Fasting Day 4

God’s supply of all that we need!

Psalm 34:10

“The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

God has a way of supplying for our every need. I would like to challenge you to Read Matthew 15:29 – the end of chapter 20. I know this is a lot of reading but there are so many different needs listed in these chapters and Jesus meets them all in unique ways.

The key to God meeting all of our needs is our keeping our eyes on Him. This time of fasting should be a time of abstaining from the things that would rob us of time to be with Him. Make sure, as I mentioned yesterday that you are maintaining the basics, reading the Word, praying, and staying in fellowship.

Expect God to show up in some unique way today showing you his supply for you. It could be financial, spiritual, emotional, and/or physical. Please look for it. Often we miss or ignore God’s involvement in our lives because we are caught up in so many things.

Please pray today for:

- Our House of Representatives (remember as we pray for those in authority over us, God provides for our peace)
- Choose another family in our church to pray for (we have approximately 250 families, praying for 21 should not be a problem)
- Pray for someone in a service industry that serves you (postal worker, restaurant wait staff, mechanic, plumber, etc.)
- Pray for those in our church that have lost jobs or are economically threatened that God will open jobs and other opportunities for finances and pray for those that are in management and entrepreneurs that God would bless them.
- Pray for our church bookkeeper, she handles all of our financial matters - Sherri Cappalonga
- Pray for that portion of the fruit of the Spirit that is “patience”
- Choose a country with a “D” name to pray for today (find out information by going to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Fasting Day 3

Breakthrough in your growth and maturity.

Joshua 1:8,9

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Every day we face some kind of trial and/or temptation. The challenge is how do we overcome and walk away strong after each trial and temptation.

Joshua was about to face numerous enemies alone. He was left leaderless, Moses had died. He was now responsible for over one million people. You talk about pressure and stress. He understood the command above and how it would affect his life if he did not follow it.

The busy-ness and dailiness of our lives often cause us to forget or neglect the basics. The military, athletes, martial arts aficionados, and many others, have one thing in common; to be on the top of their game and to be ready for anything they will rehearse the basics over and over again until they are so natural to them. When a life challenge happens, they don’t need to think, they simply react because they have trained, their reaction is what they were trained to do. Their reaction will cause the necessary outcome; to save a life, score the goal, or overcome the opposition without much struggle. Staying in the Word, prayer, and fellowship enables Christians to do the same. We mature and grow by keeping the basics in our lives as a foundation to build upon.

Pray today for:

- Our Justices on the Supreme Court and judges everywhere
- Choose another family in our church to lift up in prayer.
- Pray for another neighbor or some else you see on a regular basis, bus driver, barista, a clerk at your local convenience store.
-Pray for those in our congregation that are battling addictions of all kinds from bad attitudes to smoking, overeating, laziness, work, foul language, pornography and much more
- Pray for the Elders and their wives – Wally and Bev Cieply, Mark and Donna Britt, Tom and Jean Hollis, Dana and Annette Clay, Pete and Cookie Newstrom, Dan and Bonnie Scott, Brett and Kim Lincoln, Ron and Tammy Gribbin, Reed and Julie Anders
- Pray for that part of the Fruit of the Spirit “peace”
- Choose a country with a “C” name to pray for today(find out information by going to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Fasting Day 2

Fasting makes the impossible possible – Jehoshaphat had an impossible enemy to battle, he became fearful but was able to defeat the enemy because he sought the Lord first Read the story today in 2 Chronicles 20.


The Pilgrims were a group of people who decided to work to return the church to the call of God it had left. They traveled to America to establish freedom of religion, in the process faced many hardships in their first few years in Massachusetts. During one of their most difficult seasons, the summer of 1623, 31-year-old governor, William Bradford called for a fast. For three months there had been no rain. Their corn crop was virtually nonexistent. They began fasting that morning to skies that were clear and bright. By evening much to their surprise and that of the Native Americans the sky clouded up and a gentle rain fell, nonstop, for two days. If it had come as a hard shower what was left of their crop would have washed away. Instead, it was a gentle rain that refreshed the Pilgrims, the Indians, and their crops. The rest of the season brought seasonal rains and warm weather giving them an abundance for their harvest.

Our second day would be a good day to begin praying for the impossible to be made possible. Some have attitudes or habits that need broken. Some have loved ones who need the Lord, others healing or financial breakthrough. Whatever the need begin to believe for the impossible to be made possible.

