This is the second in a series of three posts about the June 2020 fasting and prayer weekend held at our church. During our fasting and prayer sessions, it is usual for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through Pastor Praveen. The first post in this series – “Obedience and Unity in the Body of Christ” – is a summary of key points from the June sessions. This second post contains detailed notes from the Friday session and will benefit readers who want to delve deeper into what the Holy Spirit spoke. I did my best not add to or comment on what was said. I will follow up with one more post containing my notes from the Saturday session.

Introductory Comments

Pastor Praveen reminded us of one of the fasting and prayer themes for 2020: “This is our time.” The gospel is spreading all over the world. Pastor Praveen told us that many people in the Middle East, India, the United States, and elsewhere are being saved through online meetings. 

Pastor Praveen recounted the time when the Lord first appeared to him in Saudi Arabia and set him apart for his purpose. Soon after that, he began to fellowship regularly with 14 men. Seven of them are now pastors, all brothers in Christ with a strong unifying bond. Within the past few months, these brothers have started to organize an online ministry to reach people in many places where it is difficult to travel and meet in person. 

At the request of a church in India, Pastor Praveen has begun holding weekly online meetings to reach people there who are hungry for the word of the Lord. After only one meeting, this ministry has begun bearing fruit. His website traffic was increasing dramatically since the sessions. 

In Old Testament times, God was among His people. Now, God is in His people. We must worship the Lord with all our hearts and the atmosphere will change; we will be clothed from head to toe with His power, and the Holy Spirit will remove any sickness. When you set your foot in the Jordan, it will part for you – God will remove every hindrance. Only God can solve our problems. But remember, He moves when we worship Him with all our hearts.

The Lord Delights in Obedience

Lessons from 1 Samuel

Pastor Praveen’s message began with 1 Samuel 15:22:

But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

With these words, Samuel rebuked Saul. The Lord had commanded Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, but Saul had not obeyed. Who were the Amalekites? They were the first to attack Israel after they left Egypt. At that time, Joshua led the Israelites out to defeat the Amalekite army. Afterwards, the Lord promised Joshua that He would blot out the name of Amalek:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.” (v. 14; emphasis added). 

Centuries later, God gave Saul the chance to remove the Amalekites from the face of the earth. The Lord commanded him to do so:

Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (1 Samuel 15:1-3).

God told Saul to destroy everyone – men, women, children, even the animals. But Saul made a compromise with the enemy. He kept King Agag of the Amalekites alive, as well as the best of the animals. When Samuel heard what had happened, he confronted Saul. But Saul tried to deny his disobedience. He excused himself for sparing King Agag. He blamed his officers for keeping the animals as plunder. He said they had kept the best of the animals to offer in sacrifice to the Lord. Because he was afraid of his men, he had not stopped them. But Saul was the anointed king. He was responsible for his actions – he could not put the blame on others. 

Samuel himself called for King Agag, put him to death, and admonished Saul:

… “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” (vs. 22-23).

This message remains true today. When someone comes to the Lord, they are changed and become a new creation, born in the Spirit by the power of God. We must obey God and fear only Him. We should respect and love man, the creation, but fear the one who made us by His hand and who is living in our hearts.

Pastor Praveen emphasized that we must not make any compromise with the enemy. Saul lost his throne because of such a compromise. When confronted by the enemy, we must immediately rebuke him by the power of God. We have the authority. Jesus was given all authority in heaven and earth and He in turn has sent us out with His authority. 

Lessons from Esther

Pastor Praveen picked up the thread of this story with the book of Esther. At this time and place, many exiled Jews were living under the reign of the Medes and Persians and Xerxes was king. The main adversary of the Jews was Haman the Agagite, a descendent of the Amalekite King Agag. Because Saul had not obeyed the Lord’s command to wipe out the Amalekites, the enemy had been able to follow God’s people from generation to generation. Haman was now plotting to destroy the Jews in the kingdom of Xerxes. When God’s people heard this, they could not sleep and cried out to God because of Haman and the spirit of the Amalekites. 

Remember, King Xerxes’s queen was Esther, a Jew and the cousin of Mordecai, who had raised her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. Mordecai went to Esther and explained that God had raised her up as queen for such a time as this. He told her to go to King Xerxes to ask him to spare the lives of the Jews. Esther kept her long habit of obedience to Mordecai. She agreed to risk her life by approaching the king without a summons – provided Mordecai and their fellow Jews would first fast for her for three days. She also fasted with them. When the three days were ended, she approached the king who received her favorably. The result was that the lives of the Jews were spared, and their enemies were destroyed instead. 

Pastor Praveen made several points based on this account:

• As children of God, we cannot say the enemy is following us from generation to generation. Because Jesus gave us authority over the enemy, we cannot blame heredity. We must rebuke hereditary ailments. 

• Mordecai and Esther stood for God, and so must we. If God calls us to something and we will not listen and obey, He will choose someone else in our place.

• Because the people of God were crying out to Him and they fasted and prayed for Esther, she had her chance to go before the king. Likewise, we have to fast and pray for one another. Many people might fast when they have a personal need they want to take to God, but how often does anyone fast for someone else?

• Esther heard and obeyed Mordecai and so she was accepted by the king. She remained in her position as queen. Saul was disobedient to the Lord and so was rejected as king.

• Esther was ready to sacrifice her life for God’s people. She knew that God would help her and do a favor for His people. 

• Every family must have a Mordecai and an Esther. God will raise up many “Esthers” from the next generation if we are willing to fast for them – not just during fasting and prayer weekends, but at other times as well. We can fast for our families, city, country, church, etc. 

Pastor Praveen told a story of a time when he fasted for a woman who was a stranger to him. This woman had called him with a desperate prayer request. She had advanced stage skin cancer and the doctors could do nothing more for her. The cancer was widespread, painful, and itchy so that she could not sleep. Beside all this, everyone in her life was against her, including her husband and children. She had no one supporting her; no one to help her. Pastor Praveen prayed for her over the phone. God told him that he healed her, but she had no one; he must fast for her for three days so that the cancer would not come back. Pastor Praveen obeyed the Lord.

After she was healed, the woman called Pastor Praveen with her testimony. That first night, after he prayed for her, she slept well for the first time in a long time. After that, her skin started to heal and within two days, the cancer was completely gone. We must obey God’s word; we must stand like Esther and Mordecai to destroy the enemy. We must not be like Saul when he disobeyed the Lord’s command to destroy the Amalekites.

Pastor Praveen’s Ministry

So far during 2020, God helped Pastor Praveen to complete two long term fasts – one for 40 days and one for 21 days. On the 17th night of the 21-day fast, he could not sleep. Finally, only a half hour before his regular 2 AM prayer time he fell into a trance and had a vision. He found himself standing before a large crowd. Many people were coming before him one-by-one to share their testimonies. One would say, “I could not hear but now I can hear.” Others would say, “I could not see,” or “I could not speak,” but now I can.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, two of Pastor Praveen’s international mission trips were cancelled. Pastor Praveen’s daughter, Stephanie, had prophesied that the first trip might be cancelled, but she told Pastor Praveen not to worry – God would use him more next time. His recent vision is confirmation of this prophecy. 

Pastor Praveen urged everyone to pray with all their hearts for unity in Christ and asked that we love one another with all our hearts. Then God will bless the church with growth and spiritual fruit.