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.
The climax of our trip was putting on a Onething regional conference with PIHOP. What is a Onething regional conference? It’s basically a mini version of the big year-end conference that IHOPKC puts on in Kansas City every year. The purpose of these conferences is to call this generation to passionate love for Jesus. This year, some 300 IHOPU students, joined by key speakers and worship leaders from IHOPKC, headed out in teams to seven cities across the country to partner with local ministries to put on seven simultaneous regional conferences.
Laura Hackett Park leading us in worship.Dave Sliker leading a ministry time – yes, that’s Lou Engle standing front and centre of the crowd, on the floor in the corner of the stage.
https://instagram.com/p/1n6K5arZ7K
The conference was held Friday and Saturday, April 17-18. As students, we were assigned to various service teams to help run the event. I served several shifts as an usher as well as a shift on a prophecy team. I loved ushering. To me, ushering is being the “doorkeeper in the house of my God” that Psalm 84:10 speaks of. I get to help keep the room organised and free of distractions so that guests can encounter God–and I also get to be roaming prayer support! Often while I’m ushering, God will put a specific person on my heart, and I will stare at the back of their head and pray that God would do the work in their heart that needs to be done. Sometimes as I’m praying I’ll watch teens go from squirrely to locked in to weeping under the touch of God.
While serving on a prophecy team, I prophesied over a few dozen people who came in turn to sit on chairs in front of me and my two teammates. We would greet them, explain that we prophesy in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 14:3 “edification and exhortation and comfort,” then spend a few moments in prayer asking God what He would have to say. When we’re ready, we speak into a recording device if the person has one, sharing the words or pictures or verses that God has given us to encourage them. It’s intense and scary the first few times, but the fact is that God loves to speak to and encourage His bride. He knows each of us so individually, and He loves to blow our minds with specific words made just for us. We all had many accurate and encouraging words that God used to build up the people in front of us. Some I saw again months later, and they told me they still had my voice on their phones and those words were still a source of encouragement!
Serving on a prophecy team- yes, my “listening to God” face looks super intense!
Our speakers included Cheryl Allen, the director of PIHOP, and Dave Sliker, one of the senior leaders at IHOPKC and one of my favourite IHOPU teachers. They both spoke about God’s heart for California and the call to pursue Him wholeheartedly. Several of my teammates were invited to share personal testimonies of how God has transformed their lives, and God moved powerfully during every session.
One of the most profound occurrences of the conference came Saturday evening. Seb, our student leader, had been feeling a burden to pray for the pure and simple gospel to be preached from the platform, since most of the messages had been directed toward believers. I remember feeling the same thing. On Saturday evening, Dave Sliker spontaneously invited Seb up to pray for the message. Seb came up to pray, but in the middle of his prayer he stopped and began preaching the gospel, calling for the prodigals who had wandered away from God to return home to the Father.
You could have heard a pin drop. No one had that moment planned, but God’s heart was yearning for His children, and His voice broke through as Seb spoke.
After Seb said, “Amen,” Dave Sliker said, “I want us to respond to that call right now. If you feel like that was for you, go to the back right now and meet Seb — Seb, go to the back — and he’s going to pray for you.”
Several people came to the back of the room for salvation as Dave went forward with preaching his message. Seb later described it as “less of an altar call and more of an ‘awkward call,'” but he prayed with them and, as he had with the guy who got saved and baptised earlier that week, started figuring out a way to make a baptism happen. Mott Auditorium where we were meeting has no baptismal or pool of any kind, but with a bit of frantic creativity they got hose and some sort of trough set up and at the end of the night over THIRTY PEOPLE received baptism!
Seb praying/preaching, while another teammate stands ready to share a dream God gave her.Spontaneous baptisms after the conference!
That was the climax of our trip. I feel like I saw the Gospel in action that week. We came back with so many testimonies of outrageous salvations– and let me tell you, that’s not necessarily normal, even for an IHOPU ministry trip. What was different? I don’t know, but we certainly had a large handful of fiery bold evangelists on our team who constantly provoked the rest of us to step out and share the gospel. Our team developed a habit of seizing every opportunity to invite Jesus to break in and set captives free.
