Fasting, Faith, and the Journey to Significance

"How's everyone doing the fast? Different ones of us, maybe you're just kind of catching up with us here, but different ones of us are choosing to do without something so that we can make more space in our lives for God. Some of us doing without food or caffeine or sugar or things like that. And so that's been happening. Hope you're doing good with that. And if you're like, man, I haven't really thought about that or I haven't started anything yet, or if you've kind of, like, fallen off the bandwagon a little bit, you know, just kind of, like, had something you thought you were not going to have and it just happened. If that's happened to you, then jump back on for this last week. For this last week as a church, that's all of us as a church, just everybody that feels led, doing without something in their life to make more room for God." [00:00:37]

"And hallelujah, then you can repent later. But anyway, we didn't just because, you know, I want to set a good example, but hallelujah. Hope you're doing good on your fast and praying. Our last, as Mara mentioned, our last prayer meeting in person for these three weeks is going to be on Tuesday night. And I would love it if we could just fill our house with praise and worship and just prayer to God. And so if you have a spot on your schedule, come by. We're going to try and do it for, like, hour, hour and a bit. We'll see what God says or whatever, but try and come. Kids can come. Kids are playing and praying and whatever their kids are doing, too. So feel free to come. Come bring kids if you want to do that. But we encourage you in that. Hallelujah. And then next Sunday, special Sunday, I feel it's like a turning point. It's something that's going to happen in the spirit next Sunday when we all take communion together to break our fast. We started it with communion a couple weeks ago. We're going to break our fast with communion just as a way of saying, okay, God. And then we believe God for the prayers that we've been praying before the fast, during the fast, and after the fast, right? It doesn't change our faith. We still believe. But we believe that there's a power and a connection to God, amen, during this time. Hallelujah." [00:02:55]

"Because it's important for us to know that because right at this time as well, the enemy, he is a lion to us. Do you notice that? And I think the enemy, I'm talking about the spiritual enemy, right, the one that Jesus said comes to steal and kill and destroy from our lives. In John 10 .10, Jesus said we have an enemy and that we're supposed to resist him, right? Resist the enemy. Resist the enemy and he will flee. And that means resisting the lies that the enemy speaks to our soul. The enemies lie into us. And we don't want to buy into any of his lies because when we do, that binds us up. It restricts us. It conforms us to the pattern of this world. And what we need to do is believe the truth. Believe the truth that comes from God. Anybody say amen? Am I preaching in the right church? We need to believe truth because Jesus said the truth does what? Sets us free. Hallelujah. Praise God. And so as he reveals truth to us, the truth breaks off the lies. Hallelujah. And if we've been believing a lie and it's like we're holding on to it, right, because we believe something that's not true and that we hold on to it. Hallelujah." [00:04:04]

"All right, I want us to track with what the Spirit of God's saying over our church financially, and every Sunday we make a point to mention this. We have a giving station over there. This should be a busy station after church over here. We've got a giving station over here, too, with an envelope for giving. If you want to leave a name, an address, and just like for giving, for charitable receipt purposes, there's an envelope there. You can leave cash or check. Most of you, however, and especially if you're joining us online, you give through eTransact. You can transfer to give at gatewayvictory .com, and so you can give that way as well. And many of us supporting the church regularly, and what we believe here, and we talked about it towards the end of last year, is percentage -based giving, right? We believe and encourage everyone to be like, God, I want to honor you with my finances. And so what Mara and I do when money comes into our home, we're just kind of like, you know, Mara will go on her phone and she'll just send in, right? Just like a 10%, or more, or maybe less sometimes, but like a percentage, right? And just kind of send it in." [00:07:17]

