My Pray Life Journey （ Angela Hsu）
Prayer life changes just as life changes. Different chapters of life morphed my prayer life like a rollercoaster. The thrill of a rollercoaster with twist and turns and loop d loops – not the ups and downs analogy. When seasons of life that were less hectic, I had the privilege to spend time with prayers of meditations and daily conversation with the Heavenly Father.
Currently this season in life is quite full. With 3 kids, full time job, taxi driver, cook, and the list goes on, prayer life is different than before. It’s become sparse but not any less important. There are random times of days when I catch myself thinking, I should thank the Lord for blessing me the opportunity to drive my child somewhere. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed in this season of life, it is just a change and there is beauty
in that. Now with time limited, the focus of prayer life shifted from meditation to a teaching opportunity for my children to rely on the power of prayer. Knowing that prayer works in my personal life, I hope my children will be able to experience that. (After all, their life existence is an answered prayer!)
Prayer Experience （Darla Fain）
We as a small group of 7 people are gathering together every Saturday. We are learning how to pray, and we are practicing ACTS four steps of prayers.
We were praying for three families on Saturday before Christmas Sunday this year. One family is my coworker’s family. We were praying：Lord, please touch the heart on one of this family relatives that I know. We prayed for her so that she would come to Christmas Sunday service to listen to the Gospel message. On that day my heart was so happy and anticipated to looking forward that she would show up in the Sunday service, but she did not. I was so disappointed that God did not answer my prayers!
The 2nd family that I was praying for is my friend and her daughter. I hope that they would come to the Christmas worship, but in the same way that both of them did not show up, and my heart was sinking.
I was so disappointed that I wondered: Should I keep on praying for these two families anymore? However, after a deep thought: I believe that God is training my patience and my faith：I need to wait for God’s timing for these two families. God has His time table and His method to turn these two families to Him. O God, please help me keep on praying for them until the day they get saved！
PTL! God did answer our prayers for the 3rd family： the family came to the Christmas service, and even the son of this family brought his friend to the service. My heart was very encouraged by knowing that God did answer my prayers for this family!
May God help me not to give up praying for people to come to the Lord, for He is so good。
My Prayer Life （Jonathan Lai）
My mom and dad shaped my concept of prayer. I remember when my mom would sing prayers to herself when she was ill and bedridden. I remember seeing my dad pray before sunrise on most days. We prayed a lot as a family. It seemed to be a way for our parents to remind my sister and I that they couldn’t take care of us on their own. They needed help as parents, and we all needed help individually to get through life.
Now as an adult, I don’t have the same prayer habits as my parents. My prayers have changed from being about requests to being more about having peace and acceptance. Praying is my way of being present and aware of what’s happening around me. It’s an acknowledgement that God is sovereign, even if I do not understand it. It’s to remind me of what is true in my life regardless of how I feel at the moment.
Prayer Life Essay Chris Thomas
As a Christian, I believe in the importance of making time for God in prayer. At the Home of Christ we have a 24 hour prayer time each week. A brother or sister takes a 1 hour time slot, with the goal of having someone is in continuous prayer with God for 24 hours straight.
I chose the hour of 10am to 11am on Saturday morning. I chose this time because for me it is the best free hour of my week, the hour I would most like to keep for myself, so I give it to God. I wake up late Saturday, so I am well rested, and ready to start the day in prayer. For each person the idea of which hour is best may be different, and that is a good thing, because we want to have all 24 hours covered.
The idea of giving the very best you have to God is a biblical concept. In Leviticus chapter 22, God spoke to Moses, telling him that sacrifices that are defected are not acceptable to God. It is rebuked again in Malachi chapter 1. If we do not give God our best, do we really fear God? Proverbs 9:10 tells us “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If we do not fear God, we are not living wisely.
The prayer hour is a time to connect with God on a deeper level. It seems from my experience it takes about a hour to really begin to feel a connection. This connection is important, because as Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” This is not to say shorter prayer times are not also important. When I was growing up, our church hymnal included an old African American gospel song called “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.” The refrain of the song says “Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart I will pray.”
Prayer is one of the few things we do not need to worry about having too much of in our lives. This is just a glimpse into my prayer life. There is much that we can learn from each other!
How I live out my prayer life （Pastor Richard Ho）
It is essential for pastors and ministry workers to have a vibrant prayer life. We are up against the temptations of our own flesh and well as external temptations from the devil, who is like a prowling lion, seeking whomever he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). It is essential to guard our hearts for Christ, because it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). The way I do so is by engaging in daily Bible reading and prayer. I follow a plan for bible reading in which I read sequentially through the Bible. I tend to read in smaller chunks with the goal of meditating on a principle or truth of what I read in mind. Then, I would pray.
My prayer involves reading and writing in my prayer journal. Throughout the day, there would be things and events which compels me to be in prayer for. I would write those in the prayer journal, so that I can pray for those things in my quiet time. As I pray, I also listen to the Spirit’s guidance. Through this process, the Spirit also will reveal to me other things to be in prayer for. I would then also put those in my prayer journal, so that I can be in continuous prayer for those things.
The heart attitude which I have in prayer revolves around 3 heart attitudes: 1) Resting in the grace and the mercy of God, 2) Courageously taking steps of faith for God, and 3) Enjoying ministry for God. Oftentimes, we fall into sin, or become overly anxious because we have not trusted in the grace of God that is given to us in the gospel. Praying that we would rest in the grace and the mercy of God compels us to trust that Jesus has overcome the world, and therefore no difficult circumstances will overcome us (John 16:33). After praying in such a way, and through this prayer God does calmed my spirit to rested in Christ, I would then ask God regarding the next step of faith which he
is calling me to take in following Him (Matthew 4:19). This is where he reveals to me his direction for me for the day, for the week, or for the month. As I am becoming more certain of what He is calling me to do, I would then pray that I would serve Him in that way with worship and joy (Nehemiah 8:10).
