Boulder House of Prayer

Video Update and 24 on the 27th!

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:20:38 +0000

So Thankful!

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:24:03 +0000

When Kelly announced that she wanted to hold a BHOP Thanksgiving dinner before students went home for break, I was excited, but I had no idea what God was doing.

We spent that day getting the house ready and making food for the people who would be coming over. The house looked great, and I have to admit that the cleaning wasn’t really a burden. It was actually pretty fun. We prepared and cleaned with an attitude of worship, and even the cleaning of toilets and the fixing of fireplaces was somehow enjoyable. As Kelly continued answering texts and making errands to get the house ready, I was struck by the incredible Presence of God in the house already. I thanked God for Kelly and looked forward to what would happen that night praying that God would have total freedom to do whatever He wanted to do.

When the time came for people to start showing up, the house was looking great, there were some Christmas lights hanging inside and outside, and we were having a good time hanging out together. We continued to talk together and hang out well after the official starting time had come and gone. I’m not sure anybody really noticed, we were too busy talking. Eventually all the food arrived and the cooks contented themselves that they had “done enough” to prepare their particular dishes. We said a short prayer with hands held together and then the women began to gather their food.

Over the course of the next three hours, in between incredibly blessed conversations with new friends, I looked around the room and saw that the Boulder House of Prayer has truly been a success. I saw people laughing together, playing games on their phones, discussing their faith and passions and praying together. Something beautiful has happened here in Boulder, and I found myself almost moved to tears to think about how pleased Our Father is to look on His kids. They truly love Him and it’s so evident in the way that they love one another.

I had the blessing to have a great conversation with a young man who has recently started hanging out with us. He told me about how he came from a broken home, how his father’s hypocrisy had turned him away from faith and his resulting fall into alcohol addiction. He told me about how, in a time of desperation he decided to give God a chance and His life was transformed by Alcoholics Anonymous. During the process, he came to terms with the reality that Jesus is the only Higher Power that offers hope and he placed his faith in Jesus.

As this young man told me his story, he looked around the room and told me, “This is really uncomfortable, but it’s a good uncomfortable.” He proceeded to talk about how he wasn’t comfortable being so honest and open with people, yet, at the same time this family was something he was glad to finally see.

I looked around the prayer house living room and I couldn’t help but share some of the same emotions. I remember wishing so desperately that there was a group of people who really loved Jesus and who were sincere. I remember how calloused I had become to the entire Body of Christ simply because some of them were so fake. I remembered my own moments of desperation when I realized, “I don’t care if Christians are there, I have to get back to church.” I remembered several moments over the past several years when this family chose vulnerability before one another and God healed our hearts. I looked around the room and I saw people from many different spiritual backgrounds and with such different experiences and couldn’t help but laugh. Only the Holy Spirit could bring together such a diverse group into such authentic love and respect for one another.

I was interrupted from my reverie as Robin walked in the door and the entire room erupted into shouts of, “Robin! Ey!! Robinio! Hey!” I was glad to see her and so happy for her. After all, how many people have the blessing of being so important to such a wonderful group of people? The truth of it all is that each person in this group is important. In their own special ways and with their own special personalities, we look forward to seeing one another because we are joined together by the Holy Spirit and we genuinely love each other. For some of us this family is a full-time calling and a joy. For some of us it changes our schedules. For some of us it’s a family that we miss when circumstances keep us apart. For some of us it’s the family we never had. For all of us, though, it’s a blessing and a testament to the power of prayer and the incredible love of Jesus.

My prayer for you as you read this is that you would be loved by a group of people who see the incredible value that you have in Jesus. I hope and pray daily that if you are on your own that you would find hope and love in the arms of Jesus. I pray that Christians in your area would find you, pray for you, and love you. I pray that the Spirit of God would find a willingness in your heart to not only benefit from the Church, but to be a blessing to those who so long to bless you. Most of all, I pray that You would see, no matter where you are, that you are never alone and that, though we may be separated by geography, the children of God are always together with Him. I pray that if you are in Boulder you would be encouraged and that you would become a part of our family or several of the other awesome groups of Christians here in this city. I pray that if you are not in Boulder you would be encouraged to know that these things are happening and that God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, I pray that you would see that if He is doing this here, He wants to do the same thing where you are and He will give you everything you need. Receive His blessing as you place your trust in Him.

