One27 Blog

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Fasting and Prayer Background

In the bible, people cried out to God for Him to move in their world.  There is story after story of people surrounded, outnumbered, odds stacked against them with no hope. Without God’s miraculous intervention their lot would be destruction, slavery, judgment or death. I recall several stories:

· Nineveh’s passionate response with nation-wide fasting, prayer and repentance to Jonah’s declaration of God’s judgment.  God answered them by showing mercy and blessing. (Jonah 3)

· Jehoshaphat led an entire nation to seek the Lord with fasting and prayer. The nation was surrounded and outnumbered. God intervened supernaturally by fighting the battle for them. The  enormous spoils of victory took them three days to pull in. (2 Chronicles 20)

· Joel’s call to sound the trumpet in Zion (awaken the people out of their spiritual slumber) to consecrate a fast and call a sacred assembly releasing sincere repentance. Joel prophesied of the Lord’s zealous response to their turning back to Him; The Lord would pity His people and send grain, oil and new wine.  (Joel 2:15-27)

· Esther came to the Kingdom at God’s appointed time to thwart Satan’s plan of genocide for the entire Jewish race. Her call to fast and pray brought miraculous deliverance. (Esther 4:16-17)

· Ezra proclaimed a fast for the Jewish people to humble themselves before God. He desired for God’s protection and the “right way” to pass-on to the next generation.  God answered their prayer with peace, protection and prosperity. (Ezra 8:21-23)

· Jesus 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. Satan used his best weapons against Jesus and He overcame all of them. He returned triumphant in the power of the Holy Spirit and modeled the ministry He has calls us to.

Fasting and prayer elevates us from the flesh/soul controlled realm into the spiritual realm, a place where the impossible becomes possible. It brings transformation to where the Father’s will becomes ours. We become a conduit for miraculous power to be ignited. This is the point of real breakthrough. According to Isaiah 58 the following benefits are released to those who fast, pray and move in sincere repentance:

· Loose the bonds of wickedness

· Undo the heavy burdens

· Let the oppressed go free

· Break every yoke

· Your light will break forth

· Healing (restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily

· Righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) will go before you

· The Lord’s glory will be your rear guard

· You will call out to Him and He will answer

· Light will dawn

· He will satisfy your soul in a drought

· You will be like a well watered garden

· You will raise up the spiritual foundations for many generations

· You will be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

The Vision of Demonic Dam in 2002

In the spring of 2002, I was apart of a team of seven people preparing to come to Lexington and start a new church. We soaked our church-plant in seeking the Lord’s direction. At one of these prayer times the Holy Spirit showed me a picture of a large 100 feet tall dam. This dam was holding back a great river. This river was symbolic of the river of God’s Spirit He desires to release upon this city (Psalms 46:4-5 & Revelations 22:1-2). The dam was symbolic of the demonic strongholds at work hindering a great move of God. The vision continued with 100 people hitting the wall in one accord until it finally fell; releasing the river of God all over Lexington.

For seven years I have labored faithfully in Lexington. My aim has been to see the Kingdom of God come to Lexington as it is in heaven. Prior to coming to Lexington, our team thought the spiritual soil of Lexington would be easy with a fast harvest of souls.  Quickly, we discovered the spiritual atmosphere was very difficult. It seems that we have faced one spiritual battle after another. Despite all these struggles, I have felt the Holy Spirit whispering His promises were still true and the church would see His river released in the city.

I’ve built strong relationships with spiritual warriors who desire for the kingdom of darkness to be overcome by the kingdom of light.  These spiritual warriors have dropped personal agendas, religious tradition, division and a spirit of competition to receive the eternal prize. It is a real fight, but we are more than conquerors through Jesus.

The Call to Fast and Pray in 2010

In October, the Holy Spirit began to impress upon me what He desired for the church of Lexington to step into in 2010. I heard him say, “2010 would be a year of dominion – a time for the church to arise and tread on the enemy.” He also spoke about the church of Lexington entering into 40 days of fasting and unified prayer. The purpose of the fast would be to consecrate and set ourselves apart for His purposes in 2010. This time of fasting would focus on Jesus as the center of our lives; furthermore, repenting and breaking the demonic influences that have hindered us from the Kingdom inheritance (souls, freedom, victory, transformation and miracles).

In the spirit, I seen Christians gathering in homes to worship, repent, intercede and receive His directives for how He wants to bring His Kingdom to every neighborhood. Specific strategies of evangelism and outreach would be given by the Holy Spirit. I heard Him speak about the His church gathering together in homes all throughout the city.

The Blaze of Worship Building
April 5, 2009

The Spirit is calling us to a season of worshiping the Lord in our homes as families. I saw in a vision fires being ignited all over the city. These fires were set aflame as we gathered together as families to simply worship Jesus for who He is. The worship created a flame which cleansed the homes of sin and strife. The fires spread to the point of whole neighborhoods being set ablaze.

“Out of times of worship, orders will come from My throne to establish My rule in your lives and those I have called you to. Worship sets your mind and heart on Me, and positions you to be vessels that can contain and distribute My glory.”

“This is a time of consecration unto Me. Don’t look at this time as a labor, but a joy, for I am calling you deeper as My people. You are My people called and set apart for greatness and to make My name great in the earth.”

“This will be a concentrated season of worship. You will desire and long for My presence like never before. Nothing will satisfy you like My presence. You will learn how good I truly am.”

Back in August 2005, I received another prophetic directive word that still has strategic application for this season.

