The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation

Welcome to the "TRANSFIGURATION PRAYER" Initiative | a Vanguard Church Message with Family Disciple Me

• Tosha Williams for FDM • Season 6 • Episode 11

Share episode

In this message given at Vanguard Church of Colorado Springs, Tosha Williams shares how a pre-dawn vision sparked a new journey when God whispered two unexpected words: “Transfiguration Prayer.” From that moment, she invites us up the mountain where Jesus shines, showing that real prayer isn’t about polished words but about a surrendered heart that practices seeking God's presence.

Drawing from Matthew 17, Mark 9, Luke 9, Romans 12, and 2 Corinthians 3, we discover that beholding Christ changes us and sends us back into the valley with courage, compassion, and power that truly help people. Along the way, Moses and Elijah step forward as mentors in intercession and faith, while Peter, James, and John teach us through both their weakness and their yes.

The Father’s voice reframes our priorities with the words “Listen to Him,” calling us to shift our focus from good things to the greatest thing. This message connects the dots between a private encounter and a public mission: from cloud to crowd, from awe to action, from seeking Him to speaking Him in our families, friendships, and neighborhoods.

This message also launches a week of intentional prayer featuring short daily podcasts, devotion-driven guides, and an open Encounter Room to make space for God. The goal is not hype but intimacy that fuels impact.

If you have felt stuck, tired, or wordless, let this be your invitation to go somewhere new with Jesus and to carry His presence into the places you live. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and ask yourself, Where will you meet with God this week? Your mountain might be a chair, a car, or a quiet corner. When you listen to Him, heaven meets here.

#TransfigurationPrayer
 #ToshaWilliams
 #VanguardChurch
 #PrayerAndTransformation
 #BeholdingChrist
 #ListenToHim
 #SeekHimSpeakHim
 #IntimacyWithGod

