Fresh Oil: Cultivating Intimacy with the Holy Spirit with Pastor Chris Garcia
About this episode
Pastor Chris Garcia of House of Glory Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas joins Philip Cameron to unpack what it truly means to cultivate intimacy with the Holy Spirit — and why the presence of God is the only thing that can transform a life, a church, and a generation. Drawing from his new book Fresh Oil: Secrets to Intimacy with the Holy Spirit, Chris traces his journey back to age 12, when he first encountered the tangible presence of God in a Spirit-filled church and heard an inner voice say, "Lift your hands. Just surrender." That moment of yielding, he explains, unleashed "a river of liquid love" that has defined his walk with Christ ever since. Chris and Philip explore how the Western church has become cluttered with programming and 32-second increments, leaving little room for the Holy Spirit to move. Anchoring the conversation in John 15, Chris emphasizes that abiding in Christ — clinging to the vine — is the source of all fruitfulness, faith, and revelation. "Everything you need is found in him," he says. He closes with a challenge to cultivate the secret place, citing Psalm 91 and the example of Peter, whose very shadow healed the sick because he dwelled under the shadow of the Almighty. Order Fresh Oil and learn more about Pastor Chris Garcia's ministry at fathersglory.org.
Part of our Holy Spirit collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“Oh, be careful what you tell God. Just be careful what you tell him. Because as sure as my name is Philip Cameron, the minute you say you can't do that, that's what he's about to do.”
“It wasn't the preaching, it wasn't necessarily what was being said or how things were being done. It was the awareness of the presence of God that drove me to my knees. And it made me — he made me love him and live for him. When you have the presence of God in your life and God shows himself to you, nothing will take that away from you. No substance.”
“The Bible says, he who abides in the secret place of the Most High God shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What caused Peter's shadow to heal the sick? He was abiding under the shadow of the glory of God.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Chris Garcia of House of Glory Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas shares how a Spirit-filled encounter at age 12 ignited a lifelong pursuit of God's presence. Drawing from his book Fresh Oil: Secrets to Intimacy with the Holy Spirit, Chris explains how yielding to the Holy Spirit — rather than striving through religious routine — produces genuine faith, fruitfulness, and transformation. He and Philip discuss how over-programmed Western church culture crowds out the Holy Spirit, and anchor the solution in John 15's call to abide in Christ as the true vine. Chris closes by urging believers to prioritize the secret place of prayer, citing Psalm 91 and the apostle Peter as examples of what happens when a life is saturated with God's presence. Visit fathersglory.org to order the book.
- A 12-Year-Old Encounters God's Presence
- Yielding to the Holy Spirit in Worship
- Western Church Clutter vs. Spirit-Led Services
- Sovereignty of the Spirit and Growing Faith
- Abiding in Christ — John 15 and the True Vine
- Fresh Oil Book and Transforming Your Pastor
- Cultivating the Secret Place of Prayer
- The Manifestation of the Sons of God
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith Today. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am so pleased you are with us today. God has put a chorus that has been driving me crazy. Ever got a song that you're singing in your spirit and it just gets inside you and it kind of takes on a life of its own.
Philip:Is there someone else singing the song inside you? Well, this song — he works in ways I cannot see, he will make a way for me, he will be my guide, he works in ways I cannot see. When I think God isn't working at all, that's the moments that mostly he's working, most of all. When my interference is out of it, when I don't know what he's doing and I can't get my mucky paw on it to mess things up, Jesus, take the wheel. And when I can get my hands off of it and allow his will to work, you're living in a situation just now and you may be going through just hellacious stuff — your family, maybe your body — and nothing's working out.
Philip:Let me tell you something. Nothing fixes you quicker than the presence of God. Nothing puts the bits back together. The tangled waves can be unwound and blended. And I believe today we're gonna have a great program. Chris Garcia is on the show with us. He's a pastor, but he also has written a book entitled Fresh Oil. You need to get a piece of paper and a pen handy, because this is going to be, I believe, an answer in your spirit.
Philip:For those that know us — for the last 35 years, 35 years ago, my dad called me from Scotland and he was watching the BBC. And it was during the days when the Soviet Union fell apart. And he started looking and watching these things on the BBC with orphanages. And I had no interest in orphanages at all. And he kept telling me about these kids that were dying and starving and sick, and he had had cancer surgery, the wound burst, he was a mess.
