This is a summary of the message from the September 2020 fasting and prayer weekend led by Pastor Praveen and held at our church. We had four sessions, Friday morning (posted here) and evening and Saturday morning and evening. During our fasting and prayer sessions, it is usual for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through Pastor Praveen.

Introductory Remarks 

Pastor Praveen said we cannot please God without cleansing and purification by the blood of Jesus. Jesus shed His last drop of blood for us on the cross. Then He said, “It is finished.” What is blood? Blood is life. He gave us new life through cleansing and purification. We need to be cleansed by God every day. There is power in His blood to protect us from all evil. 

As a Christian you will go through the fire, but you will see new fruit in your life at the end. We cannot grow without going through the fire. Many times Pastor Praveen has asked, “How can I go on?” But at the end of the fire, he saw new fruit. Then he realized he had not been alone in the fire, but God was with him. We are children of God. We must believe whatever promises He has prophesied to us. God promised to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5). This is a prophecy from God to us. 

As long as we are in the battlefield, we will have a battle. But the one who called you is a mighty warrior. “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6). Always remember, through the fire you are growing. At the end of the fire, you will see the fruit.

Pastor Praveen’s Message – The Hands of God

What does it mean, “The hands of God came upon me?” There are many meanings to this phrase. Today, Pastor Praveen addressed one of the meanings – the Spirit of God, His power upon us.

We are in the hands of God. His hands are always on us. This means we are clothed with His power. His Spirit is upon us, in us, with us. He is holding us with His righteous right hand. His Spirit is always protecting, guiding, and leading us. Some days, you will be under a pillar of fire and other days under a pillar of cloud. Everywhere Pastor Praveen travels, the hands of God are with him – he is covered by His Spirit. Pastor Praveen said that today, the hands of God are going to come upon our personal life, family life, children’s lives. When we surrender before the Lord, His hands – His Spirit – will come upon us and we will receive something new from Him.  

How can we receive this help, this power, from God? Whenever our hearts are humble, we will experience the presence of God. Sometimes His Spirit comes upon us and we cry while worshiping or listening to the word of God. Unless the Spirit touches our hearts, we cannot cry in this way. Great sinners will cry when the servant of God speaks the word because the word is God and God is Spirit. The Spirit always reveals and reminds us of our sin. The Spirit will enter your heart and mind – you will hear from God and then you will cry in the Spirit. 

1 Peter 5:5-7 says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” This means that before God can lift us up with His hands – with His Spirit – we must first clothe ourselves with humility toward one another in our family life, our church, wherever we go. We must humble ourselves before the Lord. This humility is the testimony of Christ in our lives. 

Also, we must understand that we cannot solve our problems. Don’t try. We would fail every time because we are only dust. Instead, cast all your anxiety on Him who cares for you. You can do nothing without his permission, His help, His Spirit, His presence. You need the One who took you from the dust. His name is Jesus – the Great Potter. He knows what we need and how to solve our problems. He is our great provider and our source. He knows everything. We often act like we know something, but this is foolishness. We need to surrender before Him – “I am empty. I don’t know anything. Fill me.”

We need to pray, “Melt me, mold me, fill me, and then use me.” Every day, Pastor Praveen prays, “Lord, melt me.” God knows how to melt us – which areas to melt. But melting is a very hard process. Before you ask him to melt you, you need to decide – are you ready to go through that? Not only tears, but fire will come from your eyes. Before asking to be melted, you need to ask Him to help you go through that process. You need His tender mercy. Without His help, you cannot handle it. After submitting to the melting, you can pray, “Mold me, fill me, and then use me.” We need to understand what it means to be a child of God and to show this meaning to others. 

Yet, our humility must be genuine. Isaiah 29:13 says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Can we hide anything from God? Although we may act in a way to make people believe we are very humble, God knows the depths of our humility. He opposes pride. That is why many families cannot grow spiritually, financially, and otherwise. There are so many hindrances arising from their pride. The family members may be competitive towards one another. Maybe they don’t want to submit, agree, or surrender. The same is true of many churches. 

What do we need to do? Cast all our anxiety on Him. Humble ourselves. God called us with a great package that holds everything for our thousand generations. But we are ignoring that package and focusing on our problems – on many unnecessary things. The enemy is injecting poison into our minds to set us against one another. We cannot allow this. We must understand that we are children of God – we are well protected by the hands of God. 

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8). Unless our hearts are pure, we cannot see God, experience the hands of God, have dreams and visions, or receive power, the Spirit of fire. If we are not experiencing the presence of God in our prayer, we need to say, “Where am I? Where am I wrong? In which areas do I need to surrender, confess, and repent.” This is what we need to do if we are not experiencing His presence or we cannot concentrate on prayer or reading the bible.  Then He will show His great compassion and reveal which areas are causing our trouble and hindering against our blessing. We must humble ourselves under His mighty hand. 

Matthew 8:2-3 tells of a man Jesus healed of leprosy. Lepers were not allowed in the cities, but Jesus went to the areas where they were living. This leper knew he needed healing – cleansing. So he ran to the Lord. He knelt before Him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, cleanse me.” Jesus came to this world with humility, for sinners not for the righteous. Right away, He reached out His hand and touched him– the hands of God came upon the leper. Jesus said, “I am willing. Be clean.” This leper showed humility before the Lord, so Jesus had compassion on him. 

Jesus touched the leper and spoke the word for his healing. Likewise, God can heal us by touching or by the word. When Naaman came to Elisha’s house, he stopped his chariot before his door. (2 Kings 5:1-19). The bible says Naaman was a great man. Because of his pride in his great status, Naaman thought Elisha would come out and lay his hands on him. Instead, Elisha said, “Go!” It was not the voice of Elisha, it was the voice of God – the word of God. The voice of Elisha cannot heal anyone. He told him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

In this Old Testament account, God spoke a word through Elisha. When Jesus was ministering in New Testament times, he reached out His hand and cleansed the leper. We are even more fortunate in these times. Jesus in us. From time to time he is healing, delivering, and blessing us. Sometimes He will heal us even when we don’t ask or don’t know what kind of sickness is in our body. 

What do we need to do to receive this? Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Only then will God lift you up. Otherwise He will never do anything in our lives. Surrender under His mighty hand with humility. We need cleansing in our personal life, spiritual life, family life, and our church. Then the Spirit will come and work. When Our hearts become pure in the eyes of God, then we will see the fire in our lives.