Hello, my name is Mike Bickle. I am the director of The International House of Prayer in Kansas City. What we do here in Kansas City is 24-hour worship and prayer. We have done it for the last 18 years or so. Of course, we do the work of missions from the place of prayer, but as we do this the question is often asked of us: How do you keep people motivated to stay engaged with the Lord at that level?
Not everyone is called to be in a prayer ministry that is 24/7. That is not what I am saying. It is a rigorous calling. I know what works for us. I know if it works for us, it works for anybody. Whatever calling. Many of you have rigorous callings and challenging callings. It is this thing that Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-38. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your strength, and all of your soul.” What a remarkable statement.
In one of my earlier God Today contributions, I talked about it a little bit. I want to add a few more thoughts on what I said last time. Jesus said this was the first and the great commandment. That is remarkable because I can tell you what the first priority of the Holy Spirit is on your life. Your business, your ministry, your family. I know what the first priority is. It is to love God and to motivate people to love God with all their heart.
We have a ministry school here. The students are asking what their main calling is. I sometimes tell them, “I know what your main calling is.” They go, “You do? Are you going to give me a prophecy?” And I go, “Yeah.” But, I do this all the time so they ought to know by now. I go, “I know what your first and greatest calling is.” They go, “What?” I take them to this verse in Matthew 22. It is not only the first priority of the Holy Spirit, but it is also the first commandment. It is the greatest calling. It is the thing that moves God the greatest. It is the thing that moves us the greatest. It has the greatest value in terms of a lifestyle when we offer ourselves to the Lord on the Last Day.
Though we have many different aspects of our ministry calling, I could tell you what the first priority to the Holy Spirit is. I could tell you what the first emphasis prophetically in your life is. I could tell you what the greatest ministry calling is. It is the first and the great commandment. It is to love God with all of your heart, because He loves us with all of His heart. I find in this pursuit to love with our all, we get renewed. Our life makes sense in that pursuit. If our life only makes sense with how much we achieve externally, we can look at our life and get discouraged in various seasons. But, if our life is measured by God in the pursuit of loving with our heart, anybody can succeed in that.
Let me pray for you. Lord, I ask you for an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5, “you pour love out in the heart.” Lord, whatever the assignment, whatever the season, that you would renew and strengthen them in the love of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.