 Well, it's so great to be with you all. I'm gonna kind of give a little bit more detailed introduction With regards to the talk about who I am and where I'm from as it says I I didn't have to come far for the conference I live about 55 minutes away in Pittsburgh. I'm the director of evangelization for a big Catholic parish there I'm also the young adult coordinator for the National Service Committee for the Catholic cares macronule and then I Do a lot of speaking and traveling and and not a lot of sleeping Okay, not a lot of sleeping unfortunately Just about my personal life. I've been married nine years in August. I have four children and one on the way. Okay Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're very excited my wife has the most horrible pregnancies she has this horrible condition called HG and she's like in and out of the hospital constantly because she's just constantly throwing up and and So we're praying for twins two for one pop right two for one pop there Okay, so want to want to keep extending it when I heard Ralph speak this morning All I could think was like I gotta have more kids, you know, we got we got to turn the tides here Right, we got to turn the tides here and make sure that we were raising up an army like that. So What we're talking about is is the inner room right? Going deeper in both our personal prayer and in prayer ministry and what is the link between those two things? And I just want to kind of point out a few things. First of all, I've been in parish ministry Full-time parish ministry. This will be my fifth year now and and in full-time parish ministry, right immediately You have a different demographic. Okay, I spent time speaking at things like this and doing parish missions and talks and youth ministry talks and things like that and That is a whole different group of people Okay, that that that you come in contact with than when you're doing parish ministry Right the kind of person who comes out to a parish mission on a Tuesday night when there's a football game on is Markedly different than the rest of our brothers and sisters who may not be in that place. Okay, and so right away. I was exposed to kind of a Different side of the church and even just the culture at large that I wasn't expecting and And I knew right away, you know that it's gonna be really important, right in the culture that we live in And in the culture that I'm working in and that we are all working in in this vineyard. We need to go deeper, right because Secularism is more deeply embedded in our culture Satan is getting deeper into our culture, right? And so we need to go deeper draw down so that we have the the means to respond to this and the second thing I noticed right away is that In I don't know if it's true for other places, but in America, right? I mean just every year that I'm working in ministry with people. They're coming more deeply wounded they're coming more deeply wounded, right and and We have a culture that lends itself to Small wounds never getting healed, right and just festering and growing and growing and growing and so I found myself kind of at a loss Right, how can I help these people? You know, just it's just not enough, right? It's awesome To pray with people at a conference like this Um, but it's nothing like praying with someone Who has never experienced anything like this, right? They come in a lot more wounded A lot a lot slower and kind of atrophying right compared to people who are energized And things like that So it's really important that as we move forward as a as a church that we learn how to go real deep in prayer and how to draw deeply From that well and and and then to apply that to our our prayer ministry. Okay, so I'm gonna what I'm gonna do is talk about personal prayer and tell you a little bit about my prayer life And then I'm gonna apply that to prayer ministry We're gonna talk about some practical tips both for personal prayer and prayer ministry And then we'll have a time for questions and answers if you want to try I'll do my best to answer them And there's some people in the audience who I might just say, hey, could you just answer this question for this? Because I I'm not it's not my thing so I always tell this story when I talk about prayer, okay that I kind of give my my testimony of prayer What has happened in my life? Okay, uh, I don't know if I mentioned this before I'm the youngest of 10 children Okay, so if my brothers and sisters were here, they tell you I'm the most spoiled person on the planet Okay, I don't think that's true, but there's nine of them to out you know out vote me. So I never win that argument but uh To be honest with you. I I lived a very I don't know you call it lucky blessed whatever you want I I didn't have a lot of problems. Okay, uh You know by the time I was growing up my my parents were pretty well off You know, I never really struggled with anything Wasn't anything bad in my life And I was always like kind of considered like a lucky person and people would even say that to me like oh, you're so lucky You know Think all good things always happen to you and it was pretty much true. I mean I never Really experienced anything that you know hardship. Okay, and uh Even to the point like as we were growing up, right when I was in sixth grade, you know We should do is we look like ride our bikes up to the gas station And you know at that time like they had like if you bought a coke Like you could open up the cap and it would say you win like a free candy bar Something like that right and it was literally like To the point where my friends would be like will you buy mine because I would win all the time all the