"You know, God is on your side financially. If there's a financial need in your life, just bring that to the Lord right now. A bill that you can't pay, maybe a debt you don't know how you're going to resolve, maybe just Christmas. You know, if there's... If there's a challenge in your life financially, you know, you just heard Lenore's testimony about how just in her seeking God, God answered her prayer for them to be able to move, for them to be able to get a place. And that's not super easy in Calvary, yeah? And so God will honor you as you honor him. And so right now, if there's a need, financial need before you, maybe you need wisdom to know what to do with some of the funds that you have and the money that's coming in. So God, right now, whatever these needs are across this room. And watch it online. Father, we thank you that you're the provider. God, thank you that you give wisdom in Jesus' name. Thank you, God, that you give favor for jobs and better jobs in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, we believe you for supernatural debt elimination. Hallelujah in Jesus' name. We believe you that debts are canceled supernaturally." [00:09:28]

"Jeremiah chapter 29, and we've been in verse 11, and talking about these things right at the beginning of the year, because at the beginning of the year, I don't know about you, but we have lots of thoughts about our lives, lots of things that we want to talk about. What we want to do, what things that we want to accomplish, and kind of whether you're into goal setting and New Year's resolutions and all that. I don't know how much of you you're into that, but whether you're into it or not, it kind of crosses your awareness that, man, another year has passed. Anybody else? Just kind of like, wow." [00:11:19]

"And if you're parenting, those years go by like so fast, don't they? I just took this tree down, and now we're putting it back up, because another year has come and gone. And if you think about it in a proactive way, you've got lots of ideas and thoughts about where you want to be and what you want to do. And maybe you want to travel, or maybe there's a nagging issue in your life that this is going to be the year that you want to resolve it, you know, or whatever it might be. Maybe you have some spiritual goals too, man. I'd love to, I'd love to, you know, we went around the room just in our leadership team talking about different goals that we have as a leadership team, different hopes, and just to kind of get to know each other a little bit better. And a few of us, like a number of us, said, I want to read through the Bible this year. You know, so maybe that's like a thought that you have, like just, I want to get more into the Word of God. I want to, you know, sometimes you're like, I'm going to buy a Bible this year, you know. But you've got to like, you know, there's different ideas that we have about the year, but here's what we've started to say and started to understand is that God has ideas for us for this year. That God has thoughts about us for the year. You know, we might want to do certain things, and some of those might touch on what God wants, but God wants things for us this year. Praise God. Isn't that kind of neat? I don't know, there's a corollary to that, and that is that the devil has plans for you this year." [00:13:06]

"There's a calling out kind of prayer where we're like, God, come and help. And many times we don't see anything change or shift in our lives until we're like, God, I'm asking you to help. Remember I told you that story, you can go back and listen to it. Like, dad, I can't get down. When there's an urgency, there's something in heaven that responds to our hearts when we're like, God, I need your help. So you will call to me and pray to me. And that word pray means an intervention where you're like, you're not just like, God, come and help. But you're like, God, let your kingdom come. All right. So there's a bit of a progression here. As we grow in the things of God, you will call to me and you will pray to me. And then it says, God says, I will listen to you." [00:15:40]

"There's this whole idea that God has prepared a way for you to walk. He has plans for you. We looked at it where it says, It says every day in your book was written before one of them came to be. God has prepared things for us to do. He has thoughts, things he wants us to accomplish. And here it says, No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Verse 10. But God has revealed them to us by his spirit. It's like you get these glimpses, this understanding of what God wants. Hallelujah. Pray this with me. Say, Holy Spirit, show me what you have prepared for me." [00:19:18]

