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Prayer Matters Magazine is a premier online publication that educates, empowers and engages Christians around the world. It challenges readers to take responsibility to advance the Kingdom of God. The Mission of Prayer Matters Magazine is to equip individuals to become more effective in prayer, fasting and spiritual warfare. Enjoy articles, studies, testimonies, introductions and much more.
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PRAYER MATTERS MAGAZINE is a premier online publication that edu-cates, empowers and engages Christians around the world. It challenges readers to take responsibility to advance the Kingdom of God. The mission of PMM is to equip individuals to become more effective in prayer, fasting and spiritual warfare.

To submit an article to be considered for publication; if you have comments or questions; or for advertising oppor-tunities, email:[email protected]

Copyright Notice: The written and visual contents of this magazine are protected by copyright. Excepting translations, you may not reproduce our articles online or in print without first obtaining written permission. Once you receive permission, inform us where and when the article will be reprinted. Prayer Matters Maga-zine articles cannot be reprinted without obtaining permission and notifying the magazine. Prayer Matters Magazine is a ministry of The Joshua Group.

Copyright © 2009-2011 Prayer MattersMagazine. All Rights Reserved.

On The Cover:The Lion of Judah. Jesus Christ the Lord of all.

Why PrayerDoesn’t Work

(1)

03

15

05Why Fastingis Relevant

1    Prayer Matters Magazine 3 January 2011

INS IDE THIS I SSUEjanuary 2011

03 WAITING FOR MIRACLES

05 WHY PRAYER DOESN’T WORK (1)

13 Q & A

15 WHY FASTING IS RELEVANT

19 CALENDAR

20 RECOMMENDED READING

THIS MONTH

Waiting forMiracles

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The beginning of the New Year always feels promising - new horizon, fresh attitude, and great hope. People set goals, make resolutions and take inventory of their lives and where they would like to go in the upcoming year. It is a great time to evaluate where God is taking you. The promise about being a Christian is you know that your future is full of life, adventure and victory.

This year Prayer Matters Magazine and our parent organiza-tion, The Joshua Group has new and fresh things coming as well. Soon we will be rolling out an exciting online platform for people who want to become Premium Members of the ministry. Premium Members will enjoy added benefits dedi-cated to the encouragement, enrichment and spiritual well being for them and their families. Look for a special email outlining this exciting new opportunity.

As you begin this New Year, remember how valuable and special you are and be determined to overcome anything that comes your way. I ask God to bless you with His best and Happy New Year! v

RICK THORP, Publisher

“twenty eleven is here”PEOPLE OF PRAYER

JANUARY| frontline

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Wa i t i n g fo rM i ra c l e s

2010 was a year that many were glad to see come to an end. Full of surprises, turns of events and an economy that is still hit-ting many very hard. But those of us whose hearts are turned to our Lord continue to put faith, hope and trust in the only One who can bring forth something out of noth-ing! Just like Abraham and Sarah, we are waiting for miracles.

We read that Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah ninety years old when the Lord brings up again the promise He had made to Abraham so many years prior about having a son. The Lord had visited Abraham at ninety years old and made a covenant with him, changing both his and Sarah’s name. And once again the Lord spoke of the ‘son of promise’. Sounds like a done deal, right? The promise should be right around the corner! Hope springs up again after many years of silence, that yes, a son will be born to them both. (Genesis 17:15-16) Another ten years passes and any hope had now been released as their bodies went through the process of aging and their abil-

ity to bring forth a child had come to an end. This was a fact. As they lived each day their bodies were a reminder that apart from God, their promise was out of reach. And nothing in their lives was encouraging them to think otherwise. With each passing year, Sarah felt her desire toward her husband change and her ability to bear a child diminish, un-til it was now impossible. But the Lord vis-its Abraham again and speaks of the child being born within a year. The planned time for the birth of the ‘Son of promise’ was ap-proaching. God would get all the glory!

Genesis 17:17-18: 17then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18And Abraham said to God,

“Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

By now so much time had passed and his hope gone, that all Abraham had to hold on to was Ishmael, his answer to God’s promise. His heart had lost the vision. All Abraham could see was what was before him - Ishma-el, whom he loved.

And Sarah, as she overheard the conversa-tion, could not believe what her ears were hearing! The desire and energy to even think about conceiving and raising a child had become a long lost memory.

