CALIFORNIA 40 DAYS OF PRAYER & FASTING continued....

"HOLINESS and PURITY ATTEND TRUE REVIVAL" - Please join in prayer below

Prayer and fasting have always been associated with revival and personal purity. One whose soul cries out and hungers for more of God will hunger less for the world.

The first instance in the new church concerning fasting and prayer is in Acts Chapter 9. Paul, who was then known as Saul, was persecuting Christians. He was on the road to the city of Damascus to destroy Christians when he was confronted by the living Christ. He was blinded by a bright light and fell off his horse. His physical eyes were blinded so his spiritual eyes could begin to see truth. Acts 9:8 says "His eyes were opened and he saw no one." Christ spoke to him and  revealed the truth about his life and the error of his ways. Paul cried out "Lord, what do you want me to do?" The Lord spoke to him and said 'Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what to do." Scripture tells how Saul was led to the city and waited there blindly, for three days without food or water. Paul changes from a man who is self-sufficient and self-driven to a man whose life depends on hearing the next word from God's mouth. Hearing from God was truly more important then any nourishment the world could offer. Could it be that fasting and prayer were the secret to keeping the experience of the Upper Room alive? Like Paul, the disciples learned that hearing the next word from God was more important than earthly food. They could go without food but not without His word.

How desperate are we to hear from God in our spiritual lives? Are we self-sufficient and self-driven so that we are satisfied with our religion that is void of true spiritual power? Do we value hearing from Him above all else? Jesus, speaking of the power of His Word, prayed for His disciples "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth, Your Word is truth." (John 17: 16, 17)  Here is the basic truth to sustain all true revival. There must be a hunger for the Word of God and revelation of truth. It is God's truth that sanctifies us and makes us holy when applied by the Holy Spirit to the life. It is the acid test for self proclaimed revival meetings. Is there a hunger for Truth? We are told, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.  Hallelujah!

Prayer Adventure:
Why not try applying the acid test to your Christianity. Take a day and fast and pray for more revelation of truth in your life. Ask God to meet you with what you are to do next in your life as He did with Paul. Ask Him to put a great hunger in you to hear what He has for you. Seek Him with all your heart like Paul and you will find yourself hungering after more of  Him than the world.

"Precious Heavenly Father, may You and Your Word rule and reign in our lives, in our nation forevermore!  We bind the lies of the enemy and we call forth TRUTH, in Jesus' Name!  We pray the Holy Spirit would plant a seed of desire to know You more.  Open our ears to Your Word, open our eyes to see only what You want us to see.  We pray for Your Light to SHINE throughout this great nation, on every issue, on every candidate so that TRUTH would be revealed.  We love You and we proclaim 'Our choice is YOU, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our God, amen."

CA 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting

"RESTORATION OF THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH BODY"

Jesus prayed for His people toward the end of His ministry, highlighting His greatest concern for His Church in John 17: 21 – 22 "That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one."

Jesus states that part of evangelizing the world so that unbelievers believe He is sent of God is that others see His Body unified. Yet today we see more then 200 different Christian denominations, each one believing they have more to offer than other Church groups. Sadly, in many communities pastors do not fellowship, meet nor pray together. I have been involved in many ministerial associations and understand some of the challenges. How and why do we fulfill the prayer of Christ for biblical unity? Here is part of the answer. We do not arrive at unity by focusing on it as a goal. I once spoke with an old deacon in a church who longed for the unity his church enjoyed at its beginning. He recalled how when the members were all pitching in to build the church they felt great unity. They pounded nails together and carried wood together. Now that the building was done they went back to their own lives. They no longer had a joint task they shared so the unity stopped. Ephesians 4: 11-13 gives us the answer as to what Biblical Unity looks like. 
Leadership gifts are used to equip and set the people of God to work using their spiritual gifts.  "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.."

The Biblical description of unity is that these leadership gifts equip believers for works of service in ministry. The ministry belongs to the Church members. The role of the clergy is to recognize the gift(s) of various individuals then equip and encourage them to go do what pastors are paid to do. Secondly, we need more than the gift of pastor at work in a community to see Biblical unity. I know there are those who believe that some of the gifts ended with the Apostles but Scripture assures us that the gifts of Apostle and Prophet are still needed to unify the body. In 1st Corinthians 1: 6, 7 the Apostle Paul gives this assurance regarding all the gifts, "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." This passage is referring to the return of Christ. Paul is assuring us that all the gifts will remain in the Church until His return. He also tells us in Ephesians 2: 20 that the Church "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone."  There are two neglected gifts God is restoring to the body of Christ. Namely, He is restoring the gifts of apostle and prophet. When all five gifts are activated in equipping the people of God for works of ministry we will see Biblical Unity according to Ephesians 4: 11- 13.

