GILGAL EAST MINISTRIES

Transcription

1 29 JANUARY TO 11 FEBRUARY days of FASTING & PRAYER GILGAL EAST MINISTRIES 29 PARK STREET BENONI

2 FASTING AND PRAYER Read, study & meditate on ISAIAH 58. Isaiah 58 has been hailed as 'THE FASTING CHAPTER'. It does not highlight the act of fasting but the fasted life one of total obedience especially obedience in the areas raised in this passage. Although this chapter highlights practical obedience, it does not suggest that the need to actually fast is obsolete. It rather places emphasis on the the act of fasting without a fasted life is meaningless. The overriding principle in Isaiah 58 is that the physical act of fasting without a lifestyle of total obedience to God is either an act of hypocrisy or an act by which one could employ fasting as a formula to gain spiritual mileage without any desire to bring the totality of one s life under the rule of God. For those to whom this applies, fasting is used as a good luck charm to manipulate God into a response on your behalf. Fasting is NO mystical pathway, fasting is NO superstitious charm, fasting cannot change the mind of God. Fasting changes us and brings us into alignment with the heavens, 'THY will be done on earth as it is in the heavens". Just as it is not prayer per se that impresses God, but the state and character of the man who prays ( The prayer of the righteous' man avails much - James 5:17), so too, it is not fasting per se by which God is moved, but the quality of the person who fasts. Your fasting as in the physical abstention from food is more effective when you live a 'fasted life' of obedience. Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting, Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." Notice Jesus does not say 'IF' you fast but "when you fast". Fasting is a spiritual discipline that must be separated, distinguished & disconnected from religious traditions, human pride, health recommendations & dietary applications. There is a normality, privacy, sacredness & silence to fasting. We do not announce to the planet we are fasting according to the words of our Saviour,Lord & King. Fasting must be kept as private & personal as possible. Only relevant people who cook for you should know about your status, like your wife. All we do when we fast is bring ourselves under the mighty hand of our Father in heaven. We surrender our lives to HIM. We consecrate & dedicate ourselves to HIM. We humble ourselves before HIM & humankind. We pursue HIM above everything & everybody else. Today ask God to remove all pride, arrogance & selfishness from our lives. There is an egocentricity that must crucified, Paul says in Galatians 2 verse 20 'I am crucified in Christ, yet not I live, but Christ lives in me'

3 Exodus 34:28-33 Fasting causes us to engage & encounter God. God is holy. Human beings are not naturally holy. You would notice that Moses gives us a template for fasting 'no bread & no water'. The reason we cannot have the effect on our planet as the church is that we have diluted, watered down and reduced spiritual disciplines like fasting to the lowest common human denominator. We have made it popular, common as in earthly and frivolous rather than a sacred surrender to a holy God of love. We cannot allow the popularity of fasting to influence our decision to fast, we also should not 'copycat' other people or churches. Be in alignment FIRSTLY with God our Father, your spiritual family & your spiritual father. When we are in spiritual alignment we can climb the mountain. Climbing mountains is an act of divine pursuit, it will cost you something and then you will get to the top. Mountains speak to us of the highest point on a given horizon. The Mountain of the Lord is a common term in our Scriptures. It is generally on a mountain that God reveals HIMSELF. You countenance will change. You will migrate to a higher dimension in the Spirit. We go up a mountain but we always come down. Going up we encounter & engage God, coming down bring the revelation & speakings of God to share with people so that they can go UP to encounter & engage God, it is a continuous migration to heavenly eternal dimensions of the Spirit. Exodus 34:28 Moses was there with the Lord. The spiritual discipline of fasting always forces us to be with the Lord. We come to a place, posture & position of 'up close & personal'. It is in these spiritually defined constraints that we draw close to HIM and when we draw close to HIM, HE draws close to us. It is a mutual synergy of divine exchange & engagement. When we climb spiritual mountains and scale earthly heights to pursue HIM, we will hear HIM speak to us. In the spiritual dimension there are 2 primary spiritual senses: 1. Sight/Seeing & 2. Hearing. In the Spirit realm, 'hearing is a function of SIGHT'. Those who are blind to spiritual pursuit cannot HEAR the Father speak. Jesus saw what HIS Father was doing & then heard what HIS Father was saying. These are spiritual protocols of divine engagements. When we pursue the spiritual discipline of fasting then all our senses both natural & spiritual become sensitive & open to the eternal heavens speaking to us. As God today to remove blindness and then you will have the ability & capacity to have spiritual sight to SEE and be open to spiritual realities therefore you will have a hearing ear. You will hear the Father speak. Esther 4:16 Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish! Fasting can be done by yourself but it is always sweeter and advantageous when done together as a family, community & corporately. We must come to a state of total dependence as God as our source of provision, security & protection. When we deny ourselves earthly food & sustenance we are affirming our reliance, dependance & security on HIM. Today ask God to remove earthly, temporal things as the source of our fulfillment, joy & peace. Ask God that we will become desperate for HIM alone. We will desire HIM. We will ascribe to HIM all worship, all glory & all praise as THE source and as our Father, THE Sustainer, our Protector, our Security & our Provider. In HIM we live, move & have our being.

