For many believers, prayer feels more like a spiritual chore than a life-giving encounter. But Pastor Chris Garcia says the problem isn’t prayer, it’s how we view it.
“So many people, they feel like, you know, prayer is something you owe to God instead of looking at it like a deposit,” Garcia said during a recent interview. “Prayer is so important because that’s where the deposit happens.”
Garcia, leader of the Fresh Oil ministry, centers his work around contemplative prayer—what he calls “just simply being still with the presence of God to get to know Him.”
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He’s clear that this form of prayer isn’t about performance or emotional highs. “The contemplative specifically—that type of prayer—is where the deposit happens, where the healing happens, the deliverance happens.”
Garcia recalled deeply personal moments where the presence of the Holy Spirit was so tangible, it changed his entire approach to prayer. “As I walk and I stand up and I go into the living room, it was like the presence of the Holy Spirit was like it became the room,” he said. “It was like palpable and weighty glory. I almost was afraid to, like, even look up.”
But it’s not always a rush of divine feeling. Sometimes it’s silence. Stillness. Even waiting.
“It wasn’t like I was feeling the presence,” Garcia shared. “I was just waiting there. And it got to a point where it was like awkward, just, waiting. And then all of a sudden on the stream this one kid comes in, ‘God, please forgive me of my sins. I repent.’ … Then another one. And it turned into like 30, 40, 50 people repenting.”
Garcia stresses that being in God’s presence isn’t about checking boxes—it’s about encountering a Person.
“Surely there’s something else,” Garcia remembered saying during one of these moments of silence with the Lord. “And He’s like, ‘Be with Me. Let Me be with you.’ And I’m there and I’m just like—tears are streaming down my face.”
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The takeaway? True prayer is not about doing more. It’s about abiding.
“If you want to be a vessel of power, you’ve got to learn to habitate in sitting with Him,” Garcia said. “We cheat on God with the stuff He gives us all the time. We’re so busy looking at His hands that we miss His face.”
For those struggling to connect in prayer, Garcia offers this simple encouragement: “Just start praying. That’s step one. God will meet you where you are.”
And in that stillness, everything changes.
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