This would be the pattern of my prayer life. I seek to pray in such a way consistently and regularly, so that I can arrive at spiritual stability and joyfulness for Christ in the work which he has called me to do.
My Personal Prayer Life （Ulysses）
Prayer has always been an important part of my life, but perhaps in a way that some of you may find unusual.
I do not like praying corporately. Cantonese is not my first language and I have trouble expressing myself. I also feel unnatural and pressured when praying with others, so I cannot find closeness with God in such circumstances. I much prefer praying on my own. Praying alone really works much for me. I am linguistically challenged and don’t really think in a language. I do most of my thinking in pictures and thoughts. When I pray verbally, I feel that I greatly water down my closeness with God.
My personal prayer life has evolved over a long time. I started off trying to pray verbally. Then I tried praying with a prayer list, but found that these detract me from really praying. I still keep my prayer list and update it, but now only refer to it occasionally.
Prayer starts with studying the bible, then reading from a spiritually edifying book. After that, I enter into prayer and meditation using the readings as a springboard. Meditating is sometime hard. I could get distracted and find it difficult to concentrate, and meditation disintegrates into daydreaming. However, on days that I can actually concentrate, and I truly experience God’s presence. I would think thoughts about Him, and he would show me parts of my life I need to work on, things I need to do, people I need to care for, etc. He puts these thoughts in my head.
Abnormal as it may sound, I truly feel that my thoughts are heard and I clearly experience God’s presence and guidance. Language or no language, God communicates with me. This is prayer for me.
My personal prayer life journey Elder Dean
In the most basic sense, prayer means talking to God. How do we talk to God? You may have heard of the ACTS formula, which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. It provides a basic template for believers to pray. We talk to God the Father in the name of Jesus the Son with the words inspired by the Holy Spirit.
When I unpack the idea of prayer, I discover depths in my soul that not many have access to. It is where I find the most earnest plea for God’s forgiveness for the sins I have committed, sins that I dare not forgive myself for. In those depths, prayer also elicits the most sincere anticipation of a desired future for the soul. By lifting up this anxious yearning to God, prayer creates a bridge from the profoundest part of finite creation to the infinite love of the Creator God. In the depths of the soul, I also bury questions I dare not ask another human being. However, in prayer, God has the access code to retrieve and interact with me on these rawest emotions and threads of ideas.
In recent months, I have discovered another way to pray, not through spoken words, but through written words. Whether it’s a two-dollar pen on an ordinary piece of paper or a new and fancy electronic one on a technologically crafted surface of a machine powered by complex components, I find that praying with written words allows me to slow down. It gives God and myself the time and space to explore and dream. It’s a sacred suspense where a mere sinful man receives undeserved attention and unimaginable grace from a God who lives and breathes all that is beautiful in this universe.
Forgive me for saying that praying is not always enjoyable. However, when a sinner’s heart connects with that of the Almighty, perhaps the infinitely loving story that began in Genesis 1:1 finds an expression in the fable of the being made in God’s image, a being made to love and be loved by the only One who knows how.
My Pray Life （ Eric Arnason）
My prayer life consists mostly as responses to promptings from the Holy Spirit. My life, from a young boy, has always recognized the need for spiritual piety and devotion. On the positive side, this has made me aware of the presence of God. I believe much of this came as a result of the way my parents raised me, both through teaching and by example. On the negative side (if you want to call it that), I have also experienced a keen awareness of the spirit world and have encountered much spiritual warfare along the way (similar to John Bunyan’s “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” and Jessie Penn-Lewis’ book “War on the Saints”). I have carried these with me throughout my life. I would not be who I am today without both personal piety and spiritual warfare.
At the same time, I still feel that I have much room to grow in the area of prayer. Here are currently things about which I converse with God:
Things that make me feel nervous, anxious, angry; when I don’t have control of an outcome or result; when I just want to praise God; when I want to express gratitude to God; intercession for individual members of my family, for friends; for personal spiritual goals; for power and perspective when tempted; for forgiveness when I sin; for wisdom, discernment, patience, assurance, for boldness; for the right words to say in any given situation; for prudence concerning the future; for political/governmental figureheads; for revival; against people who seem to stand in the way of God; and against things that frustrate me.
I believe that prayer is only as real as one’s awareness of the presence of God. I most accurately recognize the presence of God through His
Creation, through process, through providential circumstance, and through personal interaction.
Unfortunately, while my prayer life seems consistent (albeit not as present as I might wish), I often feel anxious about things. In fact, anxiety is something I wake up with daily – often times for reasons I am unaware.
Perhaps it is spiritual in nature, perhaps medical/physiological. I don’t know. But I do know some reasons behind my anxiety:
- That I’m not living up to my potential in life and in ministry
- That I’m not adequately stewarding God-given resources
- That family members will befall unexpected physical harm
- That family will walk away from God
In my mind, prayer is integrally-linked to stewardship of time, resources, and potential. God has given me many talents; but I need to pray for focus and wisdom to number my days and BEST steward the time God has given me. I have several different interests (e.g., learning languages, composing music, writing, strategizing, and building like-minded, long-lasting ministry partnerships), but only so much time. I really have a couple big passions that just won’t die: online ministry (counseling, evangelism, daily devotional), the next generation, church planting, and that my family would know, grow, and show Jesus through their choices, by habit, by lifestyle, and by legacy. My prayer is to be able to steward these passions by building bridges of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual growth and praxis.
