THE ANCIENT ART OF SHUTAWAY PRAYER
I’ve seen God do more for me and expand His kingdom through me, since I’ve been on my knees shut away in the church praying for 3 years, than I have in my ministry of over 20 years on the field preaching all over the world!! Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling and obeying the great commission and going into all the world to preach the gospel, and I’ve done so all over America and many nations of the world. However, I’ve learned that sometimes our prayer measure for our destiny can be lacking before God. You must understand, I’m not talking about our personal “prayer life,” but our “prayer measure” for destiny, and there’s a difference. In other words, there’s a certain level of intense prayer and fasting God requires from us before we can be ready for Him to perform specific acts He predestined us to in our lives and ministry according to His will!! A lady named Mother Dabney, who was also in the Church of God in Christ movement, shut herself away in prayer (like I am doing now) during the Great Depression, and God blessed her to build a massive church when there was hardly any money flowing!
This generation has lost the art of what it means to really seek God’s face. They definitely don’t know about the ancient seek of God, called shut-away prayer! I learned this kind of prayer when I was 18 from the generation who were in the Church of God and Christ, over 100 years ago, during Bishop Mason’s time! When I went off to college in another city and first met my pastor and apostle named Elder Coaxum, he was over 93 years old, and living strong! He was from the old time generation and Pentecostal movement in 1906 with William J. Seymour and Bishop Mason. I always loved the name of his church! It was called VICTORY CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST! His church was on fire for God and much different than the Church of God in Christ is today, because the church today has lost what they once had. The saints there were on fire! It was Elder Coaxum and his members that first taught me about shutting away in the church, praying for a length of time, before God! I never heard of this type of prayer or saw Christians doing it, until I saw them. I adopted this type of prayer and started doing it in my life and still do today!
Shut away prayer is not just going to the house of God to pray, but when you lock yourself in God’s house, to seek His face and make direct contact with Him like Moses did when he went away upon the mountain with God for 40 days!
THE CHURCH HAS LEARNED ABOUT:
1). Warfare Prayer
2). Intercessory Prayer
3). Fasting & Prayer for Deliverance and Answers
4). The Prayer of Faith
5). Supplication Prayer
6). Wailing Prayer – Wailing Women
7). Groaning Prayer – During a time of Suffering
8). Mourning Prayer – Prayer of Repentance – Turning to God with all Your Heart through Weeping
9). Confession of Sin Prayer
10). 4TH Watch – 3AM Prayer – Getting up Early – Praying until the Break of Day
PRAYER OF HUMBLING – THROUGH A SPIRIT OF BROKENNESS AND A CONTRITE HEART
This specific prayer is to humble oneself from pride. David said, “… I humbled my soul with fasting; And my prayer returned into mine own bosom,” (Psalm 35:13). Jesus said we can pray in pride like the parable of the publican and the Pharisee who both went up to the house of God to pray.. but the Pharisee prayed in pride before God and exalted his righteousness and spiritual works (Luke 18:10-14).
OUR GENERATION HAS LEFT OUT THE ANCIENT ART OF SHUT AWAY PRAYER
The sad thing is, pastors who are ignorant to this type of prayer, have said these things about me, “Why is he in there for 3 years, that’s not in the Bible, it’s not normal! He needs to come out of there! Moses was only there twice for 40 days, etc.” They also say stupid things like, “he’s in there because something must be happening to his ministry!” They say this crap because they are reading the persecution and trash about me on the internet from my enemies! How sad for a pastor or preacher of the gospel to be so weak minded and such a sucker to the devil’s words. God put me in here before the COVID pandemic hit. I was not aware a pandemic was going to hit the world, requiring us to basically shut down everything, when God told me in September of 2019 to start a long shut away prayer inside the church starting in November of the same year! I obeyed and went in November of 2019 just shy of two months before COVID hit the world! It was perfect timing. God told me in the beginning of September to buy a massive LED SCREEN for the stage so I could communicate, from my locked-in place of shut away prayer, with the people from all of the world in my global movement. I didn’t understand this because of two things. One, initially I didn’t know how long I would be inside here. I thought it would be long as in 3-4 months, not over 3 years and still counting. I thought I would be out to do our first big arena crusade in July of 2020. However, God had other plans and allowed a pandemic to hit the whole world, shutting down arenas, businesses, etc. God telling me to buy a massive tv on my ministry platform for hundreds of thousands of dollars was genius! I didn’t understand it at the time and said, “Lord I don’t understand. I like preaching in front of a physical crowd not talking over screen,” but in His genius ways, He was preparing me for a pandemic that was going to hit the world and pastors everywhere would have to communicate by computer to their congregations over zoom! When COVID hit, we were prepared because I got the massive LED screen on the stage by November and my ministry exploded more, unlike other churches and ministries because we were prepared!
