Okay, we're gonna dive in. Do you guys remember last time we were together before the conference? That we announced that we are getting a building. Do you remember?
Let's go. Wow. Okay, so we're gonna get started. Okay, we are really in such an exciting season.
You guys right now we are working on the architectural plans and designs for this space and Just having so much fun with the Lord going okay We've taken each different room and we've offered it up to him. We've surrendered each piece to him like man I really liked that corner room with those windows. I thought we'd do this But what do you want to do just kind of surrendering all of it and then letting him breathe on? What is that space actually designed to hold?
What did you have in mind? What memories are you looking forward to making in those spaces of people and so we're just having a good time designing that and It's such an exciting season. We before I forget I don't want you to all go and look at this right now But I want to say it so that I don't forget at the end of service But I want you all to see this website that we have made that walks you through everything That is happening in this season. There's a pretty extensive FAQ for all of your questions We are raising money to build the base as a community over the next few weeks And we want you to know the vision the why all of the questions that you have and so this website is really the catch-all to Communicate what's happening and if you just read through it, you're gonna feel like you are very in the loop So we'll be talking about it a lot in service as well But I want to make sure you know about this website.
So save it on your phone if you get the mass email You already have this in your inbox. That's at the very bottom of the email There's a link to this page, but don't go look at it right now Even if you forget to scan this QR code which you shouldn't forget because you could do that right now It's very straightforward, but but if you're like, oh, I lost the link. It's everyday building calm So easy, so you can just go to every building calm. It's very great.
So over the next couple of weeks We do want to encourage you to be in the room together with us We're kind of doing these family meetings where we are looking at what is the vision? What is the mission? What is it that we are going after? What is our assignment as a corporate body in our city?
This is meant to be a unifying few weeks for us if you've been with us for seven years or if tonight is your first night It is going to be clarifying for everyone. There is no one in the community that will be like Oh, I feel like I felt crystal clear on all those things We're trying to bring clarity and unity to what we are going after in this next season because the reality is over the last You know seven years to some degree We've been in a holding pattern as a community and so we've been fruitful in the waiting and we've continued to expand what we're doing But when we get into a space It's gonna feel like we're in a rocket ship because it will be our first time that we are not capped in our capacity of what we are Able to do how often we're able to be in a building things like that And so I want everyone to feel like they are tracking before we get to that point so that you're not like wait a second I thought we were just doing this and we're like oh no We have this in our heart and so I just want it to be clear. What's in our heart when you're sitting in this room What are you actually a part of without even being able to see it because right here? You're just peering in to the very surface of what is in our heart as a body to do in the city So I want to just tonight We're gonna be talking about our value of what we call up and I walk this in a second of intimacy and connection with God Taking first place and so we have a value system that we operate on and that is what we call up out in Together everyone say up out in together This is our the way that we have named our lifestyle This is the everyday lifestyle when we get up in the morning.
We are not getting up to Be excited about putting on church services on Sundays at 3 and 5 30 p.m. We love this gathering We treasure this gathering but what gets us excited as leaders is developing a lifestyle in a people We're passionate about people actually walking with God That's why we're called every day because this whole thing isn't just about a Sunday service or Sunday and Wednesday Maybe if you really like to go to church, but it is about a lifestyle and every day It's why you see 24 seven on this flag up here. That's because it's about the lifestyle around the clock walking with Jesus Not compartmentalizing our faith or our spirituality But it's actually it encompasses everything that we are and everything that we do and so we have these four values of up out in together up Is intimacy connection and relationship with God? Okay?
This is my relationship with God This is him loving me and the loving him in return next we have out out is mission. This is us fulfilling the great commission This is us big ambassadors representing the kingdom everywhere we go introducing people to Jesus, right? What we were just talking about with Monica in is our internal reality This is me understanding my identity before God and how he sees me This is me having a healthy heart and a healthy home catching those little foxes that are trying to spoil what God is doing on the inside of me This is me uprooting lies and replacing them with truth so that I've seen God and seeing others rightly, okay That's this in value and lastly we have together that is our communal value that we were not created to go alone You are created to link arms with other brothers and sisters that are like-minded so that we can go farther because we're going together So these four values connection with God life on mission healthy heart healthy home in the context of community is The lifestyle of following Jesus. We are not trying to create a lifestyle.
That is only upward, right? It's not a lifestyle. Oh, it's just me and God. He loves me.
