Kim is 29 and holding

The Fall Track for the JHOP internship officially ends tomorrow. We're sad to see some good friends leaving to pursue other things. Most of the interns are returning though. So much has happened in the last four months. Kim and I joke with each other about being here much longer than we actually have. When things move as fast as they do here, it seems like a year's worth of events get crammed into less than half the time. We feel priveleged and honored to be able to say we were here during this hour. We saw two seats of the Supreme Court open up during this track, and the battle for the latter has just begun. The battle for Alito's confirmation was accurately labeled on DrudgeReport.com "This One's Going To Be Armageddon." All previous battles have led up to this one. Time magazine recently published their "Year In Review." Life Tapers made the cut on page 72. And Nightline's presentation of JHOP was nothing less than a kiss from Heaven. We've been discussing the fact that our program was the first to air after Ted Koppel retired. Could this be a sign that God is affecting the news media? We don't know, but emails have been coming in from all over the country. People are saying everywhere that they were tremendously encouraged by the report and have renewed hope for American media. Pastors have been showing the segment to their entire congregations, and people are encouraged. This is a good time to be alive.

Kim's birthday was yesterday. As a surprise I flew her best friend Jeni Wright in for the weekend. It was a short trip but a huge surprise for Kim. They had a great time this weekend. We're traveling to Indiana and Tennessee for Christmas this year. We're looking forward to time with the family. We've missed out on that for the past eight years since we were living in Colorado. So much has changed in our lives this year. It will be good to have some family time at the end to process things.

From our lips to your earbuds

I'm very excited about this announcement. JHOP is now officially podcasting strategy and prayer sets via our website and Apple's iTunes Music Store. You can download individual tracks or subscribe for free to stay up to date all the time. In addition to weekly prayer sets, you can expect insightful briefings and interviews with interns and visiting national leaders.

Click. Pray. Change the world.

Ananias Company

On Monday, 12/5, I recorded the following dream.

*
In the dream, I was taking a team to confront the Muslim house of prayer. We set out to go, but we weren't clear what we going to do when we got there. I remember feeling very vulnerable as we entered a city. We were out in the open walking through the streets to our destination. We came to an intersection in the city and found muslims praying toward Mecca. To our surprise there was already a small band of intercessors there praying as well. Suddenly, I waved my hand in the air in a circular motion and yelled, "Just do what we always do!" Immediately, everyone snapped into rows and ranks like military. The intercessors that were already there joined our ranks. The muslims weren't saying anything out loud, but they began to sneer and make faces at us. They were furious! Now this was interesting- we took our position IN BETWEEN the muslims and Mecca. We weren't beside or behind them. We were in front of them with our back to them. I remember feeling very unnerved having them behind us where we couldn't see them. It felt extremely vulnerable and even dangerous, and it reminded me of the beheading videos seen in the news. I felt like one of them would come up behind me and cut off my head. I slowly turned my head to look fully expecting to see them coming for us, but I was shocked at what I saw. One by one their group was leaving looking very defeated. They were losing heart and giving up. Then the dream ended.
*

This was a powerful dream for me. I'm praying about it and weighing it out before the Lord. Clearly, God has shown me that His heart is for the muslims. I shared the dream with a friend of mine that's in seminary. He currently has a missions class and had just been given an amazing statistic. 75% of muslims that convert to Christianity do so because of a dream, vision or direct encounter with Christ himself. I've heard many reports of this, but I had never heard it in the context of such an incredible percentage. 75% are encountering Christ personally without the help of anyone evangelizing them. This blows my mind. Could God be mobilizing an intercessor army in this hour that will contend with the false god of Islam? I believe it will take a company of people that will step into the gap like Ananias. Christ appears to Saul in a visitation and then speaks to Ananias in a vision. Ananias was fearful because of all that he had heard of this Saul of Tarsus, but he lays his life on the line anyway. He had an Esther moment and said, "If I perish, I perish." Perhaps an Ananias company that's willing to be martyred in intercession can turn this thing.

Nightline Online

Last night's broadcast of the Justice House of Prayer segment can be seen at this link. Click on "God's Interns." Everyone is really pleased with the report. I don't think they could have put us in a better light.

Whew...

So yesterday ended up not being the high pressure situation that we thought it might be. The journalists were very respectful. Lou did not feel like they were out to expose or exploit us. We will be one of three segments of the half hour show that will air tomorrow night. We originally thought we were the entire 30-minute program, but I guess they've changed the format since Ted Koppel retired. If any friends or family out there could please record the program on DVD and send it to me, I would be extremely grateful.

A Day In The Life

Please pray for our group today. Nightline will be following our group today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be interviewing Lou and probably most of the interns. All this is provoked by two key cases before the Supreme Court this week. The first case, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, deals with racketeering allegations against the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. In the second, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, the justices will review a decision by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down a New Hampshire law requiring a minor seeking an abortion to notify at least one parent. There's also a third companion case. It all begins this Wednesday, November 30, and they plan to air the program that evening. Undoubtedly, the journalists are looking for "an angle." They've been very interested in the fact that our group prays 24 hours a day for God's will in the courts and government of America. Our prayer is that the report will show us to be sensitive and compassionate in our effort to end abortion. Luke 12 says not to worry about what to say. "Come Holy Spirit and teach us what to say."

Nightline

Well, we have made the decision to go through with the Nightline interview. It looks like this will happen quickly. They will interview our group on Monday from 11am-7pm. They will interview Lou Engle primarily, but they've asked for free access to the whole community. They will join us at the wall in front of the Supreme Court and at JHOP, but we've decided not to allow them to come to the farm where we live. Please pray for our group and especially Lou. Obviously, there's huge potential for them to portray us as a bunch of kooks. They've really been drawn to the "dream" aspect of our group. That's cool, but who knows how something like that will come across. They've guaranteed us 3 million viewers. In particular, the initial interviewer was blown away by the "Horton Hears A Who" dream. You could literally see something click as she heard the story. I woke up thinking about it this morning. What if the Spirit of God falls as 3 million people hear the Horton message? What if 3 million people begin to think differently because of it? What could happen? What if...(you fill in the blank)
It has maybe felt a little dangerous and vulnerable for us to do an interview like this. There has been a fear that maybe all our ducks weren't in a row. We've been cautious and prayerful leading up to this decision. I was talking with Lou a couple days ago and he said God had woke him up in the middle of the night with the direction to do it. As we were discussing it Lou told me, "We have to do it for the sake of the babies." These words have stuck with me for the last two days now. They were the first words I heard this morning when I opened my eyes. This is an Esther moment for us. She didn't play it safe. Her people's lives were at stake, and she said, "I'll go in and if I die, I die." For the sake of the babies! If we die, we die.

Wanna see my scabs?

Just wanted to let everyone know that Sam's doing great. We prayed the evening his spots started showing up, and it has turned out to be a very mild case of chicken pox overall. He barely ran a fever that first night. You wouldn't know that anything is wrong with him to watch him play. He acts like it's just business as usual. What few spots he did end up getting are already scabbed over (gross) and healing up. He's not even itchy. Looks like nobody else in the camp contracted it either, so the other children's parents are very relieved.

Here a spot, there a spot, everywhere a spot spot

It's official–Sam has chicken pox. The poor little guy is covered head to toe. He must have been exposed at the children's conference in Charlotte a couple weeks ago. Everyone agrees though that even with the spots he's still about the cutest thing they've ever seen. Please pray for him as chicken pox take about 10 days to run their course.

Cough Hack Wheeze

Please pray for Kim and I. Some sickness has gone through the camp, and it hit us both last week and now. I was sick for most of last week with severe congestion, coughing and sore throat. The symtoms are still kind of lingering, and Kim got it this week. It seems to be a bit more severe for her. Please pray for the speedy recovery of both of us. All of the kids seems to be doing fine.

