A NEW LIFE

I had the privilege of going to an Extreme Prophetic conference (Glory School) this last weekend in Tucson, AZ...I was telling a random friend from my campus fellowship about it, and last minute she decided to go. During the conference, she finally understood what it meant to believe on Jesus for salvation, and she trusted him as her savior! Soon afterwards, she started recieving words and pictures from God, and worshiping him in the freedom of her new life with him! It was so awesome to see her transformation right before my eyes, it truly was a resurrection of her whole being. She went from bound to unbound, dead to living in a moments time! God is amazing. Please pray for the growth of her new life with Jesus! Thank you for praying!!!

Doubt

This next posting is not in chronological order with my previous posting, but that's how my mind works. Last Tuesday during my small group with Campus Crusade, one of our guys started alot of tough questions about the Lord. I felt burdened to pray for him, and as I was doing so I heard God say, "We got him, Joel". After the meeting, he went to speak with one of our leaders, and I felt it would be good to spend some time in prayer for him. Going to the prayer house, I spent some time there helping folks move into the chapel. I was going to leave when Chris asked me if I needed any prayer. Recently, I had been struggling with doubt that would continue to crop up even after speaking with God about it. I would have to run through all the evidence in my mind and convince myself over and over throughout any given week. The real shocker was when doubt crept into my mind during worship, becasue worship is when I feel closest to God. Anyway, Chris and Ashley started praying for me and I just felt the peace of the Holy Spirit come over me in a way that I had not felt in a long time. I spent awhile just lying on the floor, basking in his presence like a child leaning on his father. Doubt washed away, and so did a sense of guilt for not having shared the gospel with my friends.

Come to me and I shall give you rest

As of recently, Campus Crusade has moved the location of our prayer meeting to Danforth Chapel to join other brothers and sisters in concerted prayer. Last Thursday as we were preparing to begin our time there, a guy named Trevor walked by the Chapel and began to chat with us. He shared that he was a fellow brother in Christ, but was caught up in drugs and alcohol and had been battling it for some time. When he passed by us he was actually headed to a nearby drughouse after being thrown out of a halfway house. We encouraged him to stay with us the rest of the night, and he did for a couple hours, during which we were able to listen to his story and just love on him. He left us that night, promising to later return. There were a few things he said that were very encouraging to me in regards to the effectiveness of the ministry of 24-hour prayer. I will attempt to reiterate them as best I can in keeping with how they were expressed to me:

"Why are you guys always smiling? It's starting to creep me out."
[after hearing his story]

"Part of me wants to go get a beer, but part of me wants to stay here."

"You know, I feel more encouraged talking with you guys than I ever did at those rehab sessions. It's just different there. I wish I could take you to one their programs so that you could talk to those other guys."
[after praying for him to be delivered from his addictions]

Fire In the Night

So I usually pray in between the hours of 11pm to 3am in Danforth Chapel. And I have to say, fire has begun to fall on the altar in that place. I hope that you're all feeling this. There are times when I almost feel guilty because I know I get to experience God every night for a solid two to four hours.

Last night (Wednesday, 10/19), a large group from Master's Commission came and visited the prayer house at midnight. Those guys were nuts. Just worshiping and praising God with no restraint at all. Gave me the chills. And it also gave at least eight passerbys the chills too! I kid you not, at least eight people stopped by Danforth Chapel, really interested in what was going on.

Praise God, for He is stirring up a holy curiosity on this campus. Lets pray for that curiosity to spread... and become desperation!

Salvation at the Prayer Tent

Some of us were out there praying last Monday. We were having a good time, and I could just feel that God was with us in power. It felt as though waves of the Spirit were flowing from us, and I just didn't know what to do with it. Fortunately, God knew what we were to do. He pointed out to Ben a guy who was sitting on the wall across from the tent. Ben got that zeroed-in hawk eye look, and asked me if I wanted to go with him to talk to that guy.

So we went and offered to pray for this young man. He told us about the academic pressures he was under. Ben and I shared with him about God being the Lord of the Sabbath, the day of rest, and about God's love, his desire for a relationship, and the measures that he took for that relationship, giving up Jesus on the cross for it to bear our sins. This all seemed to be new to him. We invited him to pray with us and invite Jesus into his heart. He was all up ons.

Praise God. He is into the business of saving people.

Salvation Springs Up

So Praise God!

At the prayer tent we have been seeing awesome transformations of people's attitudes, their days, and what God meant to them before they entered. Who's to say whether it is the aroma of Christ or just the light shining. I have seen, and many others, people walk in, not knowing what is happening with the 40 days of prayer, and they walk in and after a minute or two they just break into tears. I personally knew a girl that came in and she told me of the freedom she was hit with in just entering. But regardless of what the person shows outwardly, every person who wasn't regularly apart of the actual prayer movement have had to battle a little something inside to just come in. When they did, a new light was seen in their face, and when I talk to them before they leave, they bless me with their words! I haven't heard one person say anything but "I am so glad I decided to come in here!" SERIOUSLY! Like it's no little thing to hear that, when everyone is bogged down in school work and life, to have a place of freedom is huge, and that is all God.

