The second most powerful Secret in history. Is something called the Manhattan Project. Have you ever heard of that? It was our nuclear power program. where from 1942 to 1945 We basically harnessed the power of nature and produced the atomic bomb.
Secret villages were built to build this thing. A secret network was built. And when this thing finally came to the surface, It produced an explosion. That Blew people's minds. In fact, the average American had no idea the power that they had as a citizen of the United States because the thing was a secret.
You just said that was the second most powerful secret in history. What's the first? I am convinced. The first most powerful secret that's been kept under wraps that most Christians have no idea they have access to is the power of fasting. This thing is powerful.
And most of us have no idea just how powerful this is. I'm going to talk about fasting today and listen. The Greek word for fasting that we see in the New Testament is nestuo. It's kind of a compound word. Nay means no.
Esthuo means to eat. It literally means No eating. There's a lot of things being called fasting today that really technically aren't fasting. When you say to me, I'm on a fast, all I can eat is, I say, oh, that's a contradiction in terms. Fasting means you don't eat anything, you just drink water.
Now, I'm not bashing you if you're doing what they call the 21, they call it the 21-day fast. I call it the 21-day Daniel fast. Pattern of eating because Daniel doesn't even call it a fast in Daniel 10. That's a Daniel pattern of eating, but that's technically not fasting. When you say to me, now for the next 21 days, I'm not going to eat any meat, I'm going to fast for 21 days.
That's not fasting. I'm not bashing you, I'm just, and if Jesus is telling you, do it, do it. If you're a pastor of the church and you're leading your church on a 21-day Daniel eating pattern, do it. But technically, fasting means I don't eat. You say to me, well.
I'm fasting from Facebook. I want you to fast from Facebook. You need to fast from Facebook. But that's really not fasting. That's giving up Facebook.
Fasting literally means I don't eat it. Eight. And so here's what I'm asking God's people to do for this next week. Are y'all watching me? You ready?
I want you to fast this week. That can mean I'm just going, I've never fasted before, so I'm just going to give up one meal. It didn't just give up one meal this week. That's fine. Or it may be I give up one meal.
Every day for this week, that's fine.
Some of us I'm going to ask you to go a whole day without eating, just drinking. Or Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday, no food, just drink. Or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, no food, just water.
Some are going to start fasting today. And will not eat anything. We'll only drink water until next Sunday when we have communion together, and that's when we'll break the fast. But I'm asking God's people to fast.
Now, look, if you're pregnant, You need to sit this one out, okay? If you're a diabetic, I don't know how the whole diabetes thing works, that's above my pay grade, just talk to your doctor or whatever, okay? If you're a pregnant diabetic, I really don't know what to do with you on that, okay? But. But most of us can give up food for at least a day this week.
Um And did this for me. If you fast Don't put it on Facebook. Jesus told you, don't put it on Facebook. On the Sermon on the Mount, he says, when you fast, comb your hair, shave, do whatever, just look like a normal person.
So I don't want to say any cross assembly members, you know how they do the phone thing. You all pray for me. This is day two. I'm really struggling here, and you don't do that. You let your fasting, Jesus, the man, said, You let it be done in secret.
Now, I'm gonna say one other thing about fasting when I'm finding: fasting subdues the flesh. Look. I can blame demons, I can blame the Democrats, I can blame the Republicans, I can blame this, that. My biggest problem There's a man there out there. This guy's my biggest enemy.
He is my biggest detractor at Cross Assembly. I can't stand this guy. He gives me more problems than anybody else. Do you know what his name is? Chad Harvey.
My flesh Me? This thing that says, I want to be in charge, I want to be in control. That flesh, the Bible calls this force inside of you. The flesh. gives you more problem than anybody else.
Fasting subdues the flesh. It says to the flesh, you ain't in charge, I'm in charge. It crucifies the flesh. Look, the strongest muscle in your body, you know, the strongest muscle in your body is. It's the jaw muscle.
it can produce 200 pounds of pressure. When you fast, you are getting control over the strongest muscle in your body, and you're saying to the rest of your body, You ain't in charge, I'm in control. My spirit is stronger than this flesh. The flashings.
