Launch Night

Almost 900 people gathered Sunday night for the launch of the Divine Experiment in Peoria which represents almost 100% of the Divine Experiment participants in the city! The church was packed even before the service began and overflow seating had to be added. There was a heavy presence of God in the room and a sense of great anticipation and rejoicing among the people! People came filled with expectation, clapping and shouting even before service began! It was funny, the worship team was trying to do their sound check and the people were already trying to worship!

Before meeting, as the pastors and leaders were praying they began repenting and feeling broken before God, they sensed they were stewarding something that was holy and approached the evening service with a fear of the Lord, because they could feel what was about to happen.

As the people were welcomed to the evening the place erupted in amazing applause! The people also felt and recognized how significant it was for the corporate body of Christ to be together to seek God’s face! From the first moment on, any reference to body of Christ would result in people erupting in exuberant applause and worship, people would stand up at any mention of the body of Christ and clap and shout in thanks and worship! It was an atmosphere charged with expectation and abandonment!

Several leaders shared their hearts transparently, that they were done with programs and their own efforts to bring God in to the city. As they shared they ushered people toward desire of more of God. All the participating pastors and leaders then stood in front of the people and linked arms. The congregations then blessed and honored them for their leadership. You could sense a commitment in the room toward the leaders “where you lead we will follow”. It was a powerful impartation of blessing the pastors of the city.

As all 800 + people came forward to receiving their prayer guides and sign a commitment for the 21 days it was like a family reunion! People from every generation and color and denomination were hugging and greeting each other with joy and expectation. Nobody left early…

Testimony

My husband gave his life to Jesus, 2 nights ago!!!!  The night BEFORE the launch of the Divine Experiment. Our family and friends have prayed for him for about 29 years. Even longer if you count grandparents! We are rejoicing and it was a huge sweet kiss from the Lord at the start of the DE! My heart is overflowing with the love and goodness of the Lord right now!!!
A thankful wife

DAY 1

400 people packed in the church tonight for our first corporate prayer time focused on humility! We had to move into the sanctuary to accommodate everybody praise the God!

A spirit of repentance gripped the hearts of people as we focused our attention on rooting our pride and seeking God’s humility. Early in the meeting a  man came forward and confessed a critical spirit toward church leaders with an attitude of “I can do it better”.  He shared that he started a small group by drawing people to himself through his personality and gifts.  He repented and asked forgiveness. Pastor William, who was holding the microphone, began to confess and repent that he had drawn people with the gift that God had given him, and had tried to grow his ministry by drawing people to himself.  Eventually we had pastors in the front confessing and repenting of the same thing, and then I asked the congregation if they would forgive us as shepherds for using them and drawing them to ourselves rather than to Jesus.  There were a number of spontaneous prayers from the audience, releasing us and praying for us!  It was wonderful! -Pastor Mike

Tonight in our first prayer gathering a spirit of repentance gripped the hearts of people as we focused our attention on rooting our pride and seeking God’s humility…

~After Isaiah 6 was read, and a construction worker got up and repented for being a man of unclean lips. A shard of hot metal fell on his lower lip this morning, and he instantly thought of that verse. He repented of being a man of unclean lips!

~ A young man repented of seeking the Lord so that he could feel that he was better than others and that he was more valuable than them.

~ A man repented that his heart is hard because he is scared that God is not true. He admitted that he was not beyond God's help. He confessed pride, self-pity, arrogance, and the sickness of sin in him.

~ A man confessed of his critical spirit that he has had towards churches and ministries, recognizing that he could not do better on his own. He blessed what the Lord was doing

~ A leader confessed of her dependence and focus on her outward appearance. The Lord asked her if she spent as much time preparing her heart for Him as she did doing her hair, and she responded “No.” Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

~ A brother asked for Jesus blood to be poured out, as he has used his intellect and cultural status to elevate himself and even made fun of others and brought them down.

~ A man confessed that he was a sinner, and he treated the most amazing wife poorly. He asked the way of the Lord would be prepared.

~ A sister confessed her disappointment with herself, and the comparative and critical spirit that she looks at life with. She is not dissatisfied, but she has been unwilling to give. She acts as an orphan, but she knows she is not left out and she is a part of the body of Christ. She asked for a new heart.

~ A brother confessed on relying too much on his own talents, even though they are God-given. He has tried to do the work of the Kingdom with his own mind and his own strength.

~ William confessed of wanting people to be impressed with his talents rather than Christ in him.

~ We are here to serve, and not be served. We (the leaders) are directing the city to follow Jesus, not to follow individual churches or leaders.

