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.