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In this encouraging message, we kick off a new series called “Circle Makers”. We explore the powerful idea of praying bold, specific prayers and drawing “prayer circles” around our biggest dreams and toughest fears. Just as a man named Honi prayed for rain during a severe drought in ancient Israel, we are reminded that God responds when we approach Him with persistence and faith.
As we begin ten days of prayer and fasting, we are invited to identify the areas in our lives where we need a breakthrough. Whether you are looking for restoration, wisdom for the future, or strength for a personal battle, this is a time to prioritise the presence of Jesus. Let’s lean in together, believing for a year of favour and fresh vision.
Scripture References
Like what you hear?
If you feel that what you have heard is for you, and you’d like to be involved, then we would love to hear from you. Why not join us each Sunday at 9.15am and 11am, or contact us at hello@freedomcapetown.co.za
You can learn more about us at freedomcapetown.co.za
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Well, I’ve got a lot that’s been stirring in me, and I’m so excited about where God is leading us,
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because we’re stepping into a new teaching series today.
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We don’t even know the series, and we’re excited.
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A new teaching series called Circle Makers.
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And Circle Makers, it’s all about praying circles around your biggest fears and greatest dreams.
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Now, we’re going to pray some circles.
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Let me tell you that this comes from a book, this concept.
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It’s a book called Circle Makers.
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And I’d encourage you, if you want to get more into it, go and get this book.
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It’s by an author called Mark Batterson.
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And we’re just going to steal the concept for this series.
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Because he tells a story of a man in the first century before Jesus was here.
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Or the last century, I guess, before Jesus was here.
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And it was a man called Honi.
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And Honi was a man in ancient Israel.
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And he was in a time where there was a drought.
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It hadn’t rained for a very long time.
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It was dusty ground.
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And one day, Hone goes out in front of a crowd.
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He stands there and he draws a circle around himself in the dust.
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And he says, he prays this prayer.
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I’ve written it down.
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He prayed this prayer.
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Lord of the universe, I swear before your great name that I will not move from this circle until you will show mercy upon your children.
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Prayed for rain.
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In this dusty, barren place, he prayed for rain.
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And guess what happened?
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It starts to drizzle.
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it starts to just little bits of rain started to fall.
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And so Honi was grateful, but he thought maybe I should be more specific.
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So he prayed again to God in front of everyone.
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He said, not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill cisterns, pits, and caverns.
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And so then torrential rain starts to pour down.
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And so Honi just circles back one more time in prayer,
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Because he thought, well, this is a little bit too intense.
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So he says, not for such rain have I prayed of your favor, blessing and graciousness.
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And the rain starts to be this gentle but life-giving rain that fills the land and the drought was gone.
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And I love this story and this concept of someone, we just sang the song, Trusting God.
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Someone who trusted God so much in their life
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that they were willing to put it all on the line,
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draw a circle around themselves and say,
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God, until you move, I’m not leaving this place.
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And so we as a church family,
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and if you’re a guest here today,
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man, I’m so pleased you’re here.
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We always say if you arrive as a guest,
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I pray you leave feeling like family.
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That’s our prayer for you today.
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And I pray that you receive something from the message today.
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And I even pray that you would consider sticking around for the next three weeks of this series.
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Because I think God will do a great work in your life if you do.
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But so if you’re a guest or if you’re a part of our church family,
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I want you to know that we are heading into, stepping into from tomorrow, 10 days of prayer and fasting.
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And so here’s, I want to ask you a question.
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And it’s this question.
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What will you draw a circle around over the next 10 days?
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Let me ask it a different way in case you still haven’t caught the concept.
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Where do you need breakthrough in your life that you need to draw a circle around and stand there and say,
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God, until I see breakthrough, I’m not leaving this place.
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Because here’s my belief.
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If we will be as bold as to pray those kind of prayers to God, and not only my belief, my testimony,
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God will break through for you.
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God will break through.
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I grew up in our church, and my pastor would often tell this story from 2 Samuel chapter 5.
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And it’s a story where the Israelites’ enemies of Philistines are attacking,
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or about to attack.
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And David goes to the Lord, and he says,
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Lord, shall we go first?
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Shall we go and attack?
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And the Lord says, go.
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And they overcome, they defeat the enemy.
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And so David called that place Baal Parazim, meaning master of the breakthroughs or Lord of breakthroughs.
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And so one of the names of God, one of the ways in which we can come before God is we can say, Lord, you are the God of the breakthrough.
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Or more specifically, the name Baal Parazim is God of breakthroughs.
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It’s not a singular breakthrough.
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Because some of you, you’ve seen a breakthrough in your life, but you’ve still got another one that you need to contend for.
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and God would say this morning, I am the Lord of breakthroughs.
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So just a show of hands, you can help me out in church this morning.
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Anyone in church feel like they need to see breakthrough in an area of their life?
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Some of us, those of you who got your hands down, I don’t believe you.
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I think that there’s every person in the room today that when you look at an area of your life,
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there is something you want to see a shift in.
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There’s an area that you need to see some movement, some change.
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And the amazing thing is, is that in the scriptures, God gives us a way in which we can see significant accelerated change.
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And that’s what I want to talk about a bit as we start this series today.
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And how do we see this change?
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Well, we see in this story in Matthew chapter 17,
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Jesus has given authority to his disciples
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and they’re going out and they’re praying for healing
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and they’re seeing people get healed.
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And then there’s this one thing,
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they’re praying a boy comes and he’s demon possessed.
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And they don’t know what’s going on.
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They’re not seeing any shift.
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And then, so this is what it says in Matthew 17.
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So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.
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However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
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And so I want to help us today to consider what it is to fast.
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Why do we do it?
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what kind of fasts are there in the Bible?
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How do we fast?
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And to maybe lead you to a point of considering
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joining us to fast for the next 10 days.
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Because I believe God will do a powerful work
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as we fast as a church body.
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We’ve never done this as a church
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where we call people to an extended fast before,
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but I think there’s something in this moment
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that God has for us that we need to take hold of.
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and so I want to lead us to this moment and let’s just be clear a fast you know if you’re looking
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in the mirror and you haven’t gone to the gym yet and you’re wanting to trim down a bit that’s not
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what we’re fasting for everybody you can you can have a diet if you want to trim down a little bit
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fasting is for a different reason I’ll even say it this way a diet will change how you look
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a fast will change how you see and I want to preface where we’re going I said this book I’d
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encourage you to look at a book by Mark Batson Circle Makers I also for this message went through
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a book called Pray First by a pastor from the stage called Pastor Chris Hodges and so I’m
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stealing a lot of content today and so if you if any of it sounds familiar it is if you’ve read any
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of those books, but I just felt there was something in them that God had for us as a church today.
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And so we want to step into this time of fasting. Why are we fasting though? Why do we fast? Maybe
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you’ve been around church for some time, maybe you haven’t. And in certain environments, I think
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fasting can be misunderstood. That we fast maybe if we feel like we’ve made a mistake in life,
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Or we need some kind of punishment for being a bad Christian.
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You silly people and I come back before God and I’m sorry.
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Or maybe as I say that you’re wanting to trim down a little bit and you call it spiritual.
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Like we misunderstand maybe why fasting.
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And let’s just be clear about the whole idea of punishment.
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All of your sins were already paid on the cross.
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You don’t need to step into fasting to attract any more favor from God.
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The blood of Jesus gives you favor as a believer.
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That you have the fullness of everything you need from Jesus already today.
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But there’s something about fasting that’s powerful and important that I want us to understand.
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And in order to grasp this, I want to explain a concept that you and I are what I want to call triune beings.
