Thread: John Burton--Assisted Suicide—The Death of the House of Prayer

Read this earlier--it's powerful...

http://thefurnace.tv/2015/08/19/assi...use-of-prayer/

Assisted Suicide—This powerful dream was first shared in my book The Coming Church.

I recently had a dream that really shines the light on the coming battle in the Church. As I've said, the Church is to be a House of Prayer. Any other dominant defining attributes than intercession dilute and compromise the Church's mission.

The Church isn't to be a house of teaching, a house of friendships or a house of evangelism. It's a House of Prayer, a place that facilitates a lifestyle of night and day intercession. We are all called to pray at that level, not just some mystical, elite group of prayer warriors. The coming Church will be a Church on fire. No longer will we gather around a fire to warm our flesh, but rather we'll lay across it as burning ones who allow the Consuming Fire to do just that—consume us.

As we pray and live on fire, much trouble will come. We will threaten those who don't choose to pray, those who don't see the need. There are already strategies and theologies that are opposing and assaulting the prayer movement, and my dream brings clarity to that reality.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." Mark 11:17


Assisted Suicide—The Dream

In the dream, I was walking up a dirt hill where my dad was. In the dream, my dad represented the prayer movement. In the Branson, Missouri area he gave leadership to a significant regional prayer effort called the Uninterrupted Prayer Team (the UP Team).

My dad was on the top of that dry, dirty hill for a very specific reason. He was going to be executed. It was a public execution. I was shocked at how passive my dad was. He was on a bed, like a hospital bed, and he was submitted to the demand that he die.

I sensed that the forces were too strong for me to fight against them. He was to be executed, and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it.

I asked my dad what in the world was going on. He was pleasant in his demeanor, and in fact, most of the people around him who were helping facilitate the public execution were casually going about their day, and they were good friends of my dad. They were "good Christians" who were focused on having a great day and did what they could to eradicate anything that would threaten that.

My dad said, "John, this is going to be an assisted suicide."

I couldn't believe it! The pressure of the Church as it opposes the prayer movement will be so great, that many will be overwhelmed and will lose hope that their mandate to pray will have impact. The prayer movement is at risk of agreeing with its own death!

The Church today is threatened by the prayer movement, and it will do much to embrace the spirit of the age and execute the spirit of intercession.

As the dream continued, I then left his side and walked down the dirt road in deep, troubling thought. I looked down and saw a lighter, that looked like it was broken. I picked it up and I understood that if I could only get it to light, the execution would be called off.

If we pray, the fire of God will burn, and the opposing spirits will lose their strength.

Believe me, this is a very real situation. Someone actually contacted me online recently and arrogantly told me that they and others in a local church were actually praying for a local house of prayer to close down—and it did close down.

It's absolutely stunning that supposed Christians can oppose prayer with such zeal that they actually pray against the prayer movement!

We can't even call people to prayer today due to the fear that they will leave our churches! My God! How can we presume revival is near?

I met with a House of Prayer network leader the other day who said that people leave churches when leaders shift time, energy and attention from them to God. I've watched that happen myself, and it rips me up!

The coming Church will be marked by constant prayer, and there will be a divide along this line. If we don't pray, I do believe it's a serious issue with eternity hanging in the balance. If we truly know God, we will understand the desire and need to connect with him in prayer.


more at link--worth the time to read..

Thank you for posting that...you can't know how timely it is for me personally.
As I sat in the prayer room on Sunday...alone...I was having a real heart to heart asking God, did you not call anyone here? or Are they just not hearing the call? Why am I still here?

It felt so useless and yet once again a word He gave me there during prayer was spoken from the pulpit...same phrase and not a common one either ...

I am intensifying my prayer life as the pressure to give up and surrender seem to be increasing...

So I'm not aware that there is war on prayer. What exactly is he talking about? Why would people actively oppose it? Why would people pray a house of prayer shut down? He's kinda speaking in generalities and I'm just not aware of the specifics.

Originally Posted by fuego

So I'm not aware that there is war on prayer. What exactly is he talking about? Why would people actively oppose it? Why would people pray a house of prayer shut down? He's kinda speaking in generalities and I'm just not aware of the specifics.

