Fasting and Prayer The Purpose -Pr Gloria

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So I'm sure most of you know that it's the

season of fasting and prayer, right, It's uten what day

are we in now?

We're already about a.

Week nine, okay, so it's more than a week already

and time goes by very fast, right, So for those

of you may not know this, we are in this

season of what we call Uton right. Basically, it's fasting

and prayer and it usually comes during right before Good

Friday and Easter because we are preparing ourselves towards it. Yeah,

to be reminded of you know, what Jesus did for

us on the cross, the power of the Cross, and

that's exactly what we learned at homes even on Friday, right,

because knowing it is one thing, right, knowing about God,

but knowing God is completely different, right. And so in

this season of Uton, we are encouraged to spend more

time with a Lot so we know who he is

as a savior, right, and to experience his love. So

in this season of fasting and prayer, I'll be bringing

you up a message on that as well as I

was just praying for a message. God just reminded me

to tell the church to Since it's a Sunday, right,

let's just take a pause and to think about. You know,

how is this season of fasting being for us?

Right?

You know, how has it been for you in this journey?

And again it's it's no one is going to tell

you why you're not fasting, right, no one's going to

question you on that because it's between you and God.

Right.

But for us who have started fasting, right, how is

this season being for us?

Okay?

If you have felt like, okay, this one week not

really good. I felt like I was always tempted back

to eat, well, it's okay. We can all start again, right,

because it's a back going back to God's presence. Or

maybe you feel like you're this kind of fasting I

chose didn't seem to work. I want to try something else. Well,

it's fine, just restart again, right, and let's just do

it anyway. Yeah, So how has this season been for you?

Have we been just caught up with the fast thing?

Sometimes there's the thing about fasting and prayer, right, we

can be so caught up with the what I'm fasting

about am I fasting lunch, dinner, or what should I eat?

If I'm doing Daniel Fast eat There's so many things

the menu I can't eat, So how they We're so

caught up with our minds, right, like which restaurant to

go or maybe I have to cook my meals. So

we sometimes spent too much energy on the fast thing bit,

which is I mean, we were physical beings, right, So

it's normal to think that way because we have been

spending all the days of our lives eating. And then

in the twenty one days when you need to kind

of change things, it may seem like what else can

I actually eat?

You know?

So I've been I started the Daniel Fast. In fact,

I started a little bit earlier because I've been praying

for different things. And so when I told my friends,

you know that no I'm doing I mean not everyone

knows Daniel Fast. I tell them vegetarian, right, that kind

of the fast thing. And so then the consonant that

they always have for me is, hey, but there's so

many things you cannot eat then, how And I told them,

don't worry. I can just even have a drink, you know,

have something. But it's just the first thing in the mind, right,

like what to do?

You know?

And maybe sometimes you can get so conscious if I

don't do it well, and then we get so trapped

with how we've got it's not happier. Or maybe I

must try harder. Right, I've done Daniel fast, Okay, now

maybe I have to fast one more meal or maybe

just full fast. Then God will answer my prayers faster.

Yeah.

So I just felt God was telling me this morning

to reminder, which is to not feel the peer pressure. Yeah,

do not feel like you know, God is going to

be angry with me, right, because at the end of

the day, God.

Sees your heart. Yeah, God sees our heart.

Of course, there has to be a certain level of reverence,

you know, and surrender, I mean a level of discipline

as believers. Yeah, but at the same time, God knows you. Yeah,

and if you can just come before him and say, God,

I'm struggling with this, can you give me the grace?

Because the truth is during fasting is when you get

all sorts of temptations. You'll see a food advertisement, a

friend is throwing a party, right, and then the food

is laid before you, all these kind of things. But

if you're feeling that way, It's normal, right, because this

is when our physical is tested, you know, so that

we can quiet down our spirit, our soul to experience

the fullness of God.

Yeah, so don't feel discouraged.

If you're not been doing it well or you've not

had a good hate start. Yeah, don't feel that you

need to do too much because that will fasten your

prayer needs. Yeah, that is not how God works. But

you can have a restart, right, as long as you

can come before Him. And when you think about this

season of utan, right, has there been an increase of

prayer and reading the Word this past one week? Okay,

just think about it your own the reflection. I ask

myself these questions as well, because that is what fasting

and prayer is no point if you are religiously doing

our fast thing. I'm not eating meat the whole week,

but my prayer life is still just like that, right,

the same, then there's no point, right, or there's no

point if I am you know, you know, doing all

my fasting right, but I'm not reading the Word, there's

nothing feeling myself, And so sometimes we can feel even

more hungry during this fasting because we're not feeding ourselves

with the word of God, right, because you know what

the Word of God says, He is the bread of life.

