The True Power Behind Fasting and Prayer

And I'll leave you with this. Pray by fasting and pray. Fasting and pray.

You can only cause this kind of a demon with fasting and with prays. Fasting for the body, pray for the spirit. Fasting for the body, pray for the spirit.

Fasting humbles the body, prayer humbles the spirit. Fasting breaks the body, humbles it. And prayer breaks the spirit, humbles the spirit.

This is why, prayer is always a struggle. If somebody says to you, yeah I pray all the time and it's nice and easy. Some have reached this level but it takes a great deal of an effort.

It's not one of those, I just spoke to Jesus and he came down and spoke to me. No, no. Where do you think you're sitting? What, the Lord has nothing else to do but to, for you to say, please come, please go, please come, please go.

That's childish behavior. Very childish. Prayer humbles the spirit.

That's why prayer is a struggle. You must have experienced this. You know every time we come to pray, prior to that, I'm just dumb.

I know nothing, I remember nothing, just quiet. The moment I start praying, I'll remember every single detail, six, seven, one thousand years ago. And the moment I start praying, all of a sudden, oh, I forgot to call so and so, it's their birthday.

Oh, the food is on the stove, it's on fire, it's going to burn. Oh, I forgot the clothes in the washing machine. Oh, I forgot to cook.

Oh, I forgot to buy. Oh, I forgot. How come he didn't remember all these things prior to praying? And when you come to pray, you'll start wondering.

You're in the church, all of a sudden you're in Bondi Beach. What is this? Get out of my mind, my head, Bondi Beach. The bishop is talking.

Now you'll see the beach, that's it. You're stuck with the beach. Or Westfield Shopping Center, and Versace or Chanel is right before your eyes.

And then, oh, it's just, look, I look through the window and it's a sunny day, what a shame. Look where I'm sitting in the church, boring. You pray, you're everywhere.

You stop praying, you're focused. You know why? Because that enemy, that naughty, naughty enemy, he doesn't want you to focus when you pray. Why? Because prayer humbles the spirit.

Guess what? He doesn't want you to be humble. And every time you want to fast, so many people have, not so many, few people. Few people approach me all the time when the Great Lent comes.

Before the Great Lent comes, they want to secure and make sure they're safe and sound. Father, you know what? I promise you, Father, I promise you. If I don't have coffee at 10 a.m. all day, I've got a migraine.

Would the Lord accept this? I don't think so, He's merciful. Father, I promise you, one cigarette I have to have between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. If I don't have the cigarette, I can't focus. You want me to collapse and cut my hand in the chain? What do you say, Father? One cigarette.

Pray for me, Father, one cigarette. You come to fast, oh, I've got a headache, my back, my tummy, it's painful, man, I can't do it, I'm shaking, I'm going round and round and round, everything is revolving around me, I'm going to faint. And then I see the steak.

Someone will come and say, who said, the Lord said, don't eat meat? Man, you can eat, fasting is not that, just don't talk about people. Yeah. But you forgot, you're stuck with this body that has been dragging you in the streets of Fairfield.

This body needs to be disciplined. You can't just feed it steak and then the body feeds you to Satan, you can't. You've got to feed it sometimes vegetables, it's good.

I don't know where people, when they talk, they don't think too far and too deep. Because they don't want to give up on the food, so the Lord said, it's okay. Like someone came, he said, Father, I have to have a little glass of wine.

Even the Lord drank wine in Cana of Galilee. Isn't it true, Father? Didn't He change the water into wine? You see, the Lord is not against it, He likes wine. And then when I tell Him the agonizing truth, I wish I had never came to you and asked you.

Then my conscience would have been nice. But now that you've told me the truth, now I can't do it. When you fast, ask the Lord to help you.

You see, fasting humbles the body, prayer humbles the spirit. Why? Because the only way to overcome Satan is humility. A true humble person... Now please pay attention.

This is apostolic teaching, not 21st century teachings. A true humble person is the one who says, I'm a sinner. Or a saint.

And in the name of Jesus made me a saint, I'm a saint. Oh yeah? Really? You're a saint? Well done. What are you doing in Star City Casino? A true humble person is the one who has a private life with the Lord.

A true humble person is the one when he talks compared to the time he's quiet. The talking percentage is extremely minute compared to the silent percentage. A true humble person is the one who says to himself or herself, is the one who says to themselves, true humility is when I see my heart the way God sees it.

This is the beginning of the road to humility. When I begin to see my heart the way God sees it, I ask myself this question, if God looked at my heart this very moment, how would God see my heart? Full of filth. Spider webs everywhere.

Hatred, pride, envy, jealousy. A lot of things. When I see my heart the way God sees it, this is the road to humility.

