My assignment is to stir the embers, can we make a fire again in hearts that may have grown weary and cold?

In 2012 I wrote in my “prayer journal” I don’t have a private prayer life... and it was my 4th prayer journal. I began to realize that I prayed - but I was not a man of prayer... like I surf but I am not a surfer.

Before you learn the wrestling of outward powers - we must be trained in the wrestle of private prayer. To be trained and discipled by POWER himself.

How do we grow in prayer? Or become a man/woman of prayer | WRESTLE.

Jacob was caught in an all-night prayer meeting. Which resulted in a name change, a physical change, and things shifted from God being the God of Abraham and Isaac to now the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Generational transfer. After this night of prayer, Jacob’s destiny changed, the once deceiver manipulator, deliberate wrong-doer wrestles through great fear, stress, wounds, and anxieties. prayer is the place where God wrestles out of you the impurities of your heart, where he tenderizes the resistance, difficult, and defiant tendencies in us. We grow in prayer when we engage in the wrestling matches of being ALONE with God. HAVE YOU BEEN ALONE WITH GOD? It is in the wrestling where we see God's heart and conviction conceived, where men and women are shaped into the mighty warriors of tomorrow. Prayer purifies you, exposes you, and challenges you, prayer is the place of refinement.

EMBRACE THE WRESTLE. In 2014 I began the wrestling journey, learning and knowing God. The pursuit of face-to-face encounters, through the place of prayer. In that pursuit of godliness, you’ll be confronted with your own Godlessness. Or in the pursuit of purity, you find your impurities. When we moved to Texas, we moved to become part of mercy culture church. I had been on staff at a church before which ended abruptly, 100% what I need. But I had little intention or hope of ever serving in a staff role again. I told the lord, if Moses was 80, why can’t I be 80 before I gotta do this ministry thing again? And then I did something real generous and said, “ok if not 80, I'll do it at 40” and I didn’t hear back from God right away... so we come to Texas, Vanessa is going to do ministry and I am going to do business.

But I slowly and consistently was confronted with some issues. And they were issues in my own heart and mind. I would say things like “preaching” “I hate ministry” “i think pastoring is unnecessary” “I'll never do student ministries” and “I’m not a leader worth following”. And the list really can go on. But these become wrestling matches, where I fight till I get a breakthrough. “I hate ministry” turns into an encounter where the lord reveals to me, I am dishonoring the Bride, He gave His life for. Resisting student ministries until the lord reveals that if we don’t steward this generation the move of ‘God we were experiencing would skip over this generation. Like the generation after Joshua, it says “they did not know the Lord.” But their parents saw the hand of God and entered the promised land - but their kids missed it! and over and over and over again God would poke at these issues in my heart and mind… most of the time it was triggered through someone saying something, and an opportunity being presented to me - and I just get thrown in for a loop. And what I learned is that God was in the wrestle, and wrestling softened my heart.

What is 1 key I’ve been taught in prayer? | PRAY UNTIL

A major key the lord has taught me is this, “pray until” Too often we quit too soon in prayer, or we pray half-hearted prayers because we are impatient and not willing to wait, not willing to surrender, not willing. But warriors pray till heaven moves, pray till cloudiness clears up, pray till heaviness lifts, pray till shame breaks off, freedom breaks through... pray through dumb mindsets until truth sticks, the till wounds are healed. Of if you're like me you pray till your stinkin' hard heart becomes soft, tender, and moldable in the hand of God. Warriors wrestle in private prayer until surrender, until boredom transforms into passion. God told you to come here - sell your business, start a new one… and things got hard, now you want to quit? GO pray until you surrender to catch god's heart again... and don’t stop till you get it... Obedience and life can get hard and challenging - the road of obedience is NARROW... and “it's easy in presence” doesn’t seem to be working for you… pray until hard things become easy. Get in his presence and STAY in his presence, until YOU are no longer carrying the heavy things of this life, and just the weight of presence and Glory.

We must learn to take every trigger, and wound, every soap box, warning sign, into the place of prayer. And hold on to Jesus until we get Gods heart. Not holding on to the wound, the desires of our heart, our issues, but holding on the ONE we are wrestling and until HE gives his blessing and breakthrough.

Every challenge we face must be dowsed, saturated, and brought through the refining fire of His word and Spirit. And this is the place of private prayer, where God makes His warrior... you get irked, or irritated, take it to prayer.

That fire is to burn up the crookedness in the ways we think, our unrighteous paradigms. It is a symbol of his presence and his judgment.

And then let Jesus disciple you, reveal truth, healing. Surrender yourself to the SPIRIT.

One of the greatest things I’ve learned – is surrender in prayer. PRAYER THRIVES IN ATMOSPHERES OF ABANDONMENT... when you abandon your will, your desires, your pains, your secrets, your promotions, all self-interest… self-abandonment is becoming a living sacrifice Romans 12 talks about – our true and spiritual worship. It is in surrender where the mighty hand of the lord touches and ignites the flame. It’s a heart, will, and life laid down on an altar that the fire of God consumes.