Genesis 18:10-14: 10And He said, “I will cer-tainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

By Deborah Cozzetti

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(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him). 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13And the LORD said to Abra-ham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14Is any-thing too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

But the time had come for God to show His power and bring about the restoration of their youth! In fact Sarah, as God restored her body to prepare for the conception of their son, was so restored of her youth that Abimelech, the king of Gerar, was so taken by her beauty (at ninety!) that he had her brought to him that he may know her. Just think, if God had not come to Abimelech in a dream to tell him to give her back to Abraham, the coming of the ‘son of promise’ would have been aborted. For her time to conceive had come. But God did intervene.

Genesis 20:6-7: 6And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the in-tegrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not re-store her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

God does not lie. The time of fulfillment was at hand. And nothing, not even Abra-ham’s weakness or mistakes was going to stop what God had promised. Genesis 21:1-2: 1And the LORD visited Sarah

as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

As you look back and reach for promises that you had released in 2010 because it looked as if God had forgotten or that you had made too many mistakes to bring about His promises in your life, know that there are some things, if your heart is turned towards Him, that God will bring about regardless of your weaknesses or mistakes. And your life, which for now seems dreary and with-out hope, will be restored as the brightness of your youth returns while waiting for the promise to arrive. The restoration is the sign of the promise being on its way! Yes, many of God’s promises are conditional on your actions and reactions. But then there is the ‘son of promise’.

I take great comfort in the fact that His thoughts are higher than my thoughts and His ways are not my ways. Many of us would have given up on ourselves and oth-ers long ago! (Isaiah 55:8-9). Praise our God who knows all things and is above all things. Hold on to Him as we all begin 2011! v

Deborah Cozzetti is Founder and Presi-dent of ROAR Ministries, in Puyal-lup, Washington. Deborah is strong in prophetic intercession, worship and teaching the prophetic word. ROAR Ministries believes in being a voice in the community and with that, Deborah helped to start a local school district coalition named Franklin Pierce YOUTH

FIRST! in 2001 and was chair for the first two years of oper-ation. She currently is co-chair but stepped down as chair in 2003-2004 to help start a nonprofit organization on behalf of homeless and displaced youth in her county. In February of 2004, ‘Youth Resources’ became a recognized nonprofit organization. Deborah has been the Executive Director of Youth Resources since 2004. Under “Dabar Ministries”, a writing ministry, Deborah teaches the Word of God, declar-ing the heart & truth of the Lord and destroying the false spirit of this age. www.roarministries.com

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WHYPRAYER

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by Rick Thorp

(part 1)

DOESN’T WORK

Everyone knows that prayer works – right? There is something wrong if you are a Christian but you don’t believe that prayer works. Of course it does! However, prayer doesn’t work all the time. Just because a person says something directed to God, doesn’t mean that God will hear or even answer that person’s prayer. Prayer is more than just talking to God - anyone can do that, but it must be done according to God’s way.

Prayer is not meant to get “things”. Prayer is not meant to make us comfortable. Prayer is not meant to be an exer-cise to make people do what we want them to do – that’s witchcraft. Prayer is communication with God based on an intimate relationship with Him and that is congruent with His Word.

Over the next several months, we will examine why prayer doesn’t work. In doing so, we will discover how prayer does work. Prayer is powerful and if used as God has in-tended, it will accomplish everything that He desires. This month, we will outline a major barrier to answered prayer

– unrighteous anger, specifically anger towards God.(continued on page 7)

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Anger can make us do crazy, and some-times, destructive things. I know a man that broke the windshield of his car with his fist because he was in a fight with his girlfriend. I’ve seen a wall with holes in it from an angry kick or punch; I’ve watched a man almost pass out because he was screaming so loud into a pay phone. The stories go on and on. These are examples of some serious anger issues. I could go deeper into the areas of rage that leads to crime and murder, but for the pur-poses of this article, that is not neces-sary.

On the f lip side, there are some humor-ous stories of anger that reveals the craziness of it all. My Dad is one of the kindest people I know, but there was one incident that momentarily made him lose his mind. When I was a kid, the dog did something that made my Dad furious. I remember my Dad running

all over the yard chasing and yelling at our beloved pet. Of course, the dog had a look of complete and utter ter-ror in its eyes, but kept on weaving and bobbing until my Dad was exhausted. Finally, after realizing that the dog was getting the best of him, he picked up his hammer, said a few nasty words and threw it at the dog, barely missing it. The dog ran off and my Dad found his hammer and went back to work.

