The first week of September has notoriously been spent by us fasting and praying as a church. This year will be different.
Yes we will be praying and yes, we will still be gathering together as a community to trust God for big things, but instead of denying ourselves of food for three days, we will be feasting together. We still very much believe that fasting as individuals and as a corporate expression is a vital part of a believers’ life, but we believe that this change for this specific season is going to do deep things in and through us as we pray.
4 reasons why we are feasting:
1. Feasting reminds us of the lavish nature of God
-We have been learning that what we believe about God will determine how we live, and way too often our human nature likes to portray God as distant, mean and tight-fisted. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the bible tells a completely different story. Our heavenly Father is lavishly generous from the first page of Genesis right to the very end and his generosity is best shown when we see that He so loved the world that he GAVE his very best (his only son Jesus) to us when we were not just undeserving, but when we saw Him as our enemy. We feast and pray to remember that He is not holding out on us but that He has already given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2.Peter.1:3) and “every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians.1:3)
2. Feasting reminds us of our access to God
-As we feast we want to be reminded that we get to partake of His divine nature not as beggars or even as servants, but as sons and daughters who have been invited to the main table! Whether you are in a valley or on a mountain-top in your life at the moment, the seat at His banquet table is open and has your name on it! We don’t get there by any form of earning or works, and we don’t get the Father’s attention by the religious notion of beating our chests. No, we get God in fullness only because of Jesus who has made the way open for us to come to the feast. Psalm.23:5 tells us that He “lays a table before us in the presence of our enemies” whilst Song of Songs.2:4 says “He brought me to the banqueting table, and his banner over me is love.”
3. Feasting reminds us of the end of the story
-ISIS, earthquakes in Italy, Brexit, political upheaval in Zimbabwe, racial tensions and corruption in South Africa and the potential threat of Donald Trump becoming the US president are all very real and demand our prayer. But the great news is that as we pray, we never pray from a position of fear or anxiety, because as believers we know that this whole story of humanity ends not in destruction but in glory! The book of Revelations gives us a sneak peak that it actually all culminates with Jesus coming back for His bride and celebrating the consummation of all things with the marriage supper of the lamb … A FEAST OF ALL FEASTS! (Revelation.19:6-9) So as we pray as a community this coming week and trust for break-through in our personal lives, families and nation, we do so with faith and courage knowing that we are on the victorious side.
4. Feasting reminds us to be like our generous Father
-We are trusting that as we go to war in prayer and feasting as a community next week, our hearts will explode afresh with a revelation of the Father’s generosity towards us and as a response we would be moved to what outsiders would call crazy lives of generosity. Generous with our time, our emotion, our passions, our possessions and our money. As you feast this next week, get courage to give something away to a neighbour, a friend, a church-member, a colleague, the church, an non-profit organisation. Get courage to also eat your evening meals with people who are different to you in age, race, back-ground. Generosity doesn’t have to be big but it must cost us something. It cost the Father everything to send Jesus, and our greatest call is to be like Him.
How will it all work practically:
Get ready for big moments of corporate prayer and join us next week as we get stuck into praying and times of feasting together at these key moments:
PRAYER AND BRING AND SHARE MEAL Â -Tuesday 6th and Thursday 8th September from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at Life Changers Tableview
PRAYER, BRING AND SHARE MEALS AND FAST-TRACK – Wednesday 7th September in life-groups (that meet in homes across our city) and Fast-Track groups (that meet at Life Changers Tableview) from 7pm to 9pm
Join us this Sunday at all three congregations as we further prepare for this time as we preach “When the Church prays”