prayer

Fasting, “Crying Out”, Prayer Meetings, and What God Actually Said About These Things

“Go into all the world and huddle in prayer meetings, making disciples who will also huddle in prayer meetings and pray for more people to join their prayer meetings.  If you’d like, you could even tune in and watch other people’s prayer meetings on TV.

Ignore the hurting, dying people around you and all the commands I have given to set captives free and instead ask Me to do all the work for you.

Come to Me with the mindset that you have to get billions of people singing songs and vainly repeating the same prayers thousands of times to me and asking Me to come join your event over and over in order for anything to happen.

(Matthew 6:7 - ”When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.”)

Don’t eat the food that I have given you to enjoy and instead fast the way I say NOT to fast in Isaiah 58 and blatantly ignore the way I say is My chosen fast (which coincides with My mission statement in Luke 4:18-19).

Somehow I don’t think Jesus said this.

But it sure seems to be what all these conferences and events that are so obscenely commonplace today are implying to the rest of planet and anyone who actually reads the Gospels.

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Please actually read this and you do the math.

You won’t hear this shared at too many “solemn assemblies” where everyone is pretty much doing exactly the opposite of what God says is His “chosen fast”.
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Isaiah 58:
True Fasting

Shout it aloud, do not hold back.  Raise your voice like a trumpet.  Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.


“Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?


“Is not THIS (the following) the kind of fasting I have chosen:

To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not (for YOU) to share your food with the hungry and (for YOU) to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when YOU see the naked, to clothe them,  and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness,  and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; YOU will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath (resting in the Lord and what He has done) and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

So what are you going to do about this?

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“Bowls of Intercession”, Joel 2, and the Gospel

There are untold millions of people on the planet today who are praying and crying out for God to pour out His Spirit like He promised He would in Joel chapter 2.
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I am here to tell you that He has already done so.
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Lots of folks sing songs about this stuff with lyrics like “Come like you promised…” and “Release the fullness!”
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As if He somehow has been hiding this whole time?  As if there is anywhere we can go without Him?
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The apostle Peter said the following about Joel 2 in Acts 2:16-18:
This (speaking of these supernatural things they were witnessing)
is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy. “
God did not scoop up his spirit back into heaven, pour it into a bowl, and now is sitting there waiting for people to pray enough to ‘fill the bowls of intercession’ so that He can finally, once again, pour out His spirit once the ‘bowls’ are filled with enough prayers that God finally decides He can answer.

The doctrine that is very common in the church today teaches the opposite.

It creates a mentality that God has been holding out on His people but that through their works (prayer, fasting, discipline, worship, etc.) they can somehow eventually convince God (as long as you get enough people doing so in large numbers) to answer once again.
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The trouble is that doctrine (of the bowls of intercession) comes from a single verse, taken very much out of context.
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Defining our lives and ministries around single verses rather than on Christ is extremely unhealthy and easily will lead people into religious deception.
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One such verse that is commonly used to defend these practices is Revelation 5:8:
“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.  Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
There is nothing anywhere about the bowls being poured out and that being equated with God pouring out His Spirit and finally deciding to answer His people.
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Luke 12:32 says it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
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Matthew 7:7 and John 14:14 says if we ask anything in the name of Jesus that He hears us and it will be given to us.
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Jesus didn’t say “If you ask in my name, and as long as you keep asking enough to fill up the bowls of intercession, and get enough intercessors fasting and praying, I will answer.”
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These mindsets keep people in a perpetual state of crying out and begging for God to:
1.) do something He already did through Christ
2.) do something He told us to do
3.) not do something He won’t do (like send judgment on a nation for sin) because of the new covenant through Christ’s blood
The Gospel is simple.
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Jesus’ mission statement, from His own lips, was as follows:
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” – Luke 4:18-19
Preach the Good news to the poor (financially and spiritually).
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Tell captives that they are free because of Christ.
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Open the eyes of the blind (spiritually and physically).
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Set the oppressed free (healing, deliverance, etc).
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Proclaim God’s favor (He’s not angry.  Sins are forgiven. Turn to Him.)
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Our lives MUST be centered on Christ and what He said to do.
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He told his followers to preach a certain type of message in Matthew 10:7-8:
“And as you go, preach THIS MESSAGE, saying, ‘Repent, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.  Freely you received, freely give.”

There is absolutely nothing anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus instructed His followers that they must fast and pray and ‘cry out’ and ‘fill the bowls of intercession’ before they could see a city transformed.
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The Gospels say absolutely nothing about needing to fast and pray and ‘cry out’ to ‘pierce the heavens’ or ‘push back the spiritual darkness over the region’ before ‘revival’ could break out.

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The Gospels say absolutely nothing about needing to cast down principalities over cities before we go into them to bring the Good News.

Here’s a newsflash:  light pushes back darkness.

Every time.

Darkness can’t even argue when you turn a light on.

The trouble is, we’ve got millions of people who have been taught to beg God to turn the light on when He already told you that you were the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

Seems a lot of folks are putting their lamp that God already lit under a bowl (Matthew 5:15).

Pun intended?  Maybe.

Joel chapter 2 and the outpouring of God’s Spirit has been fulfilled (Acts 2:16, 2:33) and now it is 100% the responsibility of the CHRISTIAN to do as Jesus instructed His disciples upon His resurrection and go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation with signs and wonders following (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-20, John 20:21).

If this is contrary to what you have been taught, I’d highly encourage you to look into this for yourself.

If you’re someone who has been taught you must ‘cry out’ and do a whole lot of fasting and prayer (for an unspecified period of time) and especially those of you who have been doing it for years—I ask you this–how’s that working out for you?

