Collegiate Day of Prayer Global: 40-Day Prayer Guideনমুনা

Day 39: Convergence of Missions and Prayer Movements

By Dick Eastman (Dick Eastman is president emeritus of Every Home for Christ, a ministry he led globally from 1988 to 2022. He is also a founding member and president of America’s National Prayer Committee.)

Send us out all over the world so that everyone everywhere will discover your ways and know who you are and see your power to save!

—Psalm 67:2 (The Passion Translation)

When asked to share on the global convergence of prayer and missions movements with delegates from some 90 nations at the 2012 World Prayer Assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia, I was struck by something interesting about Ezekiel’s picture of a healing river flowing out of God’s Temple to the surrounding nations (see Ezekiel 47:1-9). Ezekiel actually pictured two streams that flowed from the Temple and became one powerful river that grew ever deeper as it was fed by those dual streams. The river’s purpose is the healing of the nations. Matthew Henry, a leading theologian of his time (1662-1714), expressed, “These waters signal the gospel of Christ, which went forth from Jerusalem and spread into the countries about; also the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost which accompanied it… Christ is the Temple and He is the Door, from Him the living waters flow, out of His pierced side.”

Even if Matthew Henry’s assumption is viewed as merely symbolic, I couldn’t help but think of the growing impact on the harvest of souls globally as the prayer and missions movements flow together in greater synergy and intensity in the days to come. The ministry I led for 34 years, Every Home for Christ, certainly has seen the impact of this convergence in dramatic ways with the building of an international headquarters (The Jericho Center) committed to mobilizing day and night worship-saturated prayer globally for the harvest.

The connection between prayer and missions is clearly seen in the words of Christ. Of course, most believers are familiar with the Great Commission Christ gave the Church. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (KJV). This is rightly called the Great Commission. It is our “Mission Mandate”!

However, 19 chapters earlier, Jesus declared what I refer to as the Great Condition to the Great Commission. In Matthew 9:37-38, Christ declares, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” This is our “Prayer Mandate.” There can be no successful “Go ye therefore” without first having a powerful “Pray ye therefore.”

This is critical to mobilize the vast number of workers needed to gather in history’s great end-time harvest. This is why I have contended for years that the degree to which prayer is mobilized will be the degree to which the world is evangelized.

PRAYER POINTS:

• Pray that God will raise up “prayer influencers” on every campus throughout the globe.
• Pray that every campus will have a campus prayer room where students can gather daily for prayer.
• Pray that many local churches will become involved in the Collegiate Day of Prayer throughout the earth.