What The Devil Fears Most: Prevailing Prayer | Pastor Shane Idleman

That's what he fears the most, prevailing prayer. So let's get into Acts 16, Acts 16, verse 20, and they brought them to the magistrates, and they said, "These men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us being Romans to receive or observe." So what in the world is he talking about? I'm probably sure most of you don't remember if that's okay, I'll remind you. Paul and Silas, Paul cast out a demon from a slave girl last week, and she was telling people their fortune telling and letting them know about their life, and people are paying large sums of money for this, and when he cast out this demon, guess what? She's been set free, and now they can't charge people money to get their fortune read. Don't ever do that, by the way. Don't look at the paper or your horoscope, and fortune tellers, it's all the wrong door. What happens is the demonic realm knows the past, and so it can speak into the past, and you go, "How did you know that?" Well, demons don't die. They know what's going on, and that's how these things work, really, if what it boils down to, and they reveal things. They can't see the future, they can't know God's plans, so they have to mainly focus on the past. Your dead aunt said this, or when you're a child, this happened, "Oh my goodness, well that's not something to play around with." Of course they know that. They were here. And so that's what she did, Paul got annoyed, I'm glad to see that. It actually says he was greatly annoyed, so as a Christian you can become greatly annoyed. But what was he greatly annoyed at? She was following them around, harassing them. These are servants of the Most High God. These are servants of the Most High God, funny to say, "Enough of this." When he cast out, it's actually Numa Pythonis, I believe, the spirit of Python is what was

in there, when her, and that was kind of a divination and things, the Greek mythology. He cast it out, and now her masters are without any money. So what do they do? They go to the authorities because they're ticked off, and they said these Jews are troubling our city, and they teach customs that are not lawful. We are Romans, we bow to Caesar and Caesar alone. They're telling us about some King Jesus, we're going to throw him in prison. And good reminder for us, God's word often contradicts popular opinion. Don't be offended if not everybody sees the things the way you do. Have you experienced that yet? Just post something on social media. You'll see, just say something at work. And the same thing with what we live in, God's word often contradicts popular opinion. And people hate God's word, don't they? I mean, if they could put you in prison and hit you with sticks, they would. But it's not lawful, like it was back then. They hate God's word because something in the spiritual realm, that's what it is, nobody gets upset if you say Buddha or this or whatever. But Jesus, it triggers something, like they get upset at you, visibly upset because it's the demonic realm, often working in them with the light of the gospel. And that's what's happening here. And so the whole multitude rose up against Paul and Silas and even the leaders. They tore their clothes just as a sign of just complete, they would think it was blast for me. And how could they not bow to Caesar? And they commanded them to be beaten with rods. So Paul's day is not going too well or Silas. So much for helping this girl, I'm not casting out demons anymore, look where it got me. And so they would take these rods and in the prison and they would open the shirt, kind of like what you saw in the Passion of the Christ, and they would beat them with the

rods, legs and things bruised and beaten. And that's how they would punish people in those times. And they threw them into prison and they actually told the jailer to put them in the inner prison. Like we don't want these guys getting out. We don't want these getting out. They're putting those big, you know, metal ankle bracelets that sometimes That's been around a long time. And so it was on their feet and there's no way they're getting out of this. So they thought, there's always a but God. Do you guys know that? You guys know there's always a but God. - Right Lord. - He might have you go through difficulty. You might stay in jail, but God. - Good God. - Amen, amen. So let's look at that. Let's look at that part of scripture in the book of Acts. Oh, but there's some bullet points I forgot. So these are important ones. Loving confrontation and helping people can be painful. I mean, I've never done, I don't know about you, but I've never done things perfectly. And I take responsibility sometimes for things. But one of the biggest surprises at the church is usually the people you help the most end up hurting you later, cheap bite. They bite with gossip, slander,