time And like on the way to on the way to school we carpool I would regularly just be looking out the window and just find money and I'd be like stop the car There's a 20 dollar bill, you know, I jump really this happened to me a lot. I'm serious. I'm serious In in high school, okay I started to play high school sports and I would I was the captain of every team I ever played for And I am a horrendous athlete. I mean honestly if you saw me throw a football You'd be like, did you go to school for the blind or what, you know, what how were you the captain? I don't understand, you know, and so it things like that always just worked out even with grades Okay, I remember coming home, right and and my dad saying You know, Dave if you tried for if you tried for a's and you got b's We would be it would be okay And then my dad would leave the room and my mom would say try for c's and have a great time Right. So this is like never, you know, it was real easy and uh So I was like, okay sounds good to me, right Uh, then when I went to college my first week of college, it just continued You know never really tried real hard and I was here I was in the cafeteria my best friend the first week of college said Who do you think the most beautiful girl on campus is and I said that girl over there five years later I'm married her right good things always worked out. Just the way it was I graduated from college and I wanted to stay here and I wanted to work here And uh, there was a job in development and they wanted 10 years experience. Okay And I was like, well, I'm Dave and Vickles. So who cares 10 years means nothing, right? I get I get what I want, you know And honestly, you know, you wouldn't want to meet me at that time, right? But that's the way I was right and and I applied boom. I got the job, right? They're like, well, you did, you know, your whole family went here. You're a perfect candidate We might as well just we'll just train you. I was like, okay. Yeah, that's what that's what's supposed to happen to me, right? And uh, you know, it just always happened even even in ministry, right People would always say my mom would always say like, you know, Dave, you have an anointing like you don't realize You don't understand what it is But there's an anointing that goes with you and I'd say I don't know what you're talking about Like I'm just lucky, you know, or probably at that time I thought I just work hard, right, which is not true Continued as we got married Uh, we were living in Burlington, Vermont. Has anybody been to Burlington? Is anybody from Burlington here? Okay, so I'm gonna make fun of Burlington a little bit. All right, uh Burlington, Vermont is awesome. I love it there, but it's like the hippie capital of the world Okay, and we just like loved it. I mean everybody there is like Trying to live the authentic life, you know And it's like everyone's got like water bottles hanging from their belt like from a carabiner, right? Or if you're like really authentic, you just have a string with like an old peanut butter jar, okay and and you know Marriage our first year marriage. It was just like bliss, right? And it was awesome and we got pregnant right away with my oldest son sam who's seven now And sam I mean he was sleeping through the night at like four weeks. Okay He never cried. We took him everywhere to restaurants and everything. He never cried I would say to nurses is is there something wrong with them and they'd say just thank god, you know No, everything's fine. I mean it just continued this way really in all honesty And it just continued that way for a long time and and my prayer life Throughout this whole time, right? I had a pretty radical conversion when I was 14 years old at a student bill conference, right with father Dave Pavanka and uh and uh At that time I started a daily prayer life, but my prayer life reflected what my life was like It was basically like I was a cheerleader like yeah god keep it going, right? Like you're doing a good job, you know Keep it up or in and sometimes it was like superstitious like well I got to keep praying to keep the gravy train coming, you know I got to keep praying, you know, and it really was very much like that, you know, I just kind of It you know if I needed something I might pray for it But really I just expected it and then patted god on the back like you're doing a good job Everything's good. Just just so you know, you know, I want to let you know and then My wife and I moved from Burlington to Buffalo, New York Which if you don't like snow, that's my first mistake, okay, and I don't like snow Okay, but we but we moved there and we loved it. We love burrow. We love Buffalo too, uh, but we we uh Found out we were expecting our second child's name is max. Okay, and uh Everything was going well. Everything was great. My wife looks like, you know, she's beautiful I mean if you saw her you'd be like what are you kidding? How did that happen? Okay? She's beautiful Okay on a regular basis people ask me about this. All right, so I'm used to it now even my mom's like What you know, like You know She she glasses or what, you know But we just continued so when my wife was pregnant she she had another really tough pregnancy And two months early she went into labor, okay? And uh, and and she had max real fast And I remember, you know in my mind it was like well, nothing bad ever happens to me You know, so I remember saying like he was four pounds and I remember saying to the doctor When can we take him home and the doctor was like? He's going to be in the nicu, you know for a long time. It's like what? You know, that's weird, you know and a month went by and on the