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Let me explain that to you.
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God’s creation, in all of creation, there’s different kind of beings or creation.
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For example, a tree is just a singular being.
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It’s the body.
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Let’s just throw up that first one.
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We’ve got the body or the flesh.
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The tree is just a body.
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and it has no emotions, it has no feelings, it has no connection to God.
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And then we’ve got things that maybe have emotions, like animals will have emotions.
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I found this to be the case. I have a dog. It’s a very emotional creature.
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He gets very excited if he sees somebody that he knows.
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He gets very scared if he steals my children’s food because I look at him a certain way
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and so you better not do that again he runs away and so the animals they have different uh things
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and so we’ll see like our soul we’ve got the body of the soul the mind will and emotions you see
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animals will have these emotions but there’s something unique about humans because we have
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this third part of us we’ve got body soul but we also have this part of us that is the spirit
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the spirit within us and the spirit within us is the part that is like god
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where genesis 1 says that we are made in the image of god that is not to say that god looks like a
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six foot british guy who stood on the like he’s not god doesn’t look like it’s the it’s this part
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of me that when i surrender my life to jesus i surrender my whole life but my spirit catches up
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first. My spirit understands the revelation of Jesus because my spirit connects to his spirit,
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the Holy Spirit, and that’s the part that is like God, that when it’s made whole, it comes
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alive in Jesus. So here’s the thing I want us to see. Any WWE fans in the room? Come on somebody.
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Mark, thank you. Anyone from back in the day, WWF, way back when? Yes, come on. Kyle, I saw that hand
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at the back. Thank you. I’ve got three people in the room. No one else had fun in their childhood.
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That’s fine. That’s all I did when I went around friend’s house. Shall we wrestle? Great.
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And so, but there’s this one part of WWF that’s called the Royal Rumble. Some people heard of this?
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Okay. Royal Rumble is like the last person in, they all wrestle, I don’t know, the last person in the
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ring wins is the idea. Okay. And every day, if we just bring the slide back up every day,
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it’s like the Royal Rumble between your body, your soul, your spirit. Someone’s trying to win every
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day. Someone’s trying to win every day. And let me say it this way. The strongest of the three will
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win. And how do we know which is the strongest? Which one is the strongest? It’s the one you feed
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the most. And so if I feed the body or my flesh with the flesh’s desires, my body’s desires,
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then when I feed the body, actually, what do we know when I feed the body? The body doesn’t
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actually care about my emotions. The flesh doesn’t care about how I feel. If I lust after things in
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my flesh and then I feel bad about it in my emotions, my body doesn’t care. My flesh doesn’t
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care. It just does what it wants to do. And so it takes over. Similar with the mind, will, and
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emotions part of me, if that’s the dominant part of my life, and I’m feeling anxiety and worry,
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and I’m stuck in bed, it doesn’t matter about my body. It doesn’t matter if I stay in bed for many
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days. The soul part of me, the mind, will, and emotions, it doesn’t care about my body. And it
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also definitely doesn’t care about the spirit part of me. So the two first ones will try and
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dominate your life. And if you feed them, they will dominate your life. And this is where fasting
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then comes in. Let me say it this way. The ones you feed will be the strongest, but the ones you
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starve will be the weakest. If I feed the Spirit and I take time of fasting to put away the things
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of the body, the flesh, and the mind, will, and emotions, I make them subservient to the Spirit,
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then I’m going to supercharge the work that God is doing in renewing my life. Is that making sense
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to everyone? See, God is always doing a renewal, regeneration work in my life through the Spirit.
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but fasting supercharges that work that that it says flesh mind will and emotions you are
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subservient to the the spirit within me that connects to the spirit of God and it’s becoming
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more like Jesus I’m putting you under submission and so that’s why we encourage you to fast in our
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church we we actually take a day a month where we fast and pray and fast together as a church
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where we have these first Monday prayer gatherings we pray and fast together as a church we’ve been
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doing it as a church around the world for about 10 years now.
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But I actually, I’ve seen God do a powerful work
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when people just say,
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if there’s a big decision they’ve got to make
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or if they need to see breakthrough,
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they say, I’m going to take some time to pray and fast.
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What’s going on there?
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God does a supernatural work,
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but we also become more heightened
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in our awareness of the things of God
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and we tune out of the things of the world.
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And suddenly there’s a shift.
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something happens to shift the dial shift the dynamic and I’ve seen I don’t know whether I
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had a revelation of this or God just did a work in me around it but I’ve spent a number of times
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where I’ve had extended fasts in my life where God has brought revelation freedom clarity
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to my life helped me to make decisions in a powerful way and so that’s why we’re wanting
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to step into this time of fasting. I’ll finish this part by saying it this way. The fasting is denying
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the fleshly appetites of the body and reordering the desires of the mind, will, and emotions
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so our spirit becomes more responsive to God. Can I say it again? Fasting is denying the fleshly
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appetites of the body and reordering the desires of the mind, will, and emotions so our spirit
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becomes more responsive to God.
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I want you to be more responsive to God in 2026.
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And one of the things that even this evening,
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we’re gonna be talking about how to hear from God.
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Let me just maybe give you a little spoiler for this evening.
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One of the things that I think about is like,
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you know the radios, the old school radios
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where you have to adjust the dial
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to get on the right frequency?
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I think sometimes we’ve got the,
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God’s speaking all the time,
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but we’re on the wrong frequency.
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We’re on the flesh frequency.
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Some of us, I’ve seen people make big, big decisions
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in their life, and they say it was because God led them to it,
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but it was actually their mind, will, and emotions
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leading them to it.
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And so they’re on the wrong frequency
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in claiming that they’re hearing the voice of God,
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but actually they’re just feeling a bit offended.
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Actually, they’re just feeling a bit sad.
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Maybe they’re feeling a bit tired in their body.
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But what fasting’s gonna do for us,
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It’s going to help us to be more responsive to God.
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That’s what I want for us this year, church.
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That we be more responsive to the Spirit of God.
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So what kind of fasts are we encouraging over the next 10 days?
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Well, there’s three different fasts, different types of fasts I want to encourage us to step into as a church.
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And I want to encourage you to choose one.
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It could be two, but at least one of these if you want to join in with this.
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And let me just say this.
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Please don’t join in into the kind of food part of the fast if you have a medical reason that this would be a bad idea.
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Get kind of check in.
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If you think you’ve got to check on that, talk to a pastor, talk to a doctor, talk to someone.
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I did this one time where, not for a medical reason, just I was young and foolish,
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that I was like, you know the perfect time for me to fast is before my final exams for my high school.
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I said, I’m going to do a 40-day fast.
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And I’m 19 days in, and my mom had to go and speak to my pastor because she knew I wasn’t listening to her.
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And my pastor sat me down and said, you can fast another time, Josh.
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Right now, you’ve got to do your exams.
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I said, yes, pastor.
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Sorry, mom, I wasn’t listening.
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So there are times at which it may be unwise to step into this.
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But let’s just talk through a couple of them.
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The first I want to mention is a complete fast.
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A complete fast being that we are going to not eat food for the next 10 days.
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You can drink water, maybe some juices.
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Can I say, if you’re going to do this, maybe don’t like have smoothies where you’re just like, you know, I’m putting three bananas into the blender.
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And I’m, oh yeah, I’m fast.
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It’s like, this is meant to be hard.
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The enemy is going to come and try and take you out.
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But listen, everyone, you’re going to be fine.
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10 days, you can do it.
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Like if that’s what you choose to do, I know some of us, that seems crazy.
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It’s very possible.
