theFurnace Prayer Blog

Wednesday Night Prayer! HEAVEN! 3/11/09

2009-04-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! The Lord once again blew us away! Its like we are not even heading into a prayer meeting anymore. We started off with silence. We put away bibles, journals, all reading. We just sat there and asked the holy spirit to come as we listened to him. We started just letting out words that the Lord gave us. The main one was that of Isaiah 6. Were the seraph touches Isaiah's lips with the coal from the Alter. We felt the Lord was going to touch this body with the hot coal from the alter. He was going to touch us as a whole and individually. So we started off with that and then the Lord changed directions and said get everyone to start repenting for a lack of faith. And if they cant repent for having a lack of faith, then to ask for more. The bottom line was when we walked in we felt the Lord say "if you can imagine what I am going to do tonight or in your mind if you can comprehend how I am going to show up then repent.” Im not really sure what happened next. Everyone just got hit with the sound of heaven. Everywhere I looked people were getting prayer over, crying, or getting knocked out. Seriously getting knocked out in the spirit. Girls were in huddles praying over each other, then they were all laying on the ground just weeping. People were prophesying over each other and left with powerful affirmation and encouragement. I don’t think I have seen anything quite like it. This was the sound of Heaven. This next part was the biggest thing that happened in the prayer meeting. Earlier in the week the Lord gave me a vision that he would be gathering wood. And later in the meeting he would take the wood and light it on fire with the Holy Spirit and it would be a holy and pleasing aroma to him. He said that an actual burning aroma would fill the room. He then told me that we would be the wood. When everyone stopped praying, weeping, getting knocked out IT HAPPENED! I smelled the burning aroma. And that very second, Aaron Thomas ran to me from the opposite side of the room and asked if I smelled the burning aroma. Then about 5 others came and asked the same thing. I couldn’t believe it. A literal Holy aroma filled the room. I immediately turned to Isaiah 46 where it says that trees will be ablaze and water will boil at the coming of the Lord. It was unbelievable. I started to cry. IT WAS PHENOMINAL! The Lord fulfilled the vision he gave me. We then went into worship for another hour. It was like the Holy Spirit was causing a hurricane to blow through. The Lord held us in Worship until 12:30. No one left. Then everyone just laid on the floor all together. The Lord said to me after the holy storm passes through that he was going to bring the dew of heaven just like a morning after a storm. It was that. The dew of Heaven was in the room. Everyone laying around, laughing, with the peace of heaven all around. It was INCREDIBLE! What a night! What a night! GOD I AM OVERWHELMED BY YOU!

PRAYER LEADERS :)

2009-04-08T14:34:00.001-07:00

Hey Prayer leaders!
#1 Just wanted to say thanks for loving Jesus and being willing to allow him to work through you! I am confident that he delights in each one of you and that hearts are being affected and changed through each of your obedience and humility to the plan of our Father! Isn't it awesome that Jesus empowers us to love to obey Him!

I have not been to a meeting in awhile so I just wanted to write to say Hi and share with you my thoughts as well as hopefully see how God is moving in you. Regarding prayer meeting I feel much more peaceful, confident, and secure during prayer meetings because Jesus has taught me that I am hidden in the rock. One could say I felt a lot like Gideon in Judges who was chosen by God to do something awesome but felt unequipped and insecure about the word and will of the Lord. He was afraid that what he had to offer was not enough and in all reality what we have to offer God is never enough, we always fall short of His glorious standard! In our flesh we can never fulfill the word of the Lord, but that's why Jesus left us his Spirit who equips, trains, and guilds us to do the work and will of the Lord. Thankfully we have a kind and generous God who knows the weakness of our frame and in our weakness gives us strength and courage to press into and believe upon his promises. Thus prayer was never about striving in my flesh to accomplish the word of the Lord but patiently waiting upon the Lord listening for his will and then proclaim what His spirit revealed. Prayer is neither a preformance nor a ritual manipulated by the will of man but an encounter with Jesus and evidence of the generousity of the mighty king to be glorified through his humble people. Prayer is evidence of the goodness of God and his desire to fellowship with man! So let us believe that those who wait on the Lord will not be put to shame and that we need not be discouraged nor disappointed when things dont go our way, because we are not the way He is our way!
What I have been thinking about...
All day long I am surrounded by words, from friends, family, coworkers, strangers, teachers, tons and tons of words all day long! Yet my heart has the privilege to hide the word of the Lord which lasts forever which does not fade nor is cancel by circumstance! How quick am I to receive the word of the Lord as real truth and promises for me?! Am I more willing to trust in the voice of my flesh, the voice of the professor, the voice to the preacher, the voice of a close friend, the voice of the devil. Who's voice am I listening for and not only who's voice am I listening for but who's voice do I actually believe? Its great to hear the word of God but do I receive it in my heart as truth? Or is their knowledge that has built itself up again the knowledge of Christ? Search my heart and know me Lord discern if their is any evil way, or wronkthinging concerning you, within me. For you are a majetic God able to finish the work you started so prepare your bride Lord for your return and cause us to be united and knit together in love as you have asked that we may bless you and love you like you love us! We love you Jesus.

:) Miss you all I pray all is well!
Lara

Monday Night March 30.

