"The twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a Harp and Golden Bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." Rev. 5:8
The harp speaks of worship and songs to God, and the bowl speaks of prayers to God by the saints.
- Tabernacle of David -- King David invested a great amount of time and money into cultivating anointed music and singers (I Cor. 25:1-3)
- Bangor, Ireland, 555 AD -- Night and day worship for over 300 years.
- Clarivaux, France, 1120 AD -- 700 monks gathered to pray in the valley of light.
- Herrnhut, Germany, 1727 AD -- Night and day intercession for over 120 years.
- Seoul, Korea -- Night and day prayer over 30 years.
- Kansas City, Missouri, 2000 -- 24/7 night and day harp/bowl (worship/prayer) at International House of Prayer ongoing.
- Ongoing- House of Prayer and prayer ministry growing all over the nation and world
7MWIN- Fresno H.O.P.E. (Houses of Prayer Everywhere)
Prayer has been a part of my (Marta's) life. I prayed often as a child and my mother was a prayer warrior. While living in Jerusalem in 1980-82, I learned about prophetic intercession. It was my 'boot camp' training. I lived near the Old City and walked to the Western Wall often to pray. I was a part of Intercessors for Israel and volunteered part-time at International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). I met intercessors from all over the world called to pray in Jerusalem. I was always amazed at where God would send my intercessory partner and me to pray (she is still a friend and is now Director of ICEJ-USA) and for many years after I was involved in many different prayer groups. I even had the honor of being commissioned as a "Watchman on the Wall" with Eagles Wings ministry in 2005 in Israel.
In July 2007, The Lord called me to walk, worship and pray around Fresno and I finished around March 2008 (about 100 miles). If you want to know more about that, ask me about my photojournal, "Glory Walk." Since it's opening I dreamed of going to International House of Prayer (IHOP). It was in 2006 I made my first trip to attend the Joseph Company leadership retreat for rest and renewal. There I met a handful of marketplace ministers who were starting houses of prayer in their cities. Although at that time it wasn't my intent to begin one here, it was on my heart to intercede for our city. Thus began my journey.
Isn't God amazing? He puts His desires in our hearts. I came back thinking that having a 24/7 House of Prayer in Fresno would be awesome. I was working as a principal of both K-8 public elementary and a K-12 public charter school at the time, but I could not shake the thought of a 24/7 center in Fresno and talked to Abba about it constantly. It was a seed God planted, and I didn't even know it at the time. I was told then by a prophetic person that the heart I had for the city was from the Lord, I desired to see transformation not only in the church, but in the city, and I knew prayer was essential for that to take place. After returning from Kansas City I began contacting those who had a similar vision. When I found myself unemployed in 2007, I knew God was leading me to take steps to begin the ministry. We did the legal filing with the state and became 7 Mountain Worship Intercession Network (7MWIN) in 2007. It was a beginning of a whole new journey.
I began to share the vision of a 24/7 prayer and worship with pastors and other ministry leaders in the city, and to my delight many of them were supportive of the idea of a citywide prayer house. We met for a year in a home and moved into the downtown prayer room in July 2008. Intercessors meet there weekly I remember the days of my hectic schedule as a principal and how much I would have loved an available place of ongoing worship or prayer, a place of rest and refuge, that I could walk into at anytime and either receive prayer or just 'soak' in the presence of God. This is still my desire.
'Why the name 7MWIN?' 7M stands for the seven mountains of influence, W stands for Worship, I for intercession, and N for Network. Our desire is to network intercessors for those working in the 7 mountains of influence and to pray for those spheres one day a week. We not only want to pray for them but also to teach, equip and train future leaders and ministers in those fields.
The prayer room is the beginning of a much larger vision. You can continue to read about what is going on with us on our blog/newsletters.
