YEAH GOD!

Today was amazing, our friend Jonathon who was living on the street started the Fire In The Night program here at IHOP. It has been such a wonderful story to watch. Over the last 2 weeks, Jonathon has gotten saved, had food to eat, a warm place to stay (other than an unheated front porch) got his leg and back healed, made ten new friends, and is now enjoying the Fire In the Night! woohoo!

Yeah HOPE CITY! Yeah GOD!

Hey i can do this

Hey mom look what I can do.......

Enough to make you cry

Kris praying for healing.

Yesterday at Hope City at our prayer meeting downtown there was an incredible sense of the Lord's favor and grace on what we were doing. Yesterday, we prayed two more into the kingdom! Kris and Butch, both confessed with their mouth that Jesus was Lord in their lives. It was awesome.Kris is a great kid who is "working it out". He just came out of a short time in jail and part of his probation is to go into a 3 month live in program. It's a great thing and a difficult thing as he won't be able to join us 3 times a week and be with "positive praying people". We know the Lord has His hand on this man and are thrilled to see his progress. Pray for him though, we long to see him truly embrace the new life that is in him. It was wonderful and heart wrenching as I heard him say to Pastor Ray "I'll be back, maybe not for three months, but I'll be back because I need you guys!"

Then there was Butch. He got to us yesterday. Butch lives in an assisted living situation. He's a big man who 4 years ago hit his head and went into a coma, so there are some residual mental issues that we are awaiting the Lord to heal. Yesterday, we saw him walking down the street with a thin t-shirt and a wide open jacket, ripped sweat pants, and no socks in his shoes! Keep in mind, in Kansas City right now it's belowing freezing, lots of snow and a bitter wind.When we got him to the prayer meeting, we asked him why he wasn't wearing socks. "I asked for help to get em on this morning, but the nurse said I wasn't going no where and didn't need em". His basic need aren't being met there and it was killing us. (We did go get him a pair of socks and put them on for him!)

Butch at the prayer meeting

These are precious ones in the kingdom. We love them and we see the Lord moving on and in them. We can't wait til they lead us! It's enough to make you cry!

Heard at IHOP

This morning in the wee hours (6:30 ish) the prayer room at IHOP was full of intercessors crying out for the prayer rooms in the nation and the world. I sat in my seat and prayed for Hope City. We are a prayer room. We are crying out for the city, the nation, the world.

The singers responded with these phrases:

Give grace
To tarry in the city as we wait
For the promise of the Father
give grace
Pour out your Spirit

That is what we need here at Hope City, at IHOP and around the earth: GRACE

We need grace to wait for the things He has promised,
We need grace as we cry out for him to come
We need grace as we long for His rescue and His hand
We need grace to walk through the "stuff" that hits us everyday

But I love how the phrases ended: POUR OUT YOUR SPIRIT.

His grace and our survival only comes as He deposits HIS Spirit on our weak efforts.

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call unto me, and I will answer, and tell you great and mighty things that you do not know." We are calling unto you Jesus. COME

The beauty of simplicity

We have begun "harp and bowl" style prayer meetings at Hope City. And it is beautiful!

Yesterday, it went something like this:

On the piano was a girl who has never led worship from the piano
The Chorus leader had never led choruses
The singers were a formily homeless man, a pastor, and another man who none of which had sung prophetically.
The prayer leader was a man who, you guessed it, has never led a prayer meeting

And everyone else was sitting in a circle with a scripture ready to read and pray.

Potentially: chaotic and disasterous
Reality: Simple and beautiful.

The prayer time was amazing as person after person prayed their heart, and we sang "Bring restoration". It's hard to explain and share the relevance and importance of this prayer meeting. The people in the room ranged from homeless kids who are sleeping under stairs, to those of us who have been at IHOP for years, but there was no difference, as one of the homeless kids (late teens- early twenties) stood, prayed and literally preached, another received prayer and told us later he had never been prayed for before, while yet another received prayer and felt God's love. We all felt the presence of the Lord in the room.

I don't know exactly where the Lord is taking us, but the simplicity and the beauty are astounding!