TV and other items laid at the altar

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“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.”

“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?” The joy of the Lord was present in the room. As people came and repented their own sin, it released repentance throughout the room!”

“Last night we 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.”

“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!”

“We had a snow event here but still had a crowd of close to 400 people at the DE.  We 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.  Pastor 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.”

“The next evening 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!” 

“We had a second flat screen TV placed on the altar tonight with game console & guitars that were brought in tonight, along with more bags of defiling stuff.  We found a diamond ring on the altar.  It will all be destroyed & thrown away.  The pieces of paper on the altar are declarations of people's plans of repentance, to follow God with our whole hearts.  We will collect these & put them in a chest & bury them as our stake in the ground”  (ALTAR)

 “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.”

“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.”

“Tonight was awesome. It felt like we had turned a corner of sorts. I had a feeling of being “one” in the room tonight, like we were finally “getting it” as to what the Lord has been after. Not that we hadn’t before, but I guess we went to another level. Here’s the testimony of God’s movement: there was no plan in the beginning to do anything like ask people to remove stuff from their homes and bring it in. In fact, that very night there was still no plan to do that. But it was revealed to our hearts in the midst of it, and the Lord brought about a great response (The guy who brought in the flat screen TV wasn’t sure about his work situation, two days later his boss called him in and handed him the keys to the entire down-state area of the business!"

“Today a pastor who is not a part of the DE shared with us that he was led to fast and pray anyway for these 21 days and that the Lord told him to call his church to repent and go home and cleanse their homes of anything offensive to the Lord and bring it to the church. A young woman said last week that the bible study she belongs to, where no one is a part of the DE, came under conviction and the leader said he felt the Lord was telling them to go home and cleanse their homes/rooms of anything offensive to the Lord. Last night a youth minister who again is not connected to the DE at all reported that all of a sudden in his youth group there started a time of weeping and confession and guess what? They all fell under the conviction to go home and cleanse their homes/rooms of anything offensive to the Lord! And a couple who apologized to me for missing a couple of nights at the DE felt the Lord was asking them to go to IHOP and guess what the message was that night? Go home and clean out anything offensive to the Lord!  I think we really began to grasp the idea that we are here for God to have His way in the city, however He chooses to do that. “

“After these testimonies we moved into a time of the Holiness of the Lord. We started by just saying, then singing. “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” followed by extended silence that was heavy in the presence of the Lord. Some weeping, some calling out, moving to worship again and then out. It was holy ground. The word that followed was on the devotion for the day, the Fire of Repentance, and William followed with a challenge to walk in the Fear of the Lord, and to tremble at his Word. He challenged us to write out our declaration to do so and bring it forward. I really felt like the whole room “got it”, and I sat back in awe of all the people coming forth of all colors, shapes, and sizes to lay down their declaration of walking in the fear of the Lord and trembling at His word.”

Individual Repentance
~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 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.

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.”

~ 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.

~ 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.

~ One shepherd confessed a mistrust in the core of his being, and he wants his heart to break.

~ 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 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.

~ 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.

~ 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.

Launch Night	Joy of Repentance	Testimonies	Celebration Night