uh Was in september I think on the feast of our lady of sorrows the hospital called and uh, and they said we need you to come in right and then You know, I nothing in my mind could have thought, you know That there was going to be anything wrong or anything like that And uh, we drive into the hospital Just thought maybe we had to fill out some paperwork or something like that, right? And it turns out they had done a one month head ultrasound on max and they found substantial brain damage and uh It was kind of a surreal experience, right? So I mean I still you know, I still have a hard time talking about But there's a surreal experience because you know, the doctor was saying things that were so Foreign to me right like crutches and wheelchairs and cerebral palsy and and and severe, you know disability and things like this and And it was like If ever two trains were on the same track, right? That we just collided right god and I or life and I collided And at this time I was working for a catholic radio station up in buffalo And they had a chapel at work and and I don't know Why I was doing this why I was so motivated But at this time I was going into work like I was waking up at four And I'd be at work At five for a holy hour, okay And I would pray and then at six I'd start work I've never been that motivated. So don't think that I'm like that now. Okay, but but I would okay and uh I remember when we found out about max I was like Just kind of dumbfounded. I you know, I didn't really know how to respond I didn't know what was going on, but I remember the next morning I went in To work and I sat down in the chapel And I remember I looked right at the crucifix And I said to the tabernacle. I said I don't know what happened yesterday But you better tell me And I'm just gonna wait I'm gonna wait And I just sat there And I didn't say a word and I was angry and I was sad and I was angry and I had all these visions of You know My son in a wheelchair and not being able to do things and all these things, right? And it just filled filled my heart and I just sat and I said I'd like to know what is going on here because this isn't supposed to happen to me This is not what my life has been like I was not prepared for this at all And why why is it happening now? And I sat there and and nothing really happened And days went by and nothing really happened and weeks went by and every morning I come and say I'm still waiting I don't think I'm gonna budge. Okay. God because I'm I'm waiting for an answer here And after about three months that it was kind of the strangest thing happened where all of a sudden I realized right that Just very quietly quieter than words right all along God had been speaking to me Since I sat there and said that to him And and and it was like all of a sudden I realized that I had a lot of peace Right, you have to imagine those three months were filled With doctors and terrible prognosis and all these things and and every time we'd pray and say, you know Maybe we'll get a you know, maybe a miracle is going to happen and and and nothing would happen and and uh And all along right during these times. I I I realized that God was just speaking to me Tenderly and quietly and at the end of these three months. I had this incredible peace Right and I knew that God was speaking to me and I could kind of just sit in and listen And that God was talking to me deeply and truly and it was like the best thing that ever happened to me because it was kind of like In my mind right that God said like I've been waiting for you to shut up in prayer right how many of us feel like that right like You know, we just like unload on God right and then you're like, okay time's up God So if you could just take care of those things right I gotta go do deal with everyday life But it was like something enough for me to be quiet And all of a sudden I realized what real prayer was That God the king of the universe desires to speak to our hearts Right and it wasn't like I was sitting there writing down messages from God like okay Okay, you know, it wasn't like that it was deeper than that and it was much more profound than that and much more intimate Right a message from God It is is not it doesn't compare to what I was experiencing and I realized that my prayer life At that time was so immature Before this happened to me because I was never giving time to listen right somebody asked st. Teresa of Avala This is like a famous quota for you probably heard it They said why doesn't God speak to people anymore like he did in the old times And she responded famously it's because in the old times it was speak lord your servant is listening And now it's listen lord your servant is speaking right And how many times are we caught in that right so often so often are we caught in that and that's where I was caught in And it was it was I don't know what the reason was for for for my son max's disability, but That was enough I mean me being brought to intimacy with God and what he's done in my family Was enough for me to find some reason in this and to realize that I needed to shut up and start listening to God And immediately a few things changed number one The ministry that I was engaging in got a whole lot more effective and a whole lot deeper Okay, I think one of the things that happens to a lot of us and you can kind of you know Agree with me or not agree with me, but so many of us who were baptized in the holy spirit or had the lord touch our life Right It's it's almost like God takes us for a period of time and puts us at the heights of sanctity And everything we do God blesses right we're ministering to people we're having insights that