    
Adventures in Prayer:

Jesus basically tells us in John 17 that we need to see our need for each other. We need to value other churches as much as we value our own. It is going to take the Church of the whole city to reach the whole city. Christ has put a depository of grace in every church that believes in Him. Lutherans carry a grace for "righteousness by faith." Baptist carry a grace for understanding the need to be born again. The list goes on and on as we look at how Christ has used many different groups to restore truth and what it means to know Him. Instead of looking at how we are better then another group, it may be that we need to look at what we add to each other!  His bride includes all Churches that confess Him.

Why not honor Christ by praying for another group other then your own. Pray for the restoration of Biblical Unity and the 5-Leadership gift to the body in Ephesians 4: 11-13: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher. Pray for the release of ministry to the body of Christ. If you do not know what each of these gifts are about take time to study them.

May we reflect God's Love, Forgiveness and Grace to everyone we meet as we live and sing deep within our soul "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, and they'll know we are Christians by our love."   Let's SHINE for JESUS, loving Him first and our families and our neighbors as ourself -

Please continue to pray for the upcoming election (candidates, issues, etc.), for Lou Engle and Team www.thecall.com and for Jim Garlow and others who are leading Yes on 8 and for all the Watchmen who are taking an active stand for Christ's Kingdom and Righteousness.

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CALIFORNIA 40 DAYS OF PRAYER & FASTING

"THE PRIORITY OF WORSHIP FOR VICTORY OVER DARKNESS"

    
In times of great spiritual darkness and oppression the people of God from biblical times have discovered the primacy of restoring declarative worship with fasting as a weapon to defeat the forces of darkness. There seems to be a pattern of how the enemy manages to enthrone worship and allegiance to himself in society. God calls upon His people to repent and seek Him followed by prophets instructing His people to worship Him in the high places and to take down idols dedicated to other gods. When His people begin to worship with fasting and declare Him above other gods, the Lord answers from heaven causing a spiritual awakening and restoration both for the people and the land. In this sense declarative worship with fasting is a type of warfare.

Throughout Scripture worship and fasting brings breakthrough for the spiritual awakening God desires to bring. Nehemiah sat, fasted and prayed for strategy on how to restore the city when he saw the gates of his city burned and broken down. Daniel fasted as a part of worship and prayed for 21 days in Daniel Chapter 10. The result was that the angel Gabriel was sent to answer his prayer. The angel Gabriel has to do battle with the demonic force assigned over Persia referred to as the Prince of Persia. Gabriel was delayed in answering Daniel's prayer and so Michael the archangel is sent to defeat the Prince of Persia. The end result of Daniel's worship and fasting was that the demonic forces over the empire of Persia is defeated because he fasted and worshiped God. Queen Esther fasted for three days and worshiped God, inviting others to join her. The result was that the entire Jewish nation was delivered from a death sentence. These are examples of worship fueled by fasting that were applied by individuals. There are corporate calls to prayer and fasting in scripture that had great impact. The heathen nation of Nineveh was called to 40 days of fasting and prayer because of pending judgment "So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them...... every one turned from his evil ways and from the violence that is in his hands. Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah 3: 5-10

Adventures in Prayer:
Why not use the prayer model Daniel gave to us this week to worship God and express repentance to God on behalf of California and/or your nation. Use Daniel Chapter 9: 3-19 which includes the prayer of Daniel. You will notice he is repenting on behalf of his people. Follow his example of interceding for the people of California and for Jerusalem. As you use Daniel's prayer,  insert what seems right to you in repenting for the sins of our state. Notice his prayer starts out with declarative worship acknowledging who God is in verse 4. The prayer then moves into acknowledging the sins of the people. Daniel identifies with them by saying "We have sinned." He counts himself with them as Jesus numbered himself with the transgressors. He lists the sins of the people and petitions God to have mercy and intervene in verse 1.

-Pray for Protection over Families and Marriages to be God-centered

-Prop 8: Pray that YES on PROPOSITION 8 will pass!
  
For previous Daily Prayers go to www.praycalconnect.org and click on Blog.  You can also sign up on the Prayer Wall at the Pray California Connect web site.