Now, look, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand some today, and this isn't a nervous kick. I just need to know that I'm preaching to the right group of people. Because I tell you this all the time: before I preach to y'all, I preach to me. I preached this to me this past week, and maybe this applies to nobody in this place today, okay? But is there anybody else in this place that gets a lot of trouble from your flesh?
Okay. Fasting subdues the flesh. There's something else fasting does. Fasting precedes a great move of God. Always.
I rude with that. Jesus gave us this pattern. Do you know Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days before he. healed his first person. Jesus fasted for 40 days before he cast out his first demon.
Jesus has given us a pattern. 40 days of fasting preceded his public ministry. I believe fasting this week is going to.
Now, watch for a minute. Fasting this week is going to precede a move of God in your life, in your family, in your church, in your nation. Fasting precedes a great move of God. So, Chad, are you sure this is safe to fast? It is Satan.
Now, look, if you've never fasted before, you may, if Jesus tells you to go seven days, go seven days. But look, fasting does have health benefits. Um there's a Possible connection between fasting and longevity. Anyone know how old Moses was when he died? 120 years old.
And the Bible says he was in perfect health. Do you know what Moses also did? He fasted, and even science is now saying there might be a link between fasting and longevity. We actually had a Doctor in the first service, after he heard my sermon, he sent me a bunch of stuff. I can't share all the stuff that he sent, but one thing that he did send me after first service: he said one study reported that women who fasted more than 13 hours overnight had a 36% lower chance of developing breast cancer than those who fasted less than 13 hours.
See, 17 hours into a fast, when you're just not eating anything, you're just drinking water, something called autophagy sits in. Autophagy is your body. It literally means self-eating. Your body starts eating toxins. Rogue proteins.
Messed up mitochondria, it like it starts cleaning up your body 17 hours into the fast. And some of you guys, we got some big muscle men here at Cross Assembly. I love men. I'm glad we got men, man's men at Cross Assembly, don't you? I mean seriously, aren't you a gaffer?
We don't have a bunch of emaciated, soft, sissy men. We got some tough men at Cross Assembly.
Some of you guys are saying, if I fast. Sarcopenia is going to sit in, but I'm going to start losing muscle mass. Actually, a few days into your fast, it's very interesting, on a water-only fast, your body starts producing human growth hormones. That preserve the muscle.
So don't worry about losing muscle this week. But we're not doing it for the health benefits. Can why? Why should I Give up food. And fast this week.
This is so important. I want you to write this down.
Okay, this is how important it is. Write this down. If you don't have a pin. Use lipstick, okay? And ladies, that goes for you too.
All right, so here you go. Number one, you fast to receive God's guidance in your life.
Now, I told you I'm gonna ask you all to raise your hand. How many of y'all need some divine direction on some issue, whether it be a college, job, relationship? You need some direction in your life right now. Raise your hand.
Now I'm saying raise it. If you need God's device. The best thing you can do. When you're about to make a Very important decision. Is fast and seek God's face.
I don't understand it, but fasting kind of quiets those voices in your brain, confusing you and sending you in all kinds of directions. When you fast, it calms your brain and you're able to hear the voice of God in a way that you can't hear when you're not fasting. Let me give you a verse here. This is Acts chapter 13. The church is at a crossroads, they need a word from the Lord.
And it says in Acts 13:1.
Now, in the church of Antioch, in Antioch, there were certain. Prophets and teachers. Barnabas? Simeon, who's called Niger. Lucius of Cyrene.
Manaean, who'd been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Watch this. As they ministered to the Lord, and what? Fasted. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit broke in and said, Now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
Then having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and they sent them on their way.
Now, listen to this. This is pivotal right here. Up to this moment, Christianity was just a localized religion on the seacoast of the Mediterranean. After this, boom, it goes global. After this, Christianity becomes the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.
Eventually, 1.5 billion people follow Jesus Christ as a result of this. 13 out of the 29 books of the New Testament were written as a result of that fast, right there. They need a direction from God. They fast God speaks. Young people.
This world is so crazy. You got so many voices in your ear. Mama's saying this, daddy's saying this, Facebook's saying that, my buddy's saying this, media is saying this. Stop. Take a week and fast and seek God's face, and those voices will be stilled.
