After arriving at our host home on Thursday night, I was praying and felt the Lord said that there was an open heaven over Peoria and more specifically over Trinity Mennonite. I felt like He said that He would bless this church in spite of us. He is so jealous for His Bride in this city, that He would meet our weakness with His strength. The Bible says be it unto you according to your faith. The faith level at this church was off the charts. I have never witnessed such hunger and expectation. These people were hungry for the things of God.
We started the prayer room at 10am. Typically there are not enough people to pray on the microphone on a ministry trip, but our team stepped up each time. Our prophecy and healing rooms began at 1pm. Our team did amazing. There was a lot of apprehension with all of my colleagues. Most had not served in either of these ministries. I told them that they are the IHOP prophecy teams and the IHOP healing teams, and they stepped to the plate. I explained how the rooms operated, and how to get the words on tape. I told them to be bold and trust in the anointing and the Holy Spirit that abides in them. They were so bold and they hit the ground running. As I said before, the words were so accurate, that they were scary. Praise the Lord!
That night I preached about the theology of prophecy, and imparted the gift to anyone who would come forward. Nearly the whole church responded. It was amazing! I was able to play bass on Brantley’s worship team. That boy is amazing! He will be in the Global Prayer Room very soon. Watch for him on the webcast. At midnight dancing erupted in the church. It was such a time of joy. We were just basking in the presence of the Lord. I jumped off the stage and joined the dancing. We ended up semi-square dancing! We were doe-cee-doeing (I am not a hillbilly, though I am from Wichita, so I hoped I spelled that right!) The whole place was rocking!
The past few weeks have been such a whirlwind! Let me give you a recap of what our life has looked like. I have been finishing a class about the Book of Acts, and Holli was auditing a Systematic Theology class. Travis Brazie and I planned the whole ministry trip to Trinity Mennonite Church in Peoria. I am helping with the planning of our Wichita trip as well. Most importantly I have had to come up with 3 messages to preach! Holli is writing one message to share in Wichita. Maycee has dance twice a week to practice for her upcoming performance, The Firstborn Among the Dead. And oh yea, Holli is 7 months pregnant!
We have become just like a typical American family….BUSY!!!
Here are a few updates about our trip. I will try to update in increments, because SO much happened. This was by far the best ministry experience I have ever had. (could it be because I planned it?…..probably! I am my biggest fan! HA, HA, HA)
I must say that I had the most amazing team. I think that the atmosphere here at IHOP breeds humility. Everyone was so willing to serve, no matter what was asked of them. We had a group of what ended up being 45 students. The final number was not set until the final week before the trip. We had people dropping out all throughout the planning process. We only had 9 people who had been here at IHOP for more than one year. They were the only ones with any ministry experience. Everyone else had been in their first year at IHOP. About 10 or so had just completed their first semester at IHOPU. We were a very inexperienced team. That did not matter one bit! The Lord showed up in an incredible way!
I will give you a couple of highlights and fill in the amazing details in subsequent posts. We had one person get saved who was planning on killing themselves that night. Seriously! Praise God for His mercy! We must have had 100 healings. No joke. Travis said that out of everyone that was prayed for, only 2 did not get healed! The spirit of prophecy was released amongst the local people and they have started to move in the prophetic.
Pastor Mike (pastor of Trinity) said that their was no fallout from the trip. He said that usually there are some hurt feelings about what went on, but this time everyone was blessed. He said that some of his parishioners came up to him and said that some of the prophetic words were so accurate that it scared them!
God is so good! Please pray that the Holy Spirit visits Wichita in the same way this weekend!