Anti-charismatics can sometimes be the worst persecutors in our part of the world, it could be as simple as that.

Originally Posted by fuego

So I'm not aware that there is war on prayer. What exactly is he talking about? Why would people actively oppose it? Why would people pray a house of prayer shut down? He's kinda speaking in generalities and I'm just not aware of the specifics.

I believe..well let me not try to speak for John...assisted suicide is not a war on..it's more spiritual than natural opposition..it been as simple as emphasizing other things above it...it's been discouragement...

Years ago a prayer meeting was not viewed as optional but today if you call a prayer meeting in your church of say 100 you would be lucky if 20 attended, and if it's open ended with no cut off time most will be gone in 30 minutes. There is an indifference to prayer. In my own church I have seen it in an odd way..while a 'prayer team' was put together there was NO encouragement from the leadership to attend and the leadership did not attend...so it's not so much what is being said and done but more of what is not being said and done...

Seems when there is a call to pray it's treated with a ho hum attitude..

This statement is essential...

The Church isn’t to be a house of teaching, a house of friendships or a house of evangelism. It’s a House of Prayer, a place that facilitates a lifestyle of night and day intercession. We are all called to pray at that level, not just some mystical, elite group of prayer warriors.

Originally Posted by Quest

I believe..well let me not try to speak for John...assisted suicide is not a war on..it's more spiritual than natural opposition..it been as simple as emphasizing other things above it...it's been discouragement...

Years ago a prayer meeting was not viewed as optional but today if you call a prayer meeting in your church of say 100 you would be lucky if 20 attended, and if it's open ended with no cut off time most will be gone in 30 minutes. There is an indifference to prayer. In my own church I have seen it in an odd way..while a 'prayer team' was put together there was NO encouragement from the leadership to attend and the leadership did not attend...so it's not so much what is being said and done but more of what is not being said and done...

Seems when there is a call to pray it's treated with a ho hum attitude..

I'm not much of a corporate prayer person. I am a private prayer person though. I just like the dynamic better. Just something about corporate prayer that doesn't appeal to me, but private prayer does. I'm not against corporate prayer, it just doesn't appeal to me for whatever reason.

Originally Posted by fuego

I'm not much of a corporate prayer person. I am a private prayer person though. I just like the dynamic better. Just something about corporate prayer that doesn't appeal to me, but private prayer does. I'm not against corporate prayer, it just doesn't appeal to me for whatever reason.

I think corporate prayer has become just another form....The old saying....the family that prays together stays together...seems that men and women who pray together sincerely function in better unity...I love my private prayer time as well, it's intimacy, but corporate prayer should have a different dynamic..yes it's still intimate in the family way but it's seeking a corporate vision as well...

You need to get to IHOP and sit for a few hours in either a Worship & The Word set or an Intercession set. You'd get it, then.

I really do mean this in all seriousness. There is an amazing thing that happens to a Body when it is in agreement and it is a very different dynamic (I know you know this). Don't get me wrong....I completely understand the private prayer thing too. But there is a neat thing that happens when all of the Body is in unity and agreement. That's why Burn services are so vitally important, imo. Add the dimension of music, and it's a whole other level.

When Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda started the Watch in the 90s, and started corporate prayer every Friday from 10 pm to 6 am, they would worship from 10-3 or 4, and then pray. It was awesome. Then, Bickle comes along and it just goes into a different thing as well.

IMO, this is where the Church should have been all along. It's where it started at the birth of the Church age, and it's where it should be going now. I think John is spot on.

Originally Posted by fuego

I'm not much of a corporate prayer person. I am a private prayer person though. I just like the dynamic better. Just something about corporate prayer that doesn't appeal to me, but private prayer does. I'm not against corporate prayer, it just doesn't appeal to me for whatever reason.

He was specific when he said that people were actively praying against a House of Prayer.

Personally, I just don't think people "get it".....and I don't think people see the need for it (corporate prayer). Yet.

Originally Posted by fuego

So I'm not aware that there is war on prayer. What exactly is he talking about? Why would people actively oppose it? Why would people pray a house of prayer shut down? He's kinda speaking in generalities and I'm just not aware of the specifics.