Healing through Forgiveness

Andrea :: freshman :: pre-architecture

The summer before my senior year, I hurt my knee while playing in a basketball league with my high school's girls basketball team. This event lead me to go to doctors to hear that I probably have a severe case of tendinitis or possibly a torn meniscus. From there my favorite quote from a doctor came, "If you are happy we are happy." They followed that by saying I will have to change my athletic lifestyle to match with the limitations of my knee; along with, this will be something you will learn to deal with. From there it has had its up and very far downs.

Once I came back from winter break this school year, my knee started to really act up. Never before had it started hurting so much over nothing that I did. Through out the first week of school, it continually got worse. Tues, Jan 19th was the worse night. I had never experienced such physical pain. By the end of the night, I was crying on Kayla, with Ashley sitting next to me trying to comfort me. Both of them were crying and praying. The odd point that they both made was that whenever they started to pray, I would wince and experience an increase of pain.

Two days later, Jan 21, Another unique event happened. Our campus ministry worship service began when my knee became an uncontrollable pain. It progressed in pain throughout all of worship and into the message on forgiveness. After the meeting, Kellie and Ashey, who were sitting next to me, decided that they wanted to pray for me that night. after service they got a group of girls together to pray. The pain was not ceasing, so Megan went to get some people to pray for me. One of those people was Lance. He got a text telling him to ask me if there was any unforgiveness in my heart. I knew what he was talking about, he was talking about my dad. I talked in simple statements trying to be as vague as possible. I ended the day asking myself questions about the unforgiveness in my heart.

Friday came, and I received a text from Michelle wondering if we could have a girl heart to heart God talk tonight. I went to that thinking just to talk, when my knee continued to aggravate me. That night my friends started praying for me a little after eleven pm. When Ashley came in, she told me that she knew that God was going to heal my knee tonight. They had me speak out on the brokenness my dad had caused within my family. I finally forgave my dad and other members of my family completely for the pain thier actions and decisions caused. From there we just prayed and prayed. My friend Kellie placed her hands on my knee bringing intense burning pain. We all continued to pray during this. Soon God overwhelmed me with a sense of peace about every family issue that once burdened me and all pain in my knee was gone. God healed me around 4:30 AM!!! There has been no pain since, and God is using me to repair the broken relationships in my family hopefully to be used to bring them to Christ.

Campus America: Campus Iowa: Awakening Stirs at Iowa State

Campus America wrote a story about what is happening here at the Iowa State Prayer room. Campus America is the organization that the ISU prayer room is part of. They have the vision is to have 24/7 prayer at every college campus to give every student the opportunity to experience the presence of Jesus Christ. Find more stories from around the country or learn more about their vision here.

Campus America: Campus Iowa: Awakening Stirs at Iowa State

Prayer is the greatest force that we can wield. It is the greatest talent which God has given us. He has given it to every person. We may differ among ourselves as to wealth, as to our social position, as to our education, as to our ability, as to our inherited characteristics; but in this matter of exercising the greatest force that is at work in the world today, we are on the same footing.

-John Mott, founder of the 1910 World Missionary Conference and 1946 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, raised in Iowa



Before the spring 2010 semester began, two different groups of students and campus ministry leaders felt God calling them to fast and pray for revival to come at Iowa State University. As Lance Allgood, a 2009 graduate who is now a leader for the campus ministry known as Salt, and a handful of others met during the holidays, they heard God tell them to begin the semester with a 21-day fast.

“We were all just burning to see God move at Iowa State,” Lance said. “When [the students] came back to school, we decided to do some fasting. I felt an invitation from the Lord saying, ‘If you want to be close to the heart of what I'm doing this semester, you should do this fast.’”

Upon arrival back to campus in January, sophomore Matt Cline and a group of others felt strongly that they needed to establish a 24-7 prayer room for the campus. They called every church within a mile of campus to see if they could help, but none were able. Matt didn’t relent, though, and at the last minute, a church across the street from the university opened up a 30-seat chapel to them. They launched their season of prayer at 10 p.m. on January 24.

“That night God poured his Spirit down on the room,” Matt said. “More than 25 people ended up there praying through the night singing, preaching and praying. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.”

On January 25, which marked day 21 of the fast, Lance ran into a friend who had been in the prayer room all night. He shared with Lance about how they felt strongly that revival was at hand and saw God moving powerfully in the people that had gathered. They even saw a young man come to the Lord in the wee hours of the morning. Lance hadn’t heard of the prayer room or met Matt until then, but very soon after joined in helping to lead the prayer room.