Also, we had a very strong team of intercessors praying for us in the prayer room back home in Kansas City. All of the seven teams reported later that they felt unusually covered in prayer, and that prayer covering seemed to produce a unique grace for ministry. We were so grateful for those who chose to stay and pray for us as we went out. Missions does not happen without prayer. We need the goers and the senders– and the senders must do more than open their pocketbooks, but open their mouths in intercession that “the Lord of the harvest [would] send out laborers into His harvest” and that “the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified.” (Luke 10:2, 2 Thessalonians 3:1)
We left for our drive home to Kansas City late Saturday night after the conference ended. It was a hard drive through the night, but in the morning we arrived at the Grand Canyon and got to bask in the glory of creation while singing worship together. It was such a holy, beautiful, and intimate way to wrap up our week-long ministry adventure together as a family.
Family worship at the Grand Canyon.I could not love these people more.
Desert House of Prayer in Barstow, CA
I do indeed still have more Pasadena stories to tell, but I’m going to skip ahead to the present to share something that happened just last week… but began that week in Pasadena.
During the Onething regional conference that my team put on in Pasadena, I met two guys who were from the Desert House of Prayer (DHOP) in Barstow, which is about an hour away from me in the desert. We kept in touch on Facebook, and soon after I came home the director, Trent Williams, invited me to come speak at DHOP at the end of June! They are a pretty small house of prayer and aren’t able to run many live hours of worship yet (though they are planning to activate a 24/5 schedule of prayer with the IHOPKC webstream very soon!) but every month they do a “sacred assembly” of 24 hours of prayer and worship with live worship teams and believers gathering from all over the high desert. This month’s sacred assembly was Friday, June 26, 9:00 pm, to Saturday, June 27, 9:00 pm, and I was invited to speak at a closing service on Sunday, June 28 at 6:00 pm. Additionally, they invited me to speak at Abundant Living Fellowship in Barstow for the Sunday morning service.
I got there Saturday afternoon during the 24 hour burn to help strengthen their worship and intercession as well as get a feel for what their community is all about. I saw a gap on the schedule from 2:00 to 3:00, so I volunteered to lead worship during that time. I led a solo devotional set on piano for an hour, and it was a lot of fun! I love spontaneously singing the meditations of my heart to God, especially out of Scripture, and forming new choruses that the room can join me in. During the last five or ten minutes I was joined by members of the 3:00 worship team, so that was officially my first experience of leading worship with a team of musicians. Whew! Later on, the director and I traded off praying during the intercession times. It was powerful to join Jesus’ heart in what He wants to do in Barstow.
Saturday evening I was hosted by a wonderful couple who opened their home to me and shared stories of their walk with God. I heard stories of dramatic salvation, conviction, guidance, radical hospitality, and God’s relentless pursuit of hearts. Jesus is awesome.
Sunday I showed up at the small church, which could seat about 40 people, at 9:00 for their pre-service prayer meeting. I felt right at home. The prayer with spontaneous worship continued till 10:20 or so, as people trickled in for the 10:00 service. Later as the worship leader led some corporate worship songs, since I was planning to preach about Mary of Bethany, I found myself wishing that he would play a song by Christina Reynolds called “You are My Great Reward (The Mary Song)”. To my shock, minutes later, he actually did!! I was so moved that Jesus would prepare the way by playing the exact song I wished for.
I had so much fun preaching on Mary of Bethany. I went through all three scenes of her life shown in scripture (Luke 10, John 11, John 12) and highlighted her repeated choice of Jesus as her “one thing” over everything else. Mary’s story has meant a lot to me ever since God started speaking to me about her at age 16. God really moved and touched a lot of people that morning, and the pastor said that it felt like confirmation of God calling their community back to intimacy with Him as their first priority.
After a delicious Mexican lunch and a few hours hanging out in the prayer room, the evening service began. An awesome worship team comprised of musicians from around the high desert area led us in powerful, exuberant worship, during which I threw hair and makeup caution to the wind and danced with abandon in the back of the room. I admit to looking a little bit like a mess by the time I took the mic a bit later, but I did at least put my shoes back on!
I had so much fun speaking to that group. I recast vision for the global movement of 24/7 prayer and worship that God is orchestrating in our generation, emphasising Jesus’ desire to be with us, His plan for the earth to reflect heaven, and His ultimate worthiness. It was a joy and an honour to encourage their community with what God’s been burning on my heart these last three years in Kansas City!