HOW I MAINTAIN MY PRAYER LIFE （ Rev. Douglas R. Vavrosky D. Min; PhD）
Introduction
My life changed dramatically since I became a Christian. At the age of 21 years old, I entered the kingdom of God under an intense spiritual battle for my soul. The demons warned me that they would kill me if I believed in Jesus Christ. I decided to follow Jesus anyway and figured out that if they are trying this hard to keep me from entering the Kingdom of Light, then God must be greater and must have something for me. After I believed, the attacks and temptations magnified. But Satan’s attacks in my life taught me how to pray. I had been looking for my salvation all of my life and did not find it in the Catholic Church. When I accepted Christ, I did it as quick as I could because I knew that I would probably lose my life without first believing in the Savior, Jesus Christ, my Lord. Prayer is my lifeline to God and I cannot live one day without praying.
Spiritual warfare drove me to Christ and it also caused me to quickly enter into a prayer life that few new borne Babes in Christ have had to wage. One thing that I quickly learned is that I cannot just barge into God’s presence and present my list in my prayer book! Over the years, I have learned through other leaders that when we enter into the presence of the Lord, there is protocol to follow. Just as when we meet a king or queen in real life, there is a protocol to follow. In the OT, there was always a special way to approach the king. The same applies to God. We do not barge into His presence but we enter with thanksgiving, then praise (Ps. 100). Once we do that, we are ready to confess the sins that the Holy Spirit wants us to deal with. Once we are “clean”, then the Enemy has no case against us, accusing us before the throne of God. If he has a case against us, God won’t hear our prayers. This is why Peter tells the husbands not to have anything against their wives because it will
hinder their prayers. This is all part of developing the fear of the Lord, to be mindful to obey God in all things.
Whenever our family has gone through crises, we always immediately remember how He helped us before. This gives us tremendous faith to persevere in prayer. Jesus taught us how to persevere, and sometimes, we give up before the Lord has set things in order to give us our miracle or answer to prayer. Those who wait upon the Lord will have their strength renewed. Strength in this case means power, might, overcome weariness, ability, able etc. (Isa. 40:31)
I keep a prayer diary to pray for things. This diary has accompanied me on my journey through life. I can look back on all the answers to prayer. It is my record and also my petitions that I bring to the Lord. Further on, I describe how I use my prayer book.
Here is how I conduct my prayer life
- Come into the Presence with Thanksgiving
I like to enter His presence with thanksgiving because that is how we are to enter God’s presence according to Ps. 100 and enter His gates with praise. I think back to the events of the previous day, looking for how the Lord blessed me, helped me or came to my rescue. I don’t want to be like the 9 healed lepers who did not come back to thank the Lord! God loves it when we are thankful because it shows that we recognize His work in our lives and that we depend on Him. It is good to ask the Lord to prompt you and open your eyes to how He is working in your life. My wife likes to make a list of things to thank the Lord for the things she saw Him do the day before. She will write down five things where she saw the Lord bless or help her. A thankful heart leads to good mental health. Thankfulness shows gratitude and that you don’t take life for granted and don’t take for granted the things God does for us.
- Praise and Worship
Here it is good to take the names of God and worship Him. If you feel stuck or do not know how to let the praises for the Lord flow from you, just begin to use the Psalms. King David was anointed by God to worship, so using the Psalms is a great way to start. Eventually, your own praise will begin to flow naturally. There are many books written on the names of God, so that is also a good resource. You can also use Strong’s Concordance to see God’s names. When you come across a verse that praises the Lord, write it down so that you can use it.
For example, I Sam 2:2 says, “There is no one holy like the LORD. There is no one besides you! And there is no rock like our God.” You can expand on this verse in your praise to God. Use it as a template to begin your own praise to Him! I sometimes use my accordion to worship the Lord as well. King David used his harp. My wife worships the Lord by putting on a worship CD and sings along with it. King David even danced before the Lord and there are those in Christ who do this, but for me, I have never danced, so I have nothing to say on the subject!
- Confession
- I like to move into confession of sins at this point. I ask the Lord to show me where I am grieving the Holy Spirit.
- Sometimes our sins are hidden from us, we are so familiar with our sin that it no longer offends us or some sins that we think are OK, the Holy Spirit is not OK with it. It grieves Him. We live in a culture that has blurred the truth from the lies, so ask the Holy Spirit if there is any offensive way in your heart. He will love to show you.
- I am always mindful that the Holy Spirit resides in my temple and therefore He needs a “clean” place to stay in. Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19).
I am reminded of James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”Hebrew 10:19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” These are all good reminders of keeping our lives free from sin.
Billy Graham taught a great truth, before you go sleep at night, confess any sins that you committed during the day. Ask the Lord to show you where you erred. As my wife likes to teach, then your sleep will be sweet. She adds, when we do this, we wake up to a clean slate. Also, because the Lord’s mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23), we want to wake up refreshed in the Lord. This way, you do not accumulate days, weeks, months or even years of sin. Keep short accounts with God.
- Prayer for the Government, our family, friends and Church
We are urged to pray for our Government. I pray that God will give our leaders wisdom to rule righteously and be a blessing to us. Yes, this does not always happen, but nevertheless we must pray for them. The early Church also had evil leaders and still prayed for them. I have no clue how God is using my prayers for the Government leaders and will only know once I get to heaven.
My prayer book helps me remember all the people that I want to intercede for. As the Lord answers those prayers, I date the answer. This also contains all our prayer partners and all our supporters, some have walked with us for 42 years (that is how long we have been with OMF International).
