Love and Good Deeds

"And let us consider how we may spur one another toward love and good deeds." Heb. 10: 22

The theme verse for our 24 hour prayer room at the end of January was Hebrews 10:19-25 and the Lord keeps coming back to it. First it was the "let us not give up meeting together" part, and now this part about stiring each other up to action. In the conference call on Monday Jaeson Ma encouraged everyone to make evangelism part of meeting together and praying. He was saying how prayer should result in action because in prayer we are recieving the heart of God, being filled with the Spirit, and then being sent out to bring Jesus to people. The ultimate direction of anything we do has to be for the salvation of all men and for the fulfillment the great commision. One of the things that he suggested was to do prayer evangelism. I had heard how students at Long Beach had done this and how powerful it was to meet people where they were at and really bless them through prayer. The Lord really put this on my heart as something we needed to do at Pt. Loma so that is what we did today! We have been praying for the campus everyday for the last 10 days and I felt like we needed to actually go out and physically pray for real individuals. So about 10 of us worshiped and prayed for the first half hour and then we went out in pairs and asked people if we could pray for them. It was so cool! We came back and shared and then ended up praying some more and you could just feel the sweetness of the love of God. What a great way to spend a friday lunch hour. I am so blessed.

Rain down Holy Spirit of God!

I didn't end up making it to prayer yesterday (I got out of class and could not find them!) but Becca wrote a little recap!

Hey, even the RAIN can't stop us! We met in the top floor of Nicholson Commons today, with about 8 people, and lifted up Point Loma in prayers for discernment. There are so many decisions to be made right now: about future plans, about relationships, and then there are always the daily choices that really define who we are. So we prayed for guidance, for the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts and fill us with compassion, so that we will show our neighbors what discipleship looks like! We also prayed for Dr. Pitt's decision to leave Point Loma, and for his future plans. Above all, there was a pervading sense of peace throughout, because although we felt keenly aware of the suffering that is so evident in the world, we had a strong sense that it is in God's hands, and our responsibility is just to love people no matter what! Way to go prayer team!!

Becca Van Donk

While I was searching for these faithful pray-ers I ran into a staff guy who has been joining us lately. He has really encouraged me and he says that the Lord is really moving Him to pray for all of us. It's so powerful to know that we are not in this alone, that many are praying, that this whole thing is bigger than I can even imagine. So as for today, I will stand and see the salvation of My Lord. Something is going down and I am excited to be apart of it. Yeah Jesus!!! Your savior comes Pt. Loma! Lift up a shout of joy!

Day 9

Tim lead today and we prayed for purity, honesty and integrity. It was a good follow up to Monday which was more focused on sexual purity. This was purity of the heart, motives, speech, thoughts...ect. He is an anointed worshiper and it is always a blessing when he brings his guitar. In chapel Michael Pitts was saying how the sound of singing is healing. I love that. I felt like that today. That our worship was going up to God but was somehow bringing healing to our campus at the same time. I love praying with people who have such pure hearts. The Lord has gathered some amazing men and women of God to pray together and I know he has specifically choosen each one for such a time as this. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me. I called upon him and he answered me. He has delivered me from all my fears. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the presence of my God forever.

Living Water

Yesterday was day 7 and the focus was on purity and specifically the issue of pornography. We had the largest group yet with about 12 or 13 people. Last night I listened to the campus transformation conference call and there were at least 30 other student leaders from schools across the nation. Jaeson Ma spoke about what God is doing at UCLA, some other people talked about the 24 hour prayer movement, and students shared testimonies. One of the main things they were saying was that we need to believe God to move in response to our prayers and believe him for a harvest NOW. It's not enough to have a nice little prayer/worship meeting in the middle of campus and feel like we did our Christian duty for the day. We need to believe that the prayer and worship will lead to an ourpouring of the Spirit, salvation, signs and wonders, and a manifestation of the power and glory of God. Through being in his presence we will be filled with the love and compassion of Christ and go out and be the answer to our own prayers. There are less than 3 weeks left in this school year but I am believing that when the Lord says "gather the people together and I will give them water", that the promise of "water" is for NOW, not for some vague time in the future that we may think in our hearts will never really come. So yeah. The Lord really challenged me through that conference call and I proceeded to pray and believe for a breakthrough in purity that very night because we prayed that afternoon. I prayed believing that students would be set free, that they would come to repentance, that they would confess their sin to one another and be healed, that truth would reign and that Jesus Christ would wash His bride with the Word-and that we would hear the testimonies today. Oh Lord, stir up our faith. Give us vision. Show us our inheritance and give us courage to lay ahold of it!
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. "
Luke 12:32

