Praying for Life Change

Thank the Lord for another wonderful weekend at FPB! Everyone did a wonderful job in all the areas of ministry. Thanks for all you do to help make FPB a wonderful place to go to church. As always, I truly enjoy the youth lead service. The band and worship team played and sang with passion and Jason’s message was anointed. To God be the glory and praise. Keep up the good job. Everything you do to help make each service accomplish God’s will is important.
Something that stood out to me again this weekend is the wonderful family atmosphere that is here at FPB. There is a wonderful spirit of unity growing among us. As I looked around the room after the services I had to smile as I watched caring people check on and care for their church family. Keep this up it makes all the difference.

We started our church family Daniel Fast on Sunday and on that note I would like to pass on some things to keep in mind as you pray and seek God this week.

Repent! Pray and change your life. Don’t just be sorry about your sins and the weights you carry but repent over them. Hebrews 12:1 To repent is to make an about face, to change and go in a fresh new direction. If you really want the old things of your life to pass away you will have to repent and change. Only then can you run the race set before you.

Pray for a Spiritual Awakening! Pray for revival in your personal life and in this church as a whole. Yes, we are having some wonderful services with many people praying and seeking God, but we need an out poring of the Holy Ghost. Don’t forget to ask God for an awakening spiritually in this church. Also remember it will always start with you and me personally. Stop coming to church and just enjoying someone else’s anointing. Stop depending on the anointing that others are praying for and getting. Pray and get your own personal awakening.

Pray for a passion for people! Ask God in every prayer to give you a love for humanity. Nothing supersedes the love of God touching a life. In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul tucked a wonderful chapter on the love of God between two chapters on gifts. In it he said there are three abiding things that matter, faith, love and hope but the greatest of these is love. Nothing out does the true love of God. Gifts are sounding brass and noise when not accompanied with the love of God. Stop trying to be a Christian without loving people because it’s impossible. Read 1 Corinthians 13 and see if your life is mirroring it. Then get on your face and ask God to give you a love for people.

Pray for unity! Unity is one of the most powerful assets of the church. Throughout scripture both Old and New Testament you can find what happens when people get in one mind and one accord. I feel the reason unity is so powerful is because it is the denying of self and joining with others to see the gospel preached and spread. Lose your selfish wants and link arms with the church family to touch this community for Jesus. That is what matters so much more than you and I getting our way.

I just returned from a wonderful conference where I was encouraged and uplifted. But I told my wife Stephanie, that I’m afraid that too many of us go to such events for it to miraculously change us. Though this is possible we tend to think that while there some miracle will rub off on us and everything will change in our life without any effort on our part. I happen to know that those leading the conference I was at, have spent days in fasting and prayer leading up to the event and also fasting and praying is a every week in their lives. Yes when you go to church where people are living such actions you will feel the anointing of it. Yet, if you and I go home and continue to live like we have always lived, we end up simply doubting and questioning that God can do such wonderful things with us. The key is changing us. Yes a church service may encourage and convict you but it all boils down to, are you convicted enough to change your life and the actions of your living. If you keep doing what you have always done you will continually get what you have been getting. What would happen if you prayed and fasted and changed your life for the better? What if the conviction you felt in a wonderful service caused you to change your daily actions? Answer – You would have life change and a revival.
One more thing to think about, I read this on a blog I follow last week. This is not all of it but a few points I thing are really powerful. This is from Perry Nobles.

Dear Lord, please forgive us, YOUR church…

#1 – For praying small prayers. We read in the Scriptures where YOU sent FIRE from heaven, you healed sick people, you brought the dead back to life, you put interstate highways through the Red Sea, you slayed giants, you enabled people to walk through fire, you spoke and the world EXPLODED in creation and you said we would do greater things in John 14:12…yet we refuse to pray and ask for BIG things because we believe that somehow Your reputation is on the line. May we pray BIG PRAYERS!

#2 – For allowing Disney to out dream us! They have a mouse, we have Your Holy Spirit and yet we have seemed to drift towards the normal, boring and predictable. You said in Ephesians 3:20 that you are able to do WAY more than we could ask or imagine…and maybe you are, maybe the best we can imagine is a few people in a room talking about things that the rest of the world does not care about. However, I refuse to believe that a company without YOUR Spirit should be able to trump YOUR church who does have YOUR Spirit when it comes to big dreams. We should have THE BEST artists in the world…may we recapture that!

#3 – For allowing Apple to out innovate us! You are the Author of creation…YOU! And since Your Word is clear that we are created in YOUR image then it is so clear that YOUR church should be leading the way when it comes to innovation and creativity. You are FAR from dull and boring…your church should be as well! May we STOP doing poor work and then blaming it on Your Holy Spirit.
Those are some powerful thoughts.
As you pray and fast, seek a closer walk with God and really change your living. Set some fresh new steps for your life starting today. Listen to the Lord and change what He moves on you to change. If you do your life will never be the same.