I use that to add to my thanksgiving from time to time. It also helps to grow my faith and it brings glory to the Lord as I remember how He answered that prayer for them. In prayer, we never insist on our own way,
because anything outside of God’s will, could result in leanness of soul. This is why we pray, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Insisting on our own way in prayer will allow the Lord to grant that petition!
For those who are sick:
I pray Scripture over them. For example, I will pray Ps. 103:3 like this, “Father, please forgive their sins, whatever sins they have committed against you, others and themselves and heal their illness or disease in Jesus name. Lift all judgments off them too. Thank you, Lord that hear my prayer on their behalf. Raise them up again so that they may do your will and fulfill the work you have given them to do.”
I like to use The Lord’s Prayer to pray for them. For example, “Father, I ask that your name will be hallowed in my sons’ life and may your will be done in their life as your will is done in heaven.” I go through the entire prayer applying it to their life. You do not have to pray this every day, but I would be consistent in praying this if the son or daughter or someone else is in dire need of this prayer. If your family member or friend or church is walking consistently with the Lord, then pray as the Lord leads.
For my immediate family:
- Pray Scripture over their lives which also becomes a declaration of God’s Word over their lives.
- What do I want to see in their lives? Pray that into fruition if you are discerning that you are praying according to God’s will. Remember, anything that is written in the Word, any promise for us we may pray into that for them and for ourselves.
- If your son or daughter or anyone else is struggling to break through to God, I like to ask the Holy Spirit to separate the lies
from the truth and enable them to believe truth. The Spirit is Truth, so we are praying according to the Word. (See I John 4:6)
- We also like to pray blessings over our sons. Even when they were grown up, they would call their Mom to ask her to pray a blessing over them. They still call now that they are married with children to ask for prayer or blessings, either for themselves, wives or kids. We are never too old to receive a blessing from our parents. This is Biblical to bless our families.
- One of our sons has severe digestive issues that prevented him from even eating pizza. We began to thank God that he enjoys good health. We were practicing Heb. 11:1 and 6, by faith. A month later, he informed us that for the first time in 8 years, he enjoyed his first pizza again! We are now encouraged to keep on praying for his full healing this way.
- When our sons wanted to get married, we just simply thanked God for their godly wives who would come. They came! Since they were four years old, my wife began to fast and pray for them that they would stay close to God and never leave Him. She was alarmed at all the missionary kids and pastors’ kids who left God. At that time, she also began to pray for their future wives, that God would keep them safe from harm and that they would find God when they were young. God honored her fasting and praying.
- Our family has gone through many crises, but we stand firm, declare the truth of Scripture and remember what the Lord has already done for us. We always get through it.
- Praying for my own needs
Here I bring my own needs before the Lord. If I need more faith, I ask for it. If I discern that I need a greater anointing for my ministry, I ask for it. For example, the needs of the people in Taiwan when we first got there, were so great, that I would ask God regularly to give me a greater gift of evangelism. I would even ask senior missionaries to pray for me to get a greater gift of evangelism! God heard those earnest desires and I led many to the Lord.
Reflecting back on how I prayed for my own needs, it always was in relation to ministry. If I got sick, I would pray for myself or have someone pray for me, but the Lord kept me safe and I was rarely ill while I was on active duty for the Lord. The one time in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I got dengue fever and was out for 6 weeks and it took me 6 months to recover. That illness side-lined me from ministry because I was helping Operation Mobilization, The Doulos Ship that came to Taiwan for ministry. I was the main interpreter for those missionaries on board the ship. I was also the only one out of 260 people from the ship who got side-lined. I believe that was an attack from Satan. From this experience, I learned that I needed to pray for my safety while ministering.
How to be an effective prayer life and get answered? （ Albert Li）
Here is your answer: Psalm 37:4 states, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
To pray effectively and get answers, one must first delight in the Lord. Delighting in the Lord means finding joy and satisfaction in Him, seeking Him first, and making Him the center of our lives. When we delight in the Lord, our desires become aligned with His will, and we begin to pray according to His purposes. As we pray according to His will, we can have confidence that He hears us and will answer our prayers.
Therefore, to pray effectively and get answers, we must first delight in the Lord and seek His will in our lives. This is what our Lord Jesus had done when he prayed in the garden the night before he was crucified. He prayed for his impending death and suffering, but finally was willing to give up his own desire but to obey God according to His will.
Like the book Roman, we all should imitate what our Lord: Give up our own will but His, and obey and live according to His will. Amen!
Prayer Retreat for 3 hours （Oleg Runov）
On November 18, 2023, I drove to Genesee Mountain, Colorado. It is not too high (about 8,000 ft above sea level) and a short drive from my home (about 25 minutes). I knew this place from the last time I did a half-day prayer retreat which was part of the Ministry Formation class. It is a quiet and beautiful spot with pine trees and rock formations.
As I said, I have done this type of retreat before, but I forgot how great it is to have this type of time alone with God and how much I need it. So, I got to the place just before 10 am. I took a notebook and climbed a nearby small rock formation. I sat down on it and spent a few minutes in solitude, enjoying the view and clean mountain air. After some time, my attention was attracted by the dry grass patches around me. I found Psalm 103 and started reading a few verses starting with verse 15, where it says, “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone.”
The rest of the three hours were spent in a lectio divina manner. I started by copying the verses from the Bible to my notebook. I noticed when I do that it stimulates my thinking process. I pay better attention to individual words. For example, the psalmist talks about life in days, not in years or decades. I quickly calculated how many days I had left to live if I were to die at the age of 80. After that, I started thinking about how many productive days I have left. Next, I asked myself a question about what if I were to die much earlier. What if I had only one week left? Would I change anything in the way I live currently?
