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“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.” Exodus 34:29

Disheartened and a little disillusioned, I remember early on in ministry praying to God, “There’s got to be more to this than what I’m experiencing?”

There was a disconnect between my walk with God and what I saw in the Scriptures about how a relationship with God should be. I had read the biblical and historical accounts of the church's vibrant, on-fire relationship with God, but my walk felt dry and distant.

What was I missing? What couldn’t I have that the Scriptures seemed to expect when a person truly loved and believed in Jesus? I had the disciplines, read the Bible daily, memorized Scripture, went to church, worshiped, shared the gospel, and tithed, and yet I was broken and felt my walk was, at best, dull with the Lord. Yes, I loved Jesus. Yes, I was ready to sacrifice, but what I didn’t have was intimacy and nearness with the Lord.

When I discovered dedicated, passionate prayer, my life changed. I went from, “There’s got to be more to this” to “I can’t wait to spend time with God in prayer today.”

I had to come to the point where I would schedule my whole day around my prayer times. It became life-giving. Yes, at first, it felt ritualistic. Yes, it took time for me to learn how to pray. Yes, it was at times awkward. But, as I would write down things on my heart, complicated things, and things that needed God’s hand, I eventually found peace, intimacy, and true joy in prayer.  I truly felt the radiance of God pouring through my soul. Faith without intimacy, unfortunately, is just religion and rituals. Faith with intimacy is life-giving, faith-building, supernatural, and an encounter that you won’t be the same without.

The radiance that Moses experienced is also for us to experience. That radiance comes only by persistent prayer. If you long for that type of intimacy with God, let us spend our lives in the pursuit of God, passionately in prayer, and see God move in our lives in magnificent ways. 

These are things that I learned as I began a life in prayer.

  1. Prayer needs to be sacred – schedule and set aside a time that is non-negotiable.
  2. Write down Scriptures to pray to God – it really changed my heart.
  3. Write down prayer requests – it helps you stay focused.
  4. Fight distractions – I learned to lock doors, slip away and hide, and turn off technology.
  5. Call on God with respect but passionately – raise your voice, ask God, call to Him!
  6. Make a prayer rhythm, and ask someone to hold you accountable – allow those in the church to help you grow in intimacy with the Lord.
  7. Use a system to help you pray – A.C.T.S is what I used but use something that fires up your soul.
  8. Pray to bless God- this really changed my life.
  9. Ask big things, faith-filled things, Spiritual things – I call these Big, Hairy, Audacious Prayers. God is a big God and wants to work mightily in our lives.