Hosting

We’ve had a number of ideas around a House of Prayer. Is this a place for gathering in groups, hosting conferences or training times, how to pray for nations maybe? Perhaps we host week-long inner-healing intensives for small numbers of folks. Maybe we fly-in pastors and their wives from the majority world for three-weeks at a time for restoration and refreshment, for being poured into with a renewal from the Lord.

Any of these are possible. We have an understanding about how to pray for nations. How to come on the inside, putting down the pointing finger and loosing off judgement and condemnations towards our governments. To instead, take on identification with the sins of our land, to confess gross injustices and betrayals of leadership as our own and on behalf of country and leaders, bringing these sins, by the power of the lamb, to the cross where they are washed away. We run toward the world to take on the stones just as the Lord has done for us. We could in fact gather and teach this year by year out of a location gifted us by God.

Then too, Capturing Courage has had inner-healing prayer as part of its backbone for more than twenty years now. We are well-versed in it. Know its ins and outs. Have taught it a little bit, quite recently. It is a big conversation, a deep learning, a careful task to undertake. A place in which to teach and host inner-healing is definitely something we may be asked to do by the Lord.

To fly pastors in to a House of Prayer does not seem so doable now, due to covid, yet, this is the original idea with a house of prayer. Capturing Courage has been hosted in hundreds of homes and churches in a hundred places in the majority world. What a great delight it would be to host folks here, with us, for a time, to bless and to pour into. Again, any number of things, inner healing, meditative prayer, teaching the core principles of our College of Capturing Courage, or extending an understanding, habits, manner and way, of Church to Kingdom Era, could be its own full-time endeavour, responsibility, and commitment.

But, despite the things we might DO with a house of prayer, what has become clear is that first and foremost a House of Prayer is for praying. Not even so much praying for each other. But for praying. A House of Prayer is for BEING before the Lord. And this simplifies things.

We already understand Capturing Courage Canada – A House of Prayer as Hosting the Lord and Each Other. Let’s look at this in the simplest way.

First we come to a House of Prayer as houses of prayer. Each one of us as we are drawn to the Lord for the Lords sake, become a house of prayer. We settle in, abiding, resting, trusting, tucked into the womb of God, close to the heart, quiet and still for a time. From here all life flows. Within us, to us, and out from us. Living as houses of prayer begins as a blessed gift to self and then flows out to many as God With Us wherever we go. Let us not discredit this, the world is hungry for this exact thing; God trickling out of your hem wherever you might go.

A House of Prayer is a way of life, a learning to abide in God and God in You.

Therefore, we take care of those who have come to meet God in this way! We do not get in the way. We set down our teachings, our thoughts, and our understandings. We pick up towels and soap, trays of simple food, cups of tea and coffee. We Host. Quiet rooms are set aside for silence and sitting, for gentle meetings, God and You. We make the beds. We wash dishes. We serve tea. We sweep the floors. We clean the bathrooms. We serve you.

What I love about this is that we come to the core of hospitality and service. Any of us, in residence at House of Prayer, those permanent, those tucking in for special occasions or gatherings, those who say, “Yes, I’d like to be a Host” are then tasked with great things–the folding of towels, the washing of dishes, the serving of tea, the cleaning of bedding, and the remaking of beds. We are brought to the core beauty of caring for each other in the most basic of ways; hospitality is the first greatest movement of God and it is to this community we call God, that we are included. And live. And have our being.

At House of Prayer we act this out. We live this. We live the Lord in this way. At Capturing Courage, hospitality is our first and deepest conviction about God and the Kingdom of God. Manner and way of The Spirit is first found in our ability to serve and to host, to gather without pretence, no posturing and no agenda. Here, the Lord can then lead. The Spirit can then heal. Father God, can then touch hearts and remake us into your and my original image as intended from before time.

So, we do have things we could teach. There are focuses that we could gather around. We could pray for each other. Global things are at hand that could be facilitated and harnessed forward through prayer. But first. We Host the Lord. And We Host Each Other. From there, the Spirit leads. Many things are possible, but nothing has to happen. If all we ever do is bring tea to your quiet room while you bask in the Lord, hearing and knowing God for yourself in the silence of intimacy, this is great and good and all that is required. Hospitality is our first moment in the Spirit.

Because God can bypass all our best teachings simply with his Presence.

A Birthright of Prayer

It was back in 2013, late in the year, that I was in Mozambique for a few weeks time. That was my fourth ministry trip, having been to Uganda three-times the previous years. I landed after a long travel upon which we began to travel even more. Mozambique is a big country and our eight-hours north by train barely traversed it’s length.