2009-04-01T16:40:00.001-07:00

On Monday nights I always feel such a strong pull from the Lord to worship, to show our faces to him and give our best to him. The purpose of getting together as a group in a prayer meeting format is first and foremost to love God in worshiping in spirit and truth. So thats what we did for the first half and it was solid!

We then went into prayer for our generation. Matthew 5:13-14 was our main focus (being salt and light to the world).

On top of praying for our generation, I felt the Lord impress that it was our time to start really stepping out in faith with good deeds, generosity, and serving others. Its time for us to start walking with his power and anointing, and see friends get saved and healed. We prayed that we would have opportunities this week where we could give ourselves and serve others. James says to "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do!"

I look forward to real acts of love spurred by the Holy Spirit! Its exciting to be a fully alive child of God!

-Josiah

Monday Night 3/16/09

2009-03-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

How he loves us!

This night was real, simple and all about God. Tonight, I was so excited and honestly surprised by the worship that we engaged in. It was in spirit and in truth. Although the Casen Cruz band is always awesome, and I really mean that, everyone in the room was committed to worshiping God in truth. It looked like everyone felt warmth on their hearts as they continue to give to God praise. I love it when we really worship, when our hearts are connected and emotions are there because we feel and know more of the love of our God!

We then prayed Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will." We prayed that we would walk this week in worship... our actions, our thoughts would all be our act of worship to God. On top of that, we prayed for faith that we not live conformed, and restricted by ourselves but that we would be obedient and full of faith!

I pray that the furnace would have opportunities to be broken, to serve, to love this week!

-Josiah and crew

Friday

2009-03-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

Shalom (peace in hebrew) from Michael 'mishael' Knowlton. This is my first time posting, I hope you, theReader, get something out of and maybe even enjoy reading my posts about Friday night prayer meetings.

I'd like to start by saying that from here out I'm dedicating my posts to revealing Truth (that is, absolute truth) and the truth of how I see theFurnace;
also for that matter liberal use of parentheses (like this).
I'll try to keep my comments mostly free of spiritual jargon and capitalized words so that as you read it is clear and simple (sometimes I'll use them though, forgive me)

A brief background
I inherited Friday night leadership from Aaron 'Baby Shaq' Olson, who inherited it from David 'no consistent nickname' Perkins who inherited Tuesday night from me. This to allude to the fact that leadership is messy and inconsistent at times, if not always.

Here we go:
I'm a newcomer to Friday nights, and over the past bit I've noticed something that has been incredibly discouraging.

There
was no
prayer
happening.

Why do we call this a prayer meeting if nobody is praying?

I have been chewing on this issue for the past several months, and God revealed to me an idea.

From the perspectives of a Furnace graduate and prayer leader,
it seems like sometimes when we (we are the Church, brothers and sisters all) come to prayer meetings, we come expecting the prayer leader and others to provide an experience.

Now, reader, let me ask you,
Is this prayer?

Think about it... when you go to a prayer meeting, what is on your mind?

What happens to your heart and head?

Is it different than when you are outside of the chapel?

Why?

Should it be?

I think that what often happens when people pray at furnace prayer meetings is that we go in with a religious mindset, one that seems to say "oh, now I'm at a prayer meeting, I have to sit down, shut up, read my bible for the first hour, and when the prayer leader says to do something like pray on the mic, I'm going to let the people who are good at it do it." Either that or our minds are anywhere but on God, and we expect the prayer leader to pull us out of our mindfunk.

Where this comes from, I have some ideas, but where it leads to is the issue I'm talking about.

It leads to stale, burnt out, unparticipatory prayer meetings.

And I'm sick of leading ones like that.

As to what happened on Friday night, I wrestled with this idea of not wanting to be part of a prayer meeting where people come in and pray to themselves. The purpose of prayer meetings is something far greater than checking a box, having a live worship quiet time, or feeling holier.

About 40 min into the first hour I got up and shared something along the above lines. Then I asked everyone to think and meditate on why we pray, what it means to pray, why we are here, and why we came that night.

The word of God says that scripture does not return void (that is, without result). I had everyone turn to and read Psalm 86 (a prayer of David) and then answer these questions to themselves and God.

We then came together as a whole, as a body of brothers and sisters, and sang to God for about 20 min.

Then we let Jesus speak for himself about what it means to pray, what we should pray. In Matthew 6 Jesus is instructing a group on how to pray. We listened to Jesus as he spoke to us through his word and prayed "the Lord's prayer" back to God.

When people came up to the mic to pray, I had not seen them so full of eager expectation. We were so ready to tell God who he was (v.9), ask him to send his kingdom (10), admit our brokenness and neediness (11), ask for forgiveness (12), and declare his victory over our lives (13).

Brother after sister came up to the mic to pray with each other, and as we did so, God moved.

May you, reader, come to the full knowledge of what it means to pray.
May we all become a people who live lives of prayer.
God does not delight in the prayer of the wicked (the religious, the pharisee who looks over the plight of the truly broken) but delights in the prayer of the righteous.
May you be righteous as Jesus was, admitting your weakness and God's strength, asking for forgiveness, declaring his victory, and living in such a way that though you are accused of unrighteousness, his kingdom is coming through you.
May you be excited to come together with your family and talk to God.

