So now we are on module five, the final module, which is neurology 501 advanced strategies for when do you need breakthrough prayers. So this now again, we have the first four, those will what you need to understand the science and art of praying effectively. This is like some folks would say, icing on the cake. So, in 501, we are saying, this is an advanced strategy. When you need Greg, it means that I'm desperate. I'm in a place where I really need something to happen.

This strategy can be one of those things that will take you over the top. So let's continue. What do I do when all else fails? And I'm in that jam and I really, really need a break. Now. What I'm saying is this.

Let's say you apply the principles, you follow the protocol, you've met the condition upon which the promises are made. in your life, there are no issues that will forfeit the the promise okay? You even perceive in prayer, as we just said, you verify that, hey, this is in harmony with the Word of God. And I have a reason to claim and to come before him to request what I'm requesting, okay? If that is it, and nothing still seems to happen, brothers and sisters, hold on, there is something else that you can do. All right, there's something else that you can do.

And that's what module five, this is the heart of module five. This is what I want you to know. We have not spoken about this yet. But this is the advanced strategy that I'm giving you now, right here are you in fact, we always go to the Bible. Matthew 1714, to 21 gives us this principle. In the beginning of Matthew 17, we saw Jesus and three of his disciples on what we call the mountain of Transfiguration.

Their Jesus revealed more of his glory to these you know, inner circle disciples, the other disciples Now, let's say they are down in the valley because they went up to the mountain so when they came back down to the valley again, notice a difference right on the money. In, it's all great, but we can't even stay there. Some don't want to stay on the mountain we know so that you got to go back down to the valley because the valleys where life happens. All right? We need to go up to the mountain to get that refreshing. But hey, Moses still had to come back down to the valley, all the great folks that are still come back down to the valley, that's where the people are.

That's where life happened. That's where reality takes place. So now, the other disciples, they are not they will go. I mean with Jesus, right? Well, they're not up there with God, right? God is doing that then, you know, seeing all of this marvelous thing happening.

So they have a situation now, you know, of course, they were the crowd, they were the people, the people are coming to them. Jesus is not around. So I'm coming to you. You're a representative of Christ. And so you can't even solve my problem. Isn't that what happens to us too?

Right? We supposed to be Christ representative or God's representative on Earth. We said we are the children of God. We're here we can't do the things that God do something is wrong, something is off. So people in the world that's what I'm saying. You're looking at us and say, Oh, no, you know better than you Me.

So why should I accept your dad? When you have? You look just the same like me you like the same like me with the same financial debacle? You? Your health is no better than mine your family your marriage is no better than mine. What what?

Why should I serve your dad? It seems like you're living by the same principles I'm living by. Because you are no better than me. I'm telling you, these are the things this is saying the world is looking on and say look at those people. They are just like us. It's like Mahatma Gandhi said he doesn't have any problem with our Christians, but it would all Christ but he has a problem with all Christians because unlike their Christ, Christians don't look like guys.

There's a lot to be said of that. Now let's get to the story. I want to read it to you. And as we carve out the principles. So first thing he says now when they talk about Jesus and the three disciples when they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, the man came to him kneeling down, saying, Lord have mercy upon my son, for he is an epileptic which means he has seizures and he suffers greatly or severely He often falls into the fire into the water. So in other words, this this father now is like, I need you to help my son, my son is in this situation I needed to heal him.

And but guess what, Jesus I brought him to your disciples, but they could not kill him. Ah, you see that the people knew that Jesus could kill the people knew that Jesus could heal. The people know that his disciples, Jesus was always with his disciples and the disciples were always with Jesus. So therefore, if they are with Jesus, the people assume that they can do what Jesus they're telling you. We got to learn something. That's why again, I'm glad today that even Jesus says that we should come straight to the Father in his name.

Why? Because Yeah, don't come to me, you. Many of us we want to we want to church to do for us, our pastors to do let me tell you, no one has more power and access to God than you do. That's why it says come boldly. Some people are still going to priests and other things to ask for forgiveness. Listen, your priests, whoever you go to is a sinful And just the same, they need forgiveness as well.

All right, we confess our faults to each other, but God is the one who forgives all sin. And that's what you got to go through. You got straight divine access, straight divine access to God. So don't bring your problems to men to solve. That's why we say you know, favorite people is good. But guess what you need favorite, the God of the universe, we need God.

When God moves his mighty right hand things happen, prayers that move him and that's what it's all about. We want to move the arms that move the world. So this is the debacle. What is this man to do? He has an urgent need. He wants his son to be well, the disciples can solve it.

Let's see what Jesus did about the situation. Then Jesus answered and said, All faithless are unbelieving notice again, without faith is impossible to please listen to the man had a knee but Jesus was responding to fate. See, again, that's what I'm telling you. So many of us we have needs, your needs. Lesson. There.

It does not matter if you have needs and great ones. God is saying Do you have Faith, because faith was activated the blessings of God. So Jesus, God responds to faith. So that's why he said, Oh fadeless I don't believe in and perverse generation, perverted generation, you have corrupt. Notice again, are these the same things that we talked about that forfeits the lessons and the answers to prayer one of it we said, if you are in doubt, you're not in faith, you can expect answers to prayer. If you're perverted and corrupted, you can expect answers to prayer.

So this is what Jesus is now showing them. Listen, you are out of order. He says, How long will I be with you or shall I bear with you? Right? Bring him here. But notice no Jesus repute.

