Derek Prince - Four Things God Asks From Us
This is an excerpt from: The Secret Power Of Fasting
Now, they won many people to the Lord in the cities they visited and then they had to establish churches. First of all, they just had groups of disciples and then they needed to make churches. What was the point of transition from just a group of disciples to a church? What persons had to be appointed, tell me. Elders, that's right. That's when disciples become a church, when they have elders, when they have government. And so, they did this. We read in Acts 14:21: When they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch [cities they'd already preached in], strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.
So, when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord. How did they appoint elders? How did they get the mind of the Lord as to who was to be elders? Did they have an election? Yes, but it was God's election. How did they find God's mind? What was the key? Fasting, thank you. You see, the two decisive appointments in the work of the church are apostles and elders. And in the early church both those appointments were arrived at through prayer and fasting. Why should we expect to do it any other way in this age? Can we improve on those methods? God has never asked us to improve, all He's asked us is to follow.
You see, here is a key. I'm placing it in your hands. What are you going to do with it? What are the Christians of this nation going to do with this key? What are the Christians of Australia going to do with this key? What are the Christians of Britain going to do with this key? South Africa, the other nations that are represented here? Do you think God has changed? Do you think we've ever found a better way? Now let me just point you to two conclusions. The first is in that well known verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14. I call this hope for a nation. Hope for a nation. How many of you know what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says? Many of you do, praise God. I could quote it by heart but I won't. God speaks and He says: If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.
There are seven steps. Four steps that God's people have to take, three steps that God will take when we take the four steps. What are the four steps we have to take? What's the first one? I didn't hear you. Humble ourselves. Why? Because pride is a barrier to the answer to our prayers. The next thing is pray. God says don't start praying until you've dealt with your pride. And then He says seek my face. Let's not just have a prayer meeting from 8:00 till 9:30, let's pray until you get into God's presence. And then it says turn from your wicked ways.
You say, God, I don't think I have any wicked ways. God says: Wait till you get into my presence, and you'll find out! We experienced that in our church in Fort Lauderdale about five years ago. One of the elder's wives had a word from the Lord to proclaim a fast which I'm going to talk about in a moment, a Joel fast. It wasn't received with much enthusiasm but eventually I think the elders, of whom I was one, were kind of shamed into admitting we better do something about this. And so, we said we'll have certain periods, we'll fast and pray and we'll meet every morning at 5:00 a.m. I wasn't there. Ruth and I were away when this started. I understand the first morning there were about thirteen people. The congregation was about five hundred at the time.
The next morning, I think there were about seven. And then it was going, you know, the typical charismatic prayer meeting. The next morning there were about four. But then a brother who was not an elder got a burden from the Lord and he spent twenty-four hours weeping and things changed. When Ruth and I got back I said whether we like it or not, this is from God, we better get involved. We don't want to miss God. I can't go into all the details, but for the next six weeks we were meeting every morning at 5:00 a.m. and we'd spend most of the time on our faces. And the sins that were confessed were startling. It was a nice, respectable church but there was adultery, there was fornication, there was alcoholism. It didn't come out till we were in God's presence. Don't say to God I have no wicked ways to repent of. That probably simply tells you how far you are from His face. In the light of His countenance things look different. What does God ask of us? Four things. Humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways. How do we humble ourselves? By what? You've got the message.
Now, you can fast and be very proud. Jesus said don't fast that way. That's not the way to fast, that's the way the hypocrites fast. But He didn't say that's a reason for not fasting. He said fast the right way, and not the wrong way. Then God says I'll do three things. If you do the four, I'll do the three. I will hear, I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. How many of you would like to see your land healed? Has God shown you a way? Is there a scriptural remedy? I believe there is.