May
you
be
changed
by the truth
that we come before a Father
who is
full
of
Love.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

Sunday Night Prayer Meeting

2009-03-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

As I opened up the prayer meeting on Sunday night I challenged everyone to really take ownership. I felt like I was supposed to be more of a prayer manger than a prayer leader. I asked each person to listen to the Lord and ask about what we were supposed to do. To be honest, if no one came to me I was prepared to have God-time for the whole two hours. I didn’t want to just go through the motions. About halfway through the prayer meeting I received a note about Psalm 52:9, “I will)give You thanks forever, because You have done it, And I will wait on Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your godly ones.” We all gathered up front and began waiting on the Lord. We were silent, no music, no voices, just waiting and allowing the Lord to focus our attention. Out of that time we began to simply declare the things that God was revealing to us about himself. I loved this. It went on for nearly half an hour, still no music; just people taking turns declaring things about the Lord. This led to a time of powerful worship. I loved it because it felt so focused on God. We were not going through the motions, we were worshiping the Living God!

Saturday Morning Prayer :)

2009-03-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

This morning we enjoyed the snow and crisp winter air as we entered the prayer center building! IT was wonderful and made me feel like I actually live in Colorado!

The majority of our prayer time was focused on lifting up the soldiers in Iraq and those who will be sent to Afghanistan. I am very thankful for the sacrifice that these men and woman make so that we can live in the evironment that we live in today.

To make a long story short, this past week I got to encounter some of my neighbors and learned about their family situations. It was amazing! During this time I learned that a woman who lives very close to me is married to a man in the armed forces who has been absent for many months fighting in Iraq. In his absence this woman has walked through many hard months as she is pregnant and preparing to see her child while at the same time missing and desiring to see her husband. The homecoming of this soldier was this past week and the date of the baby's delievery was the day of his return! I know that the child, a boy, has been born and that his Dad has arived home to see him! What a great sacrifice to leave and risk your life with mother and child back home! There are so many stories like this im sure and some do not have as happy ending. Though pain is present in this world it leaves us not void or absent of hope. Hope triuphs over all, endures all, and believes for all even the unseen things that seem impossible. Therefore, I long for the return of the Lord, but also believe that in this age the blood of Jesus is more powerful and can extinguish the anger, rage, malice, envy, jealousy, and thirsty for power that exsists naturally in the human heart. As the bride of Christ, we can be restored and purified so that all authority given to the son can be made manifiest through us, that we may proclaim the exceptable year of the Lord and through words establish the kingdom and will of the Lord through total dependance upon the Holy Spirit. Jesus is ALIVE!

Wednesday Night Prayer! HEAVEN!

2009-03-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

I had been so excited this whole week. Sunday hit i knew something huge was going to happen. Prayer started and something big was happening. I just kept on saying the Lord is going to break through this place tonight. He's really going to move tonight. So I felt the Lord said just put away everything and just sit and wait. We did this and as i sat there i remembered how excited i was throughout the week because i knew God had been preparing something. He then showed me. It wasn't a vision of the present or the future but of the last 4 days. It was what the Lord had been doing..."He was preparing gifts for us. For the last 4 days he had been running all over the place, finding supplies, putting things together, wrapping/ unwrapping. Sweat was dripping from his face. He was running all around putting gifts together. Anticipation filled him and he just finished the gifts for us right before prayer started. So the Lord then said share your vision with them after you ask them what their greatest need is right now. He said "don't worry, i already prepared my gift according to what they are going to ask for" lolol. So then i asked everyone to write down their greatest need and to trust me and BELIEVE in where im going with this. They wrote down their greatest need and then i shared the vision with them. Everyone was so excited and filled with anticipation. I then said the Lord only asks a gift in return and that is repentance. So in a way we were exchanging gifts. We got in groups and started praying over one another. The next thing i know people are speaking prophecy over one another, crying, people were falling to the ground. There was confirming prophecy all over the room. I dont think i have ever seen so many tears at one time. We prayer for the first 2 hours. The room was so thick with the presence of God. Everyone was sprinting around, or crying, or just passed out HAHA JOY JOY! It was 11:00 and i said if anyone needs to leave u can, but we are just getting started. The Lord is about to rip this place open. I said i feel this a chance to go beyond the finite and the known and lets press. I also said that there will be a special annointing for sleep and quickly prayed for supernatural rest (by the way, i talked to a lot of people this morning and they said they had received eternal rest! Hallelujah!) So next, we needed to get on our knees in surrender. Just get on your knees and pray, yell, cry, laugh, rejoice (because the joy of the Lord was in the room) be silent, scream, praise. So we did, and immediately the joy of the Haven OVERWHELMED us! Everyone just started laughing, rejoicing, screaming, crying. Then after about 10 min of this it died out. then i felt the Lord say "No! theres More! I have food to eat that you know nothing about. this is a chance to enter into the unknown" So i said to everyone "guy's the Lord just gave us all gifts and filled our plates to the overflowing and now we are stuffed, but this is what the Lord is saying "We can end it here and reflect on our full stomachs right now or we can press beyond the finiteness and into the inner chambers of the Lord. So it picked back up. Everyone just started moaning, groaning, crying, yelling-asking for more. Then we finally started playing worship and everyone stood up dancing. Then all of the sudden, as if one body, we all stopped dancing. Everyones jaw dropped and eyes were bulging (I kid u not) THIS IS WHERE HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN! It was as if an invisible veil, or wall was just removed and we had stepped into the private courts of the Lord. Everyone felt and knew it! Now FIRE was in the room! Everyone said it was unlike anything they have ever experienced before (and I mean that)...No one had ever experienced such depth and thickness (at least thats what everyone told me)...There were several times I actually 100% thought that Jesus was actually in the room. I stopped dancing to start looking aroundthe room. His presence was so thick, i literally though the roof was on fire! and im not just saying that to describe pretty christian talk or some metaphor or something! We actually thought Jesus was walking around the roof was on fire! We danced and worshipped and received for another 2 hours! People were dancing and all of the sudden collapsing to the ground and started weeping. People were sprinting laps around the chapel! I heard cries and moans in ways i have never heard before! It was like dancing in the inner court for over an hour. HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN IN THAT ROOM LAST NIGHT!!!.............. This is how the last 5 weeks have been since retreat. There is something happening here, some sort of annointing i have never come across. Its become FAMILY and we all love eachother and we are COMMUNITY. Its as if the last 5 prayer meetings, people havnt been coming to pray. Its as if there coming because Jesus and the Kingdom of God is coming. Its as if we are ENCOUNTERING JESUS AND THE KINGDOM EVERY WED NIGHT!!! The Holy Spirit is overflowing the room!!! We ended at 1:oo am and keep ending between midnight and then so im looking for another worship leader to take over the second 2 hours. let me know if you guys know anyone :).................................................................... Last night the roof blew off! HEAVEN was RENDED and if there were trees in there, then they would have caught on fire. if there was water in there, then it would have boiled- ISAIAH 64:1-2

