Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 11 says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
God works according to His time and season. Everything is perfect in the perfect timing and season of God if we align and submit to Him and His workings.
September 6, 2026 marks the completion of 23 years of God’s assignment for us as a House of Prayer (i.e. IHOP – One Thing Ministries). Jesus Christ, our Beloved Bridegroom, King, and Judge invited us over two decades ago to simply stand, burn, and minister before the Audience of One! As we look back, we are awed and amazed as we have witnessed God working in us, for us, and through us all these years. For God is faithful! We are thankful to the Lord for the privilege, honour, and joy of this partnership and journey with Him, fully recognising that it is truly in the Father’s mercy, grace, and goodness that He uses weak and broken vessels with much lack, like us, to be His conduit — voices to proclaim His heart and His words, and vessels to impact and transform lives. It is always His grace in and through us, because apart from Him, we can do nothing!
While being faithful to the assignment that He has invited us to is important, our heart’s desire and focus has never been to grow a ministry, be successful, or leave behind a legacy etc., but simply to be faithful — in being a resting place of God and a faithful witness as His voice! We always recognise that we are the greatest beneficiary of this journey. The greatest reward of this journey cannot and must not be measured by the tangible and outward, but by the history and encounters that we have had with a living God! People come and go. Movements of God arise and fade away. What we have gained over these last couple decades is a divine treasure that cannot be taken away from us: a history with a living God, encountering the reality of God, deep intimate knowledge and relationship with Him, growing in maturity in Christ, and countless experiences of how God miraculously worked in us, for us, and through us etc.
We are standing at a crucial juncture of the Biblical redemptive storyline of God! As a House, we are fully aware that we are living in unprecedented times where the Spirit of God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:18–19). Indeed this is a historic transitional decade where many things are shifting, changing, and being reset in an accelerated acceleration (especially what is pertaining to the Kingdom of God). This compelled and beckoned us as a House to soberly and seriously seek the face of God over the past 18 months to receive clear knowledge of God’s specific path for us, and how the Lord wants us to move forward in light of what He is saying and doing (Jeremiah 6:16).
Our heart’s desire is never just to be “relevant” as a House or to keep doing ministry etc., but to simply align, obey, and trust in His leadership. As Jesus would pray in Matthew 26:39, “not as I will, but as You will.”
In the process of seeking God’s face, the Spirit of God began to unravel the heart of the Father to us: If this is a season that He is going to do a new thing, we have to let go of the “old” in order for the new to arise. What may be good in the old season may not be good and sufficient for the new season! If this is a time where God is birthing a new thing, the old has to go so that the new may come. Ultimately God is causing what is real, deep, and authentic to arise!
We have come to realise that this is God’s kairos time for us to close one chapter in order for a new chapter to begin. We are but part of God’s much bigger story that He is unfolding for the completion of the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the culmination of the redemptive plan of God, and the ultimate purpose of “may His Kingdom come and may His will be done here on earth”! Like a book with many chapters, a chapter has to close in order for a new one to begin. The Spirit of God has been gently speaking, prompting, and guiding us especially over the last 6 months. Through many words, we are certain that this is the time to let go and trust in His leadership, knowing that in His time, a new and beautiful thing in Christ will come forth.
John 12:24 says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” The Lord has deposited and invested many good things in us and through us. Yet we can often unintentionally and unconsciously become stuck in a form and slowly lose the reality and authenticity of God, especially after many years of doing the same thing with success and fruitfulness. That is the reason for God’s constant pruning (John 15:1–2), occasional divine shaking (Hebrews 12:25–29) and exhortation to not hold on to the past (Isaiah 43:18–19). Some would call the decision foolish. Others would call it radical and courageous. Our heart is neither to be unwise, radical, nor courageous, but simply to hear, align, obey, and trust in His word and leadership. We do not know what will be birthed forth by the end of the decade, but we are certain and confident that a new thing will come forth.
Luke 3:2 and 4 say, “…the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness… the voice of one crying in the wilderness…”. This House of Prayer was birthed on September 6, 2003 after a time of wilderness. The Holy Spirit is simply bringing us back to where we began. As a House of Prayer, we constantly remind ourselves that it is not about “doing” the House of Prayer — i.e. “don’t do worship but worship; don’t do prayer but pray; don’t do IHOP but live the IHOP lifestyle”. The subtle and thus greatest danger of a House of Prayer is that we do not have an authentic life of holiness, intercession, and worship, but are simply and only doing a form in the prayer room. The heart of a House of Prayer is to keep the fire on the altar burning — not by keeping a schedule or meeting requirements — but through a company of authentic people having a burning heart for Jesus who is truly our magnificent obsession! The non-existence of a physical prayer room may not necessarily mean that the fire on the altar has ceased burning, or vice versa.
Job 1:21 says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yehovah gave, and Yehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Yehovah”. IHOP – One Thing Ministries started on September 6, 2003 literally with nothing (i.e. no place, no people, no money, etc.), but the Lord has led, blessed, invested, and prospered us over the last 23 years. We can truly say that all things that we have are from Him and therefore should duly be for Him and to Him! Our heart is to simply submit, obey, and surrender! We ask only this one thing: may Jesus Christ be our exceedingly Great Reward, and may we become the reward that is worthy of His suffering and the people that He is looking for when He returns!
To God be the glory and until He returns!
(And to be continued…)
P.S. Our resources and teachings (videos, audio files, study guides) will continue to be made available because our heart is always to be His voice and to prepare a Bride that is ready for the return of our Beloved Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