Philip:And he called me and he says, what do you plan to do? I says, absolutely nothing. He said, why? If you won't go, I'm going by myself. And he forced me to go. Sometimes God forces you to get you to where he wants you to be. And I just literally said to shut my dad up, I says, okay, I'll go, I'll go, stop it. And I went there and had no idea that God was driving me towards my destiny. Didn't know it.
Philip:Got to this orphanage, went up the stairs, salon number five, and in the middle of this bedlam — 200 kids, starving, freezing cold — there was a wee face in the middle in this crib looking at me. And a boy. I knew he was a boy because he was naked from the waist down. And I picked him up and the Holy Spirit spoke like I'm talking to you. And he says, this is your son. I had two kids and I was done — two kids and I'm done.
Philip:Oh, be careful what you tell God. Just be careful what you tell him. Because as sure as my name is Philip Cameron, the minute you say you can't do that, that's what he's about to do. And I picked this wee fella up and I said, I don't know who you are, but I'm coming back for you. And it took me a year to adopt him. And we fixed the whole orphanage up. They had no toilets. They sat on coffee cans with the raw edge cutting their bottoms. It was just delicious. And so we fixed the place up. And by the time that year was done, I was addicted to caring for kids.
Philip:And so our whole family works nonstop. And we now work in a country called Moldova and Ukraine. We've been in Ukraine for eight years now, long before the war broke out, we were there. And in those countries, when girls turn 16 from the orphanage, they put them on the street and traffickers get them, use them 40 times a day, 50 times a day. One girl will make $300,000 a year for their captor. It's not fair. It's not right.
Philip:And so we have an amazing place called Vatra Village. It's a village of homes right on the largest lake in Moldova. And instead of being put on the street, we take them to our homes. We put them back to school and tell them about Jesus. And these kids are turning from orphans to sons and daughters to missionaries. And they are out there sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel, visiting the sick, visiting the widow, bringing coal — wood, rather — big bags of wood to keep people from freezing to death in the wintertime.
Philip:And God is using us. We're just opening two new houses for little kids. And one of the girls that we took in from a horrible, terrible family situation — they made a video and sent it to us. And it's just too good not to share it with you.
Her name is Alona. Watch this. Every day my mother would prepare our clothes and place them outside just in case my father came home drunk. That way we could quickly grab them, get dressed, and run. My name is Alona and I am studying to become a baker. My dream is to build a successful career in pastry.
Growing up, my home was never truly safe. My father would always come home drunk, and every time my heart would pound with fear. I knew what was coming. My mother would be beaten again. And each time we had to flee, running through the night, knocking on neighbors' doors, begging them to take us in.
I remember one night when we couldn't escape in time. My father came home drunk and attacked my mother. Somehow she managed to break free and we, the children, ran with her as fast as we could, terrified. But he started throwing stones at us as we fled. And the pain of that moment left a deep scar in my heart.
The few times he didn't drink felt like stolen moments of happiness. In those rare days, our home wasn't filled with screams. And I clung to those moments hoping they would last, but they never did. By the time I turned 15, we had lived in five different places trying to escape him.
Yet no matter where we went, he always found us, always dragged us back into fear. But now, thank God, he doesn't come anymore. I am incredibly grateful to the Orphan's Hands family for giving me this opportunity to stay here in such a wonderful home, for giving me the chance to study and have a future. Thank you. Thank you.
Philip:A beautiful girl called Alona, who had lived in hell until she came to Orphan's Hands. And to watch grace work in a heart — it blows my mind. We took 25 kids in in September, and to watch grace, the power of grace — they end up, we have every month a family day at our village. And these kids invite the family that abused them so they can share the gospel with them.
Philip:And they cook a meal and they have games and all kinds of fun stuff. And the whole point of it is to let Alona tell her dad, it's okay. I love you. God loves you. Jesus died for you. And everything you see — all those homes we have, the home that's in Ukraine — our kids right now literally are on standby. We have a sprinter van there waiting that sits outside the house full of fuel, instantly ready to leave in case Russia comes into that part of Ukraine.
Philip:We are living every day under that. They were out last week, they were offered a cup of coffee, and as they were out, the sirens went off and the loudspeakers began to scream, find a safe place, find a safe place. And the city of Odessa was hit with missiles. And we're living right in the middle of the war zone.
Philip:Everything you see, everything you watch — you just watched that video — has been created by someone just like you giving a dollar a day. You can change a life for a dollar a day. Someone has given to let Alona live, so the husband she marries will be a godly man. Our kids will never know an orphanage. Our kids will never know beatings and alcohol. By a seed that you can plant here, and the Bible says when you give to the poor, you lend to the Lord.
