Louie Giglio - From Desperation to Divine Breakthrough
Uh, we’re in a collection of talks around this idea of calling on Heaven. You’ve already heard that this morning, and it’s just really a spillover from the last few months of the journey that we’ve been on, going into Passion 2024—the days we had at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and now these weeks leading into the new year—just saying, «God, we want more for our lives and the lives of the people around us.» In the journal that you’ve got and are walking through, the first week’s prayer was, «I want more of you, God. I’m praying for more of you. I want to be more in tune with you in my life.»
Now, as we’re heading into this second week of our journey of prayer and fasting, we’re really thinking about the people around us. Our church has four main aims: we are for God, for people, for the city, and for the world. So, this second week, we’re focusing on the people. A lot of the prayer that God wants to release in our lives is not for us; it’s for the person right next to us, the people who live in the house across the street from us, the family we met through some friends, the guy working down the hall, or the lady in the office next door. We’re praying not just, «Lord, here’s what I need in my life,» but, «Lord, I want to pray for what they need in their lives.»
We see that in a story that Mark tells us about the life of Jesus. I’m going to read a lot of text today, so just a heads-up on that—lots of scriptures coming—but it’s important for us today to grasp what God is saying. This passage comes from Mark chapter 9. It says, «When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.» Isn’t that a cool idea? «What are you arguing with them about?» he asked. A man in the crowd answered, «Teacher, I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of his speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.» Jesus didn’t like the sound of that, and he said, «You unbelieving generation,» saying that to them, «How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?» I wonder how many times he has asked that question about the guy that’s talking to you right now. Then Jesus says, «Bring the boy to me.»
Now, just parenthetically here for a moment, it sounds crazy to think about this man’s son and how this spirit was interrupting what God had planned for his life. But this is not just way back then—in the world around us right now, you can see that there is a spiritual dimension to life, and some of the craziness that we see around us aligns with what we’re seeing in this text. It is the enemy at work in the lives of people, trying to disrupt God’s purpose and plan for their lives. Jesus says, «Bring this boy to me.» They brought him, and when the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.
In other words, this spiritual realm is now in the physical realm. This unseen dimension, which is all around us right now, has now become visible, and there is a spiritual war that breaks out. He fell to the ground, rolled around, foaming at the mouth, and Jesus asked the boy’s father, «How long has he been like this?» He answered, «From childhood. The spirit that is in him often throws him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.» When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. «You deaf and mute spirit,» he said, «I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.» The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, «He’s dead.» But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, «Why couldn’t we drive it out?» He replied, «This kind can come out only by prayer.» Now, in my text, there’s a little notation here, and you have to go down to the bottom of the page for a footnote. In some texts, the King James Bible, which we’ve referenced a lot in the last few weeks, this verse reads «by prayer and fasting.» Now, why that’s in the King James Bible and not in the version we’re reading today—don’t get tripped up on that. Some manuscripts had that in it, and as we’ve discovered better manuscripts, which you can trust far more than any other piece of literature on planet Earth, we found that the phrase «and fasting» wasn’t there. Some translations still have it, most don’t, but I want us to keep the idea.
I’m not trying to add to God’s word; please understand that today, I just want to keep the spirit of what kind of prayer. Because, you know, Jesus wasn’t saying, «Oh, did you pray over your lunch today? That’s why you can’t deal with this spiritual situation.» He’s not just saying, «Did you say your prayer when you woke up this morning, 'Dear Lord, thank you for this day. I just want you to lead me and guide me and bless me today? '» He’s not saying, «Did you pray some prayer?» Obviously, he’s talking about earnest prayer—some kind of devoted prayer, a sincerity, a desperation of the heart that led you to pray some kind of prolonged prayer, some contending prayer, some «I’m not giving up» prayer, some «I’m not stopping until Heaven answers» prayer.
So, I think the idea of prayer and fasting fits in the text, even though the words aren’t explicitly in the text, because this is the way of Jesus. Now, just a little context here—if I can—if you go back up above this text, something happens that Mark records called the Transfiguration. It’s kind of a big, crazy church word, but what happened was Jesus took three of his disciples and went up on this mountain, and when he went up on the mountain with them, somehow the glory of God came down on the mountain. Not only did the glory of God come down, but Moses and Elijah from the Old Testament appeared on the mountain with Jesus, glowing and radiant.
