Prayer & Fasting Part 1 | Wednesday Night Service

Selah is a 21 day fast where basically a corporate fast where Pastor Jay is asking us as a church body to fast. So do you have to fast? No. Would we like you to fast? Yes.

And because we feel like the more people participate, we know it's gonna be beneficial for you. It's beneficial for me when I fast. So Selah means pause, and that's where we got the name from. And it's basically taking a pause in January, a reset, if you will, and seeking the Lord. So that's basically what that is.

So I know because of Monday prayer and the women that I'm around, I'm not gonna assume that everyone knows about fasting. I've had. We spoke on it Monday, and I had like six or seven people raise their hand that they did not really weren't familiar with fasting, came from a church that didn't teach on fasting, Never really been around it. So I might be a little simplistic for some of y' all that have been the trail a while, but just hear me out. We're gonna get to some good stuff, too.

So what's the difference between corporate fasting and individually fa individual fasting? So if you read through the Bible, Ezra, Nehemiah, all of these ones, they would call fast for a purpose for their. Usually for their country, Israel. And they would call fast when the walls were falling down and all the different things, they would call these corporate fasts to say, hey, we're doing this. They did not ask those people to hear from God about it.

They just called a fast and the people responded. It was normal activity to fast. In fact, the Israelites, a lot of the Pharisees and Sadducees, if you know, fasted two days a week. That was normal activity for a disciple. And so these corporate fasts.

So we're considering Selah a corporate fast. And Esther, she had a corporate fast when she was going into the King. She said she literally told every single person, you cannot eat or drink. See, we're easy on you guys. You have liquid.

Just kidding. Eat or drink for three days. And that would also be considered a corporate fast. So what is fasting? I'm gonna put my glasses on.

I might actually be able to see this stuff. Oh, hi. Hi, Kenya. Didn't see you before. I had my glasses on.

Yeah, you, girl. You moved up. It's a new year, new day. I love you, girl. All right, I'm sorry.

Okay. What is fasting? Fasting is to abstain from all kinds of food or drink, especially as A religious observance. Fasting is deliberately silencing the pleasures of this world so that we can hear the voice of God. And I'm just testimony.

I'm telling you, like, the last three or four days, just really silencing the world. Not watching tv, not getting on my phone and just pressing in in the scriptures. And I'm in a lot of prayer meetings, so obviously I have a lot of opportunities, but I am hearing God. It's like, my Mel can tell you she's been with me. It is like my ears have popped open in the prophetic and the anointing.

And the voice of God was. Is just so close. And I'm just like. That's why I'm standing there crying, because I'm like, God, you're so faithful. When I'm not faithful, you're faithful.

And he wants to speak to his people. You guys, we crowd him out so often. We just crowd him out. Our world is so stuffed full of so many things that we could do, and we're distracted. And this fasting is deliberately saying, I'm gonna stop doing what I'm doing, and I'm gonna.

I'm gonna hear from the Lord. So I believe I've been studying this for many years. I. You guys, I don't even think I'm good at this. I am not good at this.

I have been doing this for years. I had one year when I fasted every other day for six months, liquid fast. And I just was on top of the world. And then me and him went on vacation. And then I don't know what happened after that.

I didn't. It was gone. The grace was gone. It's Steve's fault. No, I'm just kidding.

Everything's Steve's fault. Oh, my husband puts up with me, okay? So I've done a lot of fasting, but even now, I'm like, it's terrible. I'm not good at this. There's some skills, okay?

Dying to your flesh is not fun. It is not fun. But I am telling you, it's rewarding. Okay, I'm gonna say what fasting is not. We are not making God love us more by fasting.

He does not love you more by fasting. That is not what we're doing. We are not manipulating God to love us, okay? We are pursuing obedience because the word. And we're going to get into that why we fast.

We are pursuing obedience to the Lord and intimacy with the Lord. We're not trying to prove ourselves by how sacrificial we can be okay. We can be a lot of religions. Y' all know my friend Lena texted me today. The teacher at her school is Indian and she was fasting for her God today.

Other people fast. This is a normal activity through all religions. So we're not the elite ones. Honestly, we're probably the worst. Just saying.

So fasting is not okay. I love this. I love this line. Fasting does not move God to me. It moves me to God.

Okay, let me say that again. Fasting does not move God to me. It moves me to God. And it really does. It really works.

By the end of this, you all are gonna be on a seven day water fast. I'm just prophesying this right now. Just kidding. Y' all are hard. Tommy, laugh.

Come on. Okay. Just kidding. All right. We wanna be hungry.

