Burden for Fasting Prayer

As the Lord moved through the early Christians, the enemy also did his best to frustrate the Lord’s move as it was, and is, and will always be a spiritual warfare between Satan and God. Today, especially in North India, we are facing the same spiritual battle. This time, the battle is so fierce that we can visibly see the fight. Four sisters and two brothers were imprisoned for the gospel sake in Noida a few months ago, and a month later,  five brothers were imprisoned in Mathura, also again for the sake of the gospel. In the midst of this, many many things transpired in the lives of the saints in the churches in North India especially. The family members of the imprisoned saints went through untold hardship. Yet, the Lord in His mercy has been preserving each of them to date. Because of this raging spiritual battle, the Lord also taught us many life lessons. In this battle, the enemy has been trying his best to create turmoil in the church life through some weaker saints. It has become very obvious when the family members gathered together for an update concer ing the situstion and steps taken, complaining and murmuring came out of some of the saints' mouth. But the Lord is the Victor and He will lead this battle into victory. Because of this, to shepherd the saints, we have been encouraged to study Acts 12 with the help of the Life-study. Last Saturday, we read this message in the brothers' fellowship and also in the prayer meeting and prayed a strong in one accord. 

This incident also reminded us to pray unceasingly. So, we fellowshipped to strengthen our personal prayer life and also our corporate prayer life. And we also encouraged the saints to fast and pray atleast once in a week. Yes, fasting prayer not in a religious ritualistic way, but fasting prayer in a way of life led by the Spirit with burdens from the Lord. Now, the saints have picked up the burden of prayer, even fasting prayer, having realised the significance of prayer in times of engaging in intense spiritual battle. 

The goal of fasting prayer is for the strengthening of the saints, the churches, and the Lord's move. So that, God can have His free way to move in an intensified way, ushering in the growth in life and maturity of the saints to be overcomers and also for the spreading and multiplication of His word all over India, especially, North India.

From this coming week, all the saints are encouraged and some have seriously picked the burden to pray and even fast and pray. Praise the Lord! Out of seemingly confused situation, the Lord brought out something precious, the practice of persistent prayer. 

Lord, gain our payer life! Make us all a man of prayer.

Excerpt from the Life-study of Acts, Message 34.

A BATTLE BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN

There are a number of other matters in Acts 12:1-24 that we need to consider. First, when Peter was in prison, “prayer was being made fervently by the church to God concerning him” (v. 5). This indicates that behind the scene there was a battle between spiritual forces, a battle between God and His enemy, Satan. Apparently the conflict was between Herod and Peter; actually it was between God and His enemy. No doubt, Herod was instigated by Satan. Satan was behind him and even within him. Therefore, the church fought the battle with God against Satan, the evil one.

This battle was fought not by the flesh but by prayer. The church prayed, and the weapon used by the church to defeat Herod and the spiritual force behind him was not of the flesh but of the Spirit.

THE WORD OF GOD GROWING AND MULTIPLYING

Finally, 12:24 says, “But the word of God grew and multiplied.” The previous verse says that Herod was eaten by worms and expired. Then this verse begins with “but.” Herod expired, but the word of God grew. The word of God is actually the Lord Himself because the word is the container of the Lord. Therefore, for the word of God to grow actually means that the Lord grew.

Acts 12:24 says that the word of God not only grew but also multiplied. The word does not grow and multiply in itself. Rather, the word grows with the believers and multiplies with the church. When the believers grow, the word within them grows. When the churches multiply, the word multiplies within the churches. The fact that the word of God grew and multiplied indicates that in ancient times the believers and the churches were filled with the word and were one with the word. This is a strong sign of the Lord’s victory in His battle against the evil one.