DAY 3

We as pastors are learning how to let Jesus lead His church! Tonight in our corporate prayer time Jesus lead us the whole night! There was worship, exaltation, deep and honest confession. We had times of praying with one another for corporate ownership of specific confessed sins, two times of silence before the Lord, and it all had a real flow to it: a “dance”!
We could feel the Lord's face was turned toward us, so we turned our face towards Him. Jesus' manifest presence was in the room. Our seeking His humility brought Him near.
We joyfully sang “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” then we spent time in silence seeking the face of the Lord. Everyone began to cry unto the Lord because He is worthy. We relinquished our own way and our thinking, because we want the mind of Christ and we want to look like Jesus.
The joy of the Lord was present in the room. As people came and repented their own sin, it released repentance throughout the room!
Pastor Tom opened the room up to be a prayer room, and people were released to pray at the front, at their pew, on the floor, walking back and forth, or wherever they felt led. The front was filled with saints on their knees, and across the room people were encountering the Living God.
We confessed aloud, “We need to voluntarily humble ourselves just as Jesus humbled Himself.”
Following much repentance we began to clap and shout unto the Lord, as His freedom swept into the place. It was asked, “What were we really afraid in this freedom?”

In the end we turned it all back to Jesus in thanksgiving and honest indebtedness to His amazing humility. We ended with the real feeling that Jesus was reclaiming His church, we were getting out of Egypt, and God had met with us! Consequently, even though we went an hour and 40 minutes, there was a real joyful family atmosphere and people lingered more than the other nights. I sensed a real anticipation for coming back together tomorrow night. Praise God!

Revelation:
~ When we sit in His presence, we don't need people to preach to us and we realize that we are nothing and can do nothing without God.
~ We must not cling to our own “rights” because Jesus gave up His rights of Deity to take on flesh.
~ We desire to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Lord, give us compassion and break our hearts.
~ We are here to meet with God, and He is here to meet with us.
~ God's love releases us from “our rights,” the fear of man, and condemnation.
~ Pastor Tom said he didn't trust the love of God completely, and he confessed his wrong view of God. He confessed that he was addicted to the favor of men, success, and himself.
~ God was breaking off the lack of trust that we had for our families. He is the Lord of our family. We released our family members into the hands of God.
~ A young man confessed of having the fear of man rather than the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
~ We have abused grace, and it has become sloppy and cheap, not the grace that cost Jesus His life.
~ We corporately laid down the pride of life. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
~ One sister confessed the fact that she felt she had the right to be offended. God is the only one that has the right to be offended because of our sin.
~ Pastor William repented of doing things for reputation like preaching, singing, and helping others. Jesus, help us be like you, and how you made yourself of no reputation.
~ A high school girl asked the Lord to help her from being affected by the trash that is within the world
~ Another brother felt the presence of God, and yet he also felt a religious spirit. He felt like there were hooks in his back, and the Lord broke them off by the end of the night. He felt the Lord was wanting to break off the religiosity. By the end of the night, the atmosphere is different.

Day 4

Last night continued the wilderness walk of confession, with a large part focused on the leaders of ministries going through the DE. Pastor William called the 18 leaders forward and one by one we prayed for God’s forgiveness for the lack of surrender, trust, and being what we preach and teach. The sharing was honest and vulnerable, so even in saying we haven’t “surrendered all”, we were, in a sense surrendering all by standing before our people and being vulnerable but still trusting God that if we do what He asked us to do, it will all be okay. The remainder of the night was being lead in prayer for lack of trust, and letting go of wounds caused by, or offense taken at, the leaders. A few people moved around to talk to pastors, some to ask forgiveness, others to give a word of encouragement. The closing song, “I surrender all”, really summed up the evening.
-Pastor Tom

Repentance/Revelation:

The unity of leadership has overflowed onto the body of Christ and it makes it different. You can feel God in the room. There is so much love in the room that all you want to do is hug people. Sometimes you can’t talk, you just look into someone’s eyes and your eyes fill with tears and all you can do is hug. Words just don’t work. Somehow you just know that it’s un-spoken forgiveness, acceptance and love that they are sending your way and all you can do is return that love, acceptance and forgiveness right back to them. It is awesome!

