It's Time to Rise Up
Our mission is to inspire and encourage men and women, across denominational lines, to pursue an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
It's Time to Rise Up
Prayer Panel Session - Rise Up Conference 2025 - 26
Ever wondered what transforms ordinary believers into prayer warriors? This powerful episode takes you behind the scenes of the Rise Up Revival Conference, featuring an intimate prayer panel with Jay St. Clair, Seantel Coffey, Kristi Marion, and Cindy Ritter – seasoned prayer warriors who share their journeys from spiritual uncertainty to divine connection.
The conversation crackles with authenticity as each guest reveals their unique path to deeper prayer. Jay paints a vivid picture using Ezekiel's river imagery, showing how God leads us by the hand into increasingly profound communion. "Everything this water touches," he explains, "it turns to life." His spiral metaphor of spiritual growth resonates with anyone who's felt stuck in their prayer journey.
Seantel's testimony strikes a chord with her revelation that prayer evolved from obligation to breath itself. "God is just my home," she shares, describing how she weaves conversation with God throughout her entire day. For those struggling to establish consistency, her practical rhythm of morning-to-evening prayer provides a roadmap to intimacy with God.
Perhaps most touching is Kristi's story of finding hope through one-sentence prayers during financial devastation. Her vulnerable admission that she knew nothing about prayer yet witnessed God move powerfully through simple words offers tremendous encouragement for beginners. "If you only have the courage for a one-sentence prayer," she assures, "God will answer you."
Cindy, the self-described introvert turned "fiery prayer warrior," dispels the myth that powerful prayer requires extroversion or eloquence. Her journey reveals how obedience to the Holy Spirit trumps personality type every time. "Effective prayer isn't praying our own motives," she explains, "but inclining our ear to His heart."
The episode concludes with host Kim McIntire's touching tribute to the quiet, consistent prayers of her husband – a powerful reminder that transformative prayer happens in everyday moments between loved ones, not just dramatic church services.
Whether you're a seasoned intercessor or someone who feels awkward talking to God, this conversation offers practical wisdom for deepening your spiritual connection. The diverse prayer styles represented – from quiet whispers to bold declarations – affirm there's no single "right way" to communicate with the divi
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Hey everyone, welcome to the it's Time to Rise Up podcast. I'm your host, Kim McIntyre. We know there are many things you can do with your time, so thank you for choosing to spend your time listening. We pray you're encouraged and blessed by what is shared. If you're not familiar with our show, please check out our website at itstimetoriseuporg, where you will find our social media links. And as for our podcast platforms, you can find us on YouTube, apple Podcasts, spotify and everywhere else you find your podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to announce that the Abide Study is now available on Amazon and Barnes Noble. The link to order is found in our show notes. The Abide Study is currently the discipleship piece of the Rise Up movement. There's more about that on our website. Now let's get to today's episode. Our Rise Up revival conference was held on August 2nd and 3rd and we are airing the morning session prayer panel for our listeners. This is a sneak peek into one of the many great parts of that weekend. We hope you're encouraged to go deeper in your prayer life after hearing our guests share some of their journey of prayer. This episode features Jay St Clair, chantel Coffey, christy Marion and Cindy Ritter.
Speaker 2:It's the fire of God in the gentle giant, the soft-spoken giant. It's the fire of God in that place. Fire, it's one of the gates of heaven for us, and so I have invited some friends to join me today on the platform and if I want to ask them to come up, then I'll introduce them when they get up here. So, chantel and Christy and Cindy, you guys can sit and watch her working. One, two, three, four.
Speaker 1:I just want to welcome you guys today.
Speaker 2:Do we all agree that prayer is the heartbeat of revival? Yes, do we all agree that we could each one of us grow in the realm of prayer? I know I could. 20 years ago, my prayer life consisted of just asking God for the things I needed. That was pretty much it, and thankfully the Lord got a hold of my heart and taught me there's so much more to prayer than just asking Him to do things for me. So Jay is the executive director at God's Resort and also a brother in Christ and a dear friend, thank you for being with Jay.