Thanks Dad! <><

The Changing Face of the Church

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:40:38 +0000

One of the really interesting things about this prayer movement that is currently sweeping the globe is that everyone seems to want it, but what “it” actually means is often pretty hard to define. Let’s face it, the idea of a prayer house isn’t a new idea, but the popularity and the desire for a place of prayer is something relatively unheard of in recent times. That is, up until about the last five years. As other prayer leaders mentored me, they told me how this prayer and worship movement is both incredibly ancient and incredibly “cutting edge”. If you had searched for “house of prayer” on Google ten years ago, you wouldn’t find much of anything, and probably not anything Christian. I just did a search for House of Prayer on Google: 13million results. If you look at a map, it looks like the nation has chicken pocks. Yet, most of these pink dots on the map are small groups of people who are still trying to figure out what it means to be a House of Prayer.

At the same time, recent trends in the traditional church in America seem to suggest that people are turning away from traditional church models. This corresponds to several prophetic calls and cultural observations that predict a dramatic change in the expression of Christianity. People point to the justice movement and how the early church was, “held in high esteem” (Acts 4:13) and suggest the restoration of Christianity as a justice movement that is much larger than any local church. People also point to the prayer and worship movement and see that even as traditional churches are losing steam, spirituality is on the rise among Christians. As we see these changes, it’s important that we look back to the initial work of the Holy Spirit in the church to see how it was initially designed.

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. ~ Acts 2:42,46-47

According to Acts, this is what the behavior of the Church looked like under the initial direction of the Holy Spirit. In a modern context, this would be a very different expression of Christianity than we typically experience. If you were a student or a business person, then your day would probably start with breakfast and morning prayer at your home with your family and a few friends. You would feel freedom to keep things simple, maybe have your friend play a worship song on the guitar and say a quick prayer after the meal. You would go to your work (school, job, etc.) with the attitude that your work was an act of worship just as much as that of the singers in the House of Prayer.

Who are the singers? Well, those are the ones whose job is to go to the House of Prayer and sing in front of the Lord. If your city happens to be particularly blessed by God, these are people both young and old whose sole occupation is to sing in the House of Prayer. Together with a team of prayer people and several shepherds to give them direction, they form the House of Prayer in your city. This house is probably located in a specific building near the heart of the city, is open 24/7, and there is always prayer and song being offered up to the Lord Jesus in that place. But let’s get back to you…

You’re really thankful for this House of Prayer, because when lunch time comes, you sneak away for some prayer and worship time at the House of Prayer. Depending on your day, you ask one of the prayer people to pray for you, to pray for your (business, test, thank God with you for your promotion, ask for good entrepreneurial ideas, etc.) As you leave, you text your friend the scripture the worship team was singing from and ask them how they’re doing and if they’ll be going to the Bible study later this week.

At the close of your workday, you meet with a group of fellow Christian (business people, students, artists, inventors, etc.) and share a quick prayer and then talk about what God’s doing at your workplace. You share ideas, strategies, and funny stories and you all leave this meeting with prayer requests for one another. After that, it’s time to get home for family dinner which not only includes your family but your friends and a couple of lonely people your (spouse, roommate, etc.) ran into at the grocery store earlier this afternoon. After dinner your (kids/roommates) go over to a friend’s house to (study/play/hang out) and you and your (spouse/friend/family member) decide to head over to the Prayer House again to worship and pray together before heading home for bed. As you leave the Prayer House, you give a small check to the young musician walking in for her set. You’re part of her support team and you’ve seen her go from confused twenty-something to talented musician and worship leader since you started praying for her. She asks you and your (spouse/friend/family member) to pray for her and the new song she wrote, she thinks it’s really going to be a powerful message of hope to our generation.

