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An Invitation from God You Cannot Decline

God is extending to you an invitation you cannot decline. He is inviting you to experience his presence and power supernaturally. He desires to unveil and manifest his presence in and through your life.

Can you imagine with me what it would be like for the God of heaven, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, to extend to you an invitation to experience him personally? Furthermore, realizing who he is, can you imagine saying no to him?

Please do not say no!

He wants to infuse your spirit with a fullness beyond your most cherished dreams or imagination. It would be a moment when God seems more real to you than at any time in your life. He is not a God who, for even one moment, is interested in business as usual. Instead, he invites you to join him in the most exciting, appealing, creative adventure of your life, promising you that he is ready, willing, and able to carry you into an experience so lofty, so eternally memorable, that you will never be the same.

Will you accept the generous invitation he is extending to you right now? If so, I believe you will discover that he is not the God in a box you have in your mind or that your religious tradition has made him out to be. He is infinitely more than all these things.

Suddenly you sense God is watching you with his keen eyes, ready to engulf you with arms of love because he has been waiting for you to respond to him like this. Once you even hint at saying yes, you will begin to sense God pleading for you to enter his streams of blessing through the gateway that he has designated. Are you willing to say yes and enter this gateway to experience his supernatural power?

Prayer and fasting are God's gateway to supernatural power. Biblically, it is true. Historically, it is on record. Personally, I have experienced it. For each of these reasons and more, I have spoken and written about it for decades. I am convinced, now more than ever before, that God is calling each of us and his church across this world to practice prayer and fasting.

So why should you answer yes to God's invitation? First, consider the excitement of being moved by God himself because he has placed his touch and blessing upon you in an extraordinary way. The mundane and mediocre days will be gone. God will move you away from the dull and routine because you choose to experience his dynamic and robust presence flowing in and through your life supernaturally. God will take you and lift you higher than you have ever been raised. I am not talking about promotions and positions that may come to you, but I am talking about God lifting you into spiritual wisdom, understanding, and power. When you experience his powerful presence, your doubts, fears, and confusion will dissipate.

The good news is that what I have just described is not a dream. This fresh experience with your heavenly Father can be yours. God is still God. He is still on the throne. He has not changed, nor will God ever change. The God of the Bible is the same God who is waiting and willing to work in the lives of people like you and me today. Yes, the God of the universe who spoke the world into existence and knew the number of grains of sand on the seashore and the number of hair follicles on your head wants to unleash his power in and through you.

In This Urgent Moment

There has never been a more urgent moment for God to release his supernatural power upon us. The world has seen what we can do, but now is the time for the world to see what God can do. This is our last great hope.

Fear and uncertainty are gripping this world like nothing I have ever seen. The American and global economies are continually on edge. Inflation is absolute and out of control. Analysts are publicly discussing words like "recession" and "depression." Simultaneously, threats of war abound. Concerns about national security exist while many believe our security has been compromised. The world's powers are strengthening and testing the waters of their influence.

Furthermore, America is hanging by a thread because the sanctity and dignity of human life are in constant jeopardy. What is decided biblically is now debated politically. Even though the Bible is clear about human creation and human gender, the culture is proudly promoting abortion rights and even gender identity.

In these terrible times, lawlessness abounds while all these confusing things are also happening. While some groups disregard the laws of our land, others are weaponizing those laws for personal gain. Law enforcement officers from our nation's borders into our towns and cities are now mocked by many people and even some so-called leaders.

These troubled times are so dangerous now that mass shootings are commonplace in schools, work-places, churches, public entertainment events, streets, and neighborhoods.

While our hearts are breaking over all these happenings, we must remember that Scripture warns us about these last days. Jesus said, "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will become cold" (Matthew 24:12).

It grieves me even to write these words, but they reveal that our nation is in dire need of God. We cannot fix ourselves. We need help. We need God.

We must understand these urgent times and ask God what he wants us to do. But then, we must be willing to do it.

Desperate times call for desperate actions.

While our needs appear to be national and global, I urge you to understand that our greatest needs are personal. Therefore, we must answer this moment and be willing to do whatever it takes to experience God and his supernatural power.

The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting is more than a book title. Unquestionably, prayer and fasting are significant ways we can experience the supernatural power of God. When you join prayer with fasting, your prayer becomes extraordinary prayer. This kind of prayer is over and above the ordinary because one of the most natural things you do besides breathing is eating. Choosing a meal or a full day or several days to pray and fast about something is explicitly more than expected and appropriate at times by each of us individually, many of us as the church collectively, and then in rare moments, the country nationally.

Is God Inviting You to Pray and Fast?

In these terrible and dangerous times, God is speaking to us. Those of us who follow Jesus cannot act like God is aloof, unaware, or out taking a walk. God is speaking to you and me. God is speaking to his church. God is speaking to America. God is speaking to the entire world.

We need to hear God's voice and obey God's call. I believe God is inviting us to trust him. Not ourselves, our money, our job, our country, but only him. The followers of Jesus and the churches of Jesus cannot run scared from the evils of the world like our God is dead or is missing in action. This is when we need to stand out and stand up like never before, declaring through our lives and with our words that our God is real and alive. He is still on the throne and in complete charge of everything. Our God reigns, and we must live and lead as he does.

Therefore, how do you know when God is inviting you to pray and fast? How do you know this is an invitation from God you cannot decline? Any time you sense one of these seven things, or perhaps a combination of them, God may be inviting you to pray and fast.

Burden

One of the most significant biblical examples of someone having a burden that led to a season of prayer and fasting is in the book of Nehemiah. When this cupbearer to the king of Persia heard the news about how Jerusalem was in ruins and its gates were burned with fire, he became so overwhelmed with a burden that he prayed and fasted. This led Nehemiah to request that the king permit him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around the city.

What is a burden? When you have a burden, you get up with it in the morning, live with it through the day, and even go to bed with it in the evening. And no, I am not talking about your spouse! Nehemiah was wise enough to know that since God had placed the burden on his heart about rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, Nehemiah needed to take the necessary actions to do it. Therefore, he accomplished it.

Throughout my journey of walking with Christ and practicing prayer with fasting, usually some burden motivates me to consider a season to draw aside with God. The greater the burden, the more it may impact the length of your fast. For example, when I entered my first forty-day journey in prayer and fasting, I was overwhelmed with a deep burden for our nation, church, and my life. Ever since those days with God to this day, I live with a deep burden about where America is as a nation. I did not ask for it nor understand it, but I have this burden about America. In various leadership roles, I have carried this burden with me everywhere. This burden was placed upon me in my thirties. Again, I did not ask for it but was overwhelmed by it.

You will discover that when God gives you a genuine burden, you will feel deeply compelled to carry it in prayer with fasting. The continual awareness that you are abstaining from food because of a specific burden on your heart will keep you focused on why you are walking with God in prayer with fasting.

Restlessness

There are times in your walk with Christ when you become restless. There is a passion that rises from within you that desires greater fulfillment. While God alone is our rest and...