It felt so strange going through the Starbucks drive-thru this morning! There are SO many praise reports coming in already as a result of the fast, and we're just starting to get them in. It's so exciting to see God moving in the lives of so many people. Our staff, leaders, and Church really took the hundreds of prayer requests seriously that came in during those 21 days, and those began to be answered the day we began the fast!
I really feel that we we should recap this past Sunday's teaching about what we are to do now that the fast is over. Don't waste the fast! Let's keep going with what God is doing by taking the next step: Pray BIGGER prayers!
Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!” So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees. Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.” The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.” Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.” Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’ ” And soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel. Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.- 1 Kings 18:41-46
Elijah prayed a BIG prayer, and it rained! There are areas where we need God's Presence, Power, and Provision to rain down on us, and in order for us to experience that, we need to know how to pray BIG prayers!
1. BIG prayers require BIG faith!
A. Faith can be quantified.
1. Matt. 8:10- the centurion had BIG faith,
2. Matt. 8:26- the disciples had LITTLE faith.
B. James 5:15 says that it's the prayer of FAITH that gets results, not just the
act of prayer itself.
1. Heb. 11:1 (AMP) tells us that faith perceives as REAL FACT what is not
yet revealed to our senses. We can't see it, smell it, taste it, touch
it, or hear it...yet we KNOW within ourselves that God is meeting the
need!
2. How do we get BIG faith so that we can perceive BIG things as real fact
even though our senses don't detect them?
a. Rom. 10:17- "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God." If you want BIG faith, you have to get the Word of God into
you in a BIG way! Hear it at every opportunity!
b. Be sure that you're not at your "Word capacity"...that you "feel"
full of the Word, but it's still not enough to get BIG things done in
your life. what are you willing to let go of to make MORE room for
the Word?
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