Nine of us from the Florida Keys attended the One Thing Regional conference in Orlando – an annual regional conference put together by the International House of Prayer (IHOP), Kansas City.  We were blessed with so much deep worship and teaching that we returned home just overflowing with excitement and with anticipation for an awakening of the body of Christ to more of God. We followed up our weekend in Orlando with a team dinner and team prayer to see the Florida Keys grow in the grace of prayer, worship, and unity under Jesus Christ.  We long to be and to see more passionate believers moving together in the peace, love and joy of the holy spirit, serving in their homes, work-places and school, sharing what Jesus is doing for each of us in our lives.

We experienced a lot of passionate worship and teaching on being passionate about the Love of Jesus.  So filled with His love, that we can stand any offense, any adversity and can respond in love.  1 John 4: 5 says that God is love and that as we live in God, our love grows more perfect, so that on that day when we see Him face to face, we can face him with confidence because we are like him here in this world.

Although we are one of the newest prayer houses in Florida (there are 50)  we see how God is already using us in many ways to change a generation. He is showing these young ones that seeking God with All of your heart, all of your mind and all of your soul brings a satisfaction that the world can never match.   

IHOP worship leaders from Kansas City amazed us with their all-out worship but most of all it was the deep moving of each of us personally to the Holy Spirit in cheers, tears and in freedom that made this experience so significant.  Here, Misty Edwards leads us in anthem of declaration of who Jesus is.

IHOP Director from Kansas City, Mike Bickle taught Saturday evening on the importance of paying attention to the times we are in now and knowing how they relate to end time prophecy in the bible.  Jesus himself stressed that His people would need to be strengthened to escape the snare of sin and fear and to stand in victory.  We hope to be a forerunner of many, as we follow obediently the call to “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy/have the strength to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Luke 21:36  We pray this for our body of Christ here in the Florida Keys.

How welcome we felt as we met up again with Pastor Carlos Sarmiento and his wife Emily, Founders and Directors of the Orlando House of Prayer, and worship leader for OHOP,  Matt Gilman.  Both Carlos and Matt were guest teachers of ours in May 2015 in the Keys, and it was a true blessing to hear Carlos share in power the Word on Saturday morning and to hear and worship with the amazing vocals of Matt Gilman Friday and Saturday.  On Sunday, we attended the Orlando House of Prayer Sunday Morning Service, and took part in their church.  We felt very welcomed and blessed to see how the multi-age and ethnic congregation were a large but very close “family”.  Seven interns who had studied under their internship program for the last 5 months were given recognition and prayer.  The “fruit” from this prayer house seems to be rather overflowing, and as we left we passed by the building plans for new spaces and renovations surely needed.  OHOP is positioned as the forerunner for Florida to encourage the growth of prayer houses and praying churches statewide.  WE are blessed to have had this opportunity to attend this conference and we look forward to many more opportunities to go and to host them here.