The Word: Ezra 8: 21 (KJV)

²¹ Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

Dig Deeper:

⁵ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

⁶ Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Think about it

GOD’S CHOSEN FAST
Still on Vision, Planning, Strategies, goals

We said every goal needs to answer 4 questions:
– What, Why, How, When

We ought to have goals under atleast these 7 sections:
– Spiritual goals, Personal / Self development goals, Family goals, Career goals, Financial  goals, Church goals, Future / Long term goals  

The church goals, we will be going through together during the workers collaboration evening on Friday. But the other spiritual, personal, career, family etc goals We will be going through together on Sunday and it promises to be interactive so don’t miss the session and have your notebooks and Ipad as we need to start the year properly by setting the right goals and knowing what to do to achieve those goals.

For every goal remember, you must answer the questions: What, Why, How, When. In order words, we will have a column of those 7 types of goals and we will also have columns to answer those 4 questions of What, Why, How and When.

Let’s talk about our fasting: 
Today starts the RCCG worldwide 50 days of fasting and prayers. It is good not to fast for ritual. So let’s apply our 4 goal questions to this fasting

1. The What or the goal is 50 days of Fasting.
2. But Why are we doing it? This is very important. If not, the fast may not be effective. Fasting does not change God positively or negatively. Fasting is mainly for us. 

So Why has God chosen this fast?
The answer is mainly to take us to our NEXT LEVEL. To be honest I am not surprised at the volume of fasting we have to do this year. The 50 days now, 30 days in July and 21 days in November. That is because the NEXT LEVEL will require personal sacrifice and generating spiritual power through prayer.

3. The How of this fasting is sacrificially missing our food, pleasure to commune with God in the place of prayers for a period of 50 days or 21 days if liquid fasting. There are different kinds of fasting. But this one is clearly missing our food and pleasure.

4. The When is now.

So if you really are trusting God for next level things this year. Then please don’t excuse yourself from this fasting. To excuse yourself from the sacrifice is to excuse yourself from the reward later.

Nuggets: 
Every fast is chosen by God to achieve specific things

Our memory verse for January 2018
Habakkuk 2: 2

² And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Let’s take a few moment to learn our memory verse for this month by heart. It can be memorised in 2 lines:
Line 1:  And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision,
Line 2: and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Once you say it a few times it will stick.

Prayer focus: Our prayers for the next level project: 
Lord thank you for strength and grace for this 50 days of fasting
On Grace:
Masterlife Workbook: The Church is embarking on weeks of discipleship workbook study: Masterlife now on the 2nd workbook: The Disciple’s personality