I love him and I don't think else that would be out of balance Is that right? We're not trying to create a lifestyle that's just about mission where oh, it's just about me being the hands and feet of Jesus And that's why I do go go go go go that be out of balance It's not just about me being introspective and really aware of my internal world and doing a lot of counseling and being aware of my personal Health that I can have self self care and be healthy that would be out of balance And it's not just about community and I hang with my Christian friends on Friday night You know so we see these four values as the four legs to a chair You need all four of them to actually have that steady firm foundation to connect you to the Lord in your everyday life And so that is just our way. There's probably there's a million different ways that you could articulate a kingdom lifestyle That's just how we have communicated around it So we can unify about what do we mean when we say a lifestyle of following Jesus? We care about this so much that we're literally starting a ministry school this fall just to infuse people with the tools to have a Sustainable lifestyle following Jesus, okay?
So this is the core of who we are is this lifestyle that we are wanting to reproduce So when as leaders and as staff when we're planning different things we always have up out in together in mind So in a service we're going okay. We have up. How are we hitting out? How are we hitting in how are we doing this together in a prayer room or in a prayer meeting if you come to men's prayer if you Come to Tuesday morning prayer if you come to corporate prayer on a Wednesday We are doing what we call in up out in we're worshiping and adoring him then we're going into intercession to pray for the lost And then we're praying over each other and taking care of the body all in the context of community You can see it in everything we're doing okay?
These are our core values and so when I talk about the are you tracking with me? Are we okay? Okay? Trying to lay a foundation here.
So you have the four kind of legs to the chair, but there is one That is supreme over the other there is one that does take first place and that is the upward call Okay, that doesn't mean that the others aren't there It doesn't mean that the other values aren't important But there is one that takes first place and that is the connection and the relationship with Jesus that intimacy that fuels everything else And so we're gonna talk about that value tonight We're gonna talk about how that actually plays itself out because we're doing this in our personal lives But what does it mean for us corporately and away the primary area that points to this upward value is the prayer room So tonight we're gonna talk about the prayer room. You've probably heard us say we're starting a prayer room Or there's a prayer room at the center of the base and everything else flows out from the prayer room at the center That has been the vision since 2008 2008 okay, so that has not changed but it's coming more into focus in this season because guess what? We're about to have a building where the prayer room can actually be open because right now we are here's Monday nights and Wednesday nights and that's all we can do so in this context most people think the prayer room is a Worship night a worship and prayer night right that it's an event But actually the prayer room is a space that is consecrated and set apart to the Lord as a place of connection For the city to be able to come in and connect with him Yeah, we're gonna so it's been in our heart for 15 years to establish this house of prayer prayer room in the Twin Cities and As we're designing the space it's actually been so fun because the the Lord it for many years has said It's the prayer room like he said is the prayer room at the center and everything flows from the prayer room And as we've been designing architecturally the space the only place that the sanctuary Slash prayer room can be is in the middle of the building and so it's even the design of the whole building It's like the prayer room is literally in the middle and everything else revolves around the place of prayer and worship It's just so fun the leadership of the Lord and so we want to just paint a picture of what does this look like when you show up? And you walk into the prayer room when we're at 24 20 Cleveland We move in the former LA fitness in Roseville and you move in and you walk into the space on a Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m And you're in the prayer room.
What is it gonna feel like what is it gonna look like and so? Most of the time when we think prayer room we either think of a prayer room that's in the corner of a church building That's about like a 12 by 12 space and it's got like American flags on this, you know or like you know like the There's there's like images of like pray for America or like pray for the nation There's just like pictures on the walls or I don't know and there's mauve carpet, you know It's like okay, and when we're talking about the prayer we're talking about the sanctuary Okay, so it's like that that big room in the middle is the prayer room and or we think about house of prayer We say how's the prayer people think international house of prayer in Kansas City and in Kansas City There's a prayer room where there's been live worship listen This is wild if you don't know about this. This is crazy that for 20 plus years There has been day and night worship and prayer 24 seven live worship teams a lot of times like 10 people worship people like 10 people Day and night for 20 years 24 seven they have not stopped praying and worshiping for 20 plus years Our call as a people is not to go 24 seven with live worship, okay? So when we're talking about establishing a prayer room, we're not talking about live worship 24 seven But we have it in our hearts that there would be a space and a room in the twin cities They would be open at most hours of the day where you can walk in and on a Thursday at 3 p.m.
There's maybe nobody in there But there's an instrumental trap or instrumental music on on the speakers and you can go to that room and you can spend time with God And so there's gonna be different worship sets that are obviously live worship like what we have on Wednesday nights We have corporate intercession and we're we're praying together and there's a hundred plus people in the room and we're going after a specific topic and prayer And worship then there's devo sets where where there's just one or two Musicians and they're singing worship me. It's a devotional time where you can come in you can encounter the Lord But you should talk about a couple of the other sets well I'm curious how many of you have been to a prayer room before like that's kind we're talking about where there's corporate worship and prayer It's open all the time raise them high. Okay. How many have Raise me if you have it's like most of us.
