Having a great 1st day of the fast. In preparing for the Ash Wednesday service I ran across a prayer card we made up about this time last year.

It says:

        “Summer/Fall 2008: Potential New Life Locations
        Please join us in prayer as we seek to cooperate with God
        and further His Kingdom in Chicago and beyond.
        5 Neighborhoods listed on map:
        Humboldt Park, Portage Park, Tri-Taylor, Brighton Park, Berwyn

I want to make a new prayer card listing Pilsen, Summit, East Chicago, & Englewood.

Don’t ever doubt that God can open doors and persistent prayer makes a difference! (Luke 11:5-13)

One cool thing I learned on my last fast...
Water is the fast-ers best friend!

I noticed a huge difference when I was drinking enough water.  Even with juice and vegetable fasts, drink alot of water.

As I was getting headaches today I drank a half liter of water and a half hour later I felt better.

I know the first three days can be challenging.  Don't quit.  If you forgot or messed up, start over and don't beat yourself up.  If you are doing a juice fast, after about 3 days of hunger your body switches into a different mode and the physical hunger pains go away.  But because your stomach has shifted gears, you have to be real careful in how you break the fast.

But as you begin to fast... The best tip that I can give you is to DRINK alot of water.  The link below is on how much water you should drink on a normal day.  When fasting, you should probably even drink more.

http://www.wikihow.com/Drink-More-Water-Every-Day

Grace and Peace to you as you intensify your pursuit of God Almighty!

Pastor Decrease Dwayne

I remember several years ago when two of my very closest friends were making some major wrong turns in their spiritual walk.  Both were my assistants for my home group for youth and it was breaking my heart.  I made a decision to fast until both were back on track or until 40 days came.  I felt a sense of urgency in my heart and saw it as an opportunity to wage spiritual warfare. I had prayed and didn't see any rays of hope and felt like desperate times called for desperate measures.

Within in the first week, one of my friends repented and stopped compromising.  My other friend however was pushing me to my limits.  My friend had a powerful testimony of how God rescued him from a gang lifestyle but had went back to drinking and other crazy stuff.  I hated how the enemy was like a lion shredding him to pieces.  But finally, after about 3 weeks intense prayer, he got back on track in seeking the Lord.

I know that God can answer our prayer yes, no, or wait and the same is true when we fast and pray.  There is nothing we could ever do to force God's hand behind his back and make him do what we want.  Ultimately our heart should desire to be led by Spirit in our prayers so that we are praying for things that our in alignment with the heart of God.

However, sometimes there is war in the spiritual realms that we probably could never understand.    And when we withhold from our physical bodies foods and we intensify our prayer focus and time with the Lord and His Word, we become more alert to this cosmic battle between good and evil.

A great example of this in the Bible is found in Daniel chapter 10.  In verses 2 and 3 Daniel says,  “At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.” Daniel 10:2-3   Fasting is a great way to humble ourselves before the Lord when we are broken and "mourning."   Daniel went without choice foods, meat and wine for three weeks.  At the end of the three weeks an angel appears to him and says that he had been sent from the first day he had started to pray but that a 21 day battle in the heavenly realms between a top demon (demonic prince of Persia) and Michael (on of the chief princes).

Sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures.  Perhaps some of us need to fast for our children, businesses, unsaved friends and family, our neighborhoods, ministries, and more.  What often happens in the process is ultimately God deals with us first.  In the process he points out areas that we need to work on and often he moves and works in unexpected ways in our areas of need.  But I would challenge you to begin to pray and prepare your heart for what God would have you do.  If he leads you to do an extended fast it is always wise to read resources on fasting to get prepare you spiritually as well as physically.  While I don't agree with everything Jentezen Franklin says, he has been a great mobilizer in leading people in fasting and has some great words of encouragement that I would recommend to everyone.  You can watch some short 2 minute video clips and get some frequently asked questions answered at http://www.jentezenfranklin.org/fasting/ .