Esteban Vargas, the worship leader that evening who also pastors Redemption High Desert church in Victor Valley, put together this video of the event, featuring an interview with the DHOP director and me.
As I drove home that night, I felt like I was flying high on what God had done that weekend. He had met us in worship, shared His heart with us in intercession, moved through the messages, and bonded us all together as family.
One other thing – on Saturday morning on my drive out, I noticed this sign marking my freeway exit. Barstow Road is CA Route 247. Coincidence, you say? If you think that’s coincidence, you don’t know my Jesus. 😉 Click here to listen to my teaching on Mary of Bethany and/or get my written notes!
The continuing saga of my IHOPU ministry trip to Pasadena, April 10-20.
Two months later and there’s still so much more of the story to tell! Wednesday was primarily a prayer room day for us. We started our day with the entire morning in the prayer room at PIHOP, then in the afternoon some of us chose to stay and some chose to go evangelise at Pasadena City College. PCC is the 10th largest community college in the United States. We connected with a Christian campus ministry and split into groups to go talk to students.
Often when I evangelise I waste so much time playing the “I don’t know, what are you feeling?” game. It’s like I think I need direct direction or permission from the Holy Spirit before I can talk to someone about Jesus. However, a while ago I finally decided to get over that and just… talk to people. It’s as simple as that. Just start a conversation, be friendly and casual, don’t be afraid to ask if you can pray, and trust the Holy Spirit to lead it.
My partner and I first talked to a couple of girls waiting for a friend to get out of class. One girl told me that her aunt had died suddenly only a month ago. It was her mom’s only sister. I told her that I could relate, because my aunt, my mom’s only sister, died suddenly a few years ago. I was able to pray with her for peace in her family.
When their friend showed up, we explained we were just visiting the campus, and one of the girls suggested we check out the new art building. Since we had no better direction to follow, plus the fact that I wanted to refill my water bottle (it was HOT!), we decided to take her advice. We wandered through the art building admiring the displays but not engaging with any conversations, but as we came out the other side we saw a girl sitting by herself studying in a courtyard. After discussing whether or not we should interrupt her, we decided to just go for it. We didn’t feel like she was being supernaturally highlighted in a dramatic way, but we both wanted to talk to her, so we decided to just see what would happen.
I asked if we could sit with her, and she was wary at first, then opened up when I explained that we were visiting the campus and just checking things out and talking to students. We chatted for a few minutes about the various programs and opportunities on campus, then my partner asked her what she was reading. Turns out it was a book called Lamb by Christopher Moore, an irreverent satire about Jesus’ childhood. For all its biblical liberties and crass humour, it was provoking some real questions in her. I was able to use that as an on-ramp share with her what the Bible says about the significance of Jesus’ life. I had preached the humility of Christ out of Philippians 2 just a few weeks ago in a class, and so that was the version of the story that came out of me. I talked about God’s desire for and reach for humanity, even though He is so high above the heavens that He has to humble Himself to even look at the created universe (Psalm 113:6), and Jesus’ lowering Himself from that exalted glory to become the lowest of the low, and therefore being worthy of the highest exaltation. I admit, I got a bit overexcited and long-winded, but my partner did a great job of following up by asking questions. The girl admitted she had never heard the gospel shared that way before. She wasn’t comfortable with allowing us to pray for her, but I know God is after her heart and won’t stop pursuing her.
Finally, we met a girl who was already a believer, and was very excited to talk with us about what God was doing on the campus and in the city. We prayed for her, and then she asked to pray for us! She said it was such a huge blessing to run into us. God sure does love to bless His kids!
That night we gathered in the PIHOP prayer room to have an epic prayer rumble for California with their community. When these people do intercession, they don’t mess around. Luckily, IHOPU students can pray as hard as anyone any day of the week. My buddy Joash is a hardcore intercessor with a spirit of prophecy. “God, we cry out for revival in California!”
That night felt very significant for me. The reason you don’t see me in line with the others in the above picture is that I was on the floor sobbing. It’s not often that I cry in intercession, but that night, it hit me hard. When I finally managed to catch my breath well enough to stand up mostly straight and get out several words in a row, I did grab the mic and managed to shout/sob/squeak out a prayer for Christian college campuses in California– APU, Biola, CBU, Pepperdine, Life Pacific, SDCC, Point Loma, etc.