Before this trip the Lord had been telling me, 1. Teach the people to pray for themselves and 2. Do not be the one to pray for everyone.

The context of these instructions is that when a westerner comes to Africa the thinking and the habit is that, that one is the ‘special’ one endowed with particular gifts from God; “This is the one to pray for us and to take away all our troubles”.

Now, I’ve been an inner healing prayer minister since the early 2000’s. My own experience and habits of prayer extend way back to my childhood. And the legacy of prayer goes back on both sides of my family for generations.

In other words, I am happy to pray for people. But, on my previous three-times to Africa, I had seen the ridiculous and utterly unsustainable thing of one person being THE ONE to pray for people. It’s not what prayer is supposed to be. Prayer is not a proprietary product to be doled out at special times; prayer is the lifeblood of an intimate connection to the Lord that is accessible, FOR everyone.

Within a few days of arriving we travelled to a small town, a uniquely fashioned village, in northern Mozambique on the shores of the Zambezi river. Per usual, the body of Christ gathered the evening of our arrival and I preached the message that night. Afterwards, it was then time to pray for the people.

But, in honouring of the Lord’s instructions, and intent on relieving myself of the burden to pray all-the-time-for-everyone, I set about trying to teach the people to pray for each other. It was a dismal failure. Even with the very enthusiastic assistance of my translator in teaching this, nobody ended up praying or being prayed for that evening. The people simply stood at the front with heads hanging waiting for a special touch from the special visitor. It was very sad.

Back at the house and after returning from church I realized that I should explain to the pastor why I did not pray for his people; this could be seen as an insult, something wrong, an offence of sorts. So, I shared with him the convictions of the Lord upon me in the weeks prior to being there in Mozambique, namely, that I was to teach the people how to pray.

His immediate response was, “The people can pray?!”

Somehow, in some way, the church in Mozambique had been taught (by missionaries I learned, no less) that only pastors can pray. Prayer had been kept from the people. I was aghast. Struck. Deeply saddened. I could barely perceive a place where pastors didn’t know that people can pray, and that the people certainly didn’t have any clue that they too, could pray.

The Lord profoundly touched me with the need to reconnect people to their God via prayer, “Don’t forget about Prayer, Cyndy.” It is a lot of what I have been doing since.

Prayer is a key movement within and through the work of Capturing Courage. And that seems such an understatement! How might we express this strongly enough, that every single person on this earth has been given a birthright of prayer, of conversation, of intimacy with the God who made heaven and earth, for themselves.

The remainder of my time in Mozambique I modelled very simple prayers. Each time I was supposed to pray I said things like, “God be with us today. We love you. Amen” or “God, we thank you for the time together. Amen”, and “God, we need you. Amen.”

Prayer is best when it is simple.

“Cyndy, teach the people to pray for themselves.” Yes Lord, Yes.

A House of Prayer is landing us at this core calling. Personally, I am being made smaller in what I am about. Honed, fine-tuned, simplified, brought down to the thing I am to be doing. Prayer.

What a great thing to be caught, in this way, by the living Lord. The weavings of the Lord, of prayer through all the years, are coming together. We look to God in all this. Faces like flint. Neither to the left or to the right. Trusting. Abiding. Nimble and obedient.

We need you God. You, are our life.

“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” Psalm 141:2

Clarity & Heart

There is this thing the Lord does through me that I have known about for nearly twenty years now. I do not recall how I realized this but it is an old familiar understanding and has become a solid part of the strategy of God through my life. 

The Lord tells me where to go and be. It may be any kind of place or event, home or church, region or country. There can be a certain sense of timing, that I am to go and be in this or that place for an afternoon, a month or more, a season even. 

And while I am standing or walking, traipsing or visiting, abiding or ministering, the Lord sheds out through and off of me unto a particular preparation towards the healing of lives, a transformation of hearts and minds, and a tilling of the soil so to speak, unto wholeness. 

I don’t know how God does this. Or why this is what he does through me. But I’ve been aware and obedient to his directions and instructions because I came to understand some decades ago that it matters, my obedience to the Lord. It makes a difference for others. 

I would describe this as the prophetic part of my spiritual gifting. You know, the Lord told the prophets in the Old Testament some pretty strange things, “Lay on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side.” Ezekiel 4:4, for instance. 

The widow is told to collect jars from everyone she can. Jesus turns water into wine and walks on water. Peter too, for a bit. Elisha runs very fast for a very long way, and is fed by ravens after fire from heaven burns up the sacrifice saturated in water. Five small loaves and two fish turn into a meal fit for over five-thousand people with twelve baskets of bread to spare. And such. And more. 

