THREE: BY PRAYERS AND FASTING.
We want to seek the power and glory of God; we must earnestly seek him through prayer and fasting. In psalms 63:1-3 “A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land here there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” David earnestly sought God. He really was thirsty for Gods attention.
You must have right attitude when seeking God through earnest prayer from your heart then he will release power for your positive outcome. James 5:16-17 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.”
The woman with the issue of blood confessed from her heart “if I touch only his garment” you must earnestly expect the outcome full of faith Mark 5:28 “for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
The prayers must be from our heart. We should actually wholly pour our hearts. 1 Samuel 1:15 “But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.”
Do not corrupt your heart; be vigilant lest you corrupt the heart for you will corrupt the results Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Prayer is the spiritual switch for which we open the flow of power. Until asking is there you cannot receive power. Zechariah 10:1 “Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain,
from the Lord who makes the storm-clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to everyone.”
from the Lord who makes the storm-clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to everyone.”
You are born again but you stir up the flow of power through prayer. John 1:12 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,”
You need the help of the Holy Spirit for you to dwell in prayer. Prayer is an adventure and the only way to have genuine taste of Christian faith. You actualize your destiny through spiritual channel by prayer.
Prayer is a medium for spiritual empowerment, supernatural empowerment; hence you get command over situations in your life.
Fasting
In Matthew 4:1-2 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.” Fasting is a spiritual weapon to guarantee us victory in every battle. Jesus was to fight temptation of Satan, and he needed spiritual weapon in which to fight with. It’s not a religious affliction.
Fasting is a spiritual catalyst in prayer, Isaiah 58:6 “6 is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” fasting helps loose the bonds of injustices, oppression, and breaks every yoke. Fasting is a form through which God desires to polish your life.
In Matthew 6:16-17 “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,” it’s a covenant obligation for every believer to fast. We are commanded to put fasting into our life program as a spiritual exercise to loose the part of wickedness in our lives, destiny, business and careers.
In John 15:7 ‘If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” For effectiveness in prayer and fasting God wants us to abide in him, let his words abide in us. We shall see the ministry of his word in our next topic.
How do we benefit if we pray and fast
We are filled with Gods power. In Luke 4:14 “Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.” After fasting for 40days Jesus returned filled with Holy Spirit to start his mission.
We are guaranteed access to revelations of God, in Jeremiah 1:11-12 “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a branch of an almond tree.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
The yoke of sin and death is destroyed.
You are guaranteed glorification in your life. Isaiah 58:8 “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.”
We have speedy answers to prayers, Isaiah 58:9 “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,”We are guaranteed access to divine guidance. Psalms 23:1 “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Also Isaiah 48:17 “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go.”
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