In other words, he's severely chided or censor of forbid that demon and the demon came out of the of the medicine and the child was killed. He restored that same moment, by the way, not no long answers to prayer, not no long wait and notice again, I don't know how long Jesus on the mountain of Transfiguration. I don't know how Long the disciples are trying to cast out this demon, you know, so forth. But I'm sure they tried a while, because the man said I brought it to them and they couldn't do it. So, but notice the difference we got Jesus on the scene, he spoke the word, again with the authority of his word. Demons came out that very moment, they didn't have to take weeks and months and years, and so forth.

By the way, isn't it interesting, most of the most of all the healings in the Bible, in the New Testament that Jesus did, he says, Can straightaway or immediately and at that moment, or right away, they were healed. God answers prayer swiftly. Right, we're gonna talk about Daniel later on. Are you getting this? Are you getting this? So the reason?

One of the reasons we are already seeing here now is the lack of faith and the perversion amount of people. Jesus now is going to answer his own disciples privately, because they know no embarrass. I'm sure the word bias is my old man, because now the top of the tongue was like You know, perhaps among the people that Well, those disciples don't don't, if you got somebody who need them here, don't bring up to those disciples, they can't hear nobody, you know, and that was also a good thing because they need to go to God himself, but the disciples, Christ ambassadors, likewise, you and I are supposed to be Christ ambassadors on this earth now. So let's continue. 19 says that disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, Why could we not cast it out? So that's the legitimate question.

And that's what you asked you to do. What Why is my prayer not been answered? Why can I can solve the problem in my life, the demon in my life? Why can I cast out the poverty stricken mindset attitude? Why can I cast out all these issues that are going on my marriage, keep being suck husband, my wife can behave and you know, and all of these things are happening? Why God, why is it that these things are happening?

Notice Jesus's response. He says, Jesus said to them, because of your own belief, same thing as the people He said, said to them, all you fadeless generation. Now he's telling his disciples or because of your own belief, remember, without faith is impossible to please God. Again, that's what comes back to that. The original translation when you look at that word on belief as well, it also has the connotation or your little faith. Right?

Notice Jesus was always rebuke and Is this how many times Think about it, when you read the New Testament? You know, the Gospels about Jesus and his disciples, how many times that he rebuked them for having faith, you know, oh, you have little faith. Oh, why did you die? Oh, you didn't have no faith. You see, he was teaching them over and over this issue of faith very early on. Most assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, and notice, notice that it must the seed is so small, and Jesus will say that's more faith, or they had no faith.

So in other words, they had even less than even the grain of mustard seeds. If we don't read it that way. We're thinking about it because he said, notice, he said If you have faith, as big as just a mustard seed, which is like, Where's the pen? I have a pig, right? So he has a pin. And mustard seed is just like the tip of this pen right here.

He says, if you have just mustard seed fit just like that, even that we that you can say to this mountain, or this problem or this issue, move, depart, and it shall depart. Why? Because nothing is impossible for us. Whoo. Even people afraid don't believe this. People say don't believe this.

See, we always said nothing is impossible for God. But Jesus isn't because you serve God nothing is impossible for you. Nothing should be impossible for us, my friends. That's why rule poses a Roman sin itself sensual no longer have dominion over you. Why is it having dominion over and again, he said, this is a victory that all comes to war, even our faith is again you see the role of faith. Faith puts us in possession of all of the blessings of God.

And that's why when you understand prayer, now prayer that And faith combined now brings you into access, claiming, holding on to the very promises of God. You gotta activate your faith, but there's only one way that you can really activate your faith and you got to get that word. You got to understand and studied, I would not care less reading too many of us are reading the Word. We're not studying the world, you study your school book. See, that's the difference. Many of us we read the Bible, but you're not studying the Bible.

So you can understand it. Reading is a part of studying, but reading is surface reading will not give you full comprehension. One has to read and study analyze, like a detective. So when you go to school, that's why they give you quizzes and assignments to test your understanding of the material. See, life is our test. And when we keep failing, it says, We have not studied we have not studied.

So Jesus said, nothing shall be impossible for you. So now they understood why didn't receive the answers, because they were praying. Because if they were trying to cast the demon out, obviously they were praying, they probably were invoking the name of Jesus, but nothing was happening. So same thing could be happening right now. all else fails. I've tried this, try that nothing works God, what do I do?

So Jesus now has given us something here. So I hope that you get two points. One is we need to be more in faith, because you can keep that faith and that's why if you give up faith does not become you know, faith is not overcome. Faith does not give in or give up. But there's still something and this is one of the secrets known in verse 21. That I love.

He said, however, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. And let that sink in. So one you got to pray. But there's some things that are so deep, some things that are so stressful Some things that are so you know, it's like give some demons today like say, let me tell you, Paul, and Jesus, I know, but who are you? Right? Do you feel like that's a problem?

Look at us something like that. Who are you? Who are you to even use the name of Jesus by using this name of Jesus because that's what we like to say in the name of Jesus, I rebuke I cast you out. And the problem was looking at us like, please, you haven't even read your Bible in so long, you know, so so they are stubborn problems. And they don't they don't budge, because we're not in faithful one. We not met the conditions for one, the seminar and I find the light or whatever the reason.

And so when that happens, and the problem is not budget, you got to take it to the next level. So this is called next level praying. You got to go. I know you guys to get to crane, and you got to add the fast into it. I asked you a question. When is the last time you fasted?

I'm telling you people have faith. People have faith in the West especially. We don't we don't practice these spiritual disciplines as often as we need to. See, Jesus was born as why his disciples didn't fast. And here's what he said. As long as the bridegroom is with them, in other words, as long as he's with them, they don't need to fast because he's that he's there.