For Jesus to get the full benefit of fasting, you need to also set a time apart for the Lord. So let's just be real. If you're fasting and you're not really praying or cutting anything else out, you're dieting. You're on the January diet, right? And it's okay to diet.

It's good to diet. But that's not the purpose of this fast. So I. We have lots of opportunities to get into the Word, to get into the Lord. It's gonna be better.

And the fast is gonna be beneficial to you if you actually cut out and carve time out to be with the Lord. And he's gonna meet you guys. Psalms 139 says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting.

I feel like in every single day of our fastest. I've prayed this like four times today. Literally. I'm just like, okay, God. Cause I wanna just stay.

I wanna be clean. I wanna stay clean. I wanna get close, I wanna be nearer, you know? And he does. He shows you.

He's so faithful. I failed to share this and I asked the girl if I could share it and she said yes. I wasn't planning on it tonight, but I'm doing it last night. My team that helps me on Mondays. There's like 12 of them.

About 8 of em were there at my house last night. And we meet every other month and it's always good, we always pray, it's always awesome. But last night was different. Sorry, Steve, if we kept you up. He said we didn't.

These girls came to my house at 6:30 and they left at 10:30, okay. The holy Spirit fell and we started praying for each other. And I have not been in that kind of intercession, Crying, weeping, bawling, crying, laying on the floor, marching at one point. And I can't even tell you how long it's been. And I know Edwina, I don't know if she's here, but when we left, she was like, you know what?

I think we should do two day fasts before we ever meet again. Why do I say that? There is a closeness. We move closer to God. Do you understand?

Like, when I'm fasting, it's like I'm moving towards him and he meets us. And that. That. The nearness, the. The hearing God's voice just.

It's like. It literally like, is like your eyes, your ears are popped open. I'm hoping that when we leave tonight, you want to fast and you want to get close to God, closer to God. So. But I wanted to share this, and Heather said I could.

Could. We were all, yeah, we were all just after the crying, praying, intercession time. We were just sitting there being quiet and asking the Lord to speak to us. And I'm like, okay, everybody, let's just be quiet and hear what he says. And then people started, like, just rattling off things that the Holy Spirit was saying.

And Heather, we call her the little sister, she's the young one, and she was always a little more quiet. And she said, I just saw a vision. And so she said, I saw a vision of Jesus hands.

He was folding up a white napkin, and then he put it down real neat. And we were all like, whoa. That kind of seems like that would be significant, but we have no idea what that means. And so we were kind of all given our ideas of what it meant. And then Dr. Google, okay?

Heather's like, I'm just going to Google it. Some of you may know, Pastor Nathan probably knows the Jewish tradition, okay? And Heather did not know this. In Jewish tradition, if you wad up your white napkin and throw it on your table, and this is still today, you put it on your plate, put it on your table, it means I'm done. Okay?

But if you take it and fold it neatly and put it down, it means I'm coming back.

Okay? Heather did not know that Jesus is coming back.

He's coming back, y'. All. And we need to be serious. We need to be serious about the Lord and serious about prayer and serious about pressing into him. There's people dying outside these walls.

My neighbors. I've been begging God to save my neighbors and give me a boldness to preach the gospel to them. You know, how many times do we just drive in our driveway and just don't care? And I don't think that the Lord is pleased with that. I know he's not with me.

And I just, you know, when it's like he's coming back and there's that excitement, like he's coming back, I don't want him to come back before my son gets saved.

So what am I going to do about it? Prayer and fasting breaks yokes. It binds the enemy.

It does warfare for us. There are things that doesn't happen without the fasting. Peace.

I'm gonna stop and pray and then I'm gonna go on. Lord, I just feel compelled to pray right now. God, I feel your presence. I feel your nearness. I feel the weighty heaviness of the call on our lives.

God, I know these ones are here on a Wednesday night and they're serious about you. They want you. They desire you. They want to follow you. So, God, I'm asking you to make us hungry.

Make us hungry for your word. Make us hungry for the things of you, God. Let us get serious about you, God.

Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, and just speak to our hearts, even right now. Let us feel the weightiness and the soberness that you're returning. He said he's coming back. We know he's coming back.

But I believe that he's saying, I'm coming back. It's serious.

I'm sorry. Can you tell? I've been fasting and crying and praying for three days. Sorry, guys.

I'm going to talk about some, just some typical fasts. I know that there are people that maybe grew up and didn't really learn about fasting, don't understand fasting. There are people that will say, I'm doing a sunup to sundown fast. That's actually found in Judges. When I'll read it to you.

