July 2020 Fasting and Prayer Notes – Friday PM
This is a write up of the notes from the July 2020 fasting and prayer weekend led by Pastor Praveen and held at our church. We had four sessions, Friday morning and evening (posted here) 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 Comments
Pastor Praveen recounted his experience in 2009 regarding his first international ministry trip after the LORD brought him to our church. Pastor Praveen asked God to open a door for him to minister in Saudi Arabia. God told him to fast and pray for 21 days and to sleep on the floor during the fast. He obeyed the LORD in this.
God provided an answer to Pastor Praveen’s prayers by sending a gentleman from Saudi Arabia to a church in Virginia where Pastor Praveen was invited to preach. After the service, the brother from Saudi Arabia invited Pastor Praveen to minister in his country and offered to help him obtain a visa. As a result, Pastor Praveen received the visa on the 18th day of his fast. God also prompted someone to give Pastor Praveen the money to pay for the plane ticket.
During this trip, God spoke to Pastor Praveen in his hotel room. He was in a trance around 3 AM when God appeared to him in His glory, covered with light. In a thunderous voice, God spoke Psalm 34:10, “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.” The hotel building shook so severely when the LORD spoke, that Pastor Praveen almost thought it would collapse. Pastor Praveen will never forget the voice of God as He spoke and His assurance that those who seek Him lack no good thing.
The enemy may have tried to destroy us many times. Why are we still alive? Because our God is great. God will open the doors to heavenly treasures for whoever seeks Him. Whoever is seeking His kingdom, He will not leave them nor forsake them. He will open heavenly mercy gates for His children, because He is our great God. There is no one like our Jesus to help us, deliver us, and provide whatever we need.
Pastor Praveen’s Message – Meditation of the Word of God
When you meditate day and night on the Word of God, the results in your life will be unspeakable. You will be filled with streams of living water, prophetic words will come out of your mouth, and you will see visions and receive revelations. You will be automatically healed, the enemy’s plan will be broken, and God will open doors – the mercy gates will open. Whatever you need, you will receive it.
Pastor Praveen referenced several scripture passages in his message:
After Moses died, God spoke to Joshua:
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8).
Pastor Praveen instructed that if you do this, emptiness and formlessness in your lives will automatically change and you will see special fruit and blessing in all areas. Whenever you go out, you will come back with a great testimony. Whatever you do will be prosperous and successful, spiritually, financially, and otherwise. Even your children, your family life, and your generations will be successful.
According to Joshua 1:8, if we meditate on the Word of God day and night, we will be careful to do everything written in it – the living word. God will open our inner eyes. We will see all kinds of blessing, healing, and deliverance for our thousand generations. When we meditate on God’s word, we will receive God’s knowledge and wisdom and our own knowledge and wisdom will flee from us. With the word – the living water – in us, we will have peace, joy, and victory. Whenever you feel distress, sadness, loneliness, or depression, God’s pillar of cloud will come and protect you by day and His pillar of fire by night. “No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.” (Psalm 91:10). He will place a wall of fire around you, your children, your family, your workplace – wherever you go. God says he will lift up his children and will never leave their faces downcast.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9).
This scripture is true because you are walking with the Word. The Word is in you. You are the temple of the living God. Whatever difficulties you are walking in, if you meditate on the word 24/7 and praise and worship the LORD, your situation will change. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword.” (Hebrews 4:12).
God also told Joshua:
No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Joshua 1:5)
Likewise, God will be with those who meditate on His word 24/7. He will never leave nor forsake them and no one will stand against them because those who are with us are more than those who are with them. God is blazing fire – consuming fire. He will give us success. We will go out and come back dancing in victory. Our hopeless situations will turn to hope, our weakness will turn to strength.
In Old Testament times, God parted the Jordan river when the priests carrying the ark of the LORD stepped their feet into the water (Joshua 3:15-16). But we are living in New Testament times. The ark of the LORD is living in us. When we stand before the Jordan, the waters will automatically divide. You don’t need to walk around Jericho seven times if the enemy is hindering your blessings. The enemy will automatically submit before you because the Word is in you and there is power in the name of Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it. (John 1: 1-5).
That is the Word that is in you – the light of all mankind. Because the light is in you, you don’t need to face situations in darkness. The enemy will flee from before you because Jesus will clothe you with His light. How can you say you are facing failure? The victorious Word is in you. Be strong. Do not be afraid. The LORD will be with you. God told Joshua, “You will lead the people into the Promised Land because I swore it to their ancestors.” (Joshua 1:6). Likewise, if we meditate on the word of God, we can lead whoever is in the power of darkness to the wonderful light. But we need the light in us; the darkness will not flee without the Light.
Pastor Praveen told about a time when he prayed a blessing on a house in Houston, causing the darkness to flee. He had previously prophesied to a man that God was going to give him a house. When the prophecy came true, Pastor Praveen agreed to go to the house and pray a blessing over it. When Pastor Praveen and the new owner arrived, the prior owner was still there. She let Pastor Praveen and the new owner come in to pray the blessing.
Pastor Praveen rebuked the darkness from the house and asked God to send His light. Then the new owner saw a tall dark man walk out of the house and depart. They asked the prior owner who else had been there, and she said no one else – only her. The “man” the new owner had seen departing was an evil spirit. Darkness will flee before the light of the world. This kind of ministry is our calling. When we are clothed in the light, we can lead our family, community, city out of the darkness into the light.
Concluding Comments
After his mission to lead the people into the Promise Land was prosperous and successful, Joshua reminded the people of the many miracles they had seen God do. He charged them to choose who they would serve, and told them, “… as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15). He and his family had seen and remembered the power and faithfulness of their promise-keeping God.
Pastor Praveen told a story that highlights the faithfulness of God. He spoke of a man who had walked long distances every day all his life to minister to people and spread the gospel. As a young man, everywhere he went, he always saw two shadows – his own shadow and Jesus’ shadow. When he became an old man, he became frail and could not walk well or far. He also noticed that when he did walk, he could only see one shadow. He was sad and asked Jesus, “Why when I was young did you go everywhere with me? I always saw two shadows. But now I am old and frail, you do not go with me. I can only see one shadow.” But Jesus answered him, “You are mistaken. It is true you see only one shadow. But it is my shadow you see. I am carrying you.”
Click to continue with the Saturday AM write-up of the July 2020 fasting and prayer notes.