4 Be still and know that I am God One of the most powerful lessons we can learn during Fasting, praying & meditating on Christ is strengthening our faith muscles by putting our flesh in its proper place! What is that proper place? Submitted to the Spirit of God! The Bible teaches us this, I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16. Also, we are called to this truth, For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13. During the fasting, praying & meditating you will wrestle with the flesh. Your flesh will crave for food. Every time you tell your flesh to take the backseat, I am living according to the Spirit we grow in our faith. Self-control is practiced. Walking according to the Spirit is experienced. Submission happens. In our culture today almost everything around us encourages us to pander to the desires of the flesh. It s an if I want it, I buy it mindset. Or an if I want it, I eat it way of living. Feed me. Make it delectable. Don t make me wait. I want it now! Ezra 10:6-17 The Jews began to return to Israel after the Babylonian captivity. Yet they had disobeyed God s laws during their captivity. Ezra gathered the people together to confront them for their sins. Ezra 10:6 does not say specifically how long his fast was (though there is indication that it lasted 3 days while waiting for the people to gather). The Bible does tell us that he did not eat any bread and only drank water during this fast. He fasted because he was mourning the sins of those who had been carried away from Israel but had finally returned. Disobedience brings captivity for Israel. Their captivity should have brought restoration to obedience but yet they persisted with their disobedience to God & HIS laws. When they return from captivity, EZRA starts praying & fasting. The disciplines of prayer & fasting helps restore obedience to God, HIS WORD, HIS Ways & HIS Will. Today ask God to make us completely obedient always to HIM, HIS ways, word & will. Darius Fasted For the Safety of Daniel Daniel 6:18-23 King Darius was tricked into signing a law that put his friend Daniel in grave danger. A law was proposed that for 30 days no one could pray to, or ask help from, any deity or power except the king. The men who wrote the law knew that Daniel prayed three times a day to God. They had the king sign the law so that they could trap Daniel and get rid of him from the kingdom (Daniel 6:4-9). The punishment for this crime was to be cast into a den of lions. Of course Daniel was caught praying to God. He was brought before the king who had no ability to back out of the law even though Daniel was his friend. King Darius said that he hoped Daniel s God would be powerful enough to save Daniel from being eaten. Then Darius went to his home and fasted (Daniel 6:18). The Bible does not say what this fast included but it seems to indicate it was more than just food. We are told that the king did not allow music to be played that night. He also did not sleep. The king forfeited more than food for his fast. King Darius was relieved to find that Daniel survived the night. Darius then proclaimed that Daniel s God was the true God. The king even declared that God s power was greater than all the kingdoms of the earth. He proclaimed that God s kingdom would be established forever (Daniel 6:25-28). Learn the discipline of praying & fasting over your spiritual father. Every carrier of grace s perpetually facing evil warfare that seeks his or her destruction. Prayer & fasting will bring protection, provision & security to your spiritual father & their family. Today make a covenant to pray & fast God's truth,peace,provision, prosperity & protection over your spiritual father & their family.

