God wants to build your faith muscle. He not only wants you to want what He wants, He wants you to go after it with all your heart. There is nothing more relevant to muscle-building faith than asking for the nations. Asking for the nations is part of the maturing process of prayer.  Read More

When God’s manifest presence came to Jonathan Edwards church in North Hampton, Massachusetts, in 1734, the move of God started with young people. Many revivals throughout history stirred among young adults. Today, the Holy Spirit is raising up many fearless champions among college and university students.  Read More

Do not sell your children short when it comes to their ability to know God and to encounter His manifest presence. More than simply raising good kids, we want to raise godly kids—champions who forcefully advance Christ’s Kingdom.  Read More

Control central in the entire universe is not in Washington, D.C. -- nor is it in the Oval Office nor on Capitol Hill. It is not the Ayatollah in Iran, nor the Kremlin in Russia, nor the Parliament in England, nor the European Union. The New Testament shows us that control central in the entire universe is the upper room in heaven from which God carries out His will through the upper room on earth.  Read More

On this day, March 10, in the year of our Lord 2001, Armin Gesswein died. Today we honor the one whom many people called, “the apostle of the modern prayer movement.” He was a mentor to so many, including Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ; Billy Graham; Henrietta Mears; Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel; and Ted Engstrom, former President of World Vision.  Read More

The intimidating thought, If I give the Holy Spirit control and welcome the manifest presence of Christ, it may split my church right down the middle, has made cowards out of too many good pastors and their people. Chill out! This intimidating thought is a bold faced lie. The opposite is true—when you welcome the manifest presence of Christ to your church, you will for the first time know deep, true honest unity in your church family as never before.  Read More

Your church may not be as small as you think it is. The key to determining the size of your church is this -- in whose hands is it? Is it in your hands, or have you truly put it in God’s hands?  Read More

Welcoming the fire of God’s manifest presence sounds intimidating—even threatening. Perhaps if the thought of God setting your church on fire does not strike a healthy degree of fear in your bones, you may not have a clue what is at stake.  Read More

It is common to envy others and wish we could consistently pray with other people. The best way to learn to pray, however, is to pray with people who are right where you are. There are people around you right now who are waiting for you to invite them into an entry-level prayer partnership. You don’t need to change locations to find praying people; you need to go deeper with the people right next to you.  Read More

If you want fire, you need to ask for it. God loves to come where He is invited. He loves to manifest the reality of His flaming presence when we ask Him. The prophet Elijah lowered the tip of his sword and drew a line in the sand as he defined a universal Kingdom principle -- a principle not only for the believers of his day, but for your church as well.  Read More

On the surface, church is what we do. It is the gathering together of Christ’s followers where we love God, love each other, and love our neighbors for Jesus’ sake. Churches come in various shapes and sizes, but regardless of what it looks like, our gathering is our effort to connect with God and with His people.  Read More

Imagine first time guests walking into your church on Sunday and saying with wide-eyed wonder, “God is really among you!” That is what happens when the manifestation gifts are properly used.  Read More

Psychologists tell us that it’s impossible to feel intimate with anyone with whom we feel guilt. When our inconsistent prayer life makes us feel guilty, we are defeated before we get started. If the very environment of meeting with God makes us feel guilty and thereby prevents intimacy with God, we are obviously in serious trouble.  Read More

The Holy Spirit is always telling the truth. Always. Jesus identified the devil as the liar, and the father of lies who always lies because lying is his native language. (See John 8:44)  Read More

A good Christology will save you from virtually every other heresy. Jesus warned us in the last days many will claim, “’I am the Christ.’ And they will deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). Christology is the issue.  Read More

Leanne Payne, in her book Listening Prayer, warns us, “We can all too easily substitute practicing the presence of the self rather than practicing the presence of God. We all too easily practice the self-deceiving art of self-projection, putting our words in God’s mouth, rather than the other way around. We become both the initiator and the responder, and we become self-deceived in the process.” Ouch. Well said and well received.  Read More

Today, God wants to give each of us clarity in recognizing His manifest presence. In His landmark book An Humble Attempt, Jonathan Edwards wrote perhaps the clearest defense of encountering God’s manifest presence ever written.  Read More

Don’t be afraid of making promises to God. Is it possible that we have become so addicted to failure that we are afraid to even establish godly goals and resolutions? It may be time to take a lesson from Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).  Read More

Ambrose Whaley was a retired blacksmith and a Methodist lay preacher. He was known in his community as a mighty intercessor. When Armin Gesswein met him at a red barn in the countryside, Armin introduced himself and said, “Uncle Am, I would love to pray with you.” At once the elderly man jumped to him feet, walked across the driveway to an old red barn, and climbed up a ladder into the hayloft where there were two big Bibles lying open. Both men got on their knees in front of an open Bible. Uncle Am was 73; Armin Gesswein was 24. Gesswein reports, “With an eagle-look in his eyes, he said to me, ‘If you want to learn to pray, young man, learn to plead the promises of God.’”  Read More

Pearl Lotte Good, the legendary personal intercessor of Billy Graham, was a personal friend of prayer-revivalist Armin Gesswein. When she first attended the Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles in 1949, she not only listened to Billy Graham preach, she went to the tent across the street to pray. Armin Gesswein was leading that prayer meeting. Armin was impressed by her conviction, her burden, and her spiritual muscle.  Read More

On this day, February 22, in the year of our Lord 1972, Mrs. Pearl Lotte Goode died. The last twenty-three years of her life, she had been the legendary level 1 personal intercessor for Billy Graham. She had travelled some 48,000 miles on Greyhound buses, attended twenty-eight Billy Graham Crusades, some of which lasted for weeks on end, staying in hotel rooms in the Crusade cities all at her own expense.  Read More

In 1858, the Washington National Intelligence, a leading newspaper, reported that daily prayer meetings were held in 150 towns in Massachusetts, 200 in New York, 60 in New Jersey, 64 in Pennsylvania, and 200 in Ohio. It is estimated that, of the United States population of thirty million, nearly two million were born again during this remarkable move of God’s Holy Spirit.  Read More

In December 1904, New York and New Jersey experienced a dramatic move of God’s Spirit. City newspapers published daily columns entitled “The Fires of Pentecost,” “Yesterday’s Conversions,” and “The Power of Prayer.” In Atlantic City, with a population at the time of 6,000 people, 5,950 were reportedly born again. One article reported, “Pentecost was literally repeated… spacious churches crowded to over-flowing, and great processions passing through the streets.”  Read More

When we encounter the manifest presence of Christ, it is only natural to long for His presence to fill our neighborhoods and our region—to want the water level of the Holy Spirit to rise around us.  Read More