It’s been a busy day, but that’s why your family started keeping the sabbath together. Tomorrow you’re going over to your friend’s house for dinner and then go home that evening to spend 24 full hours resting and hanging out with your family and reading your Bible.

Now, that’s just a hypothetical 48hours, but I wanted to paint that out for you so that you see what this looks like. It’s a far more relational community than we have now. Devotion to the apostles teaching translates into not only attending a local church but being involved in some sort of Bible study with friends. Fellowship involves a partnership with people around you towards common goals. This is why you develop friendships with other Christian people in your workplace and why you support that young musician at the prayer house with more than just money; you’re a part of what they’re doing! You invest in some food trays and extra silverware because you’re eating meals with other people on a pretty regular basis and you never really know when you might be adding one more guest. You regularly pray at work, at the prayer house, and with friends and family because, well, there’s a lot of stuff happening and He’s the only one who not only makes it possible, but makes it fun!

So, does this rule out the need for churches as we have now? In my opinion, not at all! The only format that God gave us is this community of prayer and fellowship, but the people would gather together regularly to recognize that their small families were part of the larger Church in their city. Saturday and Sunday seem like great days for this to happen and I see these as growing more important as people “do church” 24/7. It is also critically important that there be spiritual leadership given from teams of people called out by the Holy Spirit to a life of devotion to scripture and to the equipping of the Church (Ephesians 4 gives a great picture of this). Not only will we keep the weekly meetings of local churches, we will also have much larger gatherings than we do now. In my mind, this looks like monthly gatherings at stadiums or sports arenas where the Church in the city gathers together and has a united time of worship, prayer, and where several of the local pastors share prayer requests and stories about what Jesus is doing and what the Spirit has said. In such an active Church it becomes crucial to have the workplace friendships, the family gatherings, the weekly congregation and the occasional ”gathering en mass” to make sure that everyone remembers that they are part of something larger and so that the gathering together can bring encouragement and strengthen the local congregations and the small groups. In my opinion, this is what it would look like to truly engage with one another as the body of Christ.

In this context, we see that justice happens as an inevitable result across all areas of society. Business practices become ethical because of strong Christian workplace relationships. Our mutual support of one another and deliberate focus on familial relationships will restore broken families. The partnership of the prayer teams, the justice ministries, and the business people blurs the lines between sacred and secular and ensures that our collective work will stay true, authentic, and relevant. A social activist is tied together with a prayer team is tied together with a businessman is tied together with an artist to the degree that their unique perspectives are united with the Holy Spirit and their passions fuel one another to work in ways they couldn’t have done alone. More than anything else, the mutual recognition of one another’s important roles in the body and the resulting mutual encouragement to do all things with excellence and with attitudes of worship unto Jesus enables the body of Christ to shine forth His love and justice into every area of society.

Now that’s a Prayer Meeting!

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:18:55 +0000

With all of the activity around the prayer house and in my personal life (it’s funny how inseparable the two are when you’re “doing church” 24/7) updating this site once again fell by the wayside. However, the beauty of this past week compels me to write. It all started this past Sunday…

We filed into Hope church gradually, most of us still smiling from the Adoration worship night over at Highway Community Church. The room was full of the Presence of God, and we knew we needed to pray for the night. So, we began to pray. Starting with a group of three of us in the middle of the room, we began to pray that God would use us as He saw fit, that He would fill us with a focus on Him and on what He was doing so that we could partner with Him. As people gradually came in and joined the circle, the awareness of His Spirit hit me very clearly and I spoke up,

“Listen guys, we’re going to do something really fun. God’s brought us all together tonight, and we’re going to work as the ecclesia in Boulder. If you don’t know what that means, it basically refers to a governing council that makes decisions for a group of people, and it’s the term that Jesus used to describe His Church. So we are going to ask Him what He thinks about Boulder and what He wants to do here, and we are going to pray it out. If you agree with something that someone prays, say, ‘I agree’ so that we can keep doing this as a group. As we encounter His heart for Boulder, He is going to bring healing and restoration to our hearts and use us and use our prayers to bring that healing into this city.”