that things happen and And I think for a lot of us we kind of feel A gradual pulling back of that as time goes on And I think what God does Is he kind of puts us in that position and he says this is where you need to go Let me show you And then pulls us back and says now you need to go that path the right way And so I think like our ministry Very often it flows right from from jesus christ present within us the trinity present within us But the deeper the well is The more we're able to access right the more we're able to access and the more we're in tune with what god's doing And so as I deepen my personal prayer life It deepened my my ministry because I was able to kind of access that that deeper well That was opening up inside me So I'm going to give you just a few practical tips Of what helped me deepen my personal prayer life Okay, and these are going to be strange and and they're going to be all kinds of people who would disagree with me Okay, and probably people who are a lot smarter than me So maybe temper this with some other books you've read or something right, but this is what's worked for me Okay Number one and this is this is weird. I'm sure for a lot of you Okay Keep your prayer life somewhat a secret Okay, keep your prayer life somewhat a secret. Okay Now this seems strange because I'm giving a talk to you about prayer about my prayer life, right? So I'm violating my own rule, but it's for the good of the conference, right? Okay, uh, here's why I'm saying that, okay I have a friend, okay Who shall remain nameless, but I'm going to pick on him a little bit who uh, well anytime he does something nice for his wife It's like he's like he wants to tell everyone else about it besides his wife Do you know these people? We all know them, right? Okay. We don't have to say who they are All right, you don't need to agree on it, but we all know these people, right? And it's like, you know, he buys his wife flowers. It's like see those flowers I got for my wife. Nice, huh? You know, right? In a lot a lot of ways, I think we can become like that in our prayer life Where our prayer life comes becomes very much like who can I tell about the latest prayer experience I've had Right and I'm not saying it's always bad. In fact, sometimes it's really good to share people with how what god is doing in Her life, but sometimes keeping it a secret, right? Depends the relationship a little bit, right? And it takes any kind of motivation Outward motivation out of it and so that your motivation is just I want to go deeper with you god You're the one I want to love I don't need anyone else to see that I'm loving you. I just want to be here and love you, okay So just number one keep it a secret, okay Maybe even just more of a secret, okay Maybe even just more of a secret some of you must be in faith sharing groups and things like that and you got to talk about it But more of a secret. It's one of those things that People get frustrated by because they'll ask me questions about my prayer life in particular and I'm like well I answer general questions, but I don't really I really love talking about what it's like right now because I'm a prideful person, okay Father Dave just told me five minutes ago that I'm always dying to get a microphone in my hand So I don't know where that came from but I am a prideful person, okay and and and the truth is is that uh, I keep that a secret because it helps me right? It's kind of like a Uh a play pen I've got around myself, right? So I don't get into trouble Okay, number two I had a friend in college who speaks at the conference. He's awesome. Okay, and uh This is what would happen in college, right? Everybody we would all go out at night And you you know go out to wherever at this time it was called a place called cross creek tavern, which is The scariest dirtiest bar I've ever seen in my life, right? It's in mingo junction, west virginia And it's like out in the woods and it's a miracle that you even get there You know during the day let alone at night, right after your friend's been drinking or whatever, right? But we would always come home and and my friend brian what he would almost always I would always be impressed with him because he would say it would be like three in the morning and he'd say We'd be like, okay, we're going to bed and he'd be like, oh, I haven't had my prayer time yet I'm gonna go have my prayer time and I'd always be like, man. I wish I was disciplined like that You know, I wish really badly that I was disciplined like that and I would kind of be jealous I've I've kind of evolved and here's why I think picking a prayer time Is really really important to god, okay And marriage has taught me a lot about this. Here's why right in marriage, right? If I were to say to my wife, honey We are gonna talk today. I promise you I got a lot of things to do So I'll see when I can fit you in but we're gonna talk today. Don't you worry, okay? What do you think she would say? It would not be pretty. Let me tell you it would not be pretty Okay, and so I think very often this is the same with prayer like when we pick a time And we stick to it and we keep it, right? That that is our special time with god Right, and I think god really anoints that time Really anoints that time, okay? Number three There's a book from mother Nadine You may have mother Nadine books. It used to be around all the time But one of the one a really great piece of wisdom that she shared was this, okay Most of the saints say it it would be crazy to tell someone To just start a life of silent prayer. In fact, sometimes it could be dangerous Right because it's very difficult, right a life of silent prayer