Power with God in prayer

ATTENTION:

Hey everyone, today’s post is so raw, vulnerable, and CURRENT that I wanted to do something different- provide you with a voice recording of me sharing it, as a real person. I hope you will take the time to listen… otherwise, you can scroll down and read as normal. Enjoy. And remember…. what the enemy means for evil, God ALWAYS means for good. And this is one story we are just getting started on.

In January of 2025 the Lord gave me Ephesians 3:20 as my verse for the year.

It is such a powerhouse of a verse and I leaned into it with everything I had.

As I meditated on the verse, studied, and pulled Scripture together, I began to detox my life to prepare room for what God might do as a result of praying and obeying this verse.

I got so excited about prayer, I ended up creating a template for praying God’s word over any request I might have.

I taught this framework inside my private community and as the year progressed, we began to go all out, minimizing distractions in our lives, taking more time to pray, and making space for God as we sought His face.

My book, The Life You Almost Lived, came from this season as well.

And then… the pushback came.

Based on what I now understand in Scripture (and I can make a scriptural case for this, just not here and now for time and intent of this particular entry), I imagine the hordes of evil saw what impact we were making and stood before the throne of God. The accuser and his evil hordes asked to sift me like wheat.

Perhaps they said something like, “She loves you now. She serves you now. She’s all high and mighty with her little goody girl club. But if you allowed us just one little encounter with her, just one little pretense, we could snap her up and destroy her. Just one lie would topple her so fast and entwine her in our web. That’s all it would take.”

And for some reason, for reasons I am still uncovering with God, He said, “Okay.”

And on March 30, 2025, after having a blessed time with God before church and a wonderful time of worship in choir practice, I was so full of Jesus, so ready for what He had for me, so FULL, that I walked out of the women’s bathroom at church and immediately sidled up to by the devil.

But I thought it was God.

I thought it was the God opportunity that I’d been anticipating, asking for. I thought He wanted me to show His love and share the gospel and see Him work miracles.

For months, I thought God was doing great things.

Oh yes, the devil came as an angel of light.

Over the next 11 months, he embedded himself in our family bit by bit, minute by minute, day by day and piece by piece. He sat at our table, shared vehicles, took over my time, my attention, wormed his way into our affections, deceived, manipulated and even burrowed himself into my psyche.

And I didn’t even know it.

Until the week of February 16, 2026.

That’s when God said, “That’s enough,” and the scariest thing of my entire life happened. God opened my eyes to see everything for what it was.

Alone in a hotel room 200 miles away from home, I realized that I had been stalked by a very dangerous person, targeted, and manipulated by pure evil for the purpose of destroying my life.

And there, miles from home, my life had miraculously been spared by God.

It wasn’t God that day outside the bathroom at church.

It wasn’t God for all those months I thought miraculous things were happening.

It was the devil.

I was left broken. Crushed. Face down in the mud. DESTROYED.

My family was left devastated.

My church was left stunned.

None of us will ever be the same.

And that’s a good thing.

A very, very, very good thing.

While this is the most costly thing, the most painful and devastating thing I’ve ever been through, I’m finding it is also the most rewarding.

Because you know how when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray at first He said, “When you pray, pray like this” then proceeded with the Lord’s prayer?

Well something amazing happens right after that in Luke 11.

Jesus taught them {I believe more importantly,} the kind of person to BE in order to be heard in prayer.

You see, it wasn’t enough for me to just learn how to pray. To map out my prayer strategy and pray Scriptures back to Him.

My precious God and King, who does all things well and who is perfect in all His ways, wanted me to BECOME the kind of PERSON He responds to. (See Luke 11:1-13)

He wants me to have spiritual grit.

Spiritual growl.

Spiritual moxie.

We focus a lot on HOW to pray… methods and templates and words and prompts and those are all good!

But I have never once been taught on how to become a different kind of PERSON, the kind of PERSON so broken and desperate and emptied yet so tenacious and bold and daring that God responds to… one transformed into a spiritual warrior from the inside out, one who grabs ahold, beats back the enemy and DOES. NOT. LET. GO. OF THE VICTORY.