And I guarantee you. You will hear the word of the Lord. God will give you some direction. It is impossible. Look at me.
It is impossible to fast and pray and not get a word from the Lord. He's going to speak to you. 1990, there was a... He's a football coach. Age's got a burden for men's ministry.
He's like, man, I want to see men come to Jesus. And he had such a burden, but he didn't know what to do with it.
So he called some of his best buddies and he said, guys, let's all just fast and pray every Wednesday. I think every Monday and Wednesday or every Wednesday. Let's just fast, get a word from the Lord. As they were fasting about what to do about men's ministry. God broke in and the Holy Spirit said, I want you to start this kind of ministry.
I want you to call it Promise Keepers. You're going to be doing this. You'll be doing that. And they launched something called Promise Keepers, the biggest men's ministry in history. Millions of people touched by this ministry, it was birthed out of fasting.
Hey, years ago. When we were at our other location. We're out of space, we don't know what to do, we got all kinds of challenges. And I had all kinds of people saying, hey, we need to do this, we need to do that, we need to do this, we need to do that. Here's what I did.
I went on a prayer and fasting retreat down to the beach. I said, God, I'm not leaving this. They'll find my skeleton out here on the beach. I ain't leaving here until I get a word from you. I fasted and prayed.
God spoke. God gave me a vision, and you're sitting in the vision God gave me as a result of that prayer and fasting. God speaks. Y'all believe that God speaks through fasting? He does.
So, why fast? Number one, you fast to get directions from the Lord. Number two, jot this down. You fast to receive God's supernatural provision.
So let me ask you this. Don't raise your hand yet, but if you need God's provision. In a financial situation, Maybe a health situation. A family situation. You just need God to give you something.
I need something from God, I need His provision. Raise your hand right now. Best thing you can do is fast. Let me give you two examples of this. In 2 Chronicles 20, multiple armies are about to come and just desolate, they're going to slaughter God's people.
You got it, these armies are coming, and kill everybody.
So, their king Jehoshaphat said, We don't have the army, we don't have the resources, we're dead. And in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 3, it says that Jehoshaphat feared, he was afraid. And set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a what? Fast. throughout all Judah.
So, Judah came together to ask help from the Lord, and from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. Here's the provision I need. I need to not get killed, God. They fast Call in the name of the Lord. If you read the rest of the chapter, they didn't do anything.
They just crossed their arms, and God comes and He destroys all their enemies. Would you I call that provision, wouldn't you? Here's another one. Ezra chapter 8. The king has just said.
God's people, you have been in captivity for decades. It's now time for y'all to be released and go back to Israel.
Okay. Now, there's a 900-mile journey that Ezra and the people have got to make from where they are. Back to Jerusalem. 900 miles is about from here to Key West. Could you imagine leading a whole group of people on foot from Raleigh to Key West?
There are hostile armies that want to slaughter him out there. All kinds of dangers on the road. They need food, they need water, they need protection, and the king who lets Ezra go says, Hey, Ezra, not only am I going to let you go, hey, do you want me to send my army to accompany you?
Now here's the problem. Ezra had said to that king, I'm sorry, we don't need your help. We trust in God. got to provide for us.
Now the king has said, you sure you don't want an army? Ezra says, if I say to the king, Yeah, come on, give us your army. That's going to contradict what I've just told him, that I trust in God.
So what does Ezra do? 900-mile march with all these innocent young people, they're sitting ducks. Ezra chapter 8, verse 21. Then I proclaimed a what? Fast.
There at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all of our possessions. You see what happened? We fasted. God provided and he led us safely back to Jerusalem.
Some of you need a provision from God right now. You need God to break through in your life in a powerful way. I was listening to the testimony of a man. He said, Me and my sister, we were estranged. We just.
Family issues had happened. We're estranged. Yeah. My sister, who's 41 years old. has paralysis in her face.
At first we thought it was Bell's palsy. Then the doctor said, no, we think might have been a stroke. Then the doctor came back and said, oh no, no. It's not a stroke, it's a tumor. and it's at the worst possible place in her brain.
She has between one month and maybe one year left to live, but that's it. But this guy did. He began to pray and fast. For his estranged sister. He said about 20 days Into that fast.