I spent an hour pacing in the prayer room alone after that prayer meeting. “God, what the crap just happened?” I asked over and over. “What does this mean? Are You calling me to California?” God was mostly silent, but it felt like silence with a cheeky little grin. “Spoilers,” I could almost hear Him saying. I didn’t get any of the details I wanted, but I did come face to face with the fact that I do, in fact, have a larger-than-anticipated burden for my home state.
Hmm.
I wonder what that could mean?
The continuing saga of my IHOPU ministry trip to Pasadena, April 10-20.
Life has been very busy since I last wrote. I finished finals for my junior year at IHOPU, left my job at Bed Bath and Beyond, and moved home to California for the summer. I will certainly continue to keep you posted about summer life in Cali, but for now, I want to continue telling the stories of the Pasadena trip. In my last post I told the stories of Tuesday afternoon, when our team did ministry in the city of Azusa. On Tuesday evening, we invaded downtown Hollywood.
First we gathered at the metro station to take the train downtown. We didn’t want to waste even our train ride as an opportunity for evangelism! We partnered with a guy named Chris Evans (not the Captain America actor!) who is a pastor at a church called Expression 58. He works with a ministry called Love L.A. and regularly does an outreach called “Church on the Metro.” This is how we bring church to the metro!
We split into several teams, each including a worship leader on guitar and a speaker. When each group boarded their train, the worship leader started playing and singing loudly and the rest of us joyfully joined in. It was a bit like a church service flash mob! After a while, the speaker would come forward and say, “Welcome to Church on the Metro! You’re to busy to go to church, so we’re bringing church to you! We just want you to know that Jesus loves you and He died to make away for you to live with God…” Most people were either amused or ignored us, but we had some good conversations and got to pray with several people.
As a matter of fact, God orchestrated that train ride to give us as much ministry time as possible. First of all, the train was unusually and inexplicably crowded, and it wasn’t just because we were there. Then, the train stopped underground! We talked to a metro staff member who told us that’s only happened once or twice in his 15 years’ experience. We thank God for our captive audience and made use of the time talking to as many of the locals as we could.
Once we got off the metro into downtown Hollywood, we hit the streets with a bit of travelling intercessory worship. Our goal was simply to bring JOY to the streets. We walked about two miles, singing the most joyful worship songs we could think of as loudly as we could. Worship walking through downtown Hollywood
Our goal wasn’t specifically to evangelise, but God had divine appointments lined up for us all along our path that evening. We met two separate guys, individually, who had just gotten out of jail and had nowhere else to go, so we invited them to join us! We met a number of homeless people and other individuals who were in need of a touch from God. We got to pray for several of the costumed characters walking around downtown, including Tinker Bell, Spider-Man, and Batman (who insisted on being referred to as Bruce Wayne even as we were praying!). We got to talk with several members of a Scientology church, and at least one was deeply touched by some prophetic insight one of our guys was given into her life that showed her the love of the Father.
Most precious to my heart was an encounter several of my teammates had with a particular young woman.
Them: Do you believe in Jesus?
Her: Yes!
Them: Do you believe in the Bible?
Her: Yes!
Them: So you’re a Christian?
Her: No.
Them: …wait, what?
It turns out she was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – a Mormon – and as they talked to her God began revealing to them some of the secrets of her heart. To her, the church meant constantly striving to be “good enough” to earn His pleasure. This made sense to her because of the relationship she had with her dad, and in her mind, God was no different. The LDS church wasn’t teaching her the true grace available freely in Jesus Christ. She was amazed that our team could prophetically know things about her life, just like Jesus did to the woman at the well (John 4) and Paul talked about (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). She was so touched by the love of God that she surrendered her life to the true Jesus that night!!
The climax of the evening came when we arrived at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theater. As we were waiting for our vans to pick us up, a guy dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow asked one of our worship leaders to play a song on his guitar. Lance started playing and singing “To Worship You I Live”. We all huddled in a circle and sang, and Captain Jack got very quiet and respectful as he listened.