The disciples were freaking out; they didn’t know what to do, and one of them said, «Man, we should build three shelters here—one for Elijah, one for Moses, and one for you, Jesus, because we’re never leaving this. This is the greatest thing we’ve ever experienced.» Then Moses and Elijah were gone, and it was just Jesus there. A voice came down from Heaven and said, «This is my Son, whom I love; listen to him.» Can you imagine being in that moment? That’s where we get the phrase, by the way, the «Mountaintop experience.» Have you ever had a mountaintop experience? Did you ever go to a youth retreat or a lock-in? Well, the lock-in wasn’t a mountaintop experience; that was a Mountain Dew experience. It’s a little different.
Have you ever had a mountaintop experience where you were on a men’s retreat, or you were fasting for a season, or you went to Passion 2024, and you thought, «Man, let’s just build some shelters right here. Let’s write Arthur Blank a letter and say, 'Dear Mr. Blank, please let us stay here for the next three months.'» But quickly, Jesus said, «We’re going to go down the mountain.» When he went down the mountain, he told the disciples, «Don’t tell anybody about what you just saw up there.» They were like, «What? How can we not do that? It was crazy!» Then, as soon as they come down, they are right into this situation, coming right off this incredible, glorious moment back into the nitty-gritty of life, into the hard combat of life.
I wonder if anybody in our gathering today at 5:15 or at TRTH or here at Cumberland is feeling that right now. I know what it is to be up, and it feels unbelievable, and I know how quickly you can get right back down and feel like you’re in hand-to-hand combat. That’s the world we’re all living in, and that’s why Jesus is inviting you and me to pray and fast for our lives, but also for the son of our friend who the enemy’s got a hold of right now and who is robbing the son of our friend of all the potential that God has for their life. God is saying, «Will you contend? Will you step in? Will you be a part of the equation of seeing God’s power come to bear in somebody else’s life?»
Jesus invites us to this in Matthew 6. He’s already said right above this in the text, «When you pray,» and then he gives us that amazing prayer: «Our Father who art in Heaven.» But now he turns the page and says, «When you fast.» Isn’t that an interesting, kind of nonchalant way for Jesus to enter into the subject of fasting? He didn’t say, «Okay, now everybody get ready, get out a piece of paper, because I’m going to do Fasting 101.» No, he just said, «Oh, and by the way, when you fast, let’s talk about that for a minute.» He assumed that you’re going to fast. He recognizes that a part of spiritual life is spiritual things. A part of being a follower of God is the things of God—living in relationship with a God who is spirit is to love the things of the spirit.
He’s kind of breaking down what happens in our churches sometimes, where it’s like, «Okay, you’ve got your barely saved people,» any of those here? Just barely saved? «I’m not sure, but you know, like right here Baseline.» Then, you’ve got your little bit more than saved people, then you have your kind of middle ground, «I’m in IT» people, and then you have your «getting more serious» people, and then you have your disciples—those who are in a discipleship program somewhere and have notebooks and stuff and meet with people and write things down and memorize scripture. Then you have your super disciples—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and that crew—who did all the crazy stuff, except for when they couldn’t. Jesus is like, «Excuse me, there are no levels. There is growth, but there are no levels.» Because it’s all spiritual. Being in relationship with God is spiritual, so my whole life becomes spiritual.
It’s not that I can’t talk to a person on the way to work or at the gym who doesn’t know much about God, or that I don’t know who’s playing in the NFL playoffs today, or care about the Cowboys and the Packers playing later on this afternoon. It’s not that I can’t relate to the earthly world; it’s just that my focus has become the spiritual world. So Jesus says, «So when you fast,» just assuming that that’s going to be a part of your life because that’s a part of the spiritual world, «don’t look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.» These first group eaters fasted to check a box and to get credit for it. He said, «Truly, they have received their reward in full. They’re not going to be helping the man with the son because they’re not getting that reward. The reward they’re getting is that you’re looking at them going, 'Oh wow, they’re amazingly spiritual.' Great! Hope you appreciated that compliment because that’s all you’ll get.» The goal is that you’d be able to help this man with his son, that you’d see spiritual battle, see God come through, recognize need, and witness miracles. That’s the goal.
