March 30, 2020
The Power of Prayer and Fasting
So, He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Mark 9:29 (NKJV)
After an unsuccessful Ministry of extricating the demon out of a man’s son, the disciples, the church are baffled by their lack of power in completing the mission. This devastated dad tells Jesus, “I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not”
Be honest, failure eats at us. We feel confident that we are equipped to handle the task at hand, but to no avail, we feel like our relationship with Jesus is somehow compromised. The first thing that we think is that our faithfulness is the problem. After all the empowerment that we have been given and the relationship that we have with the Lord we should be able to cast this COVID-19 back into the pit of hell. But the world like the dad in the story is saying, “I brought my problem to the church but it had no power to bring relief”.
The disciples were in a conundrum, at least that is what it felt like until they had a private meeting with Jesus and posed this question: “Why were we ineffective in doing our mission?” The Lord replied, ‘this kind comes forth by nothing, but prayer and fasting’. In other words, this is a tough one. It’s not your lack of faith, but it does require your unified effort in prayer and fasting.
I’m calling for a period of unified prayer and fasting for Hebrew Missionary Baptist Church this Wednesday, April 1, 2020 from 9 PM through 12 Noon on April 2nd. Please continue to do so each Wednesday and Thursday until this Tough one is demolished and we are back in corporate worship at 1338 Gault Street.
Fasting is personal sacrifice. It is to deny the flesh of what the flesh cries out for. For some it might be food, for others, it might be electronic devices. I understand that some cannot food fast for health reasons, they must eat. I also understand some of us work from home or must do schoolwork, so it would be impossible to not login to your job or to do your classwork. But during this corporate fast and prayer we can turn off the television, turn off the cell phone for the purpose of texting and social media and use the phone to call someone and pray with them. I will also be open for prayer on Zoom and free conference call.com. Let’s cry out to The Lord with that extra power that comes through prayer and fasting.
Dr. Bennie T. Henson, Pastor
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