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You’re going to get past the first three days and then you’re going to have this high.
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Because you’re like, man, I feel great.
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Ten days, very possible, okay?
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So that could be a fast that some of us choose to step into, a complete fast.
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The next one I want to encourage maybe some other people to step into is what we’re going to call a selective fast.
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This is the fast where you select your least favorite foods and don’t eat.
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No, I’m joking.
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This is, maybe it’s going to be a particular type of food or a certain meal.
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Maybe you’re going to say, I’m only going to eat the evening meal.
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I’m only going to have breakfast or whatever it is.
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And you’re going to fast for the rest of the day.
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And you’re going to join in for those 10 days.
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The final one, maybe for some of us,
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and I think this could be even more impactful than the food ones for some of us,
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is we’re going to do what we’re going to call a soul fast.
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And this is not about suppressing the flesh and the body through food.
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This is about your soul is so cluttered up by things you see on social media.
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But hey, come on, someone already.
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By things you’re seeing in media, that you’re reading things,
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that you’re watching the news so much that you’re feeling sad all the time,
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That maybe you need to just declutter your soul.
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We did this as a church in the UK a number of years ago.
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One of the things that surprised me was how often many of us,
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when we need to step into a moment where we need to process something with God,
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when we’re maybe either bored or we’re feeling a bit sad,
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that we end up scrolling.
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And so we never actually process things in God’s presence.
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And what I saw was as people decluttered and they came off like media and did a soul fast in that space.
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I saw people where things started to come up in people that they dealt with in God’s presence that they hadn’t been dealing with because it had been suppressed by the scrolling.
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And actually, I think for some of us, God wants to do a work in us that we’re only going to be able to see what that work is when we set some things aside in that space for the next 10 days.
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Does that make sense?
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so I want to encourage us to
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consider these
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different kinds of fast
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and let me head
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towards the final question
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that we can ask from the scriptures
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what kinds of fast
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what am I fasting for
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what am I fasting for
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because as I said I think we’re going to
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big picture I want to lead us
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into a time as a church of praying and fasting
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for breakthrough
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I know
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in some of your lives
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I know your stories
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you need to see breakthrough
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I know whether it’s in relationships
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whether it’s in finances
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whether it’s in the space of freedom
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there are things that you
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that some of us we come every week to church
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and we’re frustrated that we’re not seeing change
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we’re frustrated that we’re not seeing things different
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and here’s just a thought experiment for you for a moment
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what if this is the final year
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that those things hold on to you.
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What if God really does a work in these coming days
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to bring freedom and change in your life?
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That’s my prayer for us as a church.
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Is anyone with me this morning?
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Because I think there’s some people who need breakthrough,
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but you’re sat quietly in your seats.
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And I just want to encourage you to be a bit more vocal
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about the kind of breakthrough you’re wanting to see today.
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Are you with me?
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All right.
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Sometimes, I just got to give you one.
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in a message every now and then.
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Okay, let’s jump in.
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What should we fast for?
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The first one I wanna call the disciples fast.
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And this is the fast that I was explaining
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earlier on in Matthew 17.
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The boy comes up to,
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he’s a demon-possessed boy,
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comes up and they don’t know what to do.
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And then Jesus says that we need to pray and fast.
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And so this is a fast for anyone who says,
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I need freedom from sin and bondage.
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I need freedom from sin and bondage.
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If you were with us a couple of weeks ago on Future Sunday,
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we shared about this year.
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And here’s what we said that the vision for this year is,
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that we would lead people to discover Jesus
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and experience the fullness of life in him.
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To discover Jesus and experience the fullness of life in him.
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It fires me up so much.
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When I get to see people who believe in Jesus,
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who are not yet living in the freedom that Jesus has for them,
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stepping into the fullness of life in him.
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I believe for some of us as we step in,
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and here’s what I want you to do,
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if you’re going to join us in praying and fasting for the next 10 days,
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is either tonight or this afternoon or tomorrow morning,
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is to write down specifically what am I believing for?
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What circles am I drawing in these next 10 days
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and maybe do it through the lens of some of the fasts I’m going to explain,
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because I’m going to explain five to you just now.
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But this one here, for some of us, we’ve been following Jesus for a long time.
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We’ve made him Lord of our life.
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He rules and reigns over almost every area,
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and yet there’s one or two things that often I’ll come into church,
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and you maybe even do this.
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I’ve had conversations with people where they’ll say,
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you know what, Pastor, I’m changing this part of my life.
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I’m not going back.
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I’m done with this holding me.
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And one or two weeks later,
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because their mind is controlled by the flesh instead of the spirit,
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they go straight back.
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And so here’s what a fast will do.
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It’s going to say, for some of us, we say,
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I want to do this fast for the purpose of stepping into freedom from sin or bondage.
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I’m done with being contained by the things of the world.
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I don’t want the flesh to run my life.
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I want freedom.
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I want freedom from some areas of my life.
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Maybe it’s things that others know.
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Maybe it’s some secret things you haven’t told anyone.
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And you’re gonna say,
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this is the time where I am gonna contend for freedom.
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I think there’s some people in the room today
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who need to step into the freedom of Christ
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and experience the fullness of life in Jesus.
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And my prayer for you today,
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if that’s for you,
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That you would enter a time of 10 days of prayer and fasting and go, this is it.
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I trust in God.
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I believe he can bring freedom.
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Maybe you need to bring some other people into your story.
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Maybe you need some people who are going to hold you accountable, go on a journey with me.
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You’re going to say, I’m getting free.
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I’m getting free.
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Not because of anything I can do, but because of the one who conquered the grave.
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That he has given me authority and power to walk into freedom in Christ.
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the second one I want to show you is what we’re going to call the Ezra fast
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and the Ezra fast is a fast for the restoration of what has been stolen
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or maybe even what the enemy is trying to steal
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and as we heard earlier our senior pastor
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Pastor Gary Snowzell started Freedom Church many years ago
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he shared a message with us last week he said this is the year of restoration
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and for some of us this is going to be a time where we’re going to say I’m believing
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that God is going to restore some things to me that have been stolen I want us to turn to Ezra chapter
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eight Ezra and Nehemiah there used to be these two books together and this is about the the people of
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God heading back to Jerusalem they’ve been out of exile in exile in Babylon they’re going back
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and taking possession back of the thing that was stolen.
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It says,
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There by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast
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so that we might humble ourselves before God
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and ask Him for a safe journey for us
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and our children with all our possessions.
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You know you can even fast and pray for a good journey.
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Sometimes God’s going to lead us in that way.
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Let me even say,
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I think some of us sometimes,
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We just, we don’t fully bring God into some of those parts of our life.
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If you’re traveling back for the holidays,
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maybe take a couple of days to fast and pray and trust God for a good journey.
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Put him in charge of the journey.
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I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road
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because we had told the king,
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the gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him.
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This great anger is against all who forsake him.
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So we fasted and petitioned our God about this.
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And he answered our prayer.
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So as they were heading back and they were praying against the enemy taking anything from the safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions.
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Some of us, the enemy’s stolen some things and we want them back.
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That this is a year of restoration.
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And some of them we can sense, as 1 Peter says, that the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion.
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And we sense the prowl and we say, ah, ah, ah, year of restoration.
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You cannot have my children.
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You cannot have my marriage.
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You cannot have my finances.
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You cannot have my peace.
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Is anyone with me this morning?
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You cannot have my joy.
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That God is in the business of restoring some things this year.
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And he’s going to lead us into restoration.
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How?
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Because we are going to come and put ourselves before God.
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And trust him in this season of prayer and fasting.
