What a busy whirlwind the beginning of this year has been for me. A family member of mine passed back in October and my family and I have been working on his house to get ready to sell for the last three months. Through this extremely busy time, I would spend time at the House of Prayer Sacramento, working at Starbucks and any other free time fixing up the house. When I say I was tired, I mean, I was tired. Fortunately the busy season has recently came to a close and now I'm finding a balanced schedule again and resting.
Being in the prayer room has helped me through this season because I get to be still and with the Lord. Though I am a missionary as an occupation, it is still precious to spend time in the room, learning and growing in the scriptures. Here are updates of what is happening around HOPS and in my personal walk with the Lord.
February 15 - March 6 (21 Days of Communion): January is typically a popular month for churches to do an all congregation fast, to start the new year fasting and praying for the Lord. I have always found this beautiful. However this year, I felt it pressed on my heart to do 21 days of communion. It was a great 21 days, making the intentional time each day to fix my eyes on Jesus and acknowledge his ultimate sacrifice. I read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; and let me tell you, there is something so intimate about taking the time to slow down, read and break bread. Keeping the death and resurrection of Jesus in front of us is important. Life can get busy, circumstances happen and our minds can go a thousand miles per hour; and keeping Jesus, his life, death and life again in front of us helps us.
Leading Prophetic Ministry: For New Year's Eve every year, our House of Prayer will have available prophetic rooms. This is a time for people to meet with a paired team that have been through training and are trusted individuals within our community to give encouraging words. I was part of administrating and facilitating this prophetic ministry night and since then I have taken on the role of leading a team. Every quarter, we invite a lead pastor of a local church and their staff to come and receive ministry, we feed them delicious food and during our Encounter God Service, we hear the pastor's heart and then pray and intercede for their church and staff. We call this United Prayer Sacramento. Instead of being divided, we want to be found helping build up the body, we are not meant to be separated but lifting and encouraging one another. Leading this team has been a delight and a growing experience. One of my strengths are administration and organizing, so this was very much up my alley. The growing aspect is the prophetic part and leading in that area. Each United Prayer night I walk away with my iPad full of notes of how the next time can be better, more efficient and productive. Through debreifing with my director and having open communication with the team of volunteers, it has been a pleasant growing experience and I believe each time it gets better. The testimonies from the staff receiving ministry has been encouraging and brings a smile to my face. The Lord is moving and it is a pure pleasure that He allows me to be part of it.
April 13 - 17 (Dallas, TX- The Prayer Room): When I went to the House of Prayer Leadership summit in September of last year, I remember looking at the 8 leaders of the summit and becoming excited to learn form each and every one of them. I know in my knower that I am called to this lifestyle and occupation of an Intercessory Missionary for the long haul and I want to learn, grow and lead to the best of my abilities. In this co-op group, each leader has a different way their minds process and lead which means each of their houses will be ran a little different from the next one as well. Essentially what I am wanting to do is visit each of these House of Prayers to glean from them, my motto has been to "learn, serve and to observe". Where can I strengthen in my current skillset, what can I learn that's new and how can I serve the House I'm visiting? I want to grow as a leader in my community, for my community and better serve my director and assistant director. This month I had the absolute pleasure to visit The Prayer Room in Texas and it was amazing. I got to have meetings with heads of departments, had the chance to sit on various meetings and sat in the prayer room without the thought of "being on". It was a jammed packed five days (but let's be honest, I thrive on a busy schedule) but still had moments of quietness with the Lord. I took more notes that you can imagine. It was exciting to see how another House of Prayer runs, I can't wait until I visit the next House of Prayer in September. There is so much to learn, grow in and bring back to my House to see what we can adapt and implement.
While in Dallas, I got the chance to visit Upperroom, if you have not heard of Upperroom, I suggest you pull out Spotify or Apple Music and look them up. Their music is a blessing. They too are a prayer room and flow in singing prophetically, the morning I sat in their prayer room was intense. The theme began to turn into the death of Jesus and I was wrecked. I found myself with tears in my eyes because this man of God was bound to a cross so I could be free. I began to read in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about the death of Jesus and though it tells of the same situation, it's written from a different perspective. Months ago I did 21 days of communion, and this specific morning brought me back in remembering the significance of keeping the death and resurrection of Christ at the forefront of your mind. There is no greater love than the love of Christ.
Back in February, my friend and I began doing a 6am set together every other Wednesday. It's like a reverse worship with the word. I read from the book of Colossians and I'll stop and my friend will sing around the scriptures that were just read. We do this for the entire book of Colossians for the hour long set. I have included a link to one of our sets and if you are in the area, I highly suggest you join us one morning, there is something beautiful about starting the morning reading scripture and then singing about it.
Thank you for taking the time to read what is happening and what the Lord is doing. I know it was kind of long but once I start writing about what the Lord is doing, it's hard to stop. Plus, if you know me, I'm a words girl.
If you or anyone you know would like to sow into night and day prayer and myself as a missionary, please reach out to me (Olivia.gibs@yahoo.com) and ask any and all the questions you may have.