But he said, when the bridegroom is taken away, then do it fast. Hasn't he been taken away? Yeah, is he in the heavens Of course. So now it is time for us to be fasted. But we don't do that as a as a spiritual discipline. This discipline, coupled with the science of prayers can be the thing that only blocks any problem in your life.

Jesus was clear when the demon of your life and not leaving, when the tribulations and trials you're going through and that budget, it does not go out with anything else, but plan faster. So we got to add that on there. So let's talk about the power of fast. So this is the time for us now as God's people to be spending quality time in both prayer and fasting is a quotation from the book last the events page 82 it says no, and onward to the close of time, the people of God should be more earnest, more wide awake, not trusting their own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their leader in it. And they should set aside days my friends for fasting and prayer. There you have it.

So what is fasting? fasting is simply this. It is voluntary abstinence from physical nourishment, like food, eat and drink or a combination of both. So in other words, one can fans from food I want to fast from drinking with generally we find them together. So that's physical nourishment, but what's the reason? So that's what I'm saying?

So for example, that's why I said there's always a biblical and you know, because fasting itself, of course we know by its very simple nature is abstinence of food. So people do that for health reasons, but they're not doing it for spiritual reasons. But we look at the Word of God, we see that again, you're fat, we don't just want to fast to abstain from food. Otherwise, what good are you doing? the pagans do that. That's another way of saying that right?

Regular average people do that is a good health benefit. But that's not the reason why we are fasting. Now, if you want to lose weight, it is a good practice to, but again, that's not what we're talking about. It is fasting for spiritual reasons for a certain period of time in order to seek God for special or specify requests that are burdens that are on our hearts and minds. So that's the difference of biblical fasting. So the world has its own way.

This is what I'm saying is in the Bible, people fast as you see them just fast and because they wanted to fast or lifesaver food, no, it was always The reason why and I'm going to give you some of the reasons why we should fast in the moment. I hope you get in this. Now, what will fasting accomplish or why should we fast? Okay, let's see answers to prayer. I mean, why else will we do it? We need answers, we need breakthroughs.

There's like Jesus said, you need the demons cast out. It's not over. Nothing else works. So I gotta do faster. divine guidance. I need guidance, any wisdom, any strategic insight.

That's what I'm saying. It doesn't matter if you're a business owner. If you're in church, if you're a teacher, stay at home, Mom, whoever you are. Prayer works for every area of your life. You don't have to say prayer, just a spiritual thing. Prayer is for everybody.

Everyone who is a follower of GOD understands God, who want a relationship with God as children of God. Listen, my friend, you have to pray. Prayer is power. Prayer puts you in possession of the promises and blessings of God. So if you have if you need victory over sins and temptations or struggles, addictions, having seasons of fasting will help with their promise blessing. Again, remember we talked about that earlier?

Right. Good, somebody Then you hold on to the promise it seems to be delayed or seems to be a no but if you certain is that not a no, then the delay does not mean denial. So you keep holding on. So you have to have faith and you need to be fast and sometimes in possession of it or if you really need it and it's like that, you know, you got to cleanse be purify me, but I'm not letting you go to your blessing. So that's the that's the Jacob attitude, pardon, forgiveness, restoration. All of these things are reasons why we should fast when we really need a breakthrough in any of these particular areas of blessings, that we should add fast into our prayers.

How long should we fast again, there's no specified time in the Bible of when to pray, right? I mean, went too fast and when to pray, we'll, we'll also cover that in the very first module. But how long is determined by the need that you have at hand? Okay, so there we go. There's no specific length of time that's necessarily mentioned. So but the situation whenever you go into the issue or need that you have at the moment should determine how long you fires.

Right, because let's say you fast for a day, the answer comes, okay, good. You don't need to continue fast, right? But sometimes it's longer. As we're going to see here, let's look at some examples. In the Bible we find people fasted all night like, you know, King Davis. We have three days, Esther, remember that situation, when, you know, the decree went out to kill the Jews, that we have that for certain days.

In other words, and unquantified number as we find a name I want certain days could mean some days on many days, but we don't have a specified number, but we know He fasted for days, two weeks, two times per week, also, as mentioned in Luke 18. And then we find a seven days 40 days where we have again, Moses, fastest 40 days, Elijah for 40 days, Jesus fastest 40 days, and that seems to be the maximum that we have in the Bible. Now. Is there any deep problem that we have that we need to go for the days I mean, that's a tough one. But I'm just saying, if that's the situation, maybe the Lord be with you and help you. But at the same time, I know most of our problems probably would not require 40 days fast.

I think Jesus for that for us, but there's some people who have gone through that I've heard testimonies of people who have gone You know, that long time of fasting as well. Some I've seen churches on television and different thing like that have gone 21 days of fasting. But notice this though, again, that many things to that, especially in the West, we got to fast for everything. You know what, again, strictly speaking, and biblically speaking, fasting, yes, you can pass with TV, internet, and we shouldn't do that because we need to do some of those things. But that by itself is not really necessarily the kind of fantasy that we talked about. Fast and specifically in the scripture has been about abstaining from food so you can give all of your focus your being to the attitude of prayer and seeking that if you're not seeking a prayer fasting doesn't mean anything.

Right now becomes a shoe Marriage this becomes another thing because again you fight let's say you fast on the phone or the internet, but then you're not training at reading your Bible with that extra time then what good is it? Is that I'm saying so that by itself biblically speaking, that's not the kind of fast are we talking about? That's a good practice is a good thing. You can do that. Okay? I'm not against it either.