The Magic Carpet Ride

2009-03-04T10:37:00.001-08:00

Hey gang,
Saruday Night was our second attempt at having a prayer meeting completely focused on prayer request from people outside of theFurnace. The results, I belive, were amazing. When we were praying for others, there is little room for abstract spirtial jargon that gets in the way of what the heart is saying. It's hard to pray "God restore so-&-so's family" without saying just that. Also, when I hear people pray for others with pasion and belife, it increases my faith and gives me hope for my friends who are in dire situations. all in all, good job. i won't be here next week but when i get back we'll do the thing then.

peace

Monday Night March 2nd

2009-03-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry for blogging two days late!

Monday Night was incredible due to our beloved DLA group!

DLA recently went through (I think) two different events this last week. At one of them, they were trained on how to give encouraging, prophetic words from a team from Washington. I don't know all of the details, but I was approached by Dan Perkins and Joe Couch asking if they could bless the furnace by giving us each individually encouraging prophetic words.

It was such a blessing. It wasn't weird, or pushed but it was right on. During the first hour, they took people out individually to meet with a group of DLA students who prayed and gave words of encouragement specifically about their true identity in Christ. I was blown away by how God spoke through them! It was powerful for many including myself. I walked away changed!

I am excited to see the furnace and DLA walk in their true identity.

-Josiah

Sunday Night Prayer Meeting

2009-03-01T21:43:00.001-08:00

Prayer meeting tonight was great. We started by simply reading through the book of I John. There book consists of five packed chapters. I John is all about God's love, our response, and overcoming the world. It was fun to just read the scriptures together. We then went into a time of worship. CJ Hock introduced a song that he wrote that the Lord has placed on his heart over the past couple of weeks. It was fun to see people pressing in and worshiping even when they didn't know the song. It was all about God's power to break chains and set us free.

The rest of the night we prayed about Jesus. We prayed verses that were about Him and we prayed verses from passages where He spoke. I felt like it was important for us to really focus on who Jesus really is. We worshiped hard, went long, and had a great night!

Saturday Morning Prayer :)

2009-02-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

Thank you to all who showed up this morning! I really enjoyed the presence of each of you and appreciate you all very much, thank you for blessing me! This morning we had the privilege to come boldly before the throne of grace and proclaim LIFE over the wombs, houses, minds, politicians, babies, mothers, fathers, and citizens of America. We believe that God used our prayers to change hearts in this nation concerning the issue of Abortion, as well as firmly believe that He is now fascinating his people with His beauty and drawing them away to be satisfied, sustained, and saved by him. We believe the the mantle of death the has been established in our nation, which causes the blood of millions of babies to cry out before the Lord, is being washed away and torn down by the BLOOD OF JESUS. God is a big God and he does as he pleases and it amazes me that He attends and even uses our prayers. So we offer this prayer to the King of all Kings: "Jesus it is our prayer that you have mercy upon our nation and that you would remember the promise of your steadfast and jealous love concerning us. Lord would you pursue hearts and cause revival to come to American. We desire that upon the day of your return we would be united by your spirit crying out "Come Lord JESUS COME!!!!"

Monday Night Prayer

2009-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

Last night, Monday night prayer meeting went prayer walking in downtown Colorado Springs.

So about 12 of us went downtown and had a great time. Casen Cruz took half of the team to the boulder street church and interceded for them and I went to the Tejon/Acacia Park area. Prayer walking is so effective because you see/feel/sense more when the people and buildings are right in front of you...