After a while, the students and leaders on campus felt like they needed to perpetuate the prayer they had begun. They are now indefinitely praying 24-7 and have seen God continue to heal people physically and emotionally, and have also seen more salvations. Lance and Matt both said that, admittedly, the transition from simply doing a season of prayer to praying indefinitely and around the clock has been a challenge for them. Nonetheless, they recognize the significance of what God is doing on their campus.

“We've been transitioning out of the honeymoon stage and into the long, flat straight-away where you just have to dig in and keep going,” Lance said. “The first two weeks were awesome.Now, several of the shifts go unfilled, which is ok.The goal is Jesus being lifted high, not us keeping some streak.People are still crying out to Him passionately. We just have to keep re-filling the vision tank—that we want to see revival on campus, but at the same time that crying out to Him in the middle of the night is inherently valuable in and of itself.”

“God is sovereign,” Matt said. “He is good and loves it when his people are humble enough to come to him in prayer. When this first started, some people gave me some credit for starting this.God proves to me everyday it is nothing we do and nothing I have done.What is happening here is God pouring out His power and loving His children because He is good, and I love being small part of the thing God is doing.”

[Story by Rachel Wegner]

Leg grows out 1.5 inches to re-align hips and spine

On Monday, Feb 8th I was covering a shift in the prayer room. No one showed up for the next shift right away, so I decided to stay. Soon after, Jordan called me, saying, "Austin and I have been under a lot of spiritual attack. We're heading to the prayer room so if you could be praying for us that would be great."

"Well I'm actually in the prayer room right now, so I'll see you here in a little bit," was my reply.

They showed up and stared to talk about how things had been tough recently. We prayed for Austin who had had a headache for the past four days. After a short time of prayer, the headache was completely gone. We prayed for Jordan, and he felt God's peace just flood through his anxieties.

Bo and Jenny showed up in the prayer room, too, and I stepped out to take a phone call. When I came back in, Austin was showing everyone how his left leg is about 1.5" longer than his right leg. He had been in a carwreck back before Christmas, and his left thigh was broken so badly that there was a metal rod going from his hip socket to the top of his knee. The re-setting of the bone had left a gap that had made his leg too long.

When I saw him showing how his left leg was longer than his right, I just got excited right away. I have heard several stories of uneven legs growing out, but I had never actually seen someone with that.

"Can we pray for you?"

Austin said sure, and so all four of us were ready to lay hands. We had him sit down with his hips against the wall to have something with which to measure his legs. The left leg was obviously longer, by over an inch, no matter the angle we swung his legs. So the four of us started to pray, asking God to heal that left leg and correct the gap.

We felt God moving in our prayers, but when we asked Austin he said he didn't feel anything in particular. So we decided to pray for his thigh where the metal rod was located. I shared how I know of a particular pastor who brings metal detectors to his prayer meetings because they've seen metal dissolve and full healing on multiple occasions.

We prayed again, and it seemed like God was moving even more. We asked Austin, and he said that he felt a tingling on the back of his calves. This made us ask, "So is that the Lord you're feeling? Is that the presence of God showing up?" He replied:

"I dunno, it's my calves, I've never felt the presence of God there before."

Good point. So we kept praying, asking the Lord that if that was Him, would He come and double it and do more, and if it wasn't Him, would He take that tingling away. After our next round of prayer, we asked Austin again what he was feeling. He said:

"It's increased, I feel it in the back of my knees now."

More, Lord! We went after it in prayer again. The Lord was very near, Austin started getting emotional. After this round of prayer, we asked and he said things hadn't changed, but it was good it was still going on the back of his knees. So we asked him to check his thigh, to see what was happening. He felt his hip, and yeah the metal rod was still poking out on his hip socket. But then we looked down at his feet.

They were even.

Wait a second.

They're even?

They weren't even before, right? What's going on?

Austin said he had felt his right leg grow out to match the length of his left leg. Unbelievable. Looking at his feet, they looked, well, normal. There had been no flash of lightning from heaven or earthquake of God's mighty hand. Were Austin's legs really uneven just a few minutes before?