Philip:And they may not be from Africa, they may not be from India or from obviously impoverished countries, but Moldova is the poorest country in all of Europe. It's like Africa in Europe. And these kids live at the cusp of being destroyed by alcohol. Can you help us? We have a very simple address. In fact, we've got two new homes that are about to open, and each of these homes will need 300 new sponsors. And I would love you to be one of them. It's really simple.
Philip:You can write and just write the check out to Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. And that'll be on the program during the program. And you can also go to DailyFaith.tv — there's a giving page there, and you can earmark your gift. If you tell us you're buying wood for the wintertime, that's where it goes. If you tell us this is to help one of the houses to be sponsored, that's where it goes. You determine where your funds and your giving will go, and we'll get it there.
Philip:We also have an 800 number — 833-DAILY-FAITH. Really simple. 833-DAILY-FAITH. And a real live person will pick up the phone. Make a difference today. Determine in your spirit that I'm going to do good today. I'm gonna be God's hand extended today. And I promise you this — your hand extended into their world opens the door in your world for the mighty hand of God to be extended into your world. So I'd appreciate if you could do that today. It would mean so much to us.
Philip:This book represents an experience. An experience is something that — you can learn stuff, but when you experience something, it is a completely different dimension. And Chris Garcia, pastor of a great church in — help me with this — Greenwood, Arkansas, I believe. Is that right? I'll find out from him. Anyway, I always get these introductions mixed up, but I'm delighted to have him with us today. Chris, thank you so much for being on Daily Faith, and I apologize if I've put you in the wrong town.
Chris Garcia:Oh, it's okay. Thank you so much, Philip, for having me on. Our church is called House of Glory, and it's in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Philip:I knew — it says Greenwood on my screen and I'm thinking that didn't sound right. So it's in Fort Smith. Yes. Well, welcome to Daily Faith. And I am intrigued by you because I recognize someone who practices the presence of God, who's interested in Jesus more than what Jesus can bring. And you are few and far between, my friend. And I want you to share with our audience today what brought you to the place of being a seeker of him — not stuff, not the trappings, but him. How did you get there?
A 12-Year-Old Encounters God's Presence
Chris Garcia:Yes, absolutely. Well, for me, I got saved through the presence of the Holy Spirit. I grew up in a very nominal religious kind of household, but the liberty of the presence of God, the liberty of the gospel, I did not know that. And when I was 12 years old, what gripped my heart to know the Lord was his glorious presence. I got invited through my mom — these really wild revivalist Pentecostal spirit-filled ladies brought her and dragged her into the church.
Philip:Wow.
Chris Garcia:And she didn't want anything to do with it. But she had some wild friends that were praying for her. And they brought her into this spirit-filled church, full of the presence of God. And as a 12-year-old, I remember seeing my mom come home and her eyes were just bloodshot red, she was weeping all morning.
Philip:Wow.
Chris Garcia:And I said to my mom, mom, what's going on? Are you okay? And she's like, I found God and God is in this building here.
Philip:Wow.
Chris Garcia:And I was like, I don't know what that means, but I felt this yearning to go. So I told my mom, I said, mom, would you take me? And she's like, yeah, you can come with me next Sunday. And I grew up in a very nominal type of religious denomination where it was just a lot of ritualism and formality. But there was a hunger in my heart at 12. And I tell you the truth, as soon as I got to the church, it was like in the parking lot it was saturated with the presence and glory of God.
Chris Garcia:And as a 12-year-old kid, I recognized that this was no ordinary thing. I remember going up to the threshold of the door of the church, and I could feel the love of God in a very tangible way. And then they started worshiping and praising the Lord, and it was very different from what I was used to. And as soon as people started lifting up their hands — see, I'd never seen that before. People were lifting their hands everywhere, and it was just a full-out love fest to the Lord. People just loving on Jesus.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit in Worship
Philip:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Garcia:And my heart was pulled towards that, and I heard a voice even at 12 — it was like right here in my spirit. And he was like, lift your hands. And I was like, I'm not gonna lift my hands. I'm fighting with God. I didn't even know it was God. He was like, lift your hands, just surrender, yield. And so I remember lifting my hands and all of a sudden it was like a river of just love, a liquid love just melting over my heart, my soul. And I started weeping uncontrollably.
