It seems like this blog has become a series of announcements rather than a blog but I never claimed to be a purist!!  We wanted to take a few minutes just to keep everyone up to date with all that is happening in the Ball household and Manchester House of Prayer.

Firstly we are just less than a week after the IHOPU Awakening in Manchester.  I don’t know about anyone else but for us the Lord really spoke to us clearly and confirmed a number of things for us.  One of the things that we have been praying about for some time is how to balance establishing the house of prayer and working full time.  Over the course  of the three days we got an answer from the Lord.  In 3 separate words the Lord brought some real clarity to the situation.  Without giving the whole of the words He told me it was time to switch my focus from full time in work and part time in the house of prayer to being full time in the house of prayer and part time in a job.  He also gave us a word that if we concentrate on prayer He will take care of the finances.  Finally we received the word that the Lord wanted to honour us for our commitment over the last little while and that He was going to provide an alternative to my current working situation.   The long and the short of it is that I finish my job at the Galleon on the 9th December with a view to developing the house of prayer further.

Along with that decision, we have decided to head out to the Onething conference at IHOP-KC which is between Christmas and New Year. and take some time before and after to really focus on what the Lord is saying for us and MHOP.  Also Becci is going to attend Cultivating Prophetic Worship, essentially the same course Jon and I went to last year.  We are really excited about taking this season of refreshing and re-focusing.

But the thing we are most excited about is an upcoming MHOP event.  We have our first ever MHOP Training Day, which is an opportunity for us to share the vision behind the house of prayer, the how and why behind what we do and a chance to do a practical prayer leading workshop.  This day will be for everyone, whether you are interested in serving in the house of prayer or just interested in finding out more about it.  We do want to know how many people will be coming so you can register your interest here.

So, I hope that all makes sense. We are in the middle of an exciting time for our family and the house of prayer, I feel like it won’t be too long into the new year that we begin to increase the schedule of MHOP.   The Lord has been so faithful to provide for us and we believe that as we continue to listen for His voice and follow that He will continue to make a way for us. We do want to take this opportunity to ask you to support as we make these key decision.  Please, please, please could you pray for us.  Prayer is what moves the Father’s heart and we ask that you would pray for our family, as we move house, leave one job and look for a new one, and spend some time seeking the Lord and for the house of prayer, that God would raise up prophetic intercessors in our city, that the training day would be fruitful and run smoothly and that the Lord would continue to raise up key people as we seek to establish night and day prayer in the city of Manchester.  If you feel like the Lord is leading you to give financially then head over to the About Us section of the blog and follow the links to paypal at the bottom.  Alternatively email us michael[at]mhop[dot]org[dot]uk.

If you feel like the Lord shares any pictures or words for MHOP or for us personally we’d love to hear them so please do email us, we love to receive encouragement from the Lord through His people!

Thanks for reading all this, hopefully we’ll blog again soon!

Michael and Becci