______________________

The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning, Vanguard Church. Good morning. You know, I had a very interesting morning a little less than four weeks ago. It was a really important day in my family's life, and there was a lot involved in that day. Before I even woke up to face the day, though, the Lord gave me a dream, a vision. It's been a really curious season in that it seems like He's spoken to me multiple times through dreams and visions recently. But that morning was an unexpected dream, an unexpected vision. Before I even opened my eyes, the Lord spoke to me. And he said two words. He said, transfiguration, prayer. And I remember in my dream saying, What? What? My devotions had been in the Old Testament. I had not been reading in the Gospels recently, particularly regarding that. So the Lord saying this transfiguration prayer was a little bit out of the blue. And so in my dream vision, I'm like, Lord, what? And he said, Mount of Transfiguration, you know the story. And then he started just downloading images to me. And with that, I woke up. I went into the kitchen, I grabbed my coffee, I grabbed my Bible, and I went outside where Kelly was already sitting with his coffee and his Bible doing his devotions. And for the next hour and a half or so, I sat there and I was just writing down what the Lord was showing me about transfiguration prayer. It was astounding. It was a moment I did not expect. When I got up from that moment, I told Kelly, I think the Lord just gave me enough to write a whole book. Wow. What was that? And the rest of the day I kept thinking about that theme: transfiguration prayer. The thing was, throughout the day, I was also having conversations with the Lord about this very thing because you see, that day I had a five o'clock deadline for this message. And I kept talking to the Lord saying, Well, thank you for what you're showing me regarding transfiguration prayer. That's amazing. I'll be happy to write that content, do those podcasts, write those conversation guides later. But Lord, just so you know, I have a five o'clock deadline today. You see, I had been invited by Pastor Jenny to be the global speaker for this month. And every year, Vanguard Church has Glocal Month in November. And every year, Vanguard Church invites one of those local ministries to come and be the featured speaker. And Jenny had invited me to do that this year for Vanguard, representing Family Disciple Me. What an honor! There's so many things I want to tell you about Family Disciple Me. This ministry is eight years old. This ministry is a 501c3 nonprofit. This ministry is birthed out of my own life as a mom and my life as the co-founder of Vanguard Church. My life involved in this ministry from the groundroots, from the bottom to the top. My life being involved in children's ministry for so many years. My life as a heartbeat for this church, wanting to see discipleship happen. This ministry, Family Disciple Me, is online. It's on podcast platforms. It's recently come on YouTube, and that's a very scary thing, but there we there we begin. This ministry is at familydiscipleme.org where there's devotion-driven discipleship guides. And this ministry is about to launch an app next year. Can't wait for these resources to become more easily accessible. I could tell you about this ministry that our heartbeat is to make devotion-driven discipleship as easy as every conversation you have along the way. Because we believe that discipleship starts with a conversation and that God wants every single Christ follower to have those conversations with the people that God's entrusted to you. There's so much I can tell you about family disciple me. But all day long I was saying, Lord, which piece do you want me to tell Vanguard Church on local weekend about family disciple me? And he said to me, He said, Tasha, I've already given you the message. Because Tasha, I don't want you to tell Vanguard Church what Family Disciple Me does. I want you to show them what Family Disciple Me does. And I want you to talk to them about, say it with me, transfiguration prayer. Yes. Yes, Lord. I hear you. I understand what you want me to do. Because you see, this is the one Sunday of the whole year in the Vanguard calendar that the speaker gets to choose what they talk about. And so I had been talking to the Lord about prayer at Vanguard and wanting to see Vanguardians rise up in prayer in a new way. And so the Lord said, I've given you the platform and I've told you what I want you to talk to Vanguard Church about. So, Vanguardians, today, today, we're talking about transfiguration prayer. And here's the tagline where heaven meets here. I don't know about you, but I want a little bit more of that in my life. I want to see a little bit more of that in this church. I want to see more of that in the reach that we have in our families, in the people that are watching online, in the people that are listening. I want heaven to meet here just a little bit more because there's been enough hell. Anybody want to agree with me on that? It's time for us to talk to God in a new way. So if you will, if you will open your programs, if you'll open your Bibles, if you'll open your internet devices, we're going to be looking at various scriptures throughout the New Testament, in particular the three Gospels, where we see the Mount of Transfiguration. But before we get there, we're going to look at Luke chapter 11, verse 1. Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. And when Jesus taught them to pray, he taught them the Lord's Prayer. So I want us to stand. Go ahead, let's stand. And we're going to say the Lord's Prayer. Ready? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And all God's people said, Amen. Yes. All right. You may be seated. You know, are you ready for God to teach you something new about prayer? Okay. Are you ready? Okay. So I believe, I believe there in Luke chapter 11 in Matthew 6, when Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer, He was giving them the eloquence of prayer. Okay? But today I want to show you something where He showed the disciples the experience of prayer, the encounter of prayer. Because the more and more time I look at this topic, transfiguration prayer, I believe it's not just about our words, it's about our willingness. It's about our heart posture before God in his presence. It's not about just the things that we say. So with that, we're going to look at Luke chapter 9, verse 28. Now, the Mount of Transfiguration is a story that I've heard about my whole life. I've been in church and Christian schools and seminary and all that my whole life. I've circled this story 50 million