Ready to take things to the next level? In this series, we talk about things that help us grow spiritually. In this message, Pastor Jamie Nunnally encourages us in prayer and fasting.
What is prayer?
Prayer is communication with God.
Prayer is the intersection of three things:
1) Being with God
2) Talking to God
3) Listening to God
What is fasting?
Fasting is the practice of not eating food in order to amplify your prayer.
You can’t be filled if you’re already full, so fasting is making room so you can communicate with God more effectively. It’s denying the flesh in order to advance the spirit.
Fasting turns deciding into discerning.
How to level up though prayer:
1. Pray without distraction.
Luke 5:16 ESV “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Let’s be honest, many of us are used to asking Google instead of asking God.
You can’t do important things when you’re distracted by insignificant things.
Good things become bad things when they distract us from God things.
John Ortberg – “For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.”
2. Pray like you know God.
Have you ever asked yourself, if God already knows everything, why do we have to pray? Because prayer fulfills His desire for relationship with you, and because relationships are founded on communication.
Prayer is not getting God to do something for you, it’s getting to know God.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Prayer should be personal, not transactional.
3. Pray like you’ll make a difference.
James 5:16-17 NLT
“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!”
Your prayers are so important that they actually affect the outcome of history.
Think of this: If prayer changes things, not praying changes things too. So why don’t you pray as much as you could?
You’ll only talk to God if you believe He’s listening.
4. Pray a lot.
Luke 11:5-8 NLT
Your prayers never bother God. But do you know what does bother Him? Us, absent of relationship, wanting to use Him as our genie.
5. Pray, then listen.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice.”
Sit with God after talking to Him and learn to be led by Him.
How would your life be different if you committed to prayer and fasting?
Are you using prayer and fasting to level up?