Everyone is commenting on how well Sam is talking lately. He seems to have become quite the socialite. His little two-year-old monologues can be very entertaining, albeit mostly undecipherable. However, something has changed in the last couple weeks, and he is becoming more articulate. It has been a beautiful autumn. I had forgotten the beauty of turning leaves lingering on the branches after living in Colorado for so long. The picture is the view from our bedroom window–absolutely stunning. We all enjoyed feeding apples to the horses on Sunday. We have about 14 horses in our pasture right now, and the kids love to spend time at the fence with them.

We're continuing with a 24/6 schedule in the JHOP. It makes me happy that we're sustaining day and night prayer now. In my dream that sent us on our journey, the nightwatch was so key to accomplishing the objective. Please continue to pray for the confirmation of Samuel Alito. We believe he is God's chosen instrument for the high court. Pray for favor for this man. Also pray that our leadership team would have wisdom. We were recently contacted by Nightline. They would like to interview us and report on the organization, but we're not sure if we want to be "outed" in this way just yet.

My poor little blog

My entries to this blog have really suffered over the last few weeks. Things have been really busy. Last week our crew traveled to our Charlotte base for a children's equipping conference. It was outstanding. Taylor really received some amazing things. She heard the voice of the Lord like never before in her life. I am a proud papa, and I'm excited to see her calling develop. We were in the middle of an Esther fast last week when things suddenly changed with the Courts. We were unsettled about Harriet Miers and had been for some time. We called the fast in order to cry out for God to clarify the situation. Our prayer was for a crystal clear word for her or to remove her. After two days of the three-day fast, she stepped down from the nomination. Interestingly, in the void of a clear word on Miers, we had received other words that seem to have given us direction concerning Samuel Alito. You can read the article that Lou Engle has written about that direction. In response, we have set our faces to pray and fast for this man's confirmation. Although our numbers do not comfortably support a 24/7 schedule, we have moved into day and night intercession for this critical season. All past battles have led up to this battle. We cannot waiver in the divine moment. The Drudge Report said it best last week with the headline "This one is going to be Armageddon." We initially set out on this schedule when the outlook was a mid-December confirmation (about 40 days). Now the schedule has been set for mid-January, so we'll be going 24/7 for about 70 days. We've completed the first week, and everyone is in high spirits. The radical schedule change is a little hard to get used to, but everyone is extremely positive. We have a morning crew that goes 6 a.m. to noon, an afternoon team goes noon to 6 p.m., the evening team covers 6 p.m. to midnight, and the nightwatch crew blasts through the night from midnight to 6 a.m. We're also currently doing a 21-day liquid fast to see breakthrough in these areas. Consider joining us in prayer and fasting during this pivitol season in America. Stay up to date at our new website jhop.org. It relaunched a few days ago and is in the process of completion. We'll be including in our media section mp3 files of our prayer sets for free download. You'll also be able to subscribe to the free podcast via iTunes. We'll be keeping important news posted and also a blog of thoughts and current events. So download away and join us in prayer to see the nation turned back to God. We also just announced our annual DC conference for January. Consider joining us and be equipped by national and local leaders including Lou Engle, Dutch Sheets, Francis Frangipane, Karen Wheaton and others.

I Lost My Heart In San Francisco

Sorry it has been over a week since my last blog entry. Things have been really busy here on Capitol Hill. Anyone following the news is aware of all that's on the table. There's just a general sense of confusion and disorder right now. We were blessed to have Dutch Sheets drop in on our company of intercessors on Monday. He had flown in to DC from Colorado Springs for the sole purpose of praying. God had revealed a few things to him concerning the President, and he came to pray. He didn't come to meet with anyone. He wasn't in town to speak at a conference. He came by himself just to pray what God had shown him. When Lou heard he was in town, he asked him to stop by the JHOP. Now what makes a man like this think that he can get divine information and that he can somehow come here and shift something? I'll write more about this later. Right now I want to focus on our team that went to San Francisco. They've returned in the last few days, and God has enflamed their hearts to return by the end of the year for a long term stay. I asked my good friend Trevor to write something that expressed his heart concerning this trip. Following is a piece he has written.

Trevor Bartholemew Raffeo:
I lost my heart in San Francisco. The moment we arrived my eyes were opened to the brokenness around me. We did 21 days of night watch prayer in the heart of San Francisco. And my heart was shattered thinking about when was the last time God had an incense rising before Him of worship and undefiled love when a city comes alive with perversion idol worship. During our time in San Francicsco the Lord began to ask us to bear the cross that He bore for the sake of those who were dying in the streets and losing their souls because of a bondage that they can not get free from. We began to enter into the sufferings of Christ over His heart for the homosexual community and how He longs to free their souls, call them as sons and daughters and draw them out of many waters (Psalm 18). One of our last days of night watch, right in front of our eyes we were faced with everything we had been praying for. A 22 year old young man walked in. He had just given his life to the Lord and then found out that he had AIDS. It was manifesting on his skin and he was terrified of dying. All we could do was offer him our tears, our prayers and cry out to God. That night we had no great faith or extravagent prayers, all we had were our desperate cries to a merciful Daddy. This young man is only one of thousands and thousands who are broken and dying and all they are looking for is love. We began to hear of stories in which young men and women would get AIDS on purpose because they knew that they would be taken care of by the government. People are literally dying for love and all I could ask myself was “Would I die for love; would I die for them?” My heart has truly been lost in San Francisco.

A Question About Our Clock

It would seem that there are many more people out there reading this little blog than I realized. There seems to be a question about this mysterious clock that has come up (see below). To answer the question: Yes, it is an atomic clock. The resetting of the clock was not a terribly stange occurance in and of itself. Perhaps I should have clarified that I wasn't suggesting that the finger of God was spinning our little clock hands around. The real question here is "how does God speak?" You can choose to walk through life with the opinion that God doesn't speak anymore, or you can choose to believe that He does speak in a multitude of ways. He may give you a thundering voice from above or he may give you a compassionate word from a complete stranger. Both of them and everything in between are all windows that we can choose to look through- windows that can bring direction, confirmation and adjustment. Ken Gire discusses this in his book "Windows of the Soul." I believe God gives us many opportunities to hear and respond to his voice.

So what about that clock? As I said, resetting itself isn't terribly exciting. But, you see, it's the timing of the whole thing that was significant to us. It's not like we were sitting around waiting for a time discrepancy to adjust, and then quickly begin praying for Isaiah 40:3. No, a group of young people that have sacrificed their lives in prayer for our nation were in the middle of a 5-hour prayer meeting. They were crying out and weeping for God to bring revival to our nation. Then the clock reset itself to the right time of 4:03 as they were praying for the Spirit of Elijah to come. God is all about timing. That's why none of His words fall to the ground. They accomplish everything He sends them to do. Earlier this year as Kim and I were in the heat of deciding whether or not to move to DC, we were faced with making a final decision one day as we talked on our cell phones. I asked her, "Do you really think we can do it?" She giggled and said "Yes. The license plate on the car in from of me right now literally says 'GO DC'." Now one person will dismiss something like that and another will take it very seriously. I happen to believe that the overall problem is not that God isn't speaking. Rather, the problem tends to be that we aren't listening.

Time Flies

OK. This is kind of a weird one, but here goes.

