Last Tuesday, I was given the opportunity to speak on the UnCommon Christianity internet radio show. This is a weekly two-hour program hosted by some old friends of mine, and they’ve discussed all kinds of theological and cultural topics over the years. This week’s topic was spiritual warfare, and I was invited to discuss how prayer and worship relate to spiritual warfare. I’m not normally the go-to person for spiritual warfare, but I certainly have a thing or two to say about prayer!
I spent two hours on the air with them discussing prayer, worship, IHOPKC, the harp and bowl model, and “soaking” worship. We even spent a bit of time discussing some of the most common accusations against IHOPKC. I was really nervous, but Andy, Nathan, and Kim made me feel so at home on the air and I really enjoyed sharing my heart and my experiences with them.
The two-hour broadcast (my favourite part is in the first hour) is available for streaming or download on the show’s website at the link below.
If you’ve been wondering what it looks like to be an extern at The Prayer Room, wonder no longer! In a nutshell, my week consists of 24 hours of sacred trust in the prayer room, 12 hours of service, and 10 hours of class time. Here’s what any given week pretty much looks like for me:
My week at a glance.
MONDAY is my longest day. I’m at the base for over 12 hours. I’m in the prayer room 9:00 to 11:00 for my first sacred trust set of the day, then I spend an hour doing some admin work, then I have a lunch break during which I usually like to practice piano. From 1:00 to 3:00 I work on my IHOPU classes, then the last six hours of my day are spent in the prayer room. I usher the 3:00 and 5:00 sets (which consists of greeting guests, leading rapid fire prayer, and relieving the worship leader if they need to step out), then I lead worship for the 7:00 intercession set for the ending of abortion.
Monday night intercession set for the ending of abortion.
TUESDAY begins for the first six hours the same as Monday: prayer room, admin, lunch, class. At 3:00 I lead worship for a devotional set, in which I play piano and sing by myself for two hours. (TPR has a loop pedal, so I can rest my fingers as often as I like!) I always spend at least one 15 minute chunk of that time singing through a passage and meditating on it through spontaneous singing. At 5:30 we have staff meeting, which is a really important time to connect about how things are going for the base and what God is saying to us as a corporate body, as well as to handle announcements and admin stuff. At 7:00 I have small group with four other lovely ladies! We have a great time hanging out, laughing and praying together.
Small group
WEDNESDAY is my day off. Sometimes I hang out with people in Fort Worth or just do stuff around the house. Now that Doctor Who is back for series nine, I have a weekly date with Lauren to watch the newest episode. 🙂
Texas State Fair!!
THURSDAY begins at 9:00 with singing on a “worship with the Word” team using the harp and bowl model. We’ve been singing through Song of Solomon 1:2-4 and I love it! Then I have an admin meeting with the woman I’m assistant to, then lunch and class time. At 3:00 I go into the prayer room, and I worship lead a devo at 5:00.
FRIDAY I section lead the mid section. A full day in the prayer room is divided into three sections: 5:00-11:00 am, 11:00 am-5:00 pm, and 5:00-11:00 pm. The section leader doesn’t have to be in the room the entire time unless they have a concurrent responsibility such as ushering or worship leading, but they are the primary point person for anything that happens during that period. On Friday afternoons, it’s usually three of us (Me, Caslin, and Lisa) rotating as usher and worship leader for all three sets. I worship lead at 11:00, I have class time at 1:00, and I usher at 3:00. At 5:00 I have my externship meeting with Lisa, the staff member serving as my supervisor. Lisa is amazing at asking me how all facets of the externship are going and answering my questions. She’s been using this time to go over the staff manual with me and explain in detail some of the base policies, so I have deeper understanding on a practical level of how to run a house of prayer.
SATURDAY begins with sleeping in a little bit before my sacred trust in the prayer room starts at 11:00. Around 1:00 I go over to the new building to help Brad remodel it until 3:30 (or sometimes 5:00). It’s a veeerrryyyyy slow process, but it’s coming along! At 6:30 I head to the prayer room for Encounter service! Brad always teaches on something related to the end times, and I often do the slides for worship. People often go out to eat together afterwards.
This will become the prayer room!Weekly Saturday night Encounter service.
SUNDAY I have sacred trust in the prayer room from 11:00 t0 1:00. Since the church we rent from is doing their own Sunday service at this time, we move our prayer room to the small multi-purpose room to keep the fire on the altar. At 1:00 I’m supposed to have class time, but as often as I can, I try to squeeze these two hours in earlier in the week so I can have the afternoon free. Finally, my week wraps up with church at Forerunner Fellowship from 4:00 to 6:00. Brad pastors a small church mostly composed of prayer room people that meets at another church building. We keep this church as organisationally separate from The Prayer Room as possible; Forerunner Fellowship is a staunch supporter of everything The Prayer Room does, but The Prayer Room will never mention or promote Forerunner Fellowship.