But I’m sorry you got patted on the back; that’s the only reward you get. He says, «But when you fast"—talking about us—"put oil on your head and wash your face.» That’s just good advice for people in general—you don’t even have to be on the prayer and fasting journey with us, but just some of your parents have been trying to say that to you. «So that it will not be obvious to others that you’re fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.» So when Jesus was saying, «This kind only comes out by prayer,» he’s now adding to the equation, saying there’s a seeking of God in fasting that we don’t do for show. We’re not doing this so that others will be impressed by us. We’re pressing in to touch the heart of God and receive a connection with God that then He can move through us in power.
Jesus taught us to fast, but then he showed us how to fast. One more text from the gospels, this one is from Luke chapter 4. Jesus, starting his ministry—this is the very beginning of the whole journey—"full of the Holy Spirit» left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now that’s the phrase that someone in the gathering today is going to take home and focus on, because you’re feeling like you’re going into a desert. A lot of times when that happens in our lives, we think we don’t know what’s wrong; I feel like I’m going into a desert. Well, you need to check first and see if the Spirit might have led you into the desert, because he does that occasionally. For 40 days, Jesus was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry. That’s the most «no kidding» verse in the Bible! I don’t say that to be factious; it really makes me laugh every time I read it. So, Jesus is fasting. He’s not just saying, «And when you fast.» He’s saying, «I was already full of the Holy Spirit; I was already being led by the spirit, but then I went into a major fast!» Now, why did Jesus go into this major fast? We’ll answer that at the end.
The devil said to him, «If you’re the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.» That is a very tempting thing when you haven’t eaten for 40 days and you’re in the wilderness. But Jesus answered, «It’s written,» he just quotes scripture to him, «man shall not live on bread alone.» The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, and he said to him, «I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.» Jesus answered, «It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.»
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. You can go to Jerusalem, by the way, and look at this place. «If you are the Son of God,» he said, «throw yourself down from here, for it’s written, 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'» Interestingly, he also knew some of the scripture, but Jesus answered, «It is said, do not put the Lord your God to the test.» When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. He didn’t leave him; he just said, «I’ll be back.»
This is amazing—Jesus, after all this, returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news spread about him throughout the whole countryside. Jesus fasted because of the great purpose that he was called to. As far as we know, he hadn’t healed anybody, hadn’t walked on water, hadn’t turned water into wine, hadn’t fed 5,000, hadn’t raised the dead, and hadn’t preached The Sermon on the Mount. But he knew the purpose that was on his life, and so he chose to pray before he made all his plans. We, on the other hand, typically make all of our plans and then pray.
What God is inviting us to in this season is to flip that for a bit and just say, «God, I want to seek you first and then I want you to help me make my plans. I want to seek you first and I want you to do whatever you want to do in my heart.» Then, I want to think about my goals for the year, my aims for the year, my ambitions for the year, the things I want to accomplish this year. I’m not going to go and do all that and then say, «Lord, it would be awesome if you would bless all the things I’m planning on doing this year.» No, Jesus is reversing all that and saying, «I know what some of the plans are. I don’t know every detail necessarily about the journey, but I know the main point of this, and because of that, I’m going to seek you first.»
So, what is fasting? Simply, it is creating space through a withdrawal from earthly appetites in an intentional and concentrated effort to access the things of God and God Himself for the satisfaction of the soul and supernatural breakthrough—that’s what we’re doing. It’s more than just an activity. You might want to just take a snapshot of that if you want. I’m going to—it’s going away! Okay, sorry! If you want to, you can just take a quick pic because it’s going away. Great!