So, I suppose that if God uses me and my being in a place, feet on the ground, tires on a road, to prepare a region for a healing, a transformation, and a wholeness, then who am I to argue?! Or to doubt. It’s these sidelong glances, what we perceive out of the corner of the eye, that might trick our senses, but often have more weight and correctness than we might imagine; it is good to obey the Lord in what we do not understand. 

All this to say, I’ve been on this camping, road, and ministry trip for 8+ weeks. In just a couple of weeks, I’ll be back on the mainland visiting my dad and the family there for a bit of time. But not for very long. 

When I began this journey with the Lord I didn’t know what would come next. The point of the weeks were to ascertain, to sense, to determine, where an ancient well of the Spirit may be. An ancient well of the Spirit upon which we are to establish a house of prayer. And this, seems to have been accomplished. We have sensed a place that has, from what I can tell, a strong presence of an ancient well of the Spirit. 

So, what next? 

Well, we take our time. We inquire of the Lord. We pause and seek God’s further instructions. I intend to think long and hard, having already begun this, about the manner and way of how the Lord would have this house of prayer operate. There is a certain abiding, an inhabiting, a stewarding of forward movement, decisions, and priorities in the Lord, to seek out that we may walk in obedience and the utmost of yielded hearts and lives. 

We have not embarked on a project. We are determining to represent God’s heart in the very fabric, sinew and fibre, of a house of prayer. We open our very lives to this and to God in ways as yet unfamiliar but keen to discern and give our lives to. 

And what has this week come clear, is that I am going to continue in camping mode over the winter, here on Vancouver Island. Personally, as on every ministry trip in the past, I am stronger, healthier, and have a profoundly glad heart. I’m sleeping better, my stamina is greater, and I’ve not been sad for this entire eight weeks. 

Furthermore, I feel that I have escaped my nice apartment. Escaped the dull numbing of suburbia, its comforts and its ease. “Why would I go back again, to that?!” Is the query running through my being this last week. And so, I’ll be refitting my car, exchanging my big tent for a little one, buying a battery for heat of some sort. Other odds and ends, and making my way back to the island per the Lord’s explicit directions. 

That traipsing thing, where God prepares a land for a healing, a transformation, and for wholeness in him, we will call phase II. Phase I, seek out an ancient well of the Spirit, has been accomplished. Phase II, invest oneself in a land, seek the heartbeat and the cries evident from community to community. Abide for a time. Settle in. 

I am quite delighted. I might get too cold. The Lord may interrupt me with a house of prayer, gifted and handed over, keys in hand. I might change my mind. The Lord might change my mind. But we have a plan and I’ll work the plan until the Lord says, “Okay, that’s good.” 

Meanwhile, I have a couple of weeks to finish off. Today I am in the Cowichan valley. Next week too, I am hoping. Seeing areas I’ve not yet seen. Abiding in place but mostly in the Lord. I find it hard to believe that these weeks are nearly over. We give all glory and honour to the Lord most high, maker of heaven and of earth. We look to the Lord in all things. We say yes and amen! 

Thank you God! We bless your name. We love you. We trust you. And we know you to be good. It is such a pleasure to be partnering with you God. Thank you for inviting us. 

Driving South

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” John 15:16

The Lord has been challenging us to take on the faith for a house of prayer, to come into agreement with this dream of the God’s heart and to make it our own. We’ve been putting feet (and tent pegs, camp stove, sleeping bags, cold mornings, and gas in the car) to this, unto the Lord and towards what may be. For seven weeks I’ve been camping among various communities. It’s been interesting to feel the difference from place to place and to get a sense of the different cultures of each region.

It’s not all been dramatic by any means, but it has been solid. I’ve been on eighteen ministry trips prior to this and this camping / road trip / ministry trip has unfolded in the same ways as those other ministry trips. I am reminded that the Lord never wastes our time or orders something without due diligence and certainly takes it all seriously. I’m trying to do the same.

There are 3.5 weeks until the end of September. My time on Vancouver Island will end with my returning ‘home’ to my dad’s place come the beginning of October. I say ‘home’ in quotations because as of October I will officially be homeless. No longer on a ministry trip and no longer with a home to go back to. But, I am again and still casting myself completely on the Lord and we shall see what shall be. All things come about in good order.

For the remainder of September I’m heading to the south end of the island. I’ve not yet camped down that way, not yet perceived anything of the Lord’s direction specifically for those areas. Tapping into the bottom part of the island is a faithfulness to finish off this plan the Lord and I had together.

I am pretty sure I found an ancient well of the Spirit. There is a strong compelling toward that place, and on my last drive-around of the area, the resonance and quickening in my spirit was an aliveness in my entire being that I’ve not previously encountered that same way. I really don’t have words to describe it, beyond that!