back biting, manipulation, lies. And they come after you. And you end up helping, like what just happened here? We're trying to help you. But they don't, if they're not ready to change, what happens is hurt people end up hurting people. And so it's important to deal with that hurt, take it to the cross, get broken and humbled before the Lord. And then you're able to minister to others. You're able to, and even understand that, you don't wanna help people, it's gonna hurt. And me and Ape, Pastor Abraham talked about this a lot that I would encourage him. He would sometimes encourage me because we would end up isolating and not wanting to talk to people or deal with things because of how much hurt it hurts. Many times you don't do anything. You're just trying to help. And the more you're in ministry, the more you'll be exposed to this. And so I don't wanna talk to people. I'm not gonna email, I'm not gonna tech, I'm not gonna get involved, I'm just gonna show up on Wednesdays and Sundays. But that's not healthy either. So you begin to realize that not everybody likes the sermons. You guys aware of that? If you talk to people, not everybody likes the sermons. I just heard, I won't say who, but one of my kids said,

"Yeah, I know this guy, he doesn't like you." I'm like, "Okay, that's not news, new news." But it's because of what I say. And I understand that. Of course you're not gonna like what I say if you're on the wrong side of the team. If you like the darkness and you're being challenged with the light, you hate the light until you come to repentance and then you love the light. And that's how it works. But loving confrontation, helping people, it can be painful. Inner prison, deep bondage with no way to escape. That's kind of what this resembles. And when I was thinking about it, there's just deep, they're in the prison, deep. There's no way getting out. But remember, the inner prison is never too deep. The disease too progressed or the situation too dire for God. Never is it too dire, too far gone for God. I love when people say that's, I don't know if God can even do anything with this one. That's when he usually can and will and show off. And so now we get to the but, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were complaining. You guys, well, how can you sleep in up there? Are you okay? But at midnight, Paul and Silas were upset, complaining. This got us nowhere. I can't believe we're here.

These hurt. What were they doing? This is amazing. Praying and singing him, cigar. So it's really, they're in pain. And if you've been there, the pain can drive you to the cross and they're just praying, "Lord, help us help these prisoners "and help our jailer. "God, would you lead them to you?" And they're singing probably from the Psalms. And so the prisoners are hearing, of course, the jailer is hearing as well before he fell asleep. And the prisoners were listening to them. So always remember this. People are watching how we handle pain. They're actually watching you more during the pain than during the progress. Like when you're doing well and everything's good or good for you, but they want to see how you go through pain when you get the bad news. Oh, your life's fallen apart too. Let's see how you handle it. They're watching you just and they're listening. How could they be doing this? The other prisoners I'm sure were groaning and complaining. And then as they're doing this at midnight, Paul and Silas, God says, "I've got other plans."

of the prison was shaken, and immediately, immediately the doors were open and everyone's chains were loosed. Now it's interesting that not just Paul and Silas is, but everybody's chains were loosed. And so let's pause for a minute though. God does hear our worship and prayers. There may be an immediate response or the response may be just to hold the line. You need to know this morning God does hear the prayer. You combine it with worship, it's powerful. You combine it with fasting, guess what? It's on steroids. He hears it. The problem is sometimes he doesn't answer according to our plans. Anybody relate to that? The reason is we want answers. Now, hey, I want this now, now, now, but God looks at things through the scope of, he lives outside of time, and so we're not on, he's on our timetable, we're on his timetable. There's things that still need to happen. Maybe it's shifting through ulterior motives in our lives. Maybe he's looking at our hearts. Maybe this still has to happen here. Maybe you haven't humbled yourself yet. Maybe you haven't learned faith yet. And so we just, we don't know, we just trust in him. That's why that the whole line, his sovereignty is my sanity, is what keeps everything together. But he does hear. So you need, he hears and he knows what's best and there might be an immediate response. Many of you have had immediate responses, have you not? But let's say the majority of the time that's waiting and you worship while you wait and the waiting time is not wasted time. And I would say the vast majority of my prayers, I mean, we're talking 99% are not answered