Austin stood up and got his bearings. The legs felt even while standing. His hips felt better aligned now. The uneven legs usually caused his hips to be tilted which caused his spine to curve in his lower back. He lifted up the back of his shirt, and as far as we could tell with our eyes, it looked straight as could be. His chiropractor back home has on file the uneven measurements of his legs, so Austin will definitely get it checked out next time he's back there, passing on the testimony of healing to the doctors as well. But we stand assured even now that Austin was healed before our very eyes.

We had him sit down one more time with his back and hips against the wall to double check one more time that it wasn't just an optical illusion. It wasn't. His legs really were even. So we prayed once more, thanking the Lord and just joyfully lifting up His name.

You are so good to us, Jesus! Thank you for coming and healing! And we ask for more, Lord!

25 Things to do in the prayer room

Filling hour after hour in the prayer room can sometimes be tedious. Nobody wants to get in a rut. So here are 25 things you can do to spice up your time with God in the prayer room.

1. Sit and pray silently with your eyes closed and head bowed. (This one seems to be pretty popular in our day)
2. Stand and pray out loud with your hands in the air and your eyes looking up to heaven. (This one was pretty popular in Jesus’ day)
3. Read the Bible
4. Journal your thoughts and prayers with pen and paper
5. Pray with a friend
6. Go to the world map and write a prayer on a sticky note and place it on the region of pertinence.
7. Go to the USA map and write a prayer on a sticky note and place it on the region of pertinence.
8. Go to the ISU campus map and write a prayer on a sticky note and place it on the region of pertinence.
9. Read the black cardboard with notes stuck to it. For those notes that resonate with you, dwell on them and pray them back to God.
10. Have a time of confession and repentance in the back with the cross. You can nail your sins to the cross on a piece of paper.
11. Bring your iPod and have a quiet reflective worship session.
12. Bring your iPod and have a jubilant worshipful dance session.
13. Play and worship using the djembe, guitar, or piano that are available in the front corner.
14. Spend some times in reverent worship on your knees with your face bowed to your King
15. Pray for Jon Lacina, using and agreeing with the notes on the white cardboard.
16. Pray for current events on campus that have to do with items on the back table.
17. Bring a Daily with you to the prayer room, pray over the headlines and write prayers in the margins.
18. Pray for St. John’s, that their kindness showed us would overflow into blessing upon blessing
19. Open your Bible to one of the Psalms of the day and pray it back to the Lord
20. List all the things in your life to be thankful for and sincerely thank the Lord for them.
21. List the 3 non-believers that you are closest to and pray fervently that they would come to know Jesus
22. Ask Jesus what is on His heart and sit and listen to what He says
23. Write an encouraging note to someone in your life who needs it right now, or someone from your past who poured into you in a significant way
24. Pray for your (future) spouse
25. Do some other activity that is yours entirely that helps you to connect with God

Uneffected

Amy :: Junior :: Communications
Most of you reading this have hopefully read the post referring to the evening of Sunday the 24th.
I had four missed phone calls, 5 text messages and one voicemail when I woke up at 5:30 Monday morning to go to my prayer time. The messages ranged in times from late Sunday evening into the early morning hours of Monday. All the messages were telling me to come to the prayer room. I obviously had missed out on something. I had no idea.
When I arrived at the prayer room, I was frustrated and mad I had missed out on something I felt was unbelievable. After hearing about it I felt even more frustrated that no one got through to me. I felt lost like I didn’t know how to feel about it. While driving home I prayed to God for Passion. I wanted to have passion for what was happening on Campus and passion for spreading God’s Word.
Tuesday God convicted me of feeling I had to see to believe. I was still uneasy but was gradually accepting the fact that something amazing happened in that prayer room on Sunday night. When I was convicted I realized I had been critical in my mind of all these stories. Through all this I continued to pray for the passion because even though I somewhat believed it I still didn’t have my friends passions.
Wednesday Night I went to dinner with two Matt’s referred to in earlier posts and Megan. They were all present Sunday night and talked about how a week ago they didn’t ever think this stuff could happen. I felt the same. We talked about Charismatic Christians and in my mind I thought that is too much. I was hesitant and weary.
After leaving dinner one friend asked me why I was so quiet. I tried to explain.
I saw all of these amazing things happening on Campus, all this amazing passion people had after Sunday night. All the trust in God that went above and beyond what I thought trust was. I said the words “I feel Unaffected.” I wanted to have that passion. I was going out and telling people about God but having no passion for it.
Then between my first and second bible study of the night I got a text message telling me to be in the prayer room at 8:30. I went prayed a little and heard my friends coming up the street. They were loud. They came in laughing and shouting. They prayed over another friend who put his face to the ground praying. They prayed for another friend who got up went to the back and opened his bible. They were all laughing. I didn’t get it. Had no idea what was happening. I looked around the room with what I am sure looked like a stunned look. Then they prayed for me. Everything changed. I felt really warm almost hot. I felt like I needed to get up. And then I started screaming. I can’t explain at all what happened. I remember feeling this Joy for all the things I wanted to accomplish and do, but at the same time realized I wasn’t really needed. God didn’t need me for this but he wanted to use me. The next thing I knew I was on the floor weeping. Weeping, laughing and shaking. We all began to run around the room. Shouting bible passages, praying, preaching. One person wrote on a piece of paper. Pray for 6,000 to come to Christ in the next semester. All night long I couldn’t stop shouting 6,000 people. Unaffected are you kidding me!? We need love this Campus. And Show those 6,000 people who the Glory should go to. God is amazing. He shows up in times of doubt and frustration like a burning light. Unexpected, unbelievable, the unbelievable things in my life are now believed. But even without these amazing things, I should never be unaffected. We all should be affected. We are affected by the Grace of God. I can’t wait to see what He continues to do in my life, in others lives in the lives of Iowa State Students that don’t know God.