Pray today for:

The Senate of the United States
Choose another family from our church to lift up in prayer
Pray for another neighbor
Pray for those in our church who need a healing miracle
Pray for our Children’s church teachers and aides
Pray for that portion of the fruit of the Spirit that is “Joy”
Choose a country with a “B” name to pray for today (find out information by going to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Fasting Day 1

We are beginning a fast. The idea is not as much about abstaining from food as it is about making sure that you are spending time alone with the Lord. The abstinence of certain types of food is there to remind us of our focus on God and a gentle cleansing of impurities from our system. We will be eating subsistence food, giving us enough to sustain our strength and endurance, but not so much as to weigh us down.

Today is not a day to think about what you can’t eat but to begin thinking about the exciting journey you have just begun.

- Expect God to meet you in this next 21 days.
- Expect to hear him more clearly.
- Expect miracles to happen.
- Expect more of you to get out of the way and more of Him to take over.
- Expect more of the love of God to show up in your life.
- Expect the people around you, your city or township, our state, nation, and the world, to be impacted in some way as together we seek the Lord.

Prayer Focus – The power of God moving in our lives

2 Peter 1:2,3

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue…


God has given us divine power for all things pertaining to the dailiness of our lives and to enable us to become more like Him. We need to start believing in who we are called to be

Fasting enables us to accomplish much of this more quickly than maintaining our daily routine. Just through the disciple of fasting, we force our flesh to come under the control of God’s Spirit.

Fasting humbles us – Psalm 35:13, Psalm 69:10

Fasting can also be a sign of repentance from our sin. – 1 Samuel 7: 2 – 6, 1 Kings 21: 27 – 29

Fasting enables us to receive spiritual direction – Judges 20: 26 – 28; Acts 13:2,3; Acts 14:23; Daniel 9:3, 10:2,3; Acts 10: 30 – 33

Deliverance from Demons – Mark 9 :17 – 29

Fasting for blessing – Joel 2:15, 18,19, 24, 25, 26; 2 Chronicles 20: 3, 20,25;

Fasting can bring salvation to your household – Isaiah 58:12

Fasting causes us to be more like Jesus – Matthew 4:2; Matthew 6:16 – 18

These verses are by no means an exhaustive study of fasting, just a few highlights to help you expect great things during this 21 days of seeking the Lord

Prayer Focus today

- Our President – Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence
- Choose one family from the church (preferably someone you are not well acquainted)
- Pray for one family in your neighborhood
- Pray for Marriages
- Pray for our Worship Team
- Pray for a country other than the United States (find out information by going to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html that begins with the letter “A.”
- Pray for the portion of the fruit of the spirit “love.”

The Daniel Fast

I want to clarify some things regarding our “Daniel Fast”. The purpose of a fast is not about some kind of suffering that makes us more like Jesus instead it is about placing your heart and your attitude in a position to have a more intense communion with the Lord. So much of the carry over from religion is about work and the idea of a fast can quickly become legalistic. If only eating fruits and vegetables drew you closer to the Lord, ever vegetarian and all Hindus would be the closest of all.

I know there are many books that describe what a “Daniel Fast” really is but let’s reiterate what the Bible says a “Daniel Fast” is.

When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks. 3All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed. Daniel 10: 2,3 NLT

Daniel was serving in an ungodly court being fed the rich foods of heathens. The purpose of his fast was walking away from the daily routine in an ungodly environment to come away to be alone with the Lord. Meat and desserts where the foods of the wealthy and the heathen; the common people survived on fruits, vegetables, and bread. Daniel’s fast was making a statement that he was coming away from the common things of his life to spend time with the Lord. Your fast should cause you to remember you want to spend time with the Lord. It hopefully will make food preparation quicker and easier, so you spend less time on preparation and clean up and are able to spend more time with the Lord.

My challenge to you for this fast is not to get caught up in a religious routine but instead to come away from what is common and to enjoy the intimacy with Jesus. The physical act of not eating meats and sweets is simply there to remind us that we are choosing to spend time with the Lord. Pasta is not mentioned here because there was most likely no pasta in Persia until around 700 years after Daniel. However bread was a staple.

It has been my habit every year since 1990 to go on a forty day fast. The purpose is not to starve myself but to give myself more time to focus on and be with the Lord. Every time my stomach growls or I get hungry it is simply a reminder to spend time with the Lord.

Our attitudes have more to do with correct fasting than does the food we decline. James writes these words in chapter 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

A true Daniel Fast, according to the scripture is simple no meats or sweets, whatever your heart tells you what they means to you. The key thing is the right attitude and making more time to spend with the Lord. Don’t place your conviction on someone else it is not that hard. Do what you need to do to make your focus being with the Lord.

Your heritage in not you!

