10/14/2024
In a past season of ministry God prompted me to make an intentional return to disciplined early morning prayer. Back to my “first love” and “first ministry” He called it. I accepted His leadership and returned to that place of early morning prayer.
Some time passed, and I experienced a situation where my words were misunderstood and twisted. I was heartbroken: first because my loving intentions were misunderstood, and secondly because people may have been hurt by misunderstanding.
Almost immediately I discerned the enemy was involved, and this reality grew as I began to feel deep discouragement grip my heart. Within 48 hours I knew this could only be dealt with in the secret place.
I entered our prayer room around 10:30 prepared to stay the night. As I began to pray in the spirit, I gained a sudden release and peace filled my soul. Instead of taking hours to pray through, it took about 15 minutes.
As I sat there in God’s presence, He began to teach me something. When believers are just stumbling through life and warfare comes, they have to go into extended prayer and fasting and it seems their entire lives are disrupted by the simplest thing.
In contrast, when you dwell in the secret place of prayer and fellowship with God and the enemy attacks, you are already at a place of spiritual awareness and preparedness.
I saw in my spirit a swimmer in the ocean’s breakers. Instead of drowning in an attack, those who dwell in the secret place simply plant their feet and stand up. Prayer and fellowship with the Father is that foundation that cannot be shaken. It’s what we stand upon when the enemy brings discouragement and tries to take us out from fulfilling our Divine assignments.
Next I saw a young swimmer in the shallow end of a pool begin to flounder and kick wildly. They were panicking and gripped with terror at the thought of drowning in the water. A parent called out, “Stand up!”, and the child leaned forward and planted their feet securely on the floor of the pool, their head and shoulders safely above the water level.
I feel that there are those out there in this season who have gotten discouraged and many have even just given up. Some are so weary from the battles of the past seasons they are just floating on their backs at this point, alive but drifting with the current.
I want to encourage you this morning:
STAND UP!
Return to your first love child of God!
Plant your feet in the place of prayer and fellowship! I know it has felt like a long season of going nowhere, and hope deferred has made many of you heartsick. However…
Stay the course! What God promised He will also perform. I know you’ve grown weary. I know you’ve felt like giving up. I also know the long seasons of preparation time were not wasted time. God is not finished! Stay awake and pray! Watch and pray! Take your place on the wall watchmen! God is moving the pieces and this is not over!
-Greg
Jeremiah 12:5 (NKJV) “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And [if] in the land of peace, [In which] you trusted, [they wearied you,] Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