An Iowan from our past who inspires our future

"Prayer is the greatest force that we can wield. It is the greatest talent which God has given us. He has given it to every person... We may differ among ourselves as to wealth, as to our social position, as to our education, as to our ability, as to our inherited characteristics; but in this matter of exercising the greatest force that is at work in the world today, we are on the same footing."
-John Mott

John R. Mott was a pretty regular guy like us. Grew up in Postville, Iowa. Went to Upper Iowa University and then transferred to Cornell University. Started praying a lot when he was a student, like the above quote talks about.

Mott lead the Student Volunteer Movement which was about getting college kids excited about missions and taking the gospel to the nations. SVM also focused a lot on getting people to pray.
Put together the first ever "World Missionary Conference" in Scotland in 1910. Mott kept praying.
Wrote a book called The Evangelization of the World in this Generation. John cried out to God for more in prayer. Became the leader of the Young Men's Christian Association, or YMCA. His prayers increased as they were answered.

At the twilight of a life of crying out to God and mobilizing students to be ambassadors for the gospel, Mott was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts and the ways that God answered his prayers. As you can see, his life was pretty simple. Kid from Iowa goes to college, strikes up a conversation with the Lord, and keeps going where that takes him. This simplicity was summed up this way by the man who was presenting John Mott with the Nobel Prize:

"He was an apostle of a simple Christianity, presented in a form which made it living and real to the people to whom it was addressed."

Lord, give us a simple faith to pray simple prayers. They are powerful in and of themselves. May our relationship with You be living and real to all those around us.

Baptize them in MY NAME

Austin :: Sophomore :: English Education

So I had this dream the night after the prayer meeting that has already been talked about on this blog. It was very vivid and I remember every detail of it. Basically it goes like this:

I walk out of my room to go pray at Saint John's. It's warm outside, and everything is green. I was also wearing a red sweatshirt that I own, which has nothing to do with the dream but I specifically remember that. So I walk down the winding staircase in Friley to get to the entrance I usually leave to go to the room. As I am walking past the delivery dock something catches my eye. Low and behold there are 5-10 thousand people surrounding Lake Laverne. At first it didn't make sense and then I saw there were people in the water. All of these people were waiting to get baptized in Lake Laverne, which may disgust most of you.

That was my dream, it wasn't very long but it sticks in my memory and I long for the day when 5 to 10 thousand people are waiting in masses to get baptized in some of the filthiest water I've seen.

The Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 133:1

How good and pleasant it is 

    when brothers live together in unity!

Back in England in the 1500s, the nation and the church were in a time of uncertainty.  The church had begun to split across the continent of Europe.  Many were disillusioned with the power that the church in Rome tried to exert over the people.  Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door, the 95 things he felt the church had done wrong and needed to change.  In some instances this produced good dialogue, in other instances it produced factions and splinter groups that would go so far as to kill one another.

The British Isles, while slightly disconnected from the continent in geography, were not disconnected from the nature of religious conflict.  King Henry VIII was the ruler of England.  Inspired by the fresh thinking of Martin Luther, he decided that he could take things into his own hands and break away from Rome, declaring himself to be the sole spiritual guardian for the nation.  He wasn't inspired by his interpretation of Scripture, he just wanted to make it legal to divorce his wife.