But I'm saying you probably will not receive that. So do you pray if you simply just don't watch TV or you say you fasted from whatever it may be fasting from this pie or whatever, you're not gonna lose weight by just fasting from the pie for there to say, so you can do that for health reasons. And you should because sometimes we need to abstain and give the body a chance to recoup. But we are talking about I need a spiritual breakthrough. I need things to happen. I need answers to my prayer I need I need any finances.

I need resources to do things. And listen, if God doesn't come through, my mortgage is not going to be paid. If God doesn't come through this sick one because the DAP is over. given up there's no cure for my stuff and so the only person who can answer is God and I need an answer for me that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Okay, that's the kind of stuff I find the Bible is talking about too. So all the other type of fasting and all this nice stuff everybody read and books and all kinds of creative class do that but that's not what the script is really talking about.

And you probably wouldn't get the results that you're hoping to expect so do those things again I'm not against them but if you really want to stick with what we talked about here go again you see all this text I give you too. I don't just tell you my opinions. We only go by the word of God. All right. Get we just that that one hour mark so I need to flip through quickly these Okay, why should you fast so we know how long we should fast. It doesn't matter.

Well, when should we fast again generally doesn't matter. We have find many examples in the Bible. People faceted by river At home, in the bedroom, or chambers or private chamber, even in a pilot, so again, those who are rich and loyal, you can fast in your nice place as well, in the wilderness, on a mountain, in the provinces or districts. So again, this could be where we have like a city wide, fast or, you know, say, in the rural areas wherever, on the ground on the fraud. I mean, you know, David, he was on the map. So we find a lot of different things in the Bible of places, locations, and postures in fastened.

So the principle here is just fast, right? Don't worry about the wear, and don't worry about the length of time versus set a time. And sometimes again, the problem determines where and how long because you might say is that route for all night, all night fast, nothing happens, hey, I'm going another day, two days, three days a week, because the answer still does not count. So you keep going until you get the answer. Okay. By the way, 111 Quick disclaimer here to which is in the book president Mohammed in a very bad if you are hypoglycemic if you are diabetic, pregnant and these type of things so make sure that you have some, you know, physician kind of advice in addition to what we talked about for your own health.

Okay? Don't be crazy about it too. So some people again, God wants to hear prayer. Isn't that like penance now that's another thing we got to separate it's not like Oh, man, I gotta do this kind of laceration on my body so God can hear me No, that's not what it is. If that's the case, then go fast because guess what? Now you're putting that into like pagan gods guys, not requiring us to go on these these pilgrimages and do penance like that.

That's not what this is about. This is about bringing our hearts and our mind and our total dedication of focus to bear to seek and get more clarity and some that we need. You know, set aside time for that because we are too busy in our world today. So let's look at some examples of biblical fasting real quick so we can again get the picture. So look, for example, remember this one is Moses 40 days 40 nights on the mountain, when you receive the deck allow or the 10 commandments. That was a fast he said he didn't eat or drink.

So that was divine sustenance right there because I'm like, Whoa, that's a long time. But God was able to sustain it on the Day of Atonement, once a year when the people of God when the sanctuary was be cleansed, and there was supposed to be going through the season of, you know, confessing all these sins and writing all wrongs and, and the priests was clearing out the hole, all that mess that happened in the sanctuary for for for the whole year, that people are supposed to spend that time in prayer and fasting. Also, we find Upon the death of a friend or family you know, this the time again, no, the heart is agonizing you in grief and sorrow. So that's another time when you see people fasted into depression and anxiety are private emotions, sickness and afflictions. We see Those are time of prayer and fasting as well as he so again when we look at this one The last time we fasted because someone died when was the last time we fasted because we ourselves are sick or someone else's sick was the last time we fasted because it seemed like we can't get out of this depression cycle.

You see, we don't do that kind of stuff, or get in times of impending danger or fear, right. So sometimes again, I've seen this happen once before on a mission trip again. You know, sometimes we see natural disasters, hurricanes, tornadoes, and so forth come in we don't even pray we just, you know, we take over we should do that to take cover, but I'm just saying how is it the best people can intercede and sometimes prevent some of these things will happen. Right? So sad news for ordination into our dedication to the gospel ministry. So this is what we see, you know, elders being separated.

For for the work of ministry we have an example of panna to the Prophet is who after she lost her husband, she dedicated all of her time to create a faster day and night In the temple, so national prayer and repentance, for example, like today in the West, right? I think today, we have every the first Thursday of May we have a National Day of Prayer. So that can be a time of fasted also. Okay. And after defeat in battle, so here we had God's people went out on his word, by the way, they went out on his authority, and they lost the battle. And they came back and they began to weep.

And it says they fasted, because they want to know, Hey, man, we did what God was asking us to do. Again, you see, did you see the example? I'm saying they actually took God and His Word went out to fight the battle, and they lost the battle. And instead they came back, and they were, and they saw God because this doesn't make sense. But they didn't just pray the fast it as well. They have stem from food because they were putting this time aside to see God's will in his face again, make sure that they actually heard correct, or did they miss something?

Was this in whatever the case may be? So that's, those are examples. So what elements We find now in genuine fast if you've got a fast what are the things how what what things are involved in genuine fast and again we go into this because some things only go out by prayer and fasting okay according to Matthew 1721 or Mark 929 so what's involved What does genuine fasting look like much prayer? Again if you if you want to be faster than that grade, you may send out something that's that's not biblical faster, intimate and contract confession. So again, this is soul searching. That's what I'm saying.