I didn’t understand everything initially and like other faith preachers, I thought to hold services against the pandemic and COVID, but the Lord reminded me of how He said, “if I send pestilence or a pandemic over the land then my people are to humble themselves and pray.” Not try to hold services and preach.. humble themselves and pray! Then God showed me how He caused a pandemic in Egypt through Moses’ ministry and even Moses had to stay shut in behind the door until the death angel passed by (Exodus 12)! Some leaders had no divine wisdom about what God was doing and were still trying to fight against God by holding services among the crowds, causing super spreaders. They did not have the wisdom that God teaches in the scriptures. When God allows the death angel to pass by, through a pandemic, it’s not the time to be out preaching it is time to be shut away inside, and seeking God in His presence!!
Moses wasn’t out doing miracle crusades with his staff during Egypt’s pandemic when the death angel passed by. He was behind closed doors with the blood on the door post waiting on God to finish doing what He was doing to that nation! God sent COVID to chastise and as a judgment to the Church, governments, and nations of people in the world, especially America! There’s a scripture that says when God’s wrath comes let us go into our houses until the wrath of God passes (Isaiah 26:20)! The Church just didn’t know how to act or what to do, because they never experienced it and neither did I, but the Lord was correcting my perspective and giving me understanding of what He was doing, as I was shut away before Him!
UNDERSTANDING WHAT SHUT AWAY PRAYER IS AND ITS REWARDS FROM GOD
Many in our generation don’t know this type of prayer because it’s not taught and they say they can’t find it in the Bible! It’s throughout the Bible. Noah, Moses, and others, but the main example I would like to use is ENOCH! The Bible says that by faith, ENOCH walked with God and was translated and did not see death, for he had this testimony that he pleased God. Hebrews 11 goes on to say, But without faith it’s impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek him. Before I studied Enoch’s life, like most Christians, I assumed the next verse stood alone when it talks about without faith it’s impossible to please God. I didn’t know that verse was still referring to the example of Enoch’s life. We are not taught how Enoch’s walk with God actually looked in real time. If you study, it says that he lived a life of shut away prayer, where he locked himself inside a place away from men, to seek God! He did this for long periods of time. One time, he shut away for years, until an angel from God appeared and told him that it was time to show himself to man, and teach them what God taught him. He stayed in the house with his wife but he retired from public ministry to seek the Lord for years. After this long seeking of God, he came out like the angel of God told him to, and the glory of God was shining on his face! After some time of teaching, he would start pulling back into his shut away mode of seeking the Lord. He started out doing it once a week, then one week out of the month, then one month out of the year.. One week out of the whole year he would come out before men to teach, then he only came out of shut away for one day of the whole year to teach men. It changed him and caused God to reward him not only with wisdom (a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine Ecclesiastes 8:1) but with the reward of being translated to heaven before men. The Lord is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6)! Shut-away prayer is a seeking type of prayer and not just an asking or supplication prayer before God. You must understand that Jesus mentioned three dimensions of prayer.. asking, seeking, knocking. The seeking kind of prayer is when you ask until you find. It’s praying to find what is lost or lacking in your life, ministry, or destiny! This kind of seeking prayer through shut-away is vital in life and our destiny.. There are things that are lost or lacking in our life and when we seek God we find them. This type of prayer is also “a separation” type of action. “Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom,” (Proverbs 18:1). Through desire, which is having a hunger for God or something, and having separating himself meddleth and intermingleth with all wisdom. Not some wisdom, ALL WISDOM! When you get all wisdom, you’ll be lacking no wisdom.. The Bible says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth to all men freely without unbraiding (James 1:5). This this type of “prayer seek,” through shut away and being locked-in, causes you to have nothing lacking in your personal life, and especially in the areas of wisdom you need for your life’s assignment and destiny! It creates what the Bible calls a patience in you where you will be lacking nothing or hungering spiritually, because you will be filled with the Lord! More than this, Enoch got spiritual rewards in heaven, on the other side of life, because he diligently sought the Lord. He did not simply seek things from the Lord, but the Bible says he was diligently seeking His person! This can be yours and mine today if we walk in the same steps of faith that Enoch had. His seeking and looking for the Lord personally was intense, and it was diligent!