times, but not once has it ever been more to me than an yada yada. Okay, he went up a mountain, he saw some people, that's great, and I just kept going. But God has stopped me in this place. He's stopped me. And this story of the Mount of Transfiguration is told in three of the four Gospels. It's told in Luke chapter 9, in Mark chapter 9, and in Matthew chapter 17. So we're gonna look at parts of all three of those narratives so that we can see the bigger picture of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. But we're gonna start here in Luke chapter 9, verse 28. Now, after about eight days after these sayings, he, that's Jesus, took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. Now, why did Jesus take Peter, James, and John? I don't know. He had 12 disciples. Why did Jesus go up a mountain for this experience? I don't know. It's just where he decided to go. What I do know is this going up a mountain takes work, it takes effort, it takes a willingness, it takes a desire. And he took three of his disciples up there on the mountain with him for something that was really important. And that was this two words to pray. Come on, guys, I want you to come with me. Maybe he invited all the disciples, and only three were willing to take the hike. I don't know. Maybe the others were occupied, maybe they had other stuff to do. Sounds a lot like our prayer lives, doesn't it? And Jesus invited at least the three, because at least three went with him up the mountain to pray. So how do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? Here's point number one: accept Jesus' invitation to take you somewhere. Accept Jesus' invitation to take you somewhere. He wants to take you out of your comfort zone, out of your regular life, out of the chaos of your life, out of the stuff of your life, out of the problems of your life, about whatever it is that's going on in your world right now. And he wants to take you somewhere. Where's the new place he's calling you today? Where is he calling you? I hope by the end of this message you hear his call really loud and clear, clear to prayer. Here's what I do know as he's calling us, it takes our willingness to follow him. And when I talk about prayer this morning, I'm not just talking about words. I don't know about you all, but sometimes I run out of words when it comes to prayer. I was telling Gary and Virginia this morning, my my prayers have have boiled down to one really easy four-letter word. Help. And God's okay with that. He's inviting me to go somewhere, just like he's inviting you, just like he invited those three disciples. And so the question is: will you let him guide you into some place new in your relationship with him? I don't care how long you've been a believer or how short you've been a believer. I don't care whether you're old or whether you're young. I don't care whether you're a grandparent, a parent, an auntie, an uncle, a young person, a teenager, a young adult. It doesn't matter. Jesus is inviting you somewhere. Are you willing to go there? Are you willing to go? And then scripture continues. And this time we're going to look at three different of the gospels. Matthew 17, verse 2 says, and he was, here's the word, transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And then Mark 9 says, and he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white. No one on earth could bleach them as bright as that. Luke chapter 9, 29 says this, and as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. So how do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? Here's point number two. Look what he will show you there. Got a little poetry going on here, okay? It's a little bit broken meter, but accept Jesus' invitation to take you somewhere. And then number two, look at what he will show you there. With Family Disciple Me, we have a theme. It's on the back of our shirts today. Seek him, speak him. I believe that this prayer that encounters God, it starts with those two words, seek him. Because here's what he promises. When we seek him, he will be found by us. When we seek him, he will show us his presence. And when we seek him, we're going to see his glory. Prayer opens our eyes to what is already true about God's character. And then it changes us. Look what Romans 12, verse 2 says. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And then look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 16 through 18. When one turns to the Lord, shall we say, when one seeks Him, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, catch this next phrase, because it's important. We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord. That's what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration that God's offering to us. We all beholding the glory of the Lord are being what? Transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Accept Jesus' invitation to take you somewhere and then look at what he will show you here. And here's the thing: when we encounter Jesus in transfiguration prayer, he begins this renewal work of transformation in us. Transfiguration is what we will experience someday in eternity when we are with him. But transformation is what he's doing in us right now as we seek him. Anyone want a little bit of that in their lives? I do. Prayer doesn't change God, prayer changes our capacity to see God, to know God, and be changed by him. Prayer is where, I believe, transfiguration meets transformation. Show it to you this way. Transfiguration, transformation, and prayer is what holds those two and brings those two together. Standing in the gap. Prayer is where transfiguration meets transformation. It's where heaven meets here. That's the truth. It's not just about our words. It's not just about saying all the right things or oops, I said the wrong things. It's it's about our presence with Jesus. Look what happened. Luke chapter 9, verse 30 and 31. And behold, as all this was happening, two men were talking with him. Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. That verse stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me in my tracks. You have to know that here's Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses died 12 to 14 centuries prior. Elijah died about nine centuries prior. We are talking 900 to 1,400 years prior. These guys died. But here they are on the mount of transfiguration, and they are picking up their conversation with Jesus right where they left it off, you know, a few centuries prior. That's amazing. So they're on the Mount of Transfiguration, just chatting with Jesus, old friend. They're just talking to him, but they're talking to him about what is about to happen. They're talking prophecy with him. They're talking about Jesus coming, crucifixion, and what redemption he's going to bring with that. There are so many threads to the Old Testament here. This is amazing. Moses led the first exodus of the people of God from Israel. And now Jesus is about to lead his people out of the Exodus from the bondage of slavery. And here they are on the Mount of Transfiguration, just chatting it up, having a conversation with Jesus. That says so much to us. If you have a loved one who's already gone to be with the Lord, just think about that for a few minutes. Okay? Let that comfort you. Let that be a rabbit trail that the Lord takes you down this week. But there is something that happens in this moment that I want us to sit on. Because Moses teaches us about prayer. Elijah teaches us about prayer. And so let's go back to the little poetry. Accept Jesus' invitation to take you somewhere. Look at what he will show you somewhere. And here's point three: consider his examples and become aware. So this is where God stopped me in my tracks and he said, I want you to look at each of the people who were on the Mount of Transfiguration. And I want you to learn something from them about following me and specifically about prayer. Moses has so much to teach us about having conversations with God. So much. Elijah has so much to teach us about having conversations with God. But you know who else has something to teach us about prayer? Turns out Peter, James, and John. They all have something to teach us about prayer. And see, here's the thing. With family disciple me, we always say seek him leads to speak him. Can you all say that with me? Seek him, speak him. There's no comma in between those two words, those four words, that that phrase, because it's one run-on. Seek him, speak him. That's what Moses did. Moses sought the Lord face to face as a man has conversations with a friend, and then he turns around and he speaks the Lord into the lives of his people. Same thing with Elijah. Elijah sought the Lord. Elijah encountered the Lord and then he turned around and he spoke him into the people. Turns out Peter, James, and John did that too, each in their own ways. And this week, I'm going to invite you to go on a journey with me and with Family Disciple Me as we look at the lives of the people who were on the mountain of transfiguration. This week, I'm going to invite you into something challenging to spend about 30 minutes a day looking at each of these lives, listening to a podcast that talks about them a little bit, and then spending time with Jesus with the accompanying devotion-driven discipleship guide. All of this is available at familydiscipleme.org. Let this guide you in your personal devotions so that you meet with God. But here's what happens when you meet with God. One of my very favorite verses in all of Scripture has always been Exodus chapter 33, verse 11. The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with a friend. I love that. But here's the part that just gets me. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. You see, here's the thing. When we meet with God and make him known, there's other people watching us. They're watching how we spend time with the Lord. They're watching whether or not we're going to press into him, whether we're willing to climb the mountain and get outside of our comfort zones, whether we're going to spend time with Jesus in his word, whether we're going to pray about everything, whether we're willing to confess our sins, even as we sin against others, forgiving, like they are watching us. I love that Joshua was in the tent, watching Moses. I have no greater honor than to see my son Joshua stay in the tent meeting with God longer than I do. That is the best, best thing that as a mom I can watch unfold. And I believe that's the best thing that every single person in this room watching online and the sound of my voice, when we seek him and our lives speak him, we get to see the next generation move into the tent and experience God. When we go up that mountain and meet with God, whatever that mountain looks like, for some of us, the mountain is the car. For some of us, the mountain is our rocking chair at home. For some of us, the mountain is when we're putting on our makeup, getting ready for the day. And we've also got the word open. The mountain is your space and place with God. But when we're willing to go up the mountain and meet with God, there's other people standing at the base of it saying, Oh, that's how you walk up that mountain. And we are going to start finding that they're going to start coming up that path because they have a guide through us. That's the call and that's the invitation and that's the challenge of family disciple me. So will you pay attention to the examples that God's placed before you? Examples here in his word, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, John, Jesus, specifically this week. Will you pay attention to the to the examples God's put in your life here in this room, here in your life? And I learn about prayer from you. You have been an example to me. John and Sandy, you've been examples. So many people in this church are examples. God gives us examples to follow, but here's the thing. And this is for every single person. It's not just about following the examples, it's about being the example. And that's the call of devotion-driven discipleship. Scripture goes on and it says, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tenths here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Mark 9 gives us this perspective. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make the three tenths. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for he was, they were terrified. And then Luke 9 says, Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. Here's the thing. How do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? Point number four, let him shift your focus elsewhere. Let him shift your focus elsewhere. I do not have time to talk about all the emotions that we see in these scriptures, but we got fear, we got terror, we got exhaustion, we got foot and mouth disease, we've like we've got it all. This is true for us too, by the way. What's encapsulated here is true for us in prayer and in faith as well. But Jesus wants us to encounter him, he wants us to see him on the mountain, he wants us to experience something with him, and he wants us to let him shift our focus elsewhere. Here's the thing that the Lord highlighted to me, and I'll just say this one thing. Honoring Moses and Elijah is not a bad thing. We're gonna be honoring them this week in our follow-up conversations. Moses has so much to teach us about how to intercede. Elijah