We were in the prayer room this afternoon doing an intercession set. We prayed for the usual DC objectives, and ended up doing some pretty intense intercession for California, San Francisco and specifically the homosexual community. It started as prayer to gird up our team out there, but ended up in all-out intercession for God to move in the homosexual community. As the Spirit moved our group became broken for them and the way the Church has responded to them with hate and utter rejection. Every person was on their face weeping as we prayed. The Spirit then led us to pray specifically for the "Spirit of Elijah" to come to the homosexuals. This may seem like a disconnect, but in Malachi it's the Spirit of Elijah that turns the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. This came after hearing a heart wrenching statistic that revealed approximately 80% of homosexuals were molested by their fathers or other trusted men. As we were praying this, one of our team said "Look at the clock!" We were all kinda surprised to see the clock's hands spinning around really fast. Suddenly, the clock stopped at exactly the correct time which was 4:03 p.m. We were blown away as we were directed to Isaiah 40:3. It's the scripture that prophesies the coming of the Spirit of Elijah! What an amazing confirmation that our prayers are exactly on target. This literally happened as we were praying for the Spirit of Elijah to come. I don't know what you think about that, but it was witnessed by about twenty people. One of our team actually whipped out her camera and caught the whole thing on video. It was extremely motivating to our whole community to continue pressing in for breakthrough. This all happened today which happens to be Yom Kippur- The Day of Atonement on the Jewish calendar. It also coincides with the end of a 40-day fast that many of our young people have been doing for breakthrough in several areas of America. It was this 40-day fast that launched part of our team to San Francisco a month ago.

Could it be that God is confirming that our prayers and fasting have been heard? The convergence of all these things today begs us to believe it's true. We felt like God showed us two things concerning this through the clock. One, that God is speeding up the process in this matter. And two, that He was showing us a window into the future of what's coming. Believe God for a MASSIVE revival to break forth among the homosexual community. It will rock the Church, and it will rock the world. I worship the God of love and compassion.

California Bound

Please pray for Lou this week. He, two of his sons and one of the JHOP team are traveling to San Francisco today. They’ll be spending a few days with the team that we sent there last month. Just a recap, God began to give us major direction to do intercession for California in light of recent prophetic words about impending judgement. We believe, for the time being, that God may have relented. The original plan was to go in, pray and get out. Our team went there in September with the attitude of Joel 2’s “who knows?”. Could it be that God has turned with pity and intends to leave behind a blessing instead? We’re not sure, but suddenly financial blessing has been provided in the last few weeks for the express purpose of establishing a long-term JHOP in California.

The two great giants that taunt the American Church are abortion and homosexuality. She has had no authority over them because she’s just as guilty as anyone in these areas. God gave our group a specific mandate in 2004 that we would challenge these two Goliaths. We believe our expeditionary team in San Francisco have been laying the early groundwork for how we are to combat the spirit behind homosexuality. We have been getting from them incredible reports of how God has given them such a profound love for the homosexual community during their intercession. Clearly, this is the primary missing ingredient with how the Church has responded to these individuals in the past. This kind of love can only come as we identify with Christ at the deepest levels. This will be unlike any battle the Church has ever fought. We are believing God for a massive revival to take place among the homosexuals!

The Harriet Anointing

Sorry it has been a few days since my last entry. Things have been pretty busy this week. Many of you have been asking "What are you guys getting on Harriet Miers?" There has been a lot of mixed feelings about her among christian conservatives. I heard that James Dobson initially endorsed her, but now he has withdrawn his support. Who knows? You really can't go by what the media is saying. You never know what the individual motivations are anyway. Honestly, we hadn't gotten anything specific from the Lord like we had concerning John Roberts. But we felt like that changed a couple days ago. Over the course of one day several people here and outside our group independantly began to connect Harriet Miers with Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe. We felt like we got enough confirmation from multiple sources that this was something God was revealing in our prayer life. So what does all that mean? We're calling for massive prayer and fasting for a "Harriet Anointing" to come upon Ms. Harriet Miers.

Further confirmation came Wednesday evening as Lou Engle was talking with Dutch Sheets on the phone. He explained the whole Harriet thing that we were getting, and Dutch felt a major confirmation in his spirit. He told Lou to write it up, and he would help mobilize the Body of Christ to start praying that way. What's more exciting is that Lou then got a call from our close Senator friend and ally. He explained that he would be meeting with Ms. Miers on Thursday, and he wanted to know if we were getting anything about her. Lou explained the Harriet thing to him and called for him to prophesy to her who God has called her to be. That's a huge risk for this man, but we believed it could be a divine moment. Then, in our Thursday morning meeting, we got a major download from the Lord that this man's meeting could be a Mordecai/Esther moment. Literally, he could be the one to call her forth into her destiny at this hour. We sent him a couple of urgent text messages detailing our prayers unsure if he would be able to follow through with such a crazy request. I'm excited to say the he called Lou back yesterday afternoon to let him know that he siezed the moment. The message was delivered! Can you believe this? I'm blown away that God gave us this prophetic word on Wednesday, and then provided an avenue to deliver the word to her the next day. God is so amazing. "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7)

Mobilize prayer meetings now. Begin to call forth this womans destiny. Declare that she will be that Anointed Harriet. I shared with Lou that when Abraham Lincoln first met Harriet Beecher Stowe he greeted her by saying, "So this is the little woman that started the big war." He said that we need to pray this over Ms. Miers. Pray that she will be the little woman that ends the big holocaust. The Church must contend in this hour. History is not in autopilot. Events change and sway for the praying and fasting Church. We need to go to war on this thing, not recline in curiosity and apathy. Like Esther, pray that Ms. Miers realize her divine moment or be removed so another can.

C'mon!

Smile Miss Lockett

The press were all over Gracie on Monday. We'll be looking for shots in the media. This guys was from Newsweek. He took a ton of pictures of our little activist.

A Curious Trend

So today's the big day- the opening day of the Supreme Court. We've called intercessors from all over to join us in front of the Supreme Court today for a Life Tape siege from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Looks like we'll have a good turnout. Check your news channels to see if you see us. Today will be a circus. Every special interest group will be there today.

So we've noticed an interesting event that seems to take place every time Kim and I have to be somewhere significant or important. We'll get within blocks of our destination, and then BLUGH! One of our children will become unexpectedly ill and throw up in the car forcing us to turn around and go home. I can't tell you how many countless times this has happened. And today was not different. We all got up early to arrive at the Court at 7:30 a.m. When we were about 1/2 mile away, Sam became violently sick with absolutely no warning. He threw up all over himself and the back seat. I went ahead and dropped off Kim and the girls, then came back to the Farm with the boys. I wanted us all to be there holding the line today, but I definitely wanted my girls there. God has really caused Taylor to embrace the cause against abortion and Gracie is miracle baby herself. I have felt for a long time now that God will give them both a powerful message to America.

I'm waiting to make sure Sam's OK, but it has been two hours now and he seems fine. Dare I attempt a return? I'll keep you posted what happens.

The Highs and the Lows

On Saturday our group laid siege at the foremost Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in DC. It's a sobering experience to watch as countless young women file in to murder an unwanted person. Obviously, not every person going in was there for an abortion. But there were clinic escorts that met people with abortion appointments and usher them in as a safety measure. At its peak during the time we were there, there seemed to be young women arriving for appointments about every 5 minutes. It's a big difference going from praying in front of the Supreme Court to praying in front of an abortion clinic. To go from the highest form of law to the lowest form of injustice can be overwhelming. But it's good because it keeps us grounded. It puts a face on this movement. Quite literally. It was heartbreaking to watch these young women (some with their boyfriends, most without) file in. It was even more heartbreaking to watch some of them leave with tears in their eyes. At one point we heard the escorts outside joking with each other about our presence and said, "We're really special! They come here because we do more abortions than anyone else. We're the busiest." I don't mention that out of anger. The statement broke our hearts. We heard a statistic the other day that said that the abortion rate was higher than the birth rate in DC two years ago. Some of our group got to talk with a couple of the escorts later in the afternoon. They seemed so confused but were genuinely looking for truth. They claimed to be athiests, but they kept referring to God as a real person. Apparently, many of the church have told them that they're going to hell and can never be saved or redeemed because of what they're doing. As a result, they basically said that if God can't forgive them, then they're going to go out in style. What has the Church done? We have lashed out in our anger and in our own pitiful self-righteousness. And what has it reaped? Exactly the same. Who are we to say that someone is beyond God's forgiveness? To even suggest that is to completely miss the point of Jesus' sacrifice. We're all sinners and nobody is beyond God's mercy. "God forgive your Church for not representing you. Forgive us for showing anger instead of love. Forgive us for hurting instead of helping."

