Sermon

Your Will: The Beach of God's Invasion

Heartland Church Weekly Message

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  1. Hi. This is Dave Olson.

  2. I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.

  3. I hope the following message, challenges and courage's, and

  4. ultimately changes you, thanks for joining us.

  5. Finishing the first week of the fast today, so hey, two more

  6. two, more of these. And it we're going to Chow Down,

  7. Hallelujah. But in the meantime, the purpose

  8. of this fast is not to look forward to the meal at the end.

  9. As much as I talk like it is, I apologize.

  10. We're asking God for breakthrough.

  11. We're asking the Lord. To let Heaven open over this

  12. house for this nation. And this region, And so I want

  13. to talk about that, a team of us, that the team gets together

  14. back in the production room on Sunday morning.

  15. And usually, when faith is leading, she'll say Pastor, if

  16. you want to join us, you're welcome to and I'll jump in

  17. there and it was already on my radar to do.

  18. So, and we got in there and everything that we're talking

  19. about just was in line with what I felt.

  20. The Lord was saying this morning, we want heaven to open.

  21. Our human skills are not are not enough, they're not great

  22. enough. We're not insightful enough,

  23. we're not creative enough. We're not brilliant enough to

  24. produce, what our heart longs for The only thing that can give

  25. us what we long for, is the outpouring of the spirit of the

  26. Living God, and that's what we're asking.

  27. God for, that's what this fast is for.

  28. And so I want to talk about that.

  29. That idea I want to talk about. An open Heaven.

  30. I want to talk about how we get there.

  31. You know, when we're praying and fasting, we're asking God.

  32. To pour out upon us. This church for the last 20

  33. years has been about Revival and the outpouring of the spirit.

  34. But I'ma tell you, we need another outpouring.

  35. I need another outpouring, I am desperate, for a fresh touch

  36. from God, what I have is not enough.

  37. The gap between, what? Where we're at and what I feel

  38. like God wants to do through us is a gap, only God can fill and

  39. so we've got to cry out to God. But when we're crying out to

  40. Heaven, there's really three components to that, if you will.

  41. There's contending with God. There's contending With the

  42. Enemy and there's contending with ourself.

  43. And all three of those are very important, and if you don't

  44. understand that, then you can get yourself sideways and blame

  45. God, for what the enemy is doing.

  46. And blame the enemy for what God's doing.

  47. And that's a very dangerous place to get, because if you're

  48. blaming the wrong person, you're going to take The enact you're

  49. going to take the wrong measures to solve the problem.

  50. And so, you can, you can put it this way, there's a prayer

  51. component because we're dealing with God, we're crying out to

  52. Heaven, we're saying God pour out of your spirit.

  53. There's a spiritual warfare component because we're dealing

  54. with a very real devil. There are principalities and

  55. powers that fight the move of God.

  56. And they need to be contended with Paul put it this way we

  57. wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against

  58. principalities and Powers, he says, we literally wrestle with

  59. the spiritual entities to displace them so that God can

  60. pour out upon us. You say Pastor, do they really

  61. need to be dealt with in order for God to pour out upon us?

  62. Well, Daniel went on a 21-day fast and when the angel arrived

  63. a little worse for the wear, he said I left Heaven, the day you

  64. started fasting, but I was hindered by the Prince of

  65. Persia. It's what the New Testament.

  66. Calls a principality, a prince over a geographic region. 8,

  67. municipality that It's the same idea over to geographic region

  68. and that particular Spirit was over the geographic region.

  69. Of Persia, matter of fact, the angel said, after I deal with

  70. you I've got to move on and on when I have to deal with the

  71. prince of Greece, So there was a spiritual warfare component to

  72. prayer and if we don't understand that sometimes we

  73. think we're trying to talk god into something.

  74. He is very, very eager to do. But then there's also the human

  75. component. You can say there's a prayer

  76. component, there's a spiritual warfare component, and then

  77. there's a sanctification component.

  78. We have to deal with us and sometimes the resistance and us

  79. is greater than the resistance in the second heaven.

  80. And make no mistake about it. The resistance in the second

  81. heaven uses the resistance resistance, in us, as a handle

  82. to hold on, to And he uses that, as his legal authority to

  83. resist, the prayers of the Saints.