Judges 20. Then all the people of the Israel, whole army went up and came together and wept. And they sat before the Lord and fasted the day until evening. And then they did their offerings and peace offerings before the Lord and then they inquired of the Lord. So this is an example of if you want to hear from God, fast.

Like if you want to hear from, from him and you're. And you feel a blockage fast. It's, it's biblical. I already talked about. Esther did a three day fast.

Saul's done a three day fast. In Acts 9. We can talk about the ten day fast of Daniel. And I know a lot of people like the Daniel fast. Vegetables and water, or we, we, we make up all kinds of ones.

No meats, no sweets, no bread.

Honestly guys, there is no rule book about fasting. I'm gonna, I will throw this out there because I've been studying on this and looking at a lot of fasts and stuff. It does appear to me in the Bible that fasting means no food.

Okay, that's pretty much the example. Even the Daniel fast, he actually didn't even say he was fasting. He didn't actually use the word fast in Daniel the 21 day one. He did talk about mourning, but did you know they don't even mention fasting in Daniel. Thought that was interesting.

I read that today there's 14 day fast. Paul did a 14 day fast again, Daniel, they mentioned him mourning for 21 days. I believe he was fasting. And then we have all the 40 day fasts. Moses, Jesus, Elijah.

Those are pretty intense. It feels like that maybe that would be something that the Lord would need to call you on. It is, you know, there are health risks involved from not eating for 40 days. So I would pray about those. If you're gonna do an extended fast, I just heard Landon Schott in Texas said he does a 40 day fast every year.

So that's intense. That's a lot. I know people that have done 40 day, like liquids or you know, maybe having some nourishment and protein, but I'm just saying water fast for 40 days, you better hear God and maybe be on the most on the mountain, on Sinai. I don't know. In Jesus presence.

I would have to be. Anyway. So anyway, the whole point of these fasts and for anyone who's new to fasting, you're like, I have not been around fasting. And they're like, where are you even getting all these names for all the fasting? Basically, guys, we're just taking examples out of the Bible and we're like, I'm on an Esther fast.

We're just taking these examples out of the Bible and kind of making up our fast. Mainly it's just asking the Lord what you should do and do that. I would be more worried about just doing what I told him I would do, right. Than try to do something crazy just to be sacrificial or to be cool with your friends. No, that's not cool with your friends.

Maybe my friends, but. All right, why do we fast? I'm gonna go through a couple reasons why does everyone know the scriptures? In Matthew 6 we. I know you women do because I just talked about it.

It's my favorite chapter in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is giving instructions on a just a disciple, a spiritual, disciplined Life. In Matthew 6 When you fast, don't make it obvious as a hypocrites do, for they look miserable and disabled. So people would admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.

When you fast, comb your hair, wash your face, then no one will notice that you're fasting except your father who knows what you do in private. And your father who sees everything will reward you. You guys, this is the awesome thing. There is actually a reward for fasting. There is a reward for doing this.

That is pretty cool. There's not that many spots in the Bible where it says it's a reward. So he warns us to not do it for men or to look spiritual. It's between us and God. So I've had people say, well then how in a corporate fast, why are we telling everyone?

Right? Well everyone in Esther's group knew they were fasting. You know, a corporate fast is different than you're having a private thing with the Lord and he's calling you to this thing and it's between you and Him. Obviously you're not just, you know, going around flaunting it like you're some spiritual person. Right?

That's the difference. A corporate fast. We are not in error because we're telling each other what we're doing. This is accountability. I think God loves this.

He loves us holding each other accountable and running after Him. It's amazing. So Jesus was our example in Luke 4. His first, his first few moments when he was in his first part of his ministry, he was gets baptized, the Spirit came on him and then he went on to a 40 day fast and was tempted by the devil. So even Jesus started out his ministry in a, in a full blown fast for 40 days.

So he was our example. I love in Luke 5:35, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away. When Jes. When the disciples were asking Jesus why his people didn't fast and John the Baptist's guys fast and that was his answer. He.

He said there's gonna be a day when I'm taken away and then they'll fast in those days. And so some people call that a bridegroom fast. I've heard people call it a three day bridegroom fast. So we make names. Okay, But Whatever.

The point is, it's that we don't eat for an extended period of time. Maybe it's a day, maybe it's a meal if you're new to fasting. I remember when I started fasting, like in my 20s, one of my first fasts, and I was like gonna do a three day fast. Okay. It was 4:00 clock on the first day when I was eating that bagel.

Yeah. So then I cried and prayed and repented and then the next day tried to do it again and I don't know, maybe made it till 5pm you know, the purpose of fasting is to seek the Lord. Okay. It's not about browbeating yourself or beating yourself up. It's to seek the Lord.

