Blog

Audio: CBN Interview with Jack

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:21:24 -0500

With Gordon Roberts, Marguerite Evans and special guest Duncan Smith of Catch the Fire Ministries.

Never a bad thought about me?

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:37:17 -0400

Did you know that the Father has never had a bad thought about you?

Many O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered. Ps 40:5 (amplified)

Wow! God's thoughts are flowing towards us all the time. He's always thinking of us and desiring good for us, each one. It's amazing to think that He is SO big He can be doing that toward every person on the entire planet, all the time.

If that's true, then how do I "tune" in to what He's saying and thinking? This is where soaking prayer comes in. As we quiet ourselves down to rest in His Presence we make ourselves available to listen and receive what God is saying towards us. As we take intentional time, even just 10 or 15 minutes, to set everything else aside and just avail ourselves to Him, He wants us to receive His flowing thoughts of love towards us.

A visual that helps me think about how this works is a satellite dish. We have Direct tv and so we have a dish on the side of our house. When the dish got set up it had to be pointed in just the right direction to receive the signal that is being sent out so we can receive the channels we want on our tv.

Our hearts are like that satellite dish. It's our part to position them in the right direction to receive the Father's "signals" towards us. His thoughts are going out all the time. Just like the tv signals, we don't see them with our eyes, but they are there and when your dish is pointed properly, you get it. It's helpful to think of ourselves as the "receiver" and God the "giver".

A few things that help get our hearts in a position to receive are saying things like this to God. "I trust you. I need you. I open my heart to you. Fill me with your life and love. I'm here just for You, to love you and be loved by you. I love your Presence. Have your way in me."

In my experience, it's a hungry and open heart that receives very easily. One day when I was leading soaking prayer, very few people showed up. I was wondering if perhaps we should change the time, day or location b/c so few were attending at that time. When the 3 of us began to welcome the Holy Spirit and receive what God has for us that morning, His Presence came so lovingly and tangibly I was blown away.
I asked the Lord, "Why are you here so powerfully this morning, there are only 3 of us here and I just didn't expect it?" He said to me, "All it takes is one hungry heart to draw my Presence." I knew the hungry heart that day was Milt. His hunger to receive more of God's life and love was evident.

At the end of a wonderful hour in God's presence where I personally received one of the most powerful visions I have ever seen, Milt and I were just in awe of God's tangible presence in the room. I told him the conversation I'd had with God about why His Presence was so strong that day, and that God had told me that it was Milt's open and hungry heart that drew His presence. Milt began to weep. He explained to me what I did not know, which was that he had to travel across town, changing buses 2 times, taking a total of an hour and a half to get to soaking prayer. He was discouraged in the morning and began to think he didn't want to make the long trek to soaking prayer, but he felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit that it was worth it to go. So he did. During the time we were resting in God's presence something wonderful and miraculous had happened to Milt. He was a Vietnam Vet, something I also didn't know until that morning when he shared this with me. Milt said he didn't know how it happened but as we received God's love flowing towards us that morning, the post traumatic stress syndrome that he suffered from all these years, just lifted. He couldn’t even describe it or explain it, he just knew that what had been there for so many years was just gone.

We rejoiced through tears that morning how wonderful God's works and how powerful his thoughts of love towards us are when we receive them.

That morning continues to remind me to open my heart and express my hunger and longing for God's love and presence when I come to soaking prayer. It continues to remind me how our God is a God who goes after the "one". His concern for each of us is so individual and loving, as if we were the only one on the planet.

So, set your heart to receive all God has for you as you come to Him in soaking prayer. He's thinking so many thoughts of love and goodness toward you, you'll be amazed and changed forever as you receive them.

Amber Colored Honey

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:46:03 -0400

The first night of the How to Hear God’s Voice conference, when we began worshipping I saw all of the rooms of the conference center covered with a thick, amber colored honey. It was very viscous like. It was a rich deep, amber color with great depth to it and with splashes of gold in it. It was very vibrant and alive. Later on when we were praying over people, I saw it again. The honey was so thick and heavy that it would "plop off" of the walls and drip on someone nearby. It also had an effect of being like a cocoon on the room. It was a very safe place to be in. I knew we would have the freedom to worship however we wanted. It was like being in a "moon bounce". You could bounce around, do whatever you want and the walls of the honey would keep you safe.

Then on Saturday before the last worship session I saw it again and I asked what does it mean Lord?

"My love for all of you is so sweet. My love is sweet as honey, my presence in this place is thick and viscous. Let my presence drip all over you. Stay under it's weight. Let it cling to you as honey clings to whatever surface it lands on. It won't wipe off easily. It is sticky and clings. My love. My presence sticks. It clings to you. It is weighty. It has depth to it. My love for you is sweet and weighty at the same time. Let it cover and coat you."