Some of you are like me; you’re thinking, «I know there’s a camera on this phone somewhere.» I’ve used it before. It’s more than just the activity. «I’m fasting this week; I’m not doing any meals in the middle of the day. I’m not doing social media. I’m not doing Netflix binges. I’m intentionally withdrawing from some earthly appetites to create space to move toward God.» But it’s not just the activity; it’s more—I think of it as an attitude. In a different way, it’s more of an altitude. My favorite line after Passion 2024 so far comes from a friend who said to me, «I’m not coming down.» I was like, «I like it! I got a new altitude,» he said, and in another way, it’s an «altitude.» It’s tuning my life, my heart, to God. It’s like you see the musicians up here in between songs and they click a little button down there on the floor, which takes their guitar out of the speakers. Then they’ll tune in between, and then they’ll click again, «Now I’m back, but I’m in tune now.» That’s what fasting is all about—it’s tuning. It’s me staying in the right key, the key of God and God’s purpose and God’s plan for my life. It’s staying in tune.
The question we really have to think about, and this is the question that Ben really posed so beautifully last week, is: Are we desperate enough to want a new attitude, to want new altitude, to want to be in tune with God? Are we really that desperate? Do we care about the guy’s son, or are we even that desperate for our own son, for our own heart, for our own lives, for the city, for the nation, for the world? Are we really that desperate, or are we comfortable where we are? It’s kind of like when your car gets filled up with gas. Everybody feels great; my car—a very smart car—tells me how far I can go. I think I can go like 432 miles, and I’m like, «That’s good; I’m not planning on going 432 miles today, so I feel good.»
Then, day by day, week by week, depending on how far you drive every day, it starts letting you know, «Okay, you’re moving down now.» There are all kinds of different people. When this happens, there are the three-quarters-of-a-tank people who start looking for the Chevron. You know what I’m saying? Who knows that person? They’re like, «I don’t know; I might stop and get gas.» Oh, especially when it’s cheaper right there! I don’t need any gas, but they have cheap gas. I don’t know, some people have a fixation on cheap gas. They will drive to Carterville to get cheap gas. I don’t know—"Let’s fill up while we’re up here; it’s cheap!»
You don’t have to knock that. That’s awesome. But then there are the three-quarters-tank people. Just point to one if you know one or if you are one! Okay, beautiful! Love it! These people have such a fear of running out of gas; it’s never happening! I don’t know if it happened in the past. I don’t know what was in the story. Then there are your half-tank people—any more people? Coming in now, saying, «Oh, we’re down to half a tank! I don’t know; I might have to drive to Mississippi tomorrow. I better fill up because it’s half a tank, and I can only go 200 and something miles on half a tank. I might have snow jam again. I never want to be at half a tank on the snow jam!»
Then there are your quarter-tank people, and then you’re like, «Yeah, okay, I’m going to start thinking about it.» Any of those people here? It’s like, «I’m going to start thinking about it.» There we go! All right, and then there’s the «Oh, the light is on!» Whoo! Yeah! People are pointing at people around them right now!
But here’s the thing about the «light is on» people: A very small percentage of them are just those people that live in bliss—you know what I’m talking about? They just say, «It’s like, the light is on!» «Oh, the light? What light is that? Which one is that?» 'Cause they’re all on! Let me see. «Which one is that one? Oh, the gas light is on! Oh, wow! Well, my husband will fill the car up later!»
Honey, the light is on, but most of the people with the- «light is on» are just risk-takers. They’re like, «You know what? I don’t know exactly how much gas is in there, but I know they leave some in there when the light comes on.» Then there are those people, this would be the last group: You’re calling a friend, saying, «You know, I’m over here by Cumberland Mall on Cumberland Boulevard, right—you know when you go past the Kaba’s? I’m right there, pulled into the parking lot. If you could come bring a gas can. I started out; I could go 432 miles, but now here I am sitting in a parking lot waiting on a friend to put a gallon of gas in my car.»
I’m still not going to the gas station right away because I got a gallon of gas in my car. But it’s like that spiritually, and a lot of the stakes are a lot higher when we ask that question: «How desperate are you?» Because we can do, you know, we can do one of these things that lasts a year; we can make it simple enough that you can scan a code, and all of a sudden, it’s right on your phone through Passion.com. But that’s not going to make any difference for someone who’s waiting for the light to come on, and you’re like, «The light ain’t on yet; I’m okay.»
God’s inviting us to more. The psalmist said what I wish we could all say honestly. He basically said, «I got down to the bottom of the tank, and I got to a place where I realized there is nobody, there is no pleasure, there is no joy; there’s no thing to buy or experience that is ultimately going to do in my heart what my heart was created for.»