A moment later, a character dressed (as near as we could figure) as Osama bin Laden pushed his way into our circle and began mocking us, singing loudly, raising his hands, bowing on the ground… and he had an entire crew of professional cameramen with him. (We figured out later that he was part of a popular youtube prank show.)
Our other worship leader Olivia took control of the moment by starting to play and sing “Jesus Paid It All.” Our team quickly joined in. Defeated, Osama bin Laden wandered away to consult his producer and regroup– then came back a moment later and mooned us!! I was so proud of our team in that moment. We all either closed our eyes or looked away, and sang louder.
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
You cannot shut us up, Satan. No weapon formed against us will prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)
Osama bin Laden eventually left with his camera crew. We launched into singing the chorus that Olivia had begun that afternoon at one of the Buddhist temples in Azusa, with a fresh Los Angeles twist.
All authority belongs to You, Jesus
You reign in L.A.
You reign in L.A.
As we sang and proclaimed the victory of Jesus over Hollywood, a lot was happening around us. Captain Jack and a number of passersby stopped to apologise for Osama bin Laden’s behaviour and encourage us that we were doing a positive thing that deserved respect. At one point I turned around and saw a man talking with two of my teammates, then hugging both of them tightly and sobbing. I found out later that he had run away from God and was at that moment surrendering his life to Jesus.
The end of that evening was so powerful and completely unplanned. God dropped a bomb on Hollywood that night through the victorious worship of His saints. What the enemy meant for evil, God used for good. (Genesis 50:20)
Jesus loves Hollywood so, so much. It’s a crazy place, and there’s a lot of darkness, but His eye is on that city, and He will not rest until He sets every captive free. We love L.A.! The guy on the left is one of our new friends who joined us, and Chris Evans is behind him.
The continuing saga of my IHOPU ministry trip to Pasadena, April 10-20. Tuesday was probably my favourite day of the entire trip. That was the day we went to Azusa, a town about 20 minutes east of Pasadena. It features lots of Buddhist temples, a small but fiery house of prayer, and the private Christian college I graduated from in 2010… Azusa Pacific University.
“God First Since 1899”
During my time at APU, I spent an hour or so almost every morning in the little campus prayer chapel, praying for revival at the school. I very quickly learned that just because it’s a Christian school doesn’t mean that every student is actually in love with Jesus and committed to walking in the Spirit. I loved so much of what I saw in the heart of APU’s leadership and student body, but I also saw plenty of confusion and darkness and brokenness. I ached for the Holy Spirit to set my campus on fire with fearless love for Jesus and pursuit of genuine holiness.
To give you more insight into the culture of the school I remember, APU students are passionate about authentic community and social justice issues, and they generally excel at listening to and respecting one another’s stories. Micah 6:8 (“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”) is a life verse for many. The school also has a surprisingly large population of professing non-Christians on campus, as well as a fair number of students who profess to be both LGBT and Christian. (Follow the links for the APU student magazine articles on those situations.) I think of APU as a big, loud, passionate, apathetic, divided, united, servant-hearted, dysfunctional, striving, broken, beautiful, authentic community.
During my final semester, I wrote a song of prophetic intercession for APU. It was originally just a little verse and chorus I used to sing alone in my car, but I dreamed of one day coming back as a worship leader and singing it over the campus, and getting students to join in crying out for their own campus.
When I heard our team would be doing ministry in Azusa, I thoroughly freaked out. I saw the potential for that dream to become a reality, and there was nothing I wanted more than to pray over my school with my IHOPU family. As the trip drew closer and plans started to solidify, I was able to get permission from the alumni office to bring a small team to do some prayer and worship on campus. That in itself was a miracle, and I do not use the word lightly. APU is very careful about which outside ministries they allow on campus, but as an alumnus I was able to get approval without a problem.
Worshipping together at AZHOP
That Tuesday, we spent the morning in the PIHOP prayer room, then travelled in the afternoon to the Azusa House of Prayer. We met the leadership, some of whom I remembered as classmates from years ago, and prayed together for our outreaches that day. One of the AZHOP staff encouraged us to ask God freely for what we wanted to see. Immediately, I knew in my heart that all I wanted to see was APU students encountering the overwhelming love of God. As I prayed that, the tears began to well up and spill out. It was as if every fiery, verbose prayer I had scribbled in my journal during those four years on campus coalesced into one burning desire: I want them to be undone by the love of God.
