Training Hour: Fasting, Praying, Giving 2
Training Hour: Pray, Fast, Give • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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12 And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.
As Jesus preaches on the Sermon on the Mount, He gives a three-fold cord of living victoriously in this life.
Say, “God wants me to thrive, not survive.”
Jesus gives us the “life hack” of thriving. It is also the duty of every Christian to give, pray, and fast.
READ MATTHEW 6
Jesus says, “WHEN YOU PRAY…”
Why We Pray
Why We Pray
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Praying is a commandment - spiritual discipline; praying is spiritually relational, connecting our heart to the Father’s heart. Communicating with God!
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Praying is Intimacy with God
Praying is Intimacy with God
By God’s design, we are to live our lives intimate with our Triune God (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit). God breathed Life into Adam and Even, and we believe that God breathed Life into us physically (when we were born), and spiritually (when we were born again).
The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life, and creates within us a desire for more spiritual life. God’s desire is for us know Him personally, to know His heart - the secrets and desires of His heart; and He desires we share ours with Him as well.
Prayer is a verb - something exercised and strengthened over time and intentionality.
Prayer is wonderful gift given from God, and a privilege to leverage in pursuit of God. In all of the life we live on this world and for the eternity to come, the end goal is God Himself. God is the end, and prayer is the means by which we relate to God at the deepest levels of who we are.
Praying is Believing in God
Praying is Believing in God
Prayer is identity. What does this mean?
Creates a posture of reality between who I am, and who God is
It magnifies God - recognizing His deity, omniscience and omnipotence, and His Majesty
It puts me in a place of humility before God
It creates a bond of unity between me and the Divine
It commands my flesh to submit to my spirit, and seeking the Holy Spirit
It opens opportunity for sonship to the Father
Praying the Word of God connects us to the Son, establishing His grace and a victorious life
Praying is Giving Thanks to God
Praying is Giving Thanks to God
6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
Positioning ourselves in gratitude through prayer brings rest and peace.
Your mind is where most of your battles are lost and won. When we focus our minds on thanking God for His blessing, His provision, His preservation, His deliverance, etc., we are able to refute the lies of Satan.
Gratitude replaces anxiety - replacing a victim mindset with a victory mindset.
Do you have the victory?!
Praying is Praise God
Praying is Praise God
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
3 My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; at your name, I will lift up my hands. 5 You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.
Thanksgiving is often our expression to God for what he has already done for us and others. When we praise God, we are expressing adoration toward Him for who He is, and sometimes for what we believe He is going to do in the future. We can praise Him for who He Is when we read the Word of God and spend time with Him in prayer.
2 Cor 5:7 We walk by faith, not by sight.
Either we will condition our hearts and minds according to what we think, see, and feel at the human level, OR, we will allow the Holy Spirit to condition us. We are formed physically in His image - designed to take on His likeness; we are conformed to Christ’s image by the Holy Spirit - designed to take on His likeness in spirit and posture in both the physical and spiritual realms.
This becomes our testimony - and we know what Revelation says in overcoming our enemies in this world:
11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death.
Praying is Spiritual Warfare
Praying is Spiritual Warfare
Read Daniel 10.
WE ARE AT WAR.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ entails the responsibility of being a prayer warrior.
We have three enemies:
The World:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
5 Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
2. Our flesh: The second enemy is our sinful nature and must be fought; it is more persistent than any evil spirit.
17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
You and I are always subject to sin, but you and I do not have to sin if you and I are a believer and walk in the Spirit of God.
“We need Jesus to get to heaven, but we need the Holy Spirit to go to Walmart…” (Pordenone, Venice, work, etc.)
3. Satan, the Devil: our third enemy is Satan and his kingdom of darkness.
Jesus spoke plainly about him, His disciples taught the early church about him, Peter was straight forward in referring to “your adversary the devil” in 1 Peter 5:8.
There are 120 references to Satan in the New Testament, and 208 references to evil spirits - the demonic.
Satan is the origin of sin in the universe. But he is NOT all powerful!
Colossians 2:15 (CSB)
15 He [Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Jesus witnessed Satan’s fall from heaven and then defeated him on Earth. Furthermore, He has given us - His Spirit-filled disciples - authority over the enemy and his kingdom of darkness.
