 21 day fast forward challenge. As I have mentioned already that fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. We don't fast to move God, we fast so that God can move us. We fast so we humble ourselves before God. And day nine, for most of you who are doing a water fast, we want to bring encouragement to you, to persevere, not to give up. We want to bring encouragement to you also and provide you with tools like fast forward book, the reading plan and others so that you focus on the Lord. We still have about 13 days left or no, not 13 days left. How many days is it left now? After today's nine, 11 days. Oh wow, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, I feel like for me, I just made up my mind not to even think about it, not to even think about food, not to even think about the end and none of this stuff. But just honestly take one day at a time and say Lord, do your work in me today. Lord, work in me today. And so if you are in that fast, drop number one in the chat. Let's read right now concerning something that I want to bring to your attention. When God will answer a prayer, you don't pray. Now at first it seems like, well, God only answers prayers we pray. And that is true. But I want you to see this verse in the scripture. In 1 Kings chapter 3 verse 11. Then God said to him, because you have not asked this thing and have not asked for a life for yourself, long life, nor have asked for riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Behold, I have done according to your words. See, I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there has not been anyone like you, nor shall there be anyone rise after you. Verse 13. I have also given you what you have not asked. This is what I want to anchor this encouragement today and to motivate you to word pressing into the Lord. I have given you what you have not asked. Sometimes when we fast and one of these days we're going to talk about fasting for our family, fasting for our finances. So I'm going to break things down. But what I want to focus on is for those of you who are fasting and you have needs, you have personal needs, you have financial needs, you have family needs, you have challenges currently in your life. But honestly, your greatest need is really to draw closer to God. And so you are putting your needs on the side and you say, I want this year to be the year when I have a closer and a deeper relationship with the Lord. You're not ignoring your needs by not always intentionally, aggressively praying for them. I want to give you a promise that has been, honestly, I would say like the bedrock of seeing some of the prayers answered in my life, prayers I did not pray. You may say, how is that possible? Solomon offered a huge sacrifice to God, thousand bulls, which was not required. I think from my understanding he was supposed to only offer one bull when he was inaugurated as a king. He offers a big sacrifice and typically a king his age would be asking for money, for fame, influence, riches, for God to kill his enemies, being victorious in the battle. Instead, he says, God, give me wisdom and understanding. Pretty much what he's saying is, Lord, I want to be faithful with my assignment. Give me what I need for my assignment. Had nothing to do with wealth, had nothing to do with money, had nothing to do with good health, had nothing to do with, oh God, give me more children, bless my children. All of those are important, nothing wrong with that. But Solomon prays for what matters to God, which in his case was his assignment. Now, in our case, when you take this time to fast and your goal of fasting is not finances, family, but your goal of fasting is Lord, I want to be closer to you. This doesn't mean you don't pray for your family. This doesn't mean you don't pray for your finances. But what I want to assure you right now is this, God will give you things you did not ask. Verse 13 says the following, I have also given you what you have not asked. Many things in my life that I have received, I did not ask for them. And one of the reasons is because I've discovered a secret. I want to ask for things that matter to God. God knows my heart. God knows my needs. He's my father. He's fully aware of what I'm going through. He knows the desires of my heart. The Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. It doesn't say delight yourself in the Lord and try to pray for your desires. Sometimes the very act of delighting yourself in God is enough for God to give you the desires of your heart. As you seek Him for Him, not for your needs. God knows your needs. God knows your troubles. God knows what you're going through. God knows your family. God knows your struggles. God knows your health. God knows your finances. Again, I am not in any way saying we should not be praying for our needs, because that would be contrary to the Scriptures. The Bible is very clear. We should present our needs to the Lord. But if your whole prayer life is built around prayer requests instead of pursuit of His presence, you will miss on the promise of what He gave to Solomon. But I will give you things you have not asked. God comes to Solomon and he's surprised. He says, because you have not asked this thing. He says, I'm going to give him to you. Not because you have asked, because you haven't. Because usually people do. People usually ask for these things, because why? They're emergencies. They're urgent things. They're things that are very