Prayer and Fasting (My Story) Prayer and Fasting. WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MONIQUE???? If youve heard my story of how this journey got started, you have probably heard me refer to the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting our church does every January. My inbox has been BLOWING UP this past week asking me to discuss what I do and why I do it, and what it means, and.... So lets start from the beginning. The first year I participated in the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting at our church was in 2008. I grew up going to church, so I knew what fasting was, but never had really studied it or participated in it. We started attending our church (Church of the Highlands) in 2006, and went off and on, but NEVER consistent until 2008. (We had owned a biz from 2004-2008, and our priorities were WAY out of line, did you know you could attend church and STILL have your priorities WAY out of line, oh you can). We sold our biz in 2008 and that was the year that was the BEST WORST year of our life, and we began that year with our very first participation in the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Im telling you, it was life transforming. That particular year, I fasted breakfast and lunch, and ate dinner. (We will talk about more of WHAT Ive fasted before in a sec). Anyway, we ended up losing a LOT of material possessions that year. We lost our house, our car, I lost friendships, we lost pride (haha, that was good), it was also the year Jer started working at Church of the Highlands, I started nursing at a local hospital, and we began to be INTENTIONAL with our walk with the Lord. Im telling you, if you looked outwardly at what we went through you would think it was the worst year of our life, but I am telling you, because we found our joy came from the LORD, and not THINGS, when we found that lining our priorities up to where the LORD was #1, REALLY, I am not joking, I have never in my life felt at such a peace in the middle of the biggest storm. To me, that is what fasting is...its a way in the middle of the life, STOPPING and acknowledging HIM, giving Him #1 place. Its a way of quieting your FLESH, and letting your SPIRITUAL being take charge. Our pastor always says that we are spiritual beings living in a fleshly body. Our flesh is usually dominant, at least mine is. Fasting isnt SUFFERING for the Lord, how much you can give up and show Him and being like LOOK WHAT I AM GIVING UP FOR YOU, no, its just a way of saying, Im quieting my flesh, something my flesh wants and during that time focusing on my SPIRITUAL BEING. (am I freaking you out)? Hang in there with me. I hope you noticed that in 2008, a year that I began with PRAYER AND FASTING, I STILL walked through a storm. The Lord didnt allow the storm not to happen, but HE WALKED WITH ME THROUGH IT. He didnt drop all the money in the world in our lap to get us out of trouble, nope, He dropped HIS PEACE, HIS JOY, HE WAS WITH US. He did line us up jobs, and all that good stuff, HE DID provide for us daily, but we still had to walk out the storm. Over the next few years we participated in the Prayer and Fasting. I never had anything really SPECIFIC I was praying for, but we did participate. One thing I always remember loving to hear was how our Pastor always talked about how He began our church with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. From the birth of our church he has done this each year. He always says when people ask how the church has been so successful, how it has been listed as the fastest growing, etc, etc, HOW DID YOU DO IT???? He always says, I know its because it was BIRTHED out of Prayer and Fasting. I listened to this story YEAR AFTER YEAR. 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and I remember thinking, if we EVER do a business again, EVER...I am SOOOOOO doing this. I am SOOOOOO wanting it to be BIRTHED during a time DEVOTED and FOCUSED on the Lord. November 2102 I got a little kit of oils and VOWED I would NEVER EVER do the biz end that went along with this company, Young Living. I fell in love with the product, allowed some friends to order from me because I wanted to get some freebies, they had good results so I started thinking HMMMMMM, maybe I should CONSIDER the biz end, and guess what? It was RIGHT when our church was starting the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting in 2013. So it was the first year since 2008 that I really had something SPECIFIC I was DEVOTING to prayer during this time. I am telling you, I am 100% confident, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the path I am on today is because of what was birthed during those 21 days. You may think Im crazy, you may think its all fluff, but I am TELLING YOU, I can never and WILL NEVER not acknowledge this fact. What journey my family is walking out is SUPERNATURAL, yep, we work hard, dont get me wrong, but I prayed for this. I DID NOT PRAY FOR SUCCESS. I DID NOT PRAY to hit Royal Crown Diamond. I DID NOT PRAY to be a rockstar biz person. I did not pray to make a million dollars. I did not pray to have thousands follow me on FB...I prayed a much different prayer. Right at the beginning of the 21 Days that year I was sitting in my little bitty workroom with headphones on with worship music blasting in my ears...just like Im doing right now, I love me some worship music, thats a whole other post. But a song came on and it was like it just led me right into the presence of the Lord. I mean it connected me. It spoke to me. It encouraged me. It was like the world stopped for a second and I had a God moment. I said LORD, I wish I could sing like that. I wish I could lead people into moments like that with you. And Im telling you, it wasnt audible, but it was like the Lord just spoke to me....MONIQUE, I didnt give you that gift. I gave HER that gift. What you FEEL is her USING the gift I gave her in WORSHIP to me. THAT is what you feel. Monique I gave YOU a gift and all you have to do is USE that gift in WORSHIP to me. THAT is what the journey is all about. So I prayed, LORD, if I do the biz end, I want to acknowledge YOU. I want it to be about more than OILS. I need a vision and understanding of how to organize and structure my business, but more than that, I know you have gifted me in leading teams, in motivating and encouraging others, and THAT is what I give to YOU. I want to do this IN WORSHIP TO YOU. All I know, is that the rest is history. In the eyes of others they may see me as successful, they may see me as a Royal Crown Diamond (to be honest, I dont even like when people reference me as a ROYAL CROWN DIAMOND), they may think Im a rockstar biz person, they may see the stupid money I make, but what they need to understand is NONE of that I prayed for and NONE of that fulfills me, NONE of that drives me to work harder. I prayed for the literally hundreds of messages I receive that say, MONIQUE, that post spoke to me, the Lord showed me this or that when you shared your bad day you had. THAT is what I prayed for and THAT is what fulfills me and DRIVES me to do what I do each day. So I know this was LONG, but because I talk so much about Prayer and Fasting, I wanted you to know MY STORY of what came from that time. Its not about how much you GIVE UP for the Lord, its simply what can I QUIET and give that focus timed on the Lord. We many years have given up social media, or TV, or sweets,....its NOT about WHAT you GIVE UP, its just quieting that flesh for a bit and spending that time on your SPIRITUAL MAN. Our flesh is typically so LOUD, it overpowers our spiritual being, this just allows your SPIRITUAL being to louder. Again, I hope Im not freaking you out, but it makes those GOD MOMENTS RING LOUDER. I will share some links of posts and series to watch if you want more info on this topic. Im not saying Im an expert in it by ANY MEANS, haha. Im also going to post these on my old blog for better reference back to. Today starts the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. I would love for you to join me. Dont get so hung up on WHAT you fast, just FOCUS on getting oh so close to Jesus these 21 Days. I love you guys so very much. You just have no clue. YOU are what I prayed for. Success, NO....YOU, yep, connecting with YOU is what I prayed for. Alright, that is all for now, long post over. Ill share links later today on blog and Ill share blog link here...be watching.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:56:15 +0000
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