If my heart is like, I want to fast, God, I want to get with you. God, I want to live for you. I want to go deeper with you. And I mess up, okay? He is not like you're done.

It's like a child learning something new. I definitely have grown in fasting and you can get in rhythms. If you, if you do a lifestyle of fasting, you can actually get in a rhythm with your body and it will actually be easier. It's a lot harder. If anyone's ever done an extended fast, the first two days are the hardest.

Right. Does anyone agree with that? So if you can get past day three, they tell me, no, I'm just kidding. If you could get past day three on a water fast, I've had people say they could just go for days. So I don't know.

Laura's gonna tell us about that in a minute. I know that for me personally, this year he started stirring me about this whole water fast thing. Cause honestly, I've only done one water fast in my entire life. And it was like at the end of a seven day liquid fast for one day. That is my fasting history.

Woo hoo. But you know what? The Lord is faithful. And I feel him stirring me even this year in this 21 day fast. So I'm just saying it out loud.

I'm gonna be doing some water fasting, guys, and I'm just feeling this desire. Not like a bad thing, like a desire for more. I want more. And I wanna see people saved and I wanna see breakthrough. I want to see revival in my own life and the people I love.

So there's reasons to fast. David fasted, you know, when his child was sick, he fasted for healing. Okay. The, it's. You know what's so cool, we were talking about this Last night, the secular world has discovered that fasting is healing for your body.

There's some thing on the Internet which is gotta be true, that if you fast water for three days, your body will start eating cancer cells like there. Our bodies were created by God the Creator, to obey him. And we actually will get benefit, health benefits, if we fast. Isn't that crazy? I mean, there's a whole list.

If you Google it, what can happen? So then the secular world, non Christian world, they are asking people and promoting two day fast water, fast per week, just for health purposes, intermittent fasting, all these things. So there is purposes. God's like, I got you, you're gonna obey me and then you're actually gonna be healthier for it. That should make us want to fast right then.

So it's also a tool to humble ourselves. So you know in the scripture that I love to quote, if my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, I will heal their land. Right? It's one of my favorite things to quote. But that humble.

There is no quicker way to humble yourself than fasting. There's nothing more humbling than fasting. There's nothing more feeling more weak. And I can't do this in my own strength. And I'm telling you guys, if you've never fasted, if you've never done any kind of fasting, pray about it.

Wait a minute, I'm taking that back. Don't pray about it. Because Matthew 6 says when you pray. So delete that. Just kidding.

We can't do that. But you know. No, really. But I've said that. But I'm like, really?

Do we need to ask the Lord? Because it's scriptural and he says that we should be doing it Honestly. The other scripture in Matthew 6, when you pray. Well, we don't ask the Lord if we should pray. You know, just saying, hey, I'm preaching to myself here.

Cause I am not the best at this. Don't ask Steve about it. I don't like to tell Steve when I'm fasting. Cause then I have accountability.

Tell my friends they don't live with me. No, just kidding. No, tell your spouse. Okay, Tiffany, tell JJ. I know you do anyway.

Joel 2. That is why the Lord says, turn to me now while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping and mourning. Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.

Return to the Lord your God. He's merciful and compassionate. Slow to get angry. I love the scripture. In Joel, we all love Joel too right?

Filled with unfailing love, he's eager to relent and not punished. Who knows? Perhaps he will give you reprieve and send you a blessing instead of a curse. I really believe that there is a time to fast, and I believe that we're in that season. He's coming.

He's coming. Galatians 5, 16, and 18. And I'm almost done. This is what I'm gonna close with.

There is. Let me read the scripture that I'll talk about. But I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of your flesh. The desires of the flesh are against the spirit. Okay.

And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. I want to be a prayer warrior. I want to be a woman on fire. I want to be someone you said would fast and is loving, is kind, actually has the fruits of the spirit.

Like, we can want all those things, but honestly, our flesh with the sinful nature does not.

Okay, My spirit wants to be all those things. I want to be known by those things. But if I don't have the spirit, then I am gonna be mean, ugly, hangry, not nice. Right? All the things.

So how can I take this flesh man and kill him and crucify him so that I can actually have and be this person that I want to be? And the fruits of the spirits and prophetic and hear God and have discernment, have wisdom and have the gifts like I have to humble myself. And I'm just saying fasting does that now. Other things do it. Reading the Bible and all that.

But we're talking about fasting right now. Okay? No, but it's true that fasting does it faster than anything else because we're suffocating the very thing we need to live. We're suffocating that. And we're saying, instead of that, I'm gonna feed my spirit man.