  84. We've talked about this before. And usually fact of the matter

  85. is, we talked about it, this time of year during the 21-day

  86. fast. That we can actually cancel our

  87. prayers with our Behavior. You are the first fruits of your

  88. own intercession. You are the beach head of God's

  89. invasion. I saw little meme the other day

  90. at said, once you turn 40 years either getting out of you have

  91. to get into smoking meat, or really do a deep dive into World

  92. War Two as a guy, okay? That's, I've done both.

  93. And if you look in WWII, if you remember, the Allied Forces

  94. trying to invade Europe, again, Britain knew the Americans knew

  95. the Canadians knew, the Australians new this Force.

  96. This, this the Allied Forces new, we've got to get our feet

  97. on France and if we can secure a beachhead in France, we can take

  98. Europe back from Hitler. They knew that to be the case

  99. but they also knew it was going to be a Very costly bloody

  100. battle. That battle was known as D-Day.

  101. It was the greatest act of war. The greatest battle in human

  102. history. The shifts alone are

  103. mind-boggling, I forget how many ships but the, the the Germans

  104. who lived through that, they said, as the fog lifted, they

  105. looked. And the entire sea was full of

  106. Warships. It was an amazing thing and

  107. thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of our

  108. sons died on that Shoreline, but they secured the beachhead.

  109. And everybody knew everybody, but Hitler, because he was

  110. crazy, even the Roman generals knew the the war is over.

  111. Now the bloodiest battles were yet to be fought but they knew

  112. once the beachhead was secured the war was over.

  113. What I'm telling you is your heart, is the beachhead of God's

  114. Invasion where we cry out to God.

  115. God invade this region. Lord, we want to see Revival.

  116. God says it starts with you before I align the region with

  117. my will, I'm going to align you with my will.

  118. And so as we cry out to God, times of prayer and fasting,

  119. heightened prayer. Intercession is always a time of

  120. the deep dealings of God, where God begins to tweak our heart

  121. and say I want to deal with this and I want to do with this and

  122. to the extent that we surrender to the internal.

  123. Dealings of God is to the extent that we gain authority to see

  124. the external Victory manifest. And so again, we are the

  125. beachhead of God's Invasion and I'm talking about our personal

  126. heart, our attitudes, our Behavior, the things we do, the

  127. secrets of our heart. This is a time to lay our self

  128. out before the Lord and if God can gain the access.

  129. He so Desires in us, it will begin to affect the region.

  130. I was teaching Wednesday night. And by the way, this is a

  131. Shameless plug for Wednesday night.

  132. We're talking about fasting because you think prayers are

  133. mystery talk about fasting. Every time I get into a fast,

  134. believe me many times this week, I have thought, what does

  135. foregoing a taco have to do with Revival?

  136. But we need to understand fasting.

  137. And that what we really talked about Wednesday night was that

  138. the human will is the Avenue through which both Heaven and

  139. Hell travel. The human will, is the opening

  140. from the spiritual realm into the Earth.

  141. And God has delegated the Earth to man.

  142. It's very clear in wrote and Psalm chapter 8 in its

    Psalms 8 chapter mention

  143. reiterated and Hebrews chapter 2.

    Hebrews 2 chapter mention

  144. What is man? That thou art mindful of him?

  145. The son of man you would visit him.

  146. You made him a little lower than the angels and put everything

  147. under his feet. God delegated, the Earth to us,

  148. and God will not violate the system.

  149. He himself set up And so, the principle of prayer is always

  150. this divine intervention, only by human invitation.

  151. God must have an intercessor. He must have somebody inviting

  152. him to invade planet Earth. If he can't secure a human will,

  153. then the circumstances will not change.

  154. The enemy will always hide behind the Unser rendered.

  155. Recesses of your heart. And as long as there are things

  156. you're withholding from God, that is the ground upon which

  157. the enemy will firmly stand. And take his stand.

  158. His authoritative, stand, his legal stand to continue activity

  159. in the region in your family, and our city.

  160. The region, this nation in the world.

  161. So what God is looking for is a deeper surrender from all of us.

  162. So during this 21 days, we need to be a availing, our hearts to

  163. the Lord and laying it before the Lord.

  164. And saying God go deeper Lord. Is there anything like David

  165. prayed? He said if there be any under

  166. undetected sin within me he asked Lord God pointed out Lord.

