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 and evening and Saturday morning (posted here) and evening. During our fasting and prayer sessions, it is usual for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through Pastor Praveen.

Introductory Comments

When by God’s grace you humble ourselves before Him as much as you can, He will reveal to you His love, preservation, and mighty protection. He will reveal many things about Himself. 

As human beings we have challenges and trials in our lives. But if we open our hearts to God, He will fill us with peace in our lives. Others will also experience peace through us because the Peacemaker is in us. Our hearts and our homes must be houses of prayer. Nothing and no one except the Lord can give us peace in this life because everyone else is limited. 

The gospel is pure love with power. Therefore, we must love as Jesus loved us – with power. In Jesus’ ministry, that power reflected healing and deliverance. Pastor Praveen has noticed that Christians often love people, but the love is not working – people are not saved. That is because it is not enough simply to love – we must love with power. Jesus spoke to His disciples, “… As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:24). 

If you are loving your family or others with the love of Christ, no one can break that weapon. There is power in the love of Christ. Pastor Praveen has seen many people saved through his ministry over the years – because he and his associates are sharing the love of Christ. We can change people through the love of Christ – but we must pay the price. God will give us the grace to pay the price. 

Pastor Praveen’s Message – The Hands of God

The hands of God can change everything in our lives. If God can change this world by His Spirit, who are we that He cannot change us? His Spirit is hovering all over the world. Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool, so the earth is filled with His glory. He is watching us every moment, even our every expression, thoughts, and deeds. We are moving by His power and His Spirit because He is in us. When we meet Him face-to-face, we cannot argue or lie about what we have done. He will just smile and play the video. 

In earlier sessions, Pastor Praveen spoke about Jesus stretching out His hand to heal a leprous man (Matthew 8:2-3). The man’s heart was humble and clean – only his skin was leprous. He knelt down before God, “Lord if you are willing, please clean me.” Bring your requests before the Lord with humility. He proved His love on the cross. He is always working among the dry bones, among needy people. 

Manna as a Shadow of Christ

Pastor Praveen shared a revelation he received from the Lord: manna is a shadow of Christ. The Old Testament (Exodus 16:13-15) says that manna came down with the morning dew. The morning dew came from heaven and represents the Holy Spirit. The morning dew covered the manna – the bread. In the same way, Jesus came with the Holy Spirit. He did nothing without the Holy Spirit. Just as the manna was covered with the morning dew, Jesus’ love is always covered with power. 

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:51). That is the reason he told the Syrophoenician woman, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” when she asked for his help. (Mark 7:27). But when she replied with humility, he had compassion on her. (v. 29).

Scripture says, “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.” (1 Peter 5:6-7). Why are you worried? Just be humble before Him. Wherever Jesus saw humility, he had compassion. 

But remember, only God can know the heart of the people. Pastor Praveen told a story from his own life to make this point. Around 1989, while Pastor Praveen was living in India, he applied for a loan from the bank. It happened that one of the board members was his uncle. The others at the bank thought Pastor Praveen was prideful because his uncle was on the board. They assumed Pastor Praveen thought he would automatically receive the loan because of his uncle. So the other board members caused the loan to be delayed. However, Pastor Praveen responded with humility. After Pastor Praveen received the loan, the bank supervisor apologized to him, saying, “I never realized you were this humble.” The point is that only God knows the depth of our love or humility, because He is the one living in our hearts. However, we only need a “certificate” from Jesus. Not from this world.

Jesus’ Compassion in the Widow’s Life and in Ours

Pastor Praveen spoke from the account of Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead (Luke 7:11-17). Luke 7:12 says, “As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out.” The widow was walking there. She had only one son and now he was dead. She had lost everything in that city – her husband had already passed away. Yet, she had her son as a remembrance of her husband’s love. Now the son was gone too.  

As Jesus approached, He saw the widow. She had no hope. Her husband and the son would not come back. What was her life now? After burying her son, she would come back with a broken heart. Maybe she would not even want to return to the city where her life was destroyed. But when Jesus saw her, His heart went out to her. This is the compassion of God. 