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That we’re going to come back and believe for a fast of restoration.
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Third one I want to show you is what we’re going to call the Paul fast.
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Paul’s fast is the wisdom for my future.
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I’ve often spent times of prayer and fasting on this one.
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Let me show you this scripture and then tell you a couple of stories.
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Acts chapter 9 verse 9.
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Paul is just had this road to Damascus experience.
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And then it says for three days he was blind and he did not eat or drink anything.
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He’s taking a time of fasting as a massive moment has happened in his life.
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And it continues in Acts 9, 17 and 18.
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It says, then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul.
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He said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here,
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sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Immediately, something like scales, this is not scales,
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something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again.
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Sometimes fasting is going to open up your eyes to see some things you’ve not seen before.
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Sometimes you’ve got to come before God and trust him to say,
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Lord, you’re going to lead us in a different kind of way than what we’re seeing up to now.
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And God is going to lead some of us.
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I’ve had these significant moments of my life.
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Meg and I, we’ve often prayed and fasted over.
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One I was thinking about was when we had the opportunity to move to Cape Town from the U.S.
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We actually had a prophetic word from someone close to us in our life.
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I think it was 2017.
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It might have been early 2018.
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We just, a couple of years before, planted another church in the UK.
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And someone gave us a prophetic word and said,
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I believe God is calling you to go and lead the church in South Africa that’s about to be planted.
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And we prayed and fasted about it.
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And at the time, we just felt this isn’t right in this season.
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We’re not going to do it now.
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We continue to build where we were.
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But we did have a sense maybe there was something in the future.
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And a couple of years later then, we sat down with our senior pastors.
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And another opportunity comes our way.
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And they say, hey, we feel like maybe now’s the time.
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And so we prayed and we fasted.
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And God gave me a picture.
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He showed me this picture.
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I saw coming out of this beautiful kind of cave type thing.
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And I saw these women.
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And they were clearly black African women singing.
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And just behind them, I didn’t visibly see it.
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But what I knew in my spirit was it was Jesus coming behind them.
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And what I felt the Holy Spirit say to me is, the African church is going to lead to the return of the king.
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And so I said, hey, I’m in.
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Let me go.
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I want to be a part of that.
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I want to see what God’s going to do.
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And now we’re here and we get to be a part of our leading our churches in East Africa as well,
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where we’ve got four churches there and we spend time helping to lead them.
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And it was a way of God showing me, here’s the purpose to which I’ve called you.
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And that all happened in the time of prayer and fasting.
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There’s many other examples and stories of people in times of prayer and fasting for wisdom
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that God’s opened their eyes and shown them something different.
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And maybe you’re here thinking about some big decisions in your life.
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Present them to God in prayer and fasting.
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Can I show you two more?
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The fourth one I want to show you type of fasting is what we’re going to call the Daniel fast.
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And this is the fast where we have victory over the enemy.
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Anyone want to see some victory in their lives?
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Victory over the enemy.
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Daniel chapter 10, verse 1 to 3 says this.
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In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel.
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Its message was true and it concerned a great war.
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This wasn’t a war that was happening physically.
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This was a war that was happening in spiritual places.
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Maybe you’re sat in the room and you say,
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I’m not sure I believe that there’s an enemy, a devil.
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And you say, that’s fine.
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You don’t have to believe it.
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It doesn’t mean that’s not real.
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It doesn’t mean he’s gonna stop attacking you.
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There’s a war going on everybody
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and we need to wake up to the fact
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that we have authority and power in that battle
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and we have victory in that fight.
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That we are going to overcome some things
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because God has given us authority
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and so it continues on about the type of fast
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he stepped into.
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But again, some of us, we need to step in and say,
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I’m gonna have a time of fasting
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that it’s gonna be about victory.
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Victory in the space of my family,
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victory in the space of career,
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victory in the space of my future,
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whatever it is,
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that God is leading us and you
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into a place of victory.
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And I believe that this is gonna be a significant time
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when you’re gonna have breakthroughs.
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Breakthrough, breakthrough.
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Anyone believing with me for breakthrough today?
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The final one I wanna show you is this.
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It’s what we’re gonna call the Samuel fast.
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The Samuel fast.
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And this is where we’re praying for revival in our nation.
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And Samuel, in the book of Samuel, chapter 1 Samuel 7, verse 3 and 6.
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So I’ve got two verses in here, jumping from one to the other.
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It says,
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So Samuel said to all the Israelites,
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If you’re returning to the Lord with all your hearts,
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then rid yourselves of all the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths
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and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only.
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And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
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So he’s saying, hey, repent, change, turn to God, leave the old ways, leave the old things.
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Don’t follow the things of this world.
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And then he says, when they had assembled in verse 6, when they had assembled at Mitzvah,
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they drew water and poured it out before the Lord.
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On that day, they fasted and there they confessed, we have sinned against the Lord.
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now Samuel was serving as a leader of Israel at Mitzpah
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they said we recognize that we have not been following the Lord
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we’ve been following our own ways
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and church I often if I’m reading the news
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or if I’m talking to people
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there can be a sadness at times
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about things I hear
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even let alone for our nation
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let’s just talk about our city
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our city needs Jesus
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I see some of the things going on
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and I just think
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man I think there’s only one solution here
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because the problem that’s going on
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and there are many reasons
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but the ultimate reason
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it’s the problem of the human heart
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it’s the problem of the human heart
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where greed, where power
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where different things
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where anger
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where violence, where all these different things can culminate.
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But what’s the issue here?
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It’s a gospel issue.
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It’s a repentance issue.
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It’s a we followed the things of this world
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and now we need to turn to Jesus issue.
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And I think if we can have a church that stands up and says,
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we’re going to pray for our city.
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We’re going to pray for our nation.
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We’re going to pray for our communities.
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We’re going to pray.
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that when we humble ourselves,
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we pray that God shows up,
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that God shows up.
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And so we’ve got these five different types of fasts.
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We’re going to, on our WhatsApp group,
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share devotionals based around these five different fasts
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and things we’re contending for.
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But really, if you could focus in on one
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over these next 10 days,
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I would encourage you to focus in on the Ezra fast,
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It’s the year of restoration.
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What is it that needs to be restored?
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Is it your marriage?
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I think there’s marriages in the room today
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who they feel like they’re on the rocks.
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Maybe there’s even some of us in the room today,
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you say, I’ve been distant from church
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and I need to have a restoration of vision
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for the bride of Christ.
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That I need God to give me fresh sight,
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fresh eyes heal my heart from some things that have happened i don’t know what it is but i think
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that god wants to restore some things and so if you could focus in on anything i would encourage you
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go in on that ezra fast but maybe for you it’s something else that’s stirring in you go for it
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because as we step into these next 10 days i really think and maybe this is like your first
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time in church and you’re like cool i came to church and he told me not to eat and i normally
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don’t say that at church by the way but I think even for you I think God has something here for
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you I think God wants to do something in your life why would I hide this secret weapon from you
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if I believe it to be true lean in because what are we saying here more than anything else
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is these next 10 days we want to prioritize the person and presence of Jesus in our lives
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we want Him more than anything else
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we want Him, His presence, His Word
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His authority, His power
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to be in our lives, over our lives
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and rule and reign in our lives
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and I believe as we position ourselves in that way
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I just cannot wait
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for the testimonies and stories of what’s going to come
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and so I want to pray for us
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I’m going to pray
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as we step in to this time
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that God would give some people in the room boldness
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to step into what he’s calling you to do.
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Well, I’ve got a lot that’s been stirring in me, and I’m so excited about where God is leading us,
00:05
because we’re stepping into a new teaching series today.