Chris Garcia:It wasn't the preaching, it wasn't necessarily what was being said or how things were being done. It was the awareness of the presence of God that drove me to my knees. And it made me — he made me love him and live for him. When you have the presence of God in your life and God shows himself to you, nothing will take that away from you. No substance.
Chris Garcia:And I remember just experiencing the Lord like this. And I was so gripped with his presence that it was like it was easy to just give my life to him because he was so beautiful. And he still continues to be that way with me. The presence of the Lord is what gripped my heart to know Jesus. And Jesus is known by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Philip:Absolutely. You know, Jesus said many things in the discourse in the upper room with the disciples, and he spent much time talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of God will always point to the Son of God. And when the Spirit of God is made known in the heart, there Jesus is seen as he is. And when you glimpse Christ for who he is by his presence, it just changes your life.
Philip:And what you're saying resonates with me so much because my upbringing is very similar in Scotland. Our family got baptized in the Holy Ghost out of drunkenness, and we would go to church and the presence of God was so real that our service would last for six hours. And it was like it lasted 30 minutes. And the presence of God, the divine weight — the weight of his presence.
Western Church Clutter vs. Spirit-Led Services
Philip:I know you know what I'm talking about. There's a weight of his presence that settles upon you. And today, and you discuss in the book how in the West we've become cluttered — the best word I've used to describe it is the church is cluttered. We've got so much stuff. We've programmed God. I often say in some of the churches that I go and preach at, I'll be sitting in and everything's down to 32-second increments. And I'm thinking, what is going to happen in this church today if the Holy Ghost shows up?
Chris Garcia:That's right. That's right.
Philip:And most times he wouldn't be allowed to do what he wanted to do. It's the presence that makes a difference, isn't it?
Chris Garcia:100% true. It's the presence of God that enlivens the human heart to love the Lord. And that's been the journey of my life. When the presence of God is honored and when you honor the presence of the Holy Spirit, what begins to happen is that weight — what you're describing, that weight of his glory — is known. And he begins to make the scripture and make the person of Christ knowable. He enlivens us. Hallelujah. When the presence of the Spirit is welcomed and honored in our lives, he enlivens us.
Philip:You said something earlier today — you were talking about how you're becoming more and more Calvinist.
Chris Garcia:It's funny because the presence of God will give you faith to believe. You begin to see how sovereign the Spirit of the Lord is. And it's truly what I find in the words of Jesus in John 15. He talks about abiding with him, but he says, without me you can do nothing. Nothing. And when you experience the weight of the presence of the glory of God, you begin to quickly understand that your desires are of him. Your faith grows because of him. Everything in the Christian walk is strictly of him and unto him.
Sovereignty of the Spirit and Growing Faith
Chris Garcia:And the closer you get to God, you realize I can't do anything. And so the only response is dependency, yieldedness, surrender. And he gives you everything. You know, as a pastor I've heard many people say to me, how do I grow in faith? And I tell them, just grow in your relationship with the presence of God. Because faith comes from him. Everything you need is found in him — the nourishment, the faith, the outlook, the perspective, the perception, the revelation that we need in our lives — it's all hinged on abiding in the vine. It's clinging to Christ that does everything.
Chris Garcia:And this is the last thing I'll say on this, but it's so beautiful because here is Jesus in John 15 and he describes himself as the true vine. And our relationship is as the branches. And so the relationship with the vine is that we are interlocked in our union with that vine. And what's so powerful — he says, herein is my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit. And the fruitfulness that we need is found by clinging and living and siphoning the life from the vine who is Christ. So he is everything. His presence is everything. And clinging to him is everything that you need. His presence makes the feast. When he's at the center of it all, he turns water into wine. Everything changes when his presence is there.
Abiding in Christ — John 15 and the True Vine
Philip:This book that you have — I just want to encourage everybody watching to get this book. I want you to do more than that. I want you to buy it for your pastor. I want you to give this gift to your pastor, because the stuff that he can glean from these pages can transform his life. One revelation, one ram moment, changes everything. It can change the direction of your church. And it's called Fresh Oil: Secrets to Intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
Philip:It is a book that you have got to get. Read it, pass it on to someone else. Because we need — listen, we are living in critical days. The church is either going to put up or shut up. We're either going to be the church or we're going to dissipate like all of Europe. I come from Scotland, once known as the land of the book, the land of the Bible. That was Scotland's title. And today there are more Mormons and more Muslims in Scotland than there are spirit-filled believers. We've lost our place. And the only way to redeem the situation is by knowing his presence.