5 Jesus Fasted Before Temptation by Satan Matthew 4:1-2 Before Jesus was tempted by Satan and before He started His public ministry, He fasted 40 days. The Bible says that Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1). This verse indicates that the purpose of Christ going into the wilderness was for the temptation that would come. Verse 2 tells us that for 40 days and nights before He was subjected to a personal attack by Satan, Jesus fasted. Though physically weak (Jesus was hungry), Jesus was spiritually well prepared for the temptation that followed. Prayer & fasting equips you & builds spiritual intelligence & spiritual muscle. Ask God today to give you all the spiritual capacity & ability possible. Ask God to make you spiritually smart & intelligent so that you can comprehend & understand spiritual issues. Ask God to allow you to understand HIS speaking today to the church. Our future trajectory & pathway is always secured when we constantly engage in prayer & fasting. Paul Fasted After His Conversion Acts 9:1-9 Saul was a man who persecuted Christians. He had gotten permission from the Jewish leadership to go to Damascus and arrest any who claimed allegiance to Christ. Along the way to Damascus Saul (whose name was later changed to Paul) had a personal encounter with the Lord. We call this his conversion on the road to Damascus. Part of this encounter involved a bright light which left Paul blinded. Paul was in Damascus for 3 days without sight. He also did not eat or drink (Acts 9:9). This could have been because of repentance or shock for everything that had recently transpired. Either way, Paul sacrificed food and drink for 3 days in exchanged for a relationship with the Lord. Authentic encounters with God can cause a whole array of possibilities. It is significant to note that 'Saul' the persecutor of followers of Christ is struck by 'light' and becomes 'blind'. Our faith experience must be open to the light of God's proceeding word & THE light of the world, Jesus Christ. Engaging the revelation of HIS word & Jesus the WORD made flesh will transform your natural sight. Sight or seeing is a foundational technology together with a 'hearing ear' for accurate, precise & exact pursuit of God. Saul who becomes Paul now is blinded from natural sight & seeing & then becomes open to spiritual sight. Is it any surprise that 2/3 of the New Testament is written by Paul. Ask God today to 'blind' us with HIS light so that we would have the clarity of spiritual sight to see what the Father is doing, sight to see what to do next & sight to behold & pursue God in Christ. Clarity & clearness of spiritual sight contributes to accelerated growth & change in our lives. Ask God to give you elevated sight, the ability to see things, circumstances & people from HIS perspective not a human earthly prejudice. Church Elders in Antioch Fasted Before Sending out Missionaries Acts 13:1-3 Barnabas took Paul to Antioch. The older Christian saw something in the new convert that others could not see. Barnabas actively worked to train Paul in the teachings of Christianity. After a time of fasting and prayer the Holy Spirit told the leaders of the church to separate Paul and Barnabas for a special work (Acts 13:2, 3). These two men were sent from the church as the first apostles after the resurrection of Jesus.Barnabas and Paul began their apostolic journey by preaching everywhere they went. Before we do anything we FIRST seek God,we seek HIS face not HIS hand. If we seek HIS face HE gives HIS hand. Our focus is always HIS Face. WE desire HIM, not things from HIM. Today make a decision that in your life, family, business, occupation,finances & church that you will FIRST seek HIM before you take or make any decision.

6 Turning on the Frequency of God - Psalm 29:3-9 As we awake to commence a FAST to gain the frequency with God.There is a frequency at which God speaks and moves. We need to be sensitive to that frequency because the operations of God come from knowing His frequency... The scriptures says that in the Gospel of John "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they know Me". The key is for the sheep to know and recognise the voice of the shepherd. In the same understanding to hear the voice of God we need to know the Chief Shepherd... Radio frequencies are in the atmosphere via a FM/AM signal you can tune in to a radio station whether it be on the FM or AM. The radio device is one that can tune in and so it is a 'relationship' with the God that will guarantee the voice of God. Frequency Barriers - 2 Chronicles 1:11 Confronting those barriers that hinder the frequency of God and thus stops us from hearing what is on God's agenda. When the outside voices of fear and anxiety become louder it hinders the plans that God has for you. Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus, during a storm at sea was challenged by thinking that Jesus was a Ghost. After a defining recognition that it was 'Jesus', he decided to call out to Jesus cause he wanted to walk on the water like Jesus. So Jesus bid him to come on the water as long as his eyes was focused on Jesus and not on the waves. So Peter steps out in faith and focuses on Him, but when he focused on the waves he came fearful and thus began to sink. He cried out to Jesus to help him. Hearing that Leads to Connectivity - John 15 As you approach the last day of your fast and your waiting upon the Lord, it is vitally important that you do not allow yourself to continue in a religious manner just observing the daily routines without really connecting to Jesus. Well it brings us to the word "connectivity" which is a term used often in todays world. There is a growing need to be connected because being connected gives you access. Data has become the access to the 'wireless fidelity - Wi-Fi' that links to the web of information. In the same manner by allowing God and accessing God through you relationship with Him will bring to a real connection with Him. Choosing to Let Go of the Past - Mark 11/ Mark 23 One of the bleeding issues that can prevent us from going forward iso ur PAST. The work of the enemy is to prevent progress and blessings and keep reminding us of our past failure. Today, make a choice to go forward in God and also choosing forgiveness over your past is the key. Learning to forgive yourself is the key to a great future and so also learning to forgive others will help to make your future positive. Jesus made an open declaration on the Cross, forgiving his accusers and also making a total sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of mankind. When asked how many times should I forgive, the answer that Jesus gave was "seventy times seven" - meaning that there was no limit to forgiving people. When you choose to forgive you choose to be set free, do not let your negative past hold you back.

7 friday 09 february saturday 10 february 18:30pm : Registration 07.30am : Welcome -Tea,Coffee 18:45pm : Worship & Welcome 07.45am : Praise and worship 19:00pm : Lead Like Jesus (LLJ) 08.00am : Lead Like Jesus (LLJ) Encounter begins Encounter continues 20:00pm : Tea/Coffee Break 10.30am : Tea Break 20:15pm : Lead Like Jesus (LLJ) 10:40am : LLJ Program continues Encounter continues 21:00pm : Day 1 Close 12:30pm : Lunch 13:00pm : LLJ Program continues 14:45pm : Tea Break 16:15pm : Close and Next steps

8 BAPTISM SUNDAY 11 MARCH FRIDAY 09 FEB + SATURDAY 10 FEB R100PP - WORKBOOK FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 8PM-10PM