immediately. Ones that are and need to be, he does. I help you right now, this fear is overtaking me, this anxiety, this, you know, those things that we're God, there's things, but there's things where it usually has to do with things we want or desire or changes in others that, you know, it's going to take some time. Lord, get me out. Anybody praying, get me out of this job. I know there's a few of you, you're just not raising your hands. Let me call you out some names here. No? But I don't like this job. I want out of this job, but God says, God says, Brandon, hold on, let me, let me, let me get through these. I'll talk to you afterwards. So, so, so, what was I saying here? Oh, my job. Yeah, you don't want this job. You don't want this career. You don't want, and we want out of the fire. And I'll, maybe you haven't heard the story before, but it's kind of funny. If you see on, on out in Cortzel, I worked with Cortzel Water District and they hired me as a heavy equipment operator. So I got to run all the fun stuff, excavators, loaders, we would do all our own pipe, main work and putting water lines down 50th of those wells, some of the wells you see out there, the, the tanks and man, I want to quit that job a half dozen times. And I did. I did once I walked off, I left the tractor run and I said, I'm out of here. I might, I might have cussed a little bit back then. And you know, you get home and I'm sitting here in the morning, it's like, what are we going to do for work now?

I'm like, I don't know. I'm done. I am done. A couple hours go by, I got, all right, Lord, so I go back. Hey, sorry about that. No problem. Right? And so, got back on and kept working and just other other, I remember one guy is an old guy. You ever other people work that bother you? Like they just leave me alone. And I said, I don't want to say his name, please see, but I said, the wick on my stick of dynamite is about this much left. You need to shut your mouth. And here we go. And then I come like, I'm out of here and I leave the movie. It's like, Lord, what are you doing? He's humbling me, right? Teaching. It's, it's a growth has to happen to me more than the other people. Or just as much in the, I'm the Christian. And so you learn as you humble yourself, you get through and then you, you, God opens the door to leave at the right time and the right place. I get a call. Hey, do you want to come run equipment for us? It's prevailing wage. Yes. Thank you. Perfect. I'll do that.

Believe it or not, I think I've tried. water and things like that, I started with them and a different company and moved and got open the door at the right time. But it was those difficult situations that really that's what brings out the worst in us to get out the best in us because that's when we humble ourselves, we get through those difficult challenges and waiting often reveals the true condition of our heart, does it not? That's when their true colors come out. So the question this morning, what do you turn to when adversity hits? Look at Paul and Silas, what did they turn to fear because I don't know about you, but if I'd just been hit with a whole bunch of rods and I'm sitting in prison and those prisons aren't like our prisons. I would be fearful because I'm in the inner prison, I'm not getting out of this saying and you turn to fear, but they turn or you turn to faith, you turn to Lord you've got this because fear can cause you to make decisions you regret later. It will and said, Lord, I'm trusting you, I'm trusting you. Lord, what do you want to do? I'm putting my faith in you and trusting you. One of the things I'll just share with you, one of the biggest surprises is I'm going through what I'm going through. My situation is, so many Christians, I get them, I understand, when they're asking me how are you doing, right now man, I'm just trusting the Lord. So I'm like, oh, I don't know, is that wise? I'm surprised. What do you mean? I'm not being naive and stupid and cautious, I'm trusting the Lord. You have a shame, you've got to use wisdom. Well, that's not using wisdom, but see, we've been so conditioned to listen to the voices of others and to respond in fear and you've got to move quickly. You've got to hurry, you've got to go, go, go, go, go. Fear will dictate you, fear will drive you in wrong decisions.

Now God might lead you to certain decisions that you would have made otherwise. I mean, but at least fear didn't drive you there. God did. And so there comes a point where you have to make a decision, who am I going to turn to, fear over faith and you trust in the Lord to guide you. One of the big decisions, it was in March and we were at USC talking to a surgeon and he said, "Oh, you've got to jump on this now like in two weeks, let me schedule you." And Morgan's like, "Can we do it after vacation?" I go, "No, no, no, no, no." Like more case scenario, right? But Lord, I'm just going to trust in you and I'm so glad we did. I'm so glad I'm just waiting on Him. And because that can force you into decisions and then people, but then they, Christian's question is it, you know, and so you really, you've got to, sometimes you've got to separate yourself from all the voices, all the opinions. It doesn't mean it's not good, it doesn't mean it's not godly counsel, but I need to hear from God before I hear from others. I need to wait on the Lord and that's been a big surprise to me. People don't understand this concept of waiting on the Lord, trusting Him. It doesn't mean being stupid and naive. Golly gee whiz, I don't know. I'll go eat Carl's junior all day and I'll go get in the sun for 12 hours and I'll go do stupid thing, no, it's using wisdom, but it's also trusting in the Lord. And so what do you do when adversity hits you? Do you turn to fear or do you turn to faith? Do you turn the opinions of man or the opinions of God? And again, God may lead you into godly counsel. God has given us physicians and godly counsel for a reason, but He must be sought first. You've got to have that peace from Him. And sometimes God places you in difficult situations for the benefit of others.

