Sept 14 – Living the Supernatural Life: Fasting and Power
Review of what God has shown us over the past few weeks. We are on a journey to discover and release the supernatural power of God that He has promised for our lives.
The Supernatural Life: Is the norm for Christians and is not meant to be the exception.
I heard a well known bible teacher that said he wondered what would happen if he omitted the supernatural power of God from the Book of Acts. By highlighting each occurrence, he found that there was not a single chapter in the Book of Acts that didn’t have a reference to the supernatural power of God being unleashed in the lives of ordinary Christians.
Last week we heard some ground shaking testimonies of God’s supernatural activity in people’s lives – and most, if not all of it was the direct result of prayer.
Examples:
In fact, over the past couple of weeks, we have talked about the correlation between prayer (personal and group prayer) and the supernatural power and activity of God in our lives and our world.
How frequently do you experience the supernatural power of God in your life? How often do you hear His voice? Let’s read in the book of Acts where this is the normal experience of the church and what they did to hear God.
Acts 13:1-3
In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
A group of committed Christians, including prophets, teachers, and Apostles, got together to worship and fast.
We find that fasting was a regular practice of the early church and prayer accompanied it. In this case, the group was “worshipping” or “ministering to the Lord” during their time of fasting.
Worship is the act of “ministering to the Lord”- in that
our praises offered are a sacrifice (Heb. 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”) ,
our prayers are incense (Rev. 5:8 “and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”) ,
our bodies are living sacrifices (Romans 12:1 “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”)
Do you see why worship is so vital to our experience and knowledge of God?
Do you understand why worship is more than being about singing 3 songs and having a sermon?
The act of worship is literally ministering to God (and not just to ourselves).
It is in this act of worship and ministering to God, while they were fasting and worshipping, that God spoke to them this group of believers.
Most of us look at fasting and prayer as a primarily private experience, don’t we?
We want a personal prayer need or to hear from God for some kind of direction, so we enter into a time of prayer or we have a great burden so we fast.
But this account at Antioch was a corporate act of fasting and worship.
Why were they fasting? The passage doesn’t tell us, but I believe that the reason they were fasting was to hear God. I make this conclusion because that was the net result of their time in fasting and prayer. They apparently received what they were praying and fasting for.
The passage says that “while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said…”
Folks, I believe that God is speaking…
He is speaking all of the time, but are we listening?
He is speaking to people, in Isaiah, His voice goes out Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
In Ezekiel, God looked for someone to intercede for the nation, but no one was to be found. No one was listening. No one was paying attention to the voice of God.
Prayer is the primary means of listening to God. Worship is a means of encountering and listening to God. But fasting…why fasting?
In a previous sermon in this series, I touched on the value of fasting to hearing God.
Fasting involves more than just not eating.
It involves the entirety of our being.
We deny our bodies food for a time to awaken our hunger inside of us, not just a physical hunger, but a spiritual one as well. Our hunger pangs remind us of our needs.
Fasting focuses our commitment to spend time with God, because we are paying a price to do so. Our hunger is a reminder of why we are doing this.
It sharpens our resolve and it focuses our heart and spirit upon God.
When we fast, we don’t just stop eating, we start listening. We turn off the normal distractions of life like television, video games, computers, email, instant messengers, text messages.
When we fast, we focus our entire attention inasmuch as is possible, upon God.
Focus is an important thing, especially when it comes to prayer and listening to God.
Michael Phelps was being interviewed and was asked what was the difference between him and other swimmers. He replied, “focus.”
Focus is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary. (expound?)
Focus is something that is a result of fasting and prayer.
You know how wonderful the electric light is, right? It floods a room with diffused light and allows you to see what you normally wouldn’t see. Did you know that same light, if focused, can cut through a 3 inch block of steel in a few seconds? That is the power of focus.
And that is one of the purposes of fasting…to focus our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our spirits upon our God!
Rev. David Yonggi Cho pastors the largest church in the world over 700,000 members!
He and his staff have such a belief in the power of prayer and fasting that they rarely, if ever, counsel people.
If someone comes to them with a great problem or urgent need, their standard answer is, “go to prayer mountain and fast and pray for three days”. If they return with the problem still unmet, they tell them to go and fast and pray for a week. (Then for ten days/then for forty days.)
They do not think it possible that a person would ever return to them again with the problem still!