It's not yet humility. Do you see how deep humility is? How profound humility is? How awesome humility is? How difficult to be humble truly is? The reason why the Lord Jesus as the human, the perfect man, the reason why he did everything according to God's will, because the human Jesus was humble. Humility is the key to success and power.

Because when we humble ourselves before God, then God is ruling over our life. Whatever we say, we do. God is doing it in us, through us, with us, and by us.

And when God does things through us, then we say to darkness, be light, and it will be. And we say to this dead person to be alive, and he will be or she will be. Because when God speaks, things change.

Things change. But they change to the better. Not to the worse.

To the better. Satan, if he has so many things, one thing definitely he does not have, humility. Satan cannot be humble.

And what burns Satan is humility. I can be the smartest person in the world, he will devour me before I blink my eyes. But I can be the illiterate of all illiterates of the world, yet humble, I will burn Satan.

With all of his wisdom, with all of his knowledge, with my humility and my illiteracy, I will burn Satan. Because what overcomes Satan is humility. This is why he doesn't want you to be in the presence of the Lord, which is prayer.

He doesn't want you to be attached to the earth, who is Christ, which is fasting. He doesn't want you to inherit the earth, Christ, Jesus, fasting. He doesn't want you to enter the presence of God, prayer.

Because when you get to the ground, when you sit on the floor, what does that mean? Humility. And when you enter in the presence of the Lord, the spirit bows before the Creator. I'll definitely leave you with this, I'm so sorry, but I'm tempted to say this.

You know, we read in the Holy Gospel, there was this paralytic man, who was carried in his bed, he was carried by four men, each holding one corner of that bed. They carried him to bring him to the Lord Jesus. He was in this house, they came to the house, and they found out the house was packed with people, there was no room to enter the house.

They didn't give up, they said, no, no, this man, we must bring him before the Lord. He needs to be healed by the Lord. The house is packed, there is no room for us to enter, we're not gonna give up.

So they looked around, and then they looked up to the rooftop. They said, that's it, we found the solution. They went up to the roof, they made an opening in that roof, and they lowered that man to where the Lord was sitting.

The Lord was sitting on the ground. That paralytic man is humanity, all of us, Adam and his descendants. Every single human is that paralyzed man, because sin paralyzed us all, and there is no one human that says, I never sinned, neither with thought nor with action.

Every human born of an earthly father and mother is a sinner. Every human, except Jesus, is the only one who has only earthly mother, no earthly father. Stunning.

Everyone is a sinner. Sin has paralyzed me. Unable to move, unable to do anything, anything good.

These four men who carried me to the Lord Jesus are the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are directing me, are leading me, are taking me to the Lord every time I read them. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came and carried me and said, we've got a solution for you, paralyzed man.

We're gonna take you to the one who is the healer of all healers, and the one who heals freely. We'll take you to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our Lord, our Master. When they took me to the Lord, He was in the house, the house was packed with people.

Who are those people who are in the presence of the Lord? Saints. Of course there will be no room for me because I'm a sinner. Sinners can't mix with saints because sin is darkness, holiness is light, is there any connection between light and darkness? Never.

It's either light or darkness. Since I am a sinner, I have no room in the midst of the saints. I need to be cleansed from my sins.

They didn't give up. They took me, they lifted my eyes to the rooftop. When you look at any house's roof, what do you see beyond the roof? Heaven.

Heaven. The reason why I was always fallen into sin and being paralyzed because my eyes were focused on the filthy and this cursed ground, the pleasures and the treasures of the world. I was focused on it and the more I was focused, the more I remained paralyzed.

The Gospels came and said, change your way of thinking, lift your eyes to heaven for a change. Stop focusing on earth. The earth is cursed and is going to burn at the end.

Lift up your eyes. Stop being earthly. Stop being physical.

Stop being materialistic. For a change, become spiritual heavenly person. I lifted up my eyes to heaven.

They said to me, it is where God dwells in the heaven of all heavens. The exalted, elevated, high God. They took me to heaven and I searched heaven everywhere for God.

And to my shocking surprise, the exalted, elevated, high God, I found Him sitting on the ground, so humble. This, when I saw this high, exalted God, so humble, this broke me. This shamed me.

This embarrassed me. I was unable to say anything but to go down and put my head at His feet and say, Jesus, Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of David, have mercy on me, I the sinner. The Lord looked and He said to him, get up and take your bed home.

Before you came to me, the bed was carrying you. After you had an encounter with me, thanks to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who wrote about me, now you are able, by the grace of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this time you carry the bed and take it home. No more the bed carrying you, you carry the bed.

When the Son sets you free, you better believe that you are free. Humility. Humility, my beloved.