Speaker 2:Sean Chen is the prayer minister at College Church in Church of John Also a dear friend, thank you for being here. Christy is on the lead team of Rise Up and she's retired from school administration Also a friend, thank you for being here. And Cindy is a discipleship pastor at her church at Calgary in Bournemouth, florida, bournemouth. I always say her out Thank you for being here. We're going to talk about prayer. This is just kind of going to be like a conversation that you listen in on, but what we're praying is something that is spoken sparks a fire in you to go deeper in prayer than you are right now. Okay, so we're in front of you today. You are a person who's taught me so much about prayer, mostly from observing, and most people would say prayer is just talking to God, which is true, but there are so many more layers to prayer and I would just love for you to talk about, beyond talking to God, what is prayer to you?
Speaker 3:So you know the disciples had prayed their whole lives. You know they had prayed their whole lives. They were very Jewish young men and had prayed their whole lives. And yet they mean Jesus and they are not along with it before they say, lord, teach us to pray. So they see in Jesus something beyond the Rome prayers, that they had learned from their Jewish faith and they're going to Jesus and saying, lord, we want that their Jewish faith. And they're going to Jesus and say, lord, we want that.
Speaker 3:And so I was thinking about what my workers think you so much for what you shared with us last night. But you know, in that, in that scripture, in Ezekiel 47, it's beautiful because it says that God took Ezekiel by the hand and walked him by the river. You know, isn't it cool that he lets us get to know where we're going before he takes us into it, and that's kind of what he's done for us. I know that's what he's done for all of us. It all works differently but he just takes us by the hand and walks us down the river and then it says he goes into the river with him.
Speaker 3:So I often think of myself going into the river by myself, but it says he led him across the river. Isn't that cool. So he's doing it. He's doing it. All I got to do is take his hand and then notice he measures it off. He knows exactly where we're going in this river. He's measured it all, and that's beautiful to think that he's got it all. I don't have to figure it out, and I like the word in 2 Corinthians 3, where it says where the spirit of the Lord is, and that's what this river is, where the Spirit of the Lord is, and that's what this river is.
Speaker 3:Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom, and with unveiled faces, we're all reflecting the glory of God and being transformed into His image, with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. We're spiraling up. That's the word I think I want to. That just keeps coming to my heart. They'll probably put it on my tube song he spiraled up, he just spiraled up, and so it doesn't matter where you are.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we think of this thing as more like this, and I think it's more like this because we're encountering him, encountering him, encountering him, encountering him, encountering him, encountering him, encountering him, and he just takes us by the hand and we go deeper and deeper. Then notice what happens. He says Jesus, you, son of man, have you been watching? Have you been watching what I've been doing? Because, down this river, have you noticed what I've been growing? These trees that have are bearing fruit, not seasonally, every month they're bearing fruit, and so the fruit is for food. It's the fruit of the Spirit, it's for food, and then the leaves are for the healing of the nations. And he says everything this water touches that you go into in prayer, the spirit of God, everything that it touches, it turns to life.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And it's heading. This river is heading for the most dead place. The most dead place is where God is taking us. It's the Dead Sea where all the dead things and all the dead people live. And that's where he's taking his praying church in the spirit and he says notice that there are fishermen on the banks just pulling these fish out.
Speaker 2:Isn't that?
Speaker 3:beautiful, so so. So he teaches us a lot of things. He teaches us how to bring deliverance and healing, and words and prophecies, and, and he teaches us how to fight for others and fight for ourselves and fight for our families. He teaches us how to listen, just listen, amen, let it be written. Let it be written. And so Julie teaches little ones every week and she said, she says to them don't you love it when people listen to you? Think about that. How old are they, julie? Two through five. Don't you love it when people listen to you and you know what they say? So think about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He said, be like a child. Maybe the heart of the father is like a child too, and he loves it. When we listen.
Speaker 1:He does.
Speaker 3:Just loves it when we listen, when we get down yeah, where he is get down where he is and we listen.
Speaker 2:Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus. So, father, just with that thought, we pray that you would take us to deeper places of listening, places of silence, places where our ears are inclined to hear the voice of God. Oh God, draw us to that place. We pray. May that be what is pouring out now, just a hunger to listen to your voice.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Let it be so. Let it be so in Jesus' holy name. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:I'm going to talk about the rhythm of prayer, and I'm asking Chantal this question because she's a woman who has a way to live.