For the next hour and a half we were unstoppable, a gathering of twenty children of God gave their hearts and mouths to their Father and He poured out His heart over Boulder. It was beautiful! I looked around the group and I saw people encountering the love and compassion of Jesus. I saw people laying hands on one another and praying that healing would pour out in our city. We prayed for the lost in Boulder to encounter the Lord Jesus, we prayed that His Name would be glorified over every other name. We began to see things in Boulder through His eyes. We saw that He is on the move and that there is a light rising up in Boulder that will go into the nations and bring Him praise from far corners of the world! When one person would pray these things, another would follow in quickly behind to agree and to expand and confirm one another’s prayers.

I watched this incredible exchange in amazement. How brilliant the strategy of God is! As I looked around the circle, I saw that the hearts of my friends were totally opened to their Creator and even as the power of prayer was changing and preparing our city, He was massaging their hearts and bringing them closer to Him. I saw how all the different personalities and backgrounds within our circle came together seamlessly into the place of prayer and encouraged and built up one another. This is the dream that He had in John 17! Thanks be to Him, because He’s making it happen!

As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You sent me. And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world would know that You sent Me, and have loved them, even as You have loved Me. ~ John 17:18-23

A Very Important Talk on the Spirit!

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:13:38 +0000

I just have to share this with you guys!

Mike Bickle gives perspective on manifestations of the Spirit at IHOP-KC

Please watch this! This is such a good talk for anyone who’s ever been to a prayer meeting where people started acting crazy. Whether you like the craziness, it freaks you out, or you just don’t know what to think, this is a really good talk from a very experienced man of God. We’ll be putting up another post soon about how the Boulder House of Prayer feels about these things, but this is a great message and I think we all need to get it!

In case you miss the list of priorities Mike lays out, here they are:

We want to connect with Jesus
We want what’s genuine
We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves
We want liberty
We want to be sensitive to people

Prayer Stories: Man of Prayer

Sean O'Harte — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:03:54 +0000

In my experience, it seems that people, especially visionaries, have a tendency to speak in vague and idealistic terms. While I’m not entirely against this, I feel that there is incredible power in the facts and details of everyday life. We only get to the vision by keeping our eyes open today. In this next series of posts, I’ll be sharing some of the stories that have come out of the prayer room over the course of this year of prayer in Boulder. As you read, I hope that you will see how prayer, worship, and service become a part of our everyday life.

Man of Prayer

I woke up excited and ready to go. It was August 10th, 2010 and we had just officially opened the lower level of our house for our friends to come and pray. As I walked into the prayer room that morning I was astonished to see that Kyle was already there and that there were three guys there with him. Worship music was playing over the speakers and they had heads bowed, one of them over an open journal. After a short time of worship, we came together in the middle of the room to pray for one another. As we prayed, God began to speak over one of the men in particular, saying that Jaime belonged to Him and that God wanted to use Jaime to encourage people and to speak powerfully into their lives. We continued praying, and we all left the prayer room that day excited to see what God would do.

In the coming months, Jaime continued to grow into an amazing man of God. Problems came up, as you would expect, but Jaime continued to grow stronger in his faith and continued to engage in prayer. One night, however, a challenge came up on Jaime. He had avoided the prayer room for a little while, deciding instead to do things on his own. He wasn’t doing particularly bad, but without support, he was starting to lose vision for his life and starting to lose some of the passion he had for the people around him. On this particular night, he had sunk to such a low point that he didn’t think he could be that man of God again. As I sat in that Starbucks with Jaime and his friend Ryan, we told him that there was total redemption for him and that he was not disqualified in any way from what God still wanted to do in his life. We told him that God was doing something and that God wanted men to rise up and live lives filled with purpose and passion. Then we asked him one question, “Are you in?” He responded with a tearful and joyful, “yes!” The rest of that night we spent in an incredible time of prayer in the prayer room, Jaime’s decision to say yes had inspired other guys to say yes as well. He had barely recommitted to God’s plan for him, and he was already living it out in practical ways!