Philip:So get that book. Let's put it up on the screen so folk can get in contact with us. You can go to FathersGlory.org — FathersGlory.org — and you can order the book there. And I don't know if you go and speak in churches or not, but boy, if I were a pastor, Chris, I'd be saying I need to get this fellow to come and talk to our church. Because his yoke is easy. Listen, guys, you do it by yourself and it's a struggle and it's a fight. And then you let him do it, and his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The songs sing easier, the messages preach easier, and the congregation lives easier.
Fresh Oil Book and Transforming Your Pastor
Philip:We've got a couple minutes before we leave. Give us a thought to go on. Tell us what we need to know today in our daily faith walk. Give us one more thought.
Chris Garcia:Yeah. So like you mentioned, the book Fresh Oil: Secrets to Intimacy with the Holy Spirit — what I would just tell you is the secret to your prayer life is to cultivate the secret place. If there is anything that I can tell the audience, the secret to a powerful, vibrant, life-giving prayer life is to value the secret place.
Chris Garcia:The Bible says, he who abides in the secret place of the Most High God shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What caused Peter's shadow to heal the sick? He was abiding under the shadow of the glory of God. I believe the days are coming — and I believe the days are already here — where the world is travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God who know who their God is. And the church in this hour must cultivate and focus on what is most important, which is the cultivation of the presence of the Bridegroom. It's to be the lover of the Bridegroom himself, the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah.
Cultivating the Secret Place of Prayer
Chris Garcia:And so I leave you with that thought. Cultivate the secret place. In that secret place, everything comes alive.
Philip:Let me ask you a simple question. Can you come back?
Chris Garcia:The answer is yes.
Philip:Oh my goodness. You have blessed me, because you have called the deep — deep calls unto deep. And you can get in contact with Chris at Father's Glory International. It's FathersGlory.org. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you, Chris.
Philip:Thank you. We love you. Thank you for being part of Daily Faith. You can reach out in your world and someone else's, and by doing so you can change your world. Practice his presence. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God help the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine.
The Manifestation of the Sons of God
If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-DAILY-FAITH. You can also give by going online to www.DailyFaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
How did Chris Garcia first experience the presence of God?
Chris was 12 years old when his mom was brought to a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church by some praying friends. He went with her the following Sunday and says that even in the parking lot he could feel the presence and glory of God. When people began lifting their hands in worship, he heard a voice in his spirit telling him to do the same — and the moment he surrendered and lifted his hands, he felt what he describes as a 'river of liquid love' wash over him, and he wept uncontrollably. It was that tangible awareness of God's presence, not the preaching, that drove him to his knees and made him give his life to Christ.
What does Chris Garcia say is the secret to a powerful prayer life?
Chris says the secret is cultivating the secret place — the private, intimate place of abiding with God. He points to Psalm 91, noting that 'he who abides in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,' and argues that it was this kind of abiding that caused even Peter's shadow to heal the sick. In his view, everything in the Christian life comes alive when you consistently prioritize that hidden place of communion with God.
Why does Chris Garcia say he's becoming more Calvinist the closer he gets to God?
Chris explains that the deeper his experience of God's presence grows, the more he recognizes how completely sovereign the Holy Spirit is and how utterly dependent he is on God for everything — faith, desire, perspective, revelation. He draws on Jesus's words in John 15, 'without me you can do nothing,' and says that when you truly feel the weight of God's glory, you quickly realize that even your desire to seek him comes from him. The only natural response, he says, is dependency, yieldedness, and surrender.
What is the main idea behind Chris Garcia's book 'Fresh Oil'?
The book is about cultivating genuine intimacy with the Holy Spirit rather than relying on religious programs or formality. Chris argues that the Western church has become cluttered with activity and scheduling, leaving little room for the Holy Spirit to move. His core message is that honoring and welcoming the presence of the Holy Spirit is what enlivens the human heart, produces real faith, and bears lasting spiritual fruit — because, as he puts it, 'clinging to Christ is everything that you need.'
How does Chris Garcia say someone can grow in faith?
Chris tells people who ask him this question to simply grow in their relationship with the presence of God, because faith comes from him. He says everything a believer needs — nourishment, faith, outlook, revelation — is found by abiding in Christ, the true vine. Rather than striving to manufacture faith on their own, he encourages people to cling to Christ and let his life flow through them, the way a branch draws everything it needs from the vine.
Topics
chris garciafresh oil booksecret place prayerspirit-filled worshipabiding in christhouse of glory churchfathersglory.org