Trevor Johnston's Blog

Fasting works on our hearts just like meat tenderizer does.  It changes what was hard and tough to soft and tender.

Have you heard the voice of God lately?  Is your speech brash?  Are you less patient with those around you?  Do you need a “heart of flesh” again?  Then fast, and live in Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I just read AN AMAZING post on Mike Bickle’s blog about fasting.

However, instead of making the focal point about fasting, his objective is to teach about the Power to Love Jesus.  Fasting is just a means to an end.  And what a beautiful end.

Fasting puts our hearts in position to recieve more power to love Jesus, because we can’t even love Him without help.  When we love Him, it is the Spirit’s work in us.

We can fast five different ways:  Giving, Serving, Praying, Blessing Our Enemies and Fasting Food.

• We fast our financial strength in giving
• We fast our time and energy in praying and serving by investing into God and others
• We fast our words and reputation in blessing our enemies
• We fast our physical and emotional strength in giving up food

The Power to Love Jesus

This monday will be the first TURN THE TIDE FAST! What is it? Every first monday of the month we will be fasting and praying that God would shift the negative trend of the United Methodist Church in the state of Florida loosing members year after year. If we fast and pray, we can “turn the tide” and God can bring healing into our church. Imagine, what if God not only stopped the decline of the church but He breathed on it and made it grow! Check back later today for more information about fasting and TURN THE TIDE!

Last semester God taught me an amazing lesson on fasting that I wanted to post.  So here it is:

Fasting makes you physically weak.
Your physical weakness (in fasting) works it’s way inside to bring spiritual weakness.
Spiritual weakness is good because it makes you realize your need for God.
As you realize your true weakness and your need for God your faith increases.
And increased faith means more powerful prayer.
And prayer rid of all human strength is perfected prayer.

Therefore, fasting purifies your prayer.

God, let us be a people who are not like Esua, who trade our inheritance for food.  But let us be a people who would deny our stomaches and the world so that we might burn for you.

Download (right click and “save target/link as”)

The Lord seems to be so heavy on this worship. IT IS POWERFUL! Use it for your prayer for Winter Retreat.

If you want to download the full 82 minutes of the worship session, search on iTunes for “Yearn, Faint, Cry” podcast. Click on the episode “Justin Rizzo onething 2007 12/28/07 2pm (AUDIO).”

OUR GOD REIGNS!

Here are some helpful articles to download on fasting.

Practical Guidelines for Fasting (pdf format)

Links:

Fasting Management 101

The Practicals of Fasting 

Juicy Essentials 

Enjoy!

If someone were to come and ask me “How was The Call?” I think I might have a hard time finding the right words.

If you don’t know what The Call is, it was an event were leaders in the Church gathered thousands of christians together for a day of fasting and prayer for America. The tag line was “It’s not a festifal, it’s a fast.”

So there I was, walking out of LP Field in Nashville Tennesseeat at 10:30pm, me and 70,000 of my closest friends, wondering how to tell others about it. Maybe some of these stories can help:

- At 9:30am, half an hour before the event actually started, I had my face in my hands praying. Then God gave me a picture: I saw my hands, in the same place they were in real life, putting blue paint on my face. Blue paint as in Braveheart blue face paint. To me, that was God symbolically letting me know that I was getting ready to go to war.

- They opened the day with Native American Christians praying for us because they are the Apistolic Fathers of our Nation. POWERFUL.

- We prayed that God would free America from all sexual sin for over an hour in intense, passionate prayer. He put a fire in me in that session that I am still walking in now.

- We prayed that God would bring a Third Great Awakening to America. I have longed for that since I was sitting in US History when I was a junior in High School. God make me a part of the Third Great Awakening!

- At the end of the day, 300 men blew Shofars (a musical instrument made from a ram’s horn used in the Old Testament i.e. the horns in Joshua used to bring down the walls of Jericho) and the crowd released a shout that was one of the loudest things I have ever heard. The Fear of God (in the very best way) came over me and I felt like we were in front of a cave, provoking the Great Lion of Judah to come out and meet us.

So how was The Call? It was life changing. It was insane. At the end of the day, I felt like I had been in a giant, epic battle standing in the gap for America.

“…and I …can hear the sound of rain… coming to America…again.”