is not easy It's something you have to grow into it's something that you have to work Towards and and kind of let god Mold you right into this so What you have to do is you have to start a little bit like training your mind to be more and more silent And so what mother Nadine said is you know, how do how do we listen to god? Well, what she says is like look what we do is practice active listening Meaning that we don't just sit there, right and I tried this before right with an egg timer, right? Okay, I'm going to be silent for 10 minutes Okay, and you sit and and what happens the first thing, you know your first thought is like Something, you know, that's going on in your life or something like that Well, mother Nadine said it's like this, right? Maybe take a scripture verse and look at it But but more than that ask god questions And then sit right ask god questions and then sit And and and what you'll find is this Soon You'll start to advance right and what your what'll happen in your prayer life is you you'll move from more active To receptive right that's kind of the judge of how your prayer life is growing if you can move from active to receptive Meaning that how much is it that you're driving it and how much is it that god is driving it? And if you're practicing this active listening slowly The fruits of silence are going to start to grow in your life and you're going to become more comfortable silence Trust me if you've never had silent prayer It is awkward. Okay. It is really awkward. Okay And so we want to just practice this active listening and start maybe with scripture Reading a scripture verse and asking god about it right his opinion. I'm going to add a fourth here Okay, I'm gonna add a fourth here One of the biggest keys To me having real prayer Was the fact that I said to god. I am angry about what you did And I'll tell you why It's it's very it's very simple right. It's it's very easy for us To say like something went wrong in my life And so I'm mad, but there must be something wrong with me Okay It's and so we kind of like play this game with god like we're mad at god, but we don't we would never dare say it Okay Just like it wouldn't be good in a normal human relationship. It would not be good, right? It would not be good in our relationship with god. We need to be sincere And I think that that took me to a place of sincerity with god that I hadn't gotten to before And so being sincere with god saying god, I'm upset about this Where are you in this situation? Really can bring us deeper into that relationship just like Right I can't think of anything that my wife does that really bothers me, but I'm sure she could think of a million. Okay Like just like if I leave something out And my wife was bothered by it, but she never said anything to me Well, that shows something about the relationship, right? It shows something that that that she's either afraid Or she doesn't have that communication with me. It's the same with god, right? God should be able to talk to us about the hard things We should be able to talk to god about the hard things and be very very deliberate about being sincere Now as I said before when we deepen that well We're able to access that deeper spring of living water, right? I don't know if anybody's read the seven story mountains by thomas merton, okay And thomas merton said he's a really good modern spiritual writer Okay, he's got some things that wouldn't recommend but there's there's a lot of good stuff in thomas merton, okay And he talks about In contemplative prayer when we've been doing this for a long time When we've gotten really good at sitting in still in stillness and silence and god is there He talks about getting to that moment of creation Where god is holding us in creation right where he is creating us And just sitting in that moment of creation Right and and this is where the well is deepest right when god we are just putty in his hands There's nothing we can do. We're just turned over completely to god And we're just saying this time is yours And just sitting in his presence right he is creator So we're sitting in his presence and when that well deepens, right? We get more comfortable With asking god for things I This quote I read from a book by father joc philippe I can't remember who said it but It was about how priests Need to be so comfortable asking god for things Actually seminarians need to be so comfortable asking god for things and so confident that he will answer them Before we let them be ordained Right because their job is to to to be holy and to let that holiness kind of flow through right and to have that kind of Spiritual radiation right to to affect other people around them and that they should have this ability to beg god The way moses did the way abraham did The way st. Faustina did right all these different people holy people You see they have this method of begging god for people And this is kind of the way it needs to be with prayer ministry. Okay, we need to get really good At at encountering god in our personal prayer So that we know what we're doing when we're praying with other people or for other people I mean it can it can be really really awkward right if if we don't have a daily prayer life when someone comes up and says Can you pray with me? Right, that's a very strange situation Because basically how do you start that prayer? I haven't talked to you in a while god But remember I used to know you like Dave van vickel. Do you remember me? I'm going to pray for this person in front of you Right It that that's a weird situation. So what we want to do is pray from a play a place of deep inner silence That extends from our