As people who enjoy serving Christ, it is always beneficial to make sure what juices us the most is not what we do for God, but what He does through us. When the 72 disciples returned from their short term mission trip (see Luke 10:1-20), they returned with exuberant joy, because for the first time in their lives, they were able to take authority over evil spirits.  Read More

On this day, September 23, in the year of our Lord 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier knelt in prayer all by himself in the upper lecture room of Old North Dutch Reform Church in New York City, New York. He had rigorously distributed handfuls of invitations to this noon time one-hour business person’s prayer meeting. For the first thirty minutes, he prayed alone. A lesser man would have quit. Then someone joined him, and then another.   Read More

On this day, September 22, in the year of our Lord 1967, Raymond Edman, beloved President of Wheaton College stood before the student body to give what would be his last chapel address and his final moment on earth. Dr. Edman was preaching about being in the presence of the King. While bringing his message, he collapsed and fell to the floor. Soon after, he was pronounced dead. But he was very much alive in the presence of Christ.  Read More

Tomorrow is the birthday of the College of Prayer International. On September 22, in the year of our Lord, 1997, the College of Prayer was born. 120 students gathered at Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Georgia for four days of encountering the manifest presence of Christ. Fred Hartley, President, Bruce Bliss, Dean, Don Young and Paul Radford formed the first Servant Leadership Team of the College of Prayer  Read More

What makes the ground on which you stand holy is not your feet, nor socks, nor shoes; what makes the ground holy is the manifest presence of God. When God manifests His presence, He immediately changes the everyday common into the extraordinary holy. To become holy is not as much a process as an orientation toward His presence.  Read More

On this day, September 19, in the year of our Lord 1906, the Holy Spirit of God swept through an orphanage in Khamgaon, India. God’s presence was so strong that the children stood for an extended time of silence, hands lifted up prayerfully to the Lord. This was followed by overwhelming conviction, children swooning, confessing, shouting, praising and groaning in delightful encounter with God. The noise was so loud it was heard a block away, and yet there was no confusion. It was called a “wave of divine harmony.” Two weeks later  Read More

When you pray, no matter what else you ask for, you always want to ask for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the activator of the manifest presence of Christ. There are many things, in fact, we ask for in prayer that we are not even sure God wants us to have. One thing we can be sure of is that He wants you to have the fullness of His Holy Spirit. Similarly, there are some things we can too much of; not so with the Holy Spirit.  Read More

The size of your prayer life is largely determined by your hunger for God. You know God, but the big question is how much more do you want to know God? Since God is unlimited and He wants to make Himself known to you, the only limit to how much of God you have is how much you hunger to have.  Read More

All prayer is moving toward the ultimate vortex of the manifest presence of Christ—we want to know Christ better and better and better. The Apostle Paul hit the bull’s eye when he explained to one of his favorite local churches, the church in the city of Ephesus, why he kept praying for them so passionately. It was really quite simple—he wanted them to know Christ better.  Read More

Imagine hearing God’s voice today Whenever the Bible says today it is always good to pay special attention. God may be talking to you. If so, He wants your undivided attention.  Read More

This is a most encouraging Bible verse that tells us two vital truths -- one about God and one about us. About God, we learn that He is always talking. About us, it tells us, by the grace of God, that we are able to hear His voice.  Read More

You may only have one heart, but that one heart has who-knows-how-many eyes! The Apostle Paul prayed, for “the eyes of your hearts.” This indicates that there are many eyes inside our hearts.  Read More

This daily Christ-encountering, fire-starter is not intended to replace your daily Bible reading and prayer time, but rather to motivate you to spend extended time in His presence.  Read More

For every receptor you have in your physical body, God can activate a parallel receptor in your spirit. Just as you have physical sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch so that you can know, appreciate and experience the physical universe, you also have spiritual sight, hearing, taste, and touch so that you can experience similar realities in the spiritual realm.   Read More

When you first encounter the manifest presence of Christ, it can be overwhelming. It can even make you feel awkward—almost out of place. For this reason, the writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts you to come boldly into His manifest presence, or to come with confidence. You don’t need to feel awkward. Whatever you do—don’t fake it or try to be someone you’re not.  Read More

We don’t need more prayer meetings; we need more receiving meetings. Asking is what we do in prayer; receiving is what God makes possible. Since what God does in prayer is more important than what we do, receiving is where we want to put our focus when we come before God.  Read More

The entire Lord’s prayer pattern involves receiving. We receive the Father’s love, the revelation of His Name, His kingdom, food and forgiveness, forgiveness to give others, and victory over sin and satan. Then, before we finish our time of Christ-encountering prayer, we give it all back to Him! Everything we have received from Him in Christ-encountering prayer, we now give back to Him—Yours is the kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory.  Read More

Every day you get out of bed, you face two enemies—sin and satan. Toward the culmination of our Lord’s carefully crafted prayer pattern, He strategically places a prayer that deals with both the enemy on the inside (sin), and the enemy on the outside (satan). Lead us not into temptation—sin, the enemy within. But deliver us from the evil one- satan, the enemy without. We often stumble when we think we can defeat these enemies without God’s help.  Read More

The greatest power on earth is the power of forgiveness. Nothing makes you Christ-like faster than forgiveness. Nothing opens the floodgates into the manifest presence of Christ faster than the choice to forgive others. Is there anyone you have not yet forgiven?   Read More

As a child of the Father, it is your privilege to come to your Daddy each day and receive everything you need to meet your two daily needs—food and forgiveness. Like a good father, God loves to bring in the groceries—Give us today our daily bread—and to take out the garbage—forgive us our debts. Food and forgiveness represent the two basic needs of your humanity—your physical needs (food) and your spiritual needs (forgiveness).  Read More

As mind-boggling as it sounds, Christ has assigned to you the responsibility of advancing His kingdom by prayer. In His strategically crafted prayer pattern, once He leads you to encounter the Father’s ferocious love—Our Father in heaven—and to declare the supremacy of His Name—Hallowed be Your Name, then He gives you the nobility as His redeemed children to declare the advancing of His kingdom—Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!  Read More

Declaring the supremacy of Christ’s name in prayer clears the atmosphere from the distracting noise of everyday life and from the static of demonic interference. Christ sculpted His life-giving, God-encountering apostolic prayer pattern strategically. Once He leads us to the headwaters of the Father’s love—Our Father in heaven, He immediately calls us to declare the supremacy of His Name—Hallowed by Your Name!  Read More

All true prayer rises out of a fresh encounter with the love of God in Jesus Christ; everything else is little more than hollow religious talk. For this reason, when Jesus crafted His prayer pattern, He starts with the four key words, Our Father in heaven.   Read More

Your local church exists for one primary purpose—to hold out the flame of Christ’s manifest presence. This is the single mark that distinguishes the church from every other organization on earth.  Read More