MAKE ROOM 3

 

Keep expecting

How do you live in such a way that God can do immeasurably more in you and through you than you could ever imagine? 

First, we identify our priorities. Then, we choose to make room for more of God by fasting. After that, we choose to put God first every day through the practice of spiritual disciplines. Finally, we expect God to move. 

The truth? God created you for a purpose. He wants you to have a rich and satisfying life. 

He is inviting you to become the kind of person who can bring a little bit of heaven to Earth. 

The problem? So many of us aren’t convinced that God could ever use us. 

The idea of God doing immeasurably more through us can sometimes feel unlikely, and for some of us it feels completely impossible. 

Maybe it’s because of the bad things we’ve done, the bad things that have been done to us, the challenges we’ve experienced in our homes, or the struggles we face every day. 

So many of us have had the hope beaten out of us to the point that expecting God to move in us seems like a kid’s dream instead of a real possibility. 

God wants you to dream again. He wants you to believe, maybe for the first time, what He believes about you. 

God is inviting you to imagine and to expect what could be and what should be. And God wants you to keep expecting. 

He wants you to keep believing. He wants you to have hope.

Let your fast make room in your heart and in your mind for more of God by starving the doubts, the fears, and the insecurities you’ve been living with. 

Let your worship of God feed your imagination and your expectation for God to move. And keep expecting. Keep dreaming. Keep believing. Why? 

Because God can, and He will, do immeasurably more through you than you could ever ask, think, or imagine. 

So, will you make room? Will you put God first? Will you keep expecting? 

Challenge: Keep expecting. Stay strong with your fast and do something every day to put God first for the next two weeks! If you miss one day, commit to not missing two. Have grace for yourself (because God has grace for you) and get back at it!  

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Make Room 2

 Make Room

Do you still have your list of priorities you made last devotional ? Okay, good. When you look at that list, you probably find yourself thinking, “My life is pretty full. I have so many things that I need to do and so many things that I want to do. How am I supposed to make room for God?” 

Great question! That’s where fasting comes in. Fasting is the act of giving something up so that we can make room for God. 

Unfortunately, fasting is a spiritual discipline that a lot of people don’t fully understand, so it can be hard to appreciate how valuable it really is. 

Let’s take a quick sidebar and talk about spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are the things we do that help us stay in tune with the things of God. 

As Christians, we know that we are accepted by Jesus because of His grace and not because of our good works. At the same time, we know that being a Christian isn’t just praying one prayer. 

Being a Christian is choosing to follow Jesus every day. A common word used to describe a follower of Jesus is the word disciple.

 An interesting thing about the word disciple, which is another word for follower, is that it shares the same root as the word discipline. 

The takeaway: Spiritual disciplines help us become better disciples. Spiritual disciplines will not make God love you more. There’s nothing you can do that will make 

God love you any more or any less. Spiritual disciplines will help you love God more and help you better live the life He has created you to live. 

Even Jesus practiced spiritual disciplines! Yes, that Jesus, God in human form, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

 He prayed, He studied Scripture, He spent time with Christians, He served people, and He fasted. 

Fasting is a spiritual discipline that involves giving something up so that we can make room for more of God. 

Fasting helps us make room for God to work in us and through us. We live in a world today where people are busier than ever.

 That’s why fasting is more important than ever. At a time in history when people’s lives are more full of things than ever, fasting helps us make room to create space for what is most important. 

Challenge: Choose one thing to fast from—to give up—for the next two weeks.

 Ask yourself this question: What is one thing I can give up that will help me make room for more of God?

 If you’re not sure what to fast from, here are some suggestions: social media, YouTube, sweets, fast food, complaining, swearing, secular music. 

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬ must read as well 

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MAKE ROOM

 What do you value most? 

Before you answer this question, can you commit to doing something that may feel uncomfortable? 

Hopefully, you said yes. Will you commit to giving a real answer instead of giving the “right” answer?

It’s easy to be asked that question and say the thing you think people want to hear. 

Don’t settle for the easy thing. Choose to do the potentially uncomfortable thing. Why? 

Because easy answers don’t make us better. And you want to become better, right? 

So, here are some questions to help you give a real answer instead of the “right” answer: 

• What do you spend the most time doing? 
• What do you spend the most time thinking about? 
• When you’re about to fall asleep at night, what are the things going through your head? 
• Where does most of your money go? Clothes? Sneakers? Video games? Your car? Your bills or Rent ? 
• If you came home from work  and discovered that someone robbed your house, what would be the first thing you check to see if it’s still there? 

Now that you’ve asked yourself those questions and come up with answers (you did answer those questions, right?), do you still have the same answer for what you value most? 

Here’s why we’re answering those questions: Most of us would agree that we want God to do immeasurably more through us than we could ever do on our own. The problem? Often, our lives are so full of other things that we aren’t giving God space to actually move through us. 

That’s why we need to make room. When we make room in our lives, we are making room for God to do more in us and through us than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. Step one to making room is to identify what matters most to us. 

Challenge: Use the questions above to make a list of what you value most. Put the things on that list in the order of how much time, energy, attention, and money you spend on those things. 

Let this be a visual representation of what you value most today. Once you’ve made the list, ask this question: 

Are my values really in the order I want them to be in? 

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Fasting with Humility and Sincerity

 

“In Jesus’s day the Pharisees fasted with attitudes of pride and superiority:

  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. . . . I fast twice in the week . LUKE 18:11–12, KJV

  Anytime you are full of pride, being legalistic and religious, you can fast and pray all you want, but you won’t see many miracles. 