Later that year, during our men’s Bible study, we had a time of prayer. As we were meeting together, we began to talk about the necessity for us to respond to God. We talked about how a prayer room does not consist of walls, but of a place where people come to meet with God. God is not looking for a building, but for a group of people who will maintain an attitude and a practice of prayer. Once again, Jaime’s heart inspired others. In the middle of the group, he said, “I want to be here and I want to pray in this room. I’ll stay in here all the time if I need to. This room changed my life.” As you can imagine, a time of prayer immediately followed, Jaime’s heart had paved the way for many of the other men in the group to receive a new passion for prayer and a desire to truly encounter God.

Jaime is not perfect, and he would be the first to tell anyone so. However, the change that I have seen in his life over this past year has been incredible. He is still on his journey; still working out what it means to be that voice of encouragement and inspiration in the lives of other people. However, things have happened in his life this year that he cannot deny, and God has revealed His Heart to this young man. God started doing something amazing in this young man, and He’ll be faithful to finish it! I, for one, am incredibly proud of Jaime, and incredibly thankful to God for the way that He has inspired Jaime, and the way that He has used Jaime to inspire others.

Healing in the Digital Age

Sean O'Harte — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:45:07 +0000

Hey everyone, this is Sean. I wanted to shoot out a little story that I thought would give people a bit of a chuckle and possibly blow our minds a little…

You see, I’ve got this amazing lady in my life named Fran. She’s awesome, a real follower of Jesus, and she’s one of the people who gives advice and wisdom to me as I’ve started out on this full-time ministry leading the Boulder House of Prayer. She’s believed in me, prayed for me, and given me an example of what it looks like to have partners who are with you and are supporting you in ministry. She’s encouraged me when things have been hard, and she’s been a consistent financial support during a time in my life when there isn’t much to go around. She’s kept telling me through it all how much she’s been blessed to serve God in her role with the Boulder House of Prayer, and I’ve been touched to hear how God has moved in her life and supporting her even as she supports us. I wasn’t quite prepared for this story though…

Towards the end of July I was wondering exactly how we were going to continue operating the Boulder House of Prayer this year. We had just found the house that God was telling us to secure for the prayer room and for the group of men who would be calling it home during the 2011-2012 year. However, I didn’t have the money that I needed to sign the deposit and to pay the first month’s rent. There was the thought in the back of my mind that things weren’t going to work out and that I was going to fall flat on my face, but I knew that God had said things were going to work out. I continued to pray, lead Bible studies, and encourage people to pray, but all the while I was keeping my eyes open for any photography gigs or random jobs that might make me the money I needed and praying that I wouldn’t miss any opportunity to secure this house for ministry.

I knew that one of the things that God was asking me to do was to invite other people to support this ministry through prayer and through financial gifts and commitments, so I took Fran up on her offer to look over my support letter as I prepared to send it off. I tried emailing her the letter, but her computer did not work. Not only would it not connect to the internet, it wouldn’t even start-up properly. It had transformed from computer to paperweight and until we repaired it, we would have to go over my letter the old-fashioned way: I went over to her house to see her. When I got there, she opened the door and smiled at me, challenging me to guess what had happened. I just asked her, and I’m glad I did, I never would have guessed this.

You see, with her computer dead, Fran was looking into getting a new computer and wasn’t particularly excited about spending $1300 to replace her computer and get someone to recover all its programs and documents. She prayed to Jesus and told Him how, “I have much better things to spend $1300 on.” She proceeded to do something she’s even surprised she did: she laid her hands on the computer and prayed that it would recover! Now, I’ve seen God do some pretty incredible stuff, but that still seems kinda weird to me. The thing that makes it really weird, though, is that it worked! I arrived at her apartment and she proceeded to show me that the computer that had been absolutely worthless the previous day, the computer that her technically savvy daughter said was beyond hope, was working perfectly! She then proceeded to hand me a check for $1300, telling me that she was so glad she could spend her money on something valuable instead of wasting it on a computer. Can you see why this woman challenges me so much?

I’m going to continue following her advice and, “keep doing what God has called you to!” However, I hope and pray that one day I will be an older man, that I will find a young man going after Jesus that I can encourage, and that I will be able to support and inspire him like Fran has supported and inspired me.