When we go in our daily prayers sometimes we are so rushed again. We don't have time to analyze or have the Holy Spirit of God really reveal on search. That's why David, when he came in again, that's why we love David. David said, search me O God, you know, try me see if there be any wicked with me see, he want the piercing eyes of God to reveal the things that are online Christ so he can get what get rid of them. suffer for heart. We see that with Esther CT Deep searching okay that goes in line with what we just said also you got it you know so soul searching, going through that fast with God in mind and do it what is right so you don't you know go say I'm fasting and then I'm committing sin over here I'm fasting I'm gonna go do some bad or evil things there or you don't fast your way out of gas will either say you know something that we think we're going to pray more pre Hana and then we said we want to fast so we can not do what God called us to know if you really see what the fast Nova will bring you right back to square one son daughter you got to do what I actually do.

Okay? fast with true motives remember we just also read that from James but also if you read Isaiah is that these people are calling upon me. And you know is this the kind of fans that I've asked you to do? Right? You're not taking care of the homeless you're not providing food and clothing for those who are naked you're not doing these things and now you come in and clear it out to be said this man the kind of fast and a massive, right God wants us to be just fine. And help the poor and all of these kind of things so fast in with true motives help and also restitution.

Are you aware that sometimes again, again, going with these many things to us, but restitution is something that we don't see in genuine confession among God's people that repentance, there is an element of Yes. When God forgives you of your sin. He's also asking you to make things right with others. So restitution we have to do that as well. Avoid display and vanity remember, he told his disciples Don't be like the hypocrites at Pharisees, you know, they kind of go around with their face dragged out so people can know that they fast they know he said, actually, when you fast and try to make it look like you know, faster, so I mean, you know, faster. So in other words, you're not trying to be, you know, public out there with everybody fast and therefore should be like, it's a private thing.

Now a group of people should get fast so that way everybody knows. That's different. But we talked about doing it for a show, like you know, to show people that you're so holy and righteous that what you do None faster you know i mean like let me try to be proud of pride prideful about it. So that's not what we're looking for get let's continue here next slide elements of fast and James for 17th James for seven to 11 which by the way is an answer to versus verse three to one that we talked about you know you pray you're gonna receive because you actually want motive he goes in to tell them how to remedy that. So these are some elements of fasting I was a submit to God Humble yourself. Resist the devil draw near to God come near to him.

I saw him say we got come into His presence and that we were ready to leave right away. Cleanse or purify yourself, purify your hands, don't boil your sinful hands. That means your deeds, your words, the things that you're doing, make them right. Remember again, Psalm 24. And who who is it that can ascend into the hills in a mountain of god those who have clean heart and clean hands and pure heart so there we go purify your heart, of what specifically James says, have double minded This James one five again talks about, if you lack wisdom, ask God who gives to all men liberally and shall be given but he says, guess what a double minded person or an indecisive person is on spirit all the way. In other words, if you are double minded God can as you prefer.

So that's why we say something that people say, I want this from God, but then you pray this over here act in this way, I want a good man. But all that you do is, is deal with bad man or men who are not, you know, godly character. I want a good wife and then all the people that you dated or people who don't look like good wives. It's a crazy thing that we do sometimes. Right? So we said, we want God to give us good grades with us.

30 When I read it, like don't play with God, don't try for God with these type of things. Right? The God I want to be healthy, I want to be nice, slim and trim and all you do is eating junk food, pies and all of this stuff. We're couch potatoes, we don't do anything now. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying we can be sympathetic but at the same time, cooperate with the will of God, my friends.

That's not trade according to free Be double minded. Okay, that's been double minded wanting good, but acting bad, it really doesn't make sense. So be afflicted and more than we've So in other words, it shouldn't be a time of raft and frivolity. Right? He said, Let your actual joy be turned into happiness. So in other words, we are so forth, we are in the moment.

So because again, our hearts and our move many times we spoke about that before many times when people pray Our hearts in that in it, and that's why these practices help us to get our hearts in it. Because if you really say you're confessing your sin, and we don't have no soul, I mean, come on, think about it. Your heart is not sir. Same same. So we don't he said also speak not evil for of each other. So don't lie.

Don't gossip. Don't slander people's character. Okay? These are not the things that had harmony of people who are genuinely fasting. Joel, one and two also gives us some of the elements of genuine fast one is trust God with all your heart. Another is we've been more than happy.

Whatever we do, but again, don't make it pretend sit now but it just saying that. Again, it all depends if like the nations that will come in against God's people. I mean, that was a time for them to be more than than to be weeping or we're about to perish. We're about to be destroyed. Please, I need you to read your heart and not your God. So there we go that pretends and he's looking at the heart, turn to God, right?

Make it an urgent matter. That's why he wants us to get away from things sometimes. So he says blow the trumpet, right? Because this is important to a trumpet. Hey, we got to prepare for battle. Sunday alarm Hey, you don't sound alarm.

There's not an emergency. Right? sanctify a fire set aside a fast like it should be different from what other things are doing. And then it says called a solemn assembly which is seriousness. gather people together something you got to do it with your friends, you got to do it by yourself but you got to do it with family got to do it to friends or do the congregation or whomever but he says gather together. see God in prayer and fasting repentance, reformations reformation is changing.

So some people say we repent and we go back to the very same thing next week. So God help us we will need to make some shifts in this next example of Nehemiah. So I have two more slides here and then I give you an exercise. So I went a little bit long on this one, but like I said, this is the grand finale. So I don't want to do another presentation behind this one. So in the course there'll be on a break these down into smaller nuggets.

