Repentance, praying and fasting is the key!

  

Please click this link for the video version of today's blog :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOnvYdc30o

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

      2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

     Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile. 

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.          **Sing a song to praise the Lord

      

     Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

      https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

**Please click this link to read how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Today's Time with Abba:  Psalm 138:1-8; Joel 1:1-3:21; Revelation 1:1-21; Proverbs 29:18

Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

Key passages:

 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;

    wail, you who minister before the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

    you who minister before my God;

for the grain offerings and drink offerings

    are withheld from the house of your God.

Declare a holy fast;

    call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders

    and all who live in the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

    and cry out to the Lord. 

  

Alas for that day!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

The Lord thunders
    at the head of his army;
his forces are beyond number,
    and mighty is the army that obeys his command.
The day of the Lord is great;
    it is dreadful.
    Who can endure it?

“Even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.

Who knows? He may turn and relent
    and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
    for the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    declare a holy fast,
    call a sacred assembly.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.

Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

“And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.

Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

I will show wonders in the heavens
    and on the earth,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
    there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
    whom the Lord calls.

                                                       Joel 1:13-15; 2:11-15,26-32

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passages we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.

    

The topic I received today from Jesus is:  Repentance, praying and fasting is the key!

Joel, whose name means "The Lord is God," identifies himself as "son of Pethuel". The date of writing of this book are uncertain. Some believe that Joel's ministry occurred after the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple (510-400 B.C.). Others believe Joel's message occurred during the early days of young King Joash (835-796 B.C.), who became king at age seven (2 Kings 11:21) and remained under the authority and guidance of the high priest, Jehoiada, while Joash was still a minor.  That situation would account for the fact that Joel frequently mentioned priests but never referred to a king.  This seems the more likely time period for Joel's ministry, since it comes before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., and part of Joel's prophecy speaks of future disaster on Judah. 

The immediate situation addressed in the book was an invasion of locusts and a severe drought and the looming potential of a foreign military invasion of Judah.  

Chapter one tells us about a severe locust plague that had swept over the land, wiping out all vegetation that the people were facing a severe famine. Joel indicated that this crisis was sent by God, and the leaders and people needed to turn to the Lord and cry out for his help. 

Joel called the people for an intense and extended time of fasting.  They needed this time to demonstrate their dependence on God and to repent of all sin in their lives, which could hinder their relationship with Him. Because "the day of the Lord" was coming to them as the approaching judgment from God to discipline his rebellious people and punish ungodly nations. Also, "the day of the Lord" will come of God's final judgment on all evil at the end of this age which will include the seven-year tribulation and Christ's return to defeat the antichrist and to reign on earth.

What I received from Jesus today is to teach and remind us of the power of fasting. Perhaps the only way to avoid severe judgment from God is what it calls here "Holy Fast". See how Queen Esther led her people to fast and everything was being turned around.

Joel 2:11 says, "The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful.  Who can endure it?"

Yes, indeed if the end time comes we have no way to escape. What can we do?

The only thing and the most important things for us to do are three things:

1. Repentance: repent and return to the Lord and into God's Kingdom each day in case you are not because of your sin.

2. Praying: You need to pray as never before and to join the brothers and sisters of your church to pray. If your church has a regular weekly prayer meeting you "MUST" go! If your church does not have a regular weekly prayer meeting you need to do something for this to happen.

3. Fasting: If you have never fast before, now is the time for you to start. Regular fasting is perhaps the best way to have a spiritual renewal and for people to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

Repentance, praying and fasting is the key!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to know that repentance, praying and fasting is the key. Lead us to do it and not just to know it.  In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:    

1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

     2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus, to be holy - that is to do what Jesus wants you to do and not to do what Jesus wants you not to do?

    

    Family Corner:

     Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

     

     You are welcome to join our Monday to Friday 7am-7:30am(Pacific time (Vancouver)) Worship, Devotion, Prayer

    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3962567042?pwd=4qqbcGJ2zQl3tlTUvus4Qv6g7byZKy.1&omn=88167363288

Meeting ID: 396 256 7042

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Please click this link to worship with us - 

Open the eyes of heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViBNqNukgzE&list=RDViBNqNukgzE&start_radio=1

    Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible four passages: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

   For the Chinese version of this daily blog and video, please click this link (中文版請按此連結):

    https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningchinese.blogspot.com

     

     To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link:http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

       My first blog "Devotion on Fire"  was written in English only  (July 17, 2009年7月17日至November 22, 2012年11月22日). Each day one chapter of Bible, from New Testament and then Old Testament. Completed in four months and three years:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/blessings-from-rev-dr-john-stott.html

My second blog "Discipler 123"  was written in both Chinese and English (March 6,2011to December 31, 2016 ):

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-1-choose-light-away-from-darkness.html

and "Time with Abba" blog and video (January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2024): 

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2017/01/1-2017.html

 

 

Connecting Workshop 2025(Session 2)

Bishop Silas Ng on Three Streams

 https://youtu.be/xiSOSFF9Iw0?si=puDWFD9Cx01ADm-o