This was a great opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings out loud to the Father. I brought to His attention different items that I consider the “winds” in my current situation. Verse 17 brought me much peace. It says, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is for those who fear Him”. I looked at the phone and it was already 11:16 am. I made a note in my journal, “Time with You passes so quickly! This is why we need an eternity to be together”.
The more time was passing by the more peace was filling my heart. My mind gradually started switching from my worries to Him and His peace. Another thought that came to me was, “That is probably how it will be in the place where I am going! God, His love, perfect peace, and no place for tears, worries, or winds”. It started to be a bit chilly and I spent the rest of the time walking around the forest, contemplating a bit more on what I had read and pouring my heart to God.
I left the mountain at about 1:30 pm with a feeling of being very refreshed. I took a picture of my face at the beginning of the retreat and at the end. Even my face was reflecting His love and peace.
3 Hours Prayer Retreat Reflection （Taewoo Kang）
When I took my prayer retreat I had a lot of concerns on my mind. I had many concerns, particularly regarding matters with my church. I find that when I am swamped in worry, it never does me any good. I find that spending time with the Lord and giving Him time to work on my heart and calm nerves helps immensely. Therefore I decided to take my prayer retreat on this particular day.
Initially I went into the assignment hoping to sort out the answers to the concerns I had. I was really hoping for God to lay out some answers in front of me by the end of the prayer time. I think I spent the first 30 minutes just trying to stop worrying (although I was not looking at my phone, I just set a timer for 3 hours).
Finally after my anxiety began to fade, I felt quiet and peace in my heart. And slowly I began to feel a deep sense of intimacy, comfort, and adoration for God. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but I felt a very real sense of God’s greatness and how incomprehensible it is. His attributes are so grand that I can’t comprehend it. Yet I know it’s true, and knowing His greatness brought a great sense of peace and security. I usually don’t pray audibly, so in silence I praised God for who He is and enjoyed this immense feeling of peace, calm, and love.
I spent some time in confession as I realized the ways in which I didn’t trust God or began to walk astray from His path. And afterwards I found myself beginning casually discuss with God the things that have been on my mind. Except, unlike the beginning of my prayer retreat, I was calm and something about it felt different. I was basically praying about the same things, but I no longer worried; I no longer had a feeling of fear or despair. It was almost as if I was talking about things that already happened, because of how matter of fact I was praying about the same concerns I had just an hour or two ago. Perhaps after aligning my heart with God petition becomes truly petition and not merely complaining or worrying.
I then opened my prayer list on my phone and then prayed for the people
on my prayer list, and before I knew it 3 hours had passed. The hardest part of the prayer retreat for me was the beginning. Getting into the right ‘mind’ or ‘heart’ to pray. But once that happened, prayer was enjoyable and time flew by. I think taking regular prayer retreats is amazing and reaps great benefits.
I think its reproducibility amongst all disciples is possible. However, I think for most people they need to take baby steps. Receive teaching and training on prayer. Build habits on prayer. Then slowly take shorter prayer retreats and increase the time over time. I think doing 3 hours from the start will be overwhelming and a bit too dreadful. But as they slowly experience the joy of prayer, they will be more open to it and willing to put in the time.
Testimony of Wilson Young 12/30/23
Wilson Young was born in Hong Kong. He immigrated to California in 1975. During his senior year in high school and 2nd year in U.S., he accepted Christ in 1976 at Oakland Chinese Independent Baptist Church. Currently, he is actively serving in his church and board members of different Christian organizations.
Wilson subsequently formed 3 more companies. At the prime of real estate activities, the 4 companies handled a total volume of around $100 million in real estate in 2005.
In 2007 during the subprime crisis, Wilson and his family lost just about their entire wealth and had to sell their home under a short sale arrangement in 2008.
What happened between 2006 to 2010
2007-nightmare started when the term subprime crisis caused by Countrywide Bank showed up in news. And the subprime crisis “arrived” quietly like a thief at night
The price of the real estate had dropped drastically, and same as the value of around 100 propertiesthat we held at that time.
As a result of that, the loss at the 2nd half in 2007 in our company had totally wiped out the profits of the 1sthalf year (just like the 7 bad years had wiped out the 7 good years in Egypt as recorded in Joseph’s time). This is the 1st time that our companies lost money, since its inception.
As a result of the subprime, our company got 4 very serious problems in 2008.
- Since the landlord then was not willing to give us a break in rent, we had to move out from our office in February 2008 because we could no longer afford the rent of more than $10,000 a month.
With God’s grace, we moved into a warehouse/office in the same month and it had greatly reduced our rent. Of course, there was a consequence of moving out from our previous office in such a short time; our previous landlord subsequently sued our companies for around $1 million of unpaid rent because we still had a 5 more-year active lease in contract.
- During our quick expansion, we had borrowed from our private creditors to invest in real estate from 2002 to 2007. The total loan was around $4.5 million and the collateral we used to secure our creditors’ loan was worth more than 5.5 million dollars, before the subprime crisis, and we were comfortable about the loan amount.
Actually, we could have filed bankruptcy to “take care” of our debts/creditors because all loans were under the LLCs, not under our personal names.
We prayed about it and chose not to file bankruptcy because it would insult God’s name.
- Even though we had laid off some co-workers (we had never laid off any co-workers in our companies’ history and it was sad for us to do that in 2007) and moved to a warehouse-conversed-office to reduce our rent, there was an estimated deficit of more than $700,000.00 if we would choose to continue our operation in 2008 (we still need some co-workers in order to operate.) And we needed to stay in operation in order to sell all of the properties in hand, for the best possible price in order to protect our investors’ investment.
