iBelin

Weakness Exposed

// February 11th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Discipline, fasting, prayer

I’m writing this after returning from the gym. Worked out with my trainer today @FitandFly. Because I’ve been working out fairly consistently for a couple months now, certain exercises have become easier, more comfortable and less dreaded.

Today, I was introduced to different exercises that I hate. They are difficult and, because I am still developing my core strength, I was very awkward and ugly doing them. These exercises exposed my weaknesses.

• When your weaknesses are exposed, it’s hard to look cool.
• When your weaknesses are exposed, you will lose your balance.
• When your weaknesses are exposed, you will be tempted to give up.
• When your weaknesses are exposed, you might become frustrated.
• When your weaknesses are exposed, you will try to compensate for your weakness some other way.

As in the gym, so it is in life…

You will have gained a certain poise in handling the regular challenges of the days and then, all of a sudden life, will introduce new and unexpected challenges that expose your weaknesses. You will be awkward, lose balance, compensate in someway and even want to throw in the towel.

But, as in the gym, so it is in life.. the only way to gain strength is for our weaknesses to be exposed. The only thing that helps with this is discipline and consistency and tenacity. I could give up and retreat to the computer, the library, the bakery, the sofa… or I can stick with it, face the challenges and get strong in my weak areas. I’m choosing everyday to stick with it.

So, no matter how you look while you are facing the challenges of life, face them! Face them and never give up. You will eventually gain the strength for which the challenges are designed and carry them with grace and poise. Every challenge you face prepares you for the next.

Fasting and Prayer are like going to the gym. They will expose your weaknesses, but when you face the challenge, you will gain unimaginable strength. Are you up for the challenge?

(CLICK HERE IF YOU ARE READY FOR THE CHALLENGE)

(CLICK HERE IF YOU STILL NEED CONVINCING…)

40 Reasons to Fast and Pray

// February 8th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // fasting, prayer

Join us in Fasting and Praying during the Lenten Season. (Click here if you don’t need convincing. If you do need convincing, keep reading…)

IF YOU NEED A REASON, HERE ARE 40 (or so, facebook people are long-winded)! Facebook and Twitter friends collaborated to author this post. Please add more reasons to Fast and Pray in the comments section below.

1. If you’re starting any new projects in your life… @simplyshi2
2. If you’re tired all the time @robinsescott
3. If the Spirit keeps nudging you to! @annymac1
4. If you are alive and breathing! @bugsact
5. If life’s too tough. @Mrz_Cookie
6. If you think you’re in the world all alone. @tlenayebi
7. If the doctor told you ‘there is nothing more we can do.’ @106Harlem
8. If you are in need of healing and deliverance. @FHLAbide
9. If you’re depressed. @hallenbiii
10. If you cannot think clearly. @hallenbiii
11. If the only word you can get from God comes from a highway billboard. @FHLAbide
12. If you go to bed unhappy and wake up cranky. @kdrussaw
13. If you believe there is still hate and strife in the world @LaFemmeLaVie
14. If you are feeling out of touch and unfocused. @bugsact
15. If you’re in a rut. @hallenbiii
16. If you haven’t done so in a while. @annymac1
17. If there is something on your heart that you desperately need to hear from God about. Lynnette D. B.
18. If u don’t see movement. Phontonia B. W.
19. If you need to hear from God. Mona-Lisa C.
20. If you need clear concise instructions from the Lord. Apostle LaShawna H. S.
21. If you are looking for a blessing from the Lord. Kathy R.-B.
22. If you long to pursue Him, desire intimacy with Him – everything else follows. It’s in seeking Him first, and praising Him, that His glory comes down. True worship even in fasting and prayer! Gillian A.
23. If you desire discipline in your life, if you desire a closer relationship with God, if you want a clearer mind, if you want your body and mind in unison, if you want a blessing, if you want to adhere to scripture. Gloria L.
24. If you want to have an intimate connection with God – Felecia T.
25. If you feel lost, disconnected, unfocused, and nervous about your future. – Bernice D.
26. If you are seeking God’s will over a particular area in your life. – Thomas K.
27. If you haven’t experienced change or growth in awhile. – Nichele W.
28. If You got exactly what you prayed for and it’s ALL wrong! – Bridgette D. Y.
29. If You are struggling with determining God’s will for your life and then having to courage to submit to God’s will. Edwinna W. D.
30. If you are seeking a spiritual cleansing. – Felecia T.
31. If he Spirit leads you in–Math 4:1 and/or you are awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. – Sharon D. H.
32. If you want to live in his MERCY! – Letreanna L.
33. If you need to let go of those who refuse to forgive. -LaVonne T. V. H.
34. If people do not feel the need to love, understand, support, and pray for one another. DrJanet Mc.
35. If you need to get back on track spiritually, and don’t know how or where to start. You’ve strayed and are scared you can’t find your way back. –Michelle R.
36. If its time to truly let God be head of your life. We can be in church and do all those “churchy” things but never truly develop an intimate relationship with God. Sometimes its good to fast and pray when we want God to come in an grow us up in Him. Whether that’s our marriages, relationships, our children, our finances, our jobs, our whatevers!!!! Fast and Pray and God will direct but we first have to “LISTEN.” -P. Michelle G-W
37. If you find yourself able to pray without crying –Safiyah F
38. If you want to just give thanks for what he’s done. –Eric W.
39. If you want to get into the presence of God and seek His face!!! –Tracy S.
40. If you want to let divine guidance to flow and give thanks. – Brenda E.