  167. Bring it to the surface. Because we want to be usable

  168. before the Lord. this contending with God, this first element of

  169. God, invading Earth where we pray the prayer component

  170. addressing Heaven, Or you could say heaven, we contend with

  171. heaven, we contend with hell, and we contend with Earth, our

  172. own us who are made from the dust of the earth originally

  173. This deal about contending with God, when we pray for Revival

  174. too often. We think we're trying to talk

  175. god into something. He doesn't want to do.

  176. We're down here like we're begging God, please.

  177. And like finally, maybe after 21 days and we get too skinny and

  178. gods afraid we're going to die and it's going to misrepresent

  179. him. Daniels will say Okay, uncle,

  180. uncle I'll send Revival. That's not how it works.

  181. God wants to move in this region more than we want him to.

  182. He's much more aware of what it means.

  183. And he wants it much more than you and I do.

  184. He longs to pour out upon the sons of men. but what he needs

  185. is an Open Door in the human will Your will is a fearsome

  186. thing. It is a weapon.

  187. It is a tool. It is a spiritual organ that you

  188. exercise either for heaven or hell, your choices matter.

  189. Even your choices. To go through the fast now, I

  190. know that, some of you have very physical jobs, I don't have

  191. that, that excuse, but some of you have very physical jobs and

  192. you're not able to do a complete fast and hey, you just follow

  193. Jesus. But what I am saying is follow

  194. Jesus. Don't allow the enemy to begin

  195. to lie to you and convince you that fasting and intercession

  196. don't matter. They do matter.

  197. If you look in that passage with Daniel, I want to see it's

  198. Daniel 9. When Daniel was praying the

  199. resistance he was experiencing in his prayers, was not from

  200. God. The day, he started praying.

  201. An angel was released from Heaven, to go to Daniel and give

  202. him the Revelation. He needed.

  203. The resistance was from the enemy.

  204. And we need to understand that God's hesitation in sending

  205. Revival is not us talking them into something.

  206. He doesn't want to do. However, God will withhold a

  207. move of his Spirit from people who have disqualified

  208. themselves. How do we know if we've

  209. disqualified herself? Or how do we know if we've

  210. qualified? I know that sounds almost like

  211. earning, I'm not talking about earning anything.

  212. I'm talking about removing the hindrances.

  213. Because God is too good. A steward to pour out of his

  214. Spirit on a people who will squander it.

  215. Misuse it And misrepresent his name.

  216. So how do we qualify? What disqualifies us.

  217. What would make God hesitant? Well, there's a few scriptures.

  218. We of course, we get in the book and we ask.

  219. God, God, what are the criteria for you to use us in a greater

  220. way? One of the primary criteria

  221. would be this. God, opposes the proud, it's in

  222. James 4 RJ. Yeah, James for God, opposes the

  223. proud, but gives grace to the humble.

  224. It might be James 3, but God opposes the proud, but gives

  225. grace to the humble to me. That is a frightening verse,

  226. think about that. The god of Heaven opposing, you

  227. can you imagine you're in the prayer closet and you realize

  228. that Supposing you similar similar to Balaam balaam's

  229. cursing. His donkey not realizing.

  230. It's the hand of God that is behind what's going on.

  231. There's an angel of the Lord about ready to smote Balaam, if

  232. he goes on and the donkey was resisting.

  233. And I think often we're blaming our circumstances when it's us,

  234. God wants to deal with. We're saying, God change my

  235. circumstances. And God says, in order to do

  236. that, I need to change you. We're praying for our boss to

  237. get fired. So we'll have a better boss when

  238. God put that boss there to create an us the character and I

  239. hope none of my staff is saying him in it.

  240. God is God is doing the work in us so that we will be qualified.

  241. To Steward. What he wants to send?

  242. And so we during fasting and prayer, and this is true all the

  243. time, but especially during these heightened seasons, were

  244. her crying out. I'll tell you what, I don't want

  245. to go 21 days for nothing, I'm not interested in this kind of

  246. diet, although I need one, I'm not interested in this kind of

  247. diet. There's better ones out there.

  248. I want to see a move of God. In order to see it, we've got

  249. allow the Lord to do with our hearts, we need to Humble

  250. ourselves. One of the ways we know if we're

  251. humble is how do we respond to criticism?