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We don’t even know the series, and we’re excited.
00:10
A new teaching series called Circle Makers.
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And Circle Makers, it’s all about praying circles around your biggest fears and greatest dreams.
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Now, we’re going to pray some circles.
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Let me tell you that this comes from a book, this concept.
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It’s a book called Circle Makers.
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And I’d encourage you, if you want to get more into it, go and get this book.
00:31
It’s by an author called Mark Batterson.
00:34
And we’re just going to steal the concept for this series.
00:36
Because he tells a story of a man in the first century before Jesus was here.
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Or the last century, I guess, before Jesus was here.
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And it was a man called Honi.
00:47
And Honi was a man in ancient Israel.
00:51
And he was in a time where there was a drought.
00:54
It hadn’t rained for a very long time.
00:56
It was dusty ground.
00:58
And one day, Hone goes out in front of a crowd.
01:00
He stands there and he draws a circle around himself in the dust.
01:04
And he says, he prays this prayer.
01:07
I’ve written it down.
01:07
He prayed this prayer.
01:08
Lord of the universe, I swear before your great name that I will not move from this circle until you will show mercy upon your children.
01:17
Prayed for rain.
01:19
In this dusty, barren place, he prayed for rain.
01:21
And guess what happened?
01:23
It starts to drizzle.
01:25
it starts to just little bits of rain started to fall.
01:29
And so Honi was grateful, but he thought maybe I should be more specific.
01:34
So he prayed again to God in front of everyone.
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He said, not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill cisterns, pits, and caverns.
01:45
And so then torrential rain starts to pour down.
01:50
And so Honi just circles back one more time in prayer,
01:54
Because he thought, well, this is a little bit too intense.
01:56
So he says, not for such rain have I prayed of your favor, blessing and graciousness.
02:04
And the rain starts to be this gentle but life-giving rain that fills the land and the drought was gone.
02:11
And I love this story and this concept of someone, we just sang the song, Trusting God.
02:18
Someone who trusted God so much in their life
02:23
that they were willing to put it all on the line,
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draw a circle around themselves and say,
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God, until you move, I’m not leaving this place.
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And so we as a church family,
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and if you’re a guest here today,
02:37
man, I’m so pleased you’re here.
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We always say if you arrive as a guest,
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I pray you leave feeling like family.
02:43
That’s our prayer for you today.
02:44
And I pray that you receive something from the message today.
02:47
And I even pray that you would consider sticking around for the next three weeks of this series.
02:52
Because I think God will do a great work in your life if you do.
02:55
But so if you’re a guest or if you’re a part of our church family,
02:58
I want you to know that we are heading into, stepping into from tomorrow, 10 days of prayer and fasting.
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And so here’s, I want to ask you a question.
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And it’s this question.
03:09
What will you draw a circle around over the next 10 days?
03:15
Let me ask it a different way in case you still haven’t caught the concept.
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Where do you need breakthrough in your life that you need to draw a circle around and stand there and say,
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God, until I see breakthrough, I’m not leaving this place.
03:30
Because here’s my belief.
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If we will be as bold as to pray those kind of prayers to God, and not only my belief, my testimony,
03:38
God will break through for you.
03:41
God will break through.
03:43
I grew up in our church, and my pastor would often tell this story from 2 Samuel chapter 5.
03:51
And it’s a story where the Israelites’ enemies of Philistines are attacking,
03:57
or about to attack.
03:58
And David goes to the Lord, and he says,
04:01
Lord, shall we go first?
04:03
Shall we go and attack?
04:03
And the Lord says, go.
04:05
And they overcome, they defeat the enemy.
04:07
And so David called that place Baal Parazim, meaning master of the breakthroughs or Lord of breakthroughs.
04:16
And so one of the names of God, one of the ways in which we can come before God is we can say, Lord, you are the God of the breakthrough.
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Or more specifically, the name Baal Parazim is God of breakthroughs.
04:30
It’s not a singular breakthrough.
04:32
Because some of you, you’ve seen a breakthrough in your life, but you’ve still got another one that you need to contend for.
04:37
and God would say this morning, I am the Lord of breakthroughs.
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So just a show of hands, you can help me out in church this morning.
04:47
Anyone in church feel like they need to see breakthrough in an area of their life?
04:51
Some of us, those of you who got your hands down, I don’t believe you.
04:54
I think that there’s every person in the room today that when you look at an area of your life,
05:00
there is something you want to see a shift in.
05:04
There’s an area that you need to see some movement, some change.
05:09
And the amazing thing is, is that in the scriptures, God gives us a way in which we can see significant accelerated change.
05:22
And that’s what I want to talk about a bit as we start this series today.
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And how do we see this change?
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Well, we see in this story in Matthew chapter 17,
05:33
Jesus has given authority to his disciples
05:36
and they’re going out and they’re praying for healing
05:39
and they’re seeing people get healed.
05:41
And then there’s this one thing,
05:42
they’re praying a boy comes and he’s demon possessed.
05:48
And they don’t know what’s going on.
05:50
They’re not seeing any shift.
05:53
And then, so this is what it says in Matthew 17.
05:57
So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.
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However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
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And so I want to help us today to consider what it is to fast.
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Why do we do it?
06:27
what kind of fasts are there in the Bible?
06:29
How do we fast?
06:31
And to maybe lead you to a point of considering
06:36
joining us to fast for the next 10 days.
06:41
Because I believe God will do a powerful work
06:45
as we fast as a church body.
06:47
We’ve never done this as a church
06:48
where we call people to an extended fast before,
06:51
but I think there’s something in this moment
06:54
that God has for us that we need to take hold of.
06:57
and so I want to lead us to this moment and let’s just be clear a fast you know if you’re looking
07:04
in the mirror and you haven’t gone to the gym yet and you’re wanting to trim down a bit that’s not
07:09
what we’re fasting for everybody you can you can have a diet if you want to trim down a little bit
07:16
fasting is for a different reason I’ll even say it this way a diet will change how you look
07:21
a fast will change how you see and I want to preface where we’re going I said this book I’d
07:29
encourage you to look at a book by Mark Batson Circle Makers I also for this message went through
07:35
a book called Pray First by a pastor from the stage called Pastor Chris Hodges and so I’m
07:41
stealing a lot of content today and so if you if any of it sounds familiar it is if you’ve read any
07:47
of those books, but I just felt there was something in them that God had for us as a church today.
07:52
And so we want to step into this time of fasting. Why are we fasting though? Why do we fast? Maybe
08:01
you’ve been around church for some time, maybe you haven’t. And in certain environments, I think
08:06
fasting can be misunderstood. That we fast maybe if we feel like we’ve made a mistake in life,
08:14
Or we need some kind of punishment for being a bad Christian.
08:20
You silly people and I come back before God and I’m sorry.
08:24
Or maybe as I say that you’re wanting to trim down a little bit and you call it spiritual.
08:29
Like we misunderstand maybe why fasting.
08:32
And let’s just be clear about the whole idea of punishment.
08:38
All of your sins were already paid on the cross.
08:41
You don’t need to step into fasting to attract any more favor from God.
08:47
The blood of Jesus gives you favor as a believer.
08:50
That you have the fullness of everything you need from Jesus already today.
08:56
But there’s something about fasting that’s powerful and important that I want us to understand.
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And in order to grasp this, I want to explain a concept that you and I are what I want to call triune beings.
09:12
Let me explain that to you.
09:14
God’s creation, in all of creation, there’s different kind of beings or creation.
09:19
For example, a tree is just a singular being.
09:23
It’s the body.