Out of the blue, I get a phone call from my sister. And she said. Just met with the doctors and they said they're not going to do chemotherapy. And he said, I was just crestfallen. She said the doctor said we're not going to do crest we're not going to do chemotherapy Because there ain't no tumor in your brain.
It's gone. And he said, My sister and I, she was healed, and we were reunited to each other.
So, if you've got a situation in your life, this might be the week to call on the name of the Lord for his provision.
So, why fast? If you need direction, you need to be fasting this week. If you need supernatural provision, you need to be fasting this week. And then, also, look at this: we fast to overcome Satan.
Now, I want you to see this passage before I share that. This is what we call a textual variant. The ancient manuscripts that some of the newer translations use doesn't have this word in it. The ancient manuscripts that the New King James and King James use do have in it.
Okay, so watch this. Jesus and his disciples are a mount of transfiguration. While they're up there in the valley, there's a man who brings this demon-possessed little kid to the disciples. He said, I heard y'all can cast out demons. They said, Yeah, we do it all the time.
He said, Cast the demon out of my son. He said, This demon is so horrible. When we're out at the campfire having s'mores, Demon throws my son into the fire, tries to burn him alive. He want he's trying to kill himself. How many of y'all know there is a spirit of suicide?
Did you know that? And this son has a spirit of suicide.
So, the disciples, they love God, they love Jesus, they're good guys. They're trying to cast the demon out and they can't. Jesus walks up, he says, what's the problem? They said, It's a hard case, Jesus. Nobody can cast this demon out.
This is the most stubborn demon we have ever met. That demon won't leave this kid. Jesus looks and he says, hey, demon. Get out. The demon leaves.
Later on they asked Jesus, they said, Jesus, why were we not able to cast the demon out. And Jesus, when you're these hard cases, Only come about, they're only solved, they're only remedied by prayer and Fasting.
Some of y'all have a demonic issue in your life. There's a stronghold in your life. Listen to me. Supernatural strongholds cannot be cast out by natural means. A lawyer can't cast it out.
Your counselor can't cast it out. Only the power of the Holy Ghost can cast out this demonic issue that's going on in your life. Sir, that porn issue in your life, it is satanic, it's demonic, you've been fighting it for 10 years. This is the week to pray and fast, and that stronghold's gonna be broken in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey.
Now, your cocaine issue. We got guys and ladies in our church that have substance abuse issues.
Some of that's actually dopamine. It's interesting that a lot of addiction issues deal with dopamine in your brain, and when you fast, it evens out that dopamine. That's kind of that connection of the divine and the supernatural. But this addiction will only be broken by prayer and fasting. You with me?
Hey, here's another one. They all clap for me on the cocaine thing, and you clap for me on the porn thing. Maybe you would Break your anxiety issue. If you start calling your anxiety issue What the Bible calls it. Do you know those repeated commandments in the Bible?
Do you know what it is? Don't be afraid. Fear not. Don't be afraid. And yet, some of y'all walk around afraid all the time, anxious all the time.
So maybe you ought to stop calling it a condition or an issue. Maybe you ought to call it what the Bible calls it, and it's disobedience. It's sin. God says to stop being anxious, but you keep being anxious. Oh, goodness.
No, all right. Y'all just share. Again, you lied the cocaine thing because y'all knew cocaine. You either porn thing because you're not a porn freak. I just hit you right where it hurts.
The Bible says this. You have not been given a spirit of Fear. That tells me there is a demonic spirit of fear. You pray. You fast, and this thing may be broken this week in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This fear issue you've been having all year, all decade, it may be broken this week. I used to preach this. You know, Jesus. Jesus fasted for 40 days. And then, at the end of the 40 days, here's how I used to preach, I'm preaching right now.
Then, Satan came. and tempted Jesus. That's Satan. He's so wicked. That's a cheap shot.
He comes to Jesus at the end of 40 days of fasting when Jesus is at his weakest. I don't preach it that way anymore. Physically, Jesus may have been at his weakest at the end of those 40 days, but spiritually, Jesus Christ was at his strongest. Satan made a strategic error. He attacks Jesus when Jesus is strong through the power of prayer and fasting.
And you will find strength rise up in you, and you'll overcome this mess through the power of the Holy Spirit when you pray and fast.