There's a lot of people have yeah, sorry no shame I just want to communicate this is why we're talking about it because we're trying to paint a picture because many of us have not ever Ever seen a prayer room before so when we're talking about this we want to unify in this season and unity is gonna come from clarity on Some of these things and so we're gonna be kind of walking through some of the questions We've had leaders in the community sourcing questions for us that they've either heard people have or are anticipating that people have And so we are getting into some of the nitty-gritty here so that we're all speaking the same language when we are talking about a prayer room So I do I want to give you a peek into two examples of sets or worship and prayer sets that we're thinking dreaming about when we Have our own space Josh's talks about the corporate set divo sets another one would be what we might call a meditation set So picture a band a team similar to what we had up here tonight and picture this team going okay Let we should grab a weekly set in the prayer room on Thursdays at 4 p.m. And we want to meditate on one Characteristic or attribute of God that we can find in the works So we're gonna go after Jesus the shepherd and so as a band We're going to be giving ourselves in the place of prayer and Bible study to see how the scriptures unfold the depths of Jesus the shepherd and for months For months every week this same team on a Thursday at 4 p.m. Are gonna be singing and praying the word It's like singing theologians is one of the things we say as a worship community where we are singing the word and praying the word Meditating on Jesus the shepherd because we can never exhaust the depths of what it looks like for him to be the shepherd And maybe at the end We could maybe curate some of it put it on an album for people to be able to listen and soak in the revelation for an hour of Jesus the shepherd to music whoa, okay, so it's like it's things like this that help us rightly see God for who he is as we see it in the work another set example would be We are excited to launch something called freedom sets And so that would be like we're a team just like this would grab a set in the week and say you know what we see this stronghold of Anxiety and depression in our city and we want to hit that and we want to look at the scriptures and see how Jesus is the antidote for anxiety And depression and we're gonna start singing and praying around it and then for the rest of us we go man I have a friend who's been struggling with anxiety I have a friend who's been wrestling with depression I'm gonna invite them just come in the room and just sit just lay down in one of the on one of the chairs and just let Us wash you with the water of the word and I just believe that we'll see people get set free It's like it's like David playing for salt like it's that type of set and so I just think of having this gift For our city to be able to come to a space that where it's distraction free But there is this revelation of who Jesus is to introduce people to him even in such like a clear and beautiful way One of the questions that maybe some of us are asking is your point man, okay? I love that this whole house of prayer thing But we've said I've heard you guys say that God's looking for like a resting place or like a dwelling place And and I thought or in the New Testament We are God's dwelling place we are his resting place and and which one is it is God like get a rest on a room in our city?
Or is he didn't the Holy Spirit come inside of us? We just want to clear the air and make it very clear that we still believe in the gospel Okay, we still believe that the Holy Spirit tore the veil when Jesus died and actually when you say yes to Jesus He comes on the inside of you somebody say amen to that that's good news Right and then at the same time the Lord said that where two or three are gathered there I am in their midst in other words He actually comes upon us He lives in us and then when we gather whether we're in a living room in a prayer room in a church building and our break room And we're doing a Bible saying whatever it is holy spirit comes upon us whether we feel him or not But there's also spaces and places where they're separated and consecrated and set apart for encounter with God And it's like when Jesus walks into the place of worship and prayer the temple and he says this room This building is to be a house of what a house of prayer a house of connection In other words, there's places that are set apart that we build in times of peace Do you know what the people of God do when you're underground church? You're gonna pray and you're gonna just like find spaces underground to worship it right But in times of peace, do you know what the people of God do they start building things and one of the things that they build is places to host Encounter and what what we do and what we're doing as a people is we're going we're going to build a room in our city That's going to host encounter. It's not an either or it's both and that you are a walking Living many temple of God with holy spirit inside of you and you walk into that prayer room And it's a place where holy spirit is moving and active because it's fully set apart for that And so as a people it's just like what the early church did in acts 242 We see in that passage what the what the early disciples did is they would be meeting in houses Pray and worship being eating together and then every single day they would go to the synagogue or the temple Man, that's a lot of drive.