When I was praying for the meeting before hand, I felt God show me that he would guide and direct the prayers that come out of our mouth. Its overwhelming to know that we know very little of what is going on in people's lives. They might be going through a death in their friends/family, having trouble financially, have deep hurt, or have addictions but we don't know all those specific things to pray for. Yet God knows all of those things, and if we listen, he will lead us to pray for the right things at the right time! And that's exactly what he did last night. I firmly believe that God gave us specifics, some real life changing opportunities to stand in the gap and intercede for a people that need it.

Monday night will be doing this again soon. Kudos to those who went!
-Josiah Carlson

pinch hitting

2009-02-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Dan was off with the DLA retreat this weekend and he asked me to fill in for me. I was honestly pretty nervous since it's been about 2 years! I spent some time trying to get an idea of what direction to head, and decided to focus on praying for awareness to what God is doing all around us, since this is something that has really been on my heart and mind lately. I also wanted to try out some of the ideas we discussed at the last leaders meeting, so those of you who made it a few weeks ago will recognize some stuff.

I opened with Genesis 28:10-16, which is set right after Jacob has essentially stolen Esau's birthright and Esau has vowed to kill his brother. Jacob escapes, heading north toward his uncle, Laban. Jacob rests for the night and has a dream about a ladder reaching from earth to heaven and angels ascending and descending, and when he wakes he says "God was in this place, and I was not aware of it."

Before transitioning to worship, I stopped and asked them to get comfortable for a second and explained real quick that in the Bible the words for 'spirit' and 'breath' and 'wind' are the same (ruah in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek). We think of these as three completely separate ideas, but for the writers of the Bible they are the same. FYI, you'll sometimes find different versions translate this in different ways like in the creation story (spirit or wind or either). You'll also see this in Genesis 2 when God "breathes" life in Adam, giving Adam His "spirit".

Anyway, I didn't tell them all that! But I offered the idea that breathe is maybe the most basic and yet important need we have. We are completely dependent on our next breathe, and can't last more than a couple minutes without it, but how often do we even think about our breathing? In the same way, we are completely dependent on God, yet how often are we unaware of him in our day to day lives? Is his spirit at work in and around us, but we are too busy that we don't see? So I asked them to sit for a few minutes in complete silence and just breath and listen. Then we spent some time worshiping right where they were at. I thought they were really connecting with it.

To transition to the prayer time, I read Exodus 3:1-5 (Moses and the burning bush) and prayed that God would open our eyes to him in the normal routine of life, that we would live in expectation and awe, looking for God's fingerprints, pointing out God's good work to those all around us. And I prayed that as we learn to see God actively moving that we would draw close to him and partner with him. We want to live in his story, not our little story. I wanted to stretch them a bit, so I asked them to flip their thinking a little and NOT pray "Jesus, come here" but instead pray variations of "Jesus, help me see that you are already here". I didn't want them to think I was saying it's wrong to pray the first prayer, so I made sure to tell them that. But I did want to stretch them and get them to wrestle with it.

There were some great prayers, all over the map in one sense but they were all personal responses to the core idea of awareness of God's presence at work, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

Also, Andrew Cantrel led worship for CJ, who was also at the retreat. He did a fantastic job even though I didn't make it easy on him by trying some new ideas! If you ever need a worship leader, he would be great.

And an early reminder for our next leaders meeting March 4th at 6. It's about a week and a half. I really hope you can be there. Our last meeting was really good and I think we had some exciting new vision for the prayer meetings. I'm sure we'll build on that this next time.

grace and peace.

The Magic Carpit Ride

2009-02-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

Hey Gang,
I've finally got my prayer leaders blog up......YAY! Now you all will have a weekly dose of my creative writing medicine. With regular treatments we will all be free thinking, grounded, passionate regulars of the Magic Carpet Ride...... that is the official name of saturday nights.

ok......to get down to biz-nass

First, contrary to popular belief i was actually at work last week not out on a hot date. I would have given you notice if i had been going out. i didn't called in to work until thursday so i didn't have much of a chance to give you all warning

Secondly, This semester we are going to take a bit of a different approach to how we go about our prayer topics. i expect you to come prepared to pray for others. we will spend most of our time praying for countries, this generation, our friends, family, and co-workers....our fellow students.....our worthless laxadazicle roommates.......our enemys.......in short....OTHERS. our prayer focus will allways be outward (unless God trumps the evening). not only will our focus be outward but i welcome you to bring in your prayer request and what God has given you a heart for. Saturday night is your prayer meeting and that is what makes it so magical.

Thirdly, your homework is still due this next week. for those of you who missed it, the homework was to ask you co-workers and fellow students if they had any prayer request and to bring them in ON PAPER so that we could pray coperatly for each others friends.

Forthly, i do have a girl friend and we decided to do valentines day on another day so that it would not iterfer with the prayer meeting.

Fithly, from now on my blogs will be more short essays of the night not usless list like this on

Sixthly, im just trying to come up with more points so my blog looks really awesome and long

Seventhly, i do not know if seventhly is really a word but i still used it any way........that is one of the perks of being the prayer leader, i can do what i want

Eithely, i know no one really reads these but if you do i give you permission to come up and give me a hard time after you read this one so i know you read it that these are actually read.

