Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #183 The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting - Part 1 (With Special Guest Dr. Ronnie Floyd)

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#183 The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting - Part 1 (With Special Guest Dr. Ronnie Floyd) · The OneCry Podcast

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  But you've got to be willing to give yourself to a mysterious experience,
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  an adventure, a spiritual adventure to see what God wants to do in you,
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  through you, and around you, because that's exactly what will happen when you pray and fast.
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  Music.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast. I'm Bill Eliff, and I am so thrilled today.
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  I got one of my good buddies on with us, Ronnie Floyd.
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  I'm thrilled, Ronnie, to have you on the podcast and our One Cry podcast.
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  And I'm thrilled about what we're going to talk about, which we'll introduce in just a minute.
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  But thanks for taking the time to join us. Bill, you and I have been on a lot
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  of platforms together around the country, leading people in times of prayer and worship.
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  And it's a joy to be with you. Thank God for One Cry.
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  I was thinking this morning, I remember when this became a vision.
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  And you guys started really taking it across the country and,
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  you know, what the Lord has done.
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  I mean, praise God. So thank you. Thank Byron. Thank Ben. Thank any of the leaders
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  for me for this privilege today.
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  Well, we'll do it. And some of you that are listening may not know Ronnie.
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  If you don't, you've had your head in the ground probably at some point,
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  but Ronnie has been wonderfully used.
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  He spent 33 years.
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  God used him to build a great, great church in the state where we both live,
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  in Arkansas, in Northwest Arkansas, which is an area that's exploding.
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  And so he was there, built across School of Ministry,
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  which is now really turned into a full-blown
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  uh seminary i guess bible teaching
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  school which is phenomenal and uh
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  and then ronnie was the president of the southern matters convention uh he was
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  the president of the national day of prayer for several years and god has just
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  used uh him in many many ways and ronnie uh our hearts have been really knit together uh.
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  With our mutual passion for revival and spiritual awakening and prayer and its role in that.
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  And this has always been a passion of yours and a passion of mine.
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  And I know that Ronnie has just written a new book that we want to feature in
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  these two podcasts today and next week.
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  And you need to get called The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting.
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  Now, Ronnie, you wrote a book on fasting that was kind of a breakthrough book
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  back in the 90s because there wasn't a lot written about that.
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  Nobody was talking about it.
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  And then you revised that book. Now, this is a new book, and we'll get into
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  the guts of that here in just a few minutes.
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  But for the listeners, tell us how you got interested in fasting.
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  What took you there? And I know it was a very dramatic experience.
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  And tell us a little bit about that story.
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  Well, you know, Bill, when I was a college student, I had a real heart for God.
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  I was chasing passionately after the Lord and went to a little Baptist school
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  in Texas and had the opportunity to be introduced to a lot of great people there.
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  Was raised in a church running 30 to 40 on Sunday. That's where I was saved,
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  where I was called to preach. and always wanted to be a football coach,
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  still want to be a football coach, but I'm a preacher.
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  And so with that, you know, the Lord really began to put in my heart something
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  I had heard only one years ago, those little cassette tapes,
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  you know, that we used to listen to.
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  I remember hearing a sermon by Manly Beasley on fasting.
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  And he didn't get into the elements of it.
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  He just talked about, you know, God leading you, you know, manly preached.
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  And that's kind of the way it was. But it really caught my attention.
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  And so I just started testing it some and developed it and learned from it.
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  And all the way to where I would, you know, take a day and fast and pray,
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  or then it would become three days and fast and pray.
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  Became a pastor in all that time and my last year and a half of college and days in seminary and,
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  became a full-time pastor then. And in that setting,
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  I began to just really talk about fasting and just walk in it in my own life
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  and really try to take it up to two or three days of fasting and prayer.
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  And just elements came. And in 1990, my wife, Gina, was diagnosed with cancer.
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  And we were youngsters in the ministry, two little boys, Josh and Nick.
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  And And, you know, we were scared to death. We didn't know what was going to happen.
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  Her initial report was not encouraging at all.
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  And I just started fasting and praying for my wife one day a week that God would heal her body.