Signets and Such

We received strong confirmation yesterday that we had broke through in the battle for the next Supreme Court seat and President Bush. We end our 144-hour siege tonight at midnight. Read Psalm 20:1-5. David sacrifices and prays to the Lord before going into battle. Then in the next verse he declares "Now I know." We have been waiting for that moment- the moment you get a word of faith that allows you to say "Now I know!" That's what we felt like we got yesterday. Starting last night, we moved into making decrees over this next seat nomination. Lou Engle felt like God directed him to the book of Esther for this. If you're praying in agreement with us, here's a couple of specific decrees you can make:

Esther 8:2
"We declare that Haman is removed and Esther & Mordecai are raised up."
Esther 8:8
"We declare that the signet ring has been removed from Haman and given to Esther & Mordecai."

Don't stop there. Look at how God changes the law and fate of a nation in a single day. Begin to make decrees of God doing the same thing over the Supreme Court.

Side note: Please pray for our group. The largest television network in Germany arrives today to begin filming us. They will be following us around for about three days. My prayer is that our company will remain humble before them and live above reproach. On an exciting note, Alan Parker made a surprise visit to our prayer rumble last night. He's the attorney that represented Norma McCorvey as she saught to overturn her own ruling in Roe v Wade earlier this year. Now he's representing Sandra Cano, Jane Doe of Doe v Bolton, and expects to have her companion case before the Supreme Court next year. He spoke to us for about 15 minutes about current issues that he wanted us to pray about. What an amazing man! God has given us a strategic alliance between our two warring camps. The Church can't underestimate the significance of what's happening with the Supreme Court now. God is setting His chess pieces in place. He's moving to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Strike, Strike and Strike Again

God has truely blessed us with an awesome group of interns for the Fall track. I can't believe how fast they've gotten up to speed with the vision and mission. It literally feels like a supernatural thing because of the urgency of what's going on right now. So our 72-hour siege was awesome, and we all felt like it was the right time. But in a leadership meeting yesterday, everyone came in not feeling like the job was done. In the meeting, God gave us the scripture 2 Kings 13:14-19. Our three-day prayer strike combined with our Esther fast was great, but perhaps complete breakthrough requires repeated striking. All of the leadership agreed that we should strike, strike and strike again knowing that there is a fierce battle being waged in the spiritual realm over the next seat's nomination. The future of America could depend on what happens in the next few days. Starting last night at midnight, we began another 3-days of continual prayer in front of the Supreme Court. In the natural, this could seem totally uninspiring. Instead, every person in our group couldn't wait to get back and hold the line. We'll be going 12 a.m. Tuesday to 12 a.m. Friday. Please join us in this stand whereever you are. This is the LORD's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over abortion!

We're also preparing for a mass of people to start rolling in to our farm over the weekend. Next Monday, October 3rd, is the opening day of the Supreme Court. We are calling all intercessors to join us in taking a stand in prayer in front of the Supreme Court from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. We're praying for massive concentration of force to break the back of the enemy's stronghold.

A Sabbath

We completed our 72-hour siege of the Supreme Court about an hour ago. I did an 8-hour watch from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. last night, so I'm a little sore and tired this morning. Today we rest. What an invigorating evening though. Three days ago I wrote in my blog that we needed to pray for President Bush big time because "now is the time for this man to stand up and be the man God called him to be- to be a BURNING BUSH. He needs to get his swagger back." Last night during a bathroom break at Starbucks I glanced at a Washington Post. There on the front page was a headline that read, "President Struggles to Regain His Pre-Hurricane Swagger." Wow, what a confirmation that our prayers are on the right track. I believe God led us into this long-distance siege and fast for the purpose of breakthrough. So, I also believe we will see breakthrough! God gave me a scripture last night. It's similar to the parable of the persistent widow. It's Luke 11:5-8. Jesus tells the story of how a man goes to a friend for bread in the middle of the night so he will have something to give to a stranger. The friend refuses since it's the middle of the night, but ends up giving the man what he asks for because of his boldness and persistence. What's more is the friend is not asking for himself but for someone else. What an amazing picture of persistent, bold intercession. Please continue to pray for our president as he is considering a nominee for this next seat of the Supreme Court. Let's call forth the Burning Bush that he was called to be. Also, let's continue to pray for John Roberts. Most sources are saying that he's on track for almost-certain confirmation. But that's not the whole battle. We must press in for the ongoing prevailing influence over his mind–especially since he will be sitting in the most important judicial seat in America.

Siege Baby! Siege

Just a couple pics from our Prayer Siege at the Supreme Court. We're going non-stop for 72 hours, and doing an Esther fast (no food or liquid) also. This is definitely a critical moment for our president. We feel like we're getting breakthrough in the midst of this. While the daytime crew was taking their watch yesterday, a tour bus came by that said "Star of America" on the side. Several of the activists felt like God was confirming that He sees our Esther fast (the name Esther means "star"). Also, one of the activist's mothers called last night. She didn't know about what were doing, but wanted to know if a dream she had was significant. In her dream, she saw President Bush with his arms outstretched holding up a massive weight that included the war in Iraq, gas prices, natural disasters, etc. It was too heavy for him, but then our group came to help support him and support his arms. She said that in the dream it looked like when the marines took the hill at Iwo Jima. What a powerful image!

A Battle of Influence

Late Wednesday night in a leadership meeting Lou Engle expressed that he didn't feel we had gained a dominant position of influence in the battle for the next Supreme Court seat yet. What I mean is that our job here in DC is to fight a spiritual battle for the dominant influence over the leaders of our nation. If there is little prayer and intercessioin of our leadership (1 Tim 2:1-2), then we can expect to have leaders that do not line up with the will of God. See, prayer and fasting can be offensive weapons. They allow God's people to tear through the heavens and engage in a realm that the Church largely ignores. Prayer and fasting moves angels and demons. Take a quick look at Daniel, and you see this clearly. So if we pray and fast with deliberate direction, we can expect to effect the spiritual influences contending for control over the minds of our leaders. Think about how important that is. Paul wrote to Timothy and instructed him that this should be the first thing we do. It's necessary in order for peace, godliness and holiness to reign in a nation.

So what are we doing about it? Many of us have been in a general season of fasting for these issues, and of course we take our usual stand in intercession in front of the Supreme Court every day. But starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, we began a 72-hour non-stop blast of intercession to gain that dominant position. It's baptism by fire for the new interns! We divided our company into three groups and began standing in intercession at the Court in 8-hour intervals. Unending intercession for three days and nights straight. In addition, our entire group is doing an Esther fast. This is nuts! Nothing to eat or drink for three days. But what's it worth? Can you place a price on the value of having good leaders in positions of authority? I'm learning what it means to be an intercessor. It means you throw yourself into the fray. You throw yourself into the gap in between what is and what could be. And you do it with the attitude immortalized by Esther, "If I die, I die." It's gonna be over my dead body that I allow spiritual forces of darkness to have that dominant influence.