Okay? And so even in the fasting, I would encourage you to read the word and fill up, fill up, fill up and feed. And you're, like, getting muscles on this spirit man. That is just. That's how we're gonna make it.

That's how we're gonna do this. That's how we're gonna do this walk. So there's two opposing forces at war. And I believe that fasting is how we do warfare against our flesh. It is not fun.

But I've never heard anyone say that war is fun. And the Lord said We're at war, right? We're at war with our flesh and we're at war with the enemy. And. And we need to take it serious.

I hope you like me after this. Okay, for instructions from the Lord, Second Chronicles. I'm going to go through these quickly. We go. We do this for instruction.

We can do it for favor from the Lord like Esther did. We can do it to break strongholds. We can do it to break addictions. I know people have done fasts and at the end of it that their addiction was broken off. I've had people, I know people personally that have fasted and a spirit of fear left them.

I know people who have had things after a selah fast, like literally things that they have had broken off of them that they've had for their whole lives. There is something powerful in fasting that we can't do in our own strength, you guys, but we invite God. And I don't know why. It's the upside down kingdom. It does not make sense.

Why would not eating? Everything about the kingdom is opposite of what the world would say. But it works. And this is the last one I'm going to read and then. Laurel, I will have you up in just a sec.

This is my favorite. This is what I want to see. Fasting for revival. Okay. Who would like to go to a church that's on fire where this presence is here, where people come in and they literally bow down and say, what must I do to be saved?

Because it can happen. When the Spirit comes, it can happen. We don't have to force people. God draws people. John WESLEY in the 1700s fasted two times a week with his group of men.

Ended up. He ended up being part of birthing the first great awakening. Charles Finney in the 1800s prepared for all his revivals by organizing teams to pray and fast every time he preached. He never preached without fasting. Daniel Nash was his personal intercessor and would go to towns and fast two to three weeks before Charles Finney would come to town.

Hundreds and hundreds would be getting saved. Smith Wigglesworth in the 1900s was powerfully used if you know him, healing evangelist. I remember one time he threw a dead baby up against the wall and it came to life. Interesting. Okay, but true.

Started his ministry with a 10 day fast and then fasted once a week for his entire ministry. And he prayed that 50 souls would get saved every Sunday. He said he doesn't remember a Sunday when 50 plus got saved. Okay. I also heard about him, that he never read any book but the Bible and carried it around all day.

Reese Howell in the 1900s in Wales was used by God to start the Welsh revival. He embraced a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. There was one season, he only ate one meal a day and spent three hours a night, every single night in knees in prayer. He ended up starting a huge Bible school in Welsh. William Seymour was one of the founders of Azusa Street.

He said he was on a 10 day fast when the Lord visited him. John G. Lakes started a healing ministry. He saw many miracles. He always would fast before every meeting. Amy Semple McPherson, she started the Four Square Movement.

She said this to the Lord, I am so desperate for more of you, God. I'm going to sit here and wait on the Holy Spirit. You told me that if I seek you with my whole heart you would find me. So now, Lord, I'm gonna stay right here until you pour out your spirit, your promised holy Spirit on me. If I die of starvation, I don't care.

I'm so hungry for you. I cannot wait another day. I will not eat another meal until you baptize me. Shortly after that she was baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire revival started and they started a whole four square movement out in California that spread across the United States. Lou Engel is embracing fasting lifestyle.

40 day fast. I've been following him for years. Hundreds of thousands of people have embraced fasting because of his life. And yes, Heidi Baker, who's one of my faves and missionary in Mozambique, fast regularly as a lifestyle. They've seen thousands of people saved, healed, delivered, churches started.

Hogan, you know Hogan, if you've been around me at all because I talk about him, he's in Mexico. He has fasted every single day for decades. They've seen 565 people today raised from the dead, every single ailment healed, body parts recreated. You guys, do you know who we serve?

Why are we satisfied with what we have when there's so much available and this country needs an awakening and it needs revival and why can't it start here? Pastor J.

Does he love Smith Wigglesworth more than me? Does he love David Hogan more than me? David Hogan was committed to souls. He said he'd give his life for souls and he did. And he is.

Romans 12:1 says, Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. Lord, I thank you, thank you so much for the grace that you've given us. But, Lord, we want more. We want more of you, Jesus.

We want more of you in our day. We want to see your kingdom established. Not just the refuge. You guys in Cabarrus County, Kannapolis, China Grove. Let's see a movement.

Let's see Jesus come. I believe he's waiting for people to wake up, and I'm asking him to wake me up.