The 52 of us split up into four teams. One team went to APU, one went to evangelise at a nearby strip mall, one went to pray over several Buddhist temples, and one stayed at AZHOP to intercede for us. All of these teams came back with powerful testimonies about the power of God. The temple team went to four temples and a mosque and prayed at them all. They were able to get into places the AZHOP team had never been able to go, and they worshipped and declared Jesus’ authority in some of the darkest places in Azusa. They even laid hands on and prayed for at least one of the monks, who was very friendly and receptive.
Inside one of those temples, one of our worship leaders sang a spontaneous chorus which would become a theme for us the rest of the week.
All authority belongs to You, Jesus
You reign, You reign
You reign, You reign
Probably the first time worship to Jesus has ever arisen from this room.
At APU, my team and I went to check in at the alumni office, but when we arrived it was closed. Hoping they’d be back from lunch soon, we went to the prayer chapel to brief. I shared my heart for the school and the plan for the afternoon. Out of respect for what APU would welcome on their grounds, we chose not to actively seek out people to pray for in the same way we did at USC. Our goal was simply to bring the kingdom through worship and talk to as many students as God would bring to us.
When we went back to the alumni office, the receptionist had apparently not gotten the memo and didn’t know who we were. I started praying frantically in my heart, and when the director of the alumni office came to greet us, he immediately remembered my phone call and welcomed us warmly: “Please, PRAY. Would you like t-shirts?” So I got a free alumni t-shirt out of it! I wear it proudly as a memento of God’s favour in opening that door for us.
We went out to Cougar Walk, a central eating and study area outdoors on campus, and sat down with a guitar to sing worship over the campus. We kept steady worship going for over two hours, and during that time we also had the opportunity to talk with and pray with several students who came over to meet us. President John Wallace walked by, but he was with someone, or else I would have loved to go introduce myself and pray with him.
Worship on Cougar Walk
The most precious part of the time for me was having the opportunity to sing my song! Since I don’t play guitar, I had taught it to one of our worship leaders that morning, and with his help we released it as a prayer over the campus. We actually ended up singing it twice, because one of the girls with us who is involved with AZHOP asked to hear it again. They may end up using it as part of their intercession times for APU! Before I left, I gave my handwritten chord chart to a student I met who was a worship major and a friend of AZHOP. “Do something good with this,” I told him. And thus was the torch passed. APU will always be my school, but revival will have to start with the current students on campus.
I believe that the spiritual atmosphere over Azusa shifted that day. Our simple songs and words to God are more powerful than we imagine, and I believe we only saw the edges of the impact of our prayers.
Song for APU (Heaven Open Up) We live under the banner of “God First” Teach us to live that life With Christ as our chief cornerstone Let us learn to love Him first No matter the cost So we pray Heaven open up on Your children in Azusa Heaven open up on us From Smith to Trinity and the Shire to U.P. Heaven open up on us Have Your resting place here
The original journal page on which the song was birthed, October 15, 2010
Monday was our first full day in Pasadena. We ate breakfast together and had our morning briefing at 7:00, as would become our tradition. We then spent 8:00-10:00 in the prayer room at PIHOP (Pasadena House of Prayer).
PIHOP is not in any way directly affiliated with IHOPKC, but they are inspired by some of the same vision and use some of the same format. PIHOP’s prayer room is located in the historic Mott Auditorium on the Frontier Ventures campus and is open nearly 24 hours, 6 days a week. They have chosen to close on Sundays so people can participate in their own local churches. It was a real treat for our team to see how another house of prayer functions. As it turns out, their style and format is nearly identical to the harp and bowl model we use at IHOPKC. Since their community is smaller and is not on such a global stage, they have the freedom to be a little less structured at times, which was a fun treat for us to experience.
Some of our team serving with PIHOP’s team in the prayer room later in the week
In the afternoon, we piled in our vans and drove to the USC (University of Southern California) to meet up with the leaders of United House of Prayer on the USC campus (they have an AWESOME VIDEO you should watch!) and also of a recent church plant for USC students called The Warehouse. Wesley Hall, the pastor of the Warehouse, gave us a briefing on doing outreach on campus, and then we headed out to worship and to meet some students.