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  And I just focused on it, walked in the promise of Isaiah 43,
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  1, 2, and 3, and felt that that was the word that God gave to me.
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  And we saw the Lord take my wife through months of chemotherapy, months of radiation.
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  We saw him walk her through surgery, and we saw God eventually heal her body
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  medicinally and miraculously.
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  And through that, you know, that just really took me up in understanding more.
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  Time goes on. We'd have events in church and I'd call the church to fast and
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  pray, which was, you know, different.
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  But I did that even when I was a young pastor down on the Gulf Coast of Texas. I would do that.
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  And we saw the Lord do some great things then.
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  And and then in 1995, I was in in in my study one morning early, as I normally do.
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  And God just really spoke to me, Bill, that he wanted me to fast and pray for
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  40 days for revival in my own life, for revival in my church and revival in the nation.
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  I just it was in that God took a picture for a lack of a better term and just pour out.
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  The burden of revival in America in my heart. And it's never left. It's never gone.
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  It's just hotter now than ever before.
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  And those were transforming days in my life.
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  Ended up, our church experienced a season of great revival that I think ultimately
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  took the church into a whole new sphere of believing God and a commitment to
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  the Great Commission and all the things that we love and adore.
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  And I think one of the great reasons our church is where it is today,
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  running thousands and thousands of people and the wonderful things that have
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  happened through the years is goes back to that time when God changed the church and God changed me.
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  I tell people this way, you know, on that day and through that season,
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  And the church got a new pastor and the pastor got a new church and neither
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  one of us changed our geography.
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  Yeah. So beautiful. And, you know, I don't I don't know if you remember this,
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  Ronnie, but I was I was at a church camp with I think some of my kids or something.
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  Right. When that was all happening. That's right. And you called me and said,
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  the Lord has done this work of revival.
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  And you were just describing, of course, I'd heard about what was happening.
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  And, and you said something like, what do I do now?
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  I don't know where, you know, because it was so fresh and so real.
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  And, and, and of course I just, I was just observing.
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  I was just watching this beautiful thing. And I'll, I'll have to tell you,
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  I watched what God was doing in you personally.
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  And it was so real and, and so beautiful. And I knew, you know,
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  there's something, Kyle Reno and I were talking about this the other day.
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  I think I can relate almost every single of the most significant moments of
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  experiencing the presence of God to times of fasting.
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  That's a bold statement to make. Right.
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  But I really think it's true. I've kind of gone back through my mind.
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  And what is it about fasting that, and we don't fast, people don't fast.
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  Now, there's a revival of fasting, I think, that's happening across our nation.
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  That's right. And I think it's kind of linked to a revival of desperation.
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  And some men like yourselves who have led the way in modeling this and writing
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  about it that have really helped the rest of us.
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  But what is it about fasting that you, the title of your new book is the supernatural
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  power of prayer and fasting?
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  That's a tremendous question, Bill. And I tell you, I don't understand it all
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  either. I want to make that clear.
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  I'm learning like everyone else. But I really believe that fasting is abstinence
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  from food with a spiritual goal in mind,
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  meaning we have something God has put
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  on our heart to fast and pray about and
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  we focus on that and we abstain
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  from food in the process and we trust God through it whether it be for just
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  one meal or a day or several days or a long-term fast and you know I think that
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  when we do that We give up willingly because of desperation,
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  because of yearning for the Lord to speak to us.
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  We give up that which is most natural.
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  In our lives, which is eating. Eating is very natural.
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  Even Jesus said there's a time to fast and there's a time not to fast.
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  So it's not like God wants us to fast all the time.
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  Thank God, you know, because fasting is not easy.
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  It's not always, you know, some exhilarating experience at times because your
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  body changes, things change.
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  You wrestle with various matters. But regardless of that,
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  I think it's when we are willing to give up something that is the most natural
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  thing we do in order to pursue the God of heaven,
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  to do something supernatural in our lives, something we cannot do.
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  And I think I think God pours that that unique power upon us in those moments,
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  mainly because we are willing to sacrifice ourselves and and give up the natural
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  because we want to see God do something supernatural in our lives. Yeah.