Paul and Silas go through this so that jailer and his family can be saved. Who knows? Maybe some of the prisoners were saved as well. So remember that, the difficult situations that you're going through can be a huge benefit to others. I didn't realize what we're going through has been such a huge benefit to others, helping people each week throughout the United States, encouraging them, encouraging them. And that's why He sometimes brings you through difficulties so you can help others in their journey as well. Your best life now might be a great title for a book, but it's not practical. It's not the Christian life. Anybody figured this out yet? It's warfare. It's a battle. A.W. Tozer said life is a battleground, not a playground. You are in warfare for your family, for your family. This is stuff to be taken seriously. The fight and the good fight of faith, put on the whole armor of God. Stand strong. Having done all, just stand, stand strong with the sword of the truth. It's like this is warfare. We can't minimize it. You might not like to hear that, but until you say, until you breathe your last breath, we are in a war, a spiritual war. I didn't like it. I want to be in vacation mode all the time. I don't want to be in a warfare, just like many of you, but we are. And the quicker we wake up and fight,

the quicker we'll see the victory instead of caving in defeat and fear. And so the keeper of the prison, keep in mind now, everything is shaken, the prison doors are open, and the keeper of the prison said, well, I'm toast. I'm dead. I'm done. I'm going to kill myself, because that's what happened if you let prisoners go back in those days. If you had a prisoner and they got out, your life was taken. So it also makes you wonder all these great Roman soldiers at the tomb, do you know Jews still today? Ben Shapiro will say this and others. His body was stolen. Jesus. Why didn't all those Roman soldiers get killed? Well, they said, we'll go to the authorities and we'll appease them. No, no, no, that's what happened, but they wouldn't have all fell asleep and let Jesus' body be taken. It's so clear that the message of the gospel is true, that the angel came, he set him free, he said, Jesus free, and they were stunned, they were shocked that the stone was rolled away. It will cost them their life. Jesus is gone. We're going to die, but there's nothing they can do. What are you going to do against an angel who rolls back a stone and he appearances, but light, and they're just completely taken back. You can't fight against that. What army can defeat an angel? Nobody got sent one angel to defeat an entire Assyrian army of 185,000. God say, he said his death angel and wiped them out. This is a spiritual battle and so he's going to kill himself. He probably had a sword out, but Paul said, hey, hold on, don't kill yourself. We are all here. And then so the jailer ran, got a light, fell down. I bet he did, trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out and said, sirs, what must we be? What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? And so they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and you will be saved. You and your whole household. Now over the years I've heard people say that Paul didn't really give a full gospel message here because he didn't talk about repentance. So I want to talk about that for a minute because it was obvious that repentance had already occurred. The man was like, I'm broken, I'm humble, I need this true and living God. I need God. What must I do to be saved? So repentance had occurred and they said, believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That word believe means to trust and commit oneself completely to 100% committal. I believe in this Jesus you've been talking about. And that's how a person is saved. That's actually the most important question of your life. I don't know where you're at this morning. I can't keep track of everybody. We have a whole new group of people every single Sunday coming in and out and listening on radio and watching online. And so you have to think about that. This is the most important question of your life ever. Ever is what must I do to be saved. Tell me a question that's even close to that. So you need to deal with that depending on where your heart's at this morning. I don't know. God knows. I do know this. If you don't like what I'm talking about, it's because you need to hear what I'm talking about. What must I do to be saved? Romans says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That's key because that's the Savior. He paid the price for sin. God rose him from the dead. He's not Buddha, the tomb's still there. Harry Krishna, even Muhammad. I mean, you go down all that. No, there's no empty tomb other than with Jesus Christ.