Then at the end of the evening I saw it again but this time it was different. Around the four corners of the room there were four angels with long, trumpets sounding a loud blast. At this time in worship I just wanted to shout. I felt like the sound of the long trumpets were a declaration of "Breakthrough" and "Victory". These were the words running through my mind as I shouted. Then the room became like a castle. The four walls were a bricked castle/fortress and the four angels were at the four corners with their horns. We all were in the middle of the castle worshipping the Lord, just as we were at that moment. But then I saw the walls of the inside of the castle. . . they were the amber colored honey, dripping all around the inside of the castle. The sense I had was that as we were leaving the weekend that a great "breakthrough" and "victory" had occurred.

How much more?

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:15:34 -0400

The scripture that flooded to my mind as I watched this video for the first time was, Luke 11:13 – If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, HOW MUCH MORE, will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.
The impacting words being, HOW MUCH MORE. I saw in Dick Hoyt, an earthly father’s amazing love for his son. A love that compelled him beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary. He does it because it makes his son feel alive and it gives him joy. I’ve even read that many have encouraged Dick to run a marathon or triathlon himself, because surely without pushing a stroller, or dragging a raft, or having another body on his bike he could finish really well. Dick simply said, “I do it for him.” Dick has sacrificed and worked his own body to unimaginable lengths to give his son and continue to give his son this amazing gift.
Though this is not the Hoyt’s intentional message, the message of the love of our Heavenly Father and the lengths He has gone to give us the Holy Spirit and every good gift speaks through their lives to my heart. I can’t watch the video without realizing that I need to know my Heavenly Father who loves me so much He sacrificed his beloved Son, so that I could be reunited with Him, forgiven and free – free now to live in a relationship where nothing has to separate me from this Love ever again (rms8).
This is what soaking prayer is all about. We give our Father the opportunity to pour out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We welcome the Holy Spirit whose role it is to reveal the love of the Father to us, and pour that love into our hearts, so we know we are HIS children, and cry out “Abba”, (Daddy). (RM 8, Gal 4). We realize we are so desperately malnourished of the Father’s love. As we spend time with Him, saying things like, “Have your way. Come Holy Spirit and fill us again. We need MORE of you.”; His presence comes, His love is poured into our hearts, we are filled again and again with the Holy Spirit, we hear His voice, our hearts get healed, we move into a deeper relationship with Him, and we leave different than when we arrived.
Dare to find out HOW MUCH MORE the Father has for you – you’ll never be the same!!
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Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."
The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."
A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.
When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.
In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."

Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"
Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system code named "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.
Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.

Excerpt from article “Team Hoyt, Racing Towards Inclusion” by David Tereshchuk

Testimony on Intimacy with God

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:48:37 -0400

Recently I set myself a personal goal: to know deeper intimacy with Jesus during the coming year. More than ever in my life—and probably especially because I was in pain from the collapse of some close relationships—I thirsted to know his love. “Why did things fall apart the way they did?” I would ask myself. “What did I do wrong?”
I tried to sort through the pain of these broken relationships as I had always worked through difficulties: by pushing myself to get closer to the Lord in the hopes that he would heal me. I prayed every day. I read Scripture. Still, I wasn’t experiencing the love of the Lord in the intimate, personal way that I so wanted. My knowledge seemed indirect—“mediated” through the words or witnesses of other people rather than flowing from a more immediate relationship.
In response, I multiplied my efforts, but still nothing broke the sadness in me or brought me any sense of consolation from God. I walked away from every prayer time feeling frustrated and anxious. “I’m not getting it,” I’d tell the Lord. “What’s the problem? Maybe I should just resign myself to living with these wounds for the rest of my life.”
Then, one evening in May, I finally poured out my heart to a friend. “You’re working too hard,” he said. “When you pray, don’t try to analyze everything—and especially don’t try to figure out what went wrong to cause these friends to turn on you. Prayer is a time to touch the Lord, not necessarily to work out all your problems. Instead, just breathe deeply, say the name of Jesus a few times, and relax. Picture him in your mind, or some image related to him, and let your imagination go. You may be surprised with how much the Holy Spirit can do with a quiet heart.”
So the next day, when I sat down to pray, I recalled a passage from Ezekiel that pictured God’s love like a small stream that becomes a river powerful enough to bear you up and draw you into his presence (Ezekiel 47:1-12). “Okay,” I said. “I’ll just imagine a little brook.” Then, trying my best to relax, I took a few deep breaths and asked Jesus to be with me.
In my mind, I pictured cool, clear water bubbling up around my feet and tried to imagine how refreshing that water would feel. Then the most amazing thing happened. The image of my feet standing in a little brook shifted to an image of Jesus kneeling before me, pouring water over my feet instead. I could see that my feet were bloodied and bruised, and that bits of glass and jagged thorns were lodged in them. And there was Jesus, bent over my feet with a look of great compassion and concern. He gently began to pick out all the junk and wash the blood away. He even kissed my feet.
Then, his words pierced me to the heart. “You are already clean. Yes, you have suffered a painful loss, but it didn’t happen because I am punishing you. It didn’t happen because you’re no good. All you need is for me to pick out the little shards and splinters that you’ve picked up. These shards and splinters are the inevitable result of trying to follow me in a fallen world.”
I felt such love at that moment, and such a conviction that everything was going to be all right. I just needed to let Jesus minister to me, and that was a whole new revelation. For years I had been a hard worker, especially when it came to the spiritual life. I was going to be the one to achieve holiness. I was the one who would make myself useful and pleasing to the Lord. But now that I had come to the end of my rope, I discovered that all my striving and hard work were as nothing compared to the love and grace Jesus wanted to pour over me. Even if I never put in another marathon of prayer and Scripture reading, even if I never made one more sacrifice of self-denial, Jesus would still love me. He would still call me his beloved son.
I wouldn’t exactly call this a mystical vision. It was more an image in my mind and an impression on my heart. There was no real water, and there were no audible words. But the sense of peace and calm was definitely real.
That one prayer time revolutionized the way I thought about God and about myself. It helped me to accept that I had failings and wounds and weaknesses, but that none of them kept God from loving me and wanting to bless me. Without giving up the fight against sin, I stopped striving to earn his love.
My prayer life changed dramatically as well. I stopped worrying about whether or not I would experience God’s presence or blessing in prayer. I stopped fretting over whether I was praying long enough or hard enough. Instead, my attitude became, “Here I am, Lord. What do you want to do in me today?”
I may pray a psalm, read a Scripture passage, sing a few songs, repent, or reflect—whatever I feel inclined to do. And even if I don’t “feel” Jesus’ blessing, I still know that he is with me, pouring out love. How do I know this? Because when I was at my most needy and at my least able to earn his grace, he washed my feet and told me I was clean. Now I know that there’s nothing like relaxing and enjoying the peace that comes from being a son of God.

The Prodigal Son

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:15:06 -0400

The Son, hungry and alone in a time of famine. Fed up with starvation thinking “I don’t have to live like this” he decides to return home to his Father as a slave, a hired worker. It’s clear he didn’t know the character of the Father and expects judgment.
The father, longing for his child, searches the horizon in hopes of his return then sees him “while he was still a long way off”. “Filled with compassion” the Father “ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Instead of judgment he receives only love, compassion and gifts from the Father. Our father longs to be with us, waiting to love on us and pour out all the treasures of heaven on us. His love is constant and perfect, never lacking or withheld. Never earned always free and abundant.
We always get more than we bargain for. The Son expected a meal and a bed, willing to earn it. Instead the Father lavishes on him the finest clothes and jewels, gathering the household for the finest banquet – they have a party. Our time in his presence should be this wonderful (and fun). Expect it, long for it, wait for it. As children of the King we were created for nothing less. Not a meal, a banquet. Not a jacket, the finest robe and jewels. Let the truth of the Kingdom be our experience in prayer (not the other way around)!

Tom, From Fruit Cove FL

What do you Expect?

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 19:15:23 -0500

I’m so excited lately at all that God is doing in our midst. We continue to have such a blessed time here at our Tuesday soaking meeting, but Wednesday nights at the Jacksonville City Rescue Mission have been nothing short of wonderful. I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said something along the lines of,
“I have never experienced the presence of God like that before in my life.”
“His presence was so real, so tangible. I never knew God is this close.”
“He showed me his love in a way that is beyond what words could ever communicate.”
“His presence is healing me, transforming me and changing my life.”
We have spoken many times that soaking prayer is based on God’s original intention that we, were created for relationship with him. So soaking prayer is less about an event and more about knowing the presence of God in an on-going way as our relationship with him grows. Whatever our past experience, we need to think of the presence of God in our live less as a “touch” and more as a “FLOW”.
One of the byproducts of soaking is an increase in expectation from this very flow. I’ve shared of how my wife now has this facial expression that says, “who are you and what have you done with my husband?” I’m naturally more on the shy side, and way more prone to think it is not my place to bother anyone. But when I realize that presence of God surrounds me, everything changes. There is an expectancy and hope and anticipation that was never there before. Opportunities to share his love become apparent, when otherwise I might just walk right by. His love in us, seizes these opportunities and we just go for it! – because we love it. True love is always going out from itself and His love, poured into our hearts, is no exception.
Before this meeting tonight, God impressed upon me that his eternal Goodness is the basis and foundation of all our expectancy. He is perfectly good, infinitely good and good yesterday, today and forever. When we experience this in His presence, we are truly moved and speak things like,
“Only good things come from your hand and therefore I trust you with my very life. I so want to receive what you have for me tonight. You know exactly what I need and you give without limit or measure. You give what my mind could never grasp. I love you Father and seek your tender embrace. Have your way with me tonight.”
As we move into prayer tonight, what is our expectancy level? The more clear we are about the goodness of God at any given moment, the more expectation we have about what he is prepared to do. An even better question is what is our grasp of His Goodness -- right now? That Goodness that is the same, yesterday, today – and forever? We think it is true, but we KNOW it is true and experience it as we come into His presence. No matter what today was like, let’s enter deeper into His presence and experience the reality of His Goodness as we proclaim, “Abba, Father.” Tonight, we are going to see a ground-swell of expectancy that can only come from the presence of Our God, the God of the impossible!
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PS: It was an awesome night of soaking in His presence.