Speaker 2:You live your life in that daily rhythm of the secret place, and the secret place is intentional. And the truth is, if we're honest, most of us struggle to find a daily rhythm and a secret place to go, and I would like for you just to speak into that. What encouragement, chantal, can you offer to those who may be struggling to find a rhythm of prayer or finding a place to go to be alone with the Lord? Finding a place to go to be alone with the Lord? So in my journey with prayer so this is my 42nd year to walk with Jesus, praise God, and I've always been a praying person but the rhythm, the deep rhythm, came out of a desperate place Of needing a healing and so discovering that you know, I love the scripture in John 15 about abiding in the vine, abiding and if you think about that word, abiding, it's really the verb form to abode, and the way to sum up my rhythm is God is just my home and I start the morning with Him. The minute I open my eyes, I'm talking to Him, and as I go through the day, I talk with Him. And as I encounter problems, I talk with Him. And as I lay down at night, I talk with Him.
Speaker 2:I love Daniel, I love the book of Daniel, and he had a rhythm and I remember thinking when all of this was first starting, like he prays, you know, multiple times a day. He stops his work, he gets with God, he gets along with god and the best way I can describe it is he's just my home, he's home base, he's where I go to to have the peace, the quiet, the direction, the love that I need, the calming, um, all the things that we need. And so really it starts with. You know, as a young believer, I loved the Lord, but it was a checklist Like prayer was like this is what you do in your quiet time you read your Bible, you pray.
Speaker 2:But as I've grown, I've gotten older and churned and out of that desperate place it's my breath. It's my breath, it's my life Like I can't do life without Him. I can't do a second without Him. And the beautiful thing is that my husband's come up to me and has shown me with me, and so we've developed rhythms in prayer of like we pray together in the morning, we pray together at night and we pray. We have a book, praying for your Adult Children that we pray through regularly and we pray. We have five green children and we have a day that's a special day for them that we really hone in on them.
Speaker 2:So by the end of Friday, each grandchild has their special day and they know we're praying for them specifically on that day. Relationship of just walking with Jesus and talking with Jesus. And I love what Jay said about listening like developing a listening heart. So I'm not as distracted with music, music or you know, I listen to podcasts and sermons days, but I specifically just turn things off. I'm like lord, I just listening, I just want to hear what you have to say to me today and let him speak to my heart and pour in love. So really, that's the crux of it, it's relationship, it's just home.
Speaker 2:Yes, Thank you so much Chateau, and she mentioned the word of God. If you feel stuck, if you're not sure how to pray or how to connect God's Word to prayer, the discipleship piece Rise Up is a Bible and there's a study guide at the home. If you want to check that out, it may be a tool that could help someone get unstuck and that abide is central to a life of prayer. Thank you so much, adele. Christine, we were having a team meeting one night and you are a gentle dragon and you were sharing about a prayer group that you were participating in and we were just talking about prayer and how sometimes people complicate prayer. But do you guys agree prayer can be complicated if we don't approach it the right way. And you said there was this very simple tool. Would you just be willing to share this simple tool that you learned from the prayer group? I'm trying? As we were praying this morning at the hallway, the Lord said you have to sit up and you have to talk about what was going on in your life. When I got you to where I needed you to be and I said oh no, I can't do that because I will be like this. I will not be able to get through it. But you said Christy, sue, yes, and you said do it. Do what I told you to do. So I've talked to you first about the crushing.
Speaker 2:We were living in Memphis, tennessee, we had two babies and my husband worked for my dad. My dad had a devastating heart attack and the business went belly up. And we were all living in Memphis, tennessee, and none of us had an ankle to our knee and we were beside ourselves with what to do. We just didn't know what to do. And we were attending a wonderful little Baptist church and a lady named Kathy said I'm going to start a women's prayer group. Do you want to come? And I said I do, because I was desperate, absolutely desperate. And so we met in a healing room and I did not know a thing about prayer. That made me like you. You may be in the middle of crushing right now and you still want to do it, but it's not hard because you don't have to know anything fancy, you don't have to have been to Bible college.
Speaker 2:We sat in that room and this was our tool you get to say one prayer need in your life and the person next to you is going to pray one sentence of prayer for you, and then we're going to work our way around the room and that's what we did. There were about 30 of us in that little bitty living room. We were in the floor on the sitting on everything you could sit on, because it was crowded, because there were a whole group of desperate people, and we would work our way around the room for as much time as we had and we watched God move with one-sentence prayers. Each week when we would come back, there would be testimony after testimony of how God moves with one-sentence prayers. So I'm here today to encourage you that if you've never started, you could start. You could start with a one-sentence prayer and God will answer you. If you only have the courage for a one-sentence prayer, he will answer you, he will encourage you, he will meet you where you are.
