Day T-2 for UPHOP...  Day 17 in the Boston Uprising...  Day 57 in the national 24/7 prayer chain... soon... we will join in on this national prayer movement...

So the prayer tent went up today... there it is standing out there in the middle of college green!  It looks pretty plain and obscure... hard to imagine it becoming a holy, God-filled place during this upcoming week.  But God can even turn the most inconspicuous vessels into a place radiant with His Glory... He does it with us all the time!

(For those of you who don't know... UPenn is doing a week of 24/7 prayer in conjunction with a nationwide 24/7 prayer chain.  We're doing ours in a tent in the center of campus.  We're calling it the University of Pennsylvania House of Prayer... or UPHOP for short.  Check out www.pennforjesus.com for more details.)

And we wasted no time... some of us started doing some spot prayers in and around the tent throughout the day.  Kinda funny that we're praying for a place that will have prayer going on all the time.  When do we NOT pray for stuff we are doing?  Ha ha, I think I like it that we think to pray over every step of everything that we're doing... even praying for prayer!!

Well, I sent this out the our p4j listserve late this afternoon:  "Now that the physical walls and foundations of the tent are up, we now want to collectively build up the spiritual foundations and walls up before we start going full blown prayer on Sunday."  And called for some time to pray over the tent site at midnite today and 11AM tomorrow.  (I'm considering doing midnight again tomorrow as well...)

Around midnight I was expecting only a handful of people at the tent.  And as I was walking over with Mark, I was thinking "its only going to be the two of us isn't it"  And then we saw someone pop outta the tent, and Mark said he thought it was frat people.  I was thinking... "oh great... its being invaded... grrr"  And when I got to the entrance I saw another little tent inside, the tent that the frats/sorors were using during the day, and a swarm of people (I couldn't see faces yet cause it was so dark inside).  And of course I thought it was frat/soror people... I wasn't expecting that many people there and there was that little tent in the middle OUR tent!  I started entertaining thoughts of how I was going to tell them to get out.  Then all of a sudden I hear people saying "Hey Mark!"  And as I took a closer look in the darkness, I saw familar faces!

Dude!! The tent was full of Christians!!

Dumbfounded... I asked them "what are you guys doing here??"  Surely they couldn't be here in response to my email about praying over the tent tonite!?  I was expecting only like.. 3-5 tops.  They said, "what do you think we're here for? To pray for the tent of course." Oh Lord forgive me for my lack of faith!

There were seriously like... 25-30 people there!?!  Wow... if that isn't an encouraging sign...

They were almost all from Living Water too.  It was hilarious... we couldn't really see each other.  The cell phone lamps were being gratuitously used as we were talking to each other.

Well, we spend a good 20-30 minutes praying for the tent.  We all stood along the inside perimeter of the tent.  Facing inward, we prayed for cleansing and sanctification of the ground.  The we turned around and placing our hands on the tent walls, prayed to build up the spiritual walls of the prayer house for protection from unGodly influences from without but an overflowing of God's Spirit from within.  Then we turn inward, lifted our hands to the heavens and praised God for who He is and then prayed for God to create an open Heaven above this tent.  I told them to use their spiritual keys that God had given us to open that door to His Glory... a door that no man can shut, and many people actually followed suit making the gestures of opening a locked door in the heavenlies while they prayed.  It was pretty cool.

There was an interesting interruption in the middle of our prayer time of building up the walls.  Some guys peeked out of curiosity and saw a bunch of people all facing the walls of the tent muttering under their breathe.  With a quick "Oh, sorry!" they left... but within a minute started shaking the poles of the tent screaming "Don't listen to those cult bastards!  Jesus loves you! Jesus Loves you!"  Ummm.... it really confused me and everyone in the tent.  Interesting how they were shaking the physical walls of the tent while we were praying to build up the spiritual ones...

Anyways... praying all that time I felt that there needed to be a fire started in the center of the tent... God's spiritual fire.  But in the spirit it just seemed to be unlit... and yet... at the same time it didn't feel like it was the right time to pray for that beacon to be lit yet.  So we didn't pray for that.  And it makes sense... our prayer house hasn't yet officially started.  We are preparing the temple to recieve His fire.  And I'm pretty certain we will feel the fire of God kindled in that place when we commence the prayer room.

Also... I couldn't help but think of the significance that the tent was filled primarily with Living Water people.  Because that was very much in line with what we wanted for the tent.  A place filled with the presense of God... a place of an overflowing of His living water to the rest of the campus.  As we were walking away, one of the LW girls said that she kept thinking that as well... and I took it as confirmation... that it was a sign of what He was going to do... Establish a well of His Living Water... and many people were going to drink from it from around the campus...

If these things are starting to happen even before we comence the 24/7 prayer... I am excited an in expectant wonder about what God is going to do once the prayer room starts...

Lord Jesus... let Your Glorly fall...