While my two friends have had some ups and downs over the last decade, I was real encouraged to hear about one of them who is currently living in Texas and has a family and helps serve in the children's ministry in his local church.  Sometimes the seeds planted take a while to grow to their full potential.  Don't get discouraged and keep planting seeds and raise the intensity up a few notches in your prayer life by adding a fast.  Greater breakthroughs can happen when you mix prayer and fasting.

      Just got back from our 7th grade daughter’s basketball game. Her team has had a great year and they finished the season by entering a difficult tournament in Wheaton. The schools in this tournament are mostly larger and wealthier. Even our coaches admitted that we were underdogs. However, after a 28 point win on Friday night over Batavia we held on for a 1-point victory against East Dundee on Saturday to make it to the championship game against a tough Mount Prospect team. Our team was smaller in size and in number (only 7 girls on our side). In the first minute one of our starters went down with a sprained ankle. Our team played tough and was down by 1 point early in the 4th quarter but the other side made great shots and pulled away for a 12 point victory. Our team ended the year with a tremendous 29-3 record. But this game made me real upset. Second place stinks!

      I know I shouldn’t care too much about who wins, it’s only a game, it’s more important for the girls to have good attitudes, there is no money or scholarships for the winners, etc. but for some reason I am very competitive and absolutely want to see us win. If this desire is unchecked it can lead to pride, anger, and idolatry. I’m convinced that some sports fans need to repent of wrong worship. But I think there’s something deeper, something good, natural, and from God, that makes me (and the other parents) crave victory.

      The Lord has made us to be winners. In scripture we hear Jesus say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and read about being “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:37), “the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Cor 15:57), “the victory that has overcome the world” (1John 5:4), and on and on. Life is a competition!

      Paul used a sports illustration in 1Cor 9:24 when he said, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners, run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” He doesn’t say, ‘just have a good attitude’, ‘try hard’, or ‘be a nice person’. He says WIN! But notice who we are competing against. “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1Cor 9:27)

      The enemy is me! I am competing against myself. No one else can make me sin, cause me to turn to the world, or disqualify me. The Devil and the World can only appeal to my sinful nature for entry. The battle in my life is Mike (Holy Spirit side) versus Mike (Sinful side). The results of this competition will make a difference forever. Victory will bless my family, lead others to Christ, glorify God, and enable me to enter eternity with confidence and no shame (1John 2:28). Defeat will rob me of all kinds of blessings and bring curses down upon me.

      Fill in the blanks with your own name. The competition is between __________ (Holy Spirit side) and _________ (Flesh side). Jesus told his disciples that “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Who will win in your life? Remember that SECOND PLACE STINKS!

This week starts a new season for Small Groups.  I get excited around this time because it’s a new opportunity for the church to come together in community and continue to challenge ourselves to grow spiritually.   I’ll be leading a Share Your Faith Workshop over the next 8 weeks.  It’s the second time that I am leading the group and my experience with the first group last session was amazing.  The material comes from Evangelism Explosion and it’s geared towards teaching people in attendance relational evangelism.  I’ve learned that everyone has a story and we can use our testimonies as opportunities to witness to people.  Changed lives through the power of Christ can challenge others.  Our before Christ and after Christ stories can show what the power of God does to bring about change.  When we share our testimonies and talk about how things are now that Christ is in our life it can plant spiritual seeds and challenge the person hearing who only has a before Christ story to want Christ in their life too. 

The material used in the class is unique in that it is all DVD based and teaches people engaging stories that explain Faith, God, Christ, Man, Sin and Grace.  After telling the story the material teaches how to explain what the story meant by using Bible verses and explaining how it relates.  I like how this equips us to be ready for any opportunity that may come our way to share our faith.  I’ve seen that as I’ve shared my faith with friends it’s often through answering questions that they may have.  As I answer questions this material fits very well into a normal conversation and I will sometimes share a story relating to one of the topics and use the material to help answer the question in a more impactful way.  If you’re interested in learning how to share your faith in a new way or want to grow in your confidence and ability to share your faith you can e-mail me at mikeh@newlifechicago.org.  I’d love to have you join us as we start this next Small Group session this week.  I can guarantee you that 8 weeks focusing on this evangelism material can equip you to be prepared to share your faith for the rest of your life.