Over 250 people and a few congregations are participating in “A Journey of to the Heart of God,” a time of fasting and prayer during the Lenten Season which begins Ash Wednesday, February 17th. Click here if you want to join the Daniel Fast Facebook Group.

What is Fasting? Click here.

Why Fast? Click here.

Click here for more on Fasting.

What is a Daniel Fast?

Lenten Resource for Fasting and Prayer

// February 3rd, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Worship Resources, fasting, prayer, worship

The Lenten Season begins on Ash Wednesday, March 9th and is a wonderful time to cultivate the life of the spirit through the Spiritual Disciplines. The congregation I serve will be on a journey that involves a Daniel Fast and regular schedule of prayer. I am making the guide I developed available for you. Use as much or as little as you want.

Just click this link and it will download to your computer.

Fasting and Prayer: A Journey to the Heart of God

I have a few other posts you will find useful concerning fasting and prayer. Just click on any of the links below:

Fasting
What is Fasting?
Why Fast?
What is a Daniel Fast?
Prayer

Remember, I’m praying for you.

Change is Hard Work

// February 3rd, 2010 // 6 Comments » // Discipline, fasting, prayer

I’m borrowing from my friend @Katellington who said truly in a tweet to me this morning: Change is hard work. There’s no getting around this – change IS hard work!

It’s easy to remain stuck in a life that is displeasing to you.
It’s easy to allow complaints to be the major content of your conversation.
It’s easy to blame others.
It’s easy to wish.
It’s easy to spend hours “could-a, would-a and should-a-ing.”
It’s easy to talk a good game.
It’s easy to criticize.
It’s easy to lay in the bed looking up and hoping something will happen.
It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself.
It’s easy to sigh and whine and hang your head.
It’s easy to just let “it” happen.
It’s easy to live in fear.
It’s easy to live of life of regret.
It’s easy to lay on the sofa and watch TV.
It’s easy to be miserable.
These things demand nothing of you. Change, on the other hand, it hard work!

Change requires you to think differently, to see differently and to BE DIFFERENT
Change requires you to talk to yourself; and
Change requires you to get up and do something.
Change means more than having vision. Change means writing the vision out clearly, making a plan and executing that plan.
Change requires FOCUS.
Change means movement.
Change requires discipline.
Change requires determination, tenacity, sticktoitiveness!
Change requires a constant pressing on.
Change requires you to tell some people “NO!”
Change requires a “No matter what” attitude.
Change requires being alone until God opens your heart to those who will go with you.
Change requires filters on your ears to keep out negativity.
Change is hard work!

If you need a change, consider joining me on the Lenten Daniel Fast 010: a Journey to the Heart of God. Let me know you’re interested in a change in the comment section below and I’ll email you about the “Journey to the Heart of God.” After you’ve left a comment, click here to read about the Daniel Fast.

Daniel Fast

// November 4th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Discipline, fasting, prayer

The Daniel Fast is modeled after the spiritual practices of Daniel. Basically, the Daniel fast is to eat only what come from the ground that have not been refined or processed. The fast does not stand alone, it is a part of a larger spiritual practice that includes regular and consistent prayer.