So, the thing now is to finish off the ministry trip. Camp and drive, settle a bit within a few areas I’ve not yet been. And then home. To engage a pause. To let the dust settle and for the sensing from place to place to sift out and through. If the community with that strong resonance of a thin spot, an ancient well of the Spirit, and the compelling of the Lord unto that place, is accurate now, it will be accurate in a few months time, six months from now, and a year beyond that.

In all things of the Lord there is a timing that must be paid attention to. It is one of our core values at Capturing Courage, the nimbleness to wait on the Lord and then the ability to ‘G0!’ when God says go. So, we will enter into a pause, give it a bit of time. Resubmit everything back to the Lord. Enter into a deep listening to our Holy Spirit to inform and confirm and instruct and establish the right and true thoughts required for preparations and the establishing of a House of Prayer.

So, back to this verse, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” John 15:16

Jesus is declaring that he is the initiator. We live and abide by his wooing of us, winning us over, and calling us forth (to put it into a loose vernacular). Life is an appointment by the Lord most high unto you and I, a participation with life and the ONE who made heaven and earth and in whom a restoration continues, unabated, upon this earth and in our human lives.

To bear fruit. Fruit that lasts, that abides. That keeps bearing fruit that then keeps bearing fruit. This is the sign of a life settled into God. May this be so for us at Capturing Courage International Ministries, and now for Capturing Courage Canada – A House of Prayer.

Simply put, we do not want anything that is not of the Lord. If this thing is our idea we nix it immediately. But so far, it seems to be something of God. Therefore, forward ho on the next weeks. These next days and regions will give further comparison and contrast to what has already been. It’ll be good.

P.S. I’ve been trying to write more about this process and the thinking of a house of prayer. Needing too, to mention this on our other websites. These are a few other posts: What is in Your Hand? , and Multiplication.

Vancouver Island – West

I am in Tofino this morning. Finally, after six weeks of camping we have left the east coast of Vancouver Island and made it to the west. 

But I did take a final tour of the town that stood out to me. See Last Post. I also called the number on the rental sign. The little store-front for rent is part of a slightly larger structure with a one-bedroom unit at the back. That might have been perfect! But, in talking with the landlord I learned that the town council wants the building rented as solely commercial. So, that little blue store-front is off the table. 

What a week though, it has been. With the introduction, really a remembrance, of a store-front idea a myriad of pieces that we’ve been chewing on for a very long time, came to the fore. 

Way back in the early years of Capturing Courage, before the international work began, a few of us were talking about a store-front art studio, cafe, and place of prayer and healing. Then, just last fall another one of us felt that House of Prayer was to be a store-front, a public offering but also a public declaration and presence of all that the Lord might do with and through us for community, regions, and nations. Interesting, that this comes up again. 

Over the years I’ve had a strong and growing conviction that the body of Christ as church needs to get out of our buildings. I’ve been immersed in church culture in an exaggerated way as I preached and prayed in some 350 churches in six countries and in a hundred regions since 2011. I’ve seen that churches are run like MLM (multi-level marketing) businesses. In that, all the activity and focus and energy goes to keeping this thing running. 

You know, in an MLM everyone must buy from the company, sell the products of the company, attend the gatherings and the trainings of the company, pour resources of time and money and energy back into the company. In a nutshell. Sounds a bit like church? We’ve all been busy keeping the internal structure of people, time, and place running. With very little return for investment if we were to think of it that way. How many folks were baptized out of last years million dollars budget? 

The thing is, you and I are the church. Together, we are the body of Christ. We are the Ecclesia, a people called out for a specific purpose. The church is the people. The people are the church. 

Then too, the same spirit or power (depending on your translation) that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you and I. So, not only are you and I the temple of God. But we carry the very same power within us that raised Jesus from the dead. Notwithstanding that Jesus calls us the light of the world. 

We carry the glory of God unto salvation, grace, healing, wholeness, freedom from sin, a deep resonance of life and love by which lives are made new. Not in attending church per se, but new as in a deep awakening unto the Lord and life, unto one’s own existence and the beauty of that, unto a profound reconciliation with the journey of our own lives and in that, with our Creator God who made heaven and earth, and you and I. 

So, how might we be a bit more outward focussed? We do not check off ‘serving others’ as on a list of good things to do, a rather insulting creation of others as projects. But we can become outward focussed as investment in a parish, as lives lived solidly in community, as an understanding that all that is good and right is at hand every day in each other and by which we can find and celebrate the Lord. 

All this to say, that I am intrigued and encouraged by the thought of a House of Prayer as a store-front, as public presence in a community, as hosting the Lord and each other. 

