Fire Fell Down

Wow, God! What a crazy weekend! Thank you for totally showing up and rocking our church. Thank you for sending the fire of your Holy Spirit and consuming the lives of your people. Fire truly fell down this weekend. Thank you for answering our prayers!

Woo! So where to begin? I don't even know where to start. All this past week, I have been praying for our church camp. I specifically prayed for people to come, for healing and restoration of families and relationships, and for the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall down! God definitely answered all those prayers. It was crazy because at first I didn't really want to go to camp. I was really tired from school and felt like I didn't have the capacity to be the camp's director. But I felt that I really needed to go and that it would be an opportunity to really see God do something in our church. So, I decided to suck it up and stick to the commitment I had made to direct the camp. I started really digging into prayer and interceding on behalf of our camp early in the week.

When we got to camp, that Friday night I prayer walked all around the camp and in the ramada where we held worship. I think I prayed between 1 to 2 hours just walking around the camp and praying over the equipment and the chairs and tables. As I was praying, I was asking God to just totally saturate the camp ground with His presence, I asked that He would bring restoration and healing to broken relationships, and I asked for the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall down. I prayed til about 2:00am and then went to bed. Early the next morning, I woke up and I felt God was calling me to go and prayer walk again. I stayed in my sleeping bag for a couple of minutes, and then I heard my parents starting to get up and stuff so I decided to get up and commit to God's request of me. I woke up changed and got out of the tent and realized it was only 5:15 in the morning. I was kinda surprised that I was awake so early, but I wasn't tired or anything, so I proceeded to prayer walk around the camp again. As I was praying, I remembered my mom was teaching the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho to the kids that night, and so I felt that God was leading me to prayer walk around the camp seven times to break down the barriers that were holding the church from God. So, I walked around the camp seven times praying for God to break down barriers and again to send down His fire.

After this, I started walking off into the "wilderness" of the outskirts of the camp and found myself on a path. I just kept praying and came to street where I crossed and just spent some quiet time meditating and praying. I returned to camp at around 6:30am just in time to memorize some memory verses for a contest and prepare some stuff before breakfast. Saturday was a busy day full of messages, worship, Bible trivia, games, eating, and more messages, worship, and eating.

That night the different teams performed their skits and did a really awesome job. Afterwards, we had worship and the speaker gave his message. I was running the powerpoint during worship throughout the day, but you could definitely tell that people were being touched and the Holy Spirit was moving. After the message, everyone gathered around the bonfire to surrender their lives to Christ again and pray for the things that were hindering us from our relationship with God. That's when everything started breaking out. As the pastor prayed passionately and spoke of the love of God while everyone was around the fire people started responding. As I look back at it now, I remember just looking at the sparks of fire rising from the bonfire into the sky - our prayers were being heard as the fire rose up, and in result God's fire totally fell down that night.

Some people were crying and really beginning to break down. The pastor told people to break into groups and start praying for one another. At this point, I didn't really feel anything special. I prayed for my friend, and then he prayed for me. While all this was going on, I could hear my brother and some of the other guys in the church passionately praying and crying out to God without regard to being loud or being embarrassed. They would alternate between passionately interceding for one another and breaking into song singing the chorus of the Hillsong United song "Fire Fall Down." They just kept praying and singing that chorus over and over. As I heard them, I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to go over there and butt in just yet.

These guys were passionately crying and singing out while at this time the pastor told everyone to pray for their families. I saw my mom, and I just embraced her and prayed quietly over her. While all this was happening, my brother and the guys were still crying out. After embracing my mom and praying for her for a while, I looked up and someone approached my mom. When this happened, I finally decided to go and walk over to my brother. Like I said earlier, I heard them singing out passionately and fervently, and I wanted to help them but I wasn't really feeling anything. I remember while I was by myself praying that God would just give me a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, and I remember just taking it in faith.

So finally, I decided to walk over and pray with them. When I got there, my brother was on his knees coughing because the friend that prayed over me had already begun praying over him. Basically, my brother was going through a process of deliverance and I showed up just in time. I kneeled down next to him and just started praying for him along with the group of guys around him. We prayed fervently and passionately in the Spirit and we prayed that my brother would just be loosed. While he was going through this process of coughing and throwing up, the whole church gathered around and started praying over my brother. One of the prayer leaders at the church started praying in the Spirit over my brother and everyone who was their began laying hands and just interceding on behalf of my brother as we prayed for his deliverance.

I have never witnessed anything like that before. My brother's passionate cries and prayers were heard by God as he sang out for fire to fall down. That same fire was a refining fire that cleansed him of the things that were holding him back. Everyone in the camp who was there was able to experience this process and it totally brought the church together. Like I said, the entire youth and a lot of the church was laying hand on my brother and praying for him. Then my pastor came up and prayed for peace, and together the church sang "Amazing Grace" in a circle around my brother.