This set off a century of England swinging back and forth in religious allegiance.  The heir to the throne after Henry attempted to bring more Protestant reformation, creating the Anglican church, but the Queen who came after him turned the nation to be zealous for the Roman Catholic church.  On it went, again getting bloody and violent to the shame of the gospel of Christ.  

In the midst of the swinging back and forth, there was a tool that was brought forth at various times to reunite a nation.  The Book of Common Prayer, put together by Thomas Cranmer, built off the most common themes in both the Roman tradition and the new Anglican reformation, with many Bible passages throughout.  While different kings and queens and peasants could not agree on methods of worship, they could agree on two things: Jesus is Lord and we need to seek Him in prayer.  Over a century later, when the nation went into civil war, The Book of Common Prayer was where they turned to bring restoration.

Outside of England, the Anglican Church is referred to as the Episcopalian Church.  How fitting it is that a fresh wave of prayer and unity at Iowa State would find its home at St. John's Episcopal church by the campus.  As the people who want to follow Jesus, we all have in common this need for prayer.

If you come to the prayer room here at Iowa State, you'll find copies of The Book of Common Prayer scattered throughout the room.  You'll probably also find people from other ministries scattered throughout the room as well.  Feel free to introduce yourself, get to know them, and join them in the cry to the Lord to move in our midst.

Come, Father, continue to work here.  Thank you for those that have gone before to pave the way for us.  May you once again unite a campus, a city, a state, a nation in the common need of prayer and the touch of Your Son.  

9 years of grudges and back pain healed by Jesus

Young Jae Ahn :: junior :: landscape architecture

There was someone who I had a grudge against for a long time. September 28, 2000, my life had completely changed because of two people. I crossed the road without caution and a driver passed our school bus as I was crossing the road and he hit me. My head hit the car’s windshield and my hair got jammed in the cracks of the window and my blood covered the windshield. My mom said it was the most horrible scene she had ever witnessed. That day was a day before midterm exams so the first thing I said after I hit the car was, “Oh… no. I have screwed up my midterms.” Honestly, after 30 seconds, it didn’t hurt at all so I thought I was ok, but I was not ok. Doing poorly on my midterms was nothing compared with what tortured me for 9 years. Thankfully, only my back bone was broken because I fell down on the lawn not asphalt road.

When I was in the hospital, doctors and nurses immobilized me and I had to use a wheelchair. I could walk but I was not allowed to walk for three months. In that time, I didn’t even feel the pain so I was always complaining. I began to think of what it would be like if he had not hit me. I could hang out with my friends and go to school and so on. I hated him.

After coming back home my pain started. If my back bone pinched once, I had to call my brother or my parents. Even in school, I needed to someone next to me at all times to help me stand or sit even though I did not use a wheelchair. However, I began to heal, little by little, so the pinching in my back was less frequent. On the other hand, I could not sleep without painkillers at least twice a week. It was nearly impossible to sit or stand without the painkillers. Two or three times a year, the left side of my body was paralyzed after dreaming of that accident. I still remember his face. He was crying, and scared. 9 years ago, I didn’t understand what he felt through this accident; I just cared about myself because I was in so much pain. I am not certain, but he may dream about this accident too.

I met three doctors and went through physical rehabilitation, (swimming treatment, injection treatment and massage,) and several medications. The only reason that I did not have surgery was there is no guarantee that it would heal my back. My only wish was to heal my back. I felt that if someone healed my back, I could do anything. All three doctors said there would be no perfect cure because one of the disks between my back bones was pressing nerves so that I would have this pain for the rest of my life.

However, when I came to the United States from Korea, I fell in love with Jesus. This was unexpected because I used to believe that religious people were crazy. After my conversion to Christianity, my back immediately stopped hurting. For the first month, I thought it was weird and that I would probably still need painkillers to fall asleep, but I did not. As time went by, it became clear. I realized that Jesus cured my back after I had begun praying to Him. It has been 6 months without pain. Simply sitting down, watching movies, or writing essays are miracles to me. I wish I could tell the man that hit me that he did not ruin my life, he saved it. He allowed me to see Jesus and Jesus’ power. I still remember that man’s face and I used to hate him, but I do not hate him anymore. I hope he is free from the pain that accident may have caused him, just as I am.