Sunday Night Prayer Meeting

2009-02-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

In Joel 2, God says "Rend your heart and not your garments..." and I truly believe that was what last night's prayer meeting was all about. It was a powerful experience that was beyond expectation; an adamant orchestration of God's love at work in those whose hearts have been set ablaze. The second hour was primarily focused on who we perceive God to be and in turn, how we perceive ourselves. As we were praying over this, I was lead into playing the bridge of Yahweh... there is something about declaring who God is that makes that declaration kindle in our hearts and burst into an even more intense flame. The truth coming alive brings freedom. As we were singing this, God gave me a picture of physical chains being broken off of feet; once imprisoning iron shackles being ripped off as if they were merely threads of yarn. This imagery burned so vivid and bright, I began to just declare what I was seeing in the spirit in song. It went like this: "Chains be broken, strongholds fall. Chains be broken, strongholds fall. Freedom's raining down, on this dry ground." There was a sense of fervency and desperation that emerged during this time that was maintained the rest of the prayer meeting. After a while of singing this, Matt prayed on the mic and so began the second hour of prayer. We broke off into groups and prayed over each other. During this time we started playing Here In Your Presence and lead into You Won't Relent. The last 15 minutes of the prayer meeting were especially powerful. At the end of the prayer meeting, I felt as if we were to continue past the usual two hour mark; this resulted in us staying over another 30 minute past formal dismissal. It was a two and a half hours that God totally rocked my world and forever changed my life.

Post by CJ Hock, Worship Leader

Monday Night 6-8pm Feb. 16

2009-02-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight's verse was Joel 2:12-13. ""Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."

We started tonight with some solid worship with Casen and band. Casen has such a heart for worship and its exciting to see him express it during worship. Tonight he encouraged everyone to really worship. Its easy to sit back during a fast worship song, or to feel uncomfortable, but sitting back isn't really what David and the Psalmists practiced. Throughout Psalms, worship and praise is talked about with actions: lifting hands, dancing, singing, loud bangs! Sometimes I wish we were more ecstatic in worshiping such an awesome God instead of just letting the band rock out.

We didn't really have prayer on the mic tonight although I do believe God did some deep surgery in everyone's heart. Jimmy shared with me that he felt like there were many in the room who were just doing the motions. I felt the same, so I asked everyone to really rend their hearts before God. To share with him, and let him in. No token prayers. I'm sure God did something unique in everyone's hearts even if they didn't feel His healing hand.

Next week Monday night will be headed downtown to prayer walk!
-Josiah and team

Saturday morning Prayer

2009-02-16T09:13:00.001-08:00

During prayer we focused our eyes on gazing upon the patience of the Lord. We began by picking out stories in the bible where God interacted with a person and showed his patience towards them in their weakness. It was awesome to hear the stories of God's interaction of patience with Jonah, Hosea, Samuel, Peter, and the thief on the cross. The word of God came alive and caused us to see how personal and alive He is now; he is the God who was, is, and is coming!!! Therefore, in light of His return we sought to partner with Him in His will for the return of the nations and focused on praying that as He has been patient with us that He too would be patient and merciful with the nation of Afghanistan. God is rich in His kindness towards the wicked and oppressed and thus we sought to cry out that the goodness of His other than and set apart character would be revealed through the changing of the hearts of His enemies and that their transformation would reveal How beautiful and awesome He is. For who are we that He would be mindful of us that He would set His affection towards us? We are thankful that life in Godliness is each day a product of who He is and that our weakness causes us to commune with Him and totally lean and rely on Him. His design is awesome and we are thankful to report that peoples destinies where changed in Afghanistan orphans where adopted by their heavenly father, the blind have now received their sight, the deceived now treasure the truth that Jesus Christ is their Lord, and woman have been given back their value and worth. For Jesus is all together lovely and good in every way we praise Him for the generosity of His tender and kind heart towards the people that He loves.

Impossible Prayers

2009-02-09T22:40:00.001-08:00

It is so easy to pray ethereal prayers that can be unanswered and we will never know. Sunday night I felt like it was important that we start praying the kind of prayers that are sometimes scary to pray; the kind that ask for real answers. We wanted to pray for things that are impossible for us; impossible for anyone but God. We followed a model of prayer in James 5.

James 5:13-18 states, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”

I love where it says that Elijah was a man like us. We are able to ask God to do great things. Things that are impossible by human standards, but with God all things are possible. I look forward to hearing how God answers these prayers.

Monday February 9, 2009 6-8pm

2009-02-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Before the prayer meeting tonight, I was able to come a bit early and start praying for the prayer meeting. Psalm 42:1 came to mind frequently and it became the scripture/idea that we sought after.

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

CJ talked to me during the end of the first hour and talked about this same verse. It was refreshing to hear the ideas that he was bringing up about how the furnace needs to bring it as a whole, in unity. He told me about how he, has relied on the prayer leaders in order to bring the direction and purpose instead of joining together with everyone in unity in reliance on God to lead. I must agree that I have forgotten the importance of the body coming together in unity to pray.

So in this prayer meeting, I decided that we would use Psalm 42:1-3 to corporately stir up desire. I had everyone in the furnace and dla come to the front, kneel and pray psalm 42. We prayed that our desire for him and our love for him would outweigh the sins and distractions of the world. Casen did a great job of leading worship during this time with "we are hungry". After a good amount of time, we prayed the idea behind psalm 42 (desire for Him) and also love for others... We didn't go to deep into the second part but it was still solid! It took us a while to end, but my prayer is that we would walk continually changed and trasformed in order to give more worship to God.