Briefing with Wes at the UHOP prayer room
Our outreach strategy was simple: We ate a lot of pizza (hallelujah) and established a central beachhead of ongoing worship and prayer at one of the fountains on campus. We had one guitar, a trash can which served as a drum (our class has actually gotten really good at this technique during our UMKC prayer meetings), and our own voices, which we had to project to be heard over the fountain. From there, we broke up into two-person teams to spread out around the campus and engage people in conversation to pray for them, prophesy over them, heal them, and ultimately and share the gospel as the Holy Spirit led.
Worship and prayer at USC
The atmosphere on campus posed a challenge for us because everyone was in such a dang hurry! It seemed every other person was on a bike whizzing past us, and those who weren’t had earbuds in and were walking like they were on a mission. USC is a very driven and competitive school; many students are taking a heavy classload and two or even three majors!
Even with all the bustle, a number of people were able to have really good conversations and get to pray with osme of the students. My partner and I met a Jewish girl named Cava. The only reason she stopped to talk to us is that we had been asking God to show us who He wanted us to talk to, and He told us to look for someone with red hair. Cava was the first readhead we saw, and she was pretty tripped out that she was on our “treasure hunt” list! She allowed us to pray for her and she really got touched, and I know Jesus is continuing to pursue her heart. Especially since she’s a daughter of Israel– she has a legacy and a destiny that she can’t even imagine!
Another awesome testimony from that afternoon came from a few of our girls who had the chance to talk with and pray for a guy by the fountain who happened to be a Christian. They prophesied over him (by which I mean they spoke the impressions that God was putting on their hearts for him, which described him perfectly and was exactly what he needed to hear) and he was blown away! He said he had studied what the Bible says about the gift of prophecy in the church,* but had never seen it in action. They explained to him how simple it is to hear the voice of God for another person, and invited him to try it. He and one of the girls started praying for the other girl, and as he was praying he did indeed start feeling a word from the Lord for her! He spoke it out, and it was dead accurate and actually moved her to tears. He was thrilled that he could actually hear God’s voice and God would use him to speak His heart to others, and she was personally encouraged and so excited to see God teach him to prophesy like that!
That night we were served dinner by an Armenian church that one of our IHOPU friends not on the trip belonged to, and they were incredibly generous and hospitable. Connecting with our spiritual family from around the world was one of the great honours of this trip.
We wrapped up the evening with an intercession set in the PIHOP prayer room. We prayed for kids in the Los Angeles foster system. I was so proud of my team, that even for those of us who had never before thought to pray for this issue, we knew it was on God’s heart, and we had been sent there to pray, so pray we did.
This is how we pray.
That night was our trip coach’s (the main staff leader) birthday, so we decorated the courtyard of our dorm building and hosted a (good-neighbourly quiet) little surprise birthday celebration for him! Matt Kossler has poured out so much for this trip and he is truly one of the kindest, strongest, most encouraging human beings I know. We were all blessed to get to serve with him.
And that was our Monday. Stay tuned for more Pasadena adventures coming soon! Tuesday was possibly the craziest day of all…
*Since I mentioned prophecy… here are a few highlights, from 1 Corinthians 14 (read it ALL!) and others:
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy…. the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation… if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you… For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.”
(1 Corinthians 14:1, 3, 24-25, 31)
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…”
(Acts 2:17)
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
(John 10:27)
“…For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
(Revelation 19:10)
I’ve always wondered about the line “dancers who dance upon injustice” in the song “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” by Delirious?. As a dancer for most of my life, I’ve often asked, what does it mean to dance upon injustice? I understand dancing to express something, but how can dance actually trample something down?
A few days ago at IHOPU, we held a 24 hour “prayer burn.” Live student worship teams rotated around the clock for a full day of continuous worship and intercession for the church in the middle east. During the second set of the burn, at 6:00 pm on Thursday, I was in the room doing homework when my friend Deni asked me to pray. I agreed and she put my name on the board to be third in line to lead intercession on the mic. I closed my textbook and opened my Bible to find a verse to pray. I was going to pray the good ol’ Ephesians 3:16 “might in the inner man,” but before it was my turn someone started playing the old favourite “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”
I was already in the back of the room pacing with my Bible trying to get God’s heart for the church in the middle east, but for some reason I didn’t feel I was quite there yet. Then as the song progressed, something in the room started stirring. People started jumping. Eventually I set down my Bible, took off my boots and cardigan, and let loose in the back corner of the room.
