Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to launch a revolutionary prayer for Jesus to overcome this world system with the kingdom of God. Those prayers are being answered today in dimensions never before seen since the resurrection. We don’t see it here in the United States so far, but it is happening mostly in the Global South; places like Africa, China, India, and others. God has been answering those prayers for the establishing of God’s kingdom on earth through what is termed Disciple-Making Movements.

A move of God is not categorized as a “movement” unless there has been a minimum of 100 churches planted to the depth of four generations in 3 years. A movement is phenomenal growth; it is multiplication, it produces growth in a geometric progression. It is created by an approach to the Great Commission that is characterized by disciples making disciples who make disciples who make disciples to at least four generations. According to the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication there are currently approximately 690 such movements on the earth right now and increasing regularly. A relatively new friend of mine who attends the Community Group I lead at my church is heavily involved in these efforts. I relish the times we share, and I get to hear the frontline stories of this kind of ministry in places I can’t name online.

I have been doing lots of reading on this topic lately. The oldest of these books I have was published in 2014 and the most recent this year. This phenomenon of Disciple Making Movements is a recent development although it has been in the making for twenty or thirty years. That is how geometric progression works. It looks like nothing is happening for a while and then it begins to explode, and it grows faster and faster each year because each new disciple is making a few new disciples and each new church is planting a few new churches every year.

Here are some numbers from The Kingdom Unleashed to support what I am writing:

– There were nine million Christians in Africa in 1900; by 2000, there were 335 million (37 times as many) with most of the growth occurring since the 1960s. – In Latin America in 1900, there were 50,000 Protestants; today, there are more than 64 million (1,280 times as many), again with most of the growth occurring since the 1960s. A significant majority of these Protestants identify themselves as Charismatic or Pentecostal Evangelicals. – The number of Christians in Asia grew from 101 million to 351 million between 1970 and 2010. – In China, it has been estimated that 10,000 per day become Christ Followers, and even by conservative estimates, Christianity has grown 4,300% in 50 years. By 2030, China will have more Christians living in it than any other nation on earth. – There are 3.7 times as many Protestants in Africa as in North America — and the gap grows dramatically every year. This has happened just in recent decades – In the Islamic world, there were no movements among Muslims until the nineteenth century. Today, every region on the Muslim world is experiencing replicating movements, even some of the most extreme areas. The number of movements is summarized in the chart below.

“We found many common elements among the different groups [of top disciple makers], but the only element that was present in every team was a high commitment to prayer. These leaders spent an average of three hours per day in personal prayer. They spent another three hours in prayer with their teams every day. These leaders were not all full-time religious leaders. In fact, most of them had regular jobs. They started their days at 4:00 AM, and by 10:00 AM were at work. These top performers also spent one day per week in fasting and prayer. The whole team spent one weekend per month in fasting and prayer. As we started looking at Disciple-Making Movements worldwide, we made a critical observation: a prayer movement precedes every Disciple-Making Movement.” – Contagious Disciple Making by David and Paul Watson

Personally, I hunger to participate in this move of Jesus across the earth, and I want to see him work like this in my neighborhood. I have been reading to understand what it is that God is doing and how he is doing it. What I have found is that there are no magic formulas or techniques. There are some strategies that have been rediscovered in the Scriptures and applied in these people groups. But it has also been discovered that if one uses all the latest in what I will call gospel-strategies and one thing is missing nothing will happen. That one thing is a high commitment to prayer and fasting.

People need to realize that, when you walk in obedience to Jesus’ Kingdom principles, there is another kingdom, a kingdom of the evil one that is going to be mobilized in opposition to what you are doing. And that’s the reason for the prayer and fasting component of this. It’s not an add-on; it is absolutely essential. You dare not go into this realm unless you are spiritually equipped, or it will be a very bumpy journey. – James Forline as quoted in The Kingdom Unleashed by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine

I hope this little glimpse at what God is doing on the earth today will whet your appetite to participate in the advancement of the Kingdom of God through prayer and fasting.

The two books I have quoted from in this piece are:

Contagious Disciple Making by David L Watson and Paul D Watson

The Kingdom Unleashed by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine

If you want to do lots of reading on this topic, you will find rich bibliographies in both books. Both are (surprise!) available on Amazon.