Last night I took a shift from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. The city is remarkably quiet and peacefull in the middle of the night. It made for a great evening of prayer. Would you consider joining us in this stand? Consider an Esther fast for yourself with the direction of prayer for President Bush as he considers a nomination for the next seat. This is beyond critical. We feel like he may be considering a softer candidate due to his approval ratings and current events. But now is the time for this man to stand up and be the man God called him to be- to be a BURNING BUSH. He needs to get his swagger back. Know what I mean? Don't sleep through this historical moment. Join us.

Handicapped People Wear Pants Too

Is this really necessary? I mean, c'mon. This has to be the ultimate example of being politically correct. Do you suppose they were hoping that a disabled person would come cruising through the department store, see this and think "Wow. I'm in a wheelchair too and I really like those pants!"?

The Arrow of the Lord's Victory

This is the team of young leaders we sent out tonight for San Francisco. Please pray for them. Left to right: Tanner, Jesse, Missy, Christine, Thomas, Treavor and Monique. They started their own blog to document the trip and experience. You can keep up with their progress at jhoptosf.blogspot.com. "Mercy for San Francisco. Mercy for California. Mercy for America. Remember mercy Lord." Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.

Apple Picker

Today was a beautiful day here in Maryland. Still a little humid, but beautiful nonetheless. We took a long drive up to Westminster to a place called Baugher's Orchard. We all got to ride a tractor and pick apples all afternoon. I don't think I've ever actually done that before. What a great time with the family. The kids really enjoyed themselves.

Gearing Up

Big day today. We've been working on final preparations today for multiple things. New interns are arriving all weekend and our California group is getting ready to leave. Our good friend Ali Orewiler arrived today. Kim and I have known her for pretty much...forever. Or at least her entire life. She hates it when I mention this (which tends to be often), but Ali and her twin sister were the flower girls at our wedding. Maybe I'll dig those pictures up to give her a thorough embarassing experience. Don't worry mom! We won't let anything too bad happen to her.

Dusk on the Farm

I looked out the window earlier and the sky was amazing. I grabbed my camera and ran outside for few snapshots and a quiet walk. My friend here seemed very interested too. God has been so good to us. To be living here with this community of believers is really rocking my world. You really get a sense of covenant and fellowship that is so hard to experience in the modern world with our six-foot privacy fences. Taylor started school this week and seems to be liking it a lot. The boys are just loving being with their new friends at a place with lots of places to play.

Small update on our involvement in California. We definitely feel that God has given us an assignment to fulfill in San Francisco. It seems completely ubsurd in the natural sense. It totally goes against common sense and practicality. But we feel God has given us a mandate in this hour to intercede for the state of California. As a result, we will be splitting our group in half. Yes, half. One half will stay here in DC, and the other will be leaving for San Francisco on Monday morning and staying until Yom Kippur (Oct 13). Read this link about this Jewish holiday if you don't already know about it. Things are converging in a major way. This is all particularly insane because the new Fall internship begins Monday and we have 19 new activists arriving over the weekend. Looks like everyone will be doing double duty. We just got an email tonight from an intercessor in California that we didn't previously know. Out of the blue she says that she had a dream two years ago that our kids were caravaning into San Francisco as everyone was evacuating. In the dream, we were excited to be going in because we knew how to difuse the situation. It just keeps getting better and better. Who knows what God is up to, but it must be glorious!

Aid For Katrina Victims

This is our team that we mobilized and sent down to minister to the victims of hurricane Katrina. I think we ended up raising over $6000 to purchase supplies.

We've been praying in front of the Supreme Court ever morning this week and attending the confirmation hearings in the afternoon. One of our Senator friends has managed to score us tickets each day. Please pray for John Roberts. We believe he's the right man for the job. Judge Roberts held up well under an all-out assault by a number of Senators including Specter (R-Pennsylvania), Feinstein (D-California), Leahy (D-Vermont), Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Biden (D-Delaware). No surprise that the topic of abortion is central to the hearings. There's a group we met that's giving out shirts that say "Roberts Rules". I want one.

California Continued

Please continue to press in prayer for California. We are sending a team of young people there in the next couple days to go and pray for a period of time. Specifically, they'll be going to San Francisco for 21 days or maybe more. Right now I think we'll be doing 10-hour night watches pleading for God's mercy. This is the prayer key right now- intercede for mercy instead of judgement. Also, pray that widespread revival would grip this state, and that there would be a massive turning to God.

The family is settling into our new rooms today. The Bohlenders left yesterday to move back to Kansas City, and we're moving into their part of the big house. It's all pretty nice compared to the mobile sleeping arrangements we've enjoyed for over a month now. The new Fall internship begins a week from today. About 20 new interns will be arriving this weekend. We all have a lot to do this week to prepare for them. Not to mention that we're attending the confirmation hearings of John Roberts this week. Please pray for him too.

Urgency For California

Please pray for California. I don't want to go into a lot of detail here, but our JHOP and the IHOP in Kansas City have received some recent insight that call for major concern. We are calling the body of Christ to move in massive intercession and plead for God's mercy for California and the nation. Don't let this moment in time slip by you. Don't take the posture of sitting and waiting to see what happens. Engage with God, and play your part in this time.

Go Team

So our conference ended Sunday night, and we took Monday as a rest day. But some of our interns were so stirred that they drove 8 hours from Charlotte to DC Sunday night. They were praying in front of the Supreme Court Monday morning. The result? They ended up in USA Today. We're all back in DC now and settling in.

Please Pray

Lou Engle is in a season of extended fasting right now. He’s fasting 40 days on only water for breakthrough in a number of areas. I was talking with him yesterday morning, and the intensity in his voice was astounding. If you can imagine, he’s not just sitting quietly in a room meditating through this and conserving his energy. On the contrary, he’s been blasting away in our prayer meetings with everything he’s got. Not to mention teaching and speaking in each of our sessions. He told me that he’s wondering if God would have him go emaciated to identify with the holocaust that is abortion. Does that sound weird? Does that sound too extreme? What is the role of the intercessor? Is it not to stand in the gap. God is looking for people that will identify with His heart. To feel what He feels. Unfortunately, the body of Christ has become quite adept at learning how to not “feel” anything. Somewhere along the line we convinced ourselves that feelings are bad and intellect rules. While there’s definitely valid reason’s for this shift, we’ve also definitely gone too far. Jesus took some disciples with Him on the eve of His final path to crucifixion, and begged them to keep watch with Him. At that most painful and crucial moment, He wanted someone to experience it with Him. Clearly He expressed an immeasurable amount of emotion, but His followers slept through it. What would it have been like to be praying with Him as His sweat turned to blood?

Tonight, after speaking at another event, Lou began to cramp severely and was feeling ill. Please take a moment in prayer and help lift this man’s hands up during this time. Lou Engle is a general in the army of God, and he’s carrying the marching orders right now. He’s paying the price for a better future for all of us–for me, my children and my children’s children. It’s inspiring, and begs the question “What more can I do? How far can I go?”

Also, let us mourn the loss of Chief Justice Reinquist. This amazing man served our country well, and was a strong voice for justice in our nation. I was watching an interview about his life today. I don’t know who the man was being interviewed, but he was close to him. He recounted a number of amazing career accomplishments, but said Judge Reinquist’s greatest regret was not being able to lead the high court in the overturning of abortion. “God, would you give us another judge with a double-portion of wisdom, morality and passion. Give us righteous judges, God, that will restore justice to America.” If you don’t think now that you’re living in a crucial time in history, you’re not breathing. We seem to be in one of those moments when “all bets are off.” Come on!

Awake

Do you ever find yourself at a place where you suddenly realize how incredibly inadequate you are? It’s never a gradual realization either. It comes all of a sudden. It must be the Holy Spirit breaking in through all the protective layers of pride, self righteousness and self assurance. When that stuff cracks and breaks, it’s like a flood of sobering truth comes rushing in. “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine,” and then WHOOM! I’m convinced that God is raising up a people that will be big in His eyes and not our own. That’s no big new revelation. I could quote you half a dozen scriptures and put together a three-point sermon on the topic. But it’s a whole ‘nother deal when that truth blasts into your spirit and becomes more real than the air you breathe. That in itself probably shows that we like to talk about it a whole lot more than experience it.