From CA Houses of Prayer, Daily Prayer Points:

1.  California
a.  Mercy
b.  Repentance
c.  Restoration of the State
d.  Reformation and Transformation
e.  Supreme Court – 9 Judges including Associate Justice Carlos R. Moreno, Associate Justice Joyce Kennard, Associate Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Associate Justice Ming W. Chin, Associate Justice Marvin R. Baxter, and Associate Justice Carol A. Corrigan, newly elected Soroyano
f.  Governmental Leaders - state and local

2. Abortions would be wiped out, LIFE would flourish!!!  Be a voice for the unborn....

3.  National Elections
a.  Pray for our current president

4.  Prayer Movement – Houses of Prayer, Prayer Leaders, Pastors and Watchmen for:
a.  Strength
b.  Provision
c.  Revelation including God's plans and strategies

5.  Binding and breaking of evil spirits and calling forth the opposite spirits including:
a.  Witchcraft
b.  Oppression
c.  Confusion
d.  Assignments against God's people

6.  Church
a.  Awakening
b.  Revelation
c.  Take position of government

7.  Israel
a.  Protection
b.  Revelation
c.  Blessings
d.  Peace of Jerusalem

"We are MORE than Conquerors in Christ Jesus who loves us!"  We walk in that God-given authority, refusing to let anyone or anything manipulate us (part of jezebel's goal). We pray in the spirit and we seek to be led by the Holy Spirit. May God bless you Mighty Watchmen for taking a FIRM, BOLD, ACTIVE STAND for HIS Kingdom and His Righteousness- Let us continue to call forth TRUTH, in Jesus' Name!  We are in this battle together>> CHRIST IN CHARGE, CHRIST IN US!  Psalm 133:1
 

CALIFORNIA 40 DAYS OF PRAYER & FASTING

"THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION"

The ministry of reconciliation which Christ has committed to the Church to reconcile sinners to God is of primary importance to the work of the Church today:

"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." 2 Cor. 5: 18, 19

The work of reconciliation is based on forgiveness and grace. We are to help sinners understand that they (we) are reconciled to God through the death of Christ who forgives their sins so they (we) can be brought back into a relationship with God. This is a primary work of the Church.

The greatest hindrance to the work of reconciliation in bringing others to reconcile with God has to do with Christians who do not model nor practice the message of reconciliation with each other. A more simple way to put this is that when we do not forgive others for their sins against us we negate the message of the Cross. This is why Christ taught His followers in the Lord's Prayer "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6: 14, 15  This modeling of forgiveness, so the world will see what forgiveness looks like, is so important that Christ tells us that when we come before Him at the altar to bring our gifts and discover someone has something against us we are to leave the gift at the altar and go be reconciled to them. Matthew 5: 23, 24

Typicaly Biblical Forgiveness is not well understood nor practiced by believers in the modern church. Un-forgiveness is often practiced through what might be called 'avoidance' relationships. We simply avoid people who have hurt us instead of going to them and attempting to reconcile. We justify our hurt feelings and blame the other person's behavior. Christ is still requiring us to take the first step in demonstrating His forgiveness and grace. Biblical forgiveness is defined as "releasing others from the debts they owe us." Matthew 18. When we do not forgive then roots of bitterness and anger take hold in the heart. Releasing others at the Cross does not mean we say what they did was all right and acceptable, it is saying 'I choose not to live as a victim of what was done. Instead, I seek to practice forgiveness at the Cross by naming the offense and the pain it caused me, knowing Christ is with me. I release the person knowing that He is the judge. Then I go to the person and seek to show forgiveness as He leads me. This is what reconciliation looks like. If the person still refuses to be reconciled we have obeyed Christ and can leave them with Him. We cannot live our Christian lives invalidating the forgiveness of Christ by refusing to forgive others or be reconciled with those who hurt us.

Adventures in Prayer:

Ask God to re-visit both past and present relationships in your life. Start with family then look at Church and work associates. Ask Him to show you if there are those who have hurt you that you have not forgiven? Ask Him if there are those who are offended with you? Bringing them before Christ at the Cross is the first place to start. Acknowledge the wrong done and the emotional pain attached to it. Release them and the pain at the Cross. Now ask Him how you are to make contact with the person. God has committed to you and me the ministry of reconciliation. He wants to plead His case to the world through us. Listen to His heart felt appeal:

"Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5: 20

It is time we stop invalidating His work of reconciliation by choosing to forgive. It is time we live what we preach in the modern church.  Amen and hallelujah!

May we reflect God's Love, Forgiveness and Grace to everyone we meet as we live and sing deep within our soul "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, and they'll know we are Christians by our love."   Let's SHINE for JESUS, loving Him first and our families and our neighbors as ourself -