Like here we have some QA, for example that we'll be doing to break up some of the light for example, the first couple of slides could be question and answers, you know, how do you handle delay and denial, those kinds of things. Okay, now let's see what else we have. So here's a beautiful example, if you want to look up what genuine fans look like we go back to again the Bible for the example because that's what we don't buy. What is the biblical definition and example so let's see what the people did in their prayer and fasting That God clearly on it. Okay, so now NEMA remember the story of Nehemiah, Nehemiah had a problem. So remember the need dictates how long you pray, says you know the word came or news remember he heard news news, having sad news or bad news is something that can drive us.

So we need a motivation we need a reason to a why to really fast. So well his Why was he heard that the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and have been the place was just in shambles. And so it's touched his heart, he wanted to do something so he saw the king but notice something we overlook here. First, we're going to look at chapter one. And then there's another piece on chapter nine where there was another problem that people you know, married in all kind of on godly woman and that meant they were involved in different relationship that God wasn't pleased with. And so now they had to seek God and make a change with all of that and we're charging interest to the people who are just doing terrible things and we're pretty much breaking the commandments of God but I love their praise.

And I love the way that sometimes we put these people on a pedestal. Even Daniel, we look at Daniel next. But one of the things that we don't understand is the Bible says clearly, there's not just men or righteous man, a woman upon the earth who does right all the time and does not say all have synonym for short, short of the glory. So even if we don't read Sins of people in the Bible, the Bible says, For example, job job was perfect and upright. He was in God's eyes. But then when you when you get to the end of JOB, JOB says, I have whole myself in mind.

In other words, he's detestable in his own side because of his scent. And so we name it doesn't recall a set of ears, but notice how Nehemiah was humble. So it says, Hey, Nehemiah, let's pick it up NEMA one 411. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and more you see the elements of effective effective fast in here. So these are the elements that we see in AI certain days or many days. fasted and pray.

So again, fasting and prayer always good together you will never generally see just fasted by itself. Most of the time unless it's like, you know, there's famine in the land. And of course, there's no food, right? That's involuntary. But we don't move water too fast. And generally, prayer is always associated with it.

So he prayed before the God of heaven, and he said, I beseech thee so again, you see that seeking after God I had, I beseech you, all or God of heaven, please let your ear be attended to and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer ever want to hear the prayer, which your sermon through before you now day and night so we see here he's praying more than once a night and day for the children of Israel, your servants, I notice what confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have said he didn't say them. See the difference there. He said, we have seen both my father's house and I have seen no confession is happening here. Now. See that? So he's seeking God and praying and fasting But you can get the breakthrough because you've seen his intellectual property, the walls are broken down because of the set of the people.

So there's a reason you got to take care of that that is not just going to now give you a pass. So you could build a wall and the people still in their condition. Now, he said, Listen, we got to deal with this. So Nehemiah is confessing the sense of, and this is another principle here that I noticed. Sometimes it could be other people in your life are causing mess, we know. Right?

Your house is not being blessed, not always because of you. But it could be because of a family member. So notice, as we know, he's confessing both his father's sins, and his own scene, the scenes of his father's house, and also the children of Israel because they're not even trying to reach out so I tell you sometime in the West, this is what we need. We are seeing we're not seeing the power and the movement of God in the West as we should be seeing. Many of the churches are weak, depressed, and so forth. And just simply in a hot mess.

People are leaving the church in grows millennials, young people You know, folks who are getting data, and so we're not seeing it. So that's why we got to do all this stuff to try to keep people with entertainment and all this kind of stuff. A watered down gospel, no power, no power is attended us in here in the most part, because sometimes they sit in the camp, and we have to deal with the senate account. And some people that have come together and say, Lord, even though the majority may not want to come and secret, we're going to come and seek you in prayer. We want to confess even their sins because we don't want you all in a hole in their baggage over us. Put that on their own here, if you got to prove like that and do that too.

Right. So notice I said, notice again, he says we have active corruptly. He's not sugarcoating it. He's calling it like it is. Many times when we ask yourself this question again, and I'm going through this because I've heard so many prayers out prayed also some of these things myself, and I realized this and when we say we even confess, here's what we say. God, forgive me for My seats.

And that's it. You don't call you symbolize rifle name. And that's why it is not repulsive to us. Because if you are lying you said, God, forgive me for being a liar. See the difference? Now you're saying you're calling yourself that and now it makes it real and you should be detestable that you say you're supposed to be a man or woman of God.

You're supposed to be a teacher. You're supposed to be this but here you are lying out right. Now it begins to touch your heart. God, I can't believe that I'm breaking your commandment out there. See? So we tell people Oh, you breaking God's Sabbath commandment.

But on the other hand over here, you've been a big old Wolf, his life is the same thing is a difference. Now, here's another one. Maybe my nine says, on the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel will assemble with faster elements in sackcloth and ashes and dust on their heads than those Israelites. Those of the Israelite Linnaeus separated himself from all foreigners Because one of the problem why they were also in a mess, we engage in these idolatrous relationships, and they stood and they did what confess their sins and the iniquities of their fathers notice that so they will not just confess in their own drama, they say, listen, our father have caused us to be in this British predicament, they have done evil, and that evil is also upon us because we have never dealt with the problem. Okay. And this stood up in their place, and they read the book of the law says, they did it for one part, or one four of the day, and another fourth of the day, they confessed and worship before God.