Pastor Praveen related this account to his own experience. There was a time when he had come to hate the city where he was born and raised. He had faced many hardships there including opposition from his own family. He doesn’t remember any good days from his youth in his city. He wanted to leave his city because he had no peace with his own family. He was absolutely empty. But Jesus came into his heart and into his life. Jesus’ Spirit and his tender love came upon Pastor Praveen. As a result, his thoughts totally changed. God brought him back to his city and began to use him there. God began to do miracles through him. God had compassion on Pastor Praveen in the same way that his heart went out to the widow of Luke 7. 

Jesus said to the widow, “Don’t cry.” Pastor Praveen said that God had this message for us this morning. If someone is coming with discouragement and with a heart crying out to God, He is saying, “Don’t cry.” The hands of God are upon you. We cannot measure His grace, mercy, compassion, and love. When he stood before the tomb of Lazarus, he was deeply moved in Spirit and troubled. Then, Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35). 

“Don’t cry,” He told the widow. Then he stretched out His hand and touched the coffin. Pastor Praveen said that the dead body was securely locked inside the coffin. But when Jesus touched the coffin, the hands of the Father who anointed Him touched it at the same time. Luke 4:18 tell us that the Spirit of the Lord was on Jesus “Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” That is why the Father’s hands and Jesus’ hands both touched the coffin – because the Spirit of the Lord was on Jesus. 

In the same way, when we touch people for healing, the hands of God come and touch them at the same time. His power is greater than electricity. That is why you sometimes see people fall down when the Spirit touches them. God uses His great power to rescue and protect His children but to destroy His enemy. 

When Jesus touched the coffin, He said, “Young man. I say to you, get up.” The man sat up and began to speak. The lock of the coffin opened at the touch of the hand of God. God holds the master key to destroy the worldly locks. He can open anything the enemy has locked up in the lives of His children. 

Concluding Remarks

During a time of praise, worship, and prayer, Pastor Praveen shared the following insights. 

• God has given us the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The key of the love of Christ and the key of forgiveness are two master keys that together will produce the key of salvation. Don’t listen to the world – listen to God. He will help you to love and forgive one another and to clothe yourselves with humility towards one another. We need God’s touch in our lives each day. 

• Pastor Praveen said that there are many people dying of Covid-19 all over the world, but it does not appear that people are repenting. If the people don’t repent, we can’t expect God to bring this time of trial to an end. Things could become very difficult. But those living in “Goshen,” in the hand of God, will be well protected by the blood of Jesus. Similarly, the Israelites in Goshen were kept safe from plagues sent on Egypt in the time of the Exodus. (Exodus 7-13). 

• Pastor Praveen had a dream a few years ago in which he saw a shuttle, like a space shuttle, coming from space. It was headed straight toward the White House. It was coming to destroy America and Israel. In the dream, Pastor Praveen cried out to God and the shuttle was diverted and landed harmlessly far away from the White House. Then Pastor Praveen asked God, “Lord, who are they?” God answered clearly that China and Russia were supporting Iran, who sent the shuttle. We must pray for our nation and cry to God, and He will destroy the shuttle in the sky. God will bless the nations that bless Israel and curse those who curse them (Genesis 12:3).

• God has told Pastor Praveen that it is very important that the current government should remain in power after the election. If not, God will remove the wall of protection around America. Things will become bad. But those in “Goshen” will be protected. 

• We need to be clothed by God’s power and to have His protection around us because the enemy is trying to destroy families – particularly children. Even parents don’t know what the children are facing in this generation. We are like Sampson’s parents. They were walking with Sampson when he was attacked by a lion, but they didn’t even know about it (Judges 14:5-6). He was attacked because God had a plan for his life. That is also why suddenly the Spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson and he tore the lion as if it were a young goat. 

Why is the enemy attacking this generation? Because God is going to raise them up. He has great purpose and plans for our children’s lives. When the enemy roars to destroy the children, we need to roar back, because our God is the Lion of Judah. His Spirit is in us. We should not be frightened by the enemy’s plan. We need to make the enemy frightened by the power of God. Don’t think, “Why are my children like this?” God has great purpose in their lives and that is why the enemy is misguiding them. We can’t be like Sampson’s parents. We need to know what is happening in our children’s lives.