The place got rocked last night. No, not the music. It was the people of God getting rocked by some of the sharpest truth I’ve heard in a long time. Honestly, I can’t remember ever being in meeting like the one I was in last night. We were about half way through our 60-hour prayer meeting, and the presence of God was heavy. A group called Chosen came to join us and minister. They’re a youth drama group out of Alabama. This young dude named Damon spoke, and it was some of the most revelatory stuff I’ve heard on some of the most basic and elementary scriptures. There was so much stuff in there, I’m going to have to get the CD of the session and digest it for the next few months. The overall theme was that it’s imperative now more than ever for the Church to awake in the hour she now lives. I think I saw some stirring last night. There’s definitely a Church waking up.

The Return From Exile

Yesterday was the first day of our conference here in Charlotte. It’s hard to go on with life as usual in light of the devastation and suffering going on in New Orleans and Biloxi. It’s good to hear in the news that it’s the Church down there that’s rising to the occasion. We prayed at length for the victims and scrambled some emergency support. There aren’t a ton of people here and most are young, but I think I heard we raised about $3500 to buy water to send. Who knows what the death toll will be when things are tallied. I’m sure that the results will be far beyond anything we speculated. We will absolutely mourn and consider the tremendous loss of life. But can I just point out here that 4,400 babies are murdered in the womb every day of every week of every year, and no one mourns for them. We don’t consider them because we don’t believe they’re real people. If we took a moment to ask God what He thinks about them, what do we think He would say?

Yesterday began what will be 60 hours of non-stop worship and intercession–continual incense offered up before the Lord to see a changing in our nation. Who needs just another conference? Yes, there’s great music and t-shirts, but God has ignited our hearts for the house of prayer. It must be restored in the Church. He has made us a royal priesthood to make priestly intercession and kingly decrees. God’s people rule with Him from the quiet place. How did this get lost? How did we miss it on such a massive scale? But, as always, God has preserved a remnant. Thank God for all the little old ladies that understood the real power of prayer and made war in their prayer closets through the ages. Heart were changed, kings were swayed and nations were turned because of it. Something is rumbling again, and those with ears to hear are beginning to respond.

I was thinking about Nehemiah and Ezra today. They tell the story of how the exile’s hearts were stirred to return and rebuild Jerusalem. They left their lives and everything they knew behind in Babylon simply because God had given them an inner fire to restore the house of the Lord. I can’t help but think about what my family is doing. It doesn’t make much sense on, well, any level. But God has stirred our hearts for the house of the Lord. RESTORATION! When you get something like that, you either run after it or stay in exile.

I don't have gas

We just landed back in Charlotte, NC. It's good to reconnect with the group down here. We're gonna rumble for three days in prayer to get equipped and launch into the next phase of our assignment for America. We spent a lot of extra time today on the road just trying to find gas stations with gas. Many empty stations and a lot or restrictions.

My Summer Tan

We drove during the night last night and came down to Tennessee to visit Kim’s dad. Oh it was going to be great. I was going to take the kids canoeing today, and we were going to spend tomorrow out in the boat on the lake. That was… until Katrina. She’s a category 4 hurricane slamming into Louisiana and Mississippi right now. She’ll cut a path straight up through the south and northeastward tonight and tomorrow. I think she’s supposed to hit us here in Nashville in the wee hours of the morning. It’s raining now, but it’s supposed to dump tonight when it gets here. Looks like we’ll be spending the next couple days indoors. There goes my last ditch effort to get something remotely similar to a suntan this summer.

Good Times

I spoke at Warren Park Wesleyan Church yesterday. They were having their annual Homecoming service. There were a lot of things going on that day, so I only spoke for a few minutes. I gave an extremely brief overview of The Cause USA and the JHOP in DC. There were a lot of people that seemed very interested in what’s going on. Taylor set up a table to distribute Life bands and raise money for the JHOP. Between this church and last week’s church she raised about $120 to help fund the justice movement. Go Taylor! I also got to catch up with a friend that’s doing missionary work in Liberia (that’s in Africa). God has given him amazing favor and many open doors with the struggling Church there. He was extremely excited about what’s going on in DC, and was curious if we could bring something similar to Liberia. He’s organizing a converence there at the end of February for about 300-400 pastors. Apparently, they want to learn how to take back their country. I’m filing this one gently. Who know? Maybe something will come of it.

It was great to see some old friends. Emphasis on “old”. The picture is me, John Castle, Ellen Fisher and Jeff Eckart. We were all in youth group together back in the day. Me, Jeff and John were tight in high school and did everything together. Jeff’s a youth pastor at Kentwood Community Church in Grand Rapids, MI. John’s a kickboxer and is married to Ellen now. Kinda funny how you can blink and 20 years go by. I would just like to take this opportunity to point out three lush, full heads of hair on mine, Jeff's and John's heads.

Homeless

We are officially HOMELESS. We closed on our Denver house yesterday which is a great thing. The sale of this house went about as smoothly as it possibly could. God definitely blessed us throughout the process. Thanks to Lew Taylor for all his help with the closing and his supernatural powers of attorney. You’re a superhero in our book.

We visited with Kim’s family in northern Indiana earlier this week. On the way back to Indy we stopped off at Purdue University to have dinner with my nephew Zach. Go Boilermakers! We’re due to speak this Sunday at Warren Park Wesleyan Church in Indianapolis. This is the church where I became a Christian in March 1986. I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends. Right after that we’ll be making our way south to visit Kim’s dad in Nashville, TN and then on to Charlotte for a three-day conference at Cause headquarters. Oh, I remember the old days when gas was only $2.00 a gallon.

Crossroads of America

Kim and I spoke at God's Freewill Tabernacle today in Muncie, IN. It was good to catch up with old friends. Kim and I attended church here for over eight years during and after college. We preached the Life message and our journey to the House of Prayer in DC. We were tremendously blessed by this church body. We have been blown away by the love, generosity and support of this group both now and throughout the years. Much of who Kim and I are is due to these folks. Many of the people there are actively engaged in praying for governmental leaders and interceding for change in America. Josh Peters, one of their son's, was recently honored before Congress by Rep. Mike Pence for his distinguished service in Iraq. This church has been involved in efforts to save the unborn for a number of years also. We pray that God bless this body beyond measure.

We're hoping that this was an effective recruitment visit also. I don't want to mention any names, but...
REBEKAH AND ALISON- COME TO DC!!!

11 going on 12

Taylor turned 11 yesterday. We celebrated all day by going to the Indiana State Fair with some friends. The kids rode rides all day and left with distended bellies full of elephant ears, funnel cakes, sno cones and cotton candy. I think this picture is particularly funny. In a brilliant display of imagination bankruptcy, this vendor tells it like it is. Come one, come all for "Fried Dough." We had a birthday party for Taylor last night, and she got a lot of gifts for decorating her new room in DC.

OK. Something disturbing has happened since the last time I was at the State Fair. My whole life I remember going to the fair to get an elephant ear or funnel cake. It was pretty much the only time of year that you could get a piece of deep fried dough dipped in sugar. But apparently the evil overlords of Fairgrounds decided to up the ante. Somewhere someone created a laboratory to research exactly what could be dipped in batter and deep fried. Judging from what I saw yesterday, they discovered that the answer is EVERYTHING. Here's a short list of some of the items I saw yesterday.
• Deep Fried Moon Pies
• Deep Fried Snikers
• Deep Fried Twinkies
• Deep Fried Reeces Cups
• Deep Fried Oreos
We also saw Deep Fried Footlong Corndogs. Now we all know that corndogs are always deep fried, but I love it that the average Hoosier cannot be pacified by just any run-of-the-mill corndog. It takes a full 12 inches of batter-dipped lovin' to satisfy.