And you believe that God rose him from the dead. You will be saved for with the heart one believes. I believe in Jesus, therefore it leads to righteousness, right standing before God. And with my mouth, I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that leads to salvation. So you have to believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and that you need Jesus. That's the point of it. This isn't some myth or some fairy tale. There was a cross. There was a death on a cross that happened because of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And you believe in that sacrifice. You believe in the blood. And just like that song we say, whoever puts the blood on the doorpost is saved, and the death angel passed over. But when the death angel saw the blood, that is such a powerful verse. I will pass over the house with the blood on it. And that's why they celebrate the pass over. And you have to put the blood on it. Nothing else can save you or set you free. And so Acts continues, then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who are in the house. So the jailer runs to them, washes them, gets the chains off. Like it looks like he took them back to his house briefly.

I don't know, that's a little risky, but that's what it looks like he did. And so they shared the gospel with the jailer and he washed their stripes and immediately him and all his family were baptized. So Paul probably said this, we are being persecuted because we preach Jesus. Here I was a persecutor of Jesus. Paul actually killed Christians. He thought he was doing God a favor. He just hated the message of the cross until Jesus woke him up. Jesus will knock you off your high horse. And he's riding along to Damascus. Boom, he falls down, blinding light. What must, Lord, Lord, what must I do? And he said, Paul, Paul, it's all, it's all actually. Why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus and now that who you persecute. And he became a follower that day. And so he probably shares that story. And this is the only name that saves them. Paul talk about pulling in some Old Testament imagery. I mean, the shedding of blood, bowls and goats and rams and how Abraham and the she goat and the heifer and the turtle dove and the ram and split them down to God made a covenant with Abraham and God knew that blood was a, and just can you imagine the knowledge

of a former Pharisee and he shares this with them and then the whole family believes. And it's not that when one person believes the whole family is going to believe automatically but often when the father believes, the percentage is high. I think it's like, I don't want to say, 'cause I haven't looked up in a while, but it's a really high percentage. I want to say like 90% of the chance the family will fall in and become believers. But when the woman does it, it's there, but it's much lower and the father leading the way. Fathers, you should lead the way in worship. You should lead the way in devotion to the Lord and repentance. Even if your wife is spiritually fit, catch up. Catch up and follow and lead. That's what you're called to do. That's actually your primary calling on the breadwinner. That's great, but you need to be the bread follower first. And out of that relationship comes everything else. Let them see you at the altar. Let them see you initiating prayer. Let them see you turning off the dodgers and putting on worship. Let them see that the father seeking hard after God, that's how the family falls into order, is put that into order first. And so he began to feed them, the jailer did,

and he rejoiced. He rejoiced the literal translation in your Bible. It says, depending if you're New King James or NIV, another translation says, he was filled with joy. He was filled with joy. And I want to throw this out there. If you think you're a Christian and maybe you are, and maybe it's a hard season, but if there's not seasons of joy, you might want to check your commitment because that's a, to Christ, because that's a byproduct of being filled with the Spirit. When you're filled, there's love and joy and peace and contentment and gentleness and kindness. Not all the time. Love and joy, no love. I'm kind of upset and ticked off. So it's not that you always live in euphoria and walking on clouds. Everything's just great. That's not true either. But as you prevail in prayer, as you seek the Lord, those things, those fruit of the spirits are byproducts of that relationship with the Lord. And that leads to the second most important question, especially for believers. Are you filled with the spirit of God? And are you prevailing in prayer? Did you know they go together? Prayer is the heartbeat of the Christian. When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. Ian Bowne said that. When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. That's why prayer is the hardest thing for many of us. I've said this before, but if I said, okay, next Sunday, I'm not preaching, we're just having a prayer and worship service. We'd have half attendance. Can I just be honest? I've tried that before. Why is that? Because the motivation, the motivation. Or I could say, hey, guess who's a friend of mine? Otani. He's going to be here next Sunday. You've got to be here, though. You'd be sleeping out front. Wouldn't they, George? What's the difference? Motivation.