In Daniel 10, we learn that Daniel received a revelation that he did not understand until he had fasted for 21 days. On the 24th day he had the vision of a man who explained the revelation to him. For 21 days Daniel “ate no choice food.” This practice probably goes back to when He, with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, came to live in Babylon and refused to eat the king’s food. He requested only vegetables and water. “At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds” (Daniel 1:15-17).

Daniel exercised spiritual discipline by denying the body “pleasant food” so he could have deeper spiritual understanding. Daniel distinguished himself from among his peers because “an excellent spirit was in him.” It is this excellence of spirit we desire as we pursue a stronger relationship with God in fasting and prayer.

Daniel’s faithfulness in prayer is another demonstration of his commitment to spiritual discipline. In Daniel 6, where we learn about Daniel in the lions’ den, it is clear that Daniel was steadfast in prayer under the most difficult of circumstances. Though King Darius had signed an injunction that said whomever prayed to another besides himself would be thrown into the lions’ den, Daniel continued his practice of praying 3 times a day: “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10).

During a Daniel Fast, we pray 3 times a day, like Daniel. I usually pray at 6 a.m. 12 noon and 6 p.m. In addition to fasting and prayer, we must also abstain from anything that would personally distract us from our purposes in the fast (e.g. television, internet, hanging out, idle conversations, gossip etc.). Isaiah 58 makes it clear that fasting does not absolve us from responsibilities of love, kindness and justice.

Remember, we eat these:
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole Grains
• Nuts and Seeds
• Legumes (I call ‘em beans)
• Healthy Oils
• Water (some folk drink herbal teas without stimulants)
• Herbs, Spices, vinegar (some folk avoid this and use citrus juices with oils on their salads)
• Vegetable juice – take care with the acidity of tomato juice (this is a fruit, isn’t it?)
• Fruit juice in moderation – consider the sugar content and take care with the acidity in citrus. Consider restricting fruit juices altogether.
• Water
• Water
• Water

We don’t eat these:
• All refined and processed foods!
• White flour products
• White rice
• Dairy
• Meat, poultry and fish
• Sugar, honey etc.
• Bread
• Fried Foods
• Unhealthy Fats (the ones that turn solid)
• Anything other beverage than what you see above

What is Fasting? Click here.

Why Fast? Click here.

Click here for more on Fasting.

Fasting

// November 3rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // fasting, prayer

Prayer needs fasting for its full growth. Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible. Fasting is the other hand, the one with which we let go of the visible.
– Andrew Murray

Fasting is abstaining from food with a spiritual purpose in mind. Jesus teaches us that fasting and prayer are a powerful combination. While fasting is not explicitly commanded by Jesus in the Gospels, it seems that it is assumed that fasting would be a part of the life of the believer: “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:16-18).

Remember, the Fast should change your routine. If you are going about your regular routine merely with a change in diet, you are not fasting, you are on a diet! Fasting must change our routine. The Fast is to refocus us on the things of God. We should expect to be different when this time of fasting is over and not just physically…
• By the time the fast is over, we should have created an atmosphere in our lives, our homes, our churches in which God is pleased to dwell.
• By the time the Fast is over, we should have created such an atmosphere in prayer that miracles become daily events in our lives.
• By the time the Fast is over, we should have prayed the yoke of bondage off of our sisters and brothers.

Yes, by the time a Fast concludes, we should have walked through the doorway of Kingdom Living! All this is accomplished through prayer and fasting. So, commit to a fast and do not grow weary nor take lightly the fast you commit to God. Divine opportunities are waiting all around for us to seize them in fasting and in prayer. God moves in powerful ways during sincere fasts (see 2 Chronicles 20:1-23).

Remember, the fast is to the Lord. The fast should cause us to redirect our focus, our attention. It should more regularly direct us to our prayer closets because fasting and prayer go hand in hand. Prayer is our Priority! And not just during the course of this Lenten fast, but in life. We’ve got to make every effort to ensure we add more and more time with God in prayer and meditation each and everyday for this is where we find LOVE, JOY and PEACE! God honors it when we deny the flesh and sow to the spirit. This is consistent with what we learn in Galatians 5:16-25 and in Colossians 3:1-17. Fasting is to honor the life of our spirits. Be assured, to nurture and to refine the spirit-life has eternal significance.