The NIV translates Jesus’ words describing this person as “SHAMELESSLY AUDACIOUS.”

God allowed me to be absolutely destroyed, so broken that I have nothing to hold precious, in order to cultivate a shameless audacity in me.

People scoff? I don’t care.

It’s outside the “norm” of what Christians expect or accept? I don’t care.

No one else does it the way I do? I don’t care.

You see, for me, it was two very different things to know what to say when I pray and to be someone who shamelessly grabs hold of the hem of God, despises any social shame or expectations, who breaks out of cultural and familial paradigms and audaciously asks, seeks, and knocks until He answers.

Two totally different things.

And after Feb of this year, it was like God was whispering to my heart, “AJ, you remember last year when you prayed so hard? Well daughter, I heard you.

And I grew so tired of your boring-ness. Your timidity. Your small vision. Your tiny imagination. The box you put both me and you in. Yawn yawn yawn.

I’m the one who imagined the sun and gives source to it’s light. I’m the one who keeps Leviathan as a pet. I’m the one who watches, tends to, and feeds trillions of creatures across the globe just for fun, who knows the number of hairs on every head in existence. And… well my girl, I’m on the lookout for some shameless audacity. Think you have it in you?”

To which I said, “Lord, I have nothing, I am nothing. I’m face planted, covered in mud, with nothing left. I certainly have nothing to lose. No possession, no reputation, no relationship, no hope or dream, no appearance to keep up. So let’s do it. Make me shamelessly audacious!”

And He accepted my ridiculousness and utter nothingness and off we went.

It’s one thing to learn how to pray.

It’s quite another to become an entirely different KIND of person before God, yourself, and others.

Over the last 6 months God has been teaching and I have been learning and oh what an incredible, fun, jaw-dropping, amazing adventure it has been, one I am EAGER to share with you before I get too far down this journey!

In fact, I don’t know if I have ever been as full of anticipation at what God will do than I am with THIS because this lesson has been so extremely painful and difficult and heartbreaking and unbelievable and huge. (and I’ve been in ministry a very long time at this point. I’ve done a lot of “things” and had a lot of anticipation.)

This is, quite simply, an invitation for you to become a shamelessly audacious person together alongside me, one God responds to. In spirit, in prayer, and in person.

It doesn’t matter your age.

It doesn’t matter your spiritual “status” or if you struggle in prayer or lead amazing prayer gatherings.

All that matters is whether or not you are brave enough to accept the invite of Scripture, to take the first step to becoming the kind of person who is shamelessly audacious.

To move beyond the how of prayer to the personal transformation.

You don’t have to go through what I did. You just need to respond to that spark of curiosity you feel right now, the ache for something more, the invite to step outside the comfort of “normal” and “ordinary.”

Be brave. Join me please?

I will be teaching this class on Zoom next month (September) and early registration opens TOMORROW for those who are paid subscribers.

IF YOU ARE A PAID SUBSCRIBER: Mark your alarm clocks for 10am EST tomorrow! You will receive an email tomorrow at 10am EST with details and a link to register PLUS a coupon code for 55% off the course. 🙌 This is my way of saying THANK YOU for supporting my work and ministry.

IF YOU ARE NOT A PAID SUBSCRIBER: Don’t wait! Because you will only receive an email next Friday with course details and a link to register if there are still seats available. You will then have the opportunity to register, although it will be at full, regular price.

If you would like access to early registration and the 55% savings on this course, be sure to upgrade to a paid subscription NOW. Your chance to register will arrive in your email in the morning!

Until then…

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory…” John 15:7-8

(For those who feel intimidated right now, see also Luke 18:1-8, II Chronicles 16:9a, James 5:17-19 as you compare what I share here with Scripture. May God cultivate in all our hearts a holy desire to become the kind of person with moxie, that wins in prayer.)

And finally, here’s a little food for thought…