10/08/2026
An Encountering Prayer in Mountain of Prayer
(A Reaction Paper)
Prayer Mountain Activity – August 8, 2026
Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain, Boso-Boso, Antipolo
On August 8, 2026, I had the privilege of joining a group activity with my classmates from Manila Bible Seminary at Touch of Glory Prayer Mountain in Boso-Boso, Antipolo.
At first, I thought of the activity simply as an opportunity to spend time in prayer and fellowship with my classmates. But as the day unfolded, I realized that God had prepared something much deeper for me. What I experienced was not merely an academic or spiritual activity required by our seminary. It became a personal encounter with God—an invitation to come closer to Him, to be honest before Him, and to allow Him to touch areas of my life that I have often kept hidden.
It was my first time to experience such an intense and personal time of prayer inside a prayer cell. Though in my youger age I experienced quiet time activities in Camp & Seminars and eventually keep the heart of it in my personal life, being alone in that quiet place created an atmosphere where I could speak to God without pretending and without worrying about how I appeared before others. The activity guide prepared by our professor, Bro. Rasty Sanoy, was profoundly practical and meaningful. So practical that the part where he imparted napping if anyone is in need of it was availed.
The activity did not simply thought and reminded me how to pray; it helped me understand and discern deeper what it means to commune with God.
Inside that prayer cell, a deeper sense of perceiving God not merely as someone I know about through Scripture and theology, but as Someone who is near and intimate with me grew more profoundly. I am now more persuaded that I could tell Him everything. I could bring before Him my needs, worries, aspirations, heartaches, failures, and sins. I could even speak to Him about the sins of others against me and the things I long for in my heart. There was a deeper sense of trust that God already knows everything about me and yet still invites me to come to Him.
That realization was deeply humbling and beautifully persuasive. Oftentimes, I tend to think that I need to have the right words before I approach God. Even rehearsing words before I come to His presence in prayer. But during this experience, I realized that God does not need a polished version of me. He wants the real me. He understands my fears, weaknesses, disappointments, struggles, and even the things I cannot easily explain. In that quiet moment, the spiritual lense on how I consider prayer became much more meaningful. My prayer became less about saying the right things and more about opening my whole heart to the God who already knows me completely.
Among the many things our professor shared with us that memorable Saturday morning, however, it was his lecture about forgiveness that affected me most deeply.
Bro. Rasty shared his personal story about his childhood experience. As he told his story, I could sense and emphatize and only conclude that it was not an easy journey. There had been pain, sorrow, hardship, and brokenness. Yet, despite all that he had experienced, he eventually came to a place where he was able to forgive.
His testimony struck something very personal within me.
I found myself seeing a reflection of my own heart in his story. I, too, have experienced being hurt by people. There are pains that I have carried for some time, and there are people whom I have struggled to forgive. I realized that although I can talk about forgiveness, understand its biblical meaning, and even encourage others to practice it, actually forgiving them who has deeply hurt me is an entirely different matter.
This realization was uncomfortable because it forced me to look honestly at myself.
How can I ask God to forgive me while I continue to hold tightly to the hurts caused by others? How can I preach about grace while allowing resentment to occupy a place in my heart? How can I teach people about the freedom found in forgiveness if I myself am still struggling to release those who have wounded me?
These questions stayed with me.
Whilst I realized that forgiveness is not simply an idea that I need to understand as a seminary student and moreso keep understanding as a pastor likewise, it is something that God is asking me to experience personally - not only as a mental ascent. It is not merely a topic for a sermon; it is a spiritual reality that must first take root in my own life.
As someone who duobted the calling and yet heartily midway chose pastoral ministry, this realization is especially important as the truth kept on reiterating the necessity.
I know that there were days that I stood before people and preach about God’s forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love. People came to me carrying wounds, disappointments, anger, and unforgiveness. They asked questions about how to forgive those who have caused them pain.
I knew in my heart that I am teaching and preaching forgiveness true in its principles yet absent in its truth and substance as I knew too that I must also allow God to work forgiveness into my own heart.
I am resolved that I do not want to become a pastor who only speaks about forgiveness from the pulpit but has never wrestled honestly with it in his own heart. I want my preaching to come not only from what I have learned but also from what God is continually doing in me.
There’s this deeper realization that I need to understand that forgiveness does not mean pretending that the pain never happened. It does not mean saying that what others did was acceptable. Rather, forgiveness means surrendering the pain, anger, and desire for revenge to God and trusting Him with the wounds that I cannot heal by myself. It is choosing to release what I have been holding onto and allowing God to become the Judge and healer of my heart.
And I know that I cannot accomplish this by my own strength.
That is why my prayer after this experience is simple: “Lord, give me a forgiving heart.”
I need God’s help because there are still people I struggle to forgive. There are wounds that still hurt and memories that are not easy to let go. But perhaps this is precisely why God allowed me to experience the Prayer Mountain in this season of my life. He brought me to a quiet place where I could stop, listen, and become honest with Him.
The Prayer Mountain reminded me that spiritual formation is not only about learning more about God. It is also about allowing God to transform who I am. Moreover, in early senior year that I am, I am persuaded that spiritual formation doesn’t end until the day we come face to face with our Maker. Spiritual formation happens everyday as He changes us from glory to glory day by day.
I went to the prayer cell carrying many things in my heart, but I left with a deeper awareness that God is near. He is not distant from my struggles. He is present in my brokenness, my failures, my aspirations, and even in the parts of my heart that I find difficult to surrender.
The experience also reminded me that if I wish to effectively minister to others, God must continue ministering to me. That if I wish to encourage others to forgive, I must allow Him to teach me how to forgive. If I wish to tell others that God’s grace is sufficient, I must learn to receive that grace for myself. Deep in my heart I knew that that grace is amply sufficient for me and is in the process of receiving it. My prayers is that I’ll keep on receiving. For where I am wesk
Looking back on August 8, 2026, I realize that the Prayer Mountain Activity was more than a requirement or a group activity with my classmates. It became a personal spiritual encounter. It gave me space to commune with God, to examine my heart, and to confront something I have been struggling with—my difficulty in forgiving those who have hurt me.
I may not be able to say that I have completely overcome this struggle. But I can say that I am now more willing to surrender it to God. I am learning that forgiveness is a journey, and I need God’s grace every step of the way.
My prayer is that as I continue my journey in pastoral ministry, God will not only harness my knowledge to preach His Word but also form a heart that lives out the Word I preach. May He remove bitterness, heal the wounds I still carry, and teach me to forgive as I have been forgiven.
Most of all, I pray that whenever I stand before God’s people as His herald, the message about forgiveness will not merely come from my studies or from the pages of Scripture. May it come from a heart that has personally experienced the transforming power of God’s forgiveness and has learned, through God’s grace, to extend that same forgiveness to others.