  252. I called someone yesterday and apologized to them for something

  253. I did. I did it.

  254. I thought about it. I prayed about it.

  255. I did it and I felt really bad about it for a week and a half.

  256. And I made a big mistake. I told my wife, So she kept, um,

  257. have you called them yet? If you called them yet, No, it's

  258. appreciate or doing it. So I got ahold of them yesterday

  259. and we talked it through and it was a great conversation.

  260. They were very gracious but they held my feet to the fire.

  261. And they Circle back around two or three times and explain to

  262. me. Why it bothered them what I did.

  263. It was very uncomfortable but they were right and it was a

  264. good opportunity for me just to humble myself and say you're

  265. exactly right. I completely understand why that

  266. would have bothered you I'm always kind of weary about

  267. telling these leery about telling these kind of stories

  268. because you're all wondering, what the heck did he do?

  269. Nunya. Okay.

  270. So one of the good ways to know are we walking in Pride?

  271. Is how do we respond to that? How do we respond?

  272. When someone corrects us? Do we humble ourselves and say?

  273. Thank you. To the hungry, man.

  274. Every bitter thing is sweet. But to the soul that is full,

  275. even the sweet things are thrown aside.

  276. Do people have to correct you on a silver platter with a linen

  277. napkin? Or can they bring it in a doggie

  278. dish? Are you hungry enough to say God

  279. I just want to be right with you.

  280. I don't need them to do it right to hear you through them.

  281. That's an act of humility. And humility comes with Hunger

  282. years ago. There was a wonderful book

  283. written by a White journalist called black, like me.

  284. Some of you may remember this book, it's really a great book.

  285. And what he did is, he went down down in the Deep.

  286. South went down to New Orleans and he if I remember I took some

  287. medication. Also some makeup and made

  288. himself look like a black man and he lived on the streets of

  289. New Orleans because he wanted to Experience it.

  290. He thought he understood what it would be like to be a black man

  291. in the Deep, South it in that time of extreme racism.

  292. And it was very enlightening to him.

  293. But there was one thing that stood out in that book to me, he

  294. was well, a lot of things. But this, I often think of this,

  295. when I think of humility and hunger, There's a scene where

  296. he's sitting on the curb in New Orleans and he is hungry.

  297. He hasn't eaten in days and he looks down the curb and there's

  298. another homeless guy. Cooking hot dogs on an open,

  299. fire on the curb. And he scoots over and he said,

  300. hey man, you think you could spare a hot dog and the guy

  301. looked at him just despise him and said yeah I'd give you one

  302. if you get on all fours and bark like a dog.

  303. And the journalist did it. Because when you're really

  304. hungry, you're no longer prideful.

  305. Pride goes to the side. Decorum goes to the side.

  306. You're like, Jesus, I just have to have you.

  307. And God wants to do with our hearts.

  308. I think one of the strengths of fasting is it?

  309. It pushes us to the limits It pushes we choose discomfort.

  310. Before. The enemy, the enemy believes

  311. about most of us, if not, all of us what he said about Job.

  312. God, if I touch them, they will back off.

  313. You just let me touch them. Let me just introduce a little

  314. discomfort, a little pain in their life and if I can do that,

  315. you watch they will deny you to your face just like the rest of

  316. them. But the Lord believes better

  317. about you than the enemy does. The Lord believes better about

  318. you than you do. And God is looking for men and

  319. women who will be the Vindication of God himself

  320. before the enemy. The enemy believes that if we go

  321. into a little discomfort, Dan Mohler had this has this

  322. wonderful phrase. If you're touchy, you'll be

  323. touched. Fasting says, you know what, I'm

  324. just going to get it over with. I'm going to step into

  325. discomfort. I'm going to go into this and

  326. I'm going to deal with this stuff in my heart and I'm going

  327. to, I'm going to let, I'm going to allow this into my life

  328. because I'm crying out to him. I'm going to deny the cries of

  329. My Flesh and I'm going to allow those things to be dealt with.

  330. And there's something humbling about fasting.

  331. Now we can feel like a mighty man of God or a mighty woman of

  332. God until about day three. And then I'm like, I'm so weak.

  333. I'm such a wimp. And it's that thing of coming

  334. close to our weakness knowing that God without you, I can do

  335. nothing. I know that theologically this

  336. week, I know that physically. And it's good for me, it's good

  337. for my flesh to feel that. But as we allow our flesh to be

  338. weakened, our spirit begins to ascend.