So why fast? You fast to get direction from the Lord. You fast to get provision from the Lord. You fast to overcome satanic attacks. I'm just, I'm gonna say it again.
Some of y'all gonna get victory this week. That's all I'm gonna say. All right, look, watch this. You fast. for friends and family to get saved.
Now, here's another textual variant like I talked about. This is only in the King James and New King James. You see this in Acts chapter 10, there's a seeker named Cornelius. He wants to get right with God. He wants the presence of God in his life.
And Cornelius calls the Apostle Peter to his house. And here's what it says in Acts 10:30. Cornelia said, Four days ago, I was fasting. Until this hour. Man's been fasting for four days.
He's been fasting for four days. Peter comes in. Preaches the gospel, Cornelius and his entire home, his wife, his kids, his servants, everybody gets saved. I think there's a connection. He fasted four days.
Everybody gets saved.
Okay, raise your hand again if you have a friend or family member. That needs Jesus. They need to get saved. It seems like the more you share Jesus, the harder it gets. Fast.
Fast. Talked to a lady a little while back. She was married to a great guy. She's a great lady, married to a great guy, he's just not saved. Not no interest in being saved.
And last year, I think we baptized him right up here. And I said, man, what in the world happened? She said, You know, I just decided I won't go and nag them to Jesus. Y'all do understand there's not a spiritual gift of nagging, right?
Okay. I'm not gonna nag. Just every Wednesday, I'm going to fast for my husband to get saved. She said, I started the fast every Wednesday and my husband got saved. It's just God does it.
Hey, I love this guy. There's a pastor named David Mohan. Pastors at a church in India, they have a prayer center where all they do is, 24/7, they pray and they fast. And he says the salvation testimonies are amazing. He said, we had a high-ranking Indian official, because this church is in India, going to a park to commit suicide.
He said, as he drives by our church. His nice, expensive, luxury car, the steering wheel starts to turn. He thinks there's steering wheel problems. He's like, What in the world's going on? The steering wheel.
locks, pulls into the church parking lot, and then shuts down. He's like, you know, this destroyed my life. I can't even kill myself right. He says, I'm so upset. I go into the church to get somebody to help me get my car started.
So I go to the park to commit suicide. And when I walk in, I meet Jesus Christ and He gets saved, and now He's a leader in that church. You think that's a coincidence that in an epicenter of fasting and praying, a guy gets saved? There's power in prayer and fasting. You fast if somebody needs to get saved in your life.
Let me give you a couple more here. You've oh, here's a good you fast. For prophetic dreams and visions. I'm going to explain this. Acts chapter 10.
Peter, the apostle. He's in the city of Joppa.
Some of y'all, if you sign up and go to Israel with me, I'm going to take you to the very spot where this happens this October. The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about a sixth hour. Then he became very hungry. He's hungry. He wants to eat, but while they made dinner ready, He fell into a trance and he saw heaven opened.
He has this prophetic vision from God. No, no, no, no, no, chat. God doesn't do that today. That's New Testament. He doesn't move like that today.
Who told you that?
Now who's preaching? You didn't get it from this book. I don't know what your Bible says. My Bible says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I believe God still speaks through dreams and visions.
Now, it doesn't carry the weight of Scripture, and it cannot contradict Scripture, but don't tell me God doesn't speak through dreams and visions. Tell that to the millions of Muslims in the Middle East who are getting saved in the Middle East because they're having visions and dreams of Jesus. He still moves today. About eighteen to thirty-six hours into your fast. This weird calm comes on your brain.
This quietness comes on your brain. And at that point, Your mind starts being open. to the spirit realm.
Now be careful. A lot of cults and demonic stuff use fasts to open their minds and their spirits to the spirit realm. And interesting, even the pagans understand the power of prayer.
So you test and weigh every spirit. But here's my point.
Something happens to you and you become more sensitive to that spiritual realm. 18 to 36 hours into this thing. I'm gonna say this as well. For those of you who are worried about, I can't go seven days or five days, whatever, I'll starve. I'll be so miserable.
Look, day one is hard. Day two is tough. Beginning day three, that hunger just goes away. And by day four, you're not hungry anymore. It's a really weird thing that happens.