personal life into our ministry And so i'm going to give you kind of a few thoughts about ministry prayer. Okay, either intercession Or actually praying with another person Number one, we all have to get more comfortable with this. Okay, we all have to get much more comfortable with this I'll tell you why because As the world continues right just with the sexual culture and all this people are wounded And we have to get comfortable at being able to respond to the needs Of the church. Okay, I was at the grocery store not too long ago and I heard these women they had they had to be 95 years old talking to each other. Okay at at the checkout line. I was eavesdropping On their conversation and one of them said well, I hurt my shoulder And the other one said oh, I've had that you should go to my shoulder guy Okay Lord, please don't let me ever have a shoulder guy right but but but this is what the lady said And all I could think that night was like imagine if someone at the at the grocery store said Well, I'm really having problems in my marriage and someone said, oh You should go to this church. They'll pray for you and and things will be better or if someone said I'm really feeling Uh a lack of freedom in this area of my life and someone said, oh, you know what st Bonaventures they take care of that right or someone said I'm really struggling with this sins Father so-and-so he'll take care of that. You know everything's okay Imagine if that's what it's like if they said oh just find a christian They're going to pray with everything's going to be taken care of right this is where we need to get to as a church Where we're ready to respond to real needs of of our of our Brothers and sisters who are wounded sometimes broken sometimes needing physical healing and we need to be able to do that And so we need to deepen our prayer life now here. Here's a quick thought about that I very much had the opinion for a long time right that what I did was Do ministry I I I asked God for something and then I expect to be backed up by the Holy Spirit right like as if like, you know You know you got like an older brother behind you and you're going to like face off the bully right And for for a long time. I thought prayer ministry was like that. Well, I'm going to do it and then God's going to back up that prayer And and I think in some cases God honors when we when we step out of the boat and do things like that and pray for people But what really will deepen our ministry is if we realize that we're not in front Right, so we're not leading the Holy Spirit. Trust me. None of us are leading the Holy Spirit Okay, we're not, you know leading that what we need to do is recognize where the Holy Spirit is already moving And catch on to his coattails. Okay, so what does this mean practically? What does this mean practically? It means we have to really put discernment back in our prayer ministry Okay, because so often now in the parish someone will come in and say could you pray for me for this And we'll pray and pray and pray and all of a sudden I'll think, you know It seems like God really wants to do this Let's pray for that and we start to pray for that and sure enough that is what God is doing in that person's life And so so very often we try and you know, kind of pound that square peg into a round hole When really God is already working And we really need to just kind of catch on to the coattails figure out where our part is And and and be a part of that ministry. Okay, most of this I learned from praying with Father Dave Pavanka. Okay recently praying a lot together Father Dave almost always if you've ever been prayed with by him almost always the first thing he'll say is What are you feeling right now? What do you see right now? Are you getting any words right now? Not him, right? He's not saying like I have a word for you. I mean he does But that's not the first thing he wants to know what you're doing And really learning that and understanding that God is already working in the people's lives We need to figure out how to help kind of release that And so it really starts to help because we're not trying to lead some place Where God isn't already going so we need to start to continue to do that number two As far as just practical tips for prayer ministry. Okay Just so you know every time I say a number it just means I'm moving on I never keep track of the number that I'm on so it's it's I'll say number three. It usually means number six or something like that Just means I'm moving on so bear with me That being said number three, okay We need to recognize now that there's more involved always There's more involved always than what people come for prayer for or for what people are praying for, okay So for instance it used to be that someone would come up to the parish and they knock on my door and they'd say Dave this is what's happening. Can you pray with me right now? And I would immediately say yep, let's pray right now Let's do that and we would go that now what I do is this I sit down and say well, tell me about what's going on in your life right now And I kind of interview them Okay, because we have to remember right that prayer ministry Is ministry to a whole person? Okay So it's physical emotional spiritual all combined into one And so so very often right Someone will say I've just had this horrible anxiety. In fact two weeks ago a kid He couldn't finish his year at school in high school because He just had this horrible anxiety Right this horrible anxiety. So his parents bring him in they said Dave. Will you pray for this kid? I said, of course, what's going on? He has anxiety. Can you pray for him to be freed from this