As God is directing us at LoveHOP to build up a 24hours/7days-a-week house of prayer in Signal Hill, we are of course also facing challenges and discouragements. We sometimes get fixed upon the numbers that we have or the ill-spoken words that people say but God has reminded me a story that all of us are familiar with.
It is the story of Noah. In his time, God wanted to destroy man because of the wickedness and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was ALWAYS evil (Gen 6:5). God said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth and beast…for I am sorry that I have made them.” BUT, there was one man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord in his time and that was Noah (Gen 6:8).The thing that set him apart was, “Noah walked with God,” and “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation” (verse 9). Even in God’s judgment, He had a plan of mercy for man, and it was going to be done through this one man who had set himself in righteousness before the Lord in his generation (Gen 7:1).
Noah had, from what we know, only seven people with him: the three sons, the sons’ wives, and his wife (Gen 6:18). At LoveHOP, we sometimes forget and look at the numbers, but the numbers really did not stop Noah from building the ark. It was simply his radical obedience to God’s directions, and I believe Noah envisioned the generations of descendants that would be saved after him. He was not focused on the now but the future glory or else, if I was him, I would just build an ark for myself and my family. That would really have saved A LOT of work but Noah did not slack off and obeyed God in every details. It was Noah’s obedience that gave way for our Deliverer as God was going to use Noah as a vessel for deliverance for his people.
At LoveHOP, though our numbers may be small right now, we will bring forth GENERATIONS of radical lovers, equipped and living in Love, Word, and Power. We will prepare the way for our Deliverer and King as a people who call God as our inheritance and our possession. We do not despise the “small beginning.”
Noah worked day in and day out to build this HUGE ark of God’s covenant that would be used to save him and his family (Gen 6:18 “But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark.”) I can imagine people scoffing and mocking, “Why are you building this ark? You’re wasting your time, your money, your life for a rain that is not coming. This is not God’s plan.” But he did waste it all. Noah built the ark, and “then Noah built an altar to the Lord… and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.”).
People right now can say, “Why are you building this house of prayer? You are wasting your time/money/life. I do not even see anyone else praying, so much for a prayer movement.” But it is not a waste because we are setting all of them out –our time, our money, our life, our prayers, our lives – as burnt sacrifices before the Lord. They will be unto the Lord a soothing aroma, just like when God smelled Noah’s burnt offerings. We will be faithful, day in and day out, to the call of God for the spiritual generations that we will not see. We will see our Deliverer and our “Ark of Covenant” come to establish His Kingship and government as we enter our “promised land” (New Jerusalem) after His second coming.
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TESTIMONY:
Several of us did a mission trip in Egypt last year in 2009, and God was giving us a word that the youth group that we were ministering to would have a house of prayer. Afterward, Seyi & Ronke Olagunju and Tammy Dao did a training for a house of prayer because one of their leaders, not knowing the prophecy, wanted to basically have it established that same day the prophecy was released. We continued to keep in contact with the leaders and our friends said that they have a house of prayer that have been established for at least four months now in Alexandria, Egypt. Their name is “Monument for the Lord,” based upon Isaiah 19:19. The leaders got a word that their house of prayer was like an ark the day this note was written and thanked God that it totally confirmed what God is doing in their midst. Check out for their pictures at LoveHOP and lets continue to pray for them!
– Tammy Dao