We must be the same, and even more so, if we want to attain these rewards from the Lord..
WHAT I’M GOING AFTER FROM GOD IN THIS SHUT IN & WHAT I’M PERSONALLY SEEKING HIM TO DO!!
I believe in every shut in, you must have personal requests you want the Lord to do! Besides seeking for more of the Lord personally, seeking His sovereign will, and for God’s kingdom to come on earth, He knows we have personal desires too! God is not selfish about what He wants for us only, but He is open to listen and to fulfill the things on our hearts that we ask for while shut in. You must understand and not confuse a religious spirit or religious thinking, that we’ve been taught in church, deceive you from knowing God wants to fulfill our requests and the desires of our hearts that are within His will for us. We are human and we have things in our heart we want God to fulfill! He said he would give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4)! One major thing I’m in here for Him to fulfill and do is to give me the grace, empowerment, and ability to help people in America receive missing or amputated limbs or other body parts on the spot, in front of the media, whether they lost them through war or another way, as a testament to God’s power!
LOSING THE REWARD OF SHUT AWAY
WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN SHUTTING AWAY SO YOU DON’T LOSE YOUR REWARD
Normally, when God brings something good He wants man to do, either their flesh and evil nature manages to corrupt it, or Satan does! For instance, God instituted His people to pray and fast, but by the time Jesus arrived in the New Testament His people managed to corrupt it with their pride by standing in public squares to be seen fasting and praying so they could have glory before men. Jesus told them it was wrong and they would get no reward of their Father in heaven! It’s the same with shut-away prayer! Don’t let Satan corrupt your sacrifice of doing this kind of prayer before God! It can be corrupted, like Jesus said, when it’s not done in secret before God, but to be seen before men. In my situation, because I would be gone a long time and still had to communicate over screen to the masses, there was no way of doing it in secret… especially since the Lord told me to get the massive screen in the first place, it cancelled that part of it! Men had no other way, but to see me doing this, because God wanted me to surface at times and communicate through online services. The second thing that could cause me to lose my reward is being impatient and coming out of here too soon, like I did once before!