What's motivating the heartbeat of the Christian? And I know prayer stuff. It's tough for me. It's tough for me. Anything in the Christian walk worth doing and doing well, the spiritual warfare, the weapons of every war, any of those things are going to be difficult to do. That's why they're hard. Just like the physical realm, everything that's important is hard to do. The big talk right now is insulin resistance, weight loss, all those things, the best things stop eating after four. Have you ever tried that? Just stop eating after four. That's hard. Snacking's not hard. All the things that are so important to do are very difficult. So the most important question you can ask this morning as a believer, are you filled, mighty with the Spirit of God? Are you prevailing in prayer? Because what the devil fears most is prevailing prayer. Prayer that lays hold of God. Prayer that says, Lord, I'm not letting go until you answer. Of course you've got to go to work. Of course, you have to do things. But I'm going to focus on prayer. I'm going to focus on my protocols. I'm going to focus on these things. And God, I'm just going to press in like never before. I'm not going to give up until you tell me this is over. The old saying, she used to call it prevailing in prayer, laboring in prayer, travailing in prayer. I lay hold of God and God answered because they knew they'd spent time with the Father. We've got to get back to that position of prayer in our lives, especially prevailing prayer. Here's why some strongholds have been cemented in your heart for years. There are some things that may not break until a dedicated season of prayer and fasting joins the battle. It's an interesting topic because we don't want to hear about fasting anymore. But it's a lost spiritual discipline. The early church had it all talked about it a lot. The early church fathers practiced it. Augustine, Justin Martyr, Pauli Karp, Arrhenius, Ignatius. And then you go into the reformers in Whitecliffe and John Huss and William Tyndale, translating the Bible and Martin Luther and fasted for the German translation of the Bible. And then you get into first awakening and Wesley and Whitfield and Edwards, and Edwards famous sermon centers in the hands of an angry God. He was on a three day fast before that and then a revival broke out because men and women decided to put a time at season of prayer and fasting. Second great awakening started with prayer and fasting. The prayer meeting in New York that grew to thousands and thousands of people. They said, let's not eat lunch at 12, let's meet and pray. If you truly want breakthrough, you're going to have to tell King's stomach to get off the throne for a season. The Bible says their God has become their belly.

And I know it's a difficult topic for many, but as you know me, I don't shy away from what we need to hear because that's where breakthrough comes. When we talk about what we don't want to hear, that's when breakthrough comes. When you come in with smooth words, the tickle of the ear, but don't challenge the heart, you rarely see change. You rarely see change. A full man, a full man does not cry. of the empty table. The first battlefield, the conquer is self. So I'm wetting your appetite for a message. Part two of this, I'm prevailing prayer, where we'll talk more about this topic on prayer and fasting. The reason is the stomach is the gate to the soul. Satan tried to get Jesus to break his fast with food, not fame. Think about that. He didn't go in and say, "Hey, bow to me and you'll be over all the cities of the world." What did he come do with him first? Take these stones and turn them into bread. He hit a hard spot. I'm going to read something. I think you have the handout. The title is the weapon you have never drawn by order without name. I will tell you this up front, it stirred the hornet's nest a little bit. Not everybody likes what I'm about to tell you. It hurts before it helps. And it's true. It's absolutely true. One point I will clarify at the end, but it's so important. Just listen to this. There is a weapon you carry that has never been drawn. It sits rusted inside of you, buried beneath comfort, beneath habit, beneath every lie your body has told your spirit and the enemy knows it is there. He is always known. That is why he fills your hands. That is why he fills your mouth. That is why every hour of your waking life, something is being placed between your teeth. Food, distraction, noise, pleasure, anything to keep you fed, anything to keep you full because a full man does not cry out to God. A full man does not fall to his knees. A full man has no need to reach for heaven because his belly has become his throne and his comfort has become his altar. And so the enemy does not attack you with famine, he attacks you with feast. You have been eating at the table of your own defeat and you have called it rest. You have walked through the wreckage of your lack of discipline and called a peace, but heaven sees a man asleep in his armor. Heaven sees a sword still sheathed while the war rages outside the walls. And now the voice of the Almighty God cuts through the silence like the edge of a blade pulled from the fire. Now therefore turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. And it says turn to me with all your heart. The Lord says, and I will turn to you and get back in that position of repentance again. This is not an invitation. This is a command from the throne of eternity. God does not suggest fasting. He commands