People responded to this intense act of God in many different ways. Some people had no idea what was going on and were scared, but others totally were touched. The fire of God totally fell down on the others, especially the youth. I heard that even my brother's x-girlfriend was praying over him and singing over him with everyone. Relationships were beginning to heal. People witnessed and felt the presence of God and began weeping. Youth members were weeping and gathered together in prayer, even the children saw what happened and started weeping and my mom went over and prayed for him.

While everyone experienced the deliverance and the fire of God fall down, they went off on their own and began praying. A group of us guys stayed with my brother and prayed that he would be baptized by the Holy Spirit. As I said earlier, the fire of God totally fell hard and his presence was so strong. I felt the Holy Spirit more than I ever have before and my body would start shaking uncontrollably. We just prayed over my brother and anointed Him with the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit. He totally received it, and was deeply moved.

But we didn't stop there, one of the guys who was praying over my brother had been deeply moved earlier and as we prayed I just laid hands on Him and began praying for Him to be filled by the Holy Spirit. We prayed over Him and he was totally transformed as well. Then another friend came up to us. I hugged Him and asked Him if He wanted some fresh fire too. We then all laid hands on Him and began praying for Him to be delivered and filled. After this, the friend who initiated the deliverance prayer for my brother started weeping, and so all of the guys who had just been filled started praying for Him. We laid hands on Him and started praying over Him. Then, I just broke out laughing and touched him, and he started laughing and then all the guys started praying for me. It was crazy! Here were these guys who had never witnessed anything like this before praying over one another and interceding on each other's behalf asking for deliverance and for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit!

Once we all prayed for one another, the five of us guys were there got up and prayer walked around the camp a couple of times then we got together and prayed again and talked about what just happened. It was crazy! I keep saying that, but it really was! The fire of God truly came down that night! Fire truly fell down! God heard and answered our prayers.

Later that night, the intercessors of my church had an impromptu prayer meeting which they invited me to. It was crazy how this happened because earlier the prayer leader of my church approached me about praying in the Spirit because she had talked to my mom about it and heard about me. Basically, she told me about her experience with prayer and the lessons she had learned. It was so encouraging. So even before all the events of the night broke out, I learned how prayerful and passionate the leaders of my church really were. First, it started out with that conversation with my mom about revival and then this conversation, and then next thing I know, I am going through intercessory prayer with the prayer leaders of my church.

The prayer leaders gathered around 12:30 after everything had settled down. We had to be praying for at least an hour or two before everything settled. As I was there, I was just so overjoyed knowing that our church has been built on a foundation of prayer, and that the leaders were very strong and open to the things of the Spirit. Before that, I was kinda worried about the growth of the church and myself because I didn't have very many spiritual leaders, but it was so encouraging to know that our church is truly laying a prayer foundation for a future revival in our church.

My church is only two years old, but we are growing. The guest speaker was so touched by the camp. He came to the realization that his own church needed an intercessory prayer ministry. He saw the effects of prayer and how significant it has been in our church. God answers prayers! Ever since my church started opening up a prayer room every Sunday morning, God has been on the move. The prayer foundation laid by the prayer leaders helped spark a mini-revival Saturday night. It is my hope and prayer that my church will move towards setting up a 24 hr prayer room as we continue to pray and lay down the foundation for a greater revival within the entire church.

God is on the move, and He is working in my church. The fire of God fell down Saturday night, and this is just the start. It by no means will be easy, and there will be many hardships. But God confirmed a lot to me during that night. God is sovereign and He is in control. He hears our prayers and He answers them. The prayer leaders of my church are coming to realize that we are forerunners for the revival that is to come!

God, thank you so much for your answered prayers! Thank you so much for sending down your refining fire. Thank you so much for leaders who led by the Spirit and open to the things that your Holy Spirit has to offer!

Thank you for transformation and healing of lives. We thank you the lives were touched and people will never be the same. May this camp be a stepping stone for future revival in our church. May we see the establishment of a 24hr prayer room in our church. God may the fire you sent down upon be brought back from camp to our church, family, friends, and homes. You are good, and you are on the move! Lord thank you so much that you here are cries and you are near to us in times of despair! We pray that you would continually bless our church and help us to grow in our intimacy with You. May we be a church dedicated to prayer and intimacy with You O Lord. You are the cry of our hearts.

May we be committed to revival prayer and reformation. Be with us as we continue in our discipleship and evangelism. May you remain at the center and may we remember to serve the King and not merely the kingdom. You are our first love, and may we never forget that! Thank you for your consuming fire that you brought down Saturday night, We pray that it will fan into flame in our love, in our life, in our world!

1 Chronicles 7:14
If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land.

God, it is the cry of our heart that you heal our land, our church, our homes. Bring your revival to your people as we cry out to you! God, may we be a generation that stands in the gap! We desire revival and reformation in our world! God we will humble ourselves, pray, seek your face, and turn from our wickedness! We cry out for forgiveness for the sins of our generation! May you honor our hearts desire as we delight in you! Thank you God for your fire! We love you. We desire to know your presence and make your presence be made known. May be a generation that is on fire for you 24/7! Amen!