The bread of the life is the one feels us

the leaving water is the one feels our thirsts that

no one else can actually feel or satisfy. Right, So

we've got to be able to understand that when we

do fasting, the word of God has to increase. You

have to read more of his word. We've got to

spend more time in his presence. Only then we can

strengthen our inner men. Yeah, and also has there been

a change in our routine?

All right?

I like to encourage all of us in these twenty

one days. It's just good to kind of have a

little bit more time just for yourself and the lot.

Don't get just so caught up with, you know, having

too many events, too many things to be done. Of course,

the usual things you can't avoid, families and work and

things like that. But in the sense of like when

you're back to work, would you have that pocket of

time just to sit in his presence to make room

for him, right, because that is what fasting is all about,

when you cannot just be in that usual routine. But

these twenty one days is just for you to just say, God,

I'm making more room for you. Yeah, and that is

when he can minister to all of us, right, So

just think about it a reflection, and like I said,

if you feel like, okay, I can I do better

of this, let's do a restart. Press the restart button,

right and we can start afresh and we have a

couple of days to go as well.

Good church.

Yeah, So now let's just try to understand. You know,

when we speak about prayer and fasting, what's the very

purpose of it?

Okay?

If someone asks you why do we do we fast

and pray? And if you think of it, every religion

has its own fasting and prayer. Our friends, right, Malay

friends recently finished their Ramadan season, you know, and they

have their own interpretation to why they do it and

seem like any other religion, right, But to us, why

do we fast and pray? Is there a reason behind it?

Because if we don't understand the purpose of it, it

becomes a religion like we do it because everyone is

doing like I said, peer pressure, right. But we've got

to understand the power of prayer and fasting, and then

when we come out of it. After the twenty one days,

there must be a change our inner men. Yeah, there

must be a change in our perspective, in our minds,

in our hearts. It has no change, then maybe something

is not We're not doing something right, or we have

not fully comprehend the meaning of fasting and prayer. Yeah,

so I just want to walk us through today with

two points about what is the purpose of fasting and prayer?

Yeah.

Now, the first is that fasting and prayer helps us

to crucify the flesh. Okay, crucify the flesh. I just

don't talk a little bit about the flesh, because that's

the first thing that gets triggered right when you fast

and pray, Like I'm feeling hungry and feeling tired and

feeling weak, you know, all those kind of symptoms that

tend to come.

Right. But why is it that we do this.

It's because we want to be able to not just

think about the flesh, right though we have humans of flesh,

But do you know that we are also made up

of our soul and spirit?

Right? And how can we build that up? Yeah?

So let me just bring us through a scripture from

James chapter four versus one to three. Right, And we

know this book of James here is very direct.

Okay.

He talks about the tongue, he talks about loving your brothers.

And there's a portion in this scripture where he actually

talks about the way we do our prayers. Okay, how

do we draw near to God? So you can just

turn your bibles to James chapter four?

Okay? Can I get an amen? If you're there? Amen? Right?

Okay, So James chapter four versus one to three. If

your bibles have the title you know, you know my

NKJV Vigien says.

Sprite promotes strife.

Yeah, or maybe they're different according to the versions. I'm

going to read you the NLC version to for a

bit more clarity.

Okay.

It says here, what is causing the quarrels and fights

among you? Don't They come from the evil desires at

war within you. You want what you don't have, so you

scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous or

what others have, but you can't get it, so you

fight and wage war to take it away from them.

Yet you don't have what you want because you don't

ask God for it, and when you ask, you don't

get it. Because your motives are all wrong. You want

only what will give you pleasure, and it's stronger right

the words that are used, okay, And of course if

you take it in context is what you know it

was going on within the church at that time.

Right.

There are two things that we just want to highlight

from this scripture. Firstly, it says about how you know

you want something you know, and sometimes we get a

little bit of jealousy that others can get it and

I don't. My prayer is taking so long, right, or something.

There's that quarrel that goes on not just between a

person and another person, but it can be just with God,

you know, the whole anguish. We come before him and say, God,

I've been waiting and praying for so long.

Right.

But what James reminds us here is that firstly, maybe

we're not asking the Lord, right, Maybe we're not asking

the Lord for what we are desiring. And another thing

he says here is that maybe we are asking, but

our motives are not right. Okay, think about it, Yeah,

our motives are not right. And when we say motives

it can mean different things. It's either we are just

fasting because I want my prayers to be met, right,

I mean that's just one of it. Of course, we

have a list of prayer points that we pray for

each other, right, But is that the first thing that

God wants us to come before him? Because remember, our

God is a jealous god. Our God is a god

who wants us to first seek him, to love him,

to give him out, all right, So wouldn't that be

a priority to first praise him, love him before bringing our.