Speaker 2:Thank will encourage you. He will meet you where you are. Thank you, christine. And with that we're going to pause. Think about something you need. Just ask God why do I need the Word? He knows better than you. Take that one sentence and make it a prayer Right now. Close your eyes Just a little more.
Speaker 3:Offer up a one-sentence prayer Amen.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lord, I trust you. Amen, amen. Cindy, we're going to close with you. You are a fireman prayer warrior if anyone here knows Cindy, so the first I have to tell a personal story. The first time I encountered Cindy in a prayer group setting, she invited me to her house where her and Holly this is how I became part of Rise Up. Action is well, it's before Rise Up, but anyway, they were doing a prayer group, bible study, and I go to Cindy's and all these women are praying really loud out loud, all at the same time. And a few years ago that was not my normal or a comfortable place and I literally wanted to crawl into some space and hide. I'm not kidding. Every week my husband could testify to this. I'd be like I really don't think I'm going to go back. I just I really just don't think I'm supposed to be there. And he would be like I feel like you're supposed to go back. I'm like I don't want you.
Speaker 1:Confession. I did not want to. It was overwhelming to me want to.
Speaker 2:It was overwhelming to me. I mean it just was. But this woman knows how to storm the gates of heaven, as do the other three. But again, we are made differently right. So some people pray, gentle, soft, even quiet, whispered prayers or silent prayers. God honors them all. But if you've never encountered a person who's really fired up and praying the house down, storming the gates of heaven, let me introduce you to my sister, cindy Ritter. Cindy, how did that?
Speaker 1:fire go.
Speaker 2:And when? Where? How did that boldness to pray out loud? Where did that come from? I mean God, obviously, but it was worth suffering. I'm about to cry. I was wondering how do you think this ends? What's the point? Fire's not burst on a platform, amen. It's burst out of the secret place. I grew up in church. I'm first generation of my immediate family and when God got a hold of me, my entire life transformed, before I was even filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come and encounter me. He sought after me night after night after night, and he would talk with me and I would just lay in there and, oh, you need to get this out of your life, you need to get this out of your life. You need to get this out of your life. And when I totally surrendered you know my husband and I thought it was crazy I ran through my house. I got rid of everything related to RP. I got rid of anything that's been related to magic or witchcraft. I got rid of Halloween books.
Speaker 2:I got rid of anything that even remotely looked like it was not about the Lord. And I felt this draw me to get to a place of prayer. I had to get to a place of prayer. I had to get to a place of prayer and at that time the church that I gave my life fully, that surrendered to the Lord, was a church in Nixa actually, and they had an intercessory group and I couldn't get away from it. I really didn't know anything like Christi. I really didn't know anything. I was 25 years old. I think I knew John 3, 16. I really did. I think that's really about what I knew. But I just felt this draw. I had to get to that birthing room. Really I had to get there and it was so hard for me because I knew I didn't know anything. But I got enough courage and I know it was only by the power of the Holy Spirit, because if y'all knew me then I'm introverted. People don't know that I am so introverted.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be a part of the choir but I didn't want to be in the first row when I was short. That didn't work so well for me. But I get back to this room and like yeah, here's all these women and men. Where are the men? Where are the men in our sisters? And they were praying fiery prayers and they were praying the word. And it was this, this encounter, the Holy Spirit. Every time I went in that I was intimidated and I thought, god, I don't know. And he said he brought the pastor's wife, he took me up under her wing and she said, cindy, if you pray two words, just two words that the Holy Spirit has given you to pray, two words that the Holy Spirit has given you to pray, it is just as powerful as that woman over there praying an entire chapter of the Bible. So what I learned early on, it was about obedience. It was about obedience and listening to what the Holy Spirit was saying, and listening to what the Holy.