Well, it's a lot of walking for them, right? So what they do is they live on mission everyday life They go home and they connect with their friends and family and then they go to the synagogue in the temple and encounter the Lord in a building That was set apart and sacred to the Lord What I'm not saying is now you have to show up to the prayer room every single day because some of you're like, uh-oh It's not meant to be a obligation It's not meant to be a burden, but man, what a joy that we get to build something that's gonna host connection with God in our city It's to be a blessing. It's it's it's like a well We as a community are going to dig a well in that former LA fitness not in the pool area We're used to be like dig a well right in the middle of that building We're gonna dig a well that will actually be refreshing to us But also refreshing to the whole city and we're going you don't have to go to every day to come into the prayer room and encounter God You got everybody's welcome from the whole city. I just see pastors coming I see leaders coming I see business people coming and they're gonna walk into the room to look at God They're gonna walk in the room and go.
I just want God. I want to encounter him. I want to meet with him I want to be with him. I want to spend time with him I want I want to share quick what a little bit of what the room is gonna look like Josh already said it's at the center of the building and there is the second floor right now It's a mezzanine if you've ever been to an LA fitness.
That's where all the treadmills and stuff are It's the second floor and it's around half of the sanctuary So it's like this whole side is the second half and for us it won't be a balcony But instead there's going to be small retreat like prayer retreat rooms that you can come and you can Reserve and so some of them will be really small where it's just built for one person to go and be able to close the door and Be alone with the Lord and there's gonna be a bunch of those Then there's gonna be a couple medium sized ones and then a large one where you can even come with a team to do a prayer retreat You could you can rent these for an hour or you could rent it for the whole day and go I'm just getting a retreat with the Lord alone and it's all in the prayer and it's all part of it I don't know if you've experienced this or not but for me Having a place a physical place to be able to go to spend time with the Lord and connect with him has been Such a gift in my life in the seasons where we have lived near a prayer room that we can go to it has been a Game-changer in connection with the Lord And so if you've never had that and you've never experienced that I am just telling you it is such a gift And I've missed it over the last ten years of living here in the city It's because it's not here so my car is that so even if we're just building this for me I am so excited to be able to have a place But whether I was 18 and just graduating high school with not that much responsibility Or now as a mom of four kids in school with their own schedules a toddler working full-time and ministry all these things No matter what season I was in having a physical place to go that was distraction free meant the world to even like me feeling I don't want to say successful But feeling like I was actually able to fully connect with the Lord without distraction Because at least for me my home feels distracting to actually for extended amount of time connect with him And we know that there's there is gold an extended time with the Lord You know 15 minutes over coffee in the morning is such a beautiful gift, but in our Starts changing some things and so just being able to get away and walking into a space that you're going This isn't a coffee shop. This isn't a park. I'm trying to think of places that people go to spend time with the Lord This is in my living room I'm walking into a room that was built and created to house connection and encounter with God You can feel that when you walk into a room the way that it's distraction free, but it's palpable There's so many people that are building history in this room. Wow, this is really special, you know, yeah It's history building.
That's what I want to highlight what Katie just said. We all will look back. It's just like when Jesus said No one can take this away from Mary Sitting at my feet There's going to be history that you in this room You're gonna have with the Lord in that room and the Lord is nobody can take that away from you the history that you build But there's no obligation. I just want to break you free now There's no obligation that you have to go to prayer room that listen some of us are already going long hours I have a full schedule and we're starting to think about adding one more thing to our schedule It's not one more thing to add to your schedule and it's not an obligation and we're not trying to take you from the harvest fields Listen, it's to be a well to refresh.
That's right. That's what we're building I was talking earlier about that upward value taking first place and just quickly want to be sure that we were unified in This value taking first place and it's important to understand the biblical precedence for this and you see it in the first commandment, right? So there's a first commandment and a second commandment. It's not a first and first commandment, but it's first We love the Lord with all of our heart soul mind and strength everything that's in us.
We love him first period That's it. That's the first commandment to love him first before anything else and then from that place When that is intact when you've done the first then let's look at the second and that is love your neighbor as yourself So it's love the Lord connection with him comes first and foremost and from there be on mission, right? So we're not saying don't be on mission. We're just saying something comes first one precedes the other So even as we go into the place of mission, we are paving the way in the spirit first It's what Monica just talked about in her story.
She prayed first and then watch what the Holy Spirit did, right? It's here first my words before God are more impactful than my words before man will ever be we start in the place of prayer and Intimacy first and everything else flows from that place. We are the aroma of Christ to God and And then to the world we are a ministry to the father. He goes Oh, you smell like the Sun and that moves my heart We are the aroma to him and then we are the aroma to the world He's the vine where the branches we abide in him first and then what happens we bear much fruit So there is this first things first and sometimes in the body We like to kind of buck that a little bit because we go I just want to I just want to do I just want to go I want to be active we want to be the hands on the feet and part of it comes because we've seen the church But it's not because the church is so focused all the time on intimacy with God sometimes the church is just idle period But connection and intimacy with God first loving being loved by him and loving him in return is the fuel For our life.