Day 5 and a 5k

In the midst of a two day conference track championship, I have had the pleasure to continue praying at the noonhour. Isn't that convenient that Pt. Loma is hosting the GSAC championships this year? Haha. These good works have been prepared for me since the foundation of the world.
Today there were two staff members that came and joined 4 of us in prayer. This was the first time that any non-students have shown up and it was powerful. Come on staff and faculty, I loose you to come pray! Like the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem on...the Lord has need of you. We prayed about holiness today and that Pt. Loma would be a city on a hill. I was convicted last night for living in this neighborhood (Pt. Loma/Ocean Beach) for 4 years and hardly caring about the salvation of all these people that surround our campus. So today I prayed that out.
This is not just about our campus, or our city. God is doing something all over the country. This last week UCLA has seen the gospel preached to hundreds, people getting saved all over the place, people getting healed and more. Read about this powerful move of God at UCLA on Jaeson Ma's blog. He is a college graduate, does a ton of campus ministry and is one of the key guys in the national prayer movements on college campuses.
http://www.jaesonma.blogspot.com/
And not only did I get to pray, but I had an awesome time running this weekend. I ran a 5k today and a 10k last night! This is my last year of track and it has been so sweet. The Lord blesses me so much. I will run in the path of His commands, for he has set my heart free!

Day 4

One of the coolest things about doing this thing is getting to pray with so many different people. It always interesting to see who the Lord brings and it's exciting to know that all these people are part of His master plan. Today Tim lead prayer and we focused on our inadequacy and God's power! We are having different people lead every day so it's really neat to see everyone's heart and different ways of doing things. So this morning I was reading Exodus 33 and it totally fit with the theme for the day. Moses basically tells God "I'm not going anywhere or doing anything without you...I'm not budging unless you are with me." I love this picture of complete dependance on the Lord. I want to have that heart. It also reminds me of Elijah and Elisha, or Ruth and Naomi. Or Jacob wrestling with God and refusing to let go of him. May we cling to the Lord with all of our might...

"You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the Lord, have created it."
Isaiah 45:8

The prayer of faith

Lately I have noticed that I have been praying with a lot more faith and authority. It's neat because I'll pray things out that the Lord puts on my heart and I have confidence that my prayers are advancing the kingdom of God. I'm learning what it means to walk by faith and not by sight and it's really fun. The other day I was praying for "salvation to spring up" and then on my run a couple days after I saw a sprouted agave plant and was reminded again of the verse. Hmm...I'm new at this whole thing so somehow I got 3 pictures instead of one. Oh well. This is what they look like most of the time. Once every 10-50 years this plant will grow a shoot that can be up to 20 feet tall and will flower and then die. It's crazy because the shoot grows like 2 inches a day so the plant goes from zero to 10 feet in a month or two. It just springs up!
So on my run I saw about 20 of these agaves that had done this and then felt led to command the unsprouted agaves to also "spring up" for the whole rest of my run. haha. It's like speaking to the mountain, or the fig tree, or the dead bones. Fully biblical. And I know that something happened in the spirit because I was commanding agaves to spring up. I thought it was a great salvation intercession. Fun times holy spirit. :)
So anyway, I have full confidence that big stuff is happening in the spiritual realm at Pt. Loma because of these 21 days of prayer and it's exciting. I know that I did not come up with this on my own, but am simply obeying God so something has to be happening. I know that obedience produces fruit so I can rest assured that I am not laboring in vain. Spring up O Well!! Spring up Pt. Loma!! Spring up salvation! Spring up!

The firstfruits are holy

Yeah! I figured out how to post another blog. I'm a little bit slow with technology sometimes. So today was Day 1 of 21 days of Noonhour prayer at Pt. Loma Nazarene. All weekend I was feeling a little uneasy/anxious/nervous about the whole thing and was trying to shake that. Last night the Lord reminded me that he had only asked me to "gather the people together" and that I didn't need to figure out the rest. I stood on that scripture from Numbers and also on Psalm 40:8 "I desire to do your will, O my God; you law is within my heart" as I drove back to Pt. Loma from home and found the peace again. Then I got to pray with a few awesome girls in the prayer chapel and I was greatly encouraged. I am so thankful for all the people the Lord has put in my life. Seriously, I am so blessed.
So one thing I was kind of stressing about was finding people to do worship. I had emailed a few guys and hadn't heard back from them and was a little worried. Well, I walk out of my dorm this morning and who is the first person I run across? Yep, one of the most anointed worshipers on campus who I had been trying to get in contact with. Thanks Lord. Oh yeah, and then my class/lab that was supposed to end at 12:30pm got out at 11:45! haha. I am in His hands and I need only stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!
Oh yes, I am really getting to prayer now. There were 8 girls today and we set it apart as a day of praise. It was so neat to pray in the middle of campus during lunch. I loved it! Water to my soul...Praise the Lord, he is very great.

My first blog

Just checking if it works!!