anxiety? I say sure, but let me talk to him for a little bit privately first. Okay Well, you know, we start to talk and he says well, it's just really stressful. My school is very stressful And he said, you know, I'm just so tired all the time and and this is happening and this is happening I said wait, what why are you tired all the time? And he said well, I don't know. I guess I just don't sleep enough and I said, well, why aren't you sleeping enough? And he said, I don't know. I guess I'm just I don't know. I guess I'm fooling around on the internet at night, you know And I said, well, what are you doing on the internet? at night and he said I don't know and I said, well, tell me you can tell me honestly and I said, are you are you looking at pornography on the internet? And the kid said, yeah, and I said, how long has it been going on? And he said well It's been about six months since I've been able to ever say no He said I've been addicted for about six months And and I said, so what's happening? He said, well, I look at it all night and I don't know what to do So right away, right? We could have prayed for an end to that anxiety, right? But just a little bit of an interview with this person was able to get to a deeper problem of where this was all coming from And we were able to pray with this young man to be freed from this addiction to pornography and and give practical steps, right? As a side note, right praying for people with addiction to pornography It's a real chemical addiction. Okay, it's not something that you can always just deal with in prayer But we were able to pray that, you know, Satan's ties would be detached from his life, right that they'd be broken Right and that and this kid just experienced incredible freedom at the time of prayer He just felt like he could go back And and face the world right and so we kind of made some practical adjustments in his life But the point is is that if we had just come in and said lord, could you take away his anxiety? We'd be missing the bigger picture And really, you know recognizing that like, you know what god sent him in here for a reason It's not his parents initiative. He is here with me for a reason just the way it is for our conference, right? We love to think that Oh, you know, I came to this conference because of this or because of this in reality We came here because god has drawn us here, right as a lover Number four, I think maybe okay number four next point. Let's say that number four At at the deepest level at the very deepest level prayer ministry should be an expression of god's love for them Okay, it should be an expression of god's love for them. And so I would say And there are people here who have Thriving prayer ministries that could maybe disagree or agree when we have questions, but I would say that 90 percent Of the people who come to be prayed with or the people who I've encountered that need to be prayed with That the core of their problem Is that in some way Somehow they do not believe that god loves them Okay, they do not believe that god loves them And and and this is the big time the case for the priests who I assist in deliverance and exorcism. Okay The very first thing satan does to us is try to convince us that we are not loved by god Okay And so there'll be people who come and they have serious demonic issues, right serious demonic issues And and when we just explain to them god loves you infinitely God loves you infinitely and there's nothing you can do about it No matter what he loves you incredibly you can't reject his love you can't do any all you have to do is accept it That god loves you oftentimes that is boom right there. That's all you need That's all they need to be healed And so in every bit of prayer ministry I might pray for someone to be healed with something physical But I'm always praying for them to experience The overwhelming love of jesus christ right overwhelming love of god and to have that knowledge that their sons and daughters of god Right, I'd say 90 to 95 of the people who come that is the biggest problem And so we have to pray for that Finally always recognizing right that When think of what jesus did when he was on earth, okay Right, he healed he taught he delivered He rose people from the dead right he raised people from the dead He he did all these different things right all of those should be present in our prayer ministry in some way Okay And and each time right that there's all these things affecting these people and so when I pray with people I always pray god Please equip them with everything they need to live your abundant life Please heal them of everything that is not of you totally could be from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet Stand your holy spirit in there and heal them And number three, please deliver them from anything that is not of you And then I sit And I discern and I pray And I ask them what they're feeling I ask them what they're thinking And if maybe we need to go back to one of those three points we might go back to them Well, I'm really no I need some healing in this area Or I really am experiencing some bondage in this area Or I really need you know, I have this coming up and I really need help with this We go back to these areas and we start to pray through them And we spend time And and and so often right those kind of cover a lot of bases With the people that we're praying with okay Finally, uh, I would say that Our prayer ministry really needs to be A form of evangelization A form of evangelization, okay And and and it won't work if it's not it won't work if it's not okay. I'm gonna go back to the deliverance Example because it's so