But look. I know I'm making you uncomfortable, not about dreams and visions. I just got to stick with the Word of God. Jesus.
Sometimes God chooses to intervene in powerful ways. And when you fast, It opens the door to that spiritual realm. I understand. Be careful, test away the spirits, but be open to God speaking to you. Finally, so why fast?
I'll say to him. I don't know what direction to go. Do I marry this girl? D do I go to that college? Do I take that job?
I don't know. Don't call me and ask for Pastor Chad to counsel you. I'm not going to counsel you. Here's my counsel. The counselor is in.
I'm going to give you some counsel right now. You fast and you pray and you call in the name of the Lord, and God's going to give you direction. You fast to get supernatural. Provision. You fast if friends and family members need to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
This week, bring it before the Lord as you fast, and God's gonna move in their life. You fast, and God begins to move in that spirit realm. Finally, this is my favorite one. You fast to rekindle. That passion for Jesus, your passion for God, I love you, but some of your passion has gone cold and dead.
A lethargy has set into your life. When I mention Jesus or God, it's whatever. I'm just telling you. When you begin to fast, watch this. I didn't say this first service, say it to y'all.
Fasting? is feasting On Jesus.
Some of you Don't raise your hand on this one.
Some of you, your walk with Jesus Christ has grown so Yeah. Cold. I'll be honest with you. I wouldn't exactly say that my walk with Jesus has grown cold. But man, I look in the past at some of those passionate times I had with the Lord and how on fire I was from the Lord.
And I don't know if it's age, I don't know if it's a lot of responsibility, I don't know what it is, but that passion isn't what it used to be. You know the Bible says, return to your first love. That's what I want to do. I want to return to that first love for Jesus. Look, I love them.
Church, as much as I love that woman. I'm in love with somebody else. And it's a man.
Okay. And his name is Jesus. And I want that passion to be stoked. The book of Joel, here's what's happened. God's people used to walk with God, and they were on fire for God.
Then they got rich, fat, and sexy. Crops are good, economy is good, stocks, markets are going through the roof. We don't need you anymore, God. And they wandered from God. Locusts have come in and destroyed everything.
Now, that might not mean a lot to you, but when you're in an agrarian society dependent upon crops, locusts are devastating. The economy is gone, their savings are gone, their food is gone, and now they come back to God. If I ever got to be aware, okay. When things are going good, you don't need me.
Now that the world has bottomed out, now you want to come back to it? That's what I would have done. Hear what God says in Job? I've been waiting for y'all to come back. I've been watching and longing for you to come back.
I'm not going to excoriate you. No, come back. God says in Joel chapter 2, verse 12: Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with. Fasting. And weeping.
And morning. Tear your heart, don't tear your clothes. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious, He's merciful, He is slow to anger, He's of great kindness, and He relents from doing harm. Fasting can reignite your walk with God more than anything else. It reignites your passion for Jesus.
You start feasting on Jesus. You draw closer to Jesus. You return to that first love. Through fasting. And some of y'all here are lethargic.
Spiritually? You're uninterested in Jesus. You find yourself going through the motions. I say for a week, just one week. Can you put aside food and Facebook and the news?
Can you push all that aside and just come back to Jesus? I read a or heard a man True story, talk about his wife. He'd been married to her for 55 years. His wife died. He said, after she died, I found her journal, and he said, the saddest thing I've ever written was in her journal.
It said this. I love my husband so much, but he is so busy. I wish he would push everything aside and sit across from me, from the table, and look me in the eyes and talk to me. Jesus is saying the same thing. I love them so much.
The Father looks at you and says, I love y'all so much. Would y'all just take a week and push it aside and sit across from me and reconnect with me? I'm telling you, look, some of you want financial help, some of you want. Family help, some of you want psychological help. You want all that.
Can I tell you something? When you get Jesus, you get all that other stuff thrown in. You just need more of Jesus.
So this week. I'm gonna say it again. Again, if you only miss a meal, or if you only miss one meal every other day, whatever, do whatever Jesus tells you to do. I'm not your personal Holy Spirit. You do what Jesus is telling you to do.
I'm going to ask, 95% of you can take one day and not eat anything. A lot of y'all can take two or three days.