important to us. But when a person begins to say, God, you're more important to me than my needs. You are my reward. You are my pearl of a great prize. Lord, you are my pursuit. You are my goal. Something begins to happen. God sees your heart is pure. God sees that your motives are pure. And guess what he begins to do? He begins to actually answer the prayers you did not pray. He begins to give you things you didn't ask for. Now, I want to just give you a little bit more scriptural reference. And that is in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. Now, in verse 32, Jesus says, for all these things, the Gentiles seek. For your Father already knows all these things, that you need all these things. Jesus is saying, don't be anxious. Don't be worried. The world is grasping after this, going after this. He says, you're different. You're not like the world because you're not an orphan. You are a son. You are a daughter, which means your Father already knows everything that you need. So you may say, well, if he knows everything that I need, does it mean that I don't need to pray anymore? You do need to pray. But the purpose, the ultimate reason for your prayer, is not around prayer requests. It's around the presence. Come on, somebody dropped that in the chat. The purpose of prayer is not prayer requests. It's the presence of God. When you make God's presence, your point in prayer, many of your prayer requests will be answered. If you make your prayer, the point of your prayer as prayer requests, you know, you might not live in experiencing God's presence. And then Jesus says this. He says, because the Father knows everything, guess what? You should then focus on doing. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And I want you to see this. And all these things that the heathens go after, they're pursuing, Jesus gives us a promise. They will be added to you. They will be added to you. They could come as a bonus, as God's saying, hey, I got you. I'm going to provide for you. And one person is sweating, you know, God, God, provide God. All they're praying about is God, give me money, God, give me job, God, give me job. The other person, he's trusting God more for a job and spends more time worshiping God, listening to God, reading His Word and saying, Lord, I love you. Lord, your presence is all that I need. And then they still mentioned the request to know, because the Bible says make your request known unto God. Nothing wrong with that. But if the 90% of your prayer is about your petitions, but it's not about your pursuit, you might be missing something in your intimacy with God. Drop that in the chat. If 90% of your prayer is your petitions, instead of pursuit of God's presence, you might be missing intimacy with God. Prayer requests are important. Our needs are very important. God is more important. His presence is more important. His presence is the purpose of prayer. Drop that in the chat right now. God's presence is the purpose of prayer. God's presence is the point of prayer. God's presence is the goal of prayer. Come on, help me out. Drop that in the chat. in the chat. God's presence is the purpose of prayer, God's presence is the point of prayer, and God's presence is the goal of prayer. If you feel that your intimacy with God is not what it's supposed to be, I would ask that you re-evaluate what you pray the most for. If most of your prayer is packed with requests or even intercession. Intercession is very important. I believe intercession should flow out of intimacy. You should have a strong intimate relationship with God, and out of it should flow intercession, petitions, and others. Late Derek Prince said something, he says, I spend 90% of my prayer in worship and only 10% of my prayer in petition. Now, that is not a formula we should apply in every season of our life. There are seasons where we deeply need to cry out, where we deeply need to intercede. There are seasons where we pray prayers of warfare. That's completely acceptable and actually encouraged. What I'm saying is that today we develop and cultivate and not be afraid to pursue God for God. He will do more on our behalf, even behind the scenes. If we will pursue Him for Him, God is not unaware of your need. Your Heavenly Father, Jesus says, knows all these things. By praying, I'm not informing God. It's not that God said that in heaven, like, oh wow, I did not know your children are not serving God. I did not know you had a financial problem. Thank you for letting me know. My omniscience escaped that. God is all-knowing and not only our God is all-knowing, God actually deeply cares for us as a Father. He's deeply caring for our needs. Therefore, to make our needs as the only purpose and the object and the center of our prayer life or fasting is not wise. Having these promises, like he did to Solomon where he says, Solomon, because you didn't ask for money, you didn't ask for health, you didn't ask for the enemies, he says, I'm gonna give it to you. Solomon, I will give you because you didn't ask, but you asked for something else. It's not a Solomon didn't pray and God came and says, I'm just gonna give you all the stuff because you didn't pray. No, it's because you didn't pray for the things that typically you should have been praying for. You prayed for something else that seemed like, why would you want to be praying for God to give you wisdom to fulfill your calling? Why don't you be praying for money? Why don't you be praying for health? Why don't you be praying for your children? Why don't you be praying for marriage? But pray for serious stuff. But asking God for grace to fulfill your assignment, asking God to know him more, giving you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding will be enlightened, like really, that's, you know, like, yeah, it may seem like that from a carnal perspective. But from God's perspective, delight yourself in the Lord, I will fulfill the desires of your heart. Solomon, because you didn't ask this thing, I will give you this. Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you. God will answer prayers. You don't pray. If you make his presence, the purpose of prayer. Come on, drop that in the chat. God will answer prayers. You didn't pray. If you make his presence, the purpose of your prayer. Let me say that again. God will answer prayers. You didn't pray. If you make his presence, the purpose and the pursuit and the goal of your prayer. As you delight yourself in God, he fulfills the desires of your heart. As you seek his kingdom first, all these things get added to you. As Solomon did not ask for wealth and money and all of that. And God says, because you didn't ask, I will give them to you. Because Solomon asked for something more important. What is more important? The presence of God. God will answer prayers you didn't pray. If you make his presence, the purpose of prayer. Delighting yourself in God, finding joy in God, the purpose of your prayer. Amen. Now, let's read one more verse and that is going to be in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse six. This is a faith chapter. But in there, it inserts this very important truth. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is. So when you come to God, God wants you to believe two things. That he is. And the second thing I want you to see. He wants you to believe when you come to him. That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Now, here lies the secret. We don't seek God for the reward. We seek God for the relationship. But he says, if you come, you must believe that I am. I am God. I am your creator. I am your father. But he also says, I want you to believe this. That I reward those people that seek me. Now, the way God rewards people that seek him will differ. It doesn't always come in a way that it will come to me as it will come to you. But one thing is certain is he is a rewarder. Of what? I want you to notice what it does not say here. It doesn't say he is a rewarder of those who pray. Nothing wrong. Again, prayer is very important. But again, some of us use prayer for our petitions. We don't use prayer for pursuit. He rewards those that seek him. It's almost the Lord is saying, I want to reward the pursuit. The Bible does say God rewards those that pray. Those that give and those that fast in Matthew chapter six. But in here, I want you to catch something. God rewards those that pursue diligently seek him. I believe fasting is a pursuit of God diligently. It's a diligent pursuit after God. While in prayer, you can be pursuing God. When you add fasting, it becomes this disciplined, diligent pursuit. And God says, I will reward those who diligently pursue me. God wants to be pursued. Drop this in the chat. God is worthy of my pursuit. God wants to be pursued. God is not lost. He's not running away from us. When we talk about pursuing God, we're not talking about God not wanting to be constantly escaping us. We're talking about like a husband pursuing his wife. It's not that he's chasing her around the neighborhood because she's trying to escape from him. When a husband is pursuing his wife, it's that he is intentionally putting her first, expressing his love for her, and affection for her, and being attentive to her needs, her desires, and her dreams. That's really what pursuing God means. Seeking God. God is not lost. God is very near. It's intentionally being affectionate, passionate, pursuing his love. What matters to him, and he says, I will reward those that diligently seek him. Drop this in the chat. Fasting is a diligent pursuit of God that he rewards. Fasting is a diligent pursuit of God that he rewards. If you do your fasting with the purpose of pursuing God diligently, your fasting will not go unrewarded. Don't let anybody discourage you. Don't let anybody throw you off from the habit, the discipline, and the pursuit of fasting by saying, oh, you know, it doesn't matter, you know, all of this. God sees your heart and God clearly stated he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. So if in your fast you're making God's presence your priority and goal of prayer, it's a diligent pursuit of him. You will be rewarded and sometimes you'll be rewarded by him fulfilling the desires of your heart. Sometimes it's meeting our needs and sometimes it's answering prayers we didn't even pray, but we had desires or we had needs that we just trusted God with it. We didn't even bother to pray, not because we didn't care about it, it's because we know that he cares more deeply for us and he will answer them and his time. And God sees that your pursuit of him, diligent pursuit of him, and he will answer prayers you did not pray. Amen. Did you receive something this morning? Drop number one in the chat if this was an encouragement to you. Amen. Let's take time right now to pray. Let's ask the Lord that he will realign us to his purpose. Let's ask the Lord that he will realign us to his