Today is the first day of our church's mid year prayer and fasting.
My friend told me a few weeks ago that fasting is the one thing he never thought of doing... I think it's because as much as he loves Jesus, he also really likes to eat hehe! And that's fine, I love to eat too! But while it's not something that we impose on others, it's always great to purposefully seek God in a deeper way as we look back on the first half of the year (time flies really fast!) and with eyes fully focused on Jesus, to realign our will to His.
My sisters and I started joining prayer and fasting a couple of years ago and we can attest that it's a spiritual eye-opener unlike any other because you're right smack at the feet of Jesus... by denying ourselves physically, we are better in tune to hear from Him and see Him clearly.
Seeing God clearly
Sometimes, I feel like my mind just wanders these days, and I get stuck in the daily grind if I don't intentionally see God in the things around me.
But upon looking back, God has been so good and faithful to me and my family. So many breakthroughs have happened this year, like my dad has started attending church 3x straight already (whoopeeee!), he is about to start his chemo in a few weeks and so far the doctor and the lab results came out with good signs of his body...
I also started leading my own victory group after trying for the past 2 years (lol!), and I'm getting geared up to fly to Vietnam for missions with our team in September! It was God who also planted this desire in me to go out for missions during the prayer and fasting last January. A few months after, He orchestrated opportunities and people for me to develop and use that desire for His glory.
So start looking back and see God's hands in everything that happened to you in the past year, and thank Him for it... 🙂
Hearing Him Audibly
You know how sometimes we like something to happen so bad, that we start confusing our own voice to God's?
There are also desires and longings in our hearts that we have to lift up to God for Him to make clear whether it is from Him, because these may just be ourselves or the enemy talking...Yup, that happens every so often even when we read our Bible everyday and attend discipleship group...
There may be something in our hearts and minds that need pruning.
Through fasting, we are able to hear clearly for His voice, granting us the discernment and obedience needed to surrender all areas of our lives to Him.
Building our Faith Muscles
This is also the time when we list down our Faith Goals for the year for the church, the nation, the next generation, etc. Now that we see how big our God is, we are able to trust that He is a God of breakthroughs and He will make all these things come to pass according to His will.
I actually just looked at my top 3 goals for the year and I realize the littleness of my faith...
So instead of saying "good results of dad's chemo sessions", I wrote "to be cleared of cancer by year end, " and instead of "safety, provision, fruitfulness of our 10 days team to Vietnam", I added "for favor and blessings to be upon the locals and the full time missionaries of Vietnam.
Refocusing on Jesus expands our eyes to see Him for who He is, and exercises our spiritual muscles to believe for greater things in His name.
It's past 1pm and I am starting to be hungry.. Lol! Welcome to the mid-year prayer and fasting! Praying for transformed hearts, minds and audacious breakthroughs for you dear readers, in Jesus' name!
My friend told me a few weeks ago that fasting is the one thing he never thought of doing... I think it's because as much as he loves Jesus, he also really likes to eat hehe! And that's fine, I love to eat too! But while it's not something that we impose on others, it's always great to purposefully seek God in a deeper way as we look back on the first half of the year (time flies really fast!) and with eyes fully focused on Jesus, to realign our will to His.
My sisters and I started joining prayer and fasting a couple of years ago and we can attest that it's a spiritual eye-opener unlike any other because you're right smack at the feet of Jesus... by denying ourselves physically, we are better in tune to hear from Him and see Him clearly.
Seeing God clearly
Sometimes, I feel like my mind just wanders these days, and I get stuck in the daily grind if I don't intentionally see God in the things around me.
But upon looking back, God has been so good and faithful to me and my family. So many breakthroughs have happened this year, like my dad has started attending church 3x straight already (whoopeeee!), he is about to start his chemo in a few weeks and so far the doctor and the lab results came out with good signs of his body...
I also started leading my own victory group after trying for the past 2 years (lol!), and I'm getting geared up to fly to Vietnam for missions with our team in September! It was God who also planted this desire in me to go out for missions during the prayer and fasting last January. A few months after, He orchestrated opportunities and people for me to develop and use that desire for His glory.
So start looking back and see God's hands in everything that happened to you in the past year, and thank Him for it... 🙂
Hearing Him Audibly
You know how sometimes we like something to happen so bad, that we start confusing our own voice to God's?
There are also desires and longings in our hearts that we have to lift up to God for Him to make clear whether it is from Him, because these may just be ourselves or the enemy talking...Yup, that happens every so often even when we read our Bible everyday and attend discipleship group...
There may be something in our hearts and minds that need pruning.
Through fasting, we are able to hear clearly for His voice, granting us the discernment and obedience needed to surrender all areas of our lives to Him.
Building our Faith Muscles
This is also the time when we list down our Faith Goals for the year for the church, the nation, the next generation, etc. Now that we see how big our God is, we are able to trust that He is a God of breakthroughs and He will make all these things come to pass according to His will.
I actually just looked at my top 3 goals for the year and I realize the littleness of my faith...
So instead of saying "good results of dad's chemo sessions", I wrote "to be cleared of cancer by year end, " and instead of "safety, provision, fruitfulness of our 10 days team to Vietnam", I added "for favor and blessings to be upon the locals and the full time missionaries of Vietnam.
Refocusing on Jesus expands our eyes to see Him for who He is, and exercises our spiritual muscles to believe for greater things in His name.
It's past 1pm and I am starting to be hungry.. Lol! Welcome to the mid-year prayer and fasting! Praying for transformed hearts, minds and audacious breakthroughs for you dear readers, in Jesus' name!
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