For many of us, it takes burning through a lot of stuff to get to the point of going, «Yeah, that was amazing, but I still needed more after that. I got that, and I thought that if I got that, but when I got that, I realized, 'Oh, that’s not going to do it completely.'» The psalmist is telling us what it’s like from down at the bottom. He says, «Whom have I in Heaven but you? And on Earth, has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,» and that’s not a, «They might fail;» that is, «They have failed, and they will fail. They fail—my heart and my flesh fail me. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge, and I will tell of all your deeds.»
Are you desperate for Jesus? Do you need to be desperate for somebody else? Listen to what that father said: «But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.» Is there anybody in your story that you’re desperate for? What you’re saying in your response to them is, «I will take pity on you, and I will help you.» I’m not going to give you a glib «Oh, we’ll pray for you,» or «You’ve really been on my heart a lot lately,» or «Our thoughts are with you.» All that’s great, but can anybody say, «I care enough that I’m going to do the kind of praying that this kind comes out by, and I’m going to do that kind of praying until it comes out.»
That’s the invitation. We’re coming down to the close, but I’d like to bring us back to where we started this journey last week: Psalm 81:10. This is the invitation to everyone in this gathering today: «I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt; open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.» That’s the invitation today. That’s God Almighty saying, «I’m the strong arm of the Lord that brought you out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land. I’m that God, and if you’ll open your mouth, not a little but a lot, I’ll fill it.»
There are two interesting things with that as we’re closing today. Number one—that when some of us open our mouth wide, it’s already full, and God’s like, «Oh, wow. Your mouth is completely and totally full already.» That’s what fasting is about. It’s about getting stuff out so that God can put the best in.
In the middle of the winter right after the revolution in Romania, I and two buddies of mine went to a church in the middle of Romania—in the middle of nowhere in Romania. We drove in from Hungary, and we did not calculate things well. It got dark a lot earlier than we were expecting; it was the middle of winter, and all of a sudden, it’s night; it’s snowing, and we’re not 100% sure where we’re going. There are no smartphones; there is no Google Maps—just for somebody going, «Why didn’t you just look on your map?» We had a map. But, you know, the map! We were trying to figure out what we’re doing—many of the signs were not in English—and we ended up at the border of the former Soviet Union at one point with a little border crossing with a little arm and the dude in the booth. We were like, «Yeah, this is not where we want to go.» We reversed and went a couple of hours back to the right road. We finally get to this town and this house that we were staying in with this family at like 3:00 in the morning. We were just so happy to be somewhere. We go in, and the mom of the house—they didn’t know when we were coming; we couldn’t text anybody—finally, we get there. The whole family wakes up, gets dressed; it’s freezing in the house; it’s freezing outside, and we’re just starving. All of a sudden, out of the kitchen comes the lady with soup in a big bowl and more bread than I’ve ever seen served to three people before. She doesn’t speak hardly any English—maybe zero; we don’t speak any Romanian. But there’s bread, and there’s soup, and there’s fellowship, and we know we all love Jesus. So she goes back in the kitchen, and we just start food in our mouths like we have never eaten, and I didn’t want to eat like this in front of her, but it’s like, and we’re thinking, «This looks like the feast; this is it! How in the world did she come up with this in the middle of the night?»
We just destroyed it. Here she comes through the door, and we’re just going to be like, «Thank you so much,» and she comes through the door with this huge platter of sausage and puts it on the table. We were like, «Oh man! What is this?» That was a question I’m still trying to figure out to this day! But we were like, «Oh, it’s so good, so good! Oh amazing!» Then she goes back in the kitchen and comes out with a huge platter full of eggs. Then, she comes back with more vegetables and puts so much food on the table, and we were just like, «We were done at the soup and bread. Literally done!»
I’m praying that in this season, when we hear the invitation, «Open wide your mouth, and I’ll fill it,» we actually say, «Open up your life, make space, and I’ll come in, I’ll move in, I’ll speak to you, I’ll touch you, I’ll do in you what they couldn’t do and wouldn’t do.» I’ll do it. We’re just like, «I would love that, but I binge-watched—that’s the right term—17 episodes this weekend, and I’m telling you, I can’t put one more bite in my mouth.»