heart. Let's ask God today that he will give us a heart after him. I want to pray that God will give you a heart of David, a heart after God. It doesn't say that David had a heart of God. It says that David was after God's heart. Sooner or later, everyone who has a heart after God will develop a heart of God. Come on drop that in the chat. Anyone who has a heart after God will develop a heart of God. David wasn't perfect, but he was passionate. David sometimes made a lot of mistakes, but his mistake was never in the pursuit of God. He ran after God. He loved him dearly. You read the Psalms and you see a king, politician in our in our day and age, yet passionately pursuing his Creator as a dear pence for living water so my soul thirsts for you God, hungry for God. And when he committed sin, instead of trying to preserve his throne like Saul did, you know, because when Saul committed sin, he tried to really fight not to lose a throne. And David, when he committed sin, he says, Lord, take not your spirit from me. He said, don't cast me from your presence, God. I don't want to lose this closeness with you. I don't want to lose the intimacy with you, because for David God's presence was the was the goal. It wasn't the palace. It wasn't the fame. It wasn't the riches. It wasn't the victories. He was in love with God for God's sake. And a man after God's heart became a man who developed God's heart, who was merciful to his enemies, Saul, King Saul, who was not super attached to his titles and positions, who even when he was hurt, he would forgive. And Jesus said, Jesus is claimed to be the son of David and he will sit on the throne of David, a man after God's heart. So as you're praying, as you're fasting, and maybe you're not spending a lot of time praying for your own needs, it's okay. Be after God's heart. God knows your needs. God will answer prayers you didn't pray. He will add things to you. He will fulfill the desires of your heart. This is not some prosperity gospel. This is not us using prayer to try to get rich or blessed or none of that stuff. This is us using prayer to get God. And trusting him, he's a rewarder of those that seek him. He will fulfill the desires of our hearts. Just place your hand up on your heart. Lord, I just pray for every person right now that is watching. And those that will be rewatching this, in Jesus' mighty name, spirit of the living God, draw our hearts closer to Jesus. May his, your best presence become the point and the purpose and the goal of prayer. May we delight in you, Lord. May our prayer not be always around prayer requests. May our prayer be around your presence. May we trust you with our requests, with our worries, our struggles. May we trust you more and worship more and love you more. Lord, we lay hold of this promise today that you are a rewarder of those that diligently seek you. Lord, fasting is not just pursuing, it's a diligent. There's a cost that's involved and we're willing to pay this cost to seek you. May we experience your reward and Lord, the greatest reward of seeking you is your presence. It's you. It's your glory. It's your closeness. It's your spirit. We want to have you, God. Lord, we trust you with our needs. We trust you with our families. We trust you with our finances. We trust you with our health, God. We trust you with our ministries. We trust you with deadlines and we trust you with unpaid bills. We look forward to you, Lord, meeting our needs according to your riches and your glory. But God, our greatest need is you. It's you. Give us the heart of David. After God. Heart after God. Not just the heart after blessing, position, titles, influence, but genuinely after God. In love with God. And when hard times come, nothing changes because we're in love with you. When persecution comes, nothing changes because we're in love with you. When blessings come, nothing changes because we were in love and we are in love with you. When you bless us beyond our measure, we're in love with you. Your presence. Your presence is our goal. Your presence is our pursuit. Your presence is the point. Jesus, you, only you. We love you, God. We love you, Jesus. We love you, Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Come on. You received this prayer. Felt the presence of the Lord. Drop that prayer emoji in the chat right now. I want to take a moment and read right now day nine of a health tip for our day nine. And we're gonna also get ready to give for those of you that God puts on your heart today too as an act of your faith, as an act of your pursuit to also give that you can participate in that as well. Now day nine, today's devotional is about weight not worth. And on day nine it says after a few days of fasting when the hunger disappears, you may begin to notice that you feel more energetic. Perhaps you feel like going for a jog or hitting the gym, but try to refrain from heavy activities at the stage of the fast. Instead, stick to a light walk around your neighborhood or water the plants. So, you know, as you get stronger energies, I would just encourage that you do not push yourself too hard and you just go for a light walk or you go water the plants or do something that is very light and stay hydrated. Amen. So, one of the things that you can do today is that we can give and we can give through cash out through Venmo, through PayPal. I want to invite you during this fast to become a partner with our ministry. We have a very powerful, amazing team that helps