Are you seeing the results that Jesus and the apostles saw?  And more importantly, why are you doing things that have absolutely no Biblical backing in the life and ministry of Christ?

Ask hard questions of your leaders and those around you.  Look into these things for yourself.  You will see them to be true.

Be free.

It is Christ-in-you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27, Gal. 2:20, 1 Cor. 6:17).

He is not holding out on you.  He has answered.

If He indeed does live inside of you, you have everything you need to be the answer to the prayers of the world around you.

It is finished.

I used to do all of this, folks.

I used to be the one crying out in the prayer rooms.  I used to be the one repenting over and over for the sins of my nation pleading with God to pour out His Spirit.  I used to call myself an ‘intercessory missionary’.   I used to pray to ‘fill the bowls of intercession’.  I know all the lingo, I’ve gone to all the meetings, I’ve rocked back and forth, I’ve travailed, I’ve cried, I’ve moaned, I’ve wept, I’ve prophesied a ‘future revival’…I’ve done it all.

Then I read the New Testament and found out that there is no such thing as a ‘coming revival’.  I found out that God has already poured out His Spirit and that Christ has accomplished an amazing task by fulfilling God’s end of the ‘revival’ deal.

I found out that the Gospel really is good news and that God is no longer counting man’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19) and that He has forgiven the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

I found out that Jesus never even once mentioned 95% of the stuff you hear in popular charismatic churches today and it all made sense why I wasn’t seeing things happen in my life or in my city. And now we are seeing things happen worldwide that would blow your mind to hear about.

The sick are healed, the dead are raised, demons are cast out, the Gospel is preached and souls are saved—and it is entirely dependent not on millions of people fasting and praying for God to “move” (He is not stuck)—it is dependent on the reality of the finished work of the New Covenant through Christ and the loving obedience of people just like you and me who are no more or less ‘anointed’ than anyone else (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27).

The deficiency was on my end—by not understanding what Christ had really accomplished on the cross.

So you get to decide.

Are you going to get offended because I ask the questions that everyone has but is too afraid to ask for fear of “dishonoring leaders” who aren’t really leading anybody anywhere except into more religious bondage?

Or are you going to actually look into this stuff for yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all Truth and a revelation of the finished work of the cross and the New Covenant?

The choice is yours.

I only offer you the Truth–nothing more.

Are you ready to wake up?

For a more extensive look at this subject, click here.

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A Distinction – Old Covenant Vs. New Covenant

This is a repost from Brandon’s site.

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“The term “old covenant” is not the equivalent of the “old testament.”

“Old testament” is just a term scholars slapped on, to group together a bunch of rabbitical hebrew text.

A covenant is like a binding pact/agreement made by 2 parties.

Historically, it was usually a stronger party making a pact with a weaker party.  This agreement would last until the death of either party.

For the believer today:  We live in the “new covenant.”

This is a binding agreement God has made with Jesus.  Since we are hidden in Christ (Col 3:3), and we are given Christ’s righteousness (1 Cor 1:30, 2 Cor 5:21), and we are actually the fullness of the Head (Eph 1:22-23), we cannot break this covenant God has made.

In the old covenant, God dealt with man ACCORDING to their sin.

That is why people would have to continually offer sacrifices.  In general, they would have to offer a lamb (a type of Christ) and the lamb would take the punishment for the person; it would serve as the propitiation for someone’s sin.

In Hebrews 10, it explains that in the day of the Law, they would have to constantly offer a sacrifice to atone for their sin.

And then in verse 12 it clearly says that Jesus is The One Sacrifice for sins, forever.

The wrath and judgment was poured onto Jesus SO THAT anyone who calls on the Lord can be saved.  That why it says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).”

If you understand this, then it makes perfect sense why God sent judgement on people and cities during the Old Covenant.  He had to deal with people according to the law. If they broke it, they paid for it (“For the wages of sin is death”, Rom 6:23).

Meanwhile, living in the New Covenant, the sin problem has been dealt with, which is why it says, “BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).

This does not mean that everyone is saved. It is clear in Eph 2:8 that it is by grace THROUGH faith… it is the gift of God. The gift is the grace. The grace came through Jesus (John 1:17), but it is only through faith that you receive it.

The sin problem is dealt with, and that is why we are told to forgive, to show mercy, to repay evil with good because that is what Jesus demonstrated to sinners (John 8:11).

Problems will begin to arise when you try to learn about God through old-covenant lenses.

Hebrews 1:1-3 says that God, in times past spoke to us through prophets, BUT, in these last days, He has spoken through Jesus, who is the perfect representation of the Father.

The God in the Old Covenant of law resulting in death (2 Cor 3) did not change… There just happens to be a New Covenant of mercy/grace and life (2 Cor 3).

In the old covenant, God had to deal with people according to their works.

In the new covenant God deals with people according to Jesus’ works.

God is not, and was not schizophrenic.

It is a matter of 2 different covenants.  It is like California’s “no-texting-while-driving” law.

When the law was created, police had to deal with us according to the rules.

Should the law be repealed (I hope it does), police would no longer stop us for breaking an obsolete law (Heb 8:13).  You wouldn’t call the police schizophrenic as a result of that, they are just dealing with people according to the law of the land.

Romans 8:2 clearly says that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

We are free from the works of the law.  We are now living in the law of the Spirit, which is freedom, where God is dealing with us according to mercy and grace.

Mercy meaning, we don’t get what we deserve (punishment for sin); and grace meaning, we get what we don’t deserve (the Kingdom, His righteousness).

That is called the good news.”

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