Where the fire is, prayer lives! PRAYER LIVES IN THE FIRE – thrives in the fire. Prayer is incense, and incense without fire is just cute little smelly rocks, prayer without fire is just words, but when ignited through abandonment and surrender, or let me say it different, when you stop resisting God. “I don’t want to be here” “God doesn’t answer” “I'll never do student ministries again” “I hate ministry” – these are the fire-resistant thoughts that keep you from burning for HIM. but when you stop resisting the heart and hand of God and you are ignited in the revelation that unlocks through surrender – the aroma of prayer touches heaven. For prayer ascends on the flames of a burning abandoned heart.

Your prayer life NEEDS FIRE… and fire brings refinement, so be ready to be purified of immaturities. WARNING: When you pray for the fire of God, be ready see your ugly self-nature surface.

- BUT REJOICE to thank God these ugly thoughts/behaviors/ and beliefs are surfacing to be traded and exchanged for his mind and heart.

- Without fire | without abandonment surrender... you pray without praying… and lukewarm atmospheres shut the door to the private prayer... pride and selfishness will turn on the cold water leading us to neglect the power of prayer.

- Prayer is so vital the apostles GAVE themselves to it. The apostles were given to prayer. Jesus was given to prayer. If the perfect son was shaped by, guided by prayer, led by prayer, caught in all night prayer, often in prayer, long hours alone in prayer, how much more do imperfect people need to pray?

- Prayer Is the pathway for God's plans, desires, redemption, salvation, power, restoration, reformation, revival... God is in prayer, show me a man or woman who knows God, and I'll show you a man or woman who prays. Those who know God – know prayer.

- What happens when we neglect prayer?

- The light gets dim, (The spirit is the lamp of the lord (Prov 20:27), flesh thrives, we stay full of ourselves, dark and dim, “our will” leads us not His, we become self-sufficient, self-sustained, self-satisfied... what happens when you neglect prayer?

- I am a product of prayer. Let me show you, my dad and his 6 younger siblings would get dropped off at a little church in Minneapolis Minnesota in the '60s– his parents were abusive, alcoholic, and emotionally absent parents, my dad was raised in a dysfunctional marriage and parenting. But there was a praying grandma at this church who would always tell my dad she was praying for his salvation. My dad the angry kid who caused trouble punched his dad out at 14, literally would beat his siblings, and got kicked out of 3 high schools. But this lady prayed... and my dad was radically saved around 18/19 and became the first-generation Christian in his family. Goes to a bible college and meets my mom who got saved through a Billy Graham crusade. Becomes a pastor – and has three children, who all love the lord, all are in full-time ministry… I’m here today loving Jesus because a woman prayed for a punk kid's salvation… now I also had praying parents, I remember my mom's prayers and intense fervent heartfelt petitions for her son. I am a product of prayer.

What happens if that lady neglects prayer if my parents neglect prayer… am I still here today? I don’t know.

Many translations include the word “often”, “he would OFTEN withdraw... to pray” Other scriptures say Jesus would slip away to pray “as was his custom”.

- The desolate place of Prayer lead to the power of God manifested in your life.

- Where you wrestle out your flesh and sinful nature in exchange for the Fathers Will and Desires.

- The desolate place was a place without distractions.

- Where you are alone with God, Like Jacob was, he sent all his distractions ahead of him and was alone. I have found when you remove external distractions you’ll be confronted with internal ones. And here again becomes the “wrestle of prayer.”

When I saw “desolate place” I saw the Waco tent. Waco has been in a desolate place - removed from the normal comforts and pace of life. And I hear the Lord say Waco has been in a desolate place to pray. There is/has been a mandate on this group of people to pray. And it was like you were “tarrying” as Jesus says in...

- The word Tarry is translated from a Greek word… meaning to SIT DOWN... to wait, to remain.

You have gone to a desolate place to tarry UNTIL you would be clothed with Dunamis (power).

- ALL this wrestling, all this praying, becoming warriors for WHAT?

- Jesus would often go to be alone with God, we see this verse sandwiched in between the healing of a leper and the healing of a paralytic.

- The power of God is connected to your private place of Prayer... (this is why they say no man is greater than his prayer life) where you wrestle and gain intimacy and authority while ALONE with GOD... to then walk in the Dunamis of God, for the healing of his people and the establishment of HIS Kingdom... You go into prayer with the kingdom - and abandon your will - You’ll come out with His Power and will.

- I believe, Waco, the power of the Lord to heal is coming on this body.

- And what the lord wants to do today, is bring healing... physical, emotional, mental, spiritual healing. Ministry wounds / hindrances from intimacy with God. The power of God is given to heal.

- We become warriors when we learn to war the way Jesus does - in the private place of prayer.

- Our greatest labor is in God's work, to wrestle until we become like him, pray until we see, and we must not neglect the power of private prayer.

- Healing
- Emotional wounds
- I see dead things coming to life... pursuit of God has been dead... prayer has been dead.
- Prophecy "You will carry more."

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