Sometimes, things that seem bad but they are not actually bad. My life has completely changed because of that accident. That accident was not horrible car accident. It was perfect miracle.

John 9:2-3  And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in Him."

Prayer, open 24 hours for your convenience

"Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence."
-Martin Tupper

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
-Apostle Paul (as he wrote in Ephesians 3)

I know there are many who want to see Jesus lifted high at Iowa State this semester. We want a new wave of souls saved, we want to see prodigals come home, we want to see Saul-to-Paul conversions. The list goes on-- we want to see a fresh coat of purity and holiness cover this campus like the the January snow, replacing the late-March ditch sludge of sexual immorality. We want to see the Church rise up and send laborers from this place to go throughout the globe and bring the kingdom in every way possible.

All of these are in vain unless we pray.

Now I want to be clear that you can pray from anywhere. You can bow your head and close your eyes before you eat your meal in the UDCC. You can keep a dialogue with the Lord going in the back of your mind as you sit in class. You can partner up with your roommate and hit your knees in your apartment. We need to be lifting him up everywhere, that the fragrance of prayer is just carried with us.

But, there is something special about setting apart certain times and certain places to cry out to the Lord. We are extremely fortunate this semester at Iowa State to have a certain place available to all students. And we our doubly fortunate that we have been given a certain time, too--all the time. Through the watches of the night, through the weekends, through the early mornings.

We have that place set apart. St. John's Episcopal church has graciously volunteered to allow access to their chapel for students to be praying around the clock. I bet you've see St. John's before, you may not remember it though:


Just picture lots of snow and ice, the google map pic was taken a few months ago. Enter the back, on the side furthest from Lincoln Way. The room is labeled as the "chapel." They also just ask that you take your shoes off, so that we're not tracking too much sand and salt in there with all our extra traffic.

Let's get after it. What might the Lord do?
"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly." Luke 18:7-8

I Will Pour Out My Spirit in those Days

Matt :: sophomore :: criminal justice, sociology

My name is Matt, and I am a sophomore here at Iowa State who has prayed for revival for the last year. And I would like to apologize in advance for any run on sentences in this blog, because I am on my third red bull and have not slept for more than 48 hours.
Up until this morning I have never met Lance, I had no idea of his fast and prayers. We serve the Lord in different ministries, but as of today I am sure we serve the same God. And Jesus is on the move. The movement I am involved with has been asking God to give us a 24/7 prayer movement (which is exactly what it sounds like). Now God was making that happen (It has been attempted before and failed). I had faith that God would make sure there would always be someone there. One person keeping watch every hour of the day. That was my expectation and I was excited for it. I had no idea God had much better plans. We had just dedicated the room to God's glory and I then waited and began praying on the second prayer shift in the room.
It was difficult. We expected attacks from Satan and his demons and I assumed that, this was what this distraction was. So I prayed meekly,
"Jesus, if you are here come through the door. Meet me here. Get my attention"
My phone rang and a friend named Jordan was calling. I answered and was told he was under satanic attack physical, mental, and emotional. Well I told him come to the prayer room and I would pray for him. He headed over. Bo whose watch was about to start came into the room resolving to pray with us too. As Jordan walked over street lights went off as he went by. He felt weak like he was running a great distance and it was hard to get to the room. As I prayed God would send him quickly. He walked through the door and I went totally numb. Something was very very wrong. So we prayed.
Timidly at first as weak children begging their father for deliverance. Then we rebuked the lies we had been living under and held to the cross of Jesus. This is where things get crazy. The inexplicable. Too much. The spirit descended and we reacted. We laughed. We cried. And then we began screaming prayers to God. An hour passed. And another pray-er entered Matt (not me). I immediately prayed for him and he began to pray. He continued to do so for the next 6 hours taking no break.
My roommates came. Jordan called friends. And as people walked into the room of screaming men all felt the Spirit thrashing. And people responded. I saw God just work. People prayed. People preached. People sang. People laid flat on their faces in awe. I was speechless and God ensured HE and HE alone would receive the glory brought to Him that night. 28 people. The number of people Bo, Jordan and I prayed would enter the prayer room to pray together. And it happened in a matter of hours. As the prayer continued prophesy was given , words were spoken into the lives of other, and battle with demons became physical for some. A friend moved around the room physically attacking demons where he saw them. He said to me,
"Did you see that I just kicked a demon in the face. I am really freaked out, but I did."
Now some of you may have doctrinal qualms with how "charismatic" this prayer meeting was. So did I. However God did not care as his Spirit came down on these missional prayer warriors. Through out the night different people would be led to and find themselves quoting the same scripture. Unity of the body was a theme. But the two sections of scripture that kept coming up again and again were Chronicles 7:14 and Joel 2:28-32 and where it is quoted in Acts 2:17-21 when it was spoken at the day of Pentecost.
And amidst all this Holy chaos a man stood up to make this announcement,
"Dave has just accepted Jesus Christ into his life"
Yes 6 hours into the prayer room someone inside the room had already given their life to Christ. And Matt (not me) continued to pray. Something changed that night in an unmend-able way. Call it an awaking or revival. I call it God descending.
Today I saw students sharing the gospel. A friend led a girl to Christ. If you think you are ready for this, then you have no idea what is happening. I thought I was. And God proved me wrong. And I am so glad he did. This prayer meeting lasted from 11 pm to 7 am. And yes Matt (not me) prayed till dawn broke.