Brick By Brick prophetic word

August 25, 2005

“I am calling you to remove the wall one brick at a time. One brick at a time, I’m going to reveal to you what those foundational bricks are and the wall will fall,” says the Lord. “It is coming forth, it’s coming forth. It’s time to stretch out from that building. It’s time to work out what I’ve called you to do. Its time to test out the word that I  performed before you. I will go before you in this time, and you will see my mighty hand revealed as you reach out to the brick.”

“I will bring down this wall.  I want to release you to one business at a time, one person at a time.” I see us going forth, going forth to one business and meeting the owner, meeting the employees, knowing them by name, and “you would go before me and speak their name before My throne, and I will visit their lives, I will visit their homes, I will visit their work places. I will indwell those places, but I’ve called you to bring down the wall in your sphere first before you take the city. And as you take it one brick…one brick…one brick…this thing is going to fall. You’re going to see souls open. You’re going to begin to see people that were closed at one time, have their hearts begin to be wooed by My Spirit. You’re going to begin to see them softer, that the hardness that ‘s been there and the dryness that‘s been there, you’re going to begin to see that change. I’m doing it. I’m going to perform it, but I want you to step out. It won’t be done until My people are released upon this place. Step up. Step up, out of your comfort zone! Don’t look at your weakness, look at My strength that I want to perform in your life.”

“And recognize as you rise up that the enemy is going to try to distract. He’s going to try to bring fear. He’s going to try and intimidate with some specific tactics of threats. There’s going to be some people that get distracted for a season. They are going to get some weights and the enemy is even going to try and bring a spirit of heaviness, but don’t listen to those things. Don’t give the enemy an avenue to work in your life! As long as you stay close to Me you’re going to move in My authority, you’re going to move in the My power.”

Direction

I believe the Lord is calling the Body of Christ in Lexington to 40 days of fasting and prayer starting February 17th and ending on March 28th. I want to encourage people to fast at least one meal per day for forty days (some people may want to do more). I desire for Christians to open their homes and allow others to gather there for worship, repentance, intercession and prophetic direction. As we gather, our first focus needs to be true worship of Jesus and who He is.

Second, I believe the Holy Spirit desires for us to evaluate our lives based on Isaiah 58, and allow Him to convict us of the following areas:

· Exploiting employees and co-workers

· Strife and arguments

· Violence and abuse

· Not sharing our food with the hungry

· Not bringing into your home the poor who are rejected

· Not clothing the naked

· Putting yokes on others

· Pointing the finger and speaking wickedness (false, harsh, unjust speaking)

· Seeking after your own pleasure

· Not obeying Sabbath rest

Third, He desires to release specific strategies to reach neighbors with the good news of Jesus Christ. Forth, using the 40 days of City-Wide Prayer Guide, which gives specific prayer directives for us to follow together. Finally, we will conclude this time with a corporate celebration and testimonies.

In seeking confirmation for the 40 Days For Dominion and discovered this sobering warning from Francis Frangipane in his book, When the Many are One.

The House of PrayerYou may feel your community is relatively safe, that the oppression upon our land does not concern you. Your optimism is a delusion. Unless there is a buffer of prayer and aggressive Christianity in your town, it will only be a matter of time before it is invaded by the advancing flood of evil.

 

Jesus is seeking to bring His Church to the place where it becomes, literally, a house of prayer. The Lord will test the endurance of this newly praying Church, but gradually the power of God will be released in the cities of prayer. The extraordinary presence of the living Christ will make miracles seem ordinary. Faith will once again rest on the demonstration of the Spirit and not upon the wisdom of man; multitudes will be genuinely saved.

 

You see, there are things that make for peace. Pastors and their congregations must repent of the independence, spiritual pride, and insecurities that have kept them isolated from each other. God has wonderful, awesome plans for our cities. But the substructure of these “things that make for peace” is the citywide church becoming a house of prayer.

 

Jesus said that any house or city divided against itself shall not stand. It cannot stand. The only way we can stand victorious before our enemies is if we knell humbly before our Lord together.

Will Your City Become Darkness Or Light?

 

As the return of Christ draws near, God will release a wave of revival will enable entire cities, and in some cases even nations, to turn to the Lord. At the same time, there will be many more cities and nations that will not turn to Him. In fact, communities will ally themselves so thoroughly with the power of evil that a visible darkness, as in Egypt just prior to the Exodus, will actually settle upon them (Isa. 60:1-3). Even now, many large cites in the United States and Europe stand in the balance as to whether or not they will turn toward God or become places of utter darkness, great despair, and destruction.

 

Before we presumptuously judge these cities, however, let us realize again that the deciding factor in God’s judgment is not the sin of the world but sin in the Church. Judgment begins first “with the household of God” (1 Pet. 4:17).The direction of each individual city, for the most part, will rest upon the condition of the church in that city.

 

If the congregations in the city are united, praying together and warring side by side against evil, there will be hope for that area. If there is jealousy and selfish ambition in this corporate body of believers, there will be no successful strategies against evil or barriers against the increase of wickedness. We must understand; God has placed the responsibility for our cities

upon our shoulders!

If you are interested in participating in the 40 Days For Dominion, and/or open your home for prayer, please contact me at (859) 229-1909, or miles.phelps@gmail .com. I will also be keeping people up-to-date by email through prayer directives, gathering locations and testimonies. You can also join the 40 Days for Dominion group on Facebook.

For His Glory,

Miles Phelps