Lately I have been pondering over my heritage and my identity. As a young adult, I have been contending for my destiny alongside many other young adults in the house of prayer. At least daily I converse with the Lord, asking him to tell me who I am again. “Who am I?” is the question that I have been asking. Well, this past February I found myself overwhelmingly interested in African-American History - and the timing was perfect because February has been deemed black history month. So, I started reading about Martin Luther King and his views on justice in the 1950s – 1960s. Soon after I found myself spending hours intrigued by the documentaries on African slavery during colonial times. I have always been sort of a history buff so at first I thought it was just me being interested in history, my history. But after being struck one evening by a segment of a particular documentary, I realized maybe that this new found interest in black history was less of my inclination to learn cool facts but actually the Holy Spirit leading me to understand that He wants to call a large group of people to prayer and intimacy in Atlanta.

Let me explain – I have grown up in the outskirts of the city of Atlanta. I am twenty-four years old and I am bi –racial (½ African-American and ½ Puerto Rican). Identity tends to be an issue with many in their twenties – but I have realized this has been a lifelong question for me as well as many other minorities. While watching this documentary a professor from Harvard was performing DNA tests and searching for the genealogy of a group of African-Americans who decided they wanted to discover their own family history; in almost every attempt he was unsuccessful. Basically many African-Americans, because of slavery, do not have recorded family lineage. During slavery the slaves were considered property, so just like anything else that was owned; they had to take the name of their master. For instance, my last name is McIntyre, which is a name derived from Scottish heritage. I have virtually no Scottish heritage in me – the reason my last name is McIntyre is because the family that bought the slaves on my fathers side were Scottish. In turn, I as well as many others of African-American decent, do not know where their ancestors are from or what their real name is. Identity and family was ripped away causing pain and wounds for generations. I believe this loss of identity in the African-American community has been detrimental to an entire people group. This loss of identity has taken the hand of many in the country and lead us down paths of fatherlessness, abortion (African-Americans have the highest rate of abortion per capita in America), and poverty. These issues are perpetual cycles that need to be broken in the Spirit first, so that freedom will overflow in the natural. Though these issues are controversial, we must face them head on without fear. We must face them together and not as separate races, but as the Body of Christ.

This is not just about governmental and political reforms or social justice, this is about a radical racial mending and a coming together of the Bride of Jesus as a family of affection, so that God may be glorified and we (the Body of Christ) may be healed.

Personally, I have found healing, identity, and destiny within the house of prayer. God will use and is using the house of prayer in our city and the prayer movement at large to release destiny and identity to many African-Americans. You see- this is where I found my identity as a daughter of the Father of Glory and as the Bride of His beautiful Son. I believe God is choosing many in the African-American community to be set as watchman on the wall and priests to give the Lord a pure offering in worship and devotion.

Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchman on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give him no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

There is no doubt that God is bubbling up a prayer movement all over the earth and African-Americans have an inheritance from the Father in it. We also have an essential portion to offer as the Bride of Christ steps into her identity as a praying church. We, as a church and as the prayer movement are lacking without the African-American prophetic voice going forth. The house of prayer is said to be a green house for forerunners; this is a place that they will grow, flourish, and then be launched into their destiny. And as they flourish in the courts of the Lord they will fall in love with Jesus, never wanting to depart from the place of pure devotion and intimacy with Him.

God is jealous for this reality to come to fullness and so am I. I want so many others to recover what has been stolen from them in regard to their destiny and identity just as I have. This is my hope for other young African-Americans, that each will be given a double portion by the Father in heaven. I pray that our voices, which have been held back for so long, would be released. As the Body of Christ and an International House of Prayer we are incomplete without the African-American voice. May we see our need in this hour and open our hearts and our churches to embracing unity of the spirit that transcends culture or skin color. My prayer is that the voice of the fathers and prophets would arise from the African-American community and that this new breed of leaders would find themselves pursuing the Lord through lifestyles of prayer and fasting in the house of prayer.

Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud.