When I was a sophomore in high school, my older brother started a prayer group that met before school began every day for about 10 minutes. We’d go through a verse and then break up into small groups and pray for people’s needs. My brother passed the leadership on to my friend Matt, who’s now a pastor. Matt passed it on to me the next year when I was a senior, and then I ended up passing down leadership to his younger brother Mark.

The summer before my senior year, my amazing mom gave me a book called, “Could You Not Tarry One Hour, learning the joy of prayer” by Larry Lea. This book changed my life. He taught in the book to use what we call the Lord’s Prayer as a model prayer or outline of what to pray for. I started waking up an extra hour earlier my entire senior year of high school to go walk and pray through the outline of the Lord’s prayer.

Let’s read the prayer now:

“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV)

My spiritual life started taking off, and I felt the Lord calling me to help out with a church plant, Riverbend Baptist Church in Fulshear, TX a town just outside of Katy, where I lived. I helped out their prayer team as well as children’s ministry. 

Praying for My Future Wife

It was during this time that I started praying for Cherise. I called her “my future wife.” I remember very clearly one night, the Holy Spirit said to me, “Pray for your wife.” Puzzled, I felt His prompting again, “Pray for your wife.” This was the fall of 1999, one of the hardest times in Cherise’s life. I prayed and prayed for her, for her to be comforted by the Lord, for her to have peace, and to know that she is deeply loved by God, and that I already loved her. 

Now, I didn’t find this out until years and years later, but the Holy Spirit used Cherise’s future husband to pray over her like a husband does, because I was already her husband as far as God was concerned. I already had the spiritual authority in her life; it just hadn’t happened in the natural yet. But it was very real in the spirit.

Husbands, Pray!

Husbands and future husbands, your prayers for your wife are very important. You are a spiritual roof over their heads. God designed you to take the brunt of the world and of the attacks, because you’re a roof. Put some tar on you and some nails through you, and you’re just fine. Blast some sun, bring the rain and hail, maybe some wind and snow and ice – no problem. You’re a roof. That’s who God made you to be for your wife.

Your wives or future wives are like finely crafted wooden furniture from the 1700s. Have any of you seen these wooden masterpieces? We’ve seen several in different castles scattered all around Ireland. The craftsmanship is superb. Men, your wives are like that. They need to be covered because they are beautiful pieces of furniture that weren’t made to take the abuses of the world and the attacks of the enemy. This is a picture of spiritual authority. The roof doesn’t lord it over the furniture, even though the roof is above all the furniture. Actually, the roof hardly gets noticed because the furniture is so beautiful and wonderful. Be that for your wives, men. It’s how you serve and how you lay down your life for them, like the True Husband does, Jesus Christ our Savior!

DL Moody Prayer

Well, many years later in 2013 we were living in NM, going to a church called Calvary Chapel Rio Rancho. At the men’s retreat that year, they passed out cards with this prayer on it, from DL Moody. It read:

“Lord, please make me: a fully surrendered man, a man of prayer, a deep and practical student of God’s word, a humble man, a man totally free from the love of money, a man with a consuming passion for the lost, a man baptized with the Holy Spirit, and a man after your own heart.”

I started praying this prayer and agreeing with this prayer over my life. 

Let me tell you: this is a prayer that the Lord loves to answer!

You Choose

A year later, we were living in the country of Ireland. I was going through culture stress, a long-term version of culture shock. I was scared of losing it all, of doing the wrong thing, of screwing everything up. My fear was that I would make the wrong decisions and would destroy my family. And guess what? I wasn’t doing ANYTHING wrong. Nothing. 

In fact, I was getting up early to be with the Lord, working out, and hanging out with my family and our new friends, who became like family. But I didn’t know what was to become of me. Where were we going back to? We felt called to live in Austin, TX, but there was no job opportunity. I studied and read and prayed through the book of Proverbs over and over looking for wisdom, something, anything.

Do you know what Cherise was praying for me at the time?

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:12 ESV)

 “Restore to Brett the joy of his salvation, O God, and uphold him with a willing spirit.” 

Wives, Pray!

Wives, do you know your prayers for your husband are super special? They are powerful! Did you know that God answers the prayers of praying wives? He does! He answered Cherise’s prayers! 

And this doesn’t even get into the story about how before we met she prayed and asked for a husband to meet a very specific list. Cherise was ridiculed by friends and family, even pastors, for having a specific list of requirements for a husband. Well, do you know who had the last laugh? God! And Cherise! And me!

My Provider

Well, in Ireland, as I was crying out for wisdom from the Lord, He gave me wisdom. Through various methods, the Lord said to me clearly 3 times, “You choose.” I remember praying back to Him, “No, Lord, You choose! I want what you want. Choose for me.” But He didn’t.

Either the next day or a couple days later, while I was studying Proverbs, I heard the Lord say to me, “You’re trusting in Intel Corporation as your provider.” Do you know what that’s called, Friends? Idolatry!

And do you know what my response was? “Oh crap!”

A few seconds later, because, you know, I’m a quicker learner, I prayed, “Lord, I repent for trusting in Intel Corporation as my provider. I trust in You as my Provider. And I believe you are leading us to Austin, TX. We’re going there, whether I have a job or not. I trust that you’ll work it out.”