So you see that, so it's not only just sitting there, you know, you know, the one thing we said we read in the word too, so that's why I'm saying you got to search the word because God is revealing his will in His Word. So while you're fasting, you should be reading the Scripture. Have a season of prayer, but you should also be worshiping, singing, right singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So it's not just simply one thing because that Probably why we think we can fly as long because it's not Oh boy, all I need to do is sit down and pray or sit down and read or sit down. No, no, there's several things you can be doing. Because sometimes you got to work, you think sometimes you can be fasting, but you got to go to work.

You can say, Well, you know what I'm fasting. So I'm not going to go to work. If that's what if, if you have a serious problem, though, you might need to do that. You might need to do that. But the majority of people, that's not what you do, he's got to go about your business there. But he says, so I'm just trying to let you know that you don't just have to be like a homemade mug.

What you do is part prayer, part reading, praying, worshiping, singing, and you repeat and you go through. So at least I would suggest you start with a night All night, all night prayer and fasting, you know, and maybe try it on the weekend, when you don't have to be rushed to go to work or something like that. Now, here's another example of that. And again, we see in all the elements coming together and these men did not sugarcoat and even though they were powerful in the Scriptures, We can see that heart. So it says now in the first year of Darius, so device was the new king here now various are Darius, some folks will pronounce it differently. I then understood by books, the number of the years specified by the word of the law to Jeremiah the prophet, that he will accomplish 70 years in the destinations of Jerusalem, then So because of this now, so something is about to happen.

So he wants to be part of it. So he says, Now then I set my face. In other words, we see the seeker now set your face me, I turned to God, I'm seeking after God, I set my face towards the Lord God to make my request my petitions right by prayer, supplication, faster, you see all the elements coming together. He's not just faster, and he's not just praying. He's brilliant, and he's faster with sackcloth and ashes. This is something to show the humility and occasion right and I prayed to the Lord my God and made what confession notice the confession is it confession must go along with it even though you didn't think you have no sin in your life, how dare we as a form of prayer, we should be able to know that there's something in our lives that we can always confess about.

God wants us to get rid of all of these things. And he says, All great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sin. Similar again. You see it with Nehemiah is the same way. He said what he's putting us into, we have seen, we have committed equity, we have done weekly, we have rebelled, we have departed from your precepts and your commandments or your judgments. Neither have we hated your servants the prophets.

In other words, we have all disobey All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone else to his own way. So sometimes we have this attitude is not me. That's why it's in a relationship when your family is both now. So something that we see is going to wind can't get along. Well, the problem is Y'all better get along because here's the thing. One issue issue affects the other.

And you might say, but I've a righteous and I listen, it doesn't matter because guess what their drama causes you job, their job or cause you stress. When I do it right, you are also been affected, your finances are together. So therefore when Guess what? Yeah, it wouldn't be a spin spend and guess what, as you affected. So it behooves you to figure that out now work that out. And sometimes you got to pray for them, even when they don't want to put you better go seek the Lord and even confess their sins.

When you see them doing well. You said God, forgive my husband. I see him doing evil over here. Now I can't confess the sins for him. But I'm asking you to forgive him. I'm saying Lord, give him even repentance that he might come and confess to you, but I'm saying for my sake and for our house saying please, don't hold this iniquity against us because this man or this woman is not doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Have most of them will have chosen for me and most of all my household see the difference, then Churches failing God, please. There are many people in the church who are doing wicked and evil. Do what you must drag them out if needs be. But oh God didn't hold us and against us, but forgive us all for our sins because truth be told, like Solomon says, in Ecclesiastes, these, which one of you this was said don't talk about other people because you yourself know that often dad, you've spoken about others. So we've all seen, we've all fall short of the role of that's why my church runs. Every Sunday morning we meet, right we have church, we have prayer service on Wednesday evenings, church all this Saturday, Sunday morning, we still meet early for one hour and pray.

And I guarantee you it's not everybody in the churches, there's only is generally a handful, right? It's generally a handful. Sometimes you have five or 10, never more than 1012. You know what I mean? But those few always come. And those few we always interceded.

And that's where again when I have prayer requests, those are the people at my church. I don't ask the people who prayed for me who do Come to prayer service, who are not there on Sunday? To put it Why? Because I know they're not praying. And why am I want to ask them? I don't see God as in their prayers.

But this group right here, because I've seen all the prayer requests, we've become a different church we've seen people's property is sold. One year we all evangelism was simply praying for people. That's what we did. We wrote a whole bunch of names on a list and all of those people joined the church. I see God answer these people's prayer. These people, when we say less fans, we used to set aside every fifth Saturday of the year, we would go and pray and fast.

I see the Lord move in the midst of these people, whenever they were going to pray. They're there. Whenever I say, well, let's fast they're ready to fast. That's the people I work with. I've traveled around the world. I read a lot and I study a lot in the areas of ministry, evangelism, missionary work and the like.

Church. Growth church planting Latin America, Africa. Already, we see the more of the power and movement of God, according to the New Testament. That's what I see. I see people be more miraculously here. I see people come into God and George, I see people answer the prayer, and they don't have the sophistication.

We have all the knowledge and all this kind of stuff. Because they come with this all they claim the promises of God. That's what they have in their Bible. Over here. We have components. We have Greek and Hebrew, we have software, all of this stuff, and yet we still have no power, we have money, we have all of this stuff going for us, you would think that we will be better off in the West, I've seen more faith outside of the walls of the church than inside the walls of the church.

