Pastor Donna Wise

Calling All Saints to Prayer and Fasting!

We will be entering a time of Prayer and Fasting on September 24th to join with Generals International (Cindy Jacobs: http://vimeo.com/13657454) who is calling a nation wide 40 day prayer and fasting season.    It’s time now to get yourself ready for this important time.    I am asking that we all get involved in this time of prayer because we need to see God’s intervention in the life of our nation, our church and our own personal lives.  

Here are a few important things to remember during this call to corporate prayer and fasting:

1. Be Intentional:  As we look at Scripture and examples of prayer and fasting, we see when corporate fasts were called, they were called around specific goals.      Write down in your journal what you want to see happen during this consecrated time together.  Come into agreement with the corporate church for corporate matters.   Find someone to agree with you on personal matters and be realistic in your goals.       Also, decide the type of fast you want to do.  There are examples in Scripture of full, partial and special item fasts.   Decide which one you want to follow before you begin.
2. Stay Focused:   Be persistent in your prayer targets.    One person said to me recently they have had the “shotgun” effect in past times of prayer and fasting and became frustrated and did not see results.   Keep your heart focused on your target or purpose for fasting. 
3. Pray:   Many forget to replace the time spent eating with prayer.    In the Scripture, fasting is always assumed to include prayer.    A fast without prayer is no more than a diet.  Also, join with us in corporate prayer as we come together in unity and pray for what God has placed in our hearts.   It is important during this time to hear the voice of the Lord and to pray His will.   Watchman Nee said in The Prayer Ministry of the Church, “What is the prayer ministry of the church?   It is God telling the church what He wishes to do, so that the church on earth will pray out its accomplishments….many matters are piled up in heaven, many transactions remain undone, simply because God is unable to find an outlet for His will on earth.”
4. Journal:  Journaling your prayer and fasting experience builds faith in years to come.   George Mueller recorded over 50,000 answered prayers in his prayer journals.   But, he had to start with the very first one…then the 10th one…then the 1000th one…..  What faith and encouragement he must have experienced as he recounted through his journals those times that God answered his prayer.  
5. Prepare:  Begin to prepare ahead of time.   Your body will not like your denying its favorites, such as sweets, caffein, frequent snacks, etc.   Don’t wait until the day of the fast to start depriving your body.  Begin to cut back well in advance so you will not spend the first two days in bed with a sick headache or an upset stomach.   Start to slowly eliminate those “addictive” items such as caffein and sugar from your diet.   Instead of 3 glasses of tea, back down to 2 then 1 then none.   Start eliminating a meal a day rather than waiting until the time of the fast and eliminating all three.  Water is important during this time as it flushes the body of toxins as we prepare for a time of fasting.

Fasting is Biblical and found throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Great things happened when God’s people fasted.    Let’s expect great results  as we cry out to God for this nation, our church and our personal lives! 

Pastor Donna

Got this today from Apostle Naomi Dowdy.  It will warm your heart.    It is a musical collage of street singers from around the world.  How beautiful when we all are in harmony together.

Be blessed and remember to Stand By Him! and you will be victorious!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

Just want to remind everyone we will begin a new Training Track Series “Turn It Around: Changing Life’s Circumstances with Prayer and Fasting“.

As I was reading this morning in Mark 9 of how the man brought his son first to the disciples and then to Jesus for deliverance, I saw how this chapter is so full of the power of God for our lives today, IF we will believe and IF we do it His way.

When the man asked Jesus to “…have compassion on us and help us” the response of our Lord was so powerful to the man  and for us today…”All things are possible for one who believes” (ESV).    “One who believes” spoke to me strongly.  When we are in trouble or when we are going through difficult times, we do need the prayer, love and encouragement of others.  But, it really boils down to “one who believes” and it is is really between that “one” (ourselves) and God.   I remember one Sunday a Word came to me that the Lord wanted to heal someone and it was a matter between Himself and that person.   That person was in the congregation and she had just heard the Lord say those very words to her a short time before.  She claimed that Word for herself and He touched her in that meeting and she was healed.   All things are possible to the one who believes!

