Our Story
It was in the fall of 2005 that the Lord began to stir my heart in the passage of Psalm 127. I had no idea the meaning of this passage, much less the journey he had me on… I just felt that He wanted me to stay in that passage for a while. I would read it daily, pray it, meditate on it, declare it, and in the fall of 2005, I even wrote a song out of it- “God’s Building a House”.
In February 2006, while riding up I-75, the Lord spoke very clearly to my heart about this passage- Psalm 127. The house which He was speaking to me about in this passage was a house of prayer. In my understanding, the Psalm 127 passage took on a new meaning- “Unless the Lord builds the house of prayer”. Just a few hours after this revelation was a major confirmation in the connection of Psalm 127 and the house of prayer.
I had no idea what it meant much less what to do with something like that. A house of prayer? I guess that’s a prayer house or a ministry that hosts prayer… worship? Is it a place where ones simply sit around and pray, or do they preach, teach, evangelize? In fact, I had heard different ones talk about the Kansas City IHOP and other houses of prayer, but that was the extent of it, just conversation.
He then spoke to me that I would raise up this “house of prayer”. A bit scared, I kept listening… I was excited, but didn’t know why. I was stirred, but how? You mean, stirred about raising up a prayer ministry..?
After pondering this for a few weeks, I submitted it to my pastor, Mark Harrell of VCF (Somerset, KY). I walked him through the short journey from fall until then, sharing how I wanted to walk in all that the Lord had for me. At the time, I was leading worship, teaching, and traveling in both areas. Ministry was nothing new to me… I grew up in a “ministry-active” home and was taught to jump on every opportunity to serve in the body of Christ. However, this prayer thing was different… I was consumed by it, for zeal for His house had began consuming me! (Psalm 69:9) Consumed especially by the Psalm 127 passage. Little did I know is how the Lord would use that number in a real prophetic way!
Upon sharing my heart, my pastor immediately threw me into the prayer ministry. At the time, the prayer ministry was lead by the pastor and others who were willing at the time. It was wide open for me to jump in and lead this ministry! So, I did just that…
In April of 2006, I started leading the VCF prayer ministry, which soon became the One27 house of prayer. The name reflected, yep, Psalm 127. To be quite honest, I didn’t know how to lead a prayer ministry… I had never been trained to do so… I was just thrown in the middle. I barely knew how to pray myself, and quite clearly my zeal was well ahead of my experience.
To make a long story short, I lead the prayer ministry at VCF for 4 1/2 years. During this time, (only by the grace of God-seriously) I raised up 7 weekly “on-campus” prayer sets, hosted annual prayer walks, as well as hosted the Repair the Breach conference. To say the least, I learned a lot.
The Next Step
It was in fall of 2009 that the Lord began to stir me up concerning the house of prayer being in it’s own location. A place connected to the citywide or local church, just not in the same location and under the same roof, but it’s own intety. A place dedicated to just that- prayer and worship by raising up intercessors, musicians, singers, etc… I didn’t know what to do with that, so I sought the Lord’s direction, only pondering it in my heart. This pondering would be well over a year process.
After some time in prayer about this, I began to open up to my spiritual leaders and fathers. Through all this, the Lord confirmed time and time again that this was the next step to take. After sharing with my pastor, I began (in January of 2011) to call a gathering together of those whose hearts desired the same, a place set apart for the dwelling place of the God of Jacob via prayer, worship and intercession. Meeting from house to house, we would simply seek the Lord by prayer, worship and fasting. Soon we were given a place to meet, at the time only on Sundays. That lasted only a few months. In May of 2012, we obtained a place at the Jade-London Campus in London, KY. In November of 2012, we secured a building in Somerset, KY- where the Lord has now lead us to focus all of our efforts, in building a ‘culture of worship and prayer’. We are excited to be part of the prayer movement that the Lord is raising up in this hour. Since the first of 2012, we have hosted four 24-hour worship and prayer events, a regional conference, corporate gatherings and many many weekly worship and prayer sets. We are looking forward to much growth in the future as we consistently pursue “building Him a dwelling place” by day and night prayer in this great state! May His kingdom come…
