SACRED SEASON OF CONSECRATION 15 DAYS OF PRAYER & FASTING # Uncommon SACRED SEASON OF CONSECRATION 15 DAYS OF PRAYER & FASTING # Uncommon THE GATE CHURCH thegatechurch.tv SACRED SEASON Sacred Season is 15 days of fasting and prayer devoted and dediDcateAd tYo th e1 pBuYrs BuIiSt HoOf GP oTdO’Ns Yp rMeIsLeLEnRc e, hearing His voice and surrendering to His will and purpose for our lives. It is both a personal pursuit and a corporate commitment of our church, to annually set aside this time and honor God with the “first” of the New Year. Matthew 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Each day, we commit to give God the “first” of our day through prayer and devotions. Each devotion in the Sacred Season journal is written by one of the Pastors or Lay Leaders at The Gate Church. Every morning, begin your day with us in prayer on Facebook Live @thegateokc at 7am. The primary assignment of the church is to be a "house of prayer". If you miss a morning you can catch the replay on our YouTube Channel. Also make plans to join us on Monday Night, January 29th at 6:30pm at The Gate for Prayer and Ministry time. We are expecting the UN/COMMON. Why We Fast During Sacred Season • Fasting was an expected discipline in both the Old and New Testament. Jesus fasted and reminded His followers to fast, “when you fast”, not IF you fast • Fasting and prayer can restore the loss of the “first love” for the Lord and bring you into a more intimate relationship with Jesus. • Fasting is a biblical way to truly humble yourself in the sight of God. Psalm 35:13, King David said, “I humble myself through fasting”. • By denying ourselves, we are provoked to rely more on God and yield entirely to the leading of the Holy Spirit instead of living under the power of the flesh. • Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance and a transformed life. THE GATE CHURCH • When you fast, The Holy Spirit will quicken the Word of God in your heart and His truth will become more meaningful to you. • Fasting is a gateway through which God releases His supernatuDral pAowYer. 1 • Fasting breaks the work of the enemy and sin from our lives. Mark 9:29, BY BISHOP TONY MILLER “Jesus said, this kind can come forth by nothing, but prayer and fasting.” • Fasting can transform your prayer life and result in a dynamic personal revival and make you a channel of revival to others. The enemy knows that there is nothing that does damage to him or his kingdom like a praying Church. When the Church has received on their knees ‘power from on high’, then the powers of darkness will be shaken and souls will be delivered! There are several types of fasting. The one you choose is between you and God. He will honor your best sacrifice. Get more information at thegatechurch.tv/prayeremphasis Full Fast Drink only liquids. The Daniel Fast Eat no meat, no sweets and no bread. Drink water and juice. Eat fruits and vegetables. Partial Fast A partial fast is from 6 am - 3 pm or from sun up to sun down. You can select to do a Full Fast, Daniel Fast or give up at least one item of food. Whichever fast you choose, remember, this is a fast (which means to restrict food for spiritual purpose). One of the most powerful lessons you can learn during this time is how to put your flesh in its rightful place and realize that you don’t have to give in to the desires of your flesh. Invest most of your time and attention on the Lord. Keep Jesus and your relationship with Him as the foundation of the fast. Remember that it is the attitude of a heart sincerely seeking Him to which God responds with a blessing. THE GATE CHURCH UN/COMMON DEVOTION A T I M E O F U N C O M M O N D A Y 1 BY BISHOP TONY MILLER Happy New Year I have incredible expectation as we launch our season of focused Prayer and Fasting as a church family in this “Year of the UNUSUAL (Uncommon, Extraordinary)”! As we begin – TOGETHER - ‘seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’ (Matt 6:33), exercise your faith and believe that your decision to put God FIRST will result in uncommon strength and life. Acts 19:11 says – “Now God worked unusual miracles through the hands of Paul …”. As you humble yourself in prayer and fasting today you can expect several things to take place – You can expect God to begin to ‘work’ in your life, your family, our church and city. Or you could say it this way – God will begin to PERFORM what He has promised and COMPLETE what He has begun. Expect God to be present and active in your life today! I have found that when I invite God to ‘work’ in my life that every aspect of my life is affected. My heart is shaped in unusual ways! My mind is renewed to think uncommon thoughts and my hands begin to reach out with uncommon compassion for those around me. As you pray today expect the UN/COMMON from Him! "All this was accomplished ‘by the hands of Paul’. You can put your name there! God worked … Paul reached! Declare today – “God is blessing the works of my hands in UNCOMMON ways”! Special reading: Psalm 27; Prov 15; Matt 17:14-21 THE GATE CHURCH UN/COMMON DEVOTION R E F U E L D A Y 2 BY ROB CLAY We live in a fast pace world. It is easy to go throughout the day and miss out on some important things that are necessary for us to survive and effectively manage the tasks set before us. We are always in a hurry. We hurry to work, we hurry getting the kids to school, we hurry making dinner, etc. We stop only to realize that the “gas hand” is on EMPTY and we've missed what's considered the most important meal of our day…breakfast! Now we're stranded on the roadside in need of help and dealing with major delays in our day accompanied by a growling stomach. I encourage you today to SLOW DOWN and take some time to refuel and rejuvenate your mind, heart, and spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NLT) says, "Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?" It is important that we start our day in the presence of God! His WORD is the most important meal of the day. We have to take time to chew on it for strength and nourishment, to make it through difficult things we may encounter. The more we spend time in God’s presence in worship and the Word, the more we build our natural and spiritual temples. "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35 (NIV) Let us continue to commit today to seek passionately after the Lord with all our being. We will not let the distractions or demands of our day derail us from the time we need to spend with God. But instead, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." Acts 6:4 (KJV) And by this we are confident that our lives will be forever changed. THE GATE CHURCH UN/COMMON DEVOTION A T I M E O F U N C O M M O N P U R I T Y D A Y 3 BY PASTOR COLE PHILLIPS Being Pure. WOW! When I hear the word “purity” when talking about my heart, motives, and actions, it seems like an unattainable goal. It is something we often feel impossible to reach. But then I read the bible. So, apparently, I am either missing the mark or I am missing an important piece of information. Jesus, when teaching in Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV), started along a string of sayings that we now know as the Beatitudes. For some reason, verse 8 has ALWAYS stood out to me. “Blessed are the PURE in heart, for they will SEE God.” (Matthew 5:8 NIV) See God? That is what I want! But there’s that word “pure” again! For years I was obsessed with this; I wanted to be pure. But I found myself in a battle, much like Paul talked about in Romans, in which I wanted purity, but kept messing up. I desired it, but something kept getting in the way. And then one day something popped out to me. I was reading 1 John 3:2-3 and came across this: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,a we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” Ding-ding-ding! The light bulb went off! That is it! It is through our HOPE in Jesus and in our pursuit of SEEING Him (a real encounter), we purify our hearts.