Crying out for a move of God

Lance :: graduated, still in Ames :: civil engineering

Over Christmas break, some of the student leaders in our ministry found me before they left for the holidays. They wanted to talk, because their hearts were just burning for God to come and do something at Iowa State. We shared Scriptures and that captured what we wanted and dreamed about what God might do. A week or two later when I returned from the holidays, these guys found me again before a Sunday church service back in Ames. They were waiting with this bold declaration:

"We want to do some prayer and fasting, just set apart some time and seek the Lord for revival at Iowa State." I needed some convincing, but they had their faces set like flint (Isaiah 50:7).

So we set apart the past 21 days have been set apart to the Lord for prayer and fasting. One thing on our minds: a fresh touch, a new move, a reawakening at Iowa State. As we were drawing near the end, I was beginning to wonder if it had been time wasted. I hadn't prayed for much outside of our focus, really. Did I miss it? As the clock struck midnight going from day 20 to 21, I cried out deep in prayer. Here it was, the last day of the fast, and no proof that anything is going to happen.

The next day, I got up early to lead a 7am prayer meeting. One of the first students I ran into was Jordan, who had no knowledge of our 21 days. The first words out of his mouth:

"Lance, Revival is here. I still haven't slept, we just had an all night prayer meeting."

Neck, Ribs, and Emotional Pain Healed by Jesus in Friley

Matt :: junior :: civil engineering

It was a friday night, october 09. We were a small group of students curious and anxious to see God move. I really didnt know what to expect. The only thing i knew is that we all wanted to seek God. So we meet and prayed asking for direction for that night and how we could go out and proclaim the name of Jesus. God showed one of the guys specific objects and articles of clothing as well as a number 2238. So we went out and thought that sounds like a room number in Friley. So we went to the second floor and tried to find the room not know what to expect when we got there. But there was no room with that number it skipped. Then we looked at the hallway doors and that was it. So we spilt up and went to two different hallways. Ashley and I went to this group of girls in the hallway and straight up told them that God led us to them. We told them about about the power of Jesus. We asked if they had any pain/injury. and then we just started praying for them. One girl had neck pain and after we prayed, she exclaimed,

"Whoa! Who are you guys?!?"

Then there was a guy that had pain with a rib that was out of place and we prayed over him. And he was healed. Then we told them who Jesus is and why this was happening. Then we prayed for this girl with alot of emotional pain. And she told us that she just felt joy and peace and warmth running through her body as we prayed for her. It was only a couple minutes after that, that this group of College kids didnt even go to ISU but were visiting and were then just leaving. God is so good and He is revealing himself in the most amazing of ways.

Declaration

Declaration from Christopher & Nathaniel Calnin on Vimeo.

Iowa State University and the Kingdom

Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you
-Ephesians 5:14

God is beginning to do things at Iowa State University. Actually, he's been doing things for a while. But it seems like he just may be beginning to step on the accelerator. We want to see a new awakening, people coming up from the dead and into the light of Christ.

My name is Lance, and I work with a campus ministry here. The vision for this blog is that different ministry leaders across Iowa State University and Ames will be editors, and students will be able to submit their stories of what God is doing here and now. If you are a ministry leader at Iowa State who wishes to contribute and you have yet to be invited, email me at lanceallgood@gmail.com so that we can get the word out and encourage one another with faith as we hear what God has done, so that we can ask him to do it again!