prayer

Prayer Vision

A Vision for Prayer

by Jared Votaw

Because he is leading prayer seminars at Real Life, I’ve asked Jared Votaw to share his hopes for the kind of church that Real Life could become - a church built on prayer. - Pastor Jim

Jesus said his Church is to be called a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). Today, I believe the house of prayer Jesus refers to are individual Christians and the collective Church. According to Jesus, Real Life is called to be a house of prayer.

The heart of prayer is friendship and encounter with Jesus. From this... Imagine Real Life as a prayer hub for the region. Imagine on Sunday mornings, there is a line of people waiting to be prayed for because God answers prayer. Imagine Real Life training and establishing ministries to pray for physical healing, to pray prophetically, and to pray soul healing prayer that helps set people free. Imagine people passionate for prayer gathering regularly to intercede and seek the Lord for Kingdom breakthrough. Imagine Real Life becoming a training center to equip leaders and pastors - regionally, nationally, and internationally. Imagine Real Life sending missional teams to minister through service and spiritual power. This is the type of prayer vision that Jesus has for us at Real Life.

Imagine Jesus handing Real Life a blueprint saying, “Build My Church” and he wanted to first accomplish this by us becoming a house of prayer. This is the opportunity I believe we have in front of us at Real Life. How do you respond to the invitation of Jesus to become a house of prayer?

Join us on Sunday, January 24th, 7pm, via Zoom for a Crash Course on Prophetic Prayer. Register at http://reallife.la/prayer in order to receive a Zoom link.

Colors

I went to a prayer meeting tonight. During the session, a guy was supposed to pray for me while I prayed - both of us silent. As I prayed, I saw images of the stained glass in our sanctuary, and then bigger images of stained glass like the Rose Window in Notre Dame. When we finished, I asked him if he heard anything in prayer.

He said, “I saw a crazy amount of color. There was color everywhere, like splashed on the walls. Then I saw cans of paint all around, and Jesus picked up a can of paint and began to pour it. And he was waiting on you to pick a color. You hesitated, and you took a long time to pick it. But when you finally picked one and poured it alongside his, it was royal blue. You two painted a big wall together, and on the wall I saw the word ‘LIFE’ in all caps and in white. Then you two sat on the wall enjoying what you had done together.

Does that mean anything to you?”

-Pastor Jim

That Time I Hated Prayer

That Time I Hated Prayer

I have a confession to make. For most of my life, I have hated praying. I have always known it was important and, theoretically, one of the most powerful tools made available to followers of Jesus. But I rarely experienced that power in all the years I spent growing up in church, or as a volunteer and professional leader in various ministries. Prayer was my place of shame, and I struggled with the guilt of hating prayer and not doing it well, or sometimes, even at all.

For an extrovert addicted to people, prayer seemed like the worst kind of torture...