Another humorous story involves do-nuts. “Krispy Kreme” donuts are some of the best in the world. They fry them up right in front of you and hand them over while they are still hot. When you eat a Krispy Kreme, your eyes get a little wider out of disbelief that a do-nut could taste so good! Despite the fact that the donuts are hundreds of calories each, it simply doesn’t mat-ter. They melt in your mouth and make your day seem a little better.

A husband and wife that I know bought a box of Krispy Kremes by the mall one day, but before they ate them, they de-cided to go in and do a little shopping. Evidently, things didn’t go so well, be-

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cause not long after they went into the shopping mall, the wife became furi-ous at her husband due to a comment he made about the shoes that she was interested in. Whatever he said must have been quite insulting because the wife became so mad that she quickly walked out of the mall in an uproar. Of course, the husband was timidly chas-ing her down the long corridors of the mall wondering what he possibly could have said to make her so mad. The wife quickly made it to the car, opened the door, grabbed the box of Krispy Kremes, threw them on the ground and proceeded to stomp all over them, squishing them to complete oblivion. Wow! When someone takes out their anger on a dozen Krispy Kremes by dancing all over them, that’s anger!

The stories are humorous to us, and probably even to those involved, but it illustrates that anger can make people do things that they normally wouldn’t do. Maybe we could tell a story or two about someone or even ourselves.

According to the Bible, anger doesn’t have a very good reputation. Right-eous anger, such as the type directed toward the devil or other evil forces, is a strong force that is needed. But when we turn our anger toward God, it becomes something that is unhealthy and will lead us down an agonizing path. Anger toward Him manipulates our thinking and puts us into an are-na of selfishness and pride. And like the examples above, anger makes us do crazy things.

Is It Okay?Some people believe that it is okay to be angry at God. I read an article about this subject and the author said,

“Its fine, God can take it. After all, He already knows how we feel anyway!” Get things off your chest, it will make

you feel better and God will honor your truthfulness.” “There is nothing wrong with letting God know that you are mad at Him. It’s actually healthy to release that anger toward Him.” I’m not exact-ly sure what scripture this person was using to justify this advice, but as you will see shortly, the evidence against it is plentiful.

Many people, including Christians, channel their earthly anger toward God. They blame Him for all of their problems and He becomes the catch-all for the bad that happens. I’ve seen people stay away from church because they are mad at God. They think that

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somehow they are punishing Him since He let something negative happen in their lives. They might say, “OK God, since you let this horrible thing hap-pen to me, I’m not going to go to church anymore, or “I’m just not going to talk to you, God. In fact, I’m going to com-pletely turn my back on you!” “If you won’t make things better in my life, then, forget you, I’ll take care of things on my own!” “When you start answer-ing my prayers and making things bet-ter in my life, then I will serve you, so there!”

This line of thinking is incredibly im-mature and a deceptive tactic from the enemy. We simply cannot blame all bad things on God. When terrible things happen, why does Satan get off the hook? After all, isn’t he the one that de-sires to kill, steal and destroy us (John 10:10)? Isn’t he the one that works tirelessly to keep us from our destiny? The enemy manipulates things around us to keep us down, frustrated, hurt, and most importantly, mad at God. He is pleased that we take out our anger on the very One that we serve. That way, he goes unnoticed.

Anger at God doesn’t help Him answer our prayers. When my grandkids throw a tantrum, they usually get a time out until they calm down. If they are dis-respectful or naughty, they won’t get what they want. And oftentimes, even when they do behave well, it still does not guarantee that they will get what they want. Just because they nicely ask for candy before dinner, doesn’t mean

they will get it. Why is it any different with God? He knows what we need and don’t need - and He is always right!

Although it’s wrong to try to ‘punish’ God for our problems, one nugget of

truth about the scenario is that we tend to not want to talk to God when things are going bad in our lives. At first, we may plead and beg and cry to Him, but what do we do if He doesn’t make things bet-ter quickly? Most

of us lose patience. This mentality is really a result of something deeply rooted, such as lack of faith or misun-derstanding the true nature of God.