Later, when the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast out the demon, He responded “this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (ESV).    How important prayer is to us.  We see our Lord’s example as He would pull Himself away for long periods of time and pray.    I have read statistics that report, on the average, Christians pray less than 4 minutes/day, including pastors.   What a sad testimony.  Could this be the reason we see so little power in the churches today?  We tweak out a miracle every once in a while and make excuses for the rest of the times when we do not see God move as we desire.  We cry out for souls and the devil continues to keep many blinded to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Join us September 1st as we begin our series on Prayer and Fasting.   Begin preparing yourselves for the 40 day fast beginning September 24th that will take us up to November 2nd.   We must fast and pray if we want to see changes in our nation.   I believe the changes we desire can only come about by prayer.  

We are still the greatest nation on the earth, and IF we will continue to follow the principles of God’s Word and the God that made us great, we can remain that same great nation and greater.

May God’s blessings richly overflow into your lives this day!

I was reading just now about the “head of the year” coming up and the customary blowing of the shofar, when I thought about an experience that happened in November 2005.   We had just returned from an incredible conference where we met Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce and Dutch Sheets for the first time.  After listening to their ministry and wondering where they had been all our lives, we were filled to the brim with the impartation of the Holy Spirit these men carried.    We loaded up with new music, banners, and of all things a shofar that no one really knew how to blow.  Nevertheless we were filled to running over with the Holy Spirit and this new found move of God.

We came to our normal Saturday night prayer and we were waving our banners, playing the great apostolic warfare music we had discovered and blowing the shofar (Brett, our trumpet player was pretty good at this).  We even felt directed of the Lord to march around the outside of the church with our banners and shofar, proclaiming the church for the Lord and declaring the region belonging to Him.   At the end of our prayer time, we had all agreed to meet over at the Cracker Barrel to continue the incredible experience of our prayer time.  As Terry and I and a couple others were leaving, we heard 3 loud blasts that were distinctively the shofar sound come from the top of the adjacent parking deck.    We jokingly said we would have to get “Brett the trumpet player” out of jail for disturbing the peace.    When we arrived at the restaurant, we asked him about blowing the shofar so loudly in the parking deck at that hour.   Brett said, “I didn’t blow it, it’s on top of my trumpet case in the sanctuary.”   We really did not give it a thought until we got home and it’s like our understanding was opened and we simulataneoulsy realized that the sound we hear was a shofar and that an angel of the Lord had blown the shofar those 3 times.  

The next morning, we raced into church to ask those present the night before “did you really hear the shofar blow” and 5 people confirmed they heard 3 very clear distinct shofar sounds.   We were rejoicing not really understanding the full meaning of what we had experienced.     

About 6 months later while at Glory of Zion, we picked up a teaching by Chuck Pierce on what the sounds actually mean and he says 3 blasts from the shofar means “that which has hindered the move of God has now been broken”.    Praise God that He was doing a new thing in our midst that day and we must hold on to that supernatural promise of God until we see the full manifestation of what He desires to do.

We must hold closely to our hearts the prophetic words and promises of God because God is faithful to His Word.  As we enter the new year on the Jewish Calendar, what a great time to hold fast to the promises of the past that are yet to be fully completed in our life.    What a great time to look intently forward into the future holding the wealth of promises we have already received.   

Rosh Hashanah is a time of remembering.  It is a time we can all remember the great things the Lord has done for us and how He has brought us through so much.

It is also a time of soul searching as we open our hearts to God in repentance for our past sins. 

And, it is a time of celebration and the blowing of the shofar as we celebrate the goodness of God and proclaiming a time of separation unto Him.  

What a great time, whether Jew or non-Jew.   Let’s remember those precious times with Him and hold fast in our hearts His Word and His Promises.