Needs to him? Yeah?

And sometimes when they bring our needs to him, our

motives may not be exactly there because we are thinking

it for ourselves.

Yeah.

And I'm counting myself in this because you're all just humans, right.

And sometimes we pray for something it can be like okay,

for my job, for my benefit, for my family, for

my friends, right. But how many of those prayer points

can also be about as the people that are in

our lives, right, for the different maybe callings that God

has positioned in your life as well.

Right?

So that is what James is trying to highlight here.

But we've got to understand that, like I said, we

are humans. There's the whole physical, the body part of

us that sometimes makes it a challenge for us to

get rid of it, you know, because you're sinful people, right,

even a child if you don't teach I mean, you

don't even have to teach a child to lie, but

they just somehow know how to do it. Well, that's

just the sinful nature in us, right, And that is

why we've got to understand that we are made up

of body, spirit, and soul. So we've got to learn

how to activate our spirit and soul so that the

body can subject to the soul and spirit. Right, And

that is why the Bible talks a lot about the

spirit of God. We need the spirit of Godliness. When

the Book of Roman says do not be conformed to

the world, Well, we cannot do that if we don't

have the spirit of Godliness.

Right. So it all goes back to aligning ourselves to

the spirit of God.

So if we want to leave out and understand what

James is telling us here in the in chapter four

that we read, you've got to understand what the spirit

and soul means as well. Yeah, and only that can

bring out bring down pride, can bring down the less

of us, right, and can bring more of God in

our lives. Yeah, understand this fast thing has a spiritual purpose,

O guess, And we talk about purpose. Why fast thing?

Because it has a spiritual purpose. So it's not like

that is why I say don't. Let's not dwell so

much only on the I'm doing Daniel fast. I'm fasting

one meal. If I don't do it, what's going to

go on? That takes up so much space in our

minds we get guilty about it.

Right, So it's not only that. It's a spiritual purpose.

So if you get your flesh out of the way,

our body, the spirit of God can move in your life.

And when the spirit of God moves in our lives,

what it does it do it removes barriers, right. And

these barriers can come in different forms, like I said,

our minds, right. So the moment you start to sit

down and do your devotion, things may be running in

your minds right or sullenly. You feel that your stomach

is making sound already, like it's time to eat. I'm hungry,

but it's fast thing. I cannot do that.

We struggle. That's human, right.

But when you can subject your body and your spirit,

you're inner man. You're saying God, I want to do this, right,

I want to sit in your presence. I want to

experience you.

The more you do it, the more you read the

word of God, your body will come down. Right.

And that is why when you listen and you read

up about fasting and all, they always say sometimes this

whole hunger can come in two ways. It's either the

hunger in your stomach, which is the human feeling of it,

and one of it can be in our minds. So also,

you know times when you just want a snack after lunch,

you know you want to just be eating something. Well,

that's not exactly hunger, but it's just us wanting.

To munch something, right, and this just the mind.

Or when you're stress, we just eat and you know

all the sweet things and snacks. Well, no, that's not

exactly hunger, but it's just in our minds. Right, We've

got to just do something to feel that craving. Right,

And so there's a way for us to bring to

subjection to our body. Because you are in control of

your own body.

Right.

People can tempt you as much as they can, but

you can say no.

I can say no. Right, we have the control.

So you feel like fasting is difficult, maybe it's time

to ask the lot for the help and say God,

I want to do this and.

Could you help bring my body into subjection. Yeah.

So it removes barriers, it removes obstacles even okay, and

sometimes these obstacles can be external things that you cannot control, right,

But somehow during fasting, if you just commit surrender your

time to the Lord, he removes those things, right and

enables you to be able to sit and experience Him

to the fullness.

Yeah.

So some of you may even have experienced this, you know,

where you feel a little bit more tempted during fasting

and prayer or even go through warfare during fasting. Yeah,

maybe you feel that you're getting you can't asleep, you're

having all kinds of dreams, you're feeling so disturbed. Well,

you're not in trouble. Is just normal because the enemy

is not happy when we are fasting and praying. Do

you know who the enemy visited after fasting for forty days?

Jesus himself.

So don't be worried if you are feeling tempted, because

Jesus himself had experience of being tempted after fasting for

forty days. And how do you encounter that or does

Jesus respond to that the word that's right, the word. Yeah,

he didn't say a lot of things. He just respect

the word of God and the enemy just left him.

Yeah.

