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I want to talk about prayer today

9/16/21 | The Weekly | by Eric Wakeling

    Dear Calvary Family, 

    I want to talk about prayer today. I was deeply impacted by the Spirit of God during a silence and solitude retreat I took in January of this year. I try to take a few days each year to get away and be silent before the Lord in listening prayer. These have always been some of the most pivotal moments in my faith journey and my leadership of Calvary Church. 

    On this last trip I sensed the Lord telling me that we needed to RETURN. This all centered around Christ’s message to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 (NASB95) - “you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.” 

    There was a song called Returning by Jeremy Riddle that I discovered after God began to give me this message. It only came out a couple months prior to my retreat. I ended up listening to that song about 30 times over the next few days. I’d encourage you to check it out here and spend some time prayerfully listening and asking God to speak to you as you listen. 

    • Return to our first love in Jesus and Jesus alone. 
    • Return to our total allegiance and submission to God and His words 
    • Return to the core practices of our faith - prayer, scripture reading, serving those in need, worship, discipleship and community.

    As I processed this time over the next few months, I have felt that the first priority for myself and for our church was to focus on a renewed vigor and desire for prayer. All types of prayer from repentance to intercession to asking God for our personal requests. But even more for activating prayer and listening prayer. 

    Desiree Elrod leads our Prayer Ministry here at Calvary Church and has been teaching and leading prayer experiences on this kind of prayer for many years. I encourage you to find out more about her ministry by emailing

    I will also be leading a group of people through a season of learning about prayer and spiritual authority this year. We will meet for 15 Tuesday nights between now and April 2022. There will be learning, discussion and experience. It will be stretching and we will process through it all as a group.  Find out more about being part of the Understanding Spiritual Authority LifeGroup.

    So my dear brothers and sisters, let’s return to our first love and to a life of prayer and utter dependence on Jesus. This is the only way that we will be able to surrender to Jesus, hear from God, and see the power of God work in and through us here at Calvary. 

    May the Lord bless you and keep you, 
    Eric Wakeling