  339. There's a sensitivity that begins to manifest in our life.

  340. Our spirit man begins to be heightened in its awareness.

  341. It's one of the beautiful things about seasons of fasting, and

  342. it's so worth it. So pride is one of the barriers

  343. we need to deal with in US. There's an interesting verse in

  344. Zechariah 7. It says, when they called I

  345. would not listen because when I spoke they would not here.

  346. Think about that. This is God speaking.

  347. God said, when my people called they got a deaf ear from me.

  348. Because when I tried to speak to them, they turned a deaf ear to

  349. me. So, there is a connection

  350. between your yielded nastas, your willingness to hear the

  351. hard things, your willingness to listen to the voice of God, to

  352. apply what he's saying. If you want prevailing prayer to

  353. manifest in your life. Prevailing prayer.

  354. What it means is you you begin to feel that you're gaining.

  355. The upper hand in that thing. You're beginning to feel like

  356. the victories being one. I may not see it out there but

  357. I'm telling you I can feel it in here.

  358. There's something moving But that only comes as we are dialed

  359. in and we become aligned with him.

  360. We must come into alignment to fulfill our assignment.

  361. It's like you've got to have if you want your plumbing to work

  362. you better have the pipes lined up.

  363. It's not good enough just to have some pipes under your sink

  364. if they're not lined up. And as God pours out, he's

  365. looking for us to be aligned with him so he can pour through

  366. us. And fasting is a way for God to

  367. begin to dial that in. But we've got to be a people

  368. that incline our ear. There's two phrases in

  369. scripture, the very interesting they and climbing our ear and

  370. God coming near When God comes near, it has the idea of God

  371. leaning down with his face towards us to listen closely.

  372. It's like an act of affection and attention.

  373. It's like a father or a mother who grabs her little child by

  374. the cheeks and wants them to know you have my full attention.

  375. We say God come near. Well, when God finds the people

  376. that tune their ear to him and say, Lord, speak your servant,

  377. listens Lord, whatever you want. God, I am here and I will be

  378. quick to obey. I'm telling you, that Dynamic

  379. opens the heavens You say are you saying it?

  380. We earn it. No what I'm saying is the as the

  381. enemy will camp out on the under surrendered, areas of your life

  382. and he will resist your prayers until you surrender.

  383. Ah, run surrendered, areas provide him with the legal

  384. ground. It's not about earning anything

  385. with God. Like well, they're my favorites

  386. because they, this guy did a water fast.

  387. This guy drink didn't even drink water.

  388. And this guy over here, just ate vegetables but this one's my,

  389. it's not about that. It's about being obedient to

  390. whatever the Lord tells you the Lord tells you chocolate chip.

  391. Cookies are off the agenda for the next 21 days.

  392. That's all. He asks of you.

  393. Then go for it. You don't have to do anymore,

  394. tell you what last year, I jumped into it when Lou Engel

  395. was here and he was talking about that 40-day fast.

  396. We had just stopped our 21-day fast and I thought Lou, I love

  397. ya. I'm I'm I'm not in, I'm still

  398. recovering for the lasso. Well then Dean Briggs came and

  399. Dean's talking about the same fast and Dean Dean had an arrow

  400. right to my heart. I was wounded I thought I'm in.

  401. This is God when tell you on the back side I'd it was not God.

  402. Okay, I jumped into a fast that was not God.

  403. And I could not do it. I physically could not do it.

  404. There was no Grace on it. So just follow Jesus but follow

  405. Jesus. All you have to do is what he

  406. says, but by all means, do what he says, because your will

  407. matters your decisions as a believer in this region matter

  408. to heaven. And if God can find a small

  409. group of people who are surrendered and say, God lord,

  410. we're here. We are fully surrendered Lord.

  411. If you need a landing place you found it.

  412. Among Us weak, little band of people.

  413. God. If he can find that, I'm telling

  414. you, he will land. So, when we talk about praying

  415. for Revival, it's not trying to talk god into something.

  416. He doesn't want to do. Yes, there are scriptures that

  417. say I will not hear you. I will resist you.

  418. But those verses have to do with our hot, pause heart posture,

  419. not his unwillingness to pour out of his spirit.