What Does Scripture Say?Being mad at God is futile and I don’t believe that shaking your fist at Him is ever a good thing. One does not have to search the scriptures very long to get an idea about what God thinks about unrighteous anger:

“If you cannot control your anger, you are as helpless as a city without walls, open to attack.” (Proverbs 25:28)

“Be not quick in your spirit to become an-gry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.”(Ecclesiastes 7:9)

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger

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and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32)

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Eve-ryone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (James 1: 19-20)

“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” (Proverbs 29:11)

“An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.” (Proverbs 29:22)

“I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disput-ing.” (1 Timothy 2:8)

There are many more scriptures like the above, therefore, it’s easy to under-stand what God is saying. If God feels this way, then does it make sense that it’s ‘okay’ to unload our anger on Him? Of course not! It would be foolish, just like the scriptures point out.

Let us remember who we are serving. I remember a sermon where someone referred to God as their ‘buddy’. What happened to reverence? What hap-

pened to respect. I can’t find too many places in the scripture where man has gotten his way by being disrespectful to his Creator. In scripture, the men and women of God who go before the throne approach Him with a very high level of honor and humbleness. For example, David’s prayer in 2 Samuel 7:18-29 is a beautiful recital of rever-ence.

18Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:

“Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your s e r v a n t — a n d this decree, Sover-

eign LORD, is for a mere human! 20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign LORD. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant”...His prayer continues in a similar manner - great respect. Other prayers of reverence include Ne-hemiah (Nehemiah 1:1-11) and Solo-mon (1 Kings 8:1-54). Also, you will find numerous incidents of people standing before the Lord that would immediately fall in His presence. One

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such example is when the Apostle John had the vision of Jesus in the book of Revelation, he said that, “When I saw him (Jesus), I fell at His feet as though dead.” (Revelation 1:17).

We must understand who we serve. What right do we have to be angry at God? If you died tonight, how would you approach the throne of God? Would you shake your fist at God or fall down and worship Him? If you would fall down and worship Him in heaven, why would we act differently here on earth? God should not be placed on our level. His power and authority is beyond our thinking and exceeds what we as hu-mans can comprehend.

When we pray, when we speak to God, we are speaking to royalty. He is the eternal, most high God; righteous and forgiving, full of mercy and grace, He is our Banner, our peace, our healer, our avenger. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. We are presenting our voices to the wise, immortal, eternal, loving, compassion-ate, holy, sacred, supreme, all powerful, Redeemer.

A powerful scripture that is oftentimes overlooked, especially in the area of prayer, is 1 Peter 4:7. It says, “Be clear minded and self controlled so that you can pray.” Are you clear-minded when you’re filled with anger? I don’t know about you, but when I get mad, my mind tends to go places where I don’t want it to go, and if not self-controlled, sometimes I can say or do things that I nor-mally wouldn’t do. It is apparent in this pas-

sage that we have a hard time praying if our minds are not clear and we are out of con-trol. Considering that ‘outbursts of anger’ is a deed of the flesh (Galatians 5:19) and one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:22), we can see that Peter knew what he was talking about.

How do we react to God if something in our lives goes wrong? What is our attitude to-ward Him? Do we blow up with rage and start stomping on donuts? Do we chase our dog with a hammer? Do we stop talking to God?

Again, let’s realize who it is we are serving, honor God with everything that we have, stop blaming Him for all of our problems, be clear-minded and self-controlled, and fo-cus our anger at our spiritual enemies. That is when our praying will become more effec-tive.

Next month, we will focus on another rea-son that prayer does not work. v

Rick Thorp is the Founder and President of The Joshua Group, a multifaceted prayer move-ment that includes ministries such as Prayer Matters Maga-zine; Prayer-for-a-Million; and PrayerMap, a unique prayer program for churches. Mr.

Thorp has been in church leadership for over 31 years and is ordained under John Eckhardt, Found-er and Presiding Apostle of The IMPACT Network. He is a passionate writer, speaker and teacher with a mission to spread revival and the power of God to the saved and unsaved alike. He resides in Tacoma, Washington, USA, with his wife Jennifer; has a daughter Ashley and two grandchildren. For more information, go to: www.thejoshuagrouponline.org

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Have you been touchedwith a miracle?

SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY!

Needs to be 1000 words or less in Word format. Attach photo and email to :[email protected]

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QHow do I tap into the power of prayer?

