100 Days Of Prayer & Fasting: Week Two

The Presence of God Makes A Difference For His Presence Is The Difference

When the disciples came to Jesus and asked privately, Why could we not drive it out? He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
Matthew 17:19-21 (AMPC)

In a season where the landscape is facing immense pressure, we call on all within the East Gateway Hub to embark on a journey of 100 Days of Prayer and Fasting; contending, reclaiming territories for Jesus. This is a humble invitation for us to draw strength from one another in a unified defence against the schemes of the enemy and our claim to hold on to our inheritance as Heirs of Christ Jesus.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT) "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."

Week 2 Counting The Cost - 31st May to 7th June

"Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]." James 5:16 (AMPC)

Prayer Points

1. Thank God for the privilege of being able to participate in these 100 Days of Prayer & Fasting.
2. Let us recognise and fix our shortcomings instead of pointing out the flaws of others
   Matthew 7:3-5 (NLT)) "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,'' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
3. Let's ask the Lord to bring to remembrance any acts of unrighteousness and repent
4. Let's seek peace with those we are not on good terms with - Romans 12:18-21 (NLT) Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the Lord. Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads." Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
5. Plead mercy for the church, that the Lord will forgive any actions within the body of Christ that are deemed sinful before God.

Seeing the Invisible

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV)

Types of fasting

COMPLETE FAST
This fast calls for drinking only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option.

SELECTIVE FAST (Daniel Fast)
This type of fast involves removing certain elements from your diet. One example of a selective fast is the Daniel Fast, during which you remove food items like meat, sweets, and bread from your diet and consume water and natural juice for fluids; and fruits and vegetables for your meals.

PARTIAL FAST
This fast is sometimes called the Jewish Fast or Intermittent Fasting and involves abstaining from eating any type of food in the morning and afternoon. This can either correlate to specific times of the day, such as 6:00 am to 3:00 pm, or from sunup to sundown.

SOUL FAST
This fast is common for those who do not have much experience fasting food, who have health issues that prevent them from fasting food, or who wish to refocus certain areas of their life that are out of balance. For instance, someone might select to abstain from using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast and then choose to carefully bring that element back into their life in an orderly fashion after the fast.

SPECIAL FAST
This is an option for anyone willing to fast but unable to commit to specific times or days. You may be able to commit a day or a specific time frame in your week, day or month to seek the face of God regarding this purpose of Fasting and Prayer.

How do we make prayer a part of our everyday life?

We can learn from three things that Jesus did...
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mark 1:35).

AT A CERTAIN TIME
Jesus got up very early in the morning to spend time with His Heavenly Father. For prayer to work, we should do the same. Make a daily appointment with God and keep it.

AT A CERTAIN PLACE
Jesus had a prayer place. Your prayer place needs to be an undistracted environment where you can pray out loud and perhaps have some worship music playing in the background.

A CERTAIN PLAN
Go into your prayer time with a plan. If it changes that's fine.
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He gave His disciples a prayer outline. We call it the Lord's Prayer.

MONTHLY PRAYER GATHERING
Once a month, on a Friday, we will gather to pray; this will be online or in person. We will also meet occasionally to pray at the event venue.