~ One shepherd confessed a mistrust in the core of his being, and he wants his heart to break for
~ One pastor repented that he had not surrendered his ministry, family, and finances to the Lord. He confessed that he talks about the goodness of God, and yet has seen God as a taskmaster. He confessed that he has become a workaholic, and believes the lie that the harder he works, the better things will get. He neglected his intimacy with Jesus, and he needs to enter God's rest.
~ One pastor repented up not practicing what he preached, and he wants to be able to surrender
~ There was repentance of using his personality rather than the power of the Spirit. He proclaimed that we don't bring people to God, only the Holy Spirit draws people to the Lord.
~ As they confessed their weaknesses, it was declared aloud for the Lord to “Order our steps.”
~ As the leaders set the tone with repenting, we stood and repented in many ways regarding being hurt by leaders. We stood and prayed if leaders had hurt, set aside, or looked over us. We confessed jealousy, envy, withholding resources and talents, holding grudges
~ One way we can tell if we are truly surrendered to Jesus is by our prayer life, and we consult Him and acknowledge in all our ways.
~ We repented of not having our prayer lives in the place where the Lord desires, and asked Him for the grace to surrender everything in prayer.
~ Many repented of not putting God's Word as paramount in our lives, and asked how we could make His Word like bread to us.
~ Many repented of not giving our finances to the Lord, and they confessed not giving their tithes.
~ One young man has not felt much these last few days, and the Lord has been showing him his own depravity, and it has been a tough journey of maturing.

DAY 5

We had a snow event here but still had a crowd of close to 400 people at the DE.  After worship, we watched the video "Anguish" by David Wilkerson and after entered into a time of calling out to God corporately for each one of us to experience Godly sorrow for our sin and what it cost God.  We had no music, worship, just crying out to God.  After extended times of silence, then more crying out, I realized I had nothing else from the Lord and had no leading what to do, so I just waited.  This was a real breaking experience for me, and for which I am thankful.  challenged the people asking where were the people with anguish in their hearts. More crying out, confession, repentance, the silence.  Tom came and felt impressed to challenge the church to clean their spiritual houses and their physical houses, and go home and clear out anything that is defiling and put it in a garbage bag and bring it back tonight.  I brought the challenge to the people and ended the service without any worship, but just with a word of prayer. 

Pastor Mike

DAY 6

People brought in garbage bags full of stuff and set it down at the front of the church, and right in the middle was a big flat screen TV that someone brought in. Wow! It was stirring just to see it sitting there. People repented of lots of stuff, good stuff, like ties to the past, movie addictions, music and the pride of knowing music other people don’t know, food addiction, someone mentioned pornography, and lots more…but the sense was that, looking at all the stuff in the front of the room represented the crud and crums we were feeding on when God had set a banquet before us of His beauty, majesty, and glory. It was really obvious what we were choosing over God. There was a feeling of unity beyond what we had felt previously, like we’re all in this together, and we all have pride, and we all want God!
Pastor Tom

Tonight was hard.  My emotions are raw.  I am so turned upside down that I don't know what to think except that I need more of God and way so much more less of me.
As I talk to others who are experiencing this with me we are pretty much in the same place,  fasting is hard, the T.V. has a voice when it is off. All that I know is that I'm discovering that I had more darkness in my heart than I ever knew and it is being exposed left and right and I am overwhelmed as is everyone I talk to. The amazing thing is every night when we come together we have no idea what is going to happen and we know that it will be hard and gut wrenching and still the people come.  Still they come and repent.  Still they come and lay down their past.
Marilyn

Testimonies
~ One prodigal that came back to the Lord recently had a welding shard go into his nose, and it started an incurable infection. The Lord brought healing to him, and the doctors are dumbfounded.

~ At The Garage the right before The Divine Experiment, there was a healing of a man's rash, a woman's back had the beginnings of the healing, a woman had numbness healed in her arm and leg, and $2010 was taken in an extravagant offering that helped meet needs within the group.

~ One leader shared how many miracles were happening before the Divine Experiment, he was afraid to "Stop what the Lord was doing." This deep work of confession and repentance is bearing much fruit

~ A heart of a father was turned towards his daughter after years of not  talking to her.

Prodigals Coming Home – Families Restored!

There was a  man who felt God asking him to give up his R&B collection, and he said no. Anything else, but not that. Meanwhile he has a daughter who, though raised in the church decided she didn’t believe in God anymore and went way astray from her faith in Jesus. When the man finally relented and brought his R&B collection to the DE, the next Sunday his daughter showed up in church and came forward to return her life to the Lord!

My step-dad had prayer and fixed dinner for some of my children and grandchildren.  For once, I felt like a family.  God has been working things out.  It’s not all together yet.  Praise be to God He’s starting.  Amen. – Janice L.

The Lord Healed Our Truck!