After this decision I was a new man. Cherise was amazed that I was so sure of myself after that. She’s like, “Where did my husband go, and who is this man?” But she knew already. The Lord had already told her; she was just waiting on me to catch up. 

Wives, be patient like Cherise. Pray fervently for your husbands to catch up with what the Lord already told you! God has his reasons for not letting us men know until it’s the right time. (I think it has a lot to do with focus, and the one-track-mind, you know?)

Life in TX

Well, we moved to TX. Here’s a prayer I wrote down in April 2016, a month before I got my current job:

“Lord Jesus, You are my King and my God, a declaration I make just like Thomas did. Be the King of my life. Help me to be Your faithful servant. I want to live by faith, day by day, in You! Be the God of my life. Guide and direct me through Your Word and through circumstances. Help me to know Your voice and obey immediately. Use me to further Your Kingdom, to make disciples of Christ. Amen!”

Prayer became a more important part of our family. Every time I went on an interview in that 11 months without a job, we would stop as a family and pray. On my first day of work, we prayed and thanked the Lord for my job, and I went off to work. On the second day of work, Cherise and I looked at each other, and then we prayed again before I left. We now pray before every day, calling it “Pause ‘n’ Pray” because we told the kids to pause what they were doing or watching and come pray as a family.

But Wait, There’s More

Things were going well, but I was still pursuing God for more. I knew there was more, because I read stories of miracles and signs and wonders. I heard about revivals and the Holy Spirit being poured out on people.

When a friend of mine invited me to pray on Saturday mornings in January 2018, I didn’t know my life was going to change because of it. By May 2018, I heard the Lord tell me one Saturday morning, “I want to give you a vision.” I responded to the Lord, “Wow, a vision. Do you think I’m ready for that?” The Lord told me it was going to rock my world.

And it did! The Lord used the vision from that day to conquer fear in my life in a new way. That’s also the day that my friends laid their hands on me to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

Resistance Will Come

Now, someone recently “suggested” that this most precious and exciting moment of my life was the point in time when everything started going wrong, where I started to get off track, being led astray by demons. This is the exact opposite of what really happened. This is when I really started taking off spiritually, like a rocket! (By the way, for those in the know, this is a false timeline attack.) 

And here’s another great lesson: when you press into the Lord through prayer, you will hit spiritual resistance big time! Why? Because prayer is powerful! The devil is scared to death when we wake up and start praying.

The Apostle James tells us:

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16b

More Visions

A month and a half later, the Lord gave me a tour of Heaven in a vision during prayer. This was my first experience of going in the spirit to Third Heaven, as Paul mentions in 2 Cor. 12:2. (By the way, this testimony will be revealed in a future book!)

By October of 2018, I started praying for an hour every day of the week with 3 other men in addition to the 3 hours on Saturdays and any other prayer times at various church meetings. That same month I got appointed to Men’s Ministry leadership. I also joined the prayer team at The Fellowship Church in Round Rock.

All through this time, my spiritual life was skyrocketing. I was seeing visions every week in prayer consistently. I started writing them down faithfully and now have hundreds of pages of vision notes. The Lord started using these visions in ministry, and people were getting positively affected by the Holy Spirit through them.

Word of Testimony

By May of 2020, I helped start an outdoor church called Amazed. Cherise and I also became prayer coordinators for a ministry called Pivot, who helps rescue women and children from sex trafficking. I sent out periodic prayer emails, getting the body of Christ across the US to pray specifically for each request and need.

I saw a man’s back get healed during a prayer and healing meeting in May of 2021. And in March of 2022, we started Overflow Ministries. The Lord confirmed the start of this ministry 7 different ways in one day, 2/22/2022. Two of those ways were through visions I had recorded in the summer of 2021.

Over the past two years, I have only increased the time and fervency spent in prayer. I have seen some amazing things happen. I’ve had angelic visits and fought epic battles in the spirit. I’ve been to places and seen things in the spiritual realm.

And guess what? It’s still not slowing down. The Lord is continuing to show me more and more. The Lord gave me a 3-page download last Thursday, just Him talking to me. It was 1400 words of God speaking… to me!

So What?

Now why did I just tell you this massive testimony of prayer? Well, partly so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve learned that this is important. 

But it also builds faith. Because I believe that what the Lord has done in me and through me is something that He wants to do through every person reading these words. He wants to rock your world with dreams and visions and encounters with the Holy Spirit! 

It starts with prayer. It starts with spending time with God. It’s not just reading the Bible or listening to worship music. It’s purposely spending time focused on God in prayer. Praying out loud is powerful, by the way.

Start Praying

So I encourage you, dear Friend, start praying. Talk to God. Pray through Scripture, especially the Psalms. (There’s an example of praying through Psalm 23 at the end of this post, the Closing Prayer. Also, this Psalm 91 Prayer is excellent.) 

Pray through the Apostolic prayers in the NT (Ephesians 1:17-23, Ephesians 3:14-21, Colossians 1:9-14, Philippians 1:9-11, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3).

I encourage and implore you, get praying! Your life will never be the same.