  420. We have to cooperate. So, your response.

  421. Let's let's go to again. He said, when they cried out to

  422. me, I would not hear because when I, when they, when I spoke

  423. to them, they would not listen. So your willingness to hear the

  424. voice of God and to do what he says to be a doer to apply what

  425. he said in your life. God is looking to invite you in

  426. to break through. God doesn't want you to stay in

  427. the same place. There are things.

  428. Every one of us right now are dealing with that we wish were

  429. over and I'm telling you the vast majority of them.

  430. It is God's will for them to be over.

  431. But you first have to get rid of the things he's dealing with to

  432. see that happen. And so we need to yield

  433. ourselves to him your willingness to listen, has

  434. everything to do with prevailing prayer.

  435. You think Pastor, are you basing that on one verse know, if

  436. you've been around here at any time at all, you've heard me.

  437. Quote, this verse again and again, and again, it's one of

  438. the primary versus of my life. Hebrews chapter 5 with loud,

    Hebrews 5 chapter mention

  439. cries, and petitions Jesus, made his request known to God.

  440. And His prayers were heard because of what, because he was

  441. the son of God, because he was the Messiah, because he was God

  442. In the Flesh because he was God's favorite, and he was, was

  443. it another know? Because of his reverent

  444. submission. His submission to the dealings

  445. of God. Opened the heavens over him so

  446. much. So that on the eve of his

  447. crucifixion, Jesus could say this, King of darkness is

  448. coming, but he has nothing in me.

  449. Man, I feel the weight of that word.

  450. I think he'll trembled. Because they knew it to be true.

  451. God wants to get us to the place where he has nut, not God but

  452. the enemy has nothing in you. When God has that the beachhead

  453. has been secured. It's just a matter of time till

  454. the kingdom of Darkness Falls. Just like in World War Two, they

  455. knew once the beachhead was taken, the war was over bloody

  456. battles to come but I'm telling you there's no way Hitler could

  457. hold back. What was coming?

  458. And once God has a man or a woman, Or more desirable, even a

  459. small company of people that have bound themselves to that

  460. request, say God come come Lord, pour out upon us, Lord deal

  461. asked of us, anything deal with us, deeply Lord.

  462. We want to know if there's anything within us.

  463. That is not pleasing to you. God, go after it.

  464. And when that happens, I'm telling you, it'll open up.

  465. Let me give you one more verse. Peter says he's talking about

  466. this same principle but it's in the context of a marriage.

  467. You ladies out of like this one husbands.

  468. Treat your wife according to knowledge.

  469. And then he says that your prayers may be heard.

  470. In other words you can fervently cry out to God on the prayer

  471. meeting sir. And cancel out what you cried

  472. out by how you treat your spouse.

  473. Because you are contradicting with your life.

  474. What you say with your mouth and actions speak?

  475. Louder than words? And the enemy knows it?

  476. You're not fooling the enemy, you may fool us.

  477. But you're not fooling the enemy.

  478. Now I'm saying so we go low and we keep short accounts and if we

  479. know we need to apologize to our spouse, we do it.

  480. We allow the Lord to deal with us.

  481. And that opens the heavens. He's implying that you want to

  482. have your prayers heard sir, you want to have an open Heaven of

  483. communication with heaven. Then treat your spouse, right?

  484. And why is it goes the same for you?

  485. I'm not so sure. It's the same level.

  486. I really, really believe that because we are the leaders of

  487. the home. Now some of you may not like

  488. that, just tell him, preaching the word, talk to God about it,

  489. don't shoot the messenger, okay? The husband is the head of the

  490. home. now, if he's a smart head, your leading together, but every

  491. organization needs to someone that makes the final decision.

  492. and, A lot of guys, preach that is Yum the head of the home.

  493. No, that's a heavy responsibility.

  494. But you better occupy it because super nature hates a vacuum and

  495. it will fill it for you. If you don't.

  496. So, we need to step in and lead with humility.

  497. So that our prayers are heard. God wants to give us power in

  498. prayer. Your prayers can be powerful and

  499. can move mountains. But your heart posture towards

  500. others matter. Isaiah 58.

  501. The passage is often referred to as God's chosen fast because it

  502. says this is the fast that I choose.

  503. It's a passage on fasting. Isaiah gets this word from the

  504. Lord. He delivers to Israel, he tells

  505. him. Listen, guys.

  506. God is frustrated because you're going on fast but you're doing

  507. it wrong. You're saying, God, move Among

  508. Us. Lord were fasting.

  509. Why aren't you moving? And the Lord says, is it only

  510. for a day? You think I've called you to

  511. humble yourself? That's a key phrase.

