1.2.22  –  Brandon Shanks (Senior Pastor)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

21 Days of Prayer & Fasting Begins – Today
Prayer Services this week in person & live online:  
Monday-Friday 6-7am & Saturday 9-10am
visit www.cityhills.com/21days for more information.

Spring Small Group Leader Orientation – This Saturday at 10am (After Prayer in the Loft)
visit www.cityhills.com/groups to sign up today

Our Next Baptism Sunday is January 23 
visit www.cityhills.com/baptism to sign up today

Click here for more upcoming events

No Shortcut Exists

Jeremiah 6:16 Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

OLAM – old, concealed, hidden, perpetual, eternal, timeless.

#1 Fasting is abstaining from food to God

– Connects to ourselves
– Connects to others
– Connects to God.

#2 Fasting is an

Daniel 10:2-3 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips…

#3 Fasting is yourself before God

Psalm 42:1 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.

(Romans 12:1) I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

My Fasting Plan: 

#4 Fasting is a

Daniel 10:12
do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

2 Samuel 12:22-23
He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting?

#5 Fasting with prayer brings

(Matthew 17:19-22) Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?. And He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you.” But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting

Breakthrough: 

√ in our

√ in my

√ In my

Acts 13:2-3 One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.

√ In my

√ In my

(Matthew 4:1-2) Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

I have often wished that there were some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short easy lessons, but such wishes are vain. No shortcut exists! God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age. It is well that we accept the hard truth now: The man who would know God must give time to Him. He must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets and the believing members of the holy church in all generations.”

– A.W. Tozer

(Isaiah 58:8-9) Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

What is the Holy Spirit Saying To Me Through This Message?

Did you experience a FRESH START with God today? Text “CHHOPE” to 97000