Be Still and Know...

Happy New Year to all our Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

We have been seeking God for His wisdom and guidance for the past few weeks leading to Christmas and New Year. The Lord has been good and He has been so faithful to us individually.

As we all contemplated and reflected on 2008, we cannot help but be amazed at what our God has done for us and through us in so many ways. We were led to start off the year as a team, with praising and worshipping God for His goodness and mercy upon us throughout 2008. "God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation...Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world." (Isaiah 12:2-5)

God is so merciful and loving to all of us. He has spoken to us individually and confirmed His Word to us, through different prayer warriors. He is coming soon and He is more interested in us preparing ourselves as individuals to meet with Him. God has allowed our beloved church to experience this unplesant saga as a wake up call to all of us as individual Christians, to seek God with all our hearts, look to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, and to depend on the Holy Spirit's leading and direction for our own lives.

We have sought the Lord and cried out to Him for the past few months, like Jehoshaphat who prayed, "O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (2 Chronicles 20:12) The Lord's answer to us is, "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's". (2 Chronicles 10:15)

In obedience to Him, we have decided to set aside ONE WEEK OF FASTING AND PRAYER to seek to know God more, to love others more through the love that Jesus Christ has first shown us and to be sentitive to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives individually as Christians. So we shall begin our week of fast, on SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2009 till 17 JANUARY 2009.

We have put together a simple guide to help us in preparing ourselves to fast and pray.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FAST & PRAY?

1. To fast is to abstain from certain foods and/or drinks for a specific period of time.

2. Fasting is a tool by which we humble ourselves before God, by subjugating the flesh's will to the spirit's will in reverence to God.

3. Having a dedicated time of prayer and fasting is not a way of manipulating God into doing what we desire. Rather, it is simply dedicating ourselves to focus and rely on God for the strength, provision, and wisdom we need.


WHY DO WE FAST & PRAY?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk…” (Isaiah 58:6-9)

This passage of scripture tells us that we fast to seek the Lord;
1. To loosen the chains of injustice,
2. To undo the strings that tie us to heavy burdens,
3. To let the oppressed go free,
4. To break every bondage,
5. To receive a heart of compassion for the poor and needy,
6. To bring about healing
7. To restore family relationships.


WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT FASTING?

1. Jesus demonstrated the importance of fasting when he fasted for 40 days in the wilderness prior to facing the devil in temptation. “After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” (Matthew 4:2)

2. He warned us against the abuse of fasting. “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” (Matthew 6:16)

3. He gave us instructions regarding proper fasting. “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6: 17-18)


WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAST?

1. A Regular Fast - means refraining from eating all food. Most people still drink water or juice during a regular fast. When Jesus fasted in the desert, the Bible says, "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." (Matthew 4:2) This verse does not mention Jesus being thirsty.

2. A Partial Fast - refers to omitting a specific meal from your diet or refraining from certain types of foods. Daniel 10:2-3 says, "At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over." In Daniel 1:12, they restricted their diet to vegetables and water: "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink."

3. A Full Fast - usually means no food and no drink. Acts 9:9 describes when Paul went on a full fast for three days following his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus: "For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything."

Esther also called for this type of fast in Esther 4:15-16: "Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 'Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.'" It is recommended that this type of fast be done with extreme caution and not for extended periods of time.

4. An Activity Fast - Although not mentioned in the Bible, Christians today commit to fasting from other activities as well, such as TV or movies, playing games or surfing on the computer to concentrate on prayer.


HOW TO START FASTING – WHERE DO I BEGIN?

1. Begin by preparing our mind, heart, spirit, and body. It is important to have a clear purpose for fasting and what we hope to gain from our fast.

2. Pray to the Lord and ask Him to reveal the motives of our heart, any unconfessed sin, and areas in our life that He desires to change.

3. To prepare our spirit for our fast, draw close to God through prayer and worship. Let God reveal Himself to us. The key to any spiritual preparation is intimacy with Jesus. John 15:7 says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

4. Planning ahead to prepare our body for the fast. A few days before we start, get our body ready by reducing our food intake, eating raw fruits and vegetables, and avoiding foods high in sugar and fat.

5. Decide on the type of fast and the duration of the fast we will be doing. This will help us to adjust our activities to ensure that we will persevere through the fast.

6. Always remember, fasting is about focusing on Jesus, not about abstaining from food.


WHAT ARE WE TO PRAY FOR?

A. God's Sovereign Power & Rule over Calvary Church
1. That truth be revealed and established and all deceit, lies and deceptions to be bound in Jesus' Name.
2. To loose and release the spirit of Truth and Righteousness in the Church.
3. That only Jesus be lifted up in our midst, not anyone else.
4. That God's will be done in our church on earth as it is in heaven.

B. God's Control Over the all Church Services.
1. Pray for the presence and control of the Holy Spirit over the Church services.
2. That all believers will behave rightly and righteously reflecting Jesus in each of our lives and submitting ourselves to the control of the Holy Spirit.

C. God's Restoration for Calvary Church
1. That God will restore and revive Calvary Church to fulfill what God has planned for us.
2. God has called us to humble ourselves before Him - to confess our sins, to repent, and ask for forgiveness from God and seek restoration for ourselves individually and collectively as a Body.
3. That God will convict our hearts to pursue our first love for God again.
4. To cleanse us from all our sins: pride, anger, bitterness, covetousness, self-righteousness, deception, lying spirit, blindness and vengeance.
5. Instead we are to ask God for a pure heart, desire for the truth, honesty, integrity, accountability, love, humility, servanthood, sacrifice, gentleness and godliness.
6. Reconciliation of members in the spirit of truth, honesty, forgiveness and love in Christ again.
7. That once again all His people whether Pastors, Deacons, leaders and members alike, young and old can grow together and to worship with one voice and in unity and harmony again.

As we humbly come before His throne of grace in prayer during this time of need we believe our Heavenly Father, will answer our prayers so that we can once again arise and do the Lord's bidding. Yes, let us unite our hearts and commit ourselves to pray in different times for the items as listed above. You may have more items which the Lord may lay upon your hearts. Most importantly, let us all pray that 2009 will be a year where we all will have a desire to know God more intimately, the follow after Jesus more faithfully and to be attentive the Holy Spirit's guidance more closely.

Our God is Good!


The notes above have been compiled from materials taken from the book, "Fasting and Prayer" by Jean Lim and from http://www.allaboutprayer.org/ and http://www.thecarpentershouse.com/

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ANNOUNCEMENT ON COMMENTS

The recent spate of irresponsible blogging by a few new anonymous visitors has caused much concern to our regular blog readers. The malicious and condemning remarks of these new visitors have irked both TTG and PG supporters. CT has, since, deleted some of the inappropriate comments. As this coming week has been set aside for a time of prayer and fasting, CT has decided to disable the "comments" option for all the previous posts. Only prayers, testimonies and scriptures will be allowed to be posted under the latest post. Any other comments during this coming week will be deleted.