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The Jesus Fast of Forty Days Is Complete!

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Congratulations to everyone who participated in our time of prayer and fasting. Many of you met at the church to minister to the Lord and intercede. Our prayer focus each night was a wedding of the Spirit and Word in our lives and in our church, and the global church; revival and awakening; and a sovereign move of God. Many of you joined in seeking the Lord from March 1 till Thursday April 9 and now we should be asking, How has God answered our prayers? Are we any closer to the Lord now than we were before march 1? Is Jesus any closer to us now? Lastly, in the midst of our pursuit, have we become whole-hearted in our pursuit and devotion to the Lord? These questions become more pointed when I ask them of my self. During the fast I was awakened one night by the Lord asking, What did I want revival to look like in our church? I thought of all the things I wanted to see. Then He asked, Are these things happening in you? (He isn’t called Jehovah-Sneaky for no reason)

Recently I read Lou Engle’s blog for the last day of the Jesus Fast and it was as challenging as always:

And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it… It is the Lord’s Passover… Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.– Exodus 12:7,11,13

Years ago my friend had a dream of a mystic who had entered into the Great Cloud of Witnesses. In the dream, she held a container with letters coming out of it, floating in the air, saying, “Lou Engle now has the gift of faith for the Great Communion Revival.”

Again a dream was given in which another prophetic friend saw a chapel and lines of people as far as you could see were coming to this chapel. In the dream he prophesied, “All the revivals in all of history will not compare to what’s coming in the Great Communion Revival!” 

Do you realize, once again, the brilliance of the Father’s timing of this fast to end on Easter Weekend where the Church celebrates communion worldwide and the global Jewish community celebrates the blood of the passover lamb? The Hebrew calendar and the Church calendar have synchronized in an historic and momentous convergence! C’mon! A global 40-day Jesus Fast converging with a global communion service! Even now, I am connected to networks touching the whole globe and literally tens of millions will be taking communion at the end of this fast. Could this be the beginnings of the Great Communion Revival? 

Just as in the days of the Egyptian captivity, when a plague broke out, slaying all the firstborn of the land, a global plague has now broken out, slaying thousands around the world. In those days, the sprinkled blood of a lamb was more powerful than the plague, setting the Israelites free. Is not the blood of the Eternal Lamb of God even more powerful and, when applied in faith by the Church worldwide, will it not obliterate this present pandemic and set millions of captives free from the bondage of sin and death?

Who could have guessed that we would be living this moment in a worldwide pandemic similar to the plague during the first Passover. I believe Jesus is setting up the most glorious Passover moment in history. We are calling on this final day of fasting, April 9th, men and women who are now quarantined in their homes, like the early Jews who were in their homes on Passover night, to take communion and celebrate the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We are calling far and wide for the Church to apply the blood to the doorposts of their personal guilt, their family guilt, and their national guilt, and plead the power of that blood over the virus. Then, with the rod of authority like the rod of Moses, let the Church declare to this virus, this messenger of death, “Enough! Restrain your hand!” Let the Church declare, “Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea!” Let the Church declare, “This Coronavirus will be cut short!” Let the Church declare, “You will no longer hinder the evangelistic explosion going forward in the year 2020!” Let the Church declare to the masses of lost, seething humanity, “Go free in the name of Jesus!”

“And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” – 1 John 5:8

On the cross, the Passover Lamb was slain and the precious blood was poured out for the sins of the world. 50 days later, on the day of Pentecost (Hallelujah!), the Spirit bore witness to the blood. “They were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

Friends, do you see it? On this weekend of the great worldwide communion service, the blood of Jesus will be exalted. Then, what if the Church worldwide will pray for 50 days for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the season of Pentecost in 2020? Will not God respond with a mighty baptism that will hurl forth witnesses to the ends of the earth?! It will be called the Great Communion Revival.

So on this final day of the fast, meet with a few friends if possible (in accordance with government regulations), let Jesus say to you, as He said to His disciples on that night, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15)! Feel His Presence in your midst and eat of the broken body and poured out blood of your Savior. Apply that blood over your company and over your nation and then stand as an Ekklesia ruling body and resist that virus in the mighty name of Jesus. Then pray together with mighty faith and command the doors to be opened for the most glorious evangelistic missional assault on the gates of Hades this world has ever seen! Then, my brothers and sisters, pray for a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit, from which you go now and preach the gospel!