Monday night will be prayer walking in two weeks, February 23, 2009!!! keep it in your calenders and tell your friends!!!

Much love,

Josiah Carlson

Saturday morning prayer

2009-02-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

This morning we focused on how much we have been forgiven and then how God asks us to forgive others the same way he has forgiven us. These are ideas that resulted from our time together: "God has given me peace about my past and has removed all bitterness from past hurts." Psalm 17:8 "'Keep me as the apple of your eye'." "We are the apple of his eye." "Let the power of the Gospel always be new and real in our hearts. Let us trust fully in the simplicity of your plan." "I do not expect you to be perfect I expect you to be mine. For I am the author and finisher or your perfection in me."

Saturday Night - Furnace Encounter

2009-02-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Furnace Encounter was this past weekend. Saturday night we had an all out prayer meeting that rocked the house. This was a typical retreat session minus the preaching. There were basically two elements, worship and prayer. Both flowed throughout the evening. Saturday night came down to Revelation 21:5 & 6, “He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”

This led into a prayer time of asking to be those that longed for His return, that view Him as King, and that pray thirsty prayers. We spent the rest of the night praying these “thirsty” prayers. There was prayer for the healing of those that had been wounded by a father or leader, prayer against a religious spirit or performance mentality, prayer for those that had been hurt by people trying to force the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we eagerly desired and prayed for gifts, we asked for the planting and growth of the fruit of the Spirit. This is just a few things that were prayed for. The truth is that so much happened that night that it cannot really be summed up in a paragraph. People were healed, hearts were mended, worship was real, prayer was fervent. It was one of the most powerful evenings that I have been a part of in a long time.

Dan Perkins

Upper Room Prayer

2009-01-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful morning! The clouds rolled in and covered everything! We rejoiced in the beautiful creation of the Lord and thought about what it was like as God lead his people by a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Our focus in prayer was on three main topics. First, the tearing down of the hostility set up between Native American peoples and the church. Within this we asked that the Holy Spirit would quicken the church to go and tell of the unfailing and restoring love of Christ we anticipate the day when revival springs forth and salvation comes amongst the Native American tribes and Nations. Second, we lifted up the New life congregation and requested that we would be a lovesick bride totally dependent and strengthened by our bridegroom. We prayed for the strengthening of Brady and Holy Spirit insight and equipping to loving and serving the Haggard family. Last, we rejoiced in lifting up our voices on behalf of the Jewish people and asked that our great Father would make His beautiful son known to their hearts and that He would restore peace in the land. We are thankful to have such a great high priest who is the bridge between us and the father and makes known to our hearts the mysteries of God through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is Good

Saturday Morning Prayer, 1-17-09

2009-01-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

We love that no matter where you are and no matter what time it is, God is always faithful and ever-present. This morning, we started by praying for hungry hearts for the Furnace and America. Then, we moved into praying for Israel and China. A large majority of the prayers seemed to focus on widows, orphans, the advancing of the gospel, and for prayer movements to arise in both of these nations. I'd like to leave you all with a little quote. "We came. We sought. We conquered." Be encouraged that God loves for us to come before His throne, seek His face, and 'walk away' knowing that we have the God that purchased all victory living inside us.

Shalom! :)

Sunday Night Prayer Meeting

2008-12-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

Sunday night was one of my favorite prayer meetings of the entire semester. We started out the second hour singing the chorus of "All Who Are Thirsty." We kept singing, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come" over and over again. It was powerful.
We spent the whole night praying for the fire of the Lord to refine us and make us holy. As we behold him we become like him.

Monday Night Prayer Meeting

2008-12-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Monday:

Coming into this prayer meeting, for some reason or another, it seemed liked our hearts were hard as a whole. Maybe it was from sin, or lack of pursuit, but regardless by the end of the night there was true, authentic intimacy. It was repenting during the first hour that softened our hearts and drew us to the Lord. The whole second hour was straight up worship! It was worship deep with our spirits and with truth. We approached the Lord with the Fear of the Lord. We stepped into humbleness which was the key to the door of intimacy. Tonight there was a real longing to meet with God. We asked for Him tonight, and we actively sought Him. It wasn't something that I lead the prayer meeting into... it was something that God did. My leadership was irrelevant because the furnace came to meet with him and was able to follow Him first.
Tonight was truly intimate, and I pray that the furnace's hearts would be resolute to follow a relentless God. We have so much to jump into... and I have faith that we will, and not just in the future, but now, and with this crew!