There are a number of parameters that would need to come into play. Many things by which this kind of a thing would be established. We are jotting things down, sharing further the sense of the Spirit around this, and inquiring of the Lord. 

On my final drive-through of that town I could still feel an electric resonance of the Lord. The further I drove up the hill of that place the stronger that sense was. Is that town the place? Do we begin with a store-front or do we begin with physically coming to live in the place? What other places might be options? What do we want? How might we proceed? 

We continue holding all things open to the Lord. We wait on clarity and wisdom and direction. This unfolding of a House of Prayer will take form and fashion over many months and years. This initial foray has been a good beginning so far. And now we see what the west side of the island brings to heart and mind. 

We believe that God is love. We’ve experienced God’s love that touches our traumas, heals our hearts, and restores our lives. We know God to be for everyone. But many do not know this Lord that heals and makes new. We’ve been putting him in a box for a long time now.

At Capturing Courage we are inviting and making room for our untamed God, the wildness of the Lord, an expansive touch of Holy Spirit by which we increasingly from glory to glory come alive and are awakened. It’s why we are searching out God’s dream of a house of prayer through us. Simply put, we need the Lord.

“Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79 Message

Home & Ministry Base :: Canada

A House of Prayer. It was Monday. I was driving to my destination. Nearly there but I took a small detour. The name of a town and place I’d not yet explored caught my attention. With only a few minutes off of the main road I found myself in a quaint community.

I drove around. Stopped. Got out. Walked the dog.

Drove around some more. And passed by a small store-front on the main drag through the middle of town. The entire town had rung out to me and this store-front, for rent, stood out even more. Drew me in. Called our name.

Okay, a bit exaggerated. But, maybe not. It really did stand out.

I’ve been on Vancouver Island now for six weeks. Camping and driving from location to location. Most places feel flat. Some are lovely and I’ve a thrill in my being for the beauty of the place. But this small town held something further and more.

In many ways, seeking out a location for a House of Prayer is a process of compare and contrast. We cannot always discern what might be unless we have had the flat, dull, non-responsive areas already passed through.

Interestingly, we had a thought, a prophetic sense we could call it, last fall 2020, about a House of Prayer being a store-front. Something about being public, going public. Something about being available and open, for people. And something about declaring our presence here in Canada.

It had been spring 2019 when a long-standing friend of myself and of Capturing Courage International Ministries inquired of me, “Cyndy, when is Capturing Courage going to be here in Canada and for Canada?”

So, a store-front. For rent. Available. Ready. So it would seem.

But what does this mean? We don’t know!

Maybe we are only to entertain the store-front notion. Who do we want to be as a house of prayer in Canada? How do we want to operate, to show up, to invest ourselves? What might the Lord want to do with us and through us and how and when and why and where? Lots of questions.

It’s been a few days now since I first saw this little store-front possibility. The curious inquiry that has resulted is not ebbing away by any means. I’m having quirky conversations with Holy Spirit, “Lord?” And I’ve been thinking about what is in our hands and what is not in our hands. What are we ready for? How are we to begin.

We don’t know. But we do know that the Lord compels and when so, we will take some action. Write an email. Make a phone call. Maybe even put a deposit on a rental. Find a home. Move.

In the meantime we are checking our hearts. Setting down all resistance. Endeavouring to give a continued and great ‘yes’ to the Lord. No matter what or where or when or how. God, have your way with us! We wait on you.

Movements of Prayer

It’s been a week of contemplation and prayer, inquiring of the Lord and of discerning next steps. We have campsites (and a house-sitting) that will take us to September 6th. This sounds a long ways off, but is only a few weeks. The time is flying by.

Our prior week, written about HERE, has been settling into our spirits, hearts, and minds. For a few months now, I’ve been asking the Lord to remind me of what I carry in my hands. And somehow, over the last months but even more so last week, I’ve had this mirrored back to me. I’m working to settle into, further still, this work of the Lord over my life. It’s never very complicated yet somehow in the simplicity, it’s so very easy to miss.

Here is what is standing out to us about A House of Prayer: At Capturing Courage we hold three specific prayer stances, you might say.

1. Silence & Stillness with a deep listening within self and to the Lord. I was teaching this last fall, winter, and spring as a Meditative Prayer Practice. It was a beautiful thing to share and facilitate a deep inner process with self and God with many others.

At the same time and by the Spirit, my friend and colleague, John, shared with me a book about prayer called Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer, “You come to mind, Cyndy, as I read this book.” Sensing a gift of the Lord I ordered two copies. One by mistake! No matter. I’ve read it through. Gave one copy as a gift. And have shared the other with a friend. I will be reading it again.