Remember, fasting is to abstain from food with spiritual purposes in mind. Our purposes are many:
• we are seeking to grow even closer to God
• to see the Gifts of the Holy Spirit fully operating in the Body of Christ
• to experience the Fruit of the Holy Spirit being borne out in the lives of the people of God
• to break the power of the enemy over our lives and the lives of those around us
• to scatter the plans of the enemy
• to gain more spiritual power
• to wrestle ourselves away from unhealthy attachments
• to see the Kingdom of God grow exponentially
• to experience good physical, mental and spiritual health
• to walk in miracles
• to transform our minds
• ultimately, to live our lives in ways pleasing to God

All our purposes will be fulfilled by the Power of God through fasting and prayer! Don’t waiver in unbelief. God is true to His Word! AND DON’T STOP PRAYING BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE ANSWER OR BECAUSE YOU DON’T FEEL ANYTHING. God moves in God’s time. And, be assured, whether you feel anything or not, God is listening!

The promise of God in Christ Jesus is this: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7 – but read the whole passage). This is an amazing promise, but what is “abiding”?

• Abiding is to dwell constantly in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91:1).
• Abiding is to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
• Abiding is to have a song in your heart to God at all times (Ephesians 5:19)
• Abiding is to write the Word of God on the tablet of your heart (Proverbs 7:2-3; Psalm 119:16)
• Abiding is learning and strengthening ourselves through fasting and prayer.

The Fast is not to be an event that will pass, nor an experience that we will merely have; but, it is an entrance into a life of continual abiding in God, a pathway into the deeper things of God, a seat in the Presence of God.

What is Fasting?

// November 3rd, 2009 // 3 Comments » // fasting, prayer

Fasting is abstaining from food.  This is the general definition.  Breakfast is to break the fast of the previous night.  Specific to our purposes, fasting in abstaining from food with a spiritual purpose at heart.  Because fasting is spiritual in nature, when you abstain from food, you should also abstain from behaviors and activities that would distract you from your spiritual goals.

You fast because you are seeking to allow your spirit to become stronger.  Fasting shifts your attention from your flesh to your spirit and allows you to be more attuned to God.  God is a Spirit and we must come to God in spirit and truth (John 4:24 ).  Fasting is effectively shedding your flesh with all it’s whining and complaining and neediness so that you can feed your spirit.  When you spirit becomes stronger, so will your body and your emotions.  Spirit permeates everything there is, so to ignore your spirit is really to disconnect and isolate yourself.  To ignore your spirit is to miss out on the fullness of life.  To ignore your spirit is to ignore yourself.

Your spirit is at your center.  Your spirit is your core.  This is the "secret place of the Most High" the psalmist sings about in Psalm 91 .  Here is where God resides.  Many people seek all over the place for God only to find that the search ends within themselves (John 4:19-24 ).  This is God’s promise to us: God will be with us and in us (John 14:16-17 ).  Fasting helps us to reach our Center.

Click here for Why Fast?

Why Fast?

// November 3rd, 2009 // 5 Comments » // fasting, prayer

We fast to strengthen our relationship with God (Nehemiah 9).  Jesus assumes fasting will be a regular practice (Matthew 6:16-18 ).  The regular practice of fasting helps us grow spiritually stronger like exercise helps the body.

Fasting goes hand in hand with prayer.  Fasting is a spiritual practice and prayer is the language of the spirit. You fast to empower your prayer life.  There are many reasons to fast and pray:

Fast and pray to hear God’s voice more clearly and to know God’s Will (Daniel 9:3-4 ).

Fast and pray for spiritual clarity (Daniel 10 ).

Fast and pray to bring down strongholds in your life and the lives of those around you.

Fast and pray for direction and clarity in making decisions (Acts 13:1-3).

Fast and pray to free yourself and others of addictions.

Fast and pray to become more spiritually empowered.

Fast and pray for spiritual breakthrough (Joel 2:15-32 ).

Fast and pray for clarity and healing (Isaiah 58:6-9 ).

Fast and pray to create order in your life and in your household.

Fast and pray for God’s help against the enemy (2 Chronicles 20:1-30 ).