So it is normal if you're feeling temptations, if you're

feeling you know, warfast. But what do you do at

that time is very important. Do you stand strong? Do

you not give room? Do you command and say no,

you have no room in my life. The Lord has

a room in my life. So this is when we've

got to build our inner men. If you're not strong

within us in our spirit, it's easy to fall, right,

easy to give room to all this obstacles and voices

that can be in our minds. Right, and so that's

when you need to be firm. If you feel that

you're still you're not sure how to do this, pray

along with someone, reach out to a bread in Christ

or a sister in Christ and say, I am going

through this warfare in my mind. What can I do

about this? And that is the power of community, right,

we do this together. Yeah, So so yeah, let's hold

on to the Lord. So as you see this image here,

we have the body, soul, and spirit, and it's the

spirit that came from God. And this spirit is the

one that longs to be reunited with God. That is

why there's that part of us of every human whether

any religion, there's that longing for some answers. Right, there's

some longing to look for, Oh, where where do I

go after I die?

You know? Or where what was the meaning of life? Right?

And if you have those kind of questions, it just

means that the spirit is working, right because you want

to feed on that or sometimes we can feel feel

our body, meaning we eat so well, we take care

of ourselves and all that, but there can still be

a sense of emptiness in our spirit because we don't

have it's not filled with the one that can actually

feel us, which is God himself.

Right.

So that's why that that gap is there, that feeling

that needs to be there. Yeah, So we are made

of all this tree. Yeah, and the spirit communicates with God.

So if you look at the soul, the soul is

very much the mind, your emotion, and your will. Right,

and we talk about the will power, right, this is

where it comes from. You can you want to do

a lot of things, but if your mind is not

set to it, it's going to be hard to do that, right,

you know that you need to exercise, you know you

need to go to the gym, but if my mind

is not really there, I won't be able to do it. Yeah,

So that is what we mean by the soul and

God is the spirit married response you one forty six

to forty seven. Oh, my soul praises the Lord. How

my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. Can you see

the two different ways that the words are used?

Right?

First, is my soul praises the Lord, meaning what I'm

doing right?

When we praise the Lord?

What we do We open our mouths, right, we say

praise you Lord. We choose to do that right in

our minds. We are set to say, God, you are

the King of Kings.

All praise goes to you.

So we set in our minds, we are set in

our will, we are set in our emotions. So I

can really feel down, but you know what, I still

gonna choose to praise God.

Right, So that is the whole soul.

And then Mary says, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

So that's when she's communicating with the Lord, right, because

that's when the communication takes place.

Choose to rejoice. She choose to praise him.

Yeah. So if your soul is magnifying the Lord, your

flesh will bow in submission. That is how it works, right.

But if your flesh your body as reason to the

authority in your life, it will struggle with your spirit

for dominance, and the soul will obey the last of

the flesh. That's why the struggle is there.

Yeah.

So what we need to tame here is the body,

and that's why we fast. Okay, that's why we don't

give too much attention to what we eat. We don't

give too much attention for what takes up a lot

of our time. Right, So when you do fasting, you

are actually trying to discipline your body and saying, hey,

calm down, right, you cannot eat if you don't eat

for a while, It's okay, I need to build my

soul and spirit so I can be connected with the lot.

Yeah.

So that's the very purpose of fasting. Yeah, that's the

power of it. And if we can only learn that

as believers, can you imagine how we can listen to

God's voice. We can be so much connected, we can

be so much more grounded in his presence.

Yeah, because that's where he wants us to be.

And that's why Jesus himself fasted forty days before he

could start the ministry.

Right.

He didn't just go and ride away do everything. He

fasted first, he waited in God's presence.

Yeah.

So fasting sets your spirit free to worship and serve God.

You submit to the spirit of God. Yeah, And that's

why when we say a spirit of liberty, a spirit

of freedom, because it comes from within. You can point

to a person and say, hey, better clap your hands

when you worship God, but you jump praise.

You can tell all that you want.

But if he is not excited in his spirit, no

one can force a more her to do that. Right,

So it must come from within.

It must come because you know the joy of the Lord.

You know that the joy of the lot is your strength,

and that's why you do it with gladness.

Amen. Are we're getting something here, church? Yeah?

So if you constantly leave and work for the flesh,

you will produce the works of flesh and death. Yeah.

That that is just the reality. If you constantly fed

on that, that's what's going to come out. And then

we wonder why things don't work in the spiritual realm. Right,

But for something to happen in the spiritual, we've got

to feed the spirit. Yeah, you know, and so we

when we speak about you know Jesus, right, Jesus submitted

his flesh so that you can move with the power

of God.

Yeah.

And when you're and when we look at even David,

we all know King David. Right. He says in this scripture,

in Psalm one hundred and nine to twenty four, my

knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones.

