Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: fasting

Do You Want The Blessings Of God?

Encouragement

One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
Acts 13:2-3

On this certain day, the Holy Spirit got a hold of these men. They were in a position to hear from the Lord. They were ready to receive a word from the Lord. The text says that they worshiped and fasted and then they fasted and prayed. Sounds like a lot of fasting was going on.

Presumably, they fasted because they were seeking God in a specific way. According to the text, it’s possible that they were seeking God for a direction to go and spread the Gospel. Their desire was to please the Lord.

God will use people who are committed to prayer. The Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts when we focus on the things of God to the point of desiring nothing but His presence.

The act of worship is necessary for our souls as well as pleasing to the Lord. True worship will change our hearts and align our thoughts for the things of God. Worship is a sincere way to seek the heart of God.

If we want the Lord to speak to our hearts we must worship Him. Worship entails praising, praying, listening, and honoring God. Sometimes people will lift their hands up high in worship because they are surrendering themselves to God.

What are you seeking God for today? If the Lord is not answering your prayers you need to consider worshiping and fasting and then fasting and praying. This is the process of positioning yourself to the blessings of God.

Pray

Lord, I want to hear from You. I seek you today to answer my prayer. You know my heart and You know my desires. Allow me to worship You will all of my heart today.

No Doubt

Encouragement, Faith, Trust

No Doubt

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭1:7‬

Casting out all fear and doubt

Satan uses tools of fear and doubt to keep us from doing extraordinary things.  God gives us power, love and a sound mind to do things that glorify Him.  But sometimes we limit God because of the fear and doubt we possess in our minds.

In Matthew 17:14-21 a man came to Jesus and begged for his son to be healed from demonic convulsions associated with epilepsy. Previously the man brought his son before the disciples but they couldn’t heal him. Immediately Jesus cast the demon out and the boy was healed. The disciples asked why they couldn’t cast it out and Jesus replied, “Because of your unbelief.”  He said if they had mustard seed-sized faith they could move mountains and nothing would be impossible for them. The problem wasn’t with their faith.  They had faith.  The problem was with their unbelief or doubt.  He gave them a solution: “this kind (of unbelief) does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” 

The devil plants seeds of doubt into our minds subconsciously and sometimes we are not aware of it.  We must protect our minds and be sure of what we are hearing and seeing is full of truth and not lies of Satan. Jesus said to fast and pray.  Fasting and praying starves the flesh of self desires and feeds our souls with the Spirit of God.

Is there anything ungodly that you should eliminate by fasting and praying?

Prayer

Pray in the Name of Jesus to have all fear, unbelief and doubt removed from your mind and replaced with God’s power, love and truth.