2. A Simple Prayer that establishes us with right hearts is another thing we teach as Capturing Courage. Over the last twenty years, we have come to understand that it is our hearts attitude that determines the blessing (or the cursing) of our prayers. This is a prayer of releasing that carries the weight of the Lord.

  1. First, we ACKNOWLEDGE: We say what we see. Just that. Short and sweet, “God, I lift my daughter to you this day in the name of Jesus. I perceive that the boy she is going with is not the best choice for her.”
  2. Second, we VALIDATE: “And while I’ve struggled with him I also see that he has been a gift in a number of ways. His presence in her life has brought a certain settledness, a new confidence, and a tangible stability to my daughter.”
  3. Third, we give GRATITUDE: “Thank you (name the boy) for these things you have provided and facilitated for my daughter. Thank you God for these new strengths that I see in her.”
  4. Fourth, we can then RELEASE (out of a heart that is no longer at war, fighting, pointing the finger, blaming or condemning): “Today, in the name of Jesus, I release my daughter from this boy. Boy (name) I release you from any further obligation to my daughter. I release you both to your futures. Amen.”

This prayer checks our hearts. It cannot be uttered without peace within us. We have already struggled through our condemnation and fretting, our blaming and accusations. Now, in a heart that has done the hard work to come around to blessing, we can truly release in a spirit of gratitude and generosity to all involved.

We pray this for whatever may be besetting our lives. World circumstances. Local troubles. Family feuds. Jobs lost. Unexpected moving. And so much more.

There is a LOT to teach about this SIMPLE PRAYER! This is one of the things we practice, model, and teach as Capturing Courage Canada. What a joy it would be to host workshops on this. Even an in-house studio by which to broadcast would facilitate much. In whatever way, how blessed to come together in fellowship of a deep shift within our beings, whereby we are established as the prayers of a righteous man that prevaleth much! Yes and amen. May it be so Lord.

3. Inner Healing Prayers for self, communities, areas, regions and nations, is a key goal we have had for some fifteen years. I am an inner healing prayer minister and have been for twenty years now. The initial heart to work with pastors was a strong compelling to bring inner healing prayer to them. Within the work of Capturing Courage International Ministries we have been in the precursor to this for these last eleven years of international work.

Inner healing prayer requires quiet spaces, careful teachings, with the right kind of people, those with hearts eager for a deeper journey with the Lord. Perhaps House of Prayer would facilitate individuals in inner healing prayer. But mostly, we would love to host prayer teams that are keen to declare and decree healing, wholeness, and freedom over entire regions and nations.

We have learned how to do this at Capturing Courage. It takes but a bit of teaching and again, the right kinds of hearts and people, and living water will flow from us to all over the world; may we all drink deeply of ancient wells of the Spirit.

The world needs our prayers. We need to be praying prayers that establish the healing and wholeness of God for everyone. Shalom must be applied, borne and birthed within hearts that put down swords and pick up plowshares, for all mankind, that we may live. May we learn your heart God, and exhibit your power through our hearts of prayer.

The Lord is Gathering Us

It’s been quite the week. How might I share? 

One week ago today, Monday as I post this, we moved from one campsite to another. It turns out a bit of a miracle that we landed in this particular campsite, a circuitous route that over a few days had felt like things weren’t working out! Ha.

Here is what we found and what found us. 

We arrived about 11 am in the morning. Normal kind of arriving time. We were welcomed by the lady of the land (hubby was off at a prayer meeting), whom had only recently made portions of their property available for campers to stay, (two weeks recently, to be exact). We found our spot and set up our tent and cooking area. Chairs out. Beds made. 

We had booked this camping location through a central camping hub that required that I register through Facebook, purposefully giving the owners of the land access to my profile. This ensures that I was the kind of person that they wanted on their land; in this way every camper is vetted before a registration is secured. 

Consequently, in the midst of our confirmation emails and texts I received, “I’ve had a look at your work and website! Looks like a great ministry. I’m looking forward to hearing more.” This had been our first clue that perhaps the folks, on whose land we were going to camp, were Christians. 

The fellow of the land came to find us as we were completing our set up. Really nice folks. After a bit of introduction and checking in that we were fine and what we might want, he said, “I’ve already been telling folks all about Capturing Courage!” I laughed! Big belly chuckle. We proceeded to talk further about who we are and what we do at Capturing Courage International Ministries. 

I also shared that I am three-months on the island searching out an ancient well of the spirit upon which to establish a future House of Prayer. 

In the excitement of this news he shared that just the day prior a couple from eastern Canada had arrived. And, were also camping on their land. In direct obedience to the Lord’s direction, “Go West” all the way to Vancouver Island. Wow, interesting!  

