking a blameless life.  In the prayer room, we learn to hunger after God, we grow in purity of heart, we learn to become peacemakers, and we grow in meekness.  God brings inner and outer transformation.  Then we take Him with us out into the marketplace and people are drawn to the Holy Spirit living within us. 

We are living in a transitional time in all of history.  The Holy Spirit is preparing us for a release of His glory upon the Church.  There will be a mighty release of signs, wonders and glory at the end of the age (Joel 2:28-29).  This will bring transformation.  God is right now shaking everything that can be shaken in the nations (Haggai 2:6-7).  He is inviting everyone to become great in His Kingdom.  He designed us for this.  True greatness will be fully manifested in the age to come, not here.  It will be based on our heart’s response, and it is available to all (Matthew 5:19, 20:26-27, 23:12).  Let’s seek Him in all that we do with a childlike faith and a humble heart.  He is transforming our hearts and our minds.  It’s time to see life from His perspective.  Let’s position our life for greatness in His Kingdom and accept this wonderful invitation.

Recently I was sitting in the back of the International House of Prayer room (IHOP) in Kansas City.  I was looking at 100’s of young people who were accepting God’s invitation to greatness with glad hearts.  It was powerful.

“Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me (Matthew 18:3-5).