has so much to teach us about how to believe. The thing is, God doesn't want us to just focus on the good things, He wants us to shift our focus to the greatest thing. Our focus always has to go back to Him. So our families are really good things, right? But they're not the greatest thing. Our church is a really good thing, but it's not the greatest thing. Family disciple me ministry, a really good thing. It's a pretty great thing, but it's not the greatest thing. The greatest thing is that in everything we do, when we pray, when we go up that mountain, our focus is to be on him. He is the one. So listen to what, listen to what happens. Matthew 17, verse 5. While Peter was still speaking, God cut him off. Oh, it doesn't say that exactly, but that's what happened. While Peter was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, they were terrified. But Jesus came, Jesus touched them, and Jesus said, Rise, have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. How do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? Point number five. Be sure to hear what he declares. Listen to him. Listen to him. It's great that you're listening to me right now, here in person, watching online, listening later. It's great if you will join me and the Family Disciple Me podcast this week. I hope that you will. I hope that you will become part of this prayer initiative, but ultimately, those are just resources, examples, content to get you to focus on the one who is the one that we're ultimately to listen to. We seek him. We want to listen to his voice. True prayer isn't just measured by how much or what we say, but I believe it's just as much measured by how much we hear and how much we listen. Jesus came, he touched the disciples, and he spoke to them. And when we listen to Jesus like that, when we encounter him, he's going to do the same in our lives. That's where we begin a living conversation with the God of the universe. And that's where we begin with devotion-driven discipleship. So look at Matthew 17. Because once we're up on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and we have this God encounter where we meet with him in this transfiguration prayer that transforms us, well, the thing is, the mountain always leads to the mission. We're not just meant to stand on the mountains forever. God wants us to take that encounter with him down into the valleys of our lives, down into the regular days of our lives, down into our houses, down into our neighborhoods, down into the grocery store, down into the car, down into wherever we go. And look what Jesus and the disciples encountered. We're going to pick up in Matthew 17, verse 14. And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly, for often he falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him. And Jesus answered, Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. They came down from the cloud of God's presence into the chaos of people. Anyone have that in their lives? Am I the only one? Oh, are there a few in this room, maybe? You know, we meet with God and then we come down into a world where we make Him known and It's a messy world. It's a chaotic world. It's a world filled with hurting people. It's a world filled with people who've got illnesses and sicknesses. And let's face it, it's a world that's filled with demonic activity that wants to steal and destroy and kill everything about our lives. That's the enemy's goal. And yet into that place, Jesus stepped. He was merciful, he was kind, he was truthful, he was direct. He didn't pull any punches here, but he was also powerful and he spoke healing. So how do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? We watch Jesus' example of care. We watch his example of care. You see, mountaintop moments leads to mission. And every single one of you has a mission that God has given you. But if you're going to have any care that flows out of you to them, any care that goes beyond random acts of kindness, any consistent care and compassion that reflects the face of the Father, well, you have to be in the face of the Father because then you glow with His presence. And when you step from mountain into mission, you carry His care and His compassion with you. What we experience, what we experience in our intimate time with Jesus should impact our relationships with people. And that's what eventually happened with the disciples. You see, those three were invited up to that mountain moment, then they came down into the world. They were struck in the face by the chaos. And listen to what they said, Matthew 17, verse 19. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why couldn't we cast out that demon? He said this to them, because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting. Mark 9 says, and when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why couldn't we cast out that demon? And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Oh friends, how do we rebegin with Jesus in prayer? Here's the final point. We let Jesus transform our prayer. We let him transform it. We let him change it. You know, I think it's so amazing. He said, you are powerless in prayer because you don't have enough faith. I want you to have more faith, people who follow me, because if you start with a little grain of mustard seed faith and you let it grow, you can say to this mountain, move, and it's gonna move. You know the amazing thing about this? Here's a big theological word, pericope in scripture. They started out on the mountain of transfiguration where Jesus went to pray. And they get over here and they're saying, But, but why? Why why? And he's like, What you're facing, you can't do anything about except by prayer. And by the way, if you want to move that mountain over there, it's through prayer. And he points back up to that mountain and he says, he says, get this. My words to articulate his prayer is where heaven meets here. You want to move that mountain? Well, this kind doesn't come out except by prayer and fasting. Jesus wants to transform your prayers. And the question, why couldn't we? Why couldn't we cast out that demon? Why weren't our prayers effective? Why didn't why, why, why? Jesus says, I want you to stop focusing on your inadequacy, and I want you to come back to intimacy with me because that's where it is. That's where it is, that's the call. So this week, this week, Vanguard Church, this week, people who are watching online, this week for people who are listening later online, this week, wherever this week begins, we are going to lean into prayer in a new way. I challenge you, I challenge you to use the Family Disciple Me resources this week. Each day, starting today, there's a podcast. Yes, you