Speaker 2:Spirit was saying. The Bible says you have not. When you pray your own desires, not of your own desires, you won't receive. But if you hear the voice of God and your mind and your will and your emotions are aligned with what he is saying, then when you speak it, it cannot help but to come to fruition, because you are hearing the voice of God, aligned with his word, and the Bible tells me that his word does not return void. That will go forth and accomplish with what it is said.
Speaker 2:So in my mind in that time I had to really think about my journey. It was all about getting time in my secret place listening, intently listening. The Bible tells us that my sheep know my voice. If you are a believer in Christ and he is Lord of your life, you have the ability to hear his voice and he speaks differently to each and every one of us. Some of us he will speak in vision. Some of us he will speak in dreams. Some of us you'll be reading your word and something leaks off the page. That's the Lord speaking to you. Somebody comes and gives you an encouraging word. That's the Lord speaking to you. Somebody comes and gives you an encouraging word. That is the Lord speaking to you. It's about hearing what he says.
Speaker 2:Effective prayer isn't praying our own motives or desires, but it's effective prayers and inclining our ear to His heart for people and for what he wants to do he displayed in the earth. So really it just comes down to obedience, stepping out of your comfort zone. I never sought a platform or title. In fact, my prayer has always been, it still is. God never put me in a position that I am not ready for, because I have seen people over and over and over be put in a position they were not ready for. Because I have seen people over and over and over be put in a position they were not ready for and it sets them up for failure. We are called to disciple people and raise them up and position them as leaders over and into a place that they will excel and succeed and prepare them and equip them for the church. And also, I wanted to say this too I think it's very important we really don't teach this a whole lot anymore, but one of the things I learned very early on is that we have to be under the authority of our leadership Anytime.
Speaker 2:I was asked to step out and pray, first of all by shaking my boots. Y'all this is funny. I knew I was coming up to talk today. I was shaky because that's my introvert, but I'm not going to allow my personality to hold me back, but I'm going to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through me and let Him move. But we have to be under the authority that God has placed us under. It's crucial Because if I'm in a place where my authority has put me there, it's because God's put them to oversee me. And if I step outside of the authority of those over me, I step outside of the blessing of God. Let me say that again you step outside the authority that God has placed you under. You are stepping outside of the blessing of God over your life. We have got to be under our authority and of who God's placed over us, and we have got to be in the Word and know the Word and listen to what he's saying.
Speaker 2:They poured it out. How many think Well, there's a guest that's not on the platform and I'm just going to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. But there's a prayer warrior in my life. That is a gentle giant, not a platform person at all, and this person opens every day and closes every day praying for me in the simplest, most powerful and profound way I can't even express it. So in the morning, my husband lays his hand on me and prays. It's not a long prayer, but I guarantee you it is strength to my soul. Every night unless I fall asleep first, which does happen sometimes he says he still prays, but he puts his hand on me and he prays me to sleep. In the morning, I put my hand on Everett and if I'm awake first, I pray silently over him. It's simple, it's not technical, it's not complicated, but let me tell you what it is it's life-changing. Do you believe that? Because if you're married, or even if you're not, you've got children, probably a friend, a parent, a roommate there's someone you need to be praying for to start and close your day. But my husband is a prayer warrior. He's a gentle giant, he's not a platform person. He's not going to get behind on my. No matter how much I write him, he will not get behind on my phone.
Speaker 2:But I just felt compelled by the Holy Spirit, even as these friends were speaking, that it would be a miss for me to not acknowledge the power of a praying spouse. Yes, the power of a praying spouse, because I can tell you, oh, and I want to acknowledge what Cindy said the platform, as ordained by God, does begin in the secret place when no one seeks the desperation, the crying out to God, the pleading, the ugly crying, all the things. That's where a prayer warrior's crying. And I want to acknowledge the prayers of my husband, because I could never do what I do if it weren't for his prayers, and I'm grateful. So I want to encourage spouses today. Prayers when I'm grateful, so I want to encourage spouses today.
Speaker 2:I believe, if you leave conference and the one thing that changes if you're not already doing this is that you pray over your husband, wives and husbands. You pray over your wife in the simplest of ways, don't?
Speaker 1:complicate it. A year from now, your life, your marriage, your family will be different. Who believes that? Let's stand up back? Please rate, review us or leave a five-star review on Apple Podcast. The purpose of our podcast is to glorify God and encourage believers in their walk with the Lord. May God's grace and peace be with you all, in Jesus' name.
