The Upper Room Experience
So, how do I begin to describe what I experienced the night of April 15th going into the 16th? Let me just start with saying that God is good…. So for a brief background, I met these three young men in the span of the last 4 months that pretty much invaded my life (and there are others of course) and I know that they were placed in my life by God and His perfect leadership. These three young men names are John, Lucas, and Brad. They are truly brothers in the faith.
Well, I’ll tell how we all came together. John is heading up an experiential night, where people are coming together to, bottom-line, encounter God and just be messed up by the essence of who He is. This night will be on April 29th and it’s called the Living Room. So anyways, in previous weeks John approached with me with the question if I could lead worship for the Living Room, and after hearing what it was all about, I would be foolish to not say yes. There was such a check in my spirit that I was supposed to participate in this night of worship and adoration. Well, anyways I previously met Brad at the Onething Conference in KC at the end of last year, who was friends with my friend Josh. Then I met Lucas who went to the same high school as mine, but he left after only being there for one semester. Well, because of God’s awesome leadership Lucas and I meet again at our first practice because he’s co-worship leading with me for the living room. So now that explains how I met these awesome brothers.
Now, like I’ve posted in my previous blog posts, I’m a part of UHOP while I’m in college and I have awesome brothers and sisters as well. Casi Black and Matt Baker are also a brother and sister that I run with as well! And that covers everyone for the night… maybe it wasn’t necessary to explain the connections, but these peeps are important to me. Lol
So it all started when I was rock-climbing with my friend Nicole (who’s another awesome sista!), and she mentioned the campus ministry that she goes to is having an open mic night at a place that’s literally 30 feet away from my dorm. So after rock-climbing I went back to the dorm to await the arrival of John, Lucas, and Brad because we were supposed to practice for the Living Room (which didn’t happen exactly… lol). So they finally get to UCF around 8 p.m. I met them in the parking lot next to my dorm and we decided that we were going to go to the open mic night that Chi Alpha was running, instead of other possibilities for the night. We walk in, and we all felt that something was going to shift in the atmosphere that night. Well, Lucas and I signed up twice to go on for the night, because they had 6 minute slots for a "performance," and Casi and I signed up for another slot. After Lucas and I did “I Want to Know You,” I technically had to run out of the building afterwards because the Holy Spirit was gripping me in a very strong way, which I was then followed by John who felt the same way. So I returned to go inside to see Brad end up rapping with a friend we met named “Scooby,” and they were both declaring some powerful things, and after a short break Lucas, Casi, and I continued to go back into worship and the night ended with some sweet worship. Throughout the whole night there was an increase of His tangible presence… I figured the night has just begun after we left the Coffee House. The people at Chi Alpha had beautiful hearts, and while I was there I felt strongly that God is going to do something new with that ministry.
So afterwards we decided to go to Wal-Mart to get some food and then cook it at Casi’s house, because as college students... you don't really have money (lol). When we arrived at Casi’s place it was around 12 a.m. We sat around the table while John was cooking the food, and we just talked about Jesus and what God was doing in our lives. As we’re all listening to one another tell each other our experiences about our journey with Jesus, the presence of God increases even more… It starts. So now we are all laying out and just being goofy, joyful and being in such unity in the midst of loving and exalting Jesus! Then Lucas starts feeling the fire (we were all feeling something), but then I remembered the night before, I said we were going to pray for him, so we prayed for him. Before we prayed for him, he was wanting to get the guitar, and I knew if he got it would be "dangerous," so we asked Casi if it was okay for us to make the "dangerous" decision of Lucas getting the guitar ( we knew we were not going to end anytime soon if he busted it out), she agreed to continue because she loved what was happening. Well, while we were praying for Lucas (while trying not to laugh for obvious reasons) something began to shift in the whole room.
Holy Spirit gave me a vision of water flowing up a stair-well and I asked what it meant (by this time, John and Lucas went to go get the guitar), and Holy Spirit gave me insight that the water was actually living water, and that the stairwell was the stairwell outside of Casi’s place (since she lives on the 2nd floor) and that His waters were going to fill the room from the lowest places. A Holy Spirit invasion was coming. So I heard Lucas and John walking up the stairs and I felt that some others walked in with them, but I looked and it was just them… So worship begins… Everyone picked a spot in the living room and we postured ourselves to receive as Lucas lead us into worship…. We were 20 minutes into worship and then something began to change in the room as Lucas started to sing Abba by Jonathan David Helser.
Lying on my back, I was getting ready to sing a song that went right along with what Lucas was singing, but then Holy Spirit interrupted me. He said, “Tell them that I’m singing my love song over them.” Honestly, I was like what? I was so ready to sing this song but He said again, “Ask them if they can hear my melody I’m singing over them? Still hesitant, I started to softly sing what I was told to sing, and I gradually got louder… then I pretty much blew up! Lucas and I were just singing together and something was shifting in the room. As we were singing I saw a violent whirlwind blowing in the room and after that I started to hear sounds. At first I just dismissed it to be a weird chord that Lucas was playing, but it did not sound like a guitar sound… By this time Matt came over after receiving a text from Casi that said, “Holy Spirit is in the apartment.” Well, I began to strain my ears, but then the sound faded… so I just went back to just worshipping and the sound became louder. It sounded like bells or chimes.
After a few minutes of being baffled, I asked Holy Spirit what was that sound, and He said it’s the angels… yea… I was being messed up. Lucas keeps stopping, and then it finally occurred to me that everyone in the room was hearing it as well. There were literally angels in the room with us playing melodies! Lucas kept stopping and the sound didn’t stop… The sound was like a polyphonic sound that came from one stream, but then dispersed to several harmonizing pitches… just like bells… in space (lol). Lucas finally decided to stop and asked, " DOES ANYBODY HEAR THAT!?" Matt then yells, "There are angels playing with us!" God was doing something to us, we were all being messed up. After a while they stopped playing with us and we were in a time of just lingering in His presence. Lucas started singing that we were flying, and that we were being taking higher to a new place, and revelation just started hitting me left and right. It was literally like we were a in whirlwind of fire, and yet we were wading in the water, and we were being filled with the New Wine.
We stopped and talked about everything that happened afterwards, and the time was 3 a.m…. We talked and we figured we'll just go till early morning. Throughout the whole night, I was thinking that it was like an Upper Room experience. Well, we put some biscuits in the oven and then I picked up the guitar and started playing a few chords, and we went right back into a time of lingering in His presence. Brad felt led that we needed to thank Abba, so we all just started thanking and praising His name, then Lucas started declaring things what clearly were on the Father’s heart, and it was another wave that hit us… we didn’t stop till a little after 5 a.m... It was without a doubt that what happened that night was completely a Jehovah Sneaky. It was funny, because John and I were speaking the previous night on facebook chat that we were probably just going to worship and talk about Jesus all night… and it happened. Something happened that night that made us realize that we can’t go back. WE CAN ONLY GO FORWARD! He’s taking us up to new places. He’s calling a generation into a place of fascination and captivation in the Secret Place with Him. This is the companionship and unity he wants and desires! He desires a home, a dwelling with us. So what simply happened was that heaven touched earth... and He chose a little apartment in Orlando to do that.
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