He says this in one of his sums, which just

highlights that he was just human when he was fasting.

He was feeling weak. But you know what happened after that.

That is when God gave him the strength to rule. Right,

That was when God anointed him to actually do great exploits.

So there's come upon it.

Sometimes you may feel weak during fasting, right, We may

feel like I'm hungry, I can't do this, but you

got to push through, right, don't give up. Turn to

the person next to you and say don't give up. Okay,

don't give up. We are like in the middle of

our U turn right and all the temptations are coming,

and say it's okay.

Hold on.

You can eat your chicken after the twenty one days, right,

you can go back to whatever you've been you know,

fasting for uh doriana. Yeah, okay, so whatever it is,

but remember whatever you're fasting, make sure when you fast

that particular thing or the food, right, you actually have

that extra time for the lot because not point fasting

something that seems to be convenient, right, which doesn't make

any difference.

So what I can still do.

But if you feel that there's a there's a twists,

or that you know, you feel that that it's hard,

the moment you feel it's hard, the moment you feel

that it's a challenge, Okay, then you know that it's

true fasting because it's something that your flesh is not

getting used to.

Yeah.

So we all need a little bit of a discomfort sometimes, right,

And it's okay to feel that way because that is

when we are trusting the Lord even more.

Amen.

Yeah, Paul says in one Quarrenthians nine twenty seven. I

discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do

what it should. Otherwise I fear that after preaching to others,

I myself might be disqualified. Right, and so Paul has

this whole reflection that you know, I can be preaching

to everyone, and I can be telling the good news.

But if I myself is not disciplined to my body,

then what's the point, right, I will be disqualified. Yeah,

So let's train ourselves, discipline ourselves as an athlete.

You know, to be able to experience more of God. Yeah.

When you fast, it removes the weakness in your life.

Okay.

And if you feel there's any kind of weaknesses and

I say weaknesses here, it can be different things. Maybe

sometimes you're struggling with an addiction. Yeah, or it could

be something that you you idealize in your life, right

and you cannot leave without it.

It could be any of this.

But when you first, when you subject yourself, you know,

you say, okay, video game is something that has been

main example, takes up a lot of my time, right,

But when I give up or lessen my time on that,

then you know what you're actually giving room for God.

You're subjecting your body and say, hey, actually I can

function without video games. Life is okay without it, Right,

you see a whole new side of life besides the

world of video games, right, the real life. Yeah, you know,

I remember speaking to someone a young teenager. I can't

remember who was that. Maybe it was when I was

teaching or what. And so you're talking about fasting and

they said, you know what the moment I started reducing

my time in social media and you know, all these devices,

I realized it's so much fun to talk to people

face to face. Then to be, you know, checking in

my friends' stories and they're up to dates. But now

I am even more intentional to ask them, how are

you doing? Right, instead of just knowing, oh, I know

my friends, you know updates because I go into my Instagram. Right,

But now I'm more intentional. Yeah, so who knows? You know,

you will just realize that there's so much more to

life than just that little box, right, God created you

for so much more.

Amen.

Now, Ephesian six eighteen it says, praying always with all

prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end,

with all perseverance and supplication for all the scenes. So

if you notice here it says yere in six in

the scripture praying always with all prayer. What does it

mean by all there?

You think of that? Right? We know prayer when we

say all prayer Yeah. What it just.

Means here is that the prayer that most of us

would be familiar is what we call the prayer of anguish, meaning, God,

I come before you when I have a struggle. I

have a need, which is normal right as humans, when

we want help, we call the hotline, right, Jesus, can

you please help me?

Right?

So that's the prayer that we are used to. But

you know, during this fasting and prayer, what's important. Another

kind of prayer is the prayer of praise, right, the

prayer of ador adoration you just love the Lord. A

prayer of reverence meaning I can spend that ten minutes

or the fifteen minutes before God.

All I'm doing is praising him. Let's prayer.

You know that I don't need to bring out my

prayer list, but I'm just coming before you and saying God,

this is who you are in my life, and a

thank you for what you've done, and to thank you

that you are sovereign. And if you just try doing

that for five minutes, you see a change in your spirit.

There's something about being grateful and even more powerful when

you say to the Lord, right, when you just say God,

I am grateful for what for who you are in

my life. Yeah, so let's bring that into our prayer

in this fast thing as well. Yeah, to not just

bring our lists before him. Before we do that, Let's

praise the Lot. Let's acknowledge who he is. Right, Let's

read the promises of the Lot from the Bible. Yeah,

because we are saying, God, this is who you are,

this is what I'm grateful for this relationship that I

have with you.

Amen.

