Topic: FASTING PREPARES THE GROUND
"And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away."- Acts 13:3
Bible Reading: Acts 13:1-3
Message:
Just before He began His earthly ministry, our Lord Jesus Christ embarked on a 40-day fast. According to Matthew 4:1-2, He was led by the Holy Spirit into this exercise.
Do you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you? Has He ever led you to do some fasting before? If He has, did you simply obey Him, or did you make excuses as to why you couldn’t fast? From the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see that fasting is necessary to equip us for the work of the ministry.
When God commits a specific assignment into your hands, do you make out time to seek His face through fasting and prayer, or do you just jump into the assignment without necessarily seeking His direction, assistance, wisdom, protection and grace to succeed on the assignment? If you seek Him for assistance, it shows you realise your limitation and recognise that it is only through His power you can succeed in the assignment.
In any case, Jesus clearly told us that we cannot do anything the way it should be done without Him (John 15:5). If we fail to seek His face, it shows we have confidence in ourselves, believing that we do not need Him to help us on the job. Beloved, you cannot do any divine assignment the way you are expected to do it without the backing of the One who sent you.
From today, never embark on any assignment, be it spiritual or secular,
without first seeking God’s face in fasting and prayer! In addition, when people are being prepared for the work of ministry prayer and fasting are needed to equip them spiritually.
This was practiced in the early Church. Acts 13:3 says,
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. When some prophets and teachers gathered themselves together to minister to God, the Holy Spirit selected Paul and Barnabas from their midst, to take the gospel to other nations. What did they do after this? They took time to pray and fast with them before releasing them to go and do the work.
Even today, fasting is still needed to equip the various levels of the Church workforce. From the level of foundational classes for young converts and above, we should encourage praying and fasting as a means of equipping the saints for the assignments ahead of them.
Prayer Point:
Any good thing that you are to embark on must first be subjected to prayer and fasting.
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