In 2017 while serving as the National Prayer Coordinator for Awaken the Dawn, the days flew by as we sped towards our gathering on the National Mall in Washington, DC. With each passing day, I felt as if I was languishing as to how to mobilize intercession for this strategic moment. I was flummoxed as to how to do this effectively. In this midst of my downtrodden moment, God sent me a man whose wisdom was tailor made for the challenge I was facing at that juncture.
His name—Bob Perry, a man of prayer beloved by many.
The opportunity to partner with Bob Perry and his amazing team of intercessors was a gamechanger. They took me under their wings to teach me how they equipped intercessors to pray daily on conference calls. Bob’s wisdom gleaned from decades of intercessory prayer proved to be the means to prayerfully undergird God’s purposes for Awaken the Dawn. For forty days leading up to the moment, we coordinated 30 minute prayer calls twice each day. Along with his team of intercessors, their fingerprint of intercession marked that national moment—and my life as well.
I will forever be indebted to Bob and his remarkable team of intercessors.
One day in January of 2019, the Spirit of God spoke to me in a deep, profound manner. It was a word for Bob. As I wrote out the word as best as I could capture it in that moment, it felt weighty.
Immediately I sent it to him. Here’s the email I wrote to this man of prayer.
Bob, I felt such a stirring of the Lord concerning what He’s doing in you through the passage in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10.
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.
What I saw in that moment was you, Bob, in an old wine-press called The Prayer of Jabez.
The wine-press of old were plentiful in ancient times on hillsides where the incline was used for the purposes of making wine. A wine-press consisted of two parts: a trough (up higher) and a vat (down lower).
You were inside the trough without your shoes, as you were required of the Lord to tread upon the grapes; your sole aim was to break down the solid matter into a trodden, bruised state that permitted the juice to be extracted due to the sheer force of your treading.
Gravity hastened the juice to flow downward from the trough into the vat below.
It’s almost as if I hear the Father thundering over you, “Tread, tread, tread, my son, tread with all your might!”
There is tremendous revelation that will come forth as you trod and bruise the prepared clusters of grapes within The Prayer of Jabez wine-press. As you tread, the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Ephesians 1:17) will flow forth unabated.
Furthermore it was as if I heard the Lord say:
There’s more to be squeezed out of The Prayer of Jabez that Bruce Wilkinson never even touched upon in his best-seller from years ago. There’s more. The unfinished must be finished. I’ve preserved a cluster just for you Bob. All that you have gone through is but a preparation for this very moment. Tread my son, tread my son. Even your bruising has not been for naught—your downtrodden seasons are not wasted. As you tread, so will I redeem all that you have endured.
My son, will you tread in the press called The Prayer of Jabez until the unfinished is finished, and you’re able to extract the juice for the new wine?
Though I had forgotten about this word from 2019, Bob shared it in an email he sent out highlighting a new book he coauthored with Amy Lykosh: Seek for Glory: Praying the Prayer of Jabez. In his email, he wrote concerning the prophetic word:
“When I came upon this word again this last week, I was overwhelmed with the goodness of God. The Lord did preserve a cluster just for me.”
It turns out that this book is a joint effort to extract fresh wine from this somewhat obscure passage that has ministered deeply to many over the years, including Bob. Unknown to me, Bob’s life was marked in January of 1983 through a visiting minister, Dick Mills. This prophet was quite known for having memorized thousands of Scripture verses that he would give as prophetic words when ministering. As a new follower of Christ, Bob was given this word by Dick Mills:
“Young man, I think you are a person of prayer. And I have a prayer for you. If you will pray I Chronicles 4:10 every day for the rest of your life, this is going to be a powerful prayer for you.”
For forty years, Bob has been faithful to pray this verse in the wine-press of The Prayer of Jabez.
“Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.”
Take a moment to check out the book that comes out of the richness of the cluster that the Lord has preserved for this moment.
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