Another result of fasting is the hunger it produces in us. Not just physical hunger, because you certainly will experience that, even if you are engaging in a modified fast. It is probably best illustrated by the way a baby roots.
For those who don’t understand, rooting is when baby opens his or her mouth indicating their desire for milk. In Psalm 81:10, the Lord says “open your mouth wide and I will fill it”.
Fasting is our expression of an open mouth that says to God… we want more of you!
It awakens that spirit within us with which we cry out, “Abba Father”. I want to be utterly devoted to you my Lord. No other gods, no other love.
Draw me close to you!
When was the last time you cried out to God with all of your might, “God I want You more! God I want to know You more! God I want to touch You!”
When you can do that…you are hungry for God! God desires that you be hungry for Him and Him alone. And when we fast, we allow Him to produce that hunger inside of us.
As you probably know by now, we have called our church to a day of fasting and prayer next weekend.
Beginning on Saturday at noon and concluding after church (with a pot luck meal), we have asked you to join us in a corporate day of fasting and prayer.
The purpose of our fast is to hear God more clearly, to discern His voice and His will for our church’s mission and activity in the year ahead.
We desire that our church focus like it never has before upon God and His purposes for our church.
We have had a number of words from God over the past several years that God intends to do something very remarkable in this church body. From powerful signs to miraculous growth. While we have listened to these words, we haven’t believed them sufficiently to call the church to fast and pray and ask God, “how do you want to do this?”
Our calling our church to this time of fasting and prayer is our act of belief that God will do as He says, and that he will chart a course of action for us so that we can be a catalyst for our community to know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection.
So…we are asking you to fast next Saturday…from food, from entertainment, and from distractions, and to spend as much time as possible listening to God.
If you can’t fast completely from food, then simplify your foods, cut out the big meals and eat crackers, toast, simple breads or fruit, cheese or juice.
A fast is meant to be an exercise in deprivation so that our mind, our body and our emotions can focus upon the connection between the Spirit of God and our spirit within.
I want to ask you to take this seriously. To enter into this 24 hour period with intentionality, dedication and the singular focus of hearing from God.
Instructions: (first of all, you can eat something at 11:45 am, because your fast begins at noon.)
You should expect to spend a considerable time in prayer while fasting.
Begin at noon, with repentance (Ps 69:10, Jer 14:12) and confession.
Ask God to show you your heart and to show you what you’ve filled it with over the last few years. As he reveals your junkyard, take each piece of junk and give it to God. Let go of it. Lay it at His feet. He will haul it away and clean up your heart.
Read a lot of scripture. I suggest the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, as well as the New Testament. Read a few chapters and if something jumps out at you, write it down. Then ask God to tell you what it means.
Journal – not a diary, but a journal of what your heart is hearing (not just your head).
Spend time in Worship/praise God. Listen to inspirational music off and on during the day. Sit alone outside and sing aloud to God.
Pray – not just prayers of intercession, but prayers of opening your heart. Pray that God will give you insights. Pray scripture…(Ephesians 1:17, etc). Take some time to pray with your spouse if possible. Pray with your children or teens who may be participating at some level in this experience.
Folks, I can think of no better teaching tool you can give your children than to lead by example in prayer and fasting.
When you end your fast, you should be in deeper fellowship with the Lord and be capable of spiritual insight.
This is the goal of fasting!
Deeper fellowship with the Lord and an attentive ear to hear what He is saying.
You might also want to pray about that burden your family is bearing…that lost loved one or that trouble you are having…lifting that to the Lord repeatedly during this fast…seeking His answer.
Illustration of the tangled yarn.
What will next Sunday look like? We will sing and worship God together and ask you to share scriptures or insights or words, or to read from your journal something that God has given you during your fast. Perhaps God will speak to your heart during the service itself. Maybe He will lay a prayer burden upon you to cry out to Him to release something in the Heavenlies.
It will be a service with planned worship songs, but with a great deal of flexibility for the Holy Spirit to move and work. I believe that you will be blessed by participating in this act of seeking God’s face together.
I would like us to finish up this service with a time of prayer and intercession for our members and for this upcoming week.
Cindy Fuger is going in for surgery…she needs our prayers. She also will need our help, because she is going to be off her feet for several weeks – and has two small children to care for.
We also need to pray corporately for what we desire God to do in our lives and in the life of our church body in the week ahead.