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  Many, you know, it's not the end result. Many times that's within us. Right. Right.
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  I I've been for a year and a half, Ronnie, I've been studying.
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  How do we live a present centered life? How do we abide?
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  And the great questions all of us have known moments when we have experienced
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  the presence of God in extraordinary ways. But how do we live in that?
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  Is it possible to live in that just to abide? And I think that's what,
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  you know, the Lord said, abide 11 times in 10 verses in John 15.
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  Abide, stay there, stay there, stay there.
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  And as I've been studying that, what I've discovered is the problem is all the distractions.
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  It just got constant. I mean, our world is just filled with distractions,
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  just pull you away from the presence of the Lord.
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  And, you know, we're like a dog just chasing cars, you know.
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  And there's something about fasting that quiets your soul, you know,
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  that just takes away those distractions.
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  Food is a distraction and media is a distraction and something about laying those things aside.
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  Your soul gets quiet. And I know for me in an extended fast,
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  the first two or three days, I'm just kind of mad because I love food so much,
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  you know, and I'm a little irritated.
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  And it's usually towards the end of a fast that the Lord, it just gets real clear.
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  And a deep sense of intimacy comes and I start to really hear the Lord in a
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  different way, But it is supernatural, isn't it?
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  It is. There's no other. I'm not saying that God can't do it another way because
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  God works in a lot of different ways.
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  Nor do I believe everybody's called to long term fasting.
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  But I do believe deeply that any time we do it, that something happens.
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  People think, well, this guy,
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  whoever this guy might be or lady out here, You know, they're just fasting long-term
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  all these days and days and days, you know, trying to draw, you know,
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  attention to themselves.
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  Well, that is really silly. That tells me right there, that person knows nothing about fasting.
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  Yeah, because if you're if you're fasting long term, you don't get there unless God takes you there.
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  Right, right. Who wants to do that? Yeah. The power of the flesh is great.
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  You know, and we and again, what are we made to do?
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  We're made to enjoy what the Lord has given us, because what fasting does at
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  times, it's calling you away.
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  It's you withdrawing to be with God. And, you know, Gina always says,
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  I'll look forward to when you're back.
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  Gina's my wife. And, you know, she goes in these journeys with me.
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  But she's not, you know, angry about it.
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  She's thrilled about it. But she knows something's going to happen to me.
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  It's almost like God is going to take me on a journey.
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  And that journey is not going to be complete until he is finished doing in me
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  what he wants to do or giving me his message,
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  whatever that is that I am trusting him for in relationship to those matters. Yeah.
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  Well, now, Ronnie, this new book, which is going to be out, I think,
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  January 7th, it'll be released and it'll be in Kindle and a beautiful leather copy of it I've seen.
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  And this is different than your other books on fasting, I think, a little bit.
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  And it's real comprehensive, even 40 days of devotionals in the back of it,
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  one for every day of a 40-day fast that are real pertinent to that.
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  But the first section has this introduction. It says, here's the chapter title,
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  An Invitation from God You Cannot Decline.
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  Now, don't spoil it for us because we want everybody to go out and they need
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  to buy this book and devour it.
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  But talk to us about what you're saying right there.
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  This is an invitation from God you cannot decline.
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  You know, Bill, probably one of the greatest questions I'm always asked when
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  we're talking about fasting with people is they always ask this question,
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  how do I know when God wants me to fast,
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  which is a tremendous question.
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  I have never preached the content of chapter one of the book,
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  But I believe it's worth the book itself,
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  that one chapter, because you should not go on a fast without that invitation
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  from God being so real to you that you know you cannot decline.
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  And in the book, I talk about some of those ways and things that God does in
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  us to speak to us about doing that.
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  I mean, for example, here's one.
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  And it's restlessness. Have you ever experienced restlessness in your life? Yeah.
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  Where it seemed like there was, you know, contentedness was not what it should have been.
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  And you become restless, maybe restless in ministry, restless in your job,
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  in the business world, restless about what you're doing.