I promise you if you're spending time with the Lord You are going to start living on mission because as you look at him, he's gonna start giving you his heart for people It's just how he is so even when we come into a service when we're planning a service for an awakening service We're not really thinking about people which might shock you we are building this service for him And we know that as we build it for him. He has all of you in mind So when we watch him leave in a service it just just today It's we're praying for people in the room none of that's planned We're just building something for him and then we're letting Holy Spirit lead us and then he goes Oh, I was just planning to minister to a few people like oh, I love your leadership It's just partnership everything flows from partnership and connection. Yeah, and we're not we're you know Maybe a question that you have is you're going okay? Well is this prayer revision competing or taking away from our call to reach the world or is it is it going to hinder that?
Are you trying to get more people just to come into your church building and not be in the field? listen We are we feel this conviction that we are to have a whole company of people a whole city Filled with people there like Mary of Bethany people there are Mary's they're going I love you I love you I'm gonna sit at your feet I'm gonna be extravagant in my love and then live on mission So we are to be Mary's on mission You are called to be a priest you are a priest of God if you've given your life to Jesus your first call is as a priest To minister to God right but you are a priest to actually publish peace Publish the gospel piece. What do I mean by that? You are a priest that's been then actually called to be an ambassador a representative of who God is the prayer room the place of prayer Your prayer closet you being in worship and prayer when you're in your car.
It's all to catalyze you into mission into representing him everywhere You go it's like God's calling you as a modern monk You are to be a monk Consecrated set apart holy loving reading your Bible loving meditation and then from that place going I'm gonna be a monk on mission. I'm not gonna just retreat away from culture just to be with God I'm gonna retreat away. I might I might reserve one of those retreat rooms, but it's actually a catapult It's a slingshot into the field. So you start going I'm praying for labors to get sent into the harvest field and then I begin to realize I'm the very answer to my prayer I've been praying for labors to go into the field and I started realize I'm the answer I'm the laborer that I was praying would be get sent into the field God saying hey, I'm gonna establish a place of prayer a place of encounter so I can deposit my heart in the people It's just gonna be like a what are those those things where you like Defibrillators just like it'd be a defibrillator for the body She's like wake her up wake her up to my heart wake me up to your heart for the world for God so loved That for God so love is gonna brand us in that place of prayer.
It's gonna push us out It's gonna ek ball us it's gonna cast us out of the church building Yeah, you can come in get refreshed, but you got to get cast out into the fields and you got a minister because that's who you are We need messengers, but messengers usually start as Mary's amen It's like the upper room God's like hey go pray. I'm gonna breathe on it and then you're gonna see 3000 people meet me in a day, right? So we're not though Maybe another question that you're having is you're going okay But isn't like the house of prayer like David, you know like David did a house of prayer and there's a temple and Solomon's temple And all these things isn't that like Old Testament though, right? Like I thought we believe in the new covenant right?
It's like yes, we do but even in the Old Testament Do you know that when David said Lord? I? I want to build this house for you that it wasn't even necessarily a command of God But it was actually a choice and and so it's a voluntary choice just like prayer the Lord's going hey as You're planting this house of prayer. It's voluntary.
It's not a command of God that we build a house of prayer Can I just be clear nowhere in the New Testament does God say you must build the house of prayer and then make disciples of all nations? He just didn't say that But Jesus does say hey I'm gonna go and retreat with the Lord on the mountain I'm gonna pray and talk to my father and then we see Mary at his feet And then we see Anna and Simeon in the place of prayer for decades worshiping and praying Then we see Apostle Paul that says pray without ceasing and and all of these pictures of like hey You need to abide and pray to the father our father who art in heaven all these things So what I'm trying to articulate is we are to live lifestyles of prayer in connection with God, right? And so if we build a space that catalyzes it I think he's gonna like it I think you might like it is he saying you must as the church build houses of prayer. No, he's not saying that But I think he's gonna like it and he is calling us to live this lifestyle prayer and worship and adoration and this is gonna facilitate that So it's why are we doing it if this is not a biblical mandate to do why are we putting our hands to it?