So let's try all the different kinds of prayers as well. Yeah.

When we read you know, Second Quarrinthians, why am I

saying that we need to also pray different types of

prayers besides the prayer of anguish. Because what the scripture

tells us here is is that the spirit of Christ

is the spirit of giving.

We're not just called to just us.

Yeah, we are created our spirit, our inner man is

to actually give.

You know, in.

Second Contents ninety seven, it says, let each one of

us give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly

or of necessity, for God loves her cheerful giver. I

know we read this scripture every time during tides and offering,

but you know, giver just means what kind of a

condition we're giving.

Right.

The same thing works with prayer as well. When we

give cheerfully our praisers to the Lord. When we say, God,

I adore you, I praise you that something happens within

our spirit, then you can bring your petitions to the Lord.

Yeah.

So that is why God wants us to come before him.

And that is why James highlights you know that sometimes

we don't get what we want because we are asking

in the wrong motive. Our intention is just what I want,

but what the Lord wants is as his son his daughter,

and say, God, I love you, I just want to

come before you.

Yeah. And you want to grow deeper with him? Amen?

Can we do that Church? Yeah?

Can we include that into our fasting and prayer.

Yeah. First Thessalonians five p.

Seventeen, it says, rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything

gave thanks for this is the will of God in

Christ Jesus. For you do not quench the spirit, do

not despise prophecies, Test all things, hold fast what is good,

Abstain from every form of evil.

Amen. So the word of.

God tells you pray without ceasing, not just prayer of anguish,

but pray all kinds of prayer.

Yeah.

And if you look at verses nineteen, it says do

not quench the spirit. When you don't pray, your spirit

is thirsty. And you know how it feels like to

be thirsty, right, You just can't function, right, And that

is why prayer is the one that feeds with the

living water.

Amen. Yeah.

So let's up our prayer during this fasting and prayer. Okay,

not just about the food or fasting, but it's the

prayer as well.

Amen. Okay, so that we can see extra us, you.

Know, growing our spiritual muscles, right, because we are crucifying

the flesh. You know, we are stronger, not because just

in the outward, but because what's within.

Right, Okay, are we good? Chish Okay?

Now let's look at a last point here again, going

back to the purpose of fasting and prayer. First one

is to crucify the flesh. The second is because it

gives us power, right, the need for power. We're not

talking about superhero power kind, right, but we are talking

about the power that enables us to see the supernatural, right,

enables us to see supernatural when as the last day,

we experience a healing, Right, when as the last you

felt that there was a freedom in our lives or

a breakthrough or a salvation because God works in a

supernatural way. Right, God works in a supernatural way. And

the best example that we can learn from the Bible

is Jesus himself. Jesus went through the fasting and prayer,

then he started performing great signs and wants. So that's

for us, church, it's for you as well when after

this fasting and prayer, during this fasting and prayer, you

can experience that as well. Yes, someone can pray along

with you, a pastor, a leader, We can pray for

healing together. But the same power lives within you. Do

you know that, right, you have the power to pray

for someone who is sick. You have the power to

for someone who's feeling a bondage in their life. You

can pray upon God's freedom upon them and they can

be set free. Right.

That power leaves within you.

Turn to the person next to you and tell them God's

power leaves within you, right, and we've got to believe that.

We've got to take it in.

If not becn't activated, right, you won't have light today

if you don't switch on the power.

Right. The same thing in ourselves.

If you don't switch on the power of God within us,

you won't be able to experience it. Yeah, Methew for one,

Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the

wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he

had fasted forty days and forty nights afterwards, he was hungry.

He was just in the flash, right, he was feeling hungry.

So he after going through the fasting and pray, he

was tempted.

But what happened after that was.

That he received the power of God in his life.

And when he got the power of God in his life,

no matter how many times the enemy is trying to

counter and you know, tempt him, he didn't get true. Right,

it didn't work because he knew the word of God.

Not just know the word of God. He knew what

to say and to stand strong.

Right.

Sometimes we know what to say because we know God's word.

But if our spirit and soul is weak, then we

can feel so trembled and you know, all upset about hey,

why is this happening? And we just shut away, right,

But what God wants us to do is to come

out strong and say, Okay, if you're coming and causing trouble.

I'm going to speak life. I'm going to stand strong

and declare God's word over my life and over my family.

Yeah x ten Okay. Thirty eight he says how God

anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,

who went about doing good and healing all who were

oppressed by the devil. For God was with him.

Yeah.

God was with him. And it says that the Holy

Spirit gave him the power.

Yeah.