We were having problems with our truck.  We took it to a car shop and was told that what needed to be repaired would cost hundreds of dollars.  When the leaders of the Divine Experiment gave us the assignment to clean out our houses, my husband was obedient and took some videotapes from our house and laid them on the altar.  The next day, we took our truck back to the car shop.  Not only did the mechanic tell us that nothing was wrong with it.  But he also did not charge us the $75.00 fee for doing the diagnostic testing – Gwen S.
Aldisa has an awesome testimony of a man who felt God asking him to give up his R&B collection, and he said no. Anything else, but not that. Meanwhile he has a daughter who, though raised in the church decided she didn’t believe in God anymore and went way astray from her faith in Jesus. When the man finally relented and brought his R&B collection to the DE, the next Sunday his daughter showed up in church and came forward to return her life to the Lord!

DAY 11

The presence of God was so close that it felt as though you could reach out and touch Him.  I felt like I was going to come out of my skin.  I was anticipating the manifestation of His glory at any moment.  The sustained praise of the people was incredible.  Even when the musicians became quiet the people kept going and going and going.  A lady shared today that she felt like she couldn't move He was so close.

Wow, last night was awesome.  The praise would ebb and flow likes that of ocean waves. A chorus of heavenly voices joined ours and it felt like you were on a raft drifting out onto a sea of voices. 
I don’t know, maybe someone propped the outside doors open. But if not, I felt the Holy Spirit flow through the room. Along with the circulating air current that I felt there was the smell of something like sandalwood wafting along these streams of fresh air. It was blissful. I wanted to inhale as much as I could. I wanted to take it in and never let it go.

Most everyone had their eyes closed and was swaying together in unity. UNITY – that’s it. That is what was different. It wasn’t hundreds of people worshiping God in their own way. It was ONE BODY worshiping God together.

DAY 14

~ There was a man who was almost completely healed one night of chronic back pain, and he woke up the next morning completely healed.

~ There was a woman who had gold dust on her hand and Bible, and then the woman next to her had gold dust on her hands as well.

~ A brother was at Steak N' Shake where he led two people to the Lord, and they both got baptized the next morning at the evangelists church.

~ A husband and wife were at Culver's and they saw a woman with a downcast countenance. They couldn't stop thinking about her, so as soon as the husband said “Excuse me,” her countenance changed and they were able to pray and minister to her.

~ One sister had been crying out for a prodigal friend the other night. This sister and a friend were talking about the Lord and His mighty wonders at Panera for an hour, and the friend felt like the guy sitting by them had been listening in on their conversation. It was the prodigal that was on the one's heart, and they prayed for him again after he left.

~ One sister has been going through the Divine Experiment on her own, and the Lord has been doing a deep work. She was being renewed, and the Lord woke her up laughing in joy because of the Lord.

~ One sister passed 50 copies out to her family members as a Valentine's Day gift. 5 of those family members came to church this morning, and 4 of them got their hearts right before God.

~ One brother who had a gluten allergy felt the Lord touch him on Thursday night, and he ate half a pizza to confirm what the Lord had done.

~ There were two families that the children we returned to the parents in the last few days.

DAY 16

~ I have a daughter who is very resistant to hearing the Word and to prayer.  Today while I was reading the Word, she listened and was willing to have prayer.  I have spent more time during this day with God than ever and it was so wonderful.  – Janice L.

~I have been suffering a long time with pain.  In the past I did not trust God to heal me.  Instead, I relied on medicine.  Well, I stepped out on faith and stopped taking the pills on February 1.  And I am no longer in pain.  Today I’m believing in God’s healing. – Gwen S

~I was in my kitchen when I saw a man sitting at my table.  He followed my husband down stairs to the basement.  When I asked my husband who the man was, he wanted to know what man I was talking about.  He didn’t see the man.  My pastor later explained to me that the man I saw was an angel. – Annie G.

 ~In the past I have heard about demons and demon possession, but until I saw what happened on Saturday night with that young man, I had never seen it before.  I was able to see what the face of Satan looked like.  And then after the pastors took him out and laid hands on him, he came back a new creature.  I was so glad that we came together and helped him and did not turn him away. – Victoria J.

~ A child began writing during one meeting of the Divine Experiment, and then she went home and typed up what she had written. She wrote a sermon to her peers about what God has done in her own life through the D.E., and what it meant to really have anguish.

~ All of the children were brought forward, and we asked for their forgiveness for the wrong examples we have set. We then blessed them and asked for the Lord to work mightily in and through them.