Why has this been like if you open up our heart and look inside of Josh and Katie You're going to see this burning to see a prayer room in our city Why if that's not a biblical mandate for us as new covenant believers? Why are we giving ourselves to that and I think we've been laying out the values of what it does I think we've been laying out the importance of how it sets us like an arrow a trajectory in our hearts toward him I think it's like David Josh was just starting to mention it. It's like David was not mandated To build a resting place for the Lord But David being a man after God's own heart and loving the Lord with everything that he was I picture him He goes I'll give no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a resting place for the Lord on the earth I picture him laying awake at night Clean what would I build for you? I'd put you right in the middle of the city I'd put you right in the middle of the city so you'd be surrounded with people so that as they were walking around the city They would be remembering you I would put you right in the middle of the city and I would surround you with hundreds of singers and Musicians because you're worthy of worship This cry from David was not God saying you must it was David's cry coming out of love sickness that ache of his own heart This is our heart like a father Doesn't come to their child and say here's a canvas and here's some paint I want you to paint me a picture, but I want it to look exactly like this So don't mess this up.
I want it to look like this and this and this but instead of father goes Here's the canvas here's some paint what would you paint for me and a father delights and what their child created And then he sees the picture and goes I love it And what were you thinking when you did this and because it came from the place of love the father delights in it? And so when we We're all just out here doing our best and going Lord. What could I offer you? Anything I offer you is gonna pale in comparison to what you're worthy of but I am on this earth to offer you a gift and for us We go oh if we could give him a gift of a space that hosts of people that are Fascinated with him that are putting him first before everything else not because of what they get from him or what he'll do for them Or any of that but just to adore him and to love him.
This is us putting Kate paint on that canvas This is us from the place of love in the way that he's encountered us in the place of prayer and worship We're going I want to multiply the story that you've written in me When we look at our history We don't have time to get into it fully but when we look at our history he marked us in prayer rooms We were church kids we followed Jesus throughout our life But it wasn't until we experienced extended time in prayer rooms in different places throughout the country And when we got into those spaces it was like we saw in color for the first time This is us separately as teenagers before we ever even knew each other This is the story he wrote in me This is the story he wrote in him and we believe that he set us apart that what we are building here that we are To put our hand to is to offer that back to him Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of time times over that you and that our city would experience what we've experienced in the place of prayer before God I remember when when I was in high school and a group of my friends And I we went into this place called the world personer and we just started praying and talking to the Lord and And praying for our friends that didn't know Jesus This is a picture of the world personer is about five minute drive to our public high school and it was this empty building and Usually no one was in there, but we just strolled in there and we went into a meeting room We started praying for our friends that didn't know Jesus and we had you know the football captain and basketball captain hockey captain The hockey captain his name was Joe. We call him mullet Joe. They had a gnarly mullet, right? And mullet Joe was on the guitar just playing Lord I lift your name on high and we just started singing it for like 30 40 50 minutes and And then we just kept on praying and it was like Holy Spirit rested on the room for us as a couple high school kids And he gave us his burden for our public high school and he marked us forever in that room We prayed for three and a half hours that first Sunday and every single week We just kept on showing up kept on praying we got ruined by God We got marked and branded by God in the place of prayer.
We believe that the Lord's gonna do it again then what we then we I went to college and There's this I the Lord I was kind of scared going to college because I was going to Minnesota And I'm from Colorado It's like a long ways away and my mentor said hey, you're gonna be fine Just find a prayer room find a place where you can meet with God just a separate space between you got and so that my first week during orientation I was asking our a say is there like a prayer chap because it's a Christian school is there like a prayer chap anywhere? They're like yeah I think there's a spot in the student center in the dorms, but they call it the makeout chapel actually Because that's what couples do at this Christian school so I Listen I I found this room in the third floor of the dorms and I committed to spend three hours a day with God Every single day three hours with the Lord in this room and the Lord began to multiply that story over and over and over again They're starting being we'd always take off our shoes outside of the room So there'd be like piles of shoes outside the prayer you guys remember some of you guys were there during that season piles of shoes Outside of this room because it was holy ground right and we walk in to the prayer room and God began to answer our prayers It was just like in high school We started praying for our friends that didn't know Jesus and then all of a sudden the whole school at the public school was coming out to the flagpole To hear the gospel to hear the gospel preach because we were this group of ten kids that were just praying for them by name Praying for our friends and then and Northwestern among the Christian kids then all of a sudden God starts moving and people start repenting at the end of chapel And it's like a baby little asbury that was happening at Northwestern College just down the road and God started moving and and it was because we just decided Lord I'm gonna show up in secret and I'm gonna pray and worship It was more prayer rooms We there's it was so busy There's never any room in the prayer chapel at Northwestern that we started expanding and started making more prayer rooms It's that we called that we actually took over a janitor's closet and we called it the Mary of Bethany room and And it was this like there's just the Like sink that was in this room is just like it was for the Lord right and then we built another one And we called it the lighthouse pyramid It was an off-campus dormitory It's this big and had all this this original artwork hanging on the walls and we used to do prayer meetings at night There'd be a hundred people doing a night watch from 12 a.m. To 6 a.m. And we just came together and pray and we worship This is God has marked us in this place and we didn't even know about international house of prayer for most of that time Listen, I thought I was gonna be the Mike Bickle and then I realized that he existed he'd been doing 24 seven prayer For like 10 years before I even start praying right and then we did an internship Katie and I did an internship I have for a couple months and we would man It was like four to six hours that we were required to be in the prayer room every single day in prayer and worship And Katie and I as we reflect back and go it wasn't enough time We'd literally get to the end of our prayer room time and go I'm just at the beginning.