Some of them try to go all seven days. And here's my instructions: push all that aside and get close to Jesus. Draw closer to the Lord Jesus Christ for one week. Can you turn off the secular music and just surround yourself with praise and worship music for just one week? Can you do that?
Hey, did you know Satan used to be over the worship in heaven? Did you know that? Do you know Satan still loves music? He loves a lot of the music y'all listening to. Maybe I ought to turn that off just for one week and surround yourself with praise and worship music.
Hey, for one week, can you say? Family, I know this is gonna sound weird, but I'm not going to be joining you for dinner tonight. I'm going to take about 20 minutes while y'all eat. I'm going to go just get along with Jesus for a few minutes. Hey, for one week.
Can you just be in the word of God?
Some of you who don't know your Bibles, let's do this. For this week, let's focus on the book of Matthew and the book of John as you're fasting, because as you start consuming the bread of the word of God, man should not live by bread alone, but he will live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Be in Matthew, be in John. Read the word and let it be a personal love letter from Jesus to you. Hey, for one week.
Can you go on a prayer walk? And just listen to Jesus. For one week. Can you draw them closer? to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am a dying man. preaching to dying people. Our time is short, church. Jesus is coming back soon. Mm-hmm.
Man, I want him to come back and find an on-fire church led by an on-fire pastor who loves Jesus more than anything else. Would you stand with me right now? Let's consecrate church as, hey, as a congregation. Let's congreg. Let's consecrate ourselves to Jesus right now.
Jesus this week. We're pushing aside food. Jesus this week. We're pushing aside stimulants and caffeine and Facebook and all that. We're pushing aside this week and we draw near to you with rended hearts, oh Lord.
We push all that aside and we draw closer to you this week, Jesus. I proclaim In the name of Jesus Christ. Demonic strongholds will be broken this week. In the name of Jesus. I proclaim.
Marriages will be healed through fasting this week. I proclaim cancers will be healed this week. I proclaim signs and wonders and the presence of God this week. Hey, team, come on out here. I don't want y'all to sing this song.
Don't sing this song. I want you. To pray this song to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are like me, you can come down front if you want to and lift up hands. If there's anybody else in this place that is hungry for the presence of Jesus to break open in their lives, raise your hands, raise your voices, and let's pray this song to the Lord Jesus Christ right now.
Mr. No. Pace I'd rather be No place that I'd rather be No place that I'd rather be That here in your love, here in your love No place I'd rather be No place that I'd rather be No place that I'd rather be Then hearing your love signal plays that I'd rather be No place I'd rather be. Been hearing your love, hearing your love. Set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't.
Can't control. I want more of you, God. I want more of you, God. So set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you, God.
I want more of you, God. So set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you, God. I want more of you, God. So set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control.
I want more of you, God. I want more of you, God. Jesus is going to visit. your family this week. He's gonna visit your soul this week.
Jesus is going to break through in your life in a powerful way. This week, I speak that. I ask you, do you receive that? This is going to be the week of your Visitation. God like God's going to do something big this week.
Now, listen to it. When God moves, the devil moves.
So you better, if you're serious about Jesus. You better expect some demonic attacks this week. I'm gonna take some. The best, most backhanded compliment Satan can give you is when he attacks you. Because Satan's a lot of things, but he ain't stupid.
He's not going to waste his energy on lethargic Christians who don't care. But when he sees you get cheers about Jesus and he realizes God might do something significant through you, when he sees that, he attacks.
So get ready. this week for some satanic attacks. Which is why I gotta speak this into you. Every week I speak this in.
Now look. I'm not speaking in tongues.
Somebody said, got back to it. They're like, why is your pastor speaking tongues at the end of every service? I'm speaking in Hebrew, okay? All right. But as you go forward this week And the enemy attacks you.
And you put on the armor. And you fight through the weapon of prayer and fasting and faith. As you start Fighting this weapon through praying in the Holy Spirit, and the enemy comes against you and starts attacking you. Do not forget, Khazak Be Amatz. I rode the article.
Which means be bold. Be strong. Don't be afraid. You don't be terrified of anything. Why?
Because the Lord your God is going to be with you everywhere you go this week. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Go change that world for Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