09:24
Let’s just throw up that first one.
09:26
We’ve got the body or the flesh.
09:28
The tree is just a body.
09:31
and it has no emotions, it has no feelings, it has no connection to God.
09:37
And then we’ve got things that maybe have emotions, like animals will have emotions.
09:44
I found this to be the case. I have a dog. It’s a very emotional creature.
09:50
He gets very excited if he sees somebody that he knows.
09:53
He gets very scared if he steals my children’s food because I look at him a certain way
09:58
and so you better not do that again he runs away and so the animals they have different uh things
10:04
and so we’ll see like our soul we’ve got the body of the soul the mind will and emotions you see
10:09
animals will have these emotions but there’s something unique about humans because we have
10:15
this third part of us we’ve got body soul but we also have this part of us that is the spirit
10:21
the spirit within us and the spirit within us is the part that is like god
10:27
where genesis 1 says that we are made in the image of god that is not to say that god looks like a
10:36
six foot british guy who stood on the like he’s not god doesn’t look like it’s the it’s this part
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of me that when i surrender my life to jesus i surrender my whole life but my spirit catches up
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first. My spirit understands the revelation of Jesus because my spirit connects to his spirit,
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the Holy Spirit, and that’s the part that is like God, that when it’s made whole, it comes
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alive in Jesus. So here’s the thing I want us to see. Any WWE fans in the room? Come on somebody.
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Mark, thank you. Anyone from back in the day, WWF, way back when? Yes, come on. Kyle, I saw that hand
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at the back. Thank you. I’ve got three people in the room. No one else had fun in their childhood.
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That’s fine. That’s all I did when I went around friend’s house. Shall we wrestle? Great.
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And so, but there’s this one part of WWF that’s called the Royal Rumble. Some people heard of this?
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Okay. Royal Rumble is like the last person in, they all wrestle, I don’t know, the last person in the
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ring wins is the idea. Okay. And every day, if we just bring the slide back up every day,
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it’s like the Royal Rumble between your body, your soul, your spirit. Someone’s trying to win every
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day. Someone’s trying to win every day. And let me say it this way. The strongest of the three will
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win. And how do we know which is the strongest? Which one is the strongest? It’s the one you feed
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the most. And so if I feed the body or my flesh with the flesh’s desires, my body’s desires,
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then when I feed the body, actually, what do we know when I feed the body? The body doesn’t
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actually care about my emotions. The flesh doesn’t care about how I feel. If I lust after things in
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my flesh and then I feel bad about it in my emotions, my body doesn’t care. My flesh doesn’t
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care. It just does what it wants to do. And so it takes over. Similar with the mind, will, and
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emotions part of me, if that’s the dominant part of my life, and I’m feeling anxiety and worry,
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and I’m stuck in bed, it doesn’t matter about my body. It doesn’t matter if I stay in bed for many
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days. The soul part of me, the mind, will, and emotions, it doesn’t care about my body. And it
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also definitely doesn’t care about the spirit part of me. So the two first ones will try and
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dominate your life. And if you feed them, they will dominate your life. And this is where fasting
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then comes in. Let me say it this way. The ones you feed will be the strongest, but the ones you
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starve will be the weakest. If I feed the Spirit and I take time of fasting to put away the things
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of the body, the flesh, and the mind, will, and emotions, I make them subservient to the Spirit,
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then I’m going to supercharge the work that God is doing in renewing my life. Is that making sense
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to everyone? See, God is always doing a renewal, regeneration work in my life through the Spirit.
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but fasting supercharges that work that that it says flesh mind will and emotions you are
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subservient to the the spirit within me that connects to the spirit of God and it’s becoming
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more like Jesus I’m putting you under submission and so that’s why we encourage you to fast in our
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church we we actually take a day a month where we fast and pray and fast together as a church
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where we have these first Monday prayer gatherings we pray and fast together as a church we’ve been
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doing it as a church around the world for about 10 years now.
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But I actually, I’ve seen God do a powerful work
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when people just say,
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if there’s a big decision they’ve got to make
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or if they need to see breakthrough,
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they say, I’m going to take some time to pray and fast.
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What’s going on there?
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God does a supernatural work,
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but we also become more heightened
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in our awareness of the things of God
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and we tune out of the things of the world.
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And suddenly there’s a shift.
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something happens to shift the dial shift the dynamic and I’ve seen I don’t know whether I
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had a revelation of this or God just did a work in me around it but I’ve spent a number of times
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where I’ve had extended fasts in my life where God has brought revelation freedom clarity
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to my life helped me to make decisions in a powerful way and so that’s why we’re wanting
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to step into this time of fasting. I’ll finish this part by saying it this way. The fasting is denying
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the fleshly appetites of the body and reordering the desires of the mind, will, and emotions
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so our spirit becomes more responsive to God. Can I say it again? Fasting is denying the fleshly
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appetites of the body and reordering the desires of the mind, will, and emotions so our spirit
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becomes more responsive to God.
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I want you to be more responsive to God in 2026.
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And one of the things that even this evening,
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we’re gonna be talking about how to hear from God.
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Let me just maybe give you a little spoiler for this evening.
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One of the things that I think about is like,
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you know the radios, the old school radios
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where you have to adjust the dial
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to get on the right frequency?
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I think sometimes we’ve got the,
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God’s speaking all the time,
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but we’re on the wrong frequency.
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We’re on the flesh frequency.
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Some of us, I’ve seen people make big, big decisions
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in their life, and they say it was because God led them to it,
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but it was actually their mind, will, and emotions
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leading them to it.
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And so they’re on the wrong frequency
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in claiming that they’re hearing the voice of God,
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but actually they’re just feeling a bit offended.
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Actually, they’re just feeling a bit sad.
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Maybe they’re feeling a bit tired in their body.
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But what fasting’s gonna do for us,
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It’s going to help us to be more responsive to God.
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That’s what I want for us this year, church.
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That we be more responsive to the Spirit of God.
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So what kind of fasts are we encouraging over the next 10 days?
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Well, there’s three different fasts, different types of fasts I want to encourage us to step into as a church.
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And I want to encourage you to choose one.
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It could be two, but at least one of these if you want to join in with this.
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And let me just say this.
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Please don’t join in into the kind of food part of the fast if you have a medical reason that this would be a bad idea.
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Get kind of check in.
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If you think you’ve got to check on that, talk to a pastor, talk to a doctor, talk to someone.
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I did this one time where, not for a medical reason, just I was young and foolish,
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that I was like, you know the perfect time for me to fast is before my final exams for my high school.
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I said, I’m going to do a 40-day fast.
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And I’m 19 days in, and my mom had to go and speak to my pastor because she knew I wasn’t listening to her.
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And my pastor sat me down and said, you can fast another time, Josh.
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Right now, you’ve got to do your exams.
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I said, yes, pastor.
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Sorry, mom, I wasn’t listening.
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So there are times at which it may be unwise to step into this.
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But let’s just talk through a couple of them.
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The first I want to mention is a complete fast.
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A complete fast being that we are going to not eat food for the next 10 days.
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You can drink water, maybe some juices.
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Can I say, if you’re going to do this, maybe don’t like have smoothies where you’re just like, you know, I’m putting three bananas into the blender.
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And I’m, oh yeah, I’m fast.
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It’s like, this is meant to be hard.
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The enemy is going to come and try and take you out.
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But listen, everyone, you’re going to be fine.
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10 days, you can do it.
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Like if that’s what you choose to do, I know some of us, that seems crazy.
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It’s very possible.
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You’re going to get past the first three days and then you’re going to have this high.
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Because you’re like, man, I feel great.