It’s all about His Presence

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:06:51 -0500

Jack and I have three young daughters, 11, 9, and 4 years old. Last week we were out of town for 7 days without them. One of our best friends was staying with them so they were well taken care of, almost a vacation of sorts because they love her so much and have so much fun with her. We phoned or emailed daily. On day 5 we received an email from Ana, our 9 year old, letting us know how much fun they were having but “it doesn’t feel right when you’re not here.” This of course tugged at our parental heartstrings but more so reminded me that this is even more true about my Heavenly Father’s presence.
We were created for intimate fellowship with God. We actually all hunger for this deep in our hearts because we were designed for it. Jesus died, rose, ascended and sent the Holy Spirit for this very purpose, to bring us back into relationship, right into the very heart of the love that is found between the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (see John 14:15- 15:17).
I’m grateful for the telephone and email so that we can keep in touch long distance when we are away from our girls. But it’s not the same as being there - seeing their faces, hugging them, sensing what’s going on in their hearts and minds, watching them play and learn, talking about their day, praying with them, feeding them, being there if they need help, and simply enjoying each other. Ana wasn’t doubting our love, but missing our presence.
What I love about soaking prayer is that it’s my intentional time to spend with God - Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. It’s about not settling for a long distance relationship, knowing He loves me but not experiencing His presence. Abundant life with Him is meant to be abiding in a continuous flow of life and presence, not occasional touches from time to time. Soaking prayer maintains and builds that intimate connection, heart to heart. It just doesn’t feel right anymore when I don’t experience and live in His presence. I hunger for that more and more each day.
Have you soaked in His presence today?

James from Jacksonville, FL

Sun, 8 Feb 2009 10:52:34 -0500

I was first introduced to soaking prayer by Theresa and Jack Difato at one of their Tuesday Night soaking meetings.
I remember the first night I went. I experienced God in a way like I had never before. I was shown three particularly wonderful things that night:
• That God is my father.
• That Jesus is my brother and friend.
• That I am God's son, and that I share in the inheritance of Jesus Christ.
It was probably one of the most profound and moving experiences of my life so far. I've been going ever since.

Carly from Jacksonville, FL

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:51:24 -0500

A recent soaking prayer meeting was a REALLY powerful night for me. I was laying there and worshipping "as normal" and was really asking the Lord to really show me his love. I know it, I have felt it before, but I really wanted just to know his powerful love. In a little bit, I was reminded of this word my husband’s mom shared with me about a picture of heaven she had read about. She said that heaven is like when you enter a party and you don't know where to sit but then you see someone you know and they have saved a seat for you. When we enter heaven, Jesus is going to be welcoming us and have a seat prepared for us, like he had been waiting for us the whole time. She had shared that a while ago, but it was just a nice story. But the Lord brought me back to that word and literally I was walking into heaven with Jesus' arms open and welcoming me. I was feeling the most love and acceptance and joy in that moment. I felt like I was right there with Jesus. All my wounds from lack of love from my earthly father and any guys in the past was restored by the love of Jesus. I had this thought in my heart wondering if my dad was going to be there when I entered into heaven. My earthly response was "no, he probably won't." And immediately, I had a picture of my dad being there in heaven with the restoration power of Jesus and that was FAR FAR FAR better than the earthy response of him not deserving it, or whatever we think in the place of hurt. I was able to feel complete restoration from both my part and my father's part in the presence of Jesus in heaven, where there is no hurt and no darkness. It gave me a new desire to see my dad come to know the Lord b/c of the beautiful picture Jesus showed me of TRUE restoration and what He desires and has made accessible for all his people. It was incredible!!!!!

Carly, FL