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing at all will harm you. 20 However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Satan is referred to in scripture as:
-Our adversary, the accuser of the brethren, destroyer, the “god of this world”, the “prince of the power of the air”, and a liar.
Ultimately, his purpose is one of opposition, accusation, seduction, deception, destruction, and rebellion.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
This describes a demonic hierarchy under the dominion of Satan who wage war against the Kingdom of God all over the earth and heavens. The principalities of Eph 6:12 refer to territorial spirits who exercise influence in a particular geographical area. The powers work in subjection to a principality, and have as their primary activity the task of blanketing a region with the energy of its particular evil (i.e. fear, depression, or violence). The rulers of darkness of this world refer to a particular ‘class’ of principality which exert an evil influence on national scale - much like to the ‘Prince of Persia’ referenced in Daniel 10.
The important point of all this is that the New Testament teaches us clearly that Jesus triumphed over ALL these things and we as Christians now walk in Christ’s authority - to include over the kingdom of darkness.
With this we must remember that “some things only come out by prayer and fasting” - Matthew 17:21.
Rules of Engagement for Prayer Warriors:
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Have spiritual humility
Submit to God
Only after 1 & 2 can you resist the devil
The devil must flee from you
Draw closer to God
Cleanse your hands (what you do/ behavior)
Purify your heart (what you think / feel)
Prayer is still MORE…
Prayer is still MORE…
Prayer is refusing to give up, it is learning to lean on God, and it is interceding with God.
How We Pray
How We Pray
Claim and Use the Name of Jesus
There is no greater or more spiritually powerful name in the universe than the Name of Jesus. Demons tremble in fear at the Name of Jesus. The demonic recognize the supreme authority in His Name that includes the power to destroy even them! John 14:14 and Mark 16:17 teach us what can and will be done in His Name!
Jesus gives us the model prayer with “the Lord’s Prayer”
Matthew 6:9-13.
Worship & Adoration given to God
Our Father, who are in Heaven, hallowed be your Name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Repentance & His Blessing
Give us our daily bread, and forgive our trespasses (debts / sins),
as we forgive those who trespass against us (indebtedness / wrong-doing)
Deliverance
And do not lead us into temptation
but deliver us from evil (our individual and common enemy)
Recognize and praise His Supremacy and Majesty
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
FOREVER. Amen (a declaration of agreement).
Philippians 4:6–7 “6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
All petitions before God given WITH or after thanksgiving!
Breakthrough to rest comes from and with thanksgiving - the heart posture of gratitude before God despite any circumstance or environment we find ourselves in.
The Result of Fasting & Praying
The Result of Fasting & Praying
Fasting with prayer demonstrates humility and sorrow over sin. (1 Samuel 7:1-6) Freedom from sin - through forgiveness of sin (what God does through what Jesus did on the Cross) and repentance (what we do in turning away from sin and changing our mind about sin), are prerequisites of effective spiritual warfare.
Fasting helps to loose those who are oppressed. Isaiah 58:6 talks about the fast that chooses to set the oppressed free and break the yokes of bondage.
Fasting helps us to get our flesh in a position of submission so that we can clearly receive divine direction from the Lord. Acts 13 describes how while worship and fasting, the Holy Spirit broke through and gave direction for Saul and Barnabas were to be set apart for missionary work.
Fasting and prayer are sometimes necessary to deliver some individuals from demonic control or oppression. “Sometimes these come out only by prayer and fasting.” After His baptism, Jesus prepared himself through fasting and prayer before launched full-throttle into ministry. Spirit-led fasting serves as a preparation for prayer-breakthrough. The humbling of the soul and controlling of the flesh through fasting is a component of warfare modeled before us by Jesus Himself.
Prayer Warriors must be persistent, leverage prayer and fasting regularly throughout the weeks/months/years. A prayer warrior fights the kingdom of Hell on his or her knees in prayer. This is exactly how Daniel won his battles even against powerful human and demonic opposition. A prayer warrior ‘prays’ the price of travelling in intercession in order to birth into existence God’s will. A prayer warrior stays close to the heartbeat of what God is doing and keeps on praying.
References:
Fasting, Jentezen Franklin
Prayer, Pamela R. and O. Wayne Brewer