So when Jesus returned to the God in Nazareth, he

was given the honor to actually read the scriptures, right,

And so when Jesus was reading the scriptures, he actually

quoted a scripture from Isaiah, because Isaiah is a book

of prophecies, right, and so we can read this in

the in Luke four eighteen. Okay, where he actually quotes

this prophecy.

Right.

What does he say here? He says in Luke four eighteen,

and the spirit of the Lord is upon me because

he has anointed me to push the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to

proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to

the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable.

Year of the Lord.

So this is what Jesus recognized, that when the spirit

of the Lord came upon him, he was anointed. So

when you were standing there, he was standing as a

prophecy that was fulfilled. He said, you know what this

was said many years ago in the book of Isaiah,

and now I am here preaching the gospel, healing the

broken hearted, giving sight to the blind, and setting free for.

Those who are oppressed.

And then he continues in verse twenty one where he says,

this day is the scripture fulfilled in your years.

Right.

So Jesus himself was very confident to know that the

Lord has enabled me, and I'm doing this because the

power of God is within me. So when we wait

upon God right fasting gives us a special anointing. It

enables us to do the works of the lot.

Right.

But it's just the matter of whether to I won

or I don't want. We can sit down and say

I'm with where I am, which after a while you're

going to get bored of your faith, right, because as

humans we're just looking for something new to be filled.

Or you can choose to say, God, I want this

power to work within me.

I want to be used by you.

Because when we talk about our Christian faith, it's meant

to be something that works, something that is practical, something

that's alive and functioning.

But the moment we just come.

In, receive, go back, come receive, go back, and not

giving back, that's when the problem lies because we don't

see the power of God that we've received working. But

if you remember the last time you heard a testimony right,

or last time you received healing or you prayed for someone,

just doesn't say thank you for praying for me, I felt,

I feel so encouraged. What did you do in your spirit?

Was there a joy within you? It's like, thank you

lot for using me, thank you lot for showing up.

Thank you God for showing me the very reason why

we do church, or why am I called as your servant? Right,

these are the things that we need to do to

be reminded that, Hey, this is why God calls me,

this is what he's able to do human. Yeah, that

is what the spirit of God within us does. And

I think I just wanted to emphasize on this point

a little bit. When we speak about fasting and prayer

because church, we've got to be ready for the days

to come, right, And I always tell this to our

church that it's actually a privilege to run church, right,

to freely worship the lot, to freely say, hey, I'm

going to church on a Sunday. Do you know that

many parts of the world that people don't have that privilege,

you know, and just being able to someone who is responding, say, kids,

sus A can respond, so adults, you can do better.

You can see your amen? Right. Yeah, So what I'm

saying here is that you.

Know, we we don't We shouldn't just be just comfortable

with where we are. Yes, we are grateful, great, we

are thankful for our country and where we are at.

But we've got to be ready for the days to

come as well, because that's what's been prophesied in the scriptures.

Right.

We shouldn't grow complacant, we shouldn't just go okay, that

is how it's going to be, because if not, when

the days get tougher, we we know what to do, right,

And that is why as a church, we are very

big with fasting and prayer. Right, we are very big

in equipping our people doing live together and saying, hey,

don't just stay where you are, get up, rise up right,

because there's so much more to life, right, and there's

so much more for us to experience, and we don't

realize it now. It might be a bit late, yeah,

and we don't want to get there. You know what

it says in the Book of MMOs, chapter eight, right,

mus chapter eight Versus eleven to thirteen. As we know

this script, this book itself, this book of prophecies. Okay,

it says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God,

that I will send a famine on the land, not

a famine of bread, not a terst for water. But

of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander

from c to c, and from nord to east. They

shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord,

but shall not find it.

In that day.

The fair virgins and strong young men shall feign from this.

And that is why we keep saying, God, the Word

of God. Know the word of God, right, don't just

you know, depend on others to tell you what the

word of God is. Because so if you've been a

believer for long enough, you've got to have your own

Bible in your hearts right, and you hear the word

of God is you know, this is what the voice

of God sounds like, and what is the enemy? Right,

because there will be a day when there's going to

be a femine and believe it or not, we're already

seeing this happening in some parts of the world, right.

We are seeing how I think I've said this sometimes,

how Bibles are being twisted. We have so many false teachings, right,

and we keep saying this not to just sound like

a like a spail recorder, right, but to just remind

us Church, we've got to be alot. We've got to

chick take charge of our faith and fasting and pray

is a time to build it. To come back and say, God,

I want to be strong in my inner man so

that no matter what comes, I'm going to stand firm. Yeah,

I'm going to know that God is sovereign because you

know what Jesus has said in the Bible that.

I've overcome the world for us.

