Pinnacle Prayer
Last year, while processing the loss of our dear friend, Scott Evelyn, the Lord began to speak to Elisa and I about connecting to The Pinnacle in a deeper way. For those who are unaware, The Pinnacle is a mountain in New Hampshire that was given to John Paul Jackson many years ago and was dedicated as a place of prayer. When John Paul moved to Dallas, he gave the Pinnacle to the church located atop it and into the caring hands of Scott and Barbara Evelyn. For many years now, there has been a tremendous devotion to ministering to the Heart of the Father on this mountain and it is a place where an Open Heaven (or portal) seems to flourish.
While visiting The Pinnacle to participate in the dedication of the new tent where The Bridge Pinnacle Mountain meets, I became acutely aware that God was posturing the mountain to be a place where wisdom and direction would be released to a wider audience than ever before. I had an encounter with an Angle who entered the room where we were staying near The Pinnacle, withdrew documents from a messenger bag and placed them on a writing desk. It seemed to me that God was going to be assigning angelic support to be sent forth from the mountain. This fell into alignment with things that Scott had been saying before his death and that Recie Saunders had been seeing as well. At around that same time Elisa began to feel the Lord saying that there needed to be Pilgrimages to the Pinnacle for Prayer.
Flash forward about 6 months and many conversations with Barbara Evelyn and Recie Saunders and God opened the doors for a Pinnacle Prayer Pilgrimage. Knowing that we would have to begin with a small group of individuals, so we could discern the tone of such a gathering and how the Lord desired to interact with us, the Pilgrimage ended up involving only about 15 people from the Patria family. It was our desire to head to the mountain with clean hands and a pure heart. To go with no agenda and engage in now warfare or petitions for something we desired. The result was an amazing weekend waiting in the Lord's presence and hearing Him speak.
Without realizing it, the event was scheduled to take place over the course of The Feast of Tabernacles. This prayer pilgrimage was made on the week of a pilgrimage feast and we went to meet together in a tent no less! God certainly had things planned better than we could have. With a limited amount of worship, no agenda and plenty of time to "be still and know", we proceeded to pursue His presence.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to describe all that everyone experienced on the mountain. The experiences ran the gambit from monumental encounters to simply hearing God's still small voice. It seemed appropriate that both Barbara Evelyn and Diane Jackson were a part of the weekend and that so much affirmation the mountain's purpose seemed to be brought forth as we gathered together.
Perhaps of the most significance to me on a corporate level, was what I saw for the Pinnacle itself. While many of those gathered, including myself, heard the Lord on a deeply personal level, the insights into the affirmation and renewal of the Pinnacle's purpose seemed to stand out the most. i shared what I had seen for the Pinnacle briefly on Sunday morning with those gathered for the morning service, but I would like to take a moment and recap it here for the whole Patria family. I truly believe that the destiny of Patria and the destiny of the Pinnacle are tied together and I believe that we as a family will find opportunity to spend much more time on the mountain and in the Presence of the Lord in the days ahead.
The Lord showed me how the mountain had been used by the Native peoples as a high place of worship and how the land had been stolen from them when the European settlers first arrived. He then showed me how the spiritual inheritance of the land had been stolen by the occult as they began to claim this "high place" and erect their demonic altars there. As these things happened, I saw the land encompassing the mountain top being ripped from the earth and a jagged tear formed all the way around its base as it separated. It seemed to be held suspended about 5-10 feet above the remainder of the land. I became deeply aware of all the heartache and pain that had been associated with the restoration of the mountain's purpose and I began to have a deep abiding sense of the costs that had been paid in the process of restoring that purpose. At that point, I knew I began to see a real time picture of what was happening. The mountain settled back into its place and reconnected with the surrounding land. A hand came into view with a giant needle (the size of a tree) and silver thread that flowed from the eye like a stream of water being pulled along the banks of a river. The needle and thread began to work their way back and forth as the mountain was reattached to the land around it and I knew that the costs had been paid and not only had the purpose of the Pinnacle been restored, but in that moment its connections were being reformed and its function and influence was about to increase in a dramatic way. After the service, Diane Jackson showed me a drawing of what she had seen the day before. It was two pieces of cloth that had been separated and were being sown back together.
There has perhaps never been a time in our history (at least not since the first century) when we have had such a desperate need for prayer and for His Presence. As a part of the restoration of prayer in our lives and the lives of our ministries, it is essential that we set aside time to simply wait upon Him without agenda or personal desire, without warfare or petition - simply desiring to know Him and to hear his voice. The Pinnacle represents that perspective on prayer. It represents that deep need that the Body has to minister to the heart of the Lord without an ulterior motive of having our expectations met. When we seek the Lord in this way, we will find far more than we could ever have asked for or even thought He might reveal. This is a season to pursue His presence and as a founder of the Patria family, I affirm to you that it is without doubt one of the core values carried by this portion of the Body.
We will be returning to the mountain, for it is a part of our heritage and there are portions of our spiritual inheritance that will be found no where else. Prepare your hearts, clear your mind of distraction and get ready for another Pinnacle Prayer Pilgrimage that will invite the whole Patria family to the mountain in 2018.
