When Prayer and Fasting Meet Face to Face

A few months ago Pastor Joel Johnson of Westwood Community Church, Chanhassen, MN did a series of messages on the book of Daniel. I am listening to one of those messages focused on the subject of prayer and fasting. Since I am blogging about the subject, I thought I would share the link here.

Joel makes a number of observations based on Daniel's season of prayer and fasting recorded in Chapter 9. The first is that breakthrough happens through intense prayer and fasting.

When we come to God on bended knees, there is communication that happens. Fasting communicates a longing, sincerity, and intensity toward God. It brings a different kind of urgency to our prayer that we do not always experience in times of prayer unaccompanied by fasting.

Fasting also helps us listen to God so we can hear the direction that He has for us. In our cluttered and food-sourced culture, there are so many distractions that take away our capacity to hear God's voice.

Getting away from those distractions, declaring our independence from the pervasive consumerism, and listening quietly through a season of fasting and prayer enables us to hear God and gain clarity. Click on this link to listen to Joel: http://www.westwoodcc.org/Pages/Resources/Message.aspx?ID=196

Comments

OPEN FOR SPIRITUAL BUSINESS- Could COVID-19 open a window for Spiritual Awakening?

None of us wished for it. But COVID-19 delivers to our doorstep what is, perhaps, the greatest evangelistic opportunity of our lifetime. It is an unusual opportunity in the Twin Cities, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and around the world. A scared world is open for spiritual business. The masks are off. People are open to hear that there is hope through Jesus Christ. For the church, the times we are in may have changed, due to COVID-19. But the mission we are on has not changed . The need to share the hope Jesus provides is now more urgent than ever. Our nation is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Severe cases and deaths are mounting from coast to coast. Doctors, general medical workers and other essential service providers continue to do all they can to stave off the pandemic. 3 million Americans have lost their jobs. Children across the nation and worldwide are out of schools. Our economy and other global economies remain on shaky ground. All profession...

No Room in the Inn...21st Century Version

It is the Christmas season 2009. Like Joseph and Mary 2000 years ago, a young couple are on the virge of the birth of their first baby boy. Although they are doing everything to prepare for the big day, it still catches them by surprise. Instead of the regular 40 weeks, the baby is arriving six weeks early. Because they are not expecting it this early, their bags are not packed nor is the nursery fully furnished. Safe for an early morning warning in a dream to the father to prepare to be in a delivery room and with assurance (from the Lord) that it would be o.k, the day started off as any other day. At 6:00 AM, the couple prays together for about 40 minutes in their home in Victoria. They take showers. At about 7:30 AM, the husband goes to work briefly from his home office while the wife prepares something for their breakfast together. Within a couple hours they will have a routine prenat...

The Mystery of the Number 9 in 2009

For most of us, nothing and no one describes the kick-off of this year 2009 more vividly than does Charles Dickens in his A Tale of two Cities. Dickens captured the contradictions of his time in these amazing words: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." My comparison of our time to that of Dickens does not lie in the historical events. It is rather a paradoxical comparison. It lies in the juxtaposition of b...

Engage the Nations

Search This Blog