- Some investors that got used to good earning of their investment in our companies had turned around and gave me a very bad time. Remember we had 12 good years and they made good profits from 1995 to 2006. In addition, nobody could envision the subprime crisis before 2007, without even mentioned about the worldwide financial tsunami arrived in 2008. Thus, few investors were pointing their fingers at me because I was the major partner of my companies. Enough to cause me tremendous stress. Because of that, I was even hesitating to pick up the phone whenever it rang, in fear of those nasty phone calls.
At that time, I understand that I still had to face these investors, even though emotionally I was about to break down.
My wife helped me to reply to some very nasty investors. My children behaved so well at home and that helped me a lot.
So, problems of landlord suing us, negative cash flow, creditors to take care of, investors after us and a one partner betrayed us had led me into 3-week of almost no-sleep nights in 2008.
Personally, our family had suffered a lot too. We lost our lifetime saving, we need to sell our home under a short sale arrangement in 2008. The children had lost their college fund. Most importantly, I could not see how we can get our ends meet in my family.
As a result of that, I almost could not sleep for 3 weeks in early 2008 because of stress from this drastic change and all of the above major issues. Praise the Lord, God helped me by providing me with a good praying partner and that is, my wife, Imelda. During that 3 week of almost no sleep night, it was only when my wife held my hand and prayed with me, then I could go to sleep eventually.
After 3 weeks, I could stand on my own feet and go back to sleep again. Then I started to write a faith journal and make a very unique prayer composed of 3 requests:
It is not to win a lottery but urging my Lord to provide me:
- passion in my work.
- “Unlimited” Creativity in my work.
- Courage to face adversities, may them be severe.
Then miracles, one after another started happening since 2008
Abundant blessings from our Lord:
- By God’s grace, in August 2008, we were told that our previous vacant office was successfully rented out to a big company. Subsequently, our previous landlord was willing to settle with us, for 50% of the 6-month unpaid rent during the vacancy. We could see God’s finger in renting out the office in August 2008. Anybody remembered what happen in September 2008?
- In 2008, God had granted me some creativity (remember I asked for “unlimited” creativity from our Lord) to plead to our investors to support our companies with 4% of their investment amount in 2008, so that we could continue in operation and have a chance to sell the remaining properties (close to 100 of them) for the best price.
More than 80% of investors supported this proposal. At the end of 2008, when the situation improved, our companies took only 2.5%, instead of originally agreed 4% of the investment fund from our investors. Nevertheless, it had saved our companies in 2008 and allowed us to move on to 2009.
- This is the main key for our turnaround: By selling the properties in hand and cut losses in 2008, we were able to use the remaining proceeds to buy properties at a very good price in 2009 because of the changing policy of the banks.
As a result of the above bank’s policy change, we were able to buy and sell more than 200 properties in 2009 alone, and started our turnaround journey.
What have I learned during this crisis?
- God is in control. During the whole world financial tsunami, it is very difficult for me to plan anything, especially I am in business. Many people who work for big company might still lose a good portion of their pension and forced to work beyond my original retirement age.
- God do expect us to honor Him with our financial resource and many other resources.If we put God as our 1st priority, God will take care of us. Had we chosen to find excuse not to contribute my share, in money and time and service during my bad time, I am not sure if God would allow such a quick recovery.
This turnaround is much faster than I originally planned (a big turnover basically from 2009 to 2010, a short 2 year.) Imelda and I originally dare not to think about buying a house or our new home again until many years later. Yet, God had surprise us by granting us a new home in 2010.
- Imelda and I pray that, our testimony and our experiencing with God can strengthen your relationship with Him.
Prayer Retreat (William Davis)
Introduction
Prayer is a divine connection with God through Jesus, where Christians communicate with Him about their prospects, beliefs, fears, faiths, and commitments in life. Christians use prayer to ask for help, surrender to His will, thank Him, or worship Him. It is an essential tool of devotion.
God answers to prayers. Therefore, prayer is very important to a Christian since God meets His children at their point of needs. It is only through prayer that Christians turn to God, develop stronger relationship with Him, receive amicable solutions to their challenges, and gain power and grace to lead a Godly life in all spheres of their life. A life without prayers is lifeless and unfruitful.
Prayer is not supposed to be conducted simply as a customary routine, but in a manner that the presence of the Lord is felt and honored. Thus, Christians have evolved different forms of prayers and locations of prayer in their quest to ensure that prayers are conducted in an ambiance that befits the presence of the God.
One form of prayer power point that is increasingly gaining popularity around the world is miracle retreats. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of prayer through retreats from a Christian perspective. The paper therefore discusses the definition of retreats, the importance of prayer retreats in Christianity, the attitude of a Christian during prayer retreats, and the conclusion.
Christian retreats
Christian retreats are aimed at fostering positive relationships among Christians and between Christians and Jesus through social interactions, worship, sharing, and enjoying Christian life in a favorable setting. A retreat is a time set aside for a definite activity away from people’s daily activities and surroundings.
Prayer retreats go beyond these to concentrate on spending time with God to be renewed in His will. The purpose of prayer retreats is to dwell in the divine presence of God and create an enclave where Christians can meet their Master in exceptional ways. During this period, Christians remain spiritually engaged through Bible study, special meetings, fellowship, prayers, communion, worship, among other activities.
Prayer retreats are geared towards addressing and solving some of the most fundamental questions relating to Christian faith, humanity, and life as a whole, for instance searching for purpose in life, expansion of Biblical knowledge, or grappling with a social evil. Such questions require the rare, undistracted, and serene environment that a prayer retreat affords. During prayer retreats, Christians get transformed so that they can go back and transform their families, neighborhoods, cities, countries, and the entire world.