Plus, if I know anything about technology, computers will probably still need someone to lay hands on them and have them recover…

If you would like to join Sean, Fran, and the rest of the Boulder House of Prayer as we worship Jesus, reach out to students and introduce them to the love of their Heavenly Father, then join us in prayer! If you want to do anything beyond that, then please click here and make a donation to Sean Hart or contact me and talk to me about other opportunities to serve with us! ( phone: 303-522-0385 ; email: sean@boulderhouseofprayer.org )

The Prayer House Moves!

Sean O'Harte — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:08:54 +0000

Hey everyone!

It’s time to praise Jesus! (isn’t it always?) After much prayer and searching, we have found a new house for the Prayer Room!

Halfway through the last year we realized that we were not going to stay at the house on Stanford. It was good while it lasted, but we knew that we needed to move to a different place this year. Immediately, we started praying about what this was going to look like and we started looking around, anticipating what God might do with us. It’s been quite a ride!

You see, the Boulder House of Prayer envisions a place in Boulder where God would be able to look down from Heaven and see His kids worshiping Him at any given moment. Praying that the will of Jesus would be done on earth as it is done in Heaven, we want to reflect in Boulder the continual praise and worship that surrounds His throne in Heaven. However, we’ve been mentored by some really wise men and women, and really wise counsel says something like, “don’t try to do 24/7 prayer and worship until you’ve got about 200 people who are ready to make it happen”. We think this will happen, and we saw a lot of people start to get excited about the prayer and worship movement this year, but we’re not quite there yet.

However, we do have a group of about thirty students and twenty-somethings who are ready to engage in Christian community lifestyle that revolves around prayer and worship. As the past year progressed, we realized that, even though we are trying to take our time with this thing, we’re growing fast. Young people are hungry for relationship with God in Boulder, and as more and more of them encounter His love, they want to take part in a community that encourages them and challenges them to engage with His Spirit in their everyday lives.

I don’t think that I can stress enough how crucial it is to have people around us who encourage us and who challenge us, especially when it comes to the important things in life. In the transformative years of high-school, college, and young-adult life, this is critical! Don’t misunderstand me, I firmly believe we need to engage people who don’t have the same beliefs as us, but when you’ve been challenged all day at school or at work and when you’re surrounded with a million different worldviews and philosophies, the people you live with and the group of people who you go home to make a huge difference in how you choose to live your life. So, as we realized that we would need more organization and special permission to have a large community house, we began to try to find houses and apartments where the men and women of BHOP could live together in “small groups”.

Several local churches have also opened their doors to us to allow us to host prayer and worship nights, so we realized that we would be able to live in individual houses and that our larger gatherings could happen in churches and on campus. All we would need for the prayer house is a house with a living room where we could have Bible studies and small prayer meetings. Most importantly, the prayer house needed an extra room for people to sign up for personal prayer times as well as several times of 24/7 prayer throughout the year.

Even after we came to some of these conclusions, we still had months of searching and praying and nearly signing on places before we finally found the house that God had for us. There were several times where we were ready to sign on a place and it wouldn’t come together for one reason or another. We would pray, and God revealed several things to us that we needed to learn before He would let us move into a new place. We were going to have to follow the rules of our landlord and follow the zoning laws, even the ones that nobody else follows. We needed a place where we could be very respectful of our neighbors. We needed a place where people could park without clogging up the street. We needed a place that would be easily accessible to students without cars. Even beyond those things, God told us about how our community would have to change as we began this new year. We needed to make sure that we were all on the same page and had the same vision for moving together as a community. Several relationships between the guys needed repairing before we would be allowed to move into the homes God had for us.

We had one night in the beginning of August where several guys were still looking for a place to live. They were praying and had realized that there were some things that they needed to ask the other guys to forgive them for. They did the mature thing, the humble thing, the amazingly Godly thing, and they came together to apologize and to receive forgiveness. It was one of the coolest nights I’ve seen. It was a very personal night, but I can tell you this: when we lay down our pride and become vulnerable with one another, God opens up some pretty awesome doors! As God healed our relationships, He stepped everyone into the next season.