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Ten days, very possible, okay?
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So that could be a fast that some of us choose to step into, a complete fast.
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The next one I want to encourage maybe some other people to step into is what we’re going to call a selective fast.
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This is the fast where you select your least favorite foods and don’t eat.
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No, I’m joking.
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This is, maybe it’s going to be a particular type of food or a certain meal.
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Maybe you’re going to say, I’m only going to eat the evening meal.
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I’m only going to have breakfast or whatever it is.
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And you’re going to fast for the rest of the day.
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And you’re going to join in for those 10 days.
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The final one, maybe for some of us,
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and I think this could be even more impactful than the food ones for some of us,
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is we’re going to do what we’re going to call a soul fast.
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And this is not about suppressing the flesh and the body through food.
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This is about your soul is so cluttered up by things you see on social media.
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But hey, come on, someone already.
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By things you’re seeing in media, that you’re reading things,
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that you’re watching the news so much that you’re feeling sad all the time,
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That maybe you need to just declutter your soul.
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We did this as a church in the UK a number of years ago.
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One of the things that surprised me was how often many of us,
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when we need to step into a moment where we need to process something with God,
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when we’re maybe either bored or we’re feeling a bit sad,
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that we end up scrolling.
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And so we never actually process things in God’s presence.
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And what I saw was as people decluttered and they came off like media and did a soul fast in that space.
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I saw people where things started to come up in people that they dealt with in God’s presence that they hadn’t been dealing with because it had been suppressed by the scrolling.
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And actually, I think for some of us, God wants to do a work in us that we’re only going to be able to see what that work is when we set some things aside in that space for the next 10 days.
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Does that make sense?
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so I want to encourage us to
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consider these
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different kinds of fast
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and let me head
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towards the final question
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that we can ask from the scriptures
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what kinds of fast
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what am I fasting for
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what am I fasting for
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because as I said I think we’re going to
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big picture I want to lead us
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into a time as a church of praying and fasting
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for breakthrough
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I know
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in some of your lives
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I know your stories
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you need to see breakthrough
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I know whether it’s in relationships
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whether it’s in finances
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whether it’s in the space of freedom
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there are things that you
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that some of us we come every week to church
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and we’re frustrated that we’re not seeing change
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we’re frustrated that we’re not seeing things different
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and here’s just a thought experiment for you for a moment
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what if this is the final year
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that those things hold on to you.
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What if God really does a work in these coming days
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to bring freedom and change in your life?
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That’s my prayer for us as a church.
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Is anyone with me this morning?
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Because I think there’s some people who need breakthrough,
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but you’re sat quietly in your seats.
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And I just want to encourage you to be a bit more vocal
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about the kind of breakthrough you’re wanting to see today.
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Are you with me?
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All right.
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Sometimes, I just got to give you one.
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in a message every now and then.
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Okay, let’s jump in.
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What should we fast for?
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The first one I wanna call the disciples fast.
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And this is the fast that I was explaining
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earlier on in Matthew 17.
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The boy comes up to,
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he’s a demon-possessed boy,
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comes up and they don’t know what to do.
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And then Jesus says that we need to pray and fast.
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And so this is a fast for anyone who says,
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I need freedom from sin and bondage.
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I need freedom from sin and bondage.
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If you were with us a couple of weeks ago on Future Sunday,
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we shared about this year.
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And here’s what we said that the vision for this year is,
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that we would lead people to discover Jesus
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and experience the fullness of life in him.
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To discover Jesus and experience the fullness of life in him.
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It fires me up so much.
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When I get to see people who believe in Jesus,
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who are not yet living in the freedom that Jesus has for them,
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stepping into the fullness of life in him.
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I believe for some of us as we step in,
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and here’s what I want you to do,
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if you’re going to join us in praying and fasting for the next 10 days,
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is either tonight or this afternoon or tomorrow morning,
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is to write down specifically what am I believing for?
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What circles am I drawing in these next 10 days
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and maybe do it through the lens of some of the fasts I’m going to explain,
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because I’m going to explain five to you just now.
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But this one here, for some of us, we’ve been following Jesus for a long time.
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We’ve made him Lord of our life.
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He rules and reigns over almost every area,
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and yet there’s one or two things that often I’ll come into church,
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and you maybe even do this.
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I’ve had conversations with people where they’ll say,
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you know what, Pastor, I’m changing this part of my life.
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I’m not going back.
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I’m done with this holding me.
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And one or two weeks later,
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because their mind is controlled by the flesh instead of the spirit,
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they go straight back.
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And so here’s what a fast will do.
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It’s going to say, for some of us, we say,
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I want to do this fast for the purpose of stepping into freedom from sin or bondage.
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I’m done with being contained by the things of the world.
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I don’t want the flesh to run my life.
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I want freedom.
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I want freedom from some areas of my life.
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Maybe it’s things that others know.
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Maybe it’s some secret things you haven’t told anyone.
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And you’re gonna say,
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this is the time where I am gonna contend for freedom.
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I think there’s some people in the room today
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who need to step into the freedom of Christ
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and experience the fullness of life in Jesus.
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And my prayer for you today,
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if that’s for you,
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That you would enter a time of 10 days of prayer and fasting and go, this is it.
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I trust in God.
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I believe he can bring freedom.
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Maybe you need to bring some other people into your story.
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Maybe you need some people who are going to hold you accountable, go on a journey with me.
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You’re going to say, I’m getting free.
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I’m getting free.
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Not because of anything I can do, but because of the one who conquered the grave.
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That he has given me authority and power to walk into freedom in Christ.
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the second one I want to show you is what we’re going to call the Ezra fast
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and the Ezra fast is a fast for the restoration of what has been stolen
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or maybe even what the enemy is trying to steal
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and as we heard earlier our senior pastor
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Pastor Gary Snowzell started Freedom Church many years ago
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he shared a message with us last week he said this is the year of restoration
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and for some of us this is going to be a time where we’re going to say I’m believing
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that God is going to restore some things to me that have been stolen I want us to turn to Ezra chapter
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eight Ezra and Nehemiah there used to be these two books together and this is about the the people of
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God heading back to Jerusalem they’ve been out of exile in exile in Babylon they’re going back
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and taking possession back of the thing that was stolen.
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It says,
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There by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast
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so that we might humble ourselves before God
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and ask Him for a safe journey for us
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and our children with all our possessions.
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You know you can even fast and pray for a good journey.
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Sometimes God’s going to lead us in that way.
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Let me even say,
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I think some of us sometimes,
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We just, we don’t fully bring God into some of those parts of our life.
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If you’re traveling back for the holidays,
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maybe take a couple of days to fast and pray and trust God for a good journey.
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Put him in charge of the journey.
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I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road
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because we had told the king,
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the gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him.
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This great anger is against all who forsake him.
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So we fasted and petitioned our God about this.
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And he answered our prayer.
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So as they were heading back and they were praying against the enemy taking anything from the safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions.
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Some of us, the enemy’s stolen some things and we want them back.
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That this is a year of restoration.
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And some of them we can sense, as 1 Peter says, that the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion.
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And we sense the prowl and we say, ah, ah, ah, year of restoration.
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You cannot have my children.
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You cannot have my marriage.
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You cannot have my finances.
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You cannot have my peace.
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Is anyone with me this morning?
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You cannot have my joy.
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That God is in the business of restoring some things this year.
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And he’s going to lead us into restoration.
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How?
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Because we are going to come and put ourselves before God.
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And trust him in this season of prayer and fasting.
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That we’re going to come back and believe for a fast of restoration.
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Third one I want to show you is what we’re going to call the Paul fast.