And that’s what a standard week as an extern looks like at The Prayer Room! I really could not have chosen a better location to do my externship. I love the hearts here for prioritising the prayer room as our number one ministry, for training and investing in others to strengthen and sustain the prayer movement, and for building community together more genuinely than anywhere I’ve ever been. TPR is a beautiful, beautiful place, and it is my honour to be a part of it.
This was my first week at The Prayer Room in Arlington, Texas, and I hit the ground running. I have already led four two-hour solo worship sets on piano, section led twice (a section leader is the main point person in charge of the prayer room for a six-hour block of time), and ushered once. Yesterday I was at the prayer room for fourteen hours because I was filling in as a section leader on top of my regular prayer room hours and worship leading. In total, I count 26 hours I’ve spent in the prayer room in the last five days- and Wednesday was a day off.
Worship leading is still rather new to me, as is playing piano in general, so of course I’ve encountered glitches like hitting the wrong buttons on the keyboard (that was NOT the sound I wanted!) and fumbling the chords plenty of times. I love it, though, because every time I lead worship I get to:
Every day this week as I’ve been worship leading, I’ve been singing and meditating on Psalm 84. This is the famous passage from which we get the song “Better Is One Day,” and my heart has been eating it up every time I sing through it.
“How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God…
Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise!…
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
(Psalm 84:1-2, 4, 10)
I’ve been in this passage for a few months now, and it hasn’t gotten old yet.
I want to feel the psalmist’s longing for the presence of God. I want to taste the blessing of taking up residence in His presence and constantly singing praise to Him, just like the angels in the throne room who “never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy…'” (Revelation 4:8)
I want to be able to truthfully say that I consider a single day spent in His presence to be more pleasurable and more valuable than a thousand days spent anywhere else on earth.
After all, “in [His] presence there is fullness of joy; at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore.”(Psalm 16:11)
Every time I sing and declare this truth to God and to myself, I remind my spirit that He truly is the ultimate pleasure, and His presence, specifically in this context His house of prayer, is the best place in the world I could choose to be.
Bonus just for fun picture: me and my new friend Nichole trying on a giant pair of “wings” in downtown Fort Worth.
In the three-ish months I’ve been home for the summer before my fall externship at The Prayer Room in Dallas, I’ve wanted to be very intentional about spending my time connecting with people and staying active in the prayer movement. To that end, I’ve hosted worship and prayer nights at my house every Monday night. We’ve been doing a loose version of the harp and bowl model that we use at IHOPKC. It’s been such a joy to glorify Jesus and enjoy His presence together with some of my local California people. We’ve spent time praying for our cities and churches as well as individuals. We frequently end up singing “Holy, holy, holy” and meditating on the heavenly scene in Revelation 4, and then praying for a revelation of God’s love to break in where it’s needed most.
Singing and praying for a revelation of God’s love!
In Kansas City, I used to attend a weekly Sunday night house church/worship night in which a few of us would gather to fellowship, worship, and pray for each other. When it was time for me to move on from that group, one of the leaders, who is a dear friend of mine, encouraged me to start a similar group of my own. I was hesitant at first, but it’s been a very good growing/stretching process for me. I’ve never led worship before this. I’ve sung on a worship team at IHOPU all throughout my junior year, during which time I was also working on teaching myself piano. This summer was the perfect opportunity to stretch my fledgling skills to use in a small worship context (especially since I’m going to be leading worship in Dallas this fall!)
Last week was extra sweet. Only one person was able to come (it’s usually been about 3-5 people), and I was a bit nervous that it might feel awkward, but we reached out to God and He really met us. We interceded less than usual, but I ended up singing a fairly epic spontaneous oracle that combined phrases and themes from Psalm 27, Psalm 84, Song of Songs 1-2, and John 17. I wish I had recorded it, because it felt like very much what we needed to hear. Singing the Word is probably my favourite way to encounter God.
It’s not a large gathering, but I believe that God’s heart is touched by our small, weak prayers and songs. He cherishes having our attention, and He moves at the sound of our voices. What we do in those quiet moments of worship matters.
My second semester at IHOPU began on Monday. This quarter I’m taking Foundations of Biblical Eschatology, New Testament Survey, and Forerunner Messenger Practicum. The Practicum is broken up into three rotations, one of which is Harp and Bowl (the model for combining prayer and worship that we use in the prayer room). For my other two rotations I chose Preaching and Teaching, and Writing, out of options including Social Media, Creative Media, and Drama. I know, I know, Drama would be right up my alley, but I already spent four years developing my personal philosophy of Christians in the arts. I would not be able to come into that class with an open mind. Besides, drama is already something I know I have. Preaching and teaching is almost completely new to me, and both that and writing are things I’m feeling called to step into more.