I’m happy to say that even though it was an intense time of growth and of refinement, the Boulder House of Prayer has come into this year with incredible joy, with hearts united in love and gratitude to Jesus, and with excitement as we look forward to what God will do in this new year!

My prayer for you is that you would listen to the Holy Spirit and whatever He is saying to you. I pray that you would see that He has plans for you and that your Father in Heaven wants to give you good things! He wants to clean up things in your life so that you can step into a new experience, a new year, a new relationship with Him. Even if it’s a little hard, my prayer is that you would hold on and that you would look forward to what God has for you just like Jesus did when he, “for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:4). It won’t be as difficult as what He went through on your behalf, but if it feels that way, then my prayer is that you would look at Him and find new strength. May you know His love for you!

If you would like to join us in prayer at the new house, we ask that you would give us a call (Sean: 303-522-0385). We love making new friends, but the prayer house is also our home and we ask that our friends would not just respect our house, but our neighbors, our landlord, and the guys who live in the house. We intend to bless our neighbors, to respect one another, and to leave this house better than it was when we moved in!

Bad Days are Real…What Hope Do We Have?

Sarah — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:58:27 +0000

7.17.2011

Hope Church tonight was amazing! I can testify that Jesus has shown up every Sunday at Hope Church He is simply amazing! However, in my personal opinion I thought tonight was especially wonderful. When everyone arrived at Hope the general consensus when I asked everyone how they were doing, was…”I’m tired, it has been a long week.” After a little bit of worship we all gathered together in a circle to catch up and see how everyone was doing. From the look on their faces….well not so good. One girl said that she just felt like a very heavy weight was on her. Yuck! Sean then, through the grace and wisdom that God amazingly pours out on him, said “Bad days are real…so what hope do we have?” This is a very real question that we all face. When life gets hard, where does our hope lie? Where do we run? What do we believe to be true? These questions lead to an amazing conversation! My first response to that question and the obvious one was, well Jesus. But I love practical answers and I wanted to know exactly what that so called “hope” looks like in Jesus. This lead me to thinking about how whenever I mess up, whenever I sin, whenever I believe lies that are not true, it is hard for me to feel freedom instantly just by someone telling me that, Jesus loves me and everything will be alright. (Sometimes this works, most of the time…it doesn’t). However, after I cry and try and figure it out myself I come to the realization that I can’t help myself, I can’t fix my situation, I can’t even fix my attitude. The one constant that I do have, the one thing that makes sense to me is that Jesus really does love me and takes care of me. He loves me despite myself. He doesn’t care how badly I mess up, He just cares that I keep coming back to Him. After I shared this another woman shared about how it is the peace of God that gives her hope. No matter what life brings and what circumstances arise, she feels a peace when her eyes are fixed and focused on Jesus. Another guy stated how his hope is based on the fact that Jesus has promised us eternal life when we believe in Him. This man’s hope lies in knowing that one day we will live before God’s throne in perfect peace, and joy and love! (Now that is cool to think about!!!) Another guy talked about God’s faithfulness and shared many stories about how God has been faithful so many times! So there we have it…what brings us hope? Jesus loves us, He promises that we will have peace as we trust in Him, He is faithful-ALL THE TIME, and we have eternity to look forward to!!

God is way too amazing and way too magnificent for our focus to be on anything besides Him. But lets face it, we are human and we are going to mess up! I mess up a lot! I can promise you this though, that God always takes care of me, He always shows up just in time! We read through Ezekiel 16 and learned how God has blessed us and cleaned us off and made us new again, but we play the harlot so many times and run away form Him. HE ALWAYS SHOWS UP THOUGH! We can’t go anywhere, where His love isn’t. He will find us and go after us, no matter how much trouble we get ourselves into! Praise God! He is a loving, forgiving God! So the next question arises…How much am I gonna drag myself though before I just let Him love me? Well that is a really good question. Jesus died so that we could live! One thing that I am learning is that God gives us a choice. He gives us a choice in every situation. Will you look at Him, or try and do things on your own? Let me tell you right now! Let Him help you. Let Him love you! How you ask?!?(because I did) As a good friend of mine told me, “Just let Him love you.” But HOW!! I said. “Let. Him. Love. You.” And trust me it is that simple. But if you need steps, here you go…1. Humble yourself(get a right understanding of who you are) 2. Seek His face(Go after Him, talk to Him, and most of all agree with what He has said about you.) 3. Turn from your sin and RUN in the other direction!!! Finally 4. LET HIM LOVE YOU!