We can do nothing to provide that elation and power. It's just a little old chapel among mammoth buildings with handmade poster boards full of prayers and praises. He has decided to make His home where the people call on His name in humble reverence, we know this to be as where two or more gather, there the Lord is also. His promise to us.

The late night hours have been amazing as four of us take the 12-2am shift and students walk by outside as they leave studying for hours, take a look inside and find students on their faces, a beautiful voice from the piano piercing their souls with the heartfelt praise and people pacing and shouting to God, regardless of the weary bodies that tell us to stay down. Recently I have had multiple chances to preach the Gospel as many others have done also, but not by us standing on the sidewalk waiting, but us praying in the tent, people come up to us, asking what HE is all about!! Literally the Lord is drawing lives closer to His heart. I have seen at least 4 people walk up to the tent, pleading for prayer as they are distressed in their lives, and their families' troubles elsewhere. People are understanding the power of prayer, the comfort to know something is in God's hands.

I truly know that God is healing hearts, seeking the lost, healing the lame (still waiting, but ohh it's coming) all for the Glory of His name. He is calling the prodigals home, and I watch it as we invite people to events and they show up! They want church, they miss the presence of God! So PRAY, because as Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days, then the angel showed up, and said "Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days." So the prince of the Persian kingdom held the Lord's soldiers back, so does the enemy here at ASU, but our prayers are ALWAYS heard, to heal this sick land, we must persevere and wait for the Lord to come and redeem the broken lives and bring back His name onto the campus that we all LOVEASU!!

GOD BLESS, His Love Endures Forever, it is our Battle Cry.

a spiritual resurrection

As I prepared for our weekly Bible study, I felt the Lord say to me "tonight is going to be diffrent"...ok, I thought...that sounds like fun! Well, it was. Moments that normally would be disapointing filled my day as I got call after call of normal attenders cancelling, but I continued to trust the Lord- that he'd make it what HE wanted! As I rode my bike to campus, I asked the Lord what he wanted to do that night..."resurrect" I heard him say. WOW! Ok, well the night continued to get more and more exciting!
As I arrived, I found two folks there ready to hear from Jesus. Well, they did. We studied the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11, and both of them seemed radically changed. The Lord called them out of graves...that night, one of them gave thier life to Jesus for the first time. You can pray that the other person continues to feel Jesus draw her closer, and that she too would experience the resurrection of Jesus in her life! e rest.

Power of God at Prayer Tent

This past week, about 25 students were at the prayer tent worshipping and praying for revival. We ended up having students from 8 different ministries on campus!

As the worship continued to increase in intensity, we all began shouting and declaring God's kingdom right in the middle of campus, outdoors! This happened spontaneously and continued for about a minute. One college student said he could hear us all the way from University St!

A girl next to me was weeping and asked Anthony and me to pray for her. The presence of God had so overwhelmed her to the point where she couldn't move, she was breathless, weeping, and was trembling! The girl next to her was also trembling under the weight of God's presence, and she had to get on her face before Him! Afterwards, the first girl told me that she's been feeling such a sadness from this whole past year, but that God lifted it off in that worship time!

Girl's Testimony of God's Touch

Here's the testimony from Micah, from the above post at the prayer tent:

It’s amazing how any measure of hurt and bitterness can be wiped away in a split second… but that’s God for you! God is moving at ASU, and I felt it firsthand at the prayer tent. How can you go from feeling like your hope is collapsing and your vigor for the struggle is waning to feeling fulfilled and at peace a minute later? I had never experienced anything like it.

We were singing praises on Friday, which had lifted my spirit, but I began to feel unhappy again as the music died down. Yet, as I listened to people pray, I experienced a feeling that was completely foreign to me. I felt unbelievably happy and at peace; there was a quaking inside of me that spread to the outside, and I couldn’t move. My entire body tingled; I was breathless and couldn’t stop shaking. Tears streamed from my eyes as the weight that had been pressing upon my heart was lifted!

The words that come to mind when I think about my experience are beauty, power, release, and assurance. I know that what I felt was God. He was answering my doubt and fears… and what an answer! I think a lot of people at the tent felt the Holy Spirit moving, and I think God was answering our prayers and making us aware of His presence.

Man Rescued From Suicide

A middle-aged man stopped in the prayer tent, asking to talk to a counselor. I pulled him aside to talk, and he began to share that he had fallen back into drinking for the first time in years, left his family for the time being, and was planning on committing suicide that very day!

I shared that what he was experiencing was a deeper emptiness and loneliness that can only be filled by a relationship with Jesus. He was very open the whole time. He then asked, "What do I need to do then? Should I buy a book and read about Jesus?" I told him that was a good thing, but that we should really pray to ask Jesus to come into his life and free him. Though he didn't feel ready at this time, my sister and I had the opportunity to pray for him.

During prayer he kept saying, "Thank You, Jesus...thank You, Jesus." The Spirit of God was stirring around the tent powerfully! Afterwards, he realized that he could not make it in his own strength anymore. As he left, he said, "Thanks, I feel much lighter. Woo!"