Thank you once again for following me on “This dream trek, on this horrible, wonderful highway of commanding destiny” (Mark Rutland), called The Jesus Fast. Hopefully it has changed your life, and hopefully, it won’t be your last.Please join me as I will continue blogging periodically as the Holy Spirit directs at thejesusfast.global/.

May this Sunday’s Drive-In Church be an answer to the prayers, and cries of our heart. May it truly be a Resurrection Day for Bethany. Don’t forget to invite your family, friends and neighbors to this event. Lord willing I will see you this Sunday and hopefully we can to the elbow greeting. God bless you and your family this Resurrection Weekend!

Christmas Day Truce 1914

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Isaiah 55:6 Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.

This Scripture couldn’t have ben more true than on December 25, 1914. World War 1 had been raging since July 28, 1914 and Pope Benedict XV had suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. Unfortunately the warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce. History.Com Editors state in an October 27, 2009 article that: The Christmas Truce occurred on and around Christmas Day 1914, when the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front during World War I in favor of holiday celebrations. During the unofficial ceasefire, soldiers on both sides of the conflict emerged from the trenches and shared gestures of goodwill. Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops fighting in World War I sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. Some Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches, and there was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer. German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch recalled: “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.” Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured. During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destroy the Christmas spirit.”

Obviously this isn’t Christmas, and the Stay At Home Order from our governor regarding the Coronavirus Covid-19 hasn’t been raging for five months. Yet in many ways we are at war with an unseen enemy. It’s during this time that small gestures at continuing to gather together as believers through small prayer gatherings, online streaming of services, Zoom Bible classes for youth and children, and prayers – that we are reminded of deeper values: worship, community, friendships, relationships, faith, hope, and love.

As the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus approaches we’ve decided it’s time for a truce with this virus. Not for a Christmas Truce, but a Resurrection Celebration Truce. Though our war with the virus has only been raging for a little over a month it’s time we gather together to worship, celebrate community, all while taking a creative approach to our coronavirus guidelines. This coming Sunday we want to invite you, your family, friends and neighbors to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with us through having “Drive-in Church.” We will begin at 10:30 AM transmitting the service via your car radio, while maintaining social distancing of 6 feet. Some churches that have been practicing this have had members back in to the staged area so that they can pop open the hatch, and listen from a lawn chair. If you plan on this approach come prepared for some rain by bringing an umbrella, and wearing your rain gear.

Lastly, may I remind you of Isaiah 55:6? Seek the Lord while he may be found. The church has been given a window of grace to pursue and seek Jesus. There was a story from the Week magazine regarding a 67 year man by the name of Roger Pasquier. He was a retired ornithologist who has a keen eye for spotting stray coins. In fact, he had found almost two thousand dollars’ worth of coins dropped onto New York City’s sidewalks since he started his strange hobby back in 1987. As years passed by, he began to be focused, developed some strategies and implemented some scientific methods to keep track of collecting loose coins and bills. Most of the time, Pasquier hovers around bars, targeting careless drunk people, and avoids eye contact with other pedestrians. “It’s important that I keep my eyes on where the money is.” Crucially, he deploys his expert knowledge of birds—and their use of “search images”—as a guide. “They have a general sense of what their food looks like and they become very attuned to those shapes.” He had been so adept to this that he can spot a coin by its shape or by the sound it makes when it drops. But his biggest boon has been the introduction of the iPhone. Since its invention in 2007, Pasquier’s annual takings have nearly doubled, because most people are too busy staring at their phones to notice coins on the street.

Have you been too busy staring at the deadline of our “Stay At Home Order” missing the opportunity to seek Jesus and His Presence? It’s important that we keep our spiritual eyes focused on where our real treasure lies. The treasures of God’s Grace and Spirit are being released on the earth at this time. Question is, Are you attuned enough to hear its sound as its dropping? Merry Christmas!