I know I have been talking for a while but I have to tell you about the revelation that I got while driving home. Lets back up a little bit…we are all leaving Hope church and out of the corner of our eye we see one cat get hit by a car, and then another cat run off in the other direction. I did not go over and look at it but there were a couple people who did. I drove home because I didn’t want to see cat guts As I was driving home I was thinking to myself…”that was really random and weird!” But then I thought about what we had talked about at Hope and how we can choose to live as children of God who are free!! When we carry bad days around, sin, apathy(whatever it may be) we are just holding onto…for lack of better words…stinky, gross, disgusting death. It is not pretty, its does not help us in any way and I definitely don’t want to be carrying any such thing around with me. I choose life! I choose Jesus!

Father, help us this week to keep our eyes fixed on You. I am learning that whatever I look at I become. Dad, I want to become more like you. I pray that you would give me grace and strength to live in the freedom that you paid for. I thank you that You are good, I thank you for the way You always show up at Hope. I love you Jesus! God bless my family!

Quote of the Night: “Not only does He love us but He’s good. And not only is He good, but He loves us.”-Steve Kluck

Guys Night

Sean O'Harte — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:24:57 +0000

I watched the restoration of an amazing group of men take place tonight.

As the night began, I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen. I’d been praying for the night, but this was one of those nights where my Father really wasn’t telling me what He had planned. We came down to the room and I felt great, but I looked around the room and something just didn’t seem right. I asked how everyone was doing.

“Horrible… all day”

I was really thankful for such vulnerability and honesty and also very surprised. You see, the guy I was talking to is a pretty amazing man of God. He’s one of those guys who really likes to talk to people, to connect with them, and to pray for them. He’s also one of those guys who really loves the Presence of God. He’s kind of addicted to Jesus. I talked with him for a bit to try and understand what was going on, and then we prayed!

As we prayed, it was easy for the other guys in the room to jump to prayer for this man. They prayed with thankfulness and with genuine love for their friend. We had a good time. That’s when The Holy Spirit jumped in to stir things up a little bit…

As we were praying, I saw a picture in my mind of thousands and thousands of young people gathered together in a valley at the base of the mountains, just south of Boulder. These young people were all alive with love and joy. Suddenly, a huge cloud began rolling across the sky. Sitting on the cloud was Jesus in His glory, angels with Him. As these young people saw Him coming, they began to shout for joy. They erupted! Arms in the air, singing, jumping, shouting, they were overjoyed to see Him coming! They had been waiting!

I shared this vision with the guys and the man of God who had been so downcast earlier was the first to begin praising God and thanking God. He began to thank God for the prayer and the worship that was preparing a generation to be ready for the coming of Jesus. He prayed for believers across Colorado to unite together for a huge turning of the people back to God. He prayed that in the middle of darkness and turmoil a light would shine in Boulder and that God would receive the worship He deserves from His people. He prayed a lot! It was amazing!

We continued praying and thanking God for what He was doing to bring people together. Another man volunteered to “sit in the hot seat” and receive prayer for himself. The room quickly erupted in more prayer and thanksgiving as we thanked God for the incredible things that He was doing in this second man. What followed was an incredible time of prayer as the guys of the Boulder House of Prayer united in prayer over one another. It was difficult not to experience the Presence of God!

As we left, I thanked God for what He was doing. When we walked into that room it didn’t really feel all that great, but God didn’t leave us there. He came into this room we’ve dedicated to Him, and He made Himself known to His sons. He is faithful, He cares, He never leaves us alone!