About fifteen minutes later, while we were still dancing to the same song, I heard God speaking to me.
“This is what I want for My church in the middle east. Pray for joy out of Romans 15.”
Romans 15 is one of my favourite passages to pray for unity, but as I flipped to the page, I wondered, is Romans 15 even about joy? I couldn’t remember.
Found it.
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
(Romans 15:5-6, 13)
When it was my turn to pray, I got on the mic, read this passage, then began asking God to give the church in the middle east a supernatural unity for His glory, and the joy and peace that comes from the hope of the gospel. Echoing the words of the song, I prayed, “Let their streets resound with singing, and let there be dancers who dance upon injustice, who prophetically proclaim victory over injustice!”
That’s it.
Dance is more than self-expression. It’s also prophecy. When I dance in intercession, I am prophetically proclaiming what God wants to do in a region or situation. Sometimes my movements express something pouring out or springing forth. Sometimes nothing specific is discernible, but when coupled with a heart of prayer, dance prophetically proclaims our victory in Christ (both in the already and not yet) over every form of injustice and every scheme of the evil one.
That’s what I want to see in the middle east. In the midst of oppression, persecution, and injustice, I want the dancers to arise who will declare the hope, joy, and peace found in the confidence of our victory in Christ.
Maybe you need victory in a certain situation in your life. Maybe you feel crushed by injustice. In fact, any form of oppression, be it emotional, spiritual, circumstantial, etc, is injustice, because you were not made to be kept down.
You want a breakthrough? Dance. Proclaim your victory in faith. Seize joy. Celebrate your hope with confidence in who Christ is.
Dance upon injustice.
NOTE June 15, 2018 – 3 years later, this is still the most popular post on my blog. Wow! My name is Caitlyn, and I am a full-time missionary at a house of prayer in Dallas. That means I raise support to worship and pray in a prayer room. (Well, I also run a ministry school and do a few other things, but it’s mostly all about prayer and worship!) Check out My Story to get to know me, and please feel free to browse and explore the rest of the blog! I’ve also written a more recent blog about prophetic dancing for justice that you may be interested in: Dancing Justice. Blessings!
As part of our House of Prayer Leadership practicum, my class (some 50-80 of us) is leading two hours of prayer and worship on campus at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) several Friday mornings this semester, taking turns by our small groups. We prayed for the “word of the Lord to run swiftly” (1 Thessalonians 3:1) through the campus, for strengthening for believers, and for salvation for unbelievers. We’re partnering with Luke18 Project, a nationwide campus ministry that seeks to establish a culture of prayer and worship on every college campus.
During the second hour of our prayer meeting, a number of students went out to evangelise on campus. I later heard one of the testimonies… my friend Elijah sat down with a UMKC student from India studying computer science. Over a 40 minute conversation, “what are you studying?” led to “what is the purpose of your life?” to which the student had no answer. Elijah shared his own testimony of purpose and transformation, and this student was intrigued by the claims of Jesus. He wants to give his life to Christ, but doesn’t want to make a commitment without giving it some serious thought first. They are going to continue to meet to discuss Christianity. Please pray that the Holy Spirit settles every fear and draws him into the love of Jesus unto salvation!
I’ve really felt an increased burden among IHOPU students this year for praying for revival on college campuses. Our generation of young adults is thirsty for truth, purpose, and love. We’ve been disillusioned by some of the things in our past, whatever they might be, and we’re ready to throw our lives into something bigger than ourselves. History testifies that every major social movement has begun in this age bracket. The harvest is ripe on college campuses across our nation.Are we willing to labour with the Lord in prayer and outreach to see them brought into their rightful place in the Kingdom? (Read more on “Why College Campuses?” from Luke18.)
This Friday, it’s my group’s turn to lead the meeting. It’s such a joy and honour to proclaim the glory of Jesus over this school, and to cry out that He would have His inheritance. I’m looking forward to what God will do!
I’ve always wondered about the line “dancers who dance upon injustice” in the song 