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Paul’s fast is the wisdom for my future.
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I’ve often spent times of prayer and fasting on this one.
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Let me show you this scripture and then tell you a couple of stories.
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Acts chapter 9 verse 9.
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Paul is just had this road to Damascus experience.
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And then it says for three days he was blind and he did not eat or drink anything.
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He’s taking a time of fasting as a massive moment has happened in his life.
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And it continues in Acts 9, 17 and 18.
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It says, then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul.
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He said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here,
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sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Immediately, something like scales, this is not scales,
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something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again.
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Sometimes fasting is going to open up your eyes to see some things you’ve not seen before.
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Sometimes you’ve got to come before God and trust him to say,
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Lord, you’re going to lead us in a different kind of way than what we’re seeing up to now.
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And God is going to lead some of us.
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I’ve had these significant moments of my life.
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Meg and I, we’ve often prayed and fasted over.
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One I was thinking about was when we had the opportunity to move to Cape Town from the U.S.
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We actually had a prophetic word from someone close to us in our life.
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I think it was 2017.
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It might have been early 2018.
30:38
We just, a couple of years before, planted another church in the UK.
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And someone gave us a prophetic word and said,
30:45
I believe God is calling you to go and lead the church in South Africa that’s about to be planted.
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And we prayed and fasted about it.
30:54
And at the time, we just felt this isn’t right in this season.
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We’re not going to do it now.
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We continue to build where we were.
31:02
But we did have a sense maybe there was something in the future.
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And a couple of years later then, we sat down with our senior pastors.
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And another opportunity comes our way.
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And they say, hey, we feel like maybe now’s the time.
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And so we prayed and we fasted.
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And God gave me a picture.
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He showed me this picture.
31:18
I saw coming out of this beautiful kind of cave type thing.
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And I saw these women.
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And they were clearly black African women singing.
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And just behind them, I didn’t visibly see it.
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But what I knew in my spirit was it was Jesus coming behind them.
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And what I felt the Holy Spirit say to me is, the African church is going to lead to the return of the king.
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And so I said, hey, I’m in.
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Let me go.
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I want to be a part of that.
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I want to see what God’s going to do.
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And now we’re here and we get to be a part of our leading our churches in East Africa as well,
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where we’ve got four churches there and we spend time helping to lead them.
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And it was a way of God showing me, here’s the purpose to which I’ve called you.
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And that all happened in the time of prayer and fasting.
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There’s many other examples and stories of people in times of prayer and fasting for wisdom
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that God’s opened their eyes and shown them something different.
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And maybe you’re here thinking about some big decisions in your life.
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Present them to God in prayer and fasting.
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Can I show you two more?
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The fourth one I want to show you type of fasting is what we’re going to call the Daniel fast.
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And this is the fast where we have victory over the enemy.
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Anyone want to see some victory in their lives?
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Victory over the enemy.
32:40
Daniel chapter 10, verse 1 to 3 says this.
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In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel.
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Its message was true and it concerned a great war.
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This wasn’t a war that was happening physically.
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This was a war that was happening in spiritual places.
32:57
Maybe you’re sat in the room and you say,
32:58
I’m not sure I believe that there’s an enemy, a devil.
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And you say, that’s fine.
33:03
You don’t have to believe it.
33:03
It doesn’t mean that’s not real.
33:05
It doesn’t mean he’s gonna stop attacking you.
33:08
There’s a war going on everybody
33:10
and we need to wake up to the fact
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that we have authority and power in that battle
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and we have victory in that fight.
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That we are going to overcome some things
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because God has given us authority
33:25
and so it continues on about the type of fast
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he stepped into.
33:30
But again, some of us, we need to step in and say,
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I’m gonna have a time of fasting
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that it’s gonna be about victory.
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Victory in the space of my family,
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victory in the space of career,
33:41
victory in the space of my future,
33:43
whatever it is,
33:44
that God is leading us and you
33:47
into a place of victory.
33:49
And I believe that this is gonna be a significant time
33:51
when you’re gonna have breakthroughs.
33:53
Breakthrough, breakthrough.
33:54
Anyone believing with me for breakthrough today?
33:57
The final one I wanna show you is this.
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It’s what we’re gonna call the Samuel fast.
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The Samuel fast.
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And this is where we’re praying for revival in our nation.
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And Samuel, in the book of Samuel, chapter 1 Samuel 7, verse 3 and 6.
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So I’ve got two verses in here, jumping from one to the other.
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It says,
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So Samuel said to all the Israelites,
34:23
If you’re returning to the Lord with all your hearts,
34:25
then rid yourselves of all the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths
34:29
and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only.
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And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
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So he’s saying, hey, repent, change, turn to God, leave the old ways, leave the old things.
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Don’t follow the things of this world.
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And then he says, when they had assembled in verse 6, when they had assembled at Mitzvah,
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they drew water and poured it out before the Lord.
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On that day, they fasted and there they confessed, we have sinned against the Lord.
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now Samuel was serving as a leader of Israel at Mitzpah
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they said we recognize that we have not been following the Lord
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we’ve been following our own ways
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and church I often if I’m reading the news
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or if I’m talking to people
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there can be a sadness at times
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about things I hear
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even let alone for our nation
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let’s just talk about our city
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our city needs Jesus
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I see some of the things going on
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and I just think
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man I think there’s only one solution here
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because the problem that’s going on
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and there are many reasons
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but the ultimate reason
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it’s the problem of the human heart
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it’s the problem of the human heart
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where greed, where power
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where different things
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where anger
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where violence, where all these different things can culminate.
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But what’s the issue here?
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It’s a gospel issue.
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It’s a repentance issue.
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It’s a we followed the things of this world
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and now we need to turn to Jesus issue.
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And I think if we can have a church that stands up and says,
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we’re going to pray for our city.
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We’re going to pray for our nation.
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We’re going to pray for our communities.
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We’re going to pray.
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that when we humble ourselves,
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we pray that God shows up,
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that God shows up.
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And so we’ve got these five different types of fasts.
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We’re going to, on our WhatsApp group,
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share devotionals based around these five different fasts
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and things we’re contending for.
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But really, if you could focus in on one
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over these next 10 days,
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I would encourage you to focus in on the Ezra fast,
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It’s the year of restoration.
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What is it that needs to be restored?
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Is it your marriage?
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I think there’s marriages in the room today
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who they feel like they’re on the rocks.
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Maybe there’s even some of us in the room today,
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you say, I’ve been distant from church
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and I need to have a restoration of vision
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for the bride of Christ.
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That I need God to give me fresh sight,
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fresh eyes heal my heart from some things that have happened i don’t know what it is but i think
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that god wants to restore some things and so if you could focus in on anything i would encourage you
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go in on that ezra fast but maybe for you it’s something else that’s stirring in you go for it
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because as we step into these next 10 days i really think and maybe this is like your first
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time in church and you’re like cool i came to church and he told me not to eat and i normally
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don’t say that at church by the way but I think even for you I think God has something here for
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you I think God wants to do something in your life why would I hide this secret weapon from you
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if I believe it to be true lean in because what are we saying here more than anything else
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is these next 10 days we want to prioritize the person and presence of Jesus in our lives
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we want Him more than anything else
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we want Him, His presence, His Word
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His authority, His power
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to be in our lives, over our lives
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and rule and reign in our lives
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and I believe as we position ourselves in that way
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I just cannot wait
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for the testimonies and stories of what’s going to come
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and so I want to pray for us
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I’m going to pray
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as we step in to this time
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that God would give some people in the room boldness
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to step into what he’s calling you to do.
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