About an hour later he arrived back to ask me a question, “We have been invited to dinner tonight along with the other couple, but we are too tired to go. Would you be interested in going in our place and taking the (eastern Canadian) couple with?” 

Now, a few things. 1. I am used to being in hundreds of homes of folks I’ve only just met. 2. The Lord has made it clear that this unfolding of a House of Prayer is to be public and not hidden. 3. I have expected for Holy Spirit to connect me with those on the island who have already, and for some time, been holding prayer and revival and awakening within themselves and for regions and communities.

“Yes, I would love to go to dinner.” 

Shortly after 5pm myself and the couple from eastern Canada, having just met, set off for dinner. 

Okay, this is a bit of a long story. I’ll try to condense it. Long story short, we had a God-speed evening. They wanted to hear all about Capturing Courage and a House of Prayer. Pastor and congregants and prayer warriors. Phew. We were all so blessed as the Lord met us. Prayers happened. Tears welled. Deep satisfaction of fellowship ensued. 

Then, this happened Wednesday evening over another dinner, AND at their regular Thursday evening prayer evening. Along with a few in-between visits with the folks on whose land we were camping. I found a people who have been contending for revival for some long time. Bearing this burden and longing in their hearts and minds, spirits turned toward the Lord. 

God is gathering his prophets! I’ve been told that there are others that I ‘need to connect with’ in this community and that area and other regions. 

Not only did I arrive because God said, “Go to Vancouver Island”, but the couple from eastern Canada arrived because God said, “Go to Vancouver Island”, and then too, another gal from one of the prairie provinces had also arrived to the same area because God said to her, “Go to Vancouver Island.” I learned of her testimony, heard it myself, on Thursday evening. 

And there we all were, gathered with a church, a beautiful people, that has been focussing on prayer, longing for more of the Lord, holding that community and region before the Lord for healing and wholeness in God. 

By the end of Thursday evening I was struck, “God is up to something! I do not want to miss out on this!” 

Now, I knew something was and is coming. I’ve felt the Lord pressing upon us, preparing to break through with something we’ve never known before, for more than one year. It is why a journey to seek out a future place for a House of Prayer has made complete sense to me. 

There is more to this past week. But this is enough for today. The Lord confirmed and reminded me of a number of things. We are more clear on the exact work of a House of Prayer, the space we will hold and steward in the Lord. 

It is simple, elegant, exactly it. And will continue to allow the unfolding of the Lord, the nimbleness of the Spirit upon us, following the heart of God and whatever he might do within us, for us, and through us. Perhaps this is what I’ll try to put words to, for next week’s post. 

Yes Lord! Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to partner with you. We bless you this day and all the days of our lives. With all glory and honor to you God. We love you. We trust you. And we know you to be good. Amen and amen. 

Thank you to each of you who are prayerfully and financially partnering with us at Capturing Courage. What a blessing as you give us courage. Bless you. 

Led by Prophecy & Prayer

A prophetic word came through this week. A serious part of the considering of these thoughts and directions that seem to come from the Lord, is to ask, ‘Is there a confirming word/s along the way?’ At Capturing Courage we watch for these. Not from those we know per se, but from out of the blue.

Way back, the week after I decided to give up my apartment (to not renew it’s lease) and to embark on a ministry time on Vancouver Island, this prophetic word came:

All through the years there have been prophetic words from those we do not know, from across the earth, within an exact timing of the Lord and our hearts. Capturing Courage has moved forward by the instructions and encouragements found via the prophetic and via prayer.

We don’t sit around a board room coming up with ideas to implement. We are not driving forward on programs of any sort. We are called to steward the glory of God! And this is done in relationship with Holy Spirit, in sober fear of the Lord, and in glad-hearted joy and worship of the ONE who loves.

This last week a friend posted this, just released:

PROPHETIC DREAM: GOLD IN ANCIENT WELLS

“Many years ago I had a dream that I have never shared publically,  and I felt to share it now.

In the dream I was walking with Jesus across a field. We eventually came to a dome like structure with no walls- just a roof. Within this dome was a round pool that was smallish, but was very very deep.

But the water was dirty. You could see from the color there was a lot of mud, that this pool did not have a tiled floor but was rather cut right into the ground.

As Jesus and I are standing by the edge he looks at me and says “get in”.

Now, I really didn’t want to. It looked cold and dirty. But because it was Jesus asking I got in.

I didn’t like it, I felt cold and uncomfortable. 

Then he said “Dive to the bottom to get the gold”. 