That's what might be my experience, and I'm a minister of the gospel. I'm a pastor of two churches right now, this kind of woman if you're watching this particular training, how is that possible? That's why I'm so passionate about what I'm talking about here because It's not about saying, I am a Christian, I'm a believer, I am this I am that at the end of the day is the heart and is living. We can all talk a talk. But when it comes to doing, that's what makes the difference. That's why Jesus said, Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

So in other words, now that you know these things, you won't be blessed simply because you know them. He says, you will be blessed when you do that. That's the difference. Go to God prayer, practice these principles, my friend, get your life together, prayer can make things happen. So here's what I want you to know is where application is not the heroes only, but the doers who will find the blessing. So I want you to sanctify fast set aside a time for fasting and here's what we want you to do.

What have you been praying for that hasn't yet come to pass or have been delayed or seem to have been delayed or denied in your life, okay, so write them yourself. Something or a couple of things. Now, I want you to ask the question. Have you accepted this as God's Final yes or no. In other words, if you're praying for something that has been denied is not happening. If it's a yes.

Okay, cool. You've accepted and you realize based on the principles we've gone over, especially in modules two and three, which you can always review. Okay, it's not according to the will of God. Okay, cool. So you simply thank God and move on, because that's his answer. But if you are certain that it's the law in the sense of No, this is not God's Final answer.

And I have not accepted this as a no, because it could be a delay as a way. What you do here now is I want you now to make this one of the reasons why you will now set aside a time for prayer and fasting. We, again you can do it for a day. You know, maybe when I want to try flowers, okay, you can do seven hours at a time. Sometimes I do that, you know, seven hours, I like to do seven hours. Send them the I don't even remember risotto fasted for like an hour.

So I know I've fasted for a few general like seven hours from 7am to 7pm, that kind of thing. I've done a couple of all nighters. I've done a weekend, I've done three, three days actually, for me, even for me, I'm still going there. But out the maximum I've personally done is three days, as well in fast and I've never, I don't think I've ever gone more than that. So yeah, so whatever you want to do, I mean, remember, there's not a specified time limit or length, you just go according to what need you have in your life. And doing this will help you to achieve few things as well.

You're going to reconnect, you're going to be refreshed, you're going to be revive. So that's what we all want, but we need to be restored and refreshed and, you know, just reinvigorated again, just get a fresh way that I find especially if you haven't done it a while. I really believe that this thing can be so glorious for you. It will really turn things around. claim the promises. Remember always that's the big secret when you create you bring the promise of God in into the prayer itself.

So prayer is the key in the hands of faith to unlock heavens to house when I treasure the boundless resources of omnipotence. If that is be true, then I mean we haven't bank is not going to go broke. Okay, you can, you can deplete the resources of heaven. So pray for God's unlimited power and unlimited blessing. The best way for me to close is by prayer. Right?

Should I do that? Because we just talked about prayer, we covered prayer. So let's, let's do that. God, we want to thank you so much for your wisdom, knowledge and understanding that you've given to us. There's no reason for us to be without hope, without wisdom, without discernment. These are spiritual gifts that you give in your world also says that we have the mind of Christ.

And if we have the mind of Christ, how can we be confused? So we ask so God that you will remove all those things in our lives that are unlikely forgive us for doubting You forgive us for not making the things of God a priority forgive us for our own sins, the sins of our families and friends. God, the things that we've tolerated in our lives and the things that we don't play, and you know, things that we clearly even know that we're not you will be engaged in them forgive us for which is called willful sin, forgive us for our rebellion. And I pray the Lord tonight for any man or woman who is on this broadcast, who needs a break through their life. God, they might even be given up in their faith. And I realized that because the delay, or the answer to this prayer seems to be so long comment on that comment.

So I pray that God that you will do something to make a marvelous move in their life that you can restore their faith and you restore their faith in your work. I pray to God that you will restore marriages you will restore health. I pray that God that you will restore finances or loss. I prefer the business that is struggling the man of God who is doing their best to keep this business afloat. I pray that you will give them creative ideas, give them wisdom, give them a new contract, or even turn the business around by giving them a new business or new line of business new line of business. History, whatever the case may be their God but this is the way this are your children.

And so we pray that God that there's no Christian business, no believer, no, no personal faith, business should fail, because we don't know what to do give them those ideas or give them favor law. We need favor for one hi but sometimes men and women are the gatekeepers of this earth on certain things and we pray that God that you will bless your children to have faith in the marketplace, that their products and their services will be welcome and that will be needed by a lot more people so they can receive more resources bless more people, bless more employees and and hence, impact the kingdom more. I pray their Father God for the churches who might be failing and the pastor and the shepherds and elders in those congregation who might be discouraged and defeated god help them to rely and look to you God. help them to understand the way you are moving in these times, help them to be faithful in the small things as well as the big things in between.

Good times and in the bad times help them to remain consistent. I prefer that person who is depressed that discouraged somebody who might be contemplating suicide God, I pray that you will burst through the darkness and give them a light. give them hope, healing, and help them to be able to not give up but to keep pressing on trusting you that you will come to the aid. And I pray that God that this week this month will be a breakthrough week or breakthrough month for them. That finally Lord, darkness will will evaporate because of the power in the light of Your Word will transform their life. And Father God we know that all things work together for good even when we don't see the good.

We pray that God today he will help us to believe and walk by faith as we are called to do. Trust in your words, believe in your words, dependent upon them to accomplish the good things that they promised to accomplish. In the name of God, Jesus Christ we pray, Amen. And Amen. In a lot of ways to the best of my friend. Take care