clear, okay Someone who who's demonized or someone who's struggling with uh, you know evil attachments You could pray with them all day all day long. I promise you You could pray with them all day long Years and years and years, but if they are not evangelized it is not going to work Okay, it it just won't okay. It won't work. It might work for a period of time You might think that it's working, but it won't work okay, and so, uh It's awesome when people pray with people on the street, but they need knowledge to right prayer and knowledge And and and so we have to evangelize them very often Before we can even make any headway in prayer Because they need to know who's doing the work here Right, I mean think of think of that right if if they don't know who jesus christ is If they don't know who he is Then they think you're doing it Right, it's not going to work. That's not going to work that way very well Right, they need to know who jesus christ is and that jesus is the one doing the work here All you're doing is really just Helping them to step out of the boat So much of prayer ministry. We realize this right is just getting someone to step out of the boat It's just getting someone to say you know what? This is something physical I can do to go and ask and to really step out of the boat and say Okay, I'm going to put my put myself on the line here and let god heal me And and we're just there right we're just there And so much of ministry in general involves Us being able to say It's not me right. I need to just step back and let god take over right That's that's one of the most important parts to learn about ministry And so almost always I end with either a recommitment prayer Or a commitment prayer in prayer ministry because Uh right When jesus heals delivers teaches these are signs of the kingdom And so we want to welcome them either deeper into the kingdom or welcome them into the kingdom right to to kind of claim that Kingdom that they're part of and so Almost always at the end of the prayer we we commit ourselves to the lord again over and over again and so If we can take these two together right if we can and we can have both prayer ministry and a very deep prayer life We become a very effective person in the vineyard. Okay We're drawing strength from that deep well and we're applying it to our to our prayer ministry Okay, and remember in scripture it says the prayers of a righteous man availeth much The prayers of a righteous man availeth much now There have been times in my life when I was probably the greatest sinner on earth And people have asked me to pray for them and and god has shown up But what the difference is is that when when when we're in sin and when we're not right with god We have an awkwardness in our relationship with god. We're not able to listen We're not able to really reflect on the keen movements of the holy spirit We're not we don't have that Sensitivity to what god is doing in people's lives. And so the holier we are the more uh the more uh Adopted to god we become The more we become those sons and daughters The more we realize what we have we know how to listen to our father We know how to listen to jesus. We know how to listen to the holy spirit And and we have a real uh intimacy there To the point where we're not saying oh great god of the universe who's out there and I know you've created everything Please heal this person. What we're saying is dad Could you come here and take care of this? Jesus could you come here and take care of this and there's a familiarity there That that might not exist if we if we didn't really try and build This deep deep prayer life So the keys are to to dig that well down deep to dig that well down deep and as you journey in your prayer life remember This is the last thing on earth satan wants you to do is to journey in your prayer life Okay, because you're journeying deep into the heart of jesus right if you pray every day And your prayer moves from more active to receptive you will be a saint, right? It's not like a 90 percent of the people who pray every day mentally are going to be a saint No, if you pray every day and you continue And your prayer moves from from from active to receptive you are going to be a saint Because what's going to happen is you're going to give more and more of your time Over to god and he's going to take it. He's going to take it. Remember. He's a jealous god He wants every bit of our hearts And so we can continue right to where these prayer times where we deepen those Extend into the rest of our life To the point where uh, like Paul says to pray without ceasing That eventually It's so easy for us to access that inner room and that deep deep well of living water that we can just do it instantaneously there's A super crazy priest that I used to work with okay when I say crazy I don't mean it like an endearing way like he was insane. Okay, but but he's a holy man, okay But he used to say he used to say to me all the time right When I would be driving him around and he'd be like don't go into contemplative prayer while you're driving And I'd be like, I don't know. It's not that easy for me father I don't know what it's like for you, but you know, it's not that easy, you know But it was for him. It was like he closed his eyes and he was in heaven So way it was and it's like, you know, he's so heavenly minded. He wasn't on earth anymore, right? So he was a little bit crazy But but that's where it needs to be right that when we close our eyes when we invoke The lord and the presence of god that that it's so fast for us to just draw deeply From that well because it's inside of us and it and it just keeps bubbling up