(06:45 am, Church parking lot, early San Diego morning, costal clouds still making it grey and light fog hangs on the hillsides, but a little sun poking out…}
“Hey! Great you could make it! [a SoCal bro-hug]… Welcome to Prayer and Encounter Room!
You got your coffee, you got your Bible, you brought a towel for the floor… let’s go to Prayer and Encounter Room!”
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We enter the small room, capacity of about 70 or so… there’s a small platform with a keyboard and four chairs with mics… very small sound-system, currently playing some piano music… lighting is low, sedate, but not dark… there are 40-ish chairs, all in a semi-circle… no video screen, no lyric screen, no fog… walls pretty youth-group-bare, sound panels…
As is with most Prayer Rooms, the musicians are facing to the SIDE, not the room… not a performance or a ‘congregation cheer-lead’, this is about a focus on King Jesus… many major ‘lead-worshipers’ are now facing to the side, even in large churches that have a high value on ‘encounter with God’ in their gatherings.
We take seats towards the back and the side, plenty of room to stand, kneel, face-down and dance [if we have to…}. There are 20 other folks here as well; there will be coming-and-going over the next 6 hours as we ‘enter in’ and people participate as they can… everyone is already praising, hands lifted up, soft praise going up… a few standing, most sitting, one person kneeling…
We put our towels on the ground… helps the kneeling parts…
The lead-worshiper now seated at the keys, playing a melodic chord-pattern of a chorus, starts to softly sing, “You… You… You… We’re waiting here for You / with our hands / lifted high in praise…” She repeats the line a couple of times… we’re all singing, a familiar tune… the acoustic guitarist is softly strumming along…
We can expect all the songs to be very ‘God-focused’ [lyrics pivoting on ‘You’ to God, rather than me/ or second-person references…]
With the music still playing, the ‘moderating leader’, one of the pastors here, opens up with a Scripture passage… in ‘Prayer and Encounter Room’ style, pretty much everything is prayed or addressed to the Lord…
“Lord Jesus… Jesus… You are our King… we are here for You…”
He opens up Psalm 24… “God, You’re showing us things out of this… ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully…’ “
He continues, “Lord, we repent… we come to You and say we want to stand in Your holy place, but like Isaiah, we’re unclean! We live among a people of unclean lips. We need Your cleansing, Lord! Forgive us…”
The response is a welling of prayers, repenting, asking for washing and cleansing… the lead-worshiper continues singing ‘Waiting here for You…’
This goes on for a couple of minutes… when it softens down, the leader continues, “Thank You, God. Thank You for the blood of Jesus, that cleanses us from all sin… we thank You!”
A few people are standing, Bibles open, taking in God’s Word… a few standing, hands raises… one person slowing doing the ‘pentecostal pacing’ at the back of the room, worshiping… the lead-worshiper, in the same key has now shifted to ‘Majesty… we’re singing Majesty / Your grace has found me just as I am…”
We all sing, another familiar song… for 7:15 am, it’s happenin’ here… there is a sense of His Manifest Presence coming into our gathering…
After a couple rounds of the chorus, the lead-worshiper continues the chords, the guitar continues to strum, but we are all praying and praising softly… faces are looking upward, smiles, glory on faces… one girl softly weeping in the back…
“We welcome You, our King! We lift You higher, Jesus. There is no other like You! We welcome You into this space. Have all the glory… forevermore! You are the One we love. You are the One we adore…”
We respond…
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About an hour in, after a lot of spurts of praise and worship and song-themes that last for 8-10-12 minutes… passionately… the pastor-leader calls for some times of intercession… since this particular week is the start-up of local elementary school, he calls out “let’s pray for teachers… they’ll teach goodness and kindness, and many of them to have a direct encounter with God… Lord! We pray for the teachers here in this city… our state…”
We become vocal, calling out what HolySpirit puts on our hearts, blessing and calling out God-Grace on teachers…
This morphs into the students, standing against on-line garbage and bullying, God-encounters for all kids involved in school sports, for revelation of their God-given identity, for God-moments and encounters…
We end with a ‘declaration song’ of the rightful reign of God…
Top of the hour, we shift to an hour of ‘contemplation’, a soft-piano soundtrack starts flowing out of the speakers, everybody finds their chairs or prayer-towels (on the floor) to seek the Lord.
AFTER THE MEETING…
Thanks for joining us for a taste of a Prayer and Encounter Room.
Just so you know, they are being called all kinds of things around the world.
Prayer Room. Encounter Room. Harp n Bowl Room. Wrestling Room. Prayer Place. Fire and Ice Room [I haven’t figured that one out yet].