I need more time with him I would just want to study this. There's just not enough time We're trying what we're trying to do is paint the picture for you to see beyond what American Christianity has told you That it's just a Sunday gathering It's just a little bit of worship and it's a little bit of the Bible app and it's a little bit of a hit of make me feel better Because I read a Bible verse the Lord is going let's build history When the Lord looks at the twin cities I want him to think this is my favorite place It's like top ten favorite place because of look at all the history that I have with my people Look at all the history I have in cars before their workplace look at all the history I have in this prayer room Look at all the history I have in their living rooms in their prayer closets when they close the door and they're in their walk-in closet And they're just talking to me reading their Bible in In 2008 after we were at the International Hospital prayer we We did a 40 day fast leading up to an event called the call and if you know of Lou Engle He started this ministry called the call and now it's called the send if you've heard about the send and We were at Katie and I were at the call and And it's this like 12 hour prayer and worship event where everybody fast for 12 hours and we were praying for our country and And it was August 16th 2008 and the Lord Encountered us that day and we'll never forget it because there is this Ministry call to say hey if you feel called to plant a house of prayer in your city Why don't you raise your hand and Katie and I separately of each other both raised our hand and in that moment? It was like holy spirit came upon us and we both started weeping uncontrollably for a very long time And God encountered us and branded us and marked us to build a house of prayer in the Twin Cities This is 15 years ago now. I believe that that day August 16th listen, it's a vulnerable to share because most of you don't care But I'm telling you this that 15 years ago the Lord marked us at our nation's capital at the high place of Washington DC And he marked us for this city that the Twin Cities would have a place of encounter and place of prayer and she's 19 And I'm 21 and how is this gonna happen?
But for year after year after year we've been taking baby step after baby step as a community And we keep on showing up on Mondays and we keep on showing up on Wednesdays And we've been searching for five years for a building and there's dead in after dead end and it's because we were always supposed to be At 24 20 Cleveland and we were supposed to build a prayer room at the center And it was supposed to be in between Minneapolis and St. Paul and it was supposed to be in that location that the Lord was gonna say Hey, I'm going to build a place of encounter in the middle of the city God is calling us to build this house of prayer And we're gonna put him at the center the Lord is calling us as a people to build it and we know That Josh and Katie can't do it We know that it has to be all of us We know that for decades before Katie and I there's intercessors and prayer leaders in the Twin Cities that have been trying to build a Day and night house of prayer in our city and it still hasn't caught I'm not negating any of the prayer rooms in the Twin Cities or churches or anything like that But this has been in the hearts of of leaders in the Twin Cities for decades and some of those leaders have come to Katie and I And they said hey just like just like geese fly in a V We feel like you are supposed to take the first place that you're supposed to be at the tip of the arrow of the flying V of the prayer Prayer movement in the Twin Cities that now is your time Now is our time to step into the storyline of persistence of fighting and getting back up again and going Lord We're gonna do it. It's gonna happen in our day We're gonna establish it's not in our own strength. It's not gonna be in our own might but it's gonna be by the Lord and by the spirit Unless the Lord builds the house.
We're just gonna labor in vain and and and I'm convinced that That it will just be a room Unless a people of prayer fill it and I think many of us feel like man I'm not a prayer guy. I'm not a I haven't read my Bible more than like 20 minutes before and the Lord is going hey You're the perfect person to be a part of this you feel disqualified and you're like four to six hours What I want that to provoke you to go. What do I not know? There must be more that I haven't tasted there must be more that I haven't touched I wanted to create this divine curiosity of going Lord I want to know you more I don't know you the way that I know I was destined to know you and I'm talking all you business people and all you people that Don't feel like you have what it takes and the Lord's going no.
