“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” 

- John 1:14 MSG

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My journey into a lifestyle of prayer began when I was young. I can still remember our family’s nightly prayer. My siblings, parents, and I would sit on the couches in our living room, often around the heat of our wood stove, and say our prayers. So prioritizing prayer was something my parents instilled in my four siblings and I at a young age — even if our prayers were rotely memorized at that point. This foundation was later built upon in the dorms at the university I attended before coming to Excel. A few other men and I decided we would start a nightly prayer group. We prayed consistently and fervently in those dorms every night. At times it was just our core group of three or four and at times more than fifty men would show up. Sometimes it lasted twenty minutes and other times it lasted more than two hours. We set the stage for the Holy Spirit to move in those dorms, and he jumped on that opportunity. God moved through healings, prophetic words, exhortation, and much more. During this incredible time he used prayer as the vessel in our lives and I had never felt closer to him. 

I can remember leaving college with the flame of consistent prayer burning in my heart. Hungry to experience it again, I attempted to recreate it in my own strength with little success. Eventually, that flame turned into a coal that lay dormant for a few years. Until suddenly, a spark came while in Lima, Peru with a group of missionaries. We did 24 hours of prayer and it was powerful! After that, God began to open my eyes to the testimonies of communities that were or had been consistent in 24/7 prayer for years at a time. I was blown away and felt like I needed to experience this with a body of believers. I knew in my heart that God had been stirring this in me for a while. 

Fast forward about two years, and it happened. Again with a group of missionaries in Colombia, we started 24/7 prayer and ended up praying for a month straight, not missing a single hour! We saw miracles, healings, hearts restored, and so much more. God was so faithful to show up into the space we had made for communicating with him.

God taught me a few things during this process of learning to live a devoted and consistent life of prayer:

1. God is relationship. He is always wooing the hearts of his people to himself through this divine, eternal relationship that he is. His voice is calling all who will respond into a deeper, higher, longer, wider, and more abundant and fruitful life through relationship with himself. He packed his bags and moved in! 
2. Prayer is the way God chooses to communicate with his children. For most of my Christian walk, I simplified prayer down to a spiritual discipline — something I had to do because, “I’m a Christian.” So naturally the result of that mindset, as in any conversation, was a loss of choice and intimacy in my prayers with God. 
3. Prayer is an exchange. The root word for communing and communicating is the same. It means an exchange. God, the maker of all wants to exchange with us: words, gifts, life, love, relationship, and so much more. All we must do is open up space for him. 
4. Prayer is a lifestyle built in the closet and walked out in life. Revelation without transformation is lifeless information. In a life of prayer, you receive revelation in your heart and it flows out, like rivers of living water, to the world around you

Here at Excel, just as in the early church, we are devoted to teaching, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. This devotion extends into life and doesn’t stop at specific events held. We do have meetings every Tuesday and Thursday where we share a meal together, corporately sing, and give and receive teachings. This is an amazing space to develop this early church lifestyle. 

As God was leading me to be a part of Excel, the idea of 24/7 prayer was freshly reignited in me. I had a vision of a prayer room with chalkboard paint on every wall and the words, pictures, and visions of the Lord were written from top to bottom. When I shared it with Nick and Andrew, they welcomed it and believed God had been preparing Excel for this for years! The ease and excitement of God came with the startup.

At this point, we’ve been praying for over nine hundred hours and will continue with no end in sight. Our vision moving forward is to continue to make space for God to move into our neighborhood in increasing measure. We are increasingly becoming a community that looks like the New Jerusalem — the Kingdom and Garden or God. Twenty four-seven prayer is just one of the many ways we are ushering this in. Isaiah 62:6 says, 

“I have positioned watchmen upon your walls, Jerusalem; all day and all night they shall never be silent. You who profess Yahweh have no rest, and you must not give him rest until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a place of praise among the nations.”

As Excel increases, both in size and reach, so will 24/7 prayer. Our heart’s cry in prayer is, “We will be a people who listen to, obey, and partner with God to usher in his Kingdom as an earthly reality!” God put this on our hearts and gave us an invitation in. We offer that same invitation: “Would you come and see?” Join with us in a lifestyle of prayer!