Now I actually doubted there was any gold in this pool. But because Jesus asked, I dived down to the bottom, touched the ground a little, found nothing so swam back  and popped my head back out of the water to find Jesus.

“Look again”. He said. I was so confused. Surely there was nothing here in this horrible mud infested pool! It felt so slimy between my fingers. But because it was Jesus asking I swam down to the floor of this pool again.

This time I dug a little deeper into the soft, brown sludge. I stopped worrying about getting dirty. All of the sudden I could feel rocks. I didn’t know what they were but I grabbed them tightly and swam to the surface once more.

I opened my hands and tried to wash away the mud. There, in my hands were nuggets of gold. Not only in my hands, but the movement I had created in stirring the waters had created streams of gold right throughout the water! I looked in surprise at Jesus, he smiled. He knew it was there even when I did not. 

I believe today, the Lord wants you to know that what seems like mud, that seems uncomfortable, if you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and dig a little deeper you are going to find the treasures of heaven. Not just personally but for your nation.

STOP JUST SWIMMING IN THE MUD – it is time to dig the wells of intercession. 

What feels unclear is going to be made clear. 

I believe the pool to be a well of intercession. He is calling us to to go deeper. And not just skim the surface as we pray, but go deep. We may not see initially- but the gold will be there. 

It’s going to feel hopeless sometimes.

When it does, keep digging.

It’s going to feel uncomfortable- keep digging.

There is a call to intercession in this hour – that’s where the gold is – that’s where the solution is.

We are not hopeless. We are not without the Lords help. It’s time to go deeper. 

I declare over our nations today prophetic solutions for political and personal breakthrough like we have never seen before! Nothing will be hidden- all will be revealed as we intercede and not pull back. Let’s go deep and get our hands dirty in the ancient wells of prayer.” Roma Waterman

A House of Prayer, On Vancouver Island, on an Ancient Well of the Spirit.

Yes Lord, Yes.

Ancient Wells of the Spirit

I heard the Lord speak this to my spirit last fall. I’d been hearing that a future House of Prayer was to be on Vancouver Island. And then perceived, ‘On an ancient well of the Spirit.’

Now, I grew up baptist. And even though I am pretty charismatic today I don’t run in prophetic or charismatic circles. So, I didn’t even know if ‘ancient wells of the spirit’ was a thing, had never heard this term at all, yet felt the resonance of the Spirit strong in this thought.

I waited a couple of months until January of this year to google ‘ancient wells of the spirit’ and there, lo and behold, many links and articles. “Okay, so, this is a legit thing.” Cool, Very cool.

But still, I didn’t read any of the articles or watch any YouTube videos. I try not to clutter my head with the thoughts of others. I really and simply want to hear from the Lord, particularly when there is a new something on the horizon.

Then, this week a friend of a friend gave some insights, thoughts and wisdoms, knowledge and understanding, about ancient wells of the Spirit.

Let me tell you what I have learned so far. These appear to be thin spots in the atmosphere between heaven and earth. Places in the world where angelic beings can move freely between the two and where people on earth realize a special connection with heaven and with the Lord. This is my two-day-old knowledge summary.

“Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.” Proverbs 8:34

I find a number of dots connecting in this new awareness. At Capturing Courage we have story after story through all the years of international ministry and of the Lord ministering to folks way beyond what we could have managed or even imagined.

In preparation for a house of prayer the Lord has been reminding me of what we have already been seeing and experiencing, with a finger pointing forward to expect more of the same but even more; the feeling has been that God wants to burst forth among us. To put it mildly.

“I realize I have been living a careless life. God wants intimacy with me. I am coming back to God. And we will do great things together,” a Pastor in Uganda

“I learned to touch the heart of God,” a Young Man who studied our Module ONE, College of Capturing Courage

“I have learned how to pray. I now feel connected to heaven.” a Wife to one of the pastors teaching our course.

Yes Lord! Yes.

More testimonies of the Lord can be found HERE

Most recently, all of our praying and sitting with the Lord, all of our conversations and inquiry to the Lord, has been preparing our hearts for more of Him; he is touching deeper places, healing pre-verbal wounds, aligning our expectations with his great heart, and calling us to set down all resistance to his everlasting love.

The last two weeks on this road, camping, ministry time have quieted our hearts and minds to be open to more of the Lord’s touch within, a shifting of old stories and lies unto fresh truths; we are slowly becoming more of a match for the good things of God.

With all this in mind, it makes sense for God to be directing us to a spot on earth whereby all manner of the Lord in our midst can be multiplied out for his glory and for our future and delight; what a good, good God we serve!

We want more of the Lord. Come Lord Jesus Come.

Holy Spirit, be in our midst.

Father God, we love you.

God, it is you we want.