  512. Is it only for a day, he's saying, if your prayers don't

  513. change you, they won't change the situation.

  514. If you're fasting doesn't change you, it will not change anything

  515. else. So, fasting is not about just

  516. skipping meals. It's about availing ourselves to

  517. the dealings of God, so that we come out the other side of this

  518. thing and we're a little more Sanctified.

  519. We're a little more tender before heaven.

  520. If you look and saw an Isaiah 58, he goes into this list of

  521. things in every one of them is about how we treat other people.

  522. He's saying you want Power this way, then express, love and

  523. mercy and kindness and tenderness this way.

  524. In the way you respond to those around you.

  525. Be the best employee in your company.

  526. Be the best neighbor on your block.

  527. Be a person of kindness and tenderness.

  528. And it'll give us prevailing prayer.

  529. It's throughout the word and we often don't talk about this

  530. because we think well that sounds like works.

  531. But you can't argue with the word of God.

  532. And again it's not about works. It's not were earning the answer

  533. to our prayers but it is US cleaning out the hindrances and

  534. I'm telling you the biggest opposition when Daniels praying

  535. again, it wasn't opposition in heaven.

  536. That was holding the answer back.

  537. It was opposition from the enemy but I would dare say it was also

  538. opposition within Daniels, own heart because there were things

  539. that God was going after he always does. he goes after the

  540. handles upon which the enemy holds, To stand his ground.

  541. And if we can deal with them, if we can deal with the legal

  542. ground, then the heavens begin to open.

  543. Want to encourage you over the next two weeks.

  544. Let's allow the Lord really to deal with us.

  545. Let's ask him, Lord go deep. Lord, if there's anything in me

  546. that needs to be dealt with or put your light on it.

  547. Let's be tender before him and understand.

  548. Everything is weighed in the balance is by your decision.

  549. heaven and hell are always fixated on the human will

  550. because the human will Tips, the balance.

  551. Your decisions matter the human will is the Avenue through which

  552. both Heaven and Hell. Invade the Earth.

  553. There is no neutral ground. You don't get say, well, I don't

  554. want to surrender to God, but I'm not going to I'm not going

  555. to allow the kingdom of darkness that lines already been drawn.

  556. Jesus said, you're either with me or against me. and Believers

  557. can actually be dead weight behind which the enemy hides to

  558. take shots at others. And so we've got to be very

  559. aware of what the Lord's dealing with.

  560. I want to prom and ask the the worship team to come back up

  561. here. I want to close with that song.

  562. Again, let Heaven Come, and I want this to be a prayer this

  563. morning, okay? I want this to be a heartcry and

  564. as they're coming. I want you to stand.

  565. I want to pray over you. I purposely stopped at 52.

  566. We got eight and a half minutes - 15 seconds.

  567. I want to pray over you. I want you to be receptive to

  568. this prayer this morning, okay? Ask yourself.

  569. Can you receive this prayer? Can you be a recipient of this

  570. prayer? Father.

  571. I ask that you would deal deeply with our hearts.

  572. Lord where we're not wanted to be men and women who resist.

  573. You Lord, even those things that we have found our affections

  574. wrap around and we found we love them.

  575. And sometimes those things even become addictions they may not

  576. be evil in and of themselves. But they've taken two prominent

  577. a place in our life Lord were asking.

  578. God, that you would shed a light on it and Lord were asking for

  579. your what God wants. But I want to want to I want to

  580. wanna. But I need his grace scripture

  581. says, it's his good pleasure both to Will, and to do his

  582. grace, comes on you, to give you the right desires.

  583. And then the ability to fulfill it.

  584. Some of you. There's there's a part of you

  585. that says yeah, I can't say, I really want him to go after

  586. those things. Are you willing to be made

  587. willing? Are you willing to open the door

  588. and say, God, please deal with me.

  589. I want to be a candidate for you to ride in on I want you to do

  590. this in my life. Let's just wait on the Lord for

  591. a moment. Thanks for listening to our

  592. podcast. If you'd like to help more

  593. people hear this message, you can get the word out by

  594. subscribing and sharing it on social media.

  595. If you'd like to support the Ministries apartment church, you

  596. can do. So at Heartland Church,

  597. online.com give