Just know, these are popping up all around the world, all around the United States, like Lemonade stands in the deep South on a hot and muggy summer day…
They are the Isaiah 40:4 ‘wreckers and pavers’, making a way for King Jesus to ride into our midst, igniting revival.
[EXAMPLE OF UPPER ROOM PRAYER ROOM… note: they go full-band in this, so it’s a bit more full-on-rock…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHY2FA2a0Y&t=1999s ]
TAKE-AWAY:
Here’s just a few places pursuing Prayer and Encounter Rooms that I’ve touched in my Journey:
^ Upper Room (Dallas, TX)
^ Bethel Church (Redding, CA)
^ Jesus Image (Orlando, FL)
^ Jesus Culture (Sacramento and San Diego, CA)
^ International House of Prayer (Kansas City, MO)
^ SD Prayer House (San Diego, CA)
^ Ashwood House [Los Angeles]
^ Prayer Room listing 24/7 Prayer Network
^ International House of Prayer Network Map
FINAL THOUGHTS…
PRAYER CHAPEL
Actually, this Prayer Room isn’t really new, just moving into a modern format.
I have been to countless Liturgical churches (you know, the big stone buildings, the windows, the ‘bells and the smells’…] and many have a ‘Prayer Chapel’… some are very ornate, some just a place to kneel and prayer, some don’t even have a window…} but the idea was for clergy and congregant to find a place to PRAY, to worship privately, to meditate on the Scriptures…
This isn’t new… just finding a way into the 2020’s.
EXPLODING
I’m starting to regularly meet up with Prayer and Encounter-obsessed people. Yeah, they have jobs and families and church stuff, but they bend their schedules to be ‘at Prayer Room’ regularly. As many churches and groups are becoming ignited by the fires of God towards Revival, these groups are holding more Rooms, and for longer periods of time. From weekly 2 hr-meeting to three times a week for 5 hours each time to… Early morning, mid-day, ‘lunch-break’ [like the ‘Businessman’s Revival in the late 1800’s], evening, and…
Some are even ‘going for’ 24/7 Prayer… ambitious… requires quite a high level of people committed and a long-term commitment… do see the Reference to the 24/7 peeps in this blog.
TRAVAILING PRAYER
There is also a common theme that is boiling up to the surface. Many of the leaders within this move of God will tell you about this un-quenchable passion and desire to ‘pray, and pray… and pray some more… worship, weep, then… pray…”
The phrase ‘travailing prayer’ has started to re-emerge.
If you read the writings of the ‘Circuit-Rider’ preachers in the second American Great Awakening/Revival [1780-1830], they write about God igniting a group of fervent, faithful Christians to passionately pray, repent, cry out and intercede ‘at the most inconvenient times’, ‘travailing for hours and days in prayer and commune with the Divine Presence’ for Revival. It was marked by deep, groaning, guttural emotions, crying out to God for the salvation of their cities… ‘as if they were travailing to birth a child’…
[to read an excellent explanation of the theology and practice, see:
https://bibleresources.org/travailing-prayer/ ]
Why am I mentioning this?
It’s starting to happen all over again, in our day and our movement.
Without any suggestion from pulpit or preacher, groups of people are banding together in purposeful pursuit of God in Prayer [via Prayer Rooms] and then… then… finding they are being led into a deep, emotional experience directly with God as He pours His heart out on them in regards to their family, people and city, and culture, and… they are beginning to ‘travail’ profoundly.
One leader told me, “We never expected that… travailing prayer… It hit us like a freight train… the weeping and crying and emotional pain of praying God’s broken heart became something… indescribable… but the fruit of God’s Presence is now ramped and amp’d in our midst because of this…”
I remember him sighing. “Pray like that, then go to a worship gathering… you’re permanently wrecked by God…”
Travailing prayer.
AMEN! [SELAH]
written by crisbaj
<<CREDITS>>
© 2018-2024 by crisbaj/AdoreTheLord.blog
All rights reserved.
All Scripture references from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.
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Song credits:
[full band example] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGt6GZYvkh4
Waiting Here For You
Authors Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Martin Smith © 2010 sixsteps Music Vamos Publishing worshiptogether.com Songs sixsteps Music Curious? Music Uk
Majesty
Authors Martin Smith, Stu Garrard © 2003 Curious? Music UK (Admin. by Capitol Christian Music Publishing)
Worthy of It All Authors David Brymer, Ryan Hall © 2012 Common Hymnal Publishing, Innerland, Wayfinder Music, Underground Treasure (Admin. by Integrity Music)
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