Sunday

Go-carts! 'Nuff said.

Gone Fishin'

We're spending the weekend with my brother and his family in Kokomo, IN. We're having a lot of fun just hanging out and doing stuff with the kids. We took everyone fishing today at a private lake. This was Fisher's first time and he had a blast. My nephews Zach and Adam caught a lot of fish. Taylor caught three bluegills and Fisher caught one. More fun to come tomorrow!

Does God Still Want To Bless America?

Kim had a powerful dream last night, and I want to share it here. During the last week and half, we have driven several thousand miles relocating from Denver to DC. It’s interesting that this imagery played into the dream since we have literally seen half the country in such a short period of time.

In the dream, Kim is driving down the interstate after a long day of driving. It was early evening, but there was still enough light to see around. She was in that tired dazed state that comes when you drive long distances. It was that feeling of not really paying attention as you go along. As she was driving along, she noticed something on the side of the road that looked like road kill. Suddenly she was startled completely alert when she realized it was a baby. I don’t want to be morbid, but the baby was mangled and crumpled. Everyone else around was zipping down the highway completely ignoring it. She went a little further and there were more and more babies on the side of the road and also small children. She was completely alert at this point, and she was appalled at the complete lack of interest by the other people whizzing past. At this point she looked up at a high mountain in the distance. There was a sign on the top of the mountain like a Hollywood sign that read “God Bless America.” There was still enough light to read it, but the lights on “God Bless” were burned out. In the dream, she was left with the feeling that we cannot get weary in this desperate situation.

I believe this is a dream for the Church and not just us personally. 95% of the American Church doesn’t even talk about the abortion issue. Of the 5% that do, an even smaller percentage is engaged in some form of activity whether it’s prayer or something else. The question is this: “How long will God bless America?” How long can judgement be withheld when the blood of 46 million babies is crying out from the ground. We are living in a pivotal moment in the history of America and the Church. As we wage war in our courts to remove all mention of God and His law from this country, could it be that the blessing is fading away. We stand at a point moving into darkness when the “God Bless” is still visible, but won’t be for long. I don’t want to go into the night under a banner that just says “America" (Ps 20:7). The Church must be snapped out of her lethargic state and realize that God’s blessing on us is not automatic. It’s like we’re in cruise control completely unaware of the cares of God’s heart. BUT GOD is always for mercy. We must remember this. His desire is for repentance and mercy for America. We must plead a better blood–a blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel (Heb 12:22-24). It’s only the blood of Jesus that has paid for our sins. America needs a blood revival–not from the bloodshed of our own hands but from the revelation of the blood of Jesus. This is the light in the darkness. The light of God’s blessing is ignited by this revelation.

On The Road Again

We left DC early this morning to embark on our vacation. We're planning to visit as many friends and family as possible for the rest of the month. We just arrived back in Indianapolis. I think there might be mutiny in the ranks if we put the kids back in the car tomorrow even just to go to the grocery store. So far, here's the running tally...
Denver to Indy- 27.5 hours
Indy to Charlotte- 14 hours
Charlotte to DC- 8 hours
DC back to Indy- 13.5 hours
Living out of a car- Priceless

It's nice to have the moving part of this journey behind us. I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend with my brother Bobby and his family. The last week and a half has been a whirlwind. Some serious R&R is on the agenda for the days ahead. I just might sleep in tomorrow... if God let's me.

WiFi

It's a pretty cool morning. Maybe it's Lou Engle's bed–I don't know. I had a pretty intense dream last night about preaching. Then I woke up before 5 a.m., and for an hour and half literally felt like I got a direct download of what I was to preach for the next month. Kim and I have two or three speaking opportunities, and I have been struggling with organizing my thoughts due to all the chaos of moving. This felt like nothing less than a broadband wireless download of information. That's the only way I can describe it.

God is broadcasting. This farm has such a sweet spirit about it. Apparently, it has been prayed over for a number of years. All I can say is that it shows.

Complete Opposites

DC is the exact opposite of Denver. It has been rainy here for the last several days with heavy downpours 3-4 times a day. It finally cooled down though, so it's not too bad. We ran a lot of errands today, and got several logistical things done. We officially have a new mailing address. It's P.O. Box 15684, Washington, D.C. 20003. Write it down! Stay in touch! Send money! Just kidding. Sort of.

Tammy Faye Baker???

After some much needed rest we spent yesterday repacking the trucks and driving to DC from Charlotte. The Charlotte base is pretty cool. Big developmental plans and lots of work are in store. We got the microwave tour of the old PTL Heritage USA property. Now that’s a weird one–very surreal. In its hayday, it was the largest Christian ministry in the world. The Baker’s were on track to build an entire city down there. Now it’s like a 900-acre ghost town surrounded by golf courses and new development. Everything has been sitting vacant for about 17 years, and many of the buildings are in pretty sad shape. There have been many prophetic words that have come concerning God wanting to redeem that property and birth a massive revival and youth movement out of it. Why the old Heritage USA land? C'mon, there’s such a stigma surrounding it. One word from the Lord said that God was going to use this property because of the “widow’s mites.” (Mark 12:41-44) God still wants to honor all the small offerings that all the little old ladies sent to that ministry back in the 80’s. They weren’t for nothing! Leave it to God to raise up something wonderful from something that went so astray.

We got to DC late last night. Sarah leaves this afternoon and flies back to Denver. She’s been wonderful, and we love her more than she’ll ever know. BY THE WAY- Sarah is leaving for her second year of Master's Commission in Seattle in about a month. She is currently raising funds in order to pay for her tuition. This is an extremely worthwhile ministry and an extremely worthwhile person. If you know her, please help by making a small donation. If you don't know her and still want to help, just let me or Kim know. We’re going to try to get into downtown and do some siteseeing before she leaves. Lou and Therese Engle are letting us stay in their house while they’re gone. They’re back in California for the summer taking care of their house and some other things. It’s strange finding myself living in the house and sleeping in the bed of one of my heros of the faith. God has certainly brought us a long way from the dream he gave me almost a year ago.

Speak Lord

I don’t remember ever being this tired. We drove all night last night from Indy to Charlotte. We did pretty well with the travel, but today we found out that U-Haul decided not to honor our reservation for a storage unit. I have no idea what happened. The company was disorganized at every level. Oh well, these things happen. We spent the afternoon scrambling to find a replacement storage unit. We found one that was still close to The Cause headquarters, and we got a lot of help from some wonderful staff members. Moving our entire house again after getting no sleep has completely wiped me out. It’s actually hurting just to type right now.

I spent a lot of time last night on the road thinking about how God speaks. I’ve certainly had times in my life when I wondered why God wasn’t speaking to me, but I am more and more convinced that the Father is more than willing to speak clearly to those that desperately pursue Him. I think more often than not we mistakenly expect God to respond to our needs. Does scripture say that God responds to needs or faith? Don’t get me wrong–God has come through for my needs countless times, but it had to be out of shear mercy. It is faith that moves Him.

James 4:8 says “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” Being desperate is an eye-opening condition. When you’re desperate, you realize that you’re beyond yourself. It’s the place where you have insatiable thirst that cannot be satisfied. David understood this. “As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2) Do we passively sit and wait for God to inject Himself into our needs, or do we desperately pursue Him? When and how far can I go to meet with God?