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JANUARY | q and a

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AThe power of prayer is not the result of the person praying. Rather, the power resides in the God who is being prayed to. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him.” No matter the person praying, the passion behind the prayer, or the purpose of the prayer - God answers prayers that are in agreement with His will. His answers are not always yes, but are always in our best interest. When our desires line up with His will, we will come to understand that in time. When we pray passionately and purposefully, according to God’s will, God responds powerfully! v

Adapted from www.allaboutprayer.org

JANUARY | q and a

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W hy Fasting is R elevant for To d ay. By Dave and Kim Butts

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By Dave and Kim Butts

Perhaps no spiritual discipline today is as much misunderstood as fasting. Why to fast, how to fast, when to fast, how long to fast, what type of fast, SHOULD I fast . . . etc. In simplest terms, fasting means to abstain from food for a period of time for a spiritual purpose or goal.

As a Christian, obviously the first ques-tion we need to ask is, “What does Jesus say about this?” It is obvious in Scrip-ture that Jesus fasted, but because He did, does that mean that we ought to as well?

In Matthew 6, Jesus discusses three specific spiritual activities and gives in-structions as to how the disciples should perform these activities in a way that is pleasing to God. His language indicates that He assumes the disciples would al-

ready be doing these three things: giving, praying...and fasting.This is an interesting combination. There’s not a believer who would argue that God does not expect us to pray or to give; however, when we talk about fast-ing, all sorts of arguments begin to be put forth as to why this important spiri-tual discipline isn’t for today.

For many in this busy, self-centered world, fasting is just not an option, or even a consideration, even though we see numerous references to fasting through-out the Scriptures: Joel 1:14-15, Neh. 1:4, Dan. 9:3, Lk. 2:37, Acts 13:3 to name only a few.

Because Jesus modeled the practice of fasting, and took the time to instruct His disciples in the discipline, it should be a

W hy Fasting is R elevant for To d ay. By Dave and Kim Butts

(continued on page 17)

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pretty strong indication that He still de-sires us to fast today.

Although not everyone is called to the same levels of fasting, we believe Scripture indi-cates that all Christians who seek to grow and mature should remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in this area.

(Fasting is never intended to be done out of guilt, or in cases where it is medically unsafe. if you are unable to fast from food because of medical reasons, please consider fasting from something which would be a sacrifice for you - TV watching, for exam-ple. Set aside that time to seek the Lord in-stead).

Ronnie Floyd, in his excellent book, The Power of Prayer and Fasting, has one of the most succinct and understandable exhorta-tions to fast: “God’s gateway to supernatu-ral power can become ours when we come to our heavenly Father with contrite hearts and obedient spirits in fasting and prayer.” He goes on to say, “One purpose of prayer and fasting is to bring our hearts to a place of being filled with a sacrificial love that results in godly attitudes in our lives. True fasting will draw us closer to God and His purposes.”

We see three main purposes in Scripture for fasting:

• It allows us to come before God in hu-mility and repentance

• It helps us to focus on the God who de-

sires intimacy with us, and helps us to become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

• It empowers us through God for service.

God’s Word tells us that God “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”

(James 4:6). How can we walk in humility before our God? By recognizing that humil-ity puts us in a position to be able to receive from Him. As individuals, families, church-es, communities and nations, we are in desperate need of a fresh touch from God... of hearing His voice instead of the clamor around us! We live in a society of “I’ll do it myself” mentality. However, there always comes a time when “self” just can’t do it anymore. Eventually, we realize that we are not God, but we are in desperate need of Him!

That was the situation in Judah during Je-hoshaphat’s day. An army from several na-tions was on the march against them. Out-numbered and in despair, they turned to God and fasted and prayed. Their fasting put them in a place of humility where they could pray the right prayer. Jehoshaphat’s prayer, after they had fasted, was not a prayer asking God to bless their efforts or to do what they wanted Him to do. Instead,

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it was an astonishing prayer of humility in which he said. “O Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you (2 Chronicles 20:2-12). Fasting brings us to a proper place of humility before God where we are able to pray such a prayer of faith and dependence.

Fasting also helps us to focus ourselves upon God and the leading of his Holy Spirit. Doing without food for a period of prayer helps us to put away distractions and to turn to Jesus. We are living in a day in which Jesus is calling His Church back into an intimate relationship with Himself - a time when we come directly to Him and get to know Him deeply.