And we learn this at homes the other day that

when he was was resurrected, that was done for our

present and the future. So that's the promise you've got

to hold on to. Yeah, but if you don't know

the word of God, we're going to be swayed away

by the voices of the world. Every time we hear

the news, every time we hear things that are just

going haywire, what's going to happen?

Right? Or the word that we like to hear I

always often hear is Dalah. We can't do this.

I hope none of us will actually say those words,

because there's power in our words and it becomes just

a part of our language. But God doesn't give us death, right,

it gives us life in fact, life to the abundance. Yeah,

life to the abundance. And we've got to declare this.

Declare this over our lives, over our church or our family,

over our nation and the world.

Yeah.

And I believe that this is the time that Christians

have to buckle up. Like how the the the Book

of Ephicians talks about the armor of God. We have

to put on the armor of God because we don't

know what's going to hit us in the days to come.

But when we have the full armor of God, right,

no matter what comes, bring it on, right, I'm going

to stand strong because the Lord is with me.

Yeah.

And the word the word of God is part of

the armor that leads us in everything we do.

Yeah.

So as the world is hungry for hope, you know,

let's be that hope true God's love. Yeah. So the

church is called back to basics, to return to the

simple Gospel and to the power of God that enables

us to stand against any enemy. And that is only

by prayer and fasting, because this is when it opens

up your spirit to the supernatural. Yeah, and then you

can recognize and understand different things in your life. Just

to even end here with a couple of things that

we can notice about Jesus himself. Why was he able

to do what he was doing? Besides being the son

of God, he was on earth, he had he went

through different things in life, right, I mean the different

obstacles that people pushed towards him. But yet he was

able to do what he did because his spirit was

connected with God, right, his soul, his will, and he

was moved with compassion. Right, he was moved with compassion.

We can see this time of the time. The scriptures

are here. It says in Matthew nine thirty six. But

when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion

for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep

having no shepherd, He says compassion Matthew fourteen fourteen. It says,

and when Jesus went out, he saw a great multitude,

and he was moved with compassion. He healed their sick right.

He could only heal the sick because he had compassion.

Matthew fifteen thirty two. Now Jesus called his disciples to

himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because

they have now continued with me three days and have

nothing to eat. And I do not want to send

them away hungry, least they faint on the way. This

is when he multiplies the braid, right, and the fish

for the people. And then Matthew twenty thirty four, it says,

so Jesus had compassion touched their eyes, and immediately their

eyes received side, and they followed him. And lastly, it

says and Mark one forty one. Then Jesus moved with compassion,

stretched out the sand and touched him and said to him,

I am willing be cleansed. As soon as he had spoken,

immediately their leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

So what do we see here?

Jesus being filled with the spirit healing taking place, But

that could only happen because he had compassion, and that

come passion comes from the love of God. Right, and

for us to experience that power within us as we

pass and prays, firstly to be moved with compassion, we

can be filled with the spirit of God. We can

have the power of the Lord. But at the same time,

if we don't have compassion for those around us, why

would I want to pray for them for the sick?

Right?

Why would I want to hope the best for them?

Why would I want to journey with them if it's

not compassion? Right?

And this just means.

Everything goes back to the love of God in our lives, right,

do everything with love?

That is what the scripture tells us. Amen.

Without pray and fasting, you cannot see the Gospel, and

in fact, we can't even experience His power.

So church, let's rise up.

Let's let's take this time right to recognize that the

power of God within us can only be activated if

we only want God to activate it in our lives.

Yeah right, yeah, we could all send you know, like

I said, we're in the midst of our fasting and prayer.

But it's just good for us to just take a

pause and ask ourselves where am I at? What can

I do better in Can I have a little bit

more time in prayer? Can I set my heart right?

Can I desire for the power of God within me?

And I just sort of declare that all across this room,

after this fasting and prayer, even during this time of

utn go out there and pray for others. Go out

there and show God's compassion because that power is in

you and you wouldn't know until you do it confidently

and you say, hey, brother, can I pray for you

or your friend at work or at school? And you're saying, hey,

can I say this prayer since you've been unwell? Right,

don't be afraid because it's not you. It's healing them.

But it's God that is in you, that's given you

the power that heals. Yeah, And that is when we

see our faith is there is life, right, There is joy,

There is that excitement. The moment you see your faith

has no excitement, then there's something for us to maybe

fix and ask the lot. Yeah, so we're going to

spend some time worshiping and as we do that can

I just encourage all of us to build that also

before the lot right and ask God, God, this is

the fasting and prayer time, how can I draw closer

with you? How can I subject my body and say,

come down. I want to build my spirit, want to

build my soul so that I can be connected with

you and to receive your power.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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for you. God bless