The only requirement of a prayer retreat is that participants set enough time to be alone with God in an environment that is peaceful and less pre-emptive in order to seek the face of the Lord, hear from Him, worship Him, and wait to receive new revelations from Him. Therefore, prayer retreat can be held in any setting, as long it is personal, private, quieter, with no interruptions and distractions. Examples of such settings include houses, churches, mountains, forests, and beaches. The success of retreats depends on the attitude of the participants and the Holy Spirit’s direction.
Why Christians need retreats
Christians need prayer retreats because they accord them the opportunity to spend special moments with Him in His presence, in seclusion from the world that is full of people, chores, noises, and hustles of life. The purpose of God creating man was that people could spend time with Him and manifest His righteousness in the whole earth, through enjoyment of life that is supported by material, spiritual, and social value.
To this end, God uses retreats to communicate and reveal Himself to Christians, help them to transform, enhance their prayer lives, commission, or minister to them in other special ways. In volition to the above, Christian retreats inspired the interventions of God in Christianity, as illustrated in the Bible. Instances include when God signed a covenant with Noah to never again destroy flesh through the floods and Jesus’ 40-days fasting retreat in the wilderness.
Prayer retreats rejuvenate and recharge Christians. People expect to receive
from God, through prayers, personal devotion, Bible study, worship, and other formal and informal interventions. However, at times, such expectations might be frustrated, leading to strain on prayer life. The effectiveness of prayers requires a Christian to be thoroughly charged both physically and spiritually.
They therefore need a special time free from world preoccupations to confront God and seek His face, refresh their spirit, shed off life’s burdens, renew their vision, and rekindle their prayer lives to meet the Lord afresh and powerfully. Retreats inspire them to devote themselves intently to prayers, just as Jesus did.
Prayer retreats restore Christians to their places of calling, especially when they are at the brink of giving up and reneging away from their faith. They enable them to gain insights about themselves, God’s plans for their lives, purpose of life on earth, factors and behaviors that hinder realization of purpose, and the possible solutions of such factors.
Christians at times get tempted to detour from their divine paths by the seemingly attractive material things of the world that end up devalue their spirituality.
This is because Christians are surrounded by a world that is wicked, full of perversions, and flagitious in conducting its affairs. It is therefore very important for Christians to attend retreats to implore for rescue and protection from fleshly desires of sin and wickedness of the world.
Prayer retreats are forums of declaration of personal or collective issues, for instance bondage, barrenness, sickness, and curses.
Since humans have been given free will by God, they can sin, and as a result be victims of injustice, wickedness, illnesses that are rooted in sin, curses, or bondages. The latter can be inherited or earned through individual sins or association with sinful societies or families. However, God has the power to break such bonds and effectively subdue demons that are behind such retrogressive forces that destroy Christian’s lives.
Christians need to attend retreats to hear instructions from the Lord about various issues that affect them on personal, family, church, social, and occupational spheres. Absence of retreating to hear from God misdirects the thoughts of Christians on both social and personal level, thus leading to frustrations, insecurities, and inability to succeed in their aspirations.
Prayer retreats are avenues of receiving spiritual guidance to realize
personal or collective visions or obtain answers from God. They give the Lord an individual ample time to interact with Him personally, ask Him questions, and get clarity on the Bible, situations faced, doctrinal issues, or walkthrough the valley of doubts and fears that assail Christians. Such concerns cannot be adequately addressed in normal church meetings.
Christians who should retreat
Retreats are Christian meetings that target Christians who are able to seek the face of the Lord, wait on Him, hear from Him, and communicate to Him discernibly. Such meetings require spiritual and emotional preparedness, the ability to bear with solitude nature of retreats, and the ability to keep Privacy of what is disclosed from the retreats. They are strongly discouraged for Christians who have weak prayer lives.
Christians with weak prayer lives are likely to be soaked in the worldly values, discourses and biases, thus finding it difficult to come to the calm,private atmosphere that is characterized in retreats. It is probable that they can easily be distracted out of the retreat by core world issues that are attractive and immediate. However, such Christians can still attend retreats with the aim of building their prayer lives.
Prayer retreats are not only meant for emotionally and spiritually distressed Christians, but for all Christians in order to meet the Lord in person, transact individual matters, and advance deeper into His divine grace. However, seriously distressed or troubled Christians and those who are transitioning into new offices, family circumstances, job situations, moving to new houses, or churches would find prayer retreats of more crucial in reinforcing their hope, energy, faith, and self-motivation.
Attitudes, beliefs, and expectant of Christians in retreats Christian dynamism Since Christianity is not a mere religion, but a way of life guided by the Holy Spirit, retreats, which are a forum of effecting or seeking out a divine plan and objectives, should be accompanied by Christians with certain attitudes and behaviors. Participating Christians should be ready to effectively and efficiently utilize their time in retreats, and creating the most ideal environment for both the Holy Spirit’s presence and engaging Him.
Giftedness Christians should believe that each retreat is a unique appointment with the Lord that requires them to bring in themselves positively for a successful and impactful meeting to be established. Through the anointing that comes through obedience, prayer, and belief in the Lord Jesus, Christian are spiritually gifted.
They should be willing to offer their spiritual gifts and other resources that God has given them richly for the success of the retreat. It is therefore the desire of every Attendee to offer something for profitable utilization of the available time and resources. In addition, they should acknowledge diverse spiritual gifts given to other Christians, and respect and provide) a forum for them to grow and serve the Lord in their diversity.
