Nuggs Night!

From Chris walking onto the court asking to take a shot during warm-ups to Kenton and crew sneaking down to the lower bowl during the second half, Friday nights Nuggets game was a blast!

About 30 of us ventured to Denver to watch the Nuggets take on the Warriors. We had an incredible time doing the Nuggets dance (thanks Drew, Matt, and Adam) and all wondering what our free hot dogs were really made of. I was impressed by the basketball knowledge dropped by the ladies that came as well. They seemed to really know their stuff.

It was a game full of thunderous dunks, a few "throw it down big man" moments and ca-cawing for the Birdman!

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the Nuggets victory, but in the end my favorite moment had to be when Chris actually got that shot that he asked for...A-I-R B-A-L-L!


p.s. Thanks for the pic Kenton and I'm sorry for sniping your other one.

Jared Anderson Recording

The Furnace Sunday night prayer meeting is going to be moved to be moved to join the Jared Anderson recording. Come to this night of worship as he records his next album on Sunday, March 15th at 6pm.

See you there!

This is a post from the Furnace prayer leaders blog by Matt Timmermeyer. They are seeing God do amazing things at the Wednesday prayer meeting, so I just wanted to post it here as well. Enjoy:


I had been so excited this whole week. Sunday hit i knew something huge was going to happen. Prayer started and something big was happening. I just kept on saying the Lord is going to break through this place tonight. He's really going to move tonight. So I felt the Lord said just put away everything and just sit and wait. We did this and as i sat there i remembered how excited i was throughout the week because i knew God had been preparing something. He then showed me. It wasn't a vision of the present or the future but of the last 4 days. It was what the Lord had been doing..."He was preparing gifts for us. For the last 4 days he had been running all over the place, finding supplies, putting things together, wrapping/ unwrapping. Sweat was dripping from his face. He was running all around putting gifts together. Anticipation filled him and he just finished the gifts for us right before prayer started. So the Lord then said share your vision with them after you ask them what their greatest need is right now. He said "don't worry, i already prepared my gift according to what they are going to ask for" lolol. So then i asked everyone to write down their greatest need and to trust me and BELIEVE in where im going with this. They wrote down their greatest need and then i shared the vision with them. Everyone was so excited and filled with anticipation. I then said the Lord only asks a gift in return and that is repentance. So in a way we were exchanging gifts. We got in groups and started praying over one another. The next thing i know people are speaking prophecy over one another, crying, people were falling to the ground. There was confirming prophecy all over the room. I dont think i have ever seen so many tears at one time. We prayer for the first 2 hours. The room was so thick with the presence of God. Everyone was sprinting around, or crying, or just passed out HAHA JOY JOY! It was 11:00 and i said if anyone needs to leave u can, but we are just getting started. The Lord is about to rip this place open. I said i feel this a chance to go beyond the finite and the known and lets press. I also said that there will be a special annointing for sleep and quickly prayed for supernatural rest (by the way, i talked to a lot of people this morning and they said they had received eternal rest! Hallelujah!) So next, we needed to get on our knees in surrender. Just get on your knees and pray, yell, cry, laugh, rejoice (because the joy of the Lord was in the room) be silent, scream, praise. So we did, and immediately the joy of the Haven OVERWHELMED us! Everyone just started laughing, rejoicing, screaming, crying. Then after about 10 min of this it died out. then i felt the Lord say "No! theres More! I have food to eat that you know nothing about. this is a chance to enter into the unknown" So i said to everyone "guy's the Lord just gave us all gifts and filled our plates to the overflowing and now we are stuffed, but this is what the Lord is saying "We can end it here and reflect on our full stomachs right now or we can press beyond the finiteness and into the inner chambers of the Lord. So it picked back up. Everyone just started moaning, groaning, crying, yelling-asking for more. Then we finally started playing worship and everyone stood up dancing. Then all of the sudden, as if one body, we all stopped dancing. Everyones jaw dropped and eyes were bulging (I kid u not) THIS IS WHERE HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN! It was as if an invisible veil, or wall was just removed and we had stepped into the private courts of the Lord. Everyone felt and knew it! Now FIRE was in the room! Everyone said it was unlike anything they have ever experienced before (and I mean that)...No one had ever experienced such depth and thickness (at least thats what everyone told me)...There were several times I actually 100% thought that Jesus was actually in the room. I stopped dancing to start looking aroundthe room. His presence was so thick, i literally though the roof was on fire! and im not just saying that to describe pretty christian talk or some metaphor or something! We actually thought Jesus was walking around the roof was on fire! We danced and worshipped and received for another 2 hours! People were dancing and all of the sudden collapsing to the ground and started weeping. People were sprinting laps around the chapel! I heard cries and moans in ways i have never heard before! It was like dancing in the inner court for over an hour. HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN IN THAT ROOM LAST NIGHT!!!.............. This is how the last 5 weeks have been since retreat. There is something happening here, some sort of annointing i have never come across. Its become FAMILY and we all love eachother and we are COMMUNITY. Its as if the last 5 prayer meetings, people havnt been coming to pray. Its as if there coming because Jesus and the Kingdom of God is coming. Its as if we are ENCOUNTERING JESUS AND THE KINGDOM EVERY WED NIGHT!!! The Holy Spirit is overflowing the room!!! We ended at 1:oo am and keep ending between midnight and then so im looking for another worship leader to take over the second 2 hours. let me know if you guys know anyone :).................................................................... Last night the roof blew off! HEAVEN was RENDED and if there were trees in there, then they would have caught on fire. if there was water in there, then it would have boiled- ISAIAH 64:1-2

Healing is Happening

Impossible Prayers

It is so easy to pray ethereal prayers that can be unanswered and we will never know. Sunday night I felt like it was important that we start praying the kind of prayers that are sometimes scary to pray; the kind that ask for real answers. We wanted to pray for things that are impossible for us; impossible for anyone but God. We followed a model of prayer in James 5.