This past Sunday I mentioned how Martha, Lazarus, and Mary may have been related to Judas the betrayer of Jesus. Have you ever read the genealogy of Jesus?

Jesus was of course one half pure DNA from God the father but half of His DNA came from Mary. In the genealogy of Mary are a couple of character flaws that we would consider imperfect.

Rahab was the harlot of Jericho that protected the spies who came to the city to check out its defenses. As a reward for her great faith, she and her whole household were saved. Later she married Salmon and became the great-great grandmother of King David and also then, in the linage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Can you imagine a prostitute in the linage of Jesus?

If we step back a couple of verses we see that an illegitimate child is in Jesus linage. Matthew chapter 1:3 tells us that Judah had a son Perez through Tamar. Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. In Jewish custom if a husband died it was then his unmarried brothers responsibility to marry his brother’s widow and have children through her that would be counted to the dead brother, to preserve the brother’s linage. Judah had refused to do this so Tamar tricked him. She acted like a prostitute and Judah went into to her, she became pregnant and gave birth to two boys Perez and Zerah. Perez, the illegitimate son of Judah is in the linage of Jesus. (Read Genesis chapter 38 for the whole story.)

Why is this so important? Two reasons. First, even reading the genealogies is important. Don’t skip over them there are very important items to learn about life and God even in them. Second, all of us have skeletons in our closet; things we wish were not there. These are things in which we have either simply failed God or we failed others and thus ultimately failed God.

These skeletons are not to limit us. In fact, if we choose to let them go and give them to the Lord, He will use them for his glory and honor. Your past has helped create who you are, but it does not need to be a detriment to who you will become. Salmon and Rahab were well aware of her past. Perez was well aware of his birth. Rather than allowing these things to control them, they were able to give them to the Lord and allow the Lord to use them.

How you came into this world does not matter. The failures in your life do not matter to God as long as you give them to Him. He will use everything, good, bad, and ugly, if we will allow Him. He can take the most horrific situations in our lives and use them for His honor and glory. He will also turn them from disaster to blessing if we will allow Him to.

What are you hiding from in your life? What hidden sin do you have that you believe will destroy you or limit you? Nothing is impossible with God. The only limitation God has is our unwillingness to place everything in His hands. Do yourself a favor and blessing today, Let go of your past, put it in His hands and see what he will do with it! Your heritage is not who you need to become. It is part of who you are but instead of a detriment God wants to use it for His glory.

Can God mess with your plans? A Christmas Story!

The answer to that question is of course, yes! Scripture tells us that God’s ways are higher than our ways. Our view of life and our future, is often limited by what we perceive as the best. Some times are best is a very limited view of who God wants us to become and who God really is.

To clarify my point let’s look at the life of Joseph. In Matthew chapter 1 verse 19 we get some very good information about Joseph.

“Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.”

From this one verse we can tell a lot about Joseph. He was just. This means he was a man who loved the law of God, in a good way. He loved and served God and wanted to be pleasing to Him. Longing to do what was right.

We also see that he did not want to embarrass Mary. He really loved her. He had the right to publically humiliate her and to have her stoned to death. Instead he chose to quietly and secretly have her sent somewhere to have the baby so no one would know. This meant he was willing to cover her expenses to travel and stay away until the baby was born.

Joseph was a carpenter, in a small town, most likely made up of people with whom he was related. He was not a wealthy man. He was a man who loved much. I am sure after many years of waiting, Mary was finally old enough for marriage. He had dreamed and planned for this day for a large portion of his life.

Can you imagine for a moment how he would have felt? His plan was a simple one. Get married, have children, build a nice carpentry business that his sons could take over. God interrupted those plans. God knew Joseph could handle the detour in his life. It seemed for the time that his life was falling apart, that his plans were coming to nothing.

Do you ever feel that way? You may be in that place right now. This is one of the reasons it is so important to know God’s word. One of His many promises to us is that if we trust and seek Him, He will fulfill the desires of our hearts, Psalm 37:4,5. They may not always be fulfilled in the way we expect but are always filled God’s way.

Joseph thought he was just going to be a normal guy. God saw a man he could trust with His Son. Joseph became the adoptive Father of Jesus, the son of the living God. Joseph did not have to worry about carrying for Mary. God took care of her. At the cross, Jesus placed Mary in John’s care.

Whenever God messes with our plans, it always turns out better than our plan. He created us each for a purpose. If we trust Him, follow Him and love Him he will fulfill a better plan that what we can imagine. Expect Him to do great things with and through you! Don’t allow messed up plans to be a sign that God is not with you, for you, or using you. They may be the very fulfillment of your hearts desire.