Much love,
Josiah

Saturday Morning Prayer 11-21-08

2008-11-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

This morning the Father lead us to pray for a variety of topics. While praying I could not help but be overwhelmed with the faithfulness of the Lord to all peoples, nations, and tongues. We had the privilege of praying for the woman, children, and Lords Resistance Army in the Congo; lifting up their current circumstances and believing that our King is bigger than all darkness. We are thankful to report that even though we may never see the faces of the children and women in Africa, Jesus sees and changed their lives today! We also had the chance to pray for the London missions team asking our Savior to lead them by His spirit. Within this we prayed for the youth in London that they would no longer be held captive in the futility of their fleshly minds but that the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord would renew them by transforming their thoughts. We asked that Jesus would free minds from depression and suicidal thoughts and that the old would pass away, but a new nature would arise birthed by the spirit of the Lord and inspirited by the blood of Jesus. With the current conflict at UCCS with the gay and lesbian alliance we prayed for our fellow students and friends asking that steadfast love of the Lord would go forth and accomplish what he sent it forth to preform. We are believing that Jesus tore down deception and crowned His people with His heavenly perspective and purposes. It was also a privilege to be able to pray for the hearts and minds of the furnace and to ask the father to equip each student in our mutual call to evangelism. For we can not deny the word of the Lord spoken to us by his servant and clearly written to us in the word -To proclaim His name to all nations, tribes, and tongues. It is with great expectation that we await the glory of the Lord to fill our city through the hands and feet of his Bride. As we were wrapping up prayer Jenna and David began to sing a song in which the chores simple stated: "You will never let us go". Truly our teacher revealed that whether sinner or saint we are His and He is in passionate and jealous pursuit over our hearts and lives. May we go forth seeking first the kingdom of God, walking in the Spirit, and intentionally listening for the voice of the father proclaiming His will be done his Kingdom come.

Sunday Night Prayer Meeting

2008-11-17T19:57:00.001-08:00

It seems to be a reoccurring theme in the Sunday night prayer meeting to wait on the Lord. When I welcomed everyone to the prayer meeting I encouraged them all to ask the Lord to speak to them about the direction of the prayer meeting. As we spent the first hour in devotional prayer I felt like we needed to begin the intercession hour waiting on the Lord and believing that He would speak to us. We had a time of repentance and waiting on the Lord for about fifteen minutes before the band sang any worship song. After we had worshiped for a while I asked for people to share if the Lord had given them anything. The obvious trend was toward the lost. We spent the rest of the night praying for the light of Jesus to shine forth. We closed the night out praying for the people that we know have not given their lives to Jesus. I believe that God speaks to us. I feel like it is really important that we continue to wait on Him in order that we may better hear His voice. I read an interesting account of Mother Teresa today. It stated that she was once asked what she prays about during her prayer time; her response, "I mainly listen."

Saturday 15, Morning Prayer

2008-11-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

Lol so it took me awhile to figure out how to get to the post section. I initially was on track to set up a new blog site. Anyways, this morning we focused on praying for the ending of the sex trade and dismantled the exploitation of women and children around the world. Within this we sought to speak the love, hope, and worth of Christ over the women and children caught or willingly participating in this industry. As one body we asked Jesus to preform Saul like transformations in the pimps and leaders involved in the sex trade. Consequently, the prayer hour contained a conglomeration of prayers which included: the abolition of the sex trade (Rom 9:25-26, Psm 68:5-6, Isa 61, Jer 12 and 42), the movement of the Spirit of God in the service projects carried out by the furnace (1 Pet 2), the testimony of the Lord to be known through our friends traveling to the bride in London (1 Thes 2:1-12), and for the homeless ministries in the city of Los Angeles.

1 Pet 3:15a
But in your hearts regard Christ that Lord as hold,

11-11-08 Late night

2008-11-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a lot different from the other prayer meetings. We spent the first hour or so personally seeking God, with the focus of asking Him to remind us of what the gospel is. What does it mean that He died for us? What is the power of the cross? What does the blood of Jesus means for us? THen for the secon half we had communion, but instead of doing it like we normally do, we had bread and juice, and sat together talking and encouraging eachother. Just hanging out in fellowship in the presence of God. It was pretty cool to be reminded that since we all are part of His body, we are united in a unique and uncomparable way. As we had communion, we looked at who God is and remembered Him, but He also showed us who we are: His children, His body.

Sunday Night Prayer

2008-11-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

I did something tonight that I have never done before; I dismissed everybody early. About 3 songs into the second hour I felt like it was important that everybody actually wanted to be there. So, I told them that they had achieved credit for the prayer meeting and were free to go. However, if anyone wanted to stay we we were going to keep going. I wasn't mad or anything; I simply felt like people needed to be set free from the idea of fulfilling a requirement. I don't think that anyone left; and if they did that is really fine. After that we had a powerful worship time led by Brandan Bustamonte. We then prayed over people that felt any kind of discouragement, we prayed for passion for Jesus, greater Holy Spirit activity in our lives, and for healing. I love worshiping and praying with you guys!

Dan Perkins

Exciting!

2008-11-06T08:39:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Furnace Prayer Leader's blog. I am so excited to begin hearing from these prayer leaders. God is doing some incredible things in the prayer meetings and we all need to be encouraged and challenged by it. I hope that as you read these stories your faith will grow and our hearts will be united in prayer. I cannot wait to hear the testimonies of the Holy Spirit's moving and answered prayers.

Dan Perkins

Not Sure...

2008-11-05T18:06:00.001-08:00

So, I have never blogged before. Not sure if this post will actually show up so we will just consider this a test for now, with an actual post to come later. I will post every Saturday morning after the Friday Night Prayer Meetings, as well as any other time I feel led to write. Hope some substance will spew out of me onto this electronic, public diary or sorts. Well, I shall write again...