will hear yours truly. You're gonna hear me. Go past my voice. Listen to his voice. Listen to that short 10 to 15 minute podcast, and then I challenge you to follow that up by spending time in the devotion-driven discipleship guide. All this is available on your handy dandy smartphone. I'm pretty sure everybody in here has one. You're gonna pull up that family disciple me, familydiscipleme.org. You're gonna come to the home page, and when you scroll down, you will see all the links for all the podcast, for all the conversation guides. Just a little sneak peek. When our app comes out next year, it's gonna be really fun and easy, and it's all gonna be in one place. But the thing is, discipleship doesn't start with an app. Discipleship starts with a family disciple meeting, conversation. Discipleship starts with a conversation, and that's something that we can do today. So this week, I challenge you to take a mountain hike with me. Take a mountain hike with the family disciple meet ministry, and we're gonna go back up that mountain of transfiguration. We're gonna look at the lives Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, John, Jesus, and our hearts are gonna be transformed by prayer. I want to tell you how this has changed me already. I've learned how to intercede in a new way, like Moses. Interceding, meeting with God face to face, as best as I can in my broken way, but learning how to stand in the gap for others. Pray for the prodigals, pray for the people that puts on my heart, pray for those who are captured in human slavery. This week there was a major breakthrough where God did something powerful because God's people were interceding. Just look up scam compounds and see what God has done, acts of mercy. God has been teaching me how to believe like Elijah because I don't know about you, but I need some miracles in my life. Anyone need some miracles? We were saying about that earlier. Yeah, Caitlin, I need some miracles. Elijah believed God for miracles. The question is, will we pray like that? And then we come to Peter and Peter messes up. Peter's always got foot and mouth disease, but you know what? I love Peter so much because I'm just like him. Just like him. Jesus said to Peter, Peter, you're gonna mess up, but I'm praying for you. And when I get finished praying for you and you rise back up, just like I pray for you to be strengthened, I want you to go strengthen somebody else. Peter lived out devotion-driven discipleship. And we're gonna pray like Peter this week. And then we're gonna come to James. And James is the guy who didn't have any of his exact words recorded in Scripture. He was, I don't know, less important, even though he was called James the Greater. But he's like the rest of us. He was just a normal guy. He wasn't important enough to be quoted. And yet Peter lived a life of transformed prayer and faith that echoes through time. And James teaches us to follow. John, he was one of the sons of thunder, booming, arrogant, wanted to place a position. He wanted to call down fire from heaven. That's the truth of that son of thunder. But Jesus transformed him into a disciple who abides. And there's no one in Scripture who loved Jesus more than John. And God's gonna transform our prayer life to abide as well. Jesus teaches us to surrender in prayer. And in all of this, as we walk through that each day this week, Vanguard Church, my prayer for you, my prayer for us, my prayer for everybody, and the sound of the voice of Family Disciple Me Ministry is that through this prayer initiative this week, that God lights a spark in us, that then it becomes that little spark that we light into our children and our children's children and our friends and our extended family and our neighbors and other believers, those that are on the other side of the country and those that are on the other side of the world. God wants to do something with us so that when we come to those moments where we say, Why couldn't we cast this out? And Jesus says, This kind can only come out through prayer. We say, Oh, thanks for the reminder. And we get ourselves back on up that mountain to meet with God like never before. That's the invitation of transfiguration prayer. That's the invitation to go where heaven meets here. My prayer and our prayer is this. And if it's in, if you have your program, I invite you to open it and say it with me. If you're watching online, if you've got the online, you'll see it in there. I want us to pray this, and I'm gonna pray it as a prayer blessing over us as we close the service. God transform me and transfigure my prayer life for your glory, my good, and the good of all those you entrust to me. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Friends, go with God this week. Go with him. Listen to his voice, walk through each of these conversations. We're gonna be doing this as a church this week. We're starting here at Vanguard Central. Vanguard Trilakes is going on this same journey with us. And then we're gonna close this prayer initiative next weekend with Pastor John as he gives us more leading and direction in prayer. Vanguard, Vanguard, we are launching an encounter room here in our premises where you can meet with God, with other believers, and you can pray like never before. Vanguard, I invite you on Wednesday, come anytime during the day on Wednesday as the staff is in and out. Come kneel in T6 during the day. Pray with us at noon. This week at noon, this week from 8 to 8:30. We're gonna be in that room as a staff worshiping and praying. Vanguard Church, don't leave this week the same. Don't, don't, don't leave the same person. When the calendar rolls around to next weekend, say, God, I've met with you like never before, and I want to make you known now like never before as well. That is the mission of Vanguard Church, and that's the mission of Family Disciple Me. Let me pray for us. Lord God, I pray anointing over this message. It's not my message, this is your idea. Because I did not think of this one on my own. This is of you. And I believe with all my heart that this is the invitation that you have for every person in the sound of my voice. Every person who will be seeing this through social media or however it comes to them this week and in the weeks and the months to come, Lord God. But would you light a spark here this morning at Vanguard Central? Would you light a spark at Vanguard Trix even right now? God, would you do something in us and through us for your glory like we've never seen or experienced before? Because, God, we believe that prayer is where transfiguration meets transformation. So, God, do that in us and through us this week. And all God's people said, Amen, yes, amen.