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  What is God saying about that? Here's the thing we need to remember is that
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  we go through all of these emotions in life, everything that is in that first chapter of the book.
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  But oftentimes we're running so fast we do not stop long enough to really ask
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  God, you know, God, what are you saying to me? What are you saying?
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  Another thing would be desperation.
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  I mean, when you become desperate, desperate, maybe you're tired of your lukewarm
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  status. You're tired of ministry without the power of God.
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  You're tired of, you know, everything and, and, and what you really deeply want in your life.
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  You know, you just want, you want to, you just want the Lord to do something
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  in you. You're desperate.
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  Maybe somebody in your family has an illness.
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  Something has happened in your church and it's, and you need a miracle.
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  I mean, so there are all sorts of ways God calls us.
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  So what this chapter does is it takes biblical characters, biblical experiences,
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  and talks about this whole element of God creating circumstances,
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  God creating a moment when he says, God,
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  This is what I want you to do. Yeah. And he does it.
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  Wow. That is all of us.
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  As you're talking, I'm just thinking of myself, you know, and everybody is as
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  you as you talk, because all of us have been there moments of desperation,
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  moments of helplessness, moments of need.
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  And we rarely see that as an invitation from God.
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  We usually think, oh, man, why do I have this? well, this, you know,
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  I remember one time my brother saying to me, I had this big problem and I was
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  kind of whining, you know, it was a problem in the church.
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  I couldn't figure out what to do. And I was kind of whining.
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  And my brother said to me, he said, he said, Bill, he said, this is not an intrusion
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  to pastoring. This is pastoring.
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  I've never forgotten that. It's one of the few things he said that is worth repeating.
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  But anyway, you know, God, all these things I told our people a few weeks ago,
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  I said, look, you have a problem in your life.
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  This is not an intrusion to your life.
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  This is an entrance into the presence of God for your life.
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  It's it's it's God is opening a door, but you have got to step through that.
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  And that's this invitation.
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  God says, OK, well, you pursue me, because if you seek me, you'll find me if
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  you search for me with all your heart.
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  And in fasting, if he calls you to that is whether for a day or 40 days is one
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  of those unique blessed calls from God to know him more deeply.
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  And I remember one extended fast I went on because I had just lost my love relationship with Christ.
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  And I'll never forget, Ronnie, I just every day I was just praying,
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  Lord, I just want to fall in love with you all over again.
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  And that is exactly what happened. It led to a extraordinary work in our church
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  within the next 12 months of real revival.
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  So you, you, you in the second section of this book and I, you know,
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  we can't get into all the details, but you start talking about the value.
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  I almost feel like it's, you know, Jesus said one time, if a man ever finds
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  a value of a pearl, he'll go sell everything he has to possess it.
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  And I thought about my role as a pastor years ago. So it just hit me.
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  My role is to hold up the pearl and see that pearl.
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  And because, you know, they don't, they don't, if I talk about the hard part of it, that's one thing.
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  But if I show them the destination and this is what you get.
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  So you talk about some of that.
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  Get into that before we close here and we want to pray together.
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  Give us a little taste of that. What is fasting going to take us into that we
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  wouldn't find perhaps otherwise?
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  Well, I think it's going to take you into a defining moment in your life.
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  It's going to take you into what you said a moment ago when you were talking
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  about abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ, continuing in Christ.
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  Fasting is going to take you perhaps to the will of God of experiencing his
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  presence and in a brand new way.
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  Fasting can take you into a
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  lot of different places. And God works uniquely in each one of our lives.
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  He may overwhelm you with an understanding of how powerful he is, how holy he is.
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  I know that has happened to me numerous
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  times in fasting. It's just being overcome by the holiness of God.
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  Because what happens when you fast and pray over the course of the first few
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  days, whatever that may be, you know, God, God cleans all the junk out of your life.
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  And then you think you're done with it. And then, you know, a little bit further,
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  he reveals a little more, you know, like that junk room your mama would have in the house.
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  She said, don't you dare open that door if somebody's here. Yeah. You keep the door shut.
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  And that's somewhat like that in our hearts at times.