The other thing I want to close on, and I said I was closing, but I am closing. This may be the most real talk of all. There are times in life when we really just don’t want to open wide our mouth, and that’s that place where you’re like, «I know what we’re all doing, but can I be honest for a second? I really don’t want anything different in my life. I like it like it is. I don’t want to be uncomfortable. I don’t want to break my routine, and I kind of like what I’m eating right now, and I really just don’t want to do it. I just don’t want to. I’m acting like I want to, but I really don’t.»
I know I need—I know I need to get into this word because it’s life, but I just don’t want to. I’d rather not. «Oh, I know I might be used by God to help the man’s son, but I don’t want to! I just don’t want to! I like my habits more, and I’m not feeling it.» I’m telling you, I have lived so much of my life in that place—yeah, going through all the motions, but if the truth be told, I just don’t want to.
I want to give you something today that you may have never gotten in a message before, and I want to invite you into this journey in a way that you can actually take a step. Something came from the Apostle Paul when he said, «Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, when I was there with you, but now, much more, you’re still obeying when I’m not there—in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.» Not work for, but work out your salvation, for it is God who works in you. Look at this—to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. God is working in you, and if you need Him to, He’ll change your will. He’s not over here going, «Okay, here’s our fast and here’s our thing and here’s our journey and here’s the other things, and here’s how I’m going to move you into the story to help the man’s son.» No! You’re not over there yet; you’re over here—not even wanting any of that.
So over here, I want to work with your will. I want to help your desire. I want to give you the will! So sometimes we’re praying, «Lord, help me help the man’s son,» and He’s like, «No, no, no, you don’t even want to help the man’s son. Your prayer needs to be, 'God, I don’t want to help the man’s son. Help me to want to help the man’s son.'» And some of you are not even there; you’re over here going, «I don’t want to pray that prayer! I don’t even have the want-to to want to do the do to help the man’s son.» Great! Pray that prayer: «God, I need the desire to have a desire to want to desire to do what you’re calling me to do. Could you give me the desire to have a desire to have the desire that I need?»
Does that feel real to anybody in this house today? God, I need the desire! I need the will! So if you work in me, both to will and to do, I’m not over in the do part; I’m in the will part, and I’m going to ask you, God, if you would give me the will. Camera time! God, please give me a new desire for you and what you want for my life.
If you’re going to take a photo, let me get that off. God, please give me a new desire for you and what you want for my life. I know I can’t produce what I need—I can’t! I can’t! I can’t make this happen! So I’m asking you to work in me to change my desires and to change me today! In Jesus' name, amen!
Somebody says, «Well, what’s going on?» «Our church is doing a prayer and fasting journey in January.» «Oh, really? What’s that about?» «Well, it’s just where you try to make space for God in your life so that God can do the things in you that He created you for and—not just for you—but so that God can get you ready to speak truth and be an agent of supernatural breakthrough in other people’s lives. So you can see your high school through a whole new lens. 'My God, she needs deliverance! I’m going to start praying and fasting for her! ' My word! He is so jacked up; I don’t know if he’s going to make it! I’m going to start praying and fasting because I’m telling you, you spend 30 minutes around him, you’ll know that kind only comes out by prayer and fasting! I’m going to do it! Can’t stop me! Nobody can stop me! The school system can’t stop me! No laws can stop me! No edict can stop me! I’m an ambassador of Almighty God, and I’m coming through the door in the name of Jesus today, and I’m going to get on my knees, and I’m going to pray, and I’m going to speak Jesus! I am going to be an agent of change.
Or maybe your answer is going to be, „Yeah, we’re on this journey of prayer and fasting.“ „Well, what is that all about?“ „It’s just when you finally wake up and realize that there’s a lot of stuff you can cram into your life, but it doesn’t all satisfy, and you really finally just say to God, 'You know what, God? I need something to change in me, so I’m spending all this week just praying this prayer: This is my fast—God, please give me a new desire for you! ' That’s where I am in the fasting journey, check back later, I’ll let you know how it goes, because if He gives me a new desire, who knows? I might be over here asking for a desire to have a desire. He does that! Look out, 'cause I’ll be on the doorstep of saying, 'God, put me in the story! '“