it because he knows what it unlocks. He knows what breaks when a man lays down his bread and picks up his cross. Now is it a commandment in Scripture? No. We don't see that, but we also don't see that it's a suggestion. Unless you think this is a suggestion when Jesus said when you pray, when you give, and when you fast, Jesus assumed he's not going to say when. He didn't say if he said when you do these things. It's not just a suggestion. It's an invitation to go deep with your Savior. Think about this. Jesus could have got up one morning said, okay. All right, time to start my ministry. Is that what happened? No, he was baptized by John. The Father spoke, said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. The Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove, and he was led by the Spirit, led by the Spirit into the wilderness. What do you do in the wilderness? 40 days of prayer and fasting. And then it's clear. You can read yourself depending on what your translation. He came out in the fullness of the Spirit. He was filled. He came out in the full. Now you can interpret however you want, theological. I don't care. I just know the Bible says it. There's a spiritual power and authority that took place when he submitted to the will of the Father. And I will submit to you that the same thing can happen to believers when they humble themselves and submit and make prayer and fasting part of their discipline. Well, how often? What type? That's between you and the Lord. Praise God. out for free on fasting, lots of suggestions, but the Bible talks the Hebrew word for fasting is to shut the, so I hurt feelings when I say this, but I'm just being true to scripture. If God has you on a Daniel fast, go for it, but it's not a fast. If you want to drink a whole bunch of juice, juice feast, that's great. That might be good. God blesses it. Don't get me wrong. I've done, but fasting is shutting them out. Don't take anything, 12 hours, 16, whatever, do whatever God leads you to do, but there's got to be, and it's so rewarding if you don't do it because of legalism, but just wisdom. And you know, I probably shouldn't say this, but most of us, most of us will be okay without a little bit of, in case you don't know, do you know what fat is, fat is stored energy. The body says, okay, I'm putting this on because we're going to use it later. And we don't use it later.

That's how we're designed. So when you fast, your body says, huh, where am I going to get my energy? Let, oh, I know, I'm going to break down the fat called ketone bodies, the big ketogenic diets. Just fast. You don't need to be a carnivore. That's how we are designed. I don't think fasting hurts as much as feasting. Did you know that many of your diseases and things could be really curtailed to fasting. Something also happens during fasting called autophagy, autophagy, Latin word, self-consuming, eating self. It begins to break down tumors, dead proteins. Your body doesn't need anymore. You're so well designed. Think about that. You're designed by a creator. It goes after those things for fuel, not your heart, not your liver, not your kidney. That's starvation. That's what that kicks in a long time. You were designed to do the very thing that God has called us to do. There's power in that, spiritual benefits. Again, use wisdom, know what you're doing, but don't run from it. Some of you might need to, depending on nursing moms, that really don't have a lot of extra resources, kidney issues where you're kidney because you have to use wisdom, but there's nothing wrong with dedicating a season to prayer and fasting. You'll find out just how strong the stronghold is when you start going a few hours, will you not? I'll challenge many of you tomorrow morning. Wake up and just have water instead of coffee and you'll see just how strong the stronghold is.

Oh, I've got to have my Christian crack. God, I have my Christian crack. God. What? That's a stronghold. Let's be honest. Let's talk about it and they get mad at me what I do, but that's what a stronghold is. It's got a strong hold. I have to have it, and I've been convicted. If I have to have something before Jesus, maybe I need a season of prayer and fasting because I've got to break that stronghold. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]