This is your story. This is our story Let's all stand let's all spread out real quick. I just want to have a moment with the Lord We're just gonna take a couple moments with the Lord. I know thank you Lord I talked about Washington DC and that it was August 16th 2008 on August 16th 2013 five years to the day our Son was born five years to the very day of the called DC Harvest Gideon was born and we named him harvest Gideon because the story of Gideon is this this young man that felt like He was the least of his tribe.
He felt like what do I have to offer God? Why would you encounter me? Why would you call me? I'm the least of my tribe and my tribe is the least of all the tribes of Israel and the Lord encountered Gideon and then it resulted in a breakthrough for the whole nation of Israel and victory came and I believe that it's not an accident That our son harvest Gideon was born five years to the day of called the called DC when we were encountered for this program Some of you just follow the train with me here, okay?
Some of us feel like Gideon where we go who am I? Who am I that I would have any part of the story? Who am I that like I'm not the prayer guy? I'm not the worship guy.
I'm not an evangelist I'm just like a normal person who am I and I believe that in our hour in our city that God is actually raising up Gideon's Gideon's that feel like who am I? I don't have anything to offer. I didn't go to Bible school. I didn't go to seminary.
I didn't go to North West I didn't go to Beth. I didn't go to North Central who am I? I'm not a called to ministry. I'm called this I have I'm an engineer I'm I just work at a gas station.
I'm I'm in the military whatever it is and you're going who am I and the Lord's going? You're the one I'm choosing you're just like Gideon It's a little insecurity, but there's a lot of humility there and I'm gonna breathe on it I'm gonna give you grace and you're actually the key to the harvest coming you're gonna encounter the Lord just like Gideon did and I believe that the Lord is going I'm gonna take a bunch of Gideon's who don't think that they have anything to offer and I'm actually going to bring in the greatest Harvest and human history that the world has ever seen there's going to be a billion soul harvest and it's because there's gonna be a bunch of Gideon's they're gonna sit in empty rooms and they're gonna encounter the Lord and then they're gonna go to work and they're gonna take a Walk like Monica and they're gonna walk next to people and they're gonna go. Hey, can I pray for you? I've been praying in a room in the middle of our city and I know him and now I'm gonna just pray a little awkward prayer And it's gonna so be sewn like a seed and all of a sudden that seed is gonna turn in to not just her meeting the Lord a year later But then her sons meeting the Lord and then their son is gonna encounter the Lord and he's gonna introduce his friends to the Lord And then those friends are gonna introduce their friends and family to the Lord and all of a sudden There's a snowball because of us little giddians and all of a sudden the harvest is coming in and we went weeping And all of a sudden we went in prayer weeping and then we came back full arms with the harvest I believe the Lord's gonna do it in our day 15 years this year Since the call of DC August 16th the Lord's gonna do it and we get to be a part of it Lord We say yes We say yes to the call of building a room.
However humble it is to be set apart in our city for you I just feel like there's an anticipation for us as individuals where there's kind of like a can't I can't wait That we can we can share with the Lord and so I just want us to individually In our own way just communicate with the Lord and just say Lord I can't wait to encounter you in that room I can't wait to spend time with you in that room. I've maybe never done it before I can't wait to bring my Bible to that room I'm gonna pull out a pencil and a journal and I'm gonna open up the Bible in that room someday And we're gonna talk and I'm gonna sing songs to you Some of us are gonna dance before the Lord. I'm gonna love you We're gonna read together because my dad likes reading because father God likes reading and he likes having deep conversations and he likes music So we're gonna build a room where there's music and there's people that read with him and have deep conversations because he's deep waters Lord we just say that we look forward to hosting you administering to you and connecting with you We say that it's game over as the enemy has tried to hinder this from beginning to establish in the city So Lord we just declare It's done in the name of Jesus and that you're gonna get it not because you're requiring it But because you deserve it and we want to build it for you. We love you Lord and Jesus name amen amen amen We have a couple announcements no Go to that website I just want to say that my hope is that If you didn't feel like some of these things made sense you're still trying to wrap your mind around it That's okay But I hope that as we're talking that it triggers something in your heart to go Lord.
I want to be hungry I want to be with that be said of our community Lord. I don't know all the answer down all the scriptures I don't how I didn't get the degree, but man, I'm hungry Could that be said of us as a people? I don't know how we're gonna get there I don't know how much money we're gonna raise but I'm humble and hungry and we're gonna show up together and we're gonna go after this together Can we do that can we have that like posture of our hearts? That's how we're approaching this Lord.
I don't know how to do it, but I'm hungry All right, Lord send us the hungry ones our whole city is hungry start with us I send out the hungry ones out of the church building Into the fields Lord. We thank you that you love them in Jesus name. Amen