Attitudes and Anchors Christians should anchor their prayer retreats on the following premises that identify who they really are in Christ, namely son-ship, identity, intimacy, and authority. Christians, through prayer, are co-heirs of salvation that is jovial and full of zeal and pleasure.
They are more than conquerors since they have power over heartbreaks, sickness, witches, demons, curses, betrayers, and poverty. They have authority to tread over all forces of evil. Due to their sinful nature, they are expected to transact every area of their lives in a submissible, but joyful act of repentance. This gives them hope to be in the extramundane, eternal kingdom of God.
A Christian’s authority is not only authenticated by his behavior, but by the reality of demonic forces that Christians overwhelm through the Holy Spirit and faith in Jesus Christ. Retreats should therefore be marked with spirits of victory, joy, abundance of grace, dominion, and hope that are provided in the Kingdom of God.
Relevance of prayer retreats Christians in retreats should be ready to completely and unreservedly submit to the providential will of the Lord, awaiting to be convicted, sanctified, broken, encouraged, or built up. In retreats, it is the Lord who provides, and as an act of faith, it is up to the Christians to eat from the table of the Lord without difficulties, restraint or superficial amity.
They should be willing, submissive, and greedy to wait for the Lord and be satisfied in His presence. They should come to the retreats without personal attachments, statutory presumptions, religious orders, and the wisdoms of the world in order to obtain what the He desires to give them.
Prayers
Christians should approach prayers before, during, and after retreats differently from other forms of praying. They should uproot every negative inner attitudes, habits, arrogant behaviors, and desecrations, and consciously take authority on the Name of Jesus and the Bible to sanctify and invoke the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the prayers to be compliant to the will of God. During Retreats, Christians should not take retreats lightly.
They should make the most out of retreats, since they meet Jesus in person and directly glorify Him. They should avoid formalities, a cloud of humanly assumed concealments, pretenses, carried forward issues that hinder free movement of the Holy Spirit and their ability to hear from Jesus. Prayers should aim at seeking the Lord, drawing Him closer, with absolute inclination towards God, and anticipation of a divine answer.
The Holy Spiriting Out God moves Christians to offer personal or collective deliverance prayers or make special offerings in the course of a prayer retreat. At times, He speaks directly to them on matters that require commitments, dedication, repentance, or reconciliatory actions. They should be willing to hear and act accordingly to obtain their blessings.
Importance of prayers in retreats
Miracles and retreats of Prayer According to Martin Luther, retreats are the backbones of Christian faith that strengthen, empower, and nurture beliefs of Christians in Jesus. Experience demonstrates and theological frameworks affirm that powerful encounters with the Lord through His anointing and presence are very critical in the life of any Christian who is eager to remain resilient to His call and precepts.
Powerful encounters require appropriateness and unconventionality of the place and the meeting itself. Such meetings cannot be inspired in human logic and prudence, but in God’s power and anointing. As a result, people obtain healing, break through barriers that block the advancement of God’s kingdom or individual aspects of life, emerge victorious in life’s atrociousness and bondages, gain discomfiture among spiritual dominions,
gain authority over demonic forces that bother their spirit, or mend broken Christian relationships.
God specializes in breaking, transforming, imparting, calling, delivering, and wiping away tears of His children when they meet with Him physically, but in a wider realm spiritually. Prayers that are inspired and implemented in retreats serve humanity by reaching beyond the sick, the hungry, or the prisoners, but to the underlining causes of sufferings and sins that keep humanity away from its creator.
Retreats and life-changing The above by themselves are not ordinary as they touch on the eternal wellbeing of workers and believers alike. Christian retreats also transfer Christians from darkness to the light of Jesus and from the power of satan to the will of God. Retreats are the only ways of facilitating Christians to encounter Jesus in inspired miracles that His presence always affords for the betterment of their faith, jobs, ministries, and communities.
Retreats broaden the personal and collective horizon of Christians to appreciate the egalitarian nature of God’s kingdom that has spaces and places for all, and spiritual ranking and identification that is not by the nature of birth or merits of physical caste, but on Jesus as the only ladder of relationship with God.
In the retreats, the Holy Spirit is able to provide spiritual inventory to Christians and gift them according to their roles in His kingdom. Prayer retreats and prayers in retreats inspire ordinary Christians to encounter extra-ordinary miracles of God and imparts them with His power and anointing.
Any era of the church history that needs to remain devoted in its divine mission and vision must embrace the core dynamism of prayer retreats and the spiritual encounters that Christians get when they retreat, so that believers do not render themselves ineffective and irrelevant in their pursuits.
Prayer actions Retreat prayers that form collective voices of seeking the Lord are very effective in dealing with corporate challenges, beyond human comprehension, control, or manipulation.
The Lord translated His covenantal love with believers through prayers in retreats because He honors retreats with the functionalities of the ardent,
unending compassion that draws Christians to Him. Christians that earnestly and humbly seek Him and wait on Him in retreats are truly rewarded by supernatural revelations, experiences, and positive changes in their lives that greatly transform their beings in ways that inspire them to rededicate their lives and support the extension of His kingdom.
Conclusion
Christian retreats are aimed at fostering positive relationships among Christians and between Christians and Jesus through social interactions, worship, sharing, and enjoying Christian life in a favorable setting. A prayer retreat is a gathering of Christians who come together away from their daily routines to seek for the Lord, hear from Him and wait to receive new revelations from Him.
God uses retreats to instill righteousness in His children, fuse people with Christ, restore Christians blessings and gifts, strengthen them to face their challenges and expand the territory of the kingdom through eternal methodologies. They are characterized by sanctified conversations of flow of the Holy Spirit and Prophetical actions. Christians in retreats should come with unique attitudes, gifts, approaches to prayers and expectations.