In 2010, I was told by God to do a long shut in like this for 4-6 months. It was the longest shut-away prayer, locked inside the church, I ever did! While I was shut in there, invitations started coming from everywhere! One was from a large church in South Korea with over 70 thousand members each week.. After I completed 4–5 months, I was anxious to come out! Yes, I enjoyed being alone with God, but I was also excited about this massive open door in Seoul, South Korea. It was my first time going and I always loved South Korea just from hearing about one of my mentors who lived there, Dr. David Yonggi Cho! I was going for a younger pastor who came from his church and started his own work with over 70 thousand members. They got my “Face to Face Appearances from Jesus: The Ultimate Intimacy” book and a Face-to-Face outbreak started in his church! Jesus was appearing to the masses! I was anxious to go! At the end of the 4-5 months, the Lord appeared to me in a dream. In this visitation, Jesus didn’t directly tell me not to come out or the shut in wasn’t finished, but the nature of the visitation suggested I needed more time to stay there alone with God! However, I was tempted and deceived by my lack of patience, anxiousness, and by a big ministry opportunity to minister and reach souls which is my passion in life (not necessarily only for God, but something I personally love doing for God and people) and I had to learn the difference between these two things! Long story short, I came out too early when I could feel in my spirit that maybe I should have stayed. We had an awesome move of God in South Korea, but it was short lived and didn’t last long! The relationship also ended badly, which was more on their part, but the time not being ripe contributed to it! If I would have pushed the time back and wasn’t pressured by the demand for ministry and being anxious to come out at the time I set in my mind (even though it was a long time, longer than I ever locked away with God before)! That didn’t matter.. what mattered was hearing God and staying inside as long as I needed to be, and God led me, but I failed the test during a long shut away with God! I came out too soon! When you fail, God will give you the test all over again. Now, in this long shut away I’m still in and going on over 3 years, God allowed multiple tests! The first was the same as the one I experienced in 2010. Again, I received a large invitation to preach overseas. This time, over 1 million people would be in attendance.. not 70 thousand! I was asked to come but I remembered how I failed years earlier. I told the pastor that I couldn’t come out of this consecration with the Lord. I told him I would come after I got out of seeking the Lord in this way, and they understood!! That year the same pastor gathered them for a service, in hopes I would come, and over 1 million people showed up each night. We have the pictures! Still, I didn’t come out !! This pastor understood my commitment to the Lord. Because I’ve obeyed God to stay inside here, I know we are going to have an amazing meeting of miracles and visitations from Jesus! We had one over zoom and I know it will be even greater in person! Thank God for pastors who understand when a man of God is seeking the Lord in an uncommon way unbeknownst to our generation!
The second test was the greatest of all and settled it to God. He knew I wasn’t going to violate this long shut in before Him. This was the test when my father passed away from COVID in 2021. When he was sick unto death from COVID, I was so torn to go or to stay locked away before the Lord! I asked the Lord can I go to his bedside, hoping he would be healed, and the Lord said you must complete this shut in before me. Then my dad died and I wanted to be there for the funeral and the Lord said, “No you must complete this shut in. It’s for something great I’m doing for the world through you that’s of major importance!” Many don’t know the sacrifice of not making it to your own father’s funeral, just to obey, love, and seek God! My family didn’t understand this and some of them persecuted me for it! I mean business with God! I passed these tests which came that would have normally pulled me out of here. I know God has something great planned for Him to ask these great Sacrifices of me in the middle of this 3 year shut in! Just the tediousness of staying in one place for this long is a challenge in itself. Not mentioning all the other friends and pastor or bishop friends I had that died during the pandemic and I couldn’t make it to their bedside or funeral either! This is serious.. My assignment from God is serious to preserve and shake AMERICA and the nations of the world!
You can also fail at being rewarded during a shut away with God by not keeping the tenor and consecration while inside the church. For instance, God told Israel in Isaiah 58 how they were to fast and if they didn’t do the fast right and acceptable in His sight, they would lose their reward!! It’s the same with shut away prayer. There are certain requirements God wants you to adhere to during your shut in with Him. All prayer, fasting, and obedience to His commands within your particular shut in will vary for each person. He gives me a personal command that I must exercise, study and research the word of God, abiding in the word, death to self type of prayer where the flesh dies, praise, worship, and prayer partnering with God. 4th watch 3am prayer, meditating on the word, listening to the preached word, and much more. Meditating on the Lord, loving the Lord, working righteousness, confessing sins, repentance, and turning back to God in the areas you’ve gone astray! Seeking God’s face to find Him, seeking God’s will and heart for your life presently, in the future, and for your destiny! Obeying the instructions God gives you through dreams or visitations from someone is also very important during shut-away prayer!!