So, I walked into the Prayer Room one night to the scene above. My heart nearly exploded with joy and a mighty sense of DESTINY. . . . But, let me back up a bit…

When God first called me to the MSU campus, to stand with Him in intercession, I had a prayer I prayed often. It would not leave me:

“Lord, raise up a righteous remnant of worshiping warriors!”

It wasn’t just nice words words to me. Have you ever felt like God gave you a prayer to pray? For me, I felt that’s what this was. It was a “faith” prayer, for sure. For many months, maybe a year, there was really only one committed student in the prayer movement. We met, we talked, we prayed. I think I prayed that prayer nearly every week when we met.  And, I continued to pray it . . .

About a year or so later, God brought a small band of fiery students, holy “burning ones” who helped begin to really establish the Furnace prayer movement.  My heart was encouraged, but I continued to pray for that “righteous remnant” to arise in such force that it would cause a revolution to the whole campus community.  It only  takes a few tenacious, faith-filled ones to turn a whole city upside down (Acts 17:6).  Fast forward about five years . . .

It’s March 2013, it’s almost midnight.  I was out running a little errand (don’t judge), and remembered that a student had posted something about getting a few friends together at our Prayer Room to worship.  I thought I’d stop by to say hi and encourage them.  As I drive into the downtown area, I see lines of people standing outside the bars, and as is usually is the case, I’m drawn into intercession for the souls of so many….

I park and walk over to our Prayer Room, and enter to the scene pictured above.  It wasn’t just “a couple of friends”, but the room was actually filling with students, spontaneously, on midnight on a Friday night in East Lansing.  There was such a sense of expectancy and JOY in the room, too.  Why? What were they all gathered together for as their peers were on the street just a few feet away partying?

Simply this: they had come to worship Jesus and to PRAY.  No one had told them to do it.  It wasn’t like they had nothing else they could be doing.  The truth is, the Prayer Room was THE place they wanted to be, and worshiping Jesus and seeking God was THE thing they wanted to do more than anything else on a Friday night.  As I stood there, in awe, the room continued to fill, as more and more students flowed in, ready to release the Kingdom of God in worship and intercession.  They seemed genuinely excited and so purposeful about this, in contrast to their counterparts lining up at the bars, who seemed to not know what else to do.  I sensed destiny in the air. I knew God was at work.  It was a divine moment for me.

You see, also about five years ago, I took my one committed student and another friend to a leaders conference.  While there, during a time of prayer ministry after one of the meetings, I had an encounter with the Lord.  In the encounter, I heard a rhythm, a drumbeat, and an army of young adults was marching to it.  The eyes of the Lord were upon them, and He said, “I want you to lead them.”  I knew what I was “seeing” in this encounter was the “righteous remnant of worshiping warriors” that I was praying for.  God was affirming that He would indeed raise up those who would march to the beat of a different drum — embracing love for Jesus and walking in holiness, with a tenacious passion to win their generation for Him.  The Lord would gather them, and the would march with His freedom to bring a righteous revolution.

So, as I stood in the Prayer Room on that Friday night, five years later, I was nearly in tears.   The vision was actually happening before my eyes.

Jesus is raising up a company of young people that will reject the tide of the culture, and will desire God more, and with wreckless abandon go after Him, bringing their whole generation in their wake.  The army is arising.  They will turn this city, and the whole world, upside down!

You see dry bones? I see an Army!!