Christian author, Steve Hawthorne, recent-ly described a seven day fast he experienced as he was seeking direction for ministry. At the end of the fast, a friend asked him if he received the guidance he was seeking. Steve replied, “Probably not... but I do know the Guide better now.” This should be our focus - to know the God of intimacy who desires relationship with us!

Fasting is also a way for us to be empow-ered by God for service. There seems to be a release of spiritual power when fasting and prayer are combined. The great men and women of God down through the ages have come to God in prayer and fasting to receive power for greater ministry. Jesus Himself launched His ministry after a forty day fast. Esther went to the king for mercy and salvation for Israel. It was her day of greatness and ministry to God’s people, but it happened after a three day fast undertak-en by herself and many others.

Our ability to be empowered by God for service, relates back to the first two points. When we humble ourselves and draw near to the Lord through fasting and prayer, then we are ready to receive power to be used in God’s service in an even greater way than ever before. Having learned humility and intimacy, we are able to be entrusted with greater power because we realize that it is not our doing, but God working in and through us.

God desires to raise up a people who will surrender their lives to be used by Him in these critical days. Without God’s people being set ablaze in prayer and fasting, the revival He longs to send cannot happen. Evil will continue to pervade the earth, and Christians will continue to watch weakly - wishing there was something they could do.

We believe that fasting is part of God’s plan for His children. Ronnie Floyd says, “Unless we surrender completely to God’s plan, we are destined to drift in a sea of disappoint-ment, disillusionment, and depression. We are in constant need of supernatural power.”

Elmer Towns has said, “If every Christian fasted, the results could shake our society like a windstorm bending a sapling. Chris-tians would demonstrate that they live dif-ferently, that their faith is imperative, that the Almighty works in their daily lives.”

Is fasting relevant for today? What is God saying to you personally about it? How will you respond? v Article was used by permission of Harvest Prayer Ministries. www.harvestprayer.com

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EVENTS | calendar

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eventsanuaryJ

January 6-8 | Albany, ORWHAT IS GOD SAYING IN 2011?Kimberly Daniels, Churck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Denny Cline, Steve Shultz www.elijahlistministries.com

January 13-15 | San Antonio, TXLEAP OF FAITHPatricia King, Georgian Banov, Todd White and Ryan Pena he Ahn and Gaspar Anastasi www.extremeprophetic.com

January 14-15 | Tucson, AZSTART THE YEAR OFF RIGHT, AZ!Cindy Jacobs, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets www.styoraz.com

January 20-22 | Seattle, WA OPEN WIDEBob and Bonnie Jones, Kamran and Suzy Yaraei www.seattlerevivalcenter.com

January 27-29 | Crandford, NJTHE HEARTBEAT OF HEAVEN FOR TWENTY-ELEVEN Joseph Garlington, Stacey Campbell,Barbara Yoder, Julie Meyer, Steve Mitchell www.mantleofpower.org

January 27-30 | Kansas City, MS ARISE WOMEN’S CONFERENCE, WORLD REVIVAL CHURCHFeatured Speaker: Kathy Gray www.worldrevivalchurch.com

January 27-30 | Pasadena, CAWHEN HEAVEN INITIATESBob Hartley, James Goll, Graham Cooke, Mark Chironna, Stacy Campbell, Chuck Pierce, Kris Vallotton www.hrockchurch.com

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In Crafted Prayer Graham Cooke examines the discipline of approaching God in listening prayer. He encourages us to ask God what He would like us to pray when we con-sider the issues surrounding our lives. Over time we can create a crafted prayer consisting of words given to us by the Lord, which are appropriate to our current needs, and begin to pray in the certain knowledge that the Fa-ther will delight in answering that which He has given us to pray. v

Churches That Pray gives you concrete examples of the way God is answering fervent “action prayer” in every corner of the planet. This book also gives you practical steps to take so that you can use “action prayer” in your church and your commu-nity. You’ll learn why God often waits for our prayers before He acts and you’ll discover how you and others can pray with more power. v

Crafted PrayerGraham Cooke

Churches that PrayPeter Wagner

January 2011 4 Prayer Matters Magazine    20 

BOOKSFor these and other Spirit-led

books, go to www.arsenalbooks.com

Page 22: January 2011

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