James 5:13-18 states, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”

I love where it says that Elijah was a man like us. We are able to ask God to do great things. Things that are impossible by human standards, but with God all things are possible. I look forward to hearing how God answers these prayers.

A journey to remember…

I received this poetic entry by Charity Luce about Furnace Encounter. I thought I'd share it here. Enjoy:


It began with a dream in the hearts of 12, around a childlike rendezvous. Prayers, loves, and ideas were offered humbly to the adored one with high expectations and souls w i d e o p e n.

Several trailers, a laughter-salted road trip, and roughly 130 registrations later, the epic gathering met in curious hope.

Prayer. Adoration. Blessing.

They washed the dust from their feet and hearts… love was a participant this expectant evening.

Fire raged in the night as the lovesick met at what would seem like ungodly hours in the night, prayers scrawled on heartfelt, homemade alters shaped like canvases.

Sleep was scarce while worship overflowed in beautiful medleys of honest affection.

The dawn awoke to the cries, the prayers, the whispers of passionate tongues alive through the night.

Whilst males strived fervently for manhood, scaling cliffs and engaging battles of the heart, the women waged their own wars with cries of freedom and
brilliant
colours
of beauty.
They gazed into the image of the father and found themselves in his eyes of adoration. Wholeness was the gift bestowed this morning, to women and men alike.

Later, in the stillness of the noon-washed mountains, silence was beckoned into their presence. The people watched and waited for whispers of Truth and visions of Life. Some were strengthened by these gifts, others by the patience and faithfulness cultivated within them.
And then the Word came,
welcomed by exposure and persistent study and ardent discussion, awakening thirsts for the powerful voice of the LORD-- captured in frail language, in leather binding, tree-burning pages, and ink symbols.
Life
was allowed through their doorposts,
thank the Source.

The evening was soon upon them, by candlelight they danced unbound—for forgiveness, for restoration, for the Spirit, for devotion, for the return of the Most High.

Release, abandon, organic joy arose among them. Celebration was the order of the day. By the flames they rejoiced in the midst of hearts on fire.

Sleep still ran scarce, and worship still flowed gratefully and abundantly through the late hours and wee hours.

The later morning hours also found a grateful people, encircled so that each could see the other’s countenance—humbled, brightened, strengthened. Repentance and responsiveness were the activities engaged upon. Stories and legendary moments passed and passed from mouth to mouth.

“Praise my Healer. Praise the One who loves. Praise the One who holds us. Praise the One who is coming back…”

The beginning of
abundant life-worship signaled the end of an
abundant elope-of-a-gathering.
Life is upon us. Worship is who we are.

Amen.

February 1st, 2009

Furnace Encounter

Packed in a room that would comfortably fit a group half our size we began to worship Jesus with everything we had. The music blared from the stage, people jumped, danced, and cried: this was Furnace Encounter. There is just nothing like going to the mountains of Colorado in order to pray and worship with 150 of your closest friends.
Furnace Encounter is a deeper life retreat. We specifically set time aside in order to pray, worship, study, and cultivate our relationship with the Lord. This weekend was planned in order to emulate a God time, the only difference is that we did it all together as a big corporate group. Friday night started with worship. We did the typical singing to the Lord, but people also were encouraged to journal who God has been to them. Everyone was asked to use their own words, not the cute phraseology that we all learn in church. After that each person wrote their own Psalm. It was essentially a mad lib Psalm. After worship we had a time of introspective prayer; praying through distractions, hurts, worries, repentance and so on. The night concluded by breaking into groups for a time of foot washing by the accountability leaders.
One of the fun things that happened over the weekend was that we had a prayer meeting that lasted through the night both nights. People were able to sign up for time slots to keep the fire of prayer burning through the night and there was not an hour that was left empty. Alarm clocks went off at all hours of the night as people rose to go to the prayer room. And it is not as if there was only one person at a time, groups of 4-10 people filled each hour with intercession.
Saturday was full of activities interactive sessions. There was a split guy/girl session, paint wars, tug of war, blind folded hiking, times of silence and waiting on God, individual observational bible study, group discussions and other applied activities.
Truth be told, Saturday night was really were real encounter happened. This was a typical retreat session minus the preaching. There were basically two elements, worship and prayer. Both flowed throughout the evening. Saturday night came down to Revelation 21:5 & 6, “He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
This led into a prayer time of asking to be those that longed for His return, that view Him as King, and that pray thirsty prayers. We spent the rest of the night praying these “thirsty” prayers. There was prayer for the healing of those that had been wounded by a father or leader, prayer against a religious spirit or performance mentality, prayer for those that had been hurt by people trying to force the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we eagerly desired and prayed for gifts, we asked for the planting and growth of the fruit of the Spirit. This is just a few things that were prayed for. The truth is that so much happened that night that it cannot really be summed up in a paragraph. People were healed, hearts were mended, worship was real, prayer was fervent. It was one of the most powerful evenings that I have been a part of in a long time.
Sunday morning we got to sit around and tell testimonies of what God had done over the past 40 hours of our being together. It was so encouraging to hear the stories that most of us would never hear. God did so much outside of our little plans. This weekend showed yet again that it is the presence of God that marks us.

***I want to give a quick shout out to the worship band and the Dream Team! Without you guys we could not have done the weekend. You are amazing; keep storing up the heavenly crown. Much love.