I am so enjoying the series “Living Life on Purpose”.    We must be intentional in life if we are to gain all that God has planned for us.    How many people allow their life to run them instead of their running or managing their own life?  

We must be intentional in our speaking, thinking, time management, prosperity, peace and overall degree of excellence if we want the most out of life.  We must be intentional in our relationships with others and most importantly, our relationship with God.

Jehovah God did and still does everything with purpose. (Gen 1; Heb. 1:3; Eccl. 3:1; Jer. 29:11)  Since we were created with purpose, design and destiny, each day of our life should be filled with purpose and design.   How well are we doing?   Are we intentional in all that we do or do we just haphazardly let our day run us.   Do we plan our day?  Do we allocate time for the priorities of life?   If not, we will wake up one day and realize time has passed us by and we have not accomplished all that we could have accomplished.

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.”  Og Mandino

God bless you!

My brother was told last week he had holes in his eardrums and was losing his hearing. At the end of the Sunday morning service at Impact, he came up for prayer  and the Lord healed him. He can now hear clearly what was previously a garbled sound.   This is the 4th time he has been healed since coming to Impact.  I told him I believe he has a healing gift and asked him to pray for some of the other people who needed healing.   Several came forward and were healed immediately of headaches, leg pain issues, ear problems, etc.    What a great God we serve.

I’ve not been able to get out of the gospel of Mark in my daily devotions.   I believe it is because of the great miracles that are recorded and how God wants us to be a miracle working people.

I read today in Mark 6 of how Jesus sent out the twelve with only their staff, their sandals and one tunic.   How completely dependent upon God they had to be.    We read they cast out demons and anointed with oil the sick and they were healed.   This type of dependence on God is required if we are to do the same mighty works that Jesus did.    How dependent on Him are we?   Do we ever have to depend upon him for the bare necessities of life?  We usually do not, but the disciples had to trust God each day for a place to live and food and water.  Could we do this today or would we give up? 

Later in that same chapter, the disciples have returned and they excitedly tell Jesus all they have done and then Jesus tells them something very important.   Get away to a desolate place and rest.  I believe He was saying, ‘don’t allow your flesh to get weak or weary through the work you are doing or there will be an open door for the enemy.’   We see how this happened to Moses as he became weary with the people and disobeyed and dishonored God in Numbers 20. 

Back to Mark 6… now the crowds were recognizing “them” and following “them”.    When Jesus saw how the crowds gathered,  he had compassion on them and began to teach them.   Then He tells  the disciples to feed them.   Now the disciples who had been so dependent upon God for the miraculous began to look into the natural means and their own abilities to meet the need, until Jesus reveals to them the same God who met their needs on the road would feed the people.   Do we ever look to our own abilities right after God has done a great thing in our life?  Do we every get ‘outside the box’ in our faith to trust God for seemingly impossible things?  How many this has happened to.  I am reminded of Elijah who just after calling down fire upon the altar and killing 450 prophets of Baal,  ran away in fear of Jezebel.   How quickly we forget.

Is it possible that Jesus was teaching the disciples a lesson of how quickly we can forget the great things God has done for us in the past, when today’s need arises?   We have to hope in the faithfulness of God.  We have to be able to see that God may do it a little differently each time.   We have to be careful not to allow our past experiences to become doctrine to us to the point that we no longer see the Present I Am.   We have to know that regardless of the need, spiritual, physical or emotional, He is Present with us.

As if this were not enough, Jesus then “immediately’ sends the disciples into a storm. (vs. 45-51)   What an object lesson for the disciples.    Storms in life  remind us of the necessity of trusting in God for today and how yesterday’s provision belongs to yesterday.  We have to trust Him for our needs today!.    “Give us this day our daily bread” is our daily prayer.    Today Lord I will trust in You.   Yesterday is only a reminder that today You are more than able.