As I was praying-over and trying to prepare some hand-outs for distribution at a recent conference, I was trying to keep them concise and non-to-wordy… and as I was pondering what to put in them, I was asking the Lord, “Father, convince ME again of why we are doing what we’re doing!”  If I am called to gather believers in the place of corporate prayer, then is some of the responsibility of CONVINCING them to come on my shoulders?

So, here I was, pouring over Scriptures and revelations that the Lord has burned in me, trying to decide what would be the most convincing.  Then I remembered something I had written in my prayer journal a little over two years ago, when I was pondering a similar question, “Lord, why do you want me to help establish a house of prayer & worship in the river valley?”  After a time of similar Scripture searching and pondering, I shifted gears into worship and then into trying to just be quiet and listen to the Lord.

Crystal clear, the voice of the Lord pushed through my attempts to calm and quiet my soul:  ”Because I deserve it.”  Wow.  Why would I try to encourage believers to gather together to pray and to worship the Lord on a consistent, maybe even eventually 24-hour a day basis?  Because He Deserves It!

So as I sat here a few days ago, planning those printed materials, the Lord reminded me of that, and broke through my striving and just said, “Aaron, you don’t always have to have some powerfully worded, verse-packed, no-room-for-reproach reason for calling people to pray and to worship me… I DESERVE IT!”

During the Eyes Open Conference at Crossroads this weekend, I was there with my three beautiful children early to help the IHOP worship team do their soundcheck, and we got their early enough that the Prophecy Rooms were still going on, and a friend asked me if we wanted to go receive ministry.  I was hesitant, because it was just me and an 8, 7, and 5 year old - and I thought, wow, this is going to be a fun ride for the ministry team.

Anyway, all of the words the three prophetic team members were right on, specific, and confirmed things the Lord had already spoken to Robin and I about ourselves and our children.  One of those words over me (which is why I mentioned it here) was basically this:

Aaron, the Lord is so delighted in the gift that you are giving Him.  It’s like when one of your children is at school and has a craft time, and decides to make something for you, and when they bring it home and give it to you, and you ask them why they made it, they just say, I was thinking of you, Daddy, and I wanted to make something just for you.

I want us, His children, to make this thing for Him.  Like David, I am consumed with establishing a house for the Lord on the earth where He can come and where His children will be in constant, day-and-night worship and prayer before Him.  Why?  Because He deserves it.

This weekend, a team from the International House of Prayer - Kansas City ministered to the region… with permission, I intend to post a few short audio clips that encapsulate some of the key messages that the Lord was speaking to the river valley.  The resounding word the Lord was bringing to me the entire weekend, starting during the set-up time through personal conversations with some fellow believers who were there serving from the the host church, was the necessity for what we are doing with the Rend Your Heart ministry and the regional intercessory worship gatherings we have been facilitating the last 19 months.

Most of you know of the incredible unity that exists between the various prayer & worship ministries in the region, namely The Burn - Fort Smith, Crossroads Church, New Wineskins Ministries, and Rend Your Heart (yes, I’m still vacilating between that name and “Pray River Valley”).  Because one of my personal, primary motivating revelations is that of Jesus’ intense desire for unity among believers (John 17:20-26), I always process my own motives and vision through that filter: is what I feel impressed to do already being done by another believer or ministry, and should I just serve with them?  Should we all just head over to Crossroads where the Lord has amassed so many phenomenal, devoted, and faithful intercessors?  Should we put all of our proverbial eggs into the same basket?

The resounding answer is… Maybe!  Okay, not really.  The real answer is, what is the Lord asking YOU to do?There is a need for equipping of intercessors and worshippers in the river valley, and Pastor Damon and the believers at Crossroads are doing that, and doing it well.  Thank you, believers at Crossroads, for your faithfulness and vision that goes back even before God’s orchestration of bringing Damon & Lisa to our region.  Thank you, Damon & Lisa, for your obedience and yourselves!

There is also a need for intercessors and worshippers in every single congregation throughout the river valley - believers that have already been planted, some from birth, into varying church-families.  Some will get uprooted for a season to go and soak and get equipped to return to the congregations to which the Lord has destined them.  Some must stay planted where they are at, and let their roots go deep - even when it’s dry - their roots will have to search out the streams.

That is one of the primary things the Lord has asked us (Rend Your Heart) to do in the valley:  we are to be a stream of living water, an oasis in a dry and thirsty land.  We are a place where believers who are faithfully plowing and sowing in other ministries can come to be refreshed through fiery worship and fervent prayer. Who are we?  We are believers from many churches in the region:  Heritage Church VB, Crossroads Church Alma, The Current VB, Butterfield AoG VB, First Baptist VB, Grand Ave Baptist FSM, City Christian Fellowship FSM, Victory Temple FSM, First Methodist FSM, Mt Olive Church VB, and I know I’m forgetting some.  These are just the congregations represented on the stage almost every week.

Could we be this same stream and serve this same purpose from inside a specific congregation’s facility? Theoretically, yes - and, eventually, Yes! There will be many streams and deep wells all over this region in homes, in church-buildings, and in buildings devoted to prayer, worship, and outreach.  This is what the Lord has asked us to do - and we’re running… we’re digging… we’re soaking… we’re burning.

Will you come and join us this Saturday from 6pm to 9pm at the prayer room located on the corner of Alma Blvd and North 20th St in Van Buren?