Steakburger Wonderland

Second only to leading someone to Christ is leading a friend to Steak n Shake. I thoroughly enjoyed introducing my friend Sarah to the wonderful world of steakburgers today. If you live west of the Mississippi, you may not even know that SNS is a restaurant and you definitely don’t know what you’re missing. Having been in the West for over seven years, it is my opinion that people here in the Midwest completely take this heavenly food for granted. Sarah agrees, and she has received her crown of glory.

1100 Miles Down

It has been a few days since my last entry. In the meantime, we managed to pack up the house and load up a moving truck. We just arrived at my mom’s home in Indianapolis. Oddly enough, we were able to cram a 20-hour drive into a mere 27.5 hours. Let’s start off with a good Fisher story for everyone out there keeping a log of our young man. 70 miles into the trip we stopped for our first potty break. As always, I reminded my son not to touch anything, but just do his business and make a clean getaway. I leaned over him to help him carefully execute the delicate maneuver. Turning his head upward to announce his flawless performance, he knocked my sunglasses off my collar into the urinal below. We stood motionless for a few moments, and the gentleman next to us declared, “Oooh. That sucks.” I was very fond of those glasses.

The rest of the trip was littered with similar stories to be told at another time. It was a really hard drive since we were already exhausted at the beginning, but I was looking forward to some good quiet time with the Lord. We spent the evening with my brother and his family. Now we’re just trying to get some good rest before the next leg of our trip down to Charlotte and then up to DC.

Why is it that you let your kids eat massive amounts of junk food on roadtrips that you would otherwise never let them eat?

Another Big Relief

Our buyers had our house inspected yesterday. Even though practically everything in the house is brand new and rebuilt, I was still nervous that something would come up that I had missed. I did pretty much all the work myself (uh, with a little help from Kim). The inspection lasted two and half hours, so I was kinda freaking out that they might be picking it apart. I crossed paths with the buyer and his realtor as they were leaving. I was very happy and relieved to hear that they loved everything, and they weren't going to ask for anything on inspection. I talked with the buyer for a while and had the chance to walk through our home with him. I was extremely happy to hear that he and his fiancé absolutely love the house and all the work we put into it. They can't wait to take possession, so it doesn't look like much else could get in the way of closing. It's nice to find out that all our hard work will be appreciated. Kim and I are very proud of what we did with this property. I can't overemphasize what a pit it was when we bought it.

God is providing for us in miraculous ways. We are extremely blessed.

A Door On The Ceiling

I talked to Lou Engle on the phone today. We talked about our final preparations to make the move to DC and a possible need for Kim and I at the headquarters in Charlotte, NC. It's all very exciting. This seems to be such a key moment of time for our country, and we're glad to be an active participant in it. I shared with Lou Kim's dream about the old door on the ceiling (see 7/23/05). He had a good read on things. There's a lot of personal application and direction that God is giving us, and this dream seems to be a part of it. In a nutshell, he felt like it had more to do with inward and upward ministry than it did with outward ministry. The old door on the ceiling may represent the need to ascend into the heavenlies and into the counsel of God. It's a doorway that you can't just walk through by conventional means. Rather, it's an ancient doorway of prayer and fasting that gives you access to His throneroom. Oh to ascend the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24:3). You gotta get airborne for this sort of thing. My prayer is that we will have the mind of the Lord as we move forward with all of this.

Home Stretch

Our church had a potluck after service today to send us off. We'll be in town for one more week. My last day at work will be this Friday, and I'm due to pick up a moving truck on Saturday. We're in the home stretch now to get things packed up and get outta Dodge. Sarah Naranjo, a former student, is going with us to help Kim drive. The downside is that she's insisting on seeing pictures of me from high school when we get to my mom's house- namely ones where I'm sporting a certain hairdo (or hairdon't). Good times, good times.

I'm looking forward to decompressing during the long drive across the country.

Under Contract

I guess there's no turning back now. We accepted the offer on our house yesterday afternoon. Our agent talked with the buyer’s lenders and everything checks out. The buyers signed the paperwork last night, so we're officially under contract. We are completely blown away by God's goodness and timing. We feel like a huge weight has been lifted with the sale of our house. However, today we're feeling very sad. This is our first home. Two of our kids were born while we lived here. With the remodel done, the house is finally a place where we'd love to live. We'll be exchanging it for two rooms in DC. We're praying for God's grace to give us the ability to work with the accommodations. You see, we'll be living on a 100-acre farm with the program's interns along with two other families. The housing is pretty sweet, but our private space will be limited to two good-sized rooms. One of the families is the Engles. Lou Engle is the founder of this movement. He and his wife have seven children. The other family is the Amabiles. Paul, Cheryl and their six children are from the Kansas City IHOP and have been with the JHOP since it began in January. They too have sacrificed their careers and normal lives to run with this vision to turn America back to God. We've spent some time with the leadership there in DC, and we're excited about joining them in a couple weeks.

Kim had an interesting dream a few nights ago. She’s had a few dreams recently about “doors”. Oddly enough, the JHOP people gave us several prophetic words concerning doors during our visit in April. In one of Kim’s dreams, she and I are standing in a room looking at a door that’s on the ceiling. It’s out of reach, and we’re trying to figure out how to get through it. Something interesting about the door is that it looks old with old fixtures; like something from the early 1900’s. We have some ideas, but for now we’re praying for God to reveal the meaning of this dream to us.

Now That HAS To Be God's Timing

God is never late. I got a call this morning from my realtor. Apparently, the first couple that came for a showing of our house last night have put in an offer for the full asking price- and no concessions. Kim and I are meeting tonight with our agent to go over the contract.

This seems so unreal. If this goes through, then our house will have been on the market for all of like eight hours. Kim and I are taking this as an extreme blessing from God and confirmation that we're heading in the right direction.

I Need Some Sleep

I think everything's done...except for this, that and the other thing. But for the most part everything is done. We worked most of last night getting our house ready to go to market. That happened today officially at 8 a.m. The photographer came this morning and did all the real estate pictures for our marketing materials. It's cool that we get to actually list as a 4 bedroom-2 bath. I didn't think we'd ever get it there. This house was a dump when we bought it three and half years ago. We've put a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house. Of course, we finished the radical remodel only within the last few days. It stinks to put this much work into it, but now we're just selling it. We just gonna have to trust that this is all part of God's timing. We move on August 1st, so the house will be vacant for most of the time it's on the market. I hope that doesn't hurt us since we're taking all the furniture with us.

In The Beginning

Well, I learned what a blog was only a short time ago. But it sure seems like a great way to keep everyone up to date about what's going on in the life of the Locketts. So welcome to my...BLOG! I will attempt to keep a current online journal of events and thoughts as Kim and I step out into the unknown. What unknown would that be? After 13 years of marriage, four children, a 12-year career in advertising, and 7+ years in Colorado we're shifting gears in a major way. We feel like God has called us to join in full-time Christian ministry with an organization called The Cause USA. We will be relocating our family to Washington D.C. and helping to lead an internship for young people. The Justice House of Prayer is a round-the-clock intercessory ministry on capital hill. Young people will receive intensive training in three main areas: intimacy, justice and governmental intercession. 1 Timothy 2 is at the core of this assignment- to do the "first thing" of praying for those in authority. I believe we are living in a NOW moment in our country's history. Now is the time for the Church to arise in all her beauty and splendor. Our desire is to see nothing less than massive revival sweep over our land. Could God be preparing America for another Great Awakening? Kim and I want to be obedient to God and lay hold of the calling He has for us. We believe He has a part for us to play in the unfolding drama.

We have been taking steady steps in this direction for some time now. We are due to move to DC in about a week and a half, and our house goes up for sale tomorrow. We've spent many sleepless nights recently getting it ready to go to market. Tonight will be no different. Hopefully all will be complete by tomorrow morning. I can't help but think about how we're nearing the point of no return.