As one walks into the Amarillo House of Prayer, they will see what seems to be a typical quaint church building. Aside from the rows of pews and stained-glass windows, however, there is something much more – something that keeps many prayer house visitors going back for more.
It was in the spring of 2006 that the Pray Amarillo House of Prayer was officially conceived. The current president and founder, Ritchie Sexton, was attending the International House of Prayer in Kansas City at the time, where he said he found an atmosphere of complete intimacy with Jesus Christ. While he was there was when he said that the Lord spoke to him in relation to the prayer ministry in Amarillo.
“Specifically, the Lord told me to unite the church of Amarillo in prayer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Sexton said. “The reality is that there are so many distractions that pry us away from the superior pleasures that can be found only in Jesus. [The Amarillo House of Prayer] was going to be a place that Amarillo could find a place of refuge [and] cry out to God on behalf of our city.”
Sexton said that he immediately came home and began the Amarillo House of Prayer website, the same website that they have today. Then in the fall of 2007, they got their current building, which had previously belonged to the High Plains Children’s Home and before that, was Trinity Fellowship’s first building.
“The Lord provided the building,” Sexton said. “The vision was clear, the Lord wanted to make it a 24 hour house of prayer. The need for church unity in prayer could never be greater. I believe we are at a crisis in the nation [and] Amarillo can’t just bury its head in the sand.”
The Amarillo House of Prayer has a main sanctuary that features live streaming from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City and is a place where people can come and freely pray. The prayer house also has a hallway full of various rooms including a pro-life room and an Israel room, dedicated to those specific things. Sexton said that he see’s America at a crossroads with many things like the economy, abortion, gay rights, divorce, pornography, drug addiction and much more. He said that he continually prays for a great revelation in America and encourages other Amarillo churches to do the same, though it may take much labor and time.
“He’s waiting for us to ask,” Sexton said. “To whatever degree we are willing to contend, I believe that He will give back. When we do our part, He’ll do his part.”
Sexton is a father of three and said that his life is consumed primarily with family and God. He said that he enjoys spending time with his children and working out at the gym. Sexton describes the time when he gave up his drug addictions and dedicated his life to Jesus in a hotel room when he was 23 years old.
“I came from a Christian home,” Sexton said. “I started smoking pot at [age] 11 all the way up to methamphetamines. I was radically released from addiction [that night].”
Sexton said that he would say to anyone that has not attended the Amarillo House of Prayer that he cries out to them to know Jesus on real and personal level.
“There is a burning inside the heart of God to [be with his people],” Sexton said. “He did not come down on the cross to save us from our sins but to save us from our sins and to have a [relationship] with us. I would encourage people to find the place of intimacy with Christ because it’s the only place that true life lies. Not just to say, ‘Oh I know Jesus,’ but to experience God at the deepest level of their heart.”
