Daniel 9:3-5

“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.”

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

How many times have we not truly enjoyed prayer or experienced its power, and as a result have missed out on an awakening in our lives? Many of us schedule out time to pray, we get books and different tools to make that time more productive, but once we get up from our knees we don’t feel relieved nor accomplished. It’s time to take prayer seriously and through it release life!
Daniel made his prayer time a very serious matter. He teaches us that through his conversations with God, he not only affirmed his trust in Him, but confessed his sins and cried out for the restoration of his people in a time where there was a lot of opposition to pray with freedom.

LET’S GO DEEPER

1. PRAY WITH UNDERSTANDING

Mathew 6:7
“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions…”

Sometimes when we pray, we can tend to ramble without obtaining results because we don’t have clear objectives, passion or consistency. The Scripture teaches us that we don’t need to repeat empty phrases to enter into the presence of God, He wants the opposite actually; His desire is for us to draw near completely willing to be ourselves, showing Him our biggest battles and genuinely undoing our heart before Him.

– Join our pastors’ heart and get involved in the spiritual strategy called “30 Days for Life”. As you are in sync with this specific move, you will be able to pray with specific objectives.
– Study each one of the sheddings of Jesus’ blood. As each one is revealed to your heart, you will be able to receive their supernatural benefits.
– Make a list of three people whom you wish to be saved (friends, family, colleagues, people from school, neighbors, etc). You can also pray for specific areas of your life and dreams. Remember that the purpose of these 30 days is to release life!

2. HAVE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

Every day we have the opportunity for a fresh start and to receive God’s grace and favor. This is why what we do in the first moments of our day will determine how the rest of it goes. Establishing disciplines that will strengthen our spiritual life is the result of persistently practicing a habit daily.

– Awaken your devotional life: Maybe you’ve been putting off this first step, but decide to start today. All you need to do is establish a specific time and place, a notebook and pen, and a heart willing to hear God’s voice through studying the Bible.

– Intercession: Heaven’s power is released when we pray together for the same purpose! Join the times of intercession established in your church. That’s where you learn to pray, your heart is moved, compassion is awakened in you, and you are revived by the Holy Spirit.

3. “LESS OF US AND MORE OF GOD”

Daniel 9:3
“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”

The enemy’s strategy is always the same: he works to disconnect us from God’s Word so we depend on our strengths. He wants to steal our vision so we stop being renewed and transformed, and therefore lose our identity and potential in Christ. So, what is our weapon of defense? Fasting.

In these 30 days, God wants to bring us back to life, and use us to take life to others. But in order to go out to conquer, it’s absolutely necessary that first we remove the things from our lives that disrupt the move of God. Arguments, sin, disobedience, inconsistency, and religiosity are all things that need to go.

When we fast, we are turning back to God with all of our heart with the purpose of making changes, seeing results in the spiritual world, and releasing the manifestation of His power in our lives, families and nations. It’s time to say, “Less of us, more of You God!”

PRAYER & CLOSING

– Ask them to get into pairs, so they could share with each other a few of their battles, challenges, and dreams, with the purpose of then praying for each other. Remind them the importance of getting in agreement with the Word of God.
– Pray for your cell group releasing a fresh anointing over each person’s devotional life. As you minister, don’t forget to touch on the sermon points.
– Motivate everyone to participate in intercession and prayer strategies throughout the 3O Days for Life Challenge .
– Help them visualize that every petition and prayer they make during this time will be heard and that God will move His hand to bring life to every area of their lives.