"are some, is this, this kind of like mega trend in your life that God wants for you, and we know this from a multitude of different scriptures, and this, these are the kinds of things that God wants in your life, okay, for 2025, for the years that you will be alive here on the planet, these are some of the things that God wants, are you ready, we're like, okay, of all the possible things that it could be, we're going to narrow it down to these things, and we're going to look at what God wants for you, and it's between you and the Holy Spirit to say, okay, Holy Spirit, reveal that to me, right, to take this like mega trend of what God is doing, of what God wants to do, and to say, Holy Spirit, reveal to me what, what my part of that is, God, let me see your thought for me when it comes to this, all right, so I'm going to give you three different stages that God wants to lead you through, okay, three different stages, and this will apply to every area of your life, if you're a goal setter, or somebody that thinks about your goals, you probably do this a little bit, where you, where you're kind of like, I've got, you know, how many of you know we wear different hats in life, isn't that right, I'm a husband, right, I'm a father, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a pastor, I'm a fantastic public speaker, you know, and praise God, some of you are yawning, it's okay, we'll get you all awake here in a second, so we all wear these different hats, and we all have these different maybe goals, or like challenges, or obstacles in these areas, but it's up to you and I to say, Holy Spirit, what do you want for me in these areas, okay, I'm going to give you three, three things, three stages that God wants to lead you through, do you have pen and paper ready, or a mind quick to remember, okay, here we go, number one, God wants you on this level of survival, okay, number one, doesn't sound very exciting, but hear me out for a second, God wants you to survive, you know, which maybe doesn't sound that motivating for you, but if you're like, going through the desert, and it's been like day two, and there's no water anywhere, how many of you know that's good news," [00:20:32]

"God wants you to survive, that's pretty good news, right, that there's going to be an answer somewhere, there's going to be an oasis, come on, and some of you, you know, your marriage might be in that place, or your, you know, your finances, or your business, your investment might be in that place, you might be, you might think, you know what, that really applies to kind of like my career, I'm just trying to keep my job, I'm just trying to survive, you know, or how many of you have ever had like food scarcity in your life, where you're like, I actually don't know where, how we're going to buy the next set of groceries, you know, I don't know how many of you have ever been there, you know, we've kind of scraped that kind of level a few times in our lives, where we're kind of like, okay, well, let's just trust God, because He knows what we need, and how many of you know we serve a faithful God, huh, speaking of that, yeah, there's, there's a whole bunch of, out in the foyer, and it's coming to us every other week, just a free donation, and there's some really good food there, and so anybody that wants to, you don't even have to have like a desperate need in your life, or something, but anybody who wants to, just kind of go through, and see if there's anything that you want to take after the service, you'll see it there in the foyer, but that's not a, please help yourself, absolutely, but God, God, God wants us to survive, huh, so if you're like, I don't know how I'm going to pay that bill, stay on top of that commitment, God wants you to survive, God wants that to happen for you, you with me, if you, if you don't know how that medical issue in your body is going to be resolved, God's got breakthrough for you, yeah, if you're facing a challenge, where you're like, if I don't win this, if I don't get through this, if I don't figure this out, then this is bad news," [00:22:41]

"God wants you to survive, that's pretty good news, right, that there's going to be an answer somewhere, there's going to be an oasis, come on, and some of you, you know, your marriage might be in that place, or your, you know, your finances, or your business, your investment might be in that place, you might be, you might think, you know what, that really applies to kind of like my career, I'm just trying to keep my job, I'm just trying to survive, you know, or how many of you have ever had like food scarcity in your life, where you're like, I actually don't know where, how we're going to buy the next set of groceries, you know, I don't know how many of you have ever been there, you know, we've kind of scraped that kind of level a few times in our lives, where we're kind of like, okay, well, let's just trust God, because He knows what we need, and how many of you know we serve a faithful God, huh, speaking of that, yeah, there's, there's a whole bunch of, out in the foyer, and it's coming to us every other week, just a free donation, and there's some really good food there, and so anybody that wants to, you don't even have to have like a desperate need in your life, or something, but anybody who wants to, just kind of go through, and see if there's anything that you want to take after the service, you'll see it there in the foyer, but that's not a, please help yourself, absolutely, but God, God, God wants us to survive, huh, so if you're like, I don't know how I'm going to pay that bill, stay on top of that commitment, God wants you to survive, God wants that to happen for you, you with me, if you, if you don't know how that medical issue in your body is going to be resolved, God's got breakthrough for you, yeah, if you're facing a challenge, where you're like, if I don't win this, if I don't get through this, if I don't figure this out, then this is bad news," [00:22:41]