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  And so I think that we just have to, we have to be willing to enter into,
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  and I'm not trying to be weird or, you know, you're starting to hear crazy music
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  go on here, but you've got to be willing to give yourself to a mysterious experience, an adventure,
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  a spiritual adventure to see what God wants to do in you,
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  through you, and around you, because that's exactly what will happen when you
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  pray and fast. That's so beautiful.
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  Well, this new book, The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting,
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  is, in fact, as you hear this podcast, it's out January 7th.
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  And we want to encourage you to get it.
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  And, you know, Ronnie's not trying to sell books. I promise you that.
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  He knows the power of this and understands the spiritual nature of it.
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  But, you know, the greatest thing you get, and Ronnie would echo this,
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  the greatest thing you get when you fast is you get God.
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  And he's what you need. He's what your church needs.
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  He's what your family needs. And this is one of the means that God has given
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  us to get to him, to encounter him, to experience his presence in a deeper way.
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  And that's what revival is. It's a return to him.
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  I heard Richard Owen Roberts one time, Ronnie, say, I can define revival in one word. It's God.
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  It's God returning to his rightful place in your heart, in your home, in your church.
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  And so that's what all of us want and what we desperately need.
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  And right now, God is moving across our nation, and we're going to be talking
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  in the month of January here about positioning yourself for revival, because you can miss it.
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  It can be going on all around you.
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  And for a number of reasons, it could just go right past you,
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  and you miss it while others are experiencing God in a whole new way.
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  So, fasting is one of those means that God has to take us there.
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  And Ronnie, we really appreciate you joining us.
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  And I think you can join us for one more podcast.
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  Absolutely. And we love on our One Cry podcast.
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  To invite our people to walk into the presence of God and pray.
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  And so I'm going to ask you if you would to lead us in that,
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  and maybe just about this whole area of pursuing the Lord to greater means.
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  And that God would help them experience that.
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  And so would you just pray for that? And we're going to pray with you,
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  not just listen to you pray.
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  We're going to pray with you as you lead us.
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  Thank you, and I will do it. Let's pray. Father in heaven,
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  in the powerful and strong name of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
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  the one who gave himself completely for our lives and for the forgiveness of
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  our sins and the one who will one day come again.
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  Yes. To you, we give you the praise and the glory today, and we enter into your
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  presence only by and through the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus.
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  And we ask you today that every person who is listening right now, God has them listening.
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  God has them watching.
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  God has working. And there is nothing, there is nothing that happens around
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  us that we're exposed to, that the Lord does not want to speak to us.
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  And Lord, whoever you are speaking to today, I pray that they will hear what
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  the Spirit of God is saying to them.
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  If there are pastors on here today, and I'm sure there are, may they hear what
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  the Spirit of God is saying to their church.
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  Lord, there's so much out there, so much noise, so many distractions.
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  But I pray in the beginning of this year, as we position ourselves for spiritual revival,
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  the manifested presence of God being experienced individually and collectively
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  as the body of Christ, We pray that, Lord,
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  you would do such wonderful and great things that it is way beyond what we can
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  even imagine or would have ever even asked you for.
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  God, bring revival to church after church after church in this nation,
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  to the church in America and around the world.
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  And, Lord, bring awakening to the country. All the nation is so lost,
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  lost, lost without Jesus.
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  And we pray that millions this year will come to know Jesus because revival
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  happens in the church. Yes.
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  Give it to you and we give you glory. Work in the people's hearts.
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  Call them to fast. Call them to pray.
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  Call them to prepare for revival is on the way. and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Amen. Amen. Thanks so much, Ronnie.
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  And thanks for taking the time to be with us. And thank you as you've been listening.
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  I pray that God has spoken to your heart and I pray as Ronnie just prayed that
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  the Lord will call you to a fast.
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  That's his business. And we know he's got to, he does the calling,
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  but I pray you'll find that stirring and then God will give you the grace to obey him.
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  Because I know that if you obey him in that, he'll take you to some supernatural places.
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  So thanks for joining us and don't miss next week. We're going to head down
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  this trail a little farther and thank you for joining.
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  Music.