Also, as part of the practicum, I’ll be placed as a singer on a student harp and bowl team. I was on an intern worship team for about three weeks during my internship, but other than that (and one Sunday morning singing at The Refuge) I’ve never been on a worship team before. I am SO excited for this!
For those not familiar with the harp and bowl model, it’s drawn from Revelation 5:8.
“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
(Revelation 5:8)
Anything that combines prayer and worship (specifically of the musical variety) can be considered “harp and bowl,” but the way we do harp and bowl is a whole structure that is designed to provide an atmosphere for maximum engagement in the room. Singing brings unity, and singing the Word and singing prayers from the Word–WOW!!
At IHOPKC, we mostly do two kinds of harp and bowl sets: worship with the Word, and intercession. Both are structured essentially the same, with times of corporate worship interspersed with times of spoken prayer developed by spontaneous singing. Here’s what your standard two-hour harp and bowl intercession set looks like:
Intercession set several years ago (old stage design). See that far right seat in the front row? That’s my seat. Every time.
The worship team consists of a worship leader on (usually) guitar or keys, at least three prophetic singers, musicians, and a prayer leader. At the start of the set, the worship leader will begin leading a familiar worship song as the rest of the team is transitioning onto the stage. We’ll have a time of corporate worship for 20-40 minutes, mostly consisting of worship songs that everyone already knows with maybe a bit of spontaneous singing sprinkled in as the Spirit leads.
When it’s time to transition into the prayer time, the worship leader will initiate several minutes of singing in the Spirit. (“What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” 1 Corinthians 14:15) At this time, everyone will sing at the same time, either in tongues or with whatever words of praise are on their hearts.
Then, the prayer leader will start leading intercession from the podium just off stage right. The musicians will usually start playing something with a more driving beat, and many people in the room will stand up if they’re not already to help themselves engage more fully. The prayer leader will choose a verse, preferably an apostolic prayer, and pray from that for 2-3 minutes. It may go something like this:
“Praying for the ending of sex trafficking in Thailand from Ephesians 1:17-19. ‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.’ So God, I pray that You would break into Thailand with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Open up their eyes to see You rightly. Let the traffickers see who You are and be transformed, and let those trafficked see You and be filled with hope…”
After the prayer leader finishes “in the name of Jesus,” the singers will one by one sing spontaneous phrases inspired by the verse and the prayer. The prayer leader may interject phrases of spoken prayers to help guide the singers. It may sound like this:
“Oh, God, bring wisdom and revelation to Thailand…” “Wisdom and revelation…”
— “Open up their eyes!” “Open up their eyes and let them see You…”
— “Bring deliverance!” “Great Deliverer, bring deliverance…”
After a minute or two, the chorus leader (the first singer) will launch a short, simple chorus that the whole room can jump in on, and then will end with a name of God. Maybe something like:
“You are the God of justice You are the God of deliverance Open up their eyes Open up their eyes [repeat] Open up their eyes, oh God” [Note: I just made up all of these prayers and choruses off the top of my head, so what you’d actually hear in the prayer room may be quite a bit better.]
After the chorus, the prayer leader will either pray again, or another person will come up to pray, and the process will repeat.
At some point during the intercession cycle, the prayer leader will invite a time of rapid fire prayer. At this time, anyone in the room can come line up behind the podium to pray a short 5-10 second prayer on the chosen topic. Every ten or so people, the chorus leader will interrupt with a chorus the whole room can sing together for a minute, then the prayer line will continue.
After the line ends, the worship team may continue with a chorus, someone may feel inspired to sing a solo prophetic oracle for a few minutes on the intercession topic, or the worship leader may take the room back into corporate worship.
After another 20 minutes or so of worship, another intercession cycle will commence.
A worship with the Word set is essentially the same, except that instead of a prayer leader leading intercession, there will be a prayer leader guiding the team through meditation on a short passage of the Bible. Phrase by phrase, the singers will develop the verse (paraphrase, interpret, and expand it). One person’s insight will spark another’s, and as a corporate body we will go somewhere in the Spirit we couldn’t go alone. Singing the Word, whether in intercession or meditation, is the best way I know of to make it a part of you. You may forget the verse you heard in a sermon, or even the verse you read in your own Bible, but you’ll find it difficult to forget the verse you sang. The centrality of the Word is of primary importance in every harp and bowl set.
This model is incredibly flexible and is easily adapted to any culture or context. It fosters unity and an atmosphere of enjoyable prayer–and enjoyable prayer is sustainable prayer.
“These I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
(Isaiah 56:7)