The Pharisees didn’t have any miracles come as a result of their prayer and fasting. They had no power. 

Jesus had all the miracles because He was humble and full of mercy, love, and compassion toward people.

  The Pharisees had nothing but long robes on, robes with no miracles. They couldn’t heal a headache. They couldn’t heal a mosquito bite. They couldn’t heal a hangnail. They had no power because they were not humble and showed no mercy. Jesus showed up and broke all their rules. 

He healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out devils. Then they wanted to kill him. They were not concerned about people. 

They were more concerned about their position and their title. Don’t ever get to a place where your position or title takes the humility and the mercy of God out of your life. Always be humble. Always be merciful.

  We must approach fasting with humility. Fasting must be genuine and not religious or hypocritical. 

This is what God requires in fasting. We must have correct motives in fasting. Fasting is a powerful tool if done correctly. 

Muslims and Hindus fast, but their fasts are merely religious. Great miracles and breakthroughs happen when fasting is done in the right spirit.”

“Isaiah chapter 58 describes the fast that God has chosen:

  • Fasting cannot be done with amusement (v. 3).

  • Fasting cannot be done while mistreating others (v. 3).

  • Fasting cannot be done for strife or contention (v. 4).

  • Fasting should cause one to bow his head in humility, like a bulrush (v. 5).”

“Fasting should be a time of searching the heart and repenting.

  • Fasting should be done with an attitude of compassion for the lost and hurting (v. 7).

  This is the fast that God promises to bless.

  The enemy knows the power of prayer and fasting, and he will do everything in his power to stop you. 

Believers who begin to fast can expect to encounter much spiritual resistance. 

A believer must be committed to a fasted lifestyle. 

The rewards of fasting far outweigh the obstacles of the enemy.”

RELEASE The BREAKER ANOINTING

                         

“We have established that there are some things in our lives that just can’t stay around if we are to walk victoriously and in covenant with God. 

We have gone too long and too soft with the enemy wreaking havoc in our lives. 

Fasting can release the breaker anointing. 

The prophet Micah prophesied the day of the breaker coming up before his people. We are living in the days of the breaker.

  The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them. MICAH 2:13, KJV

  The Lord is a breaker. He is able to break through any obstacle or opposition on behalf of His covenant people.

 There is a breaker anointing arising upon the church. We are seeing and experiencing more breakthroughs than ever before. 

Fasting will cause breakthroughs to continue in families, cities, nations, finances, church growth, salvation, healing, and deliverance.

 It will help believers to break through all opposition from the enemy.

  “As we have said, there are some spirits operating in our lives that cannot be overcome without fasting.

 Some believers struggle with certain limitations that they cannot seem to break through. 

A revelation for how covenant and fasting work hand in hand will change this and result in victories that would not ordinarily be obtained. A life of consistent fasting will cause many victories to manifest.

 God’s will is that His covenant believers live a life of victory and perfect peace with nothing being impossible to them.”

Only for the Serious & Obedient Servant.  

 

Fasting for Deliverance # 1

 Now, therefore,” says the LORD , “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. JOEL 2:12–13

  YOU’VE COMMANDED, REBUKED, prayed prayers, done warfare, and shouted, but there’s more that needs to be broken off your life. It’s time to add some fasting to your warfare strategy. There are just those “kinds” of demonic strongholds that there is no other way around them. No shortcuts. You have to fast and humble yourself until that thing breaks and leaves your life.

  Listen Famaliy, demons are different in terms of their wickedness. There are demons that are more wicked, more unclean, stronger, more stubborn, and higher in rank, ability, and intelligence. 

The longer a demon has been in a family or in a person’s life, the harder it is to remove because its roots go very deep. Demons such as rebellion, pride, witchcraft, Jezebel, poverty, and lack may only come out with a high level of faith[…]”

“Sometimes it seems as if they cannot be dislodged, and people will get discouraged and frustrated and feel they have failed. 

In Matthew 17 the disciples of Jesus encountered a demon in a young boy and could not cure him because of unbelief. Unbelief hinders us from dealing with strongholds. It takes faith to dislodge the enemy. Fasting helps you overcome unbelief and build strong faith.

  This is the supernatural combination that Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 17: prayer and fasting. I am not saying that when you fast you will earn brownie points with God or that you are working your way to enjoying God’s blessings. 

We don’t fast to be saved, please God, or to go to heaven. There is no law that says if you don’t fast you will go to hell. We fast for breakthrough and revival, for family and loved ones. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God!

  Some things take fasting and prayer. There is no other way around. There are those kinds of demons that just don’t give up. They are strong, proud, arrogant, and defiant. They are familiar spirits that have been in your family.

“Sometimes you have to do something unusual, extraordinary, and beyond the norm to see breakthrough. Normal church, normal Christianity, normal preaching, and normal praying are not going to get the job done. Some little sweet prayer is not going to do. 

Religion won’t get it done. It is going to take an anointing that destroys the yoke. When you fast, the anointing increases in your life because you are so into the Spirit. The authority of God, power of God, and faith of God comes alive when you lay aside some things and fast. You will find yourself getting stronger and stronger. Shouting doesn’t do it. It is the anointing that does it.”

“Isaiah 58 talks about how we can fast to break every yoke to undo the heavy burdens. Fasting makes room so that the oppressed go free. Fasting breaks bondages and causes revival. 

When you are dealing with a serious issue—maybe you are dealing with something you don’t know how to handle—the best thing to do sometimes is to let go of some food for a little while. 

Pray against that thing. Man may not be able to help you, and you may not know how to defeat it, but with God all things are possible.”