Hephzibah!

“No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her), and your land Beulah (married); for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:4-5

I often tell people who want to see a modern day miracle that they need look no farther than Kansas City where there has been a prayer meeting going on continually, 24/7, for over twenty  years. Mike Bickle has led and organized thousands of young people who have been seeking God for revival in America and in the world for almost two decades. Amazing! There are 84 back-to-back two-hour shifts where one team replaces another – they call it the International House of Prayer or just IHOP. (Google “IHOP Prayer room” to live stream the prayer meeting going on right now!)

We took a group to the One Thing conference they hosted for years, and at one of them, I heard Mike Bickle tell a dream he had that paved the way for this historic prayer meeting. In this dream he was preaching to a large group of young people at the convention center, but the entire message was only one word: Hephzibah.

He shouted over the group from the center of the stage: “Hephzibah!” Then he went to the right and once again shouted: “Hephzibah!” And then to the left hand side of the stage: “Hephzibah!” When he woke up he was determined to find where  this vaguely familiar word was in the Scriptures. He was stunned to find that the two verses quoted above were right before his life verses (Isaiah 62:6-7) about the need for unceasing prayer to accomplish all of God’s purposes. Then the Lord spoke to him: “They will never go night and day without knowing that My delight is in them.”

The power to serve God continually comes from an identity that is secure in the truth that we are God’s delight. As long as we are questioning God’s delight in us, or feel we aren’t good enough to be delighted in, or don’t feel we perform well enough for God to delight in us – we are going to struggle. The Father has a one word sermon He wants to speak to our hearts: “Hephzibah!”