us to create content, to take the teachings that God gives me and put them in written form, book form. I still write all of my books, to put them in devotionals. We create courses for people. All of these things we make available free of charge and we're able to do that because of people like you. And so, if the Lord puts on your heart to partner with this ministry, this will mean a lot to us and to partner, you can simply just go to our website and over there you can choose the partnership or you can give one time. It will be much appreciated. Those of you that give on YouTube, on Facebook or on Instagram, because you can also give through Instagram badges, we much appreciate you and thank you so much for doing that. If God puts on your heart also this year to give a sacrifice, you know, and this is a good soil, I believe that the Lord can use to impact the globe and so may God bless you for that. Amen. Now, let's open just a few questions. Carlos, thank you for your donation on Cash App, as well as those of you that are giving on YouTube chat. Josephine, God bless you. Akausa, God bless you as well. Angel B, God bless you as you give. Now, somebody said, what about the scripture in James that says we do not have because we do not ask and we ask a miss. And so, I do believe that that scripture is slightly different approach than what I was talking about, but it does have exactly same goal, what it says that sometimes we ask for selfish reasons. And so, my point today was not in saying that don't ask God anything. I was as I was encouraging you to ask God for God, ask God for His presence, ask God for more of Him. Now, when I say we ask God for more of Him, we don't get God in parts. We get all of God, but when we say God, I want to know more of you. We want to know more of Him. We want to experience more of Him. We don't get more of God because God doesn't come in parts. He comes, he comes to us. And so, the same way as when you get married to your spouse, you don't get your spouse in portions, but each year you get to know your spouse. You fall deeper in love with them with the same spouse that you married from the beginning. And so, same thing is with the presence of God. We are encouraged to pray for our needs. Our requests are important to God. They're not light. They're important. What my encouragement today was to not to make your prayer requests as your whole purpose of praying all the time. Make His presence instead while you pray. What is your focus during prayer? The focus of prayer is God. It's Him. And so, one of the ways to help us focus in prayer on God is by starting your prayer with the Scriptures. So, I encourage to read the Bible first before you go into prayer. And that's just my encouragement. What it will help is it will help you to direct your prayer in line with God's Word. And sometimes you can read Psalms or Proverbs or Gospels or the Law or Prophets. And then you begin to pray in line with what you've read. But always try to bring your prayer to worship. To worshiping God. Loving on God. Spending time with Him. That is really the focus. And I believe the reward of prayer becomes His presence. Have a question, Vlad. I started fasting on a day two and on a day fourteen I fell into sexual sin. I'm confused. Should I restart my fasting? Yes, you should repent for your sexual sin. And then you should continue fasting. So, let me say something right now about this. Some people say things like this that, you know, if you are fasting and gossiping, you should just go ahead and start eating. I personally don't agree with that statement. I know it sounds cool, but I don't agree with it for a few reasons. If you started to fast and you're still struggling with certain sins, keep on fasting until you break through. Fast until you stop gossiping. Fast until you break through the stronghold of sexual immorality in your life. Don't stop fasting thinking that that will cause you to be victorious. And now, don't stop fasting because you're saying, oh, but I fell into sin. Just restart the fast. Repent from your sin and restart the fast. And maybe the remaining part of the fast, you can also target specifically the stronghold you are dealing with. All of us deal with strongholds. To tell people to stop fasting because they're struggling with certain things is we equivalent to tell people to stop coming to church because they're struggling with sin. Or stop reading the Bible. Stop praying because you're struggling with sin. I believe instead of stopping the spiritual disciplines, we should persevere in our spiritual disciplines with repentance and humility, trusting God to help us break down strongholds that keep these sins reappearing. How do I know if it's God or if it's the enemy or if it's my anxious thoughts? Um, so one of the reasons and give me just one second. God's voice, God's voice is different than the voice of the enemy. God's voice is different than the voice of the devil. And so there's a lot of times where you see that the voice of God, what it does is this is that the voice of God calms. The devil's voice obsesses. God's voice comforts. The devil's voice worries. God's voice convicts. The devil's voice condemns. God's voice encourages. The devil's voice discourages. God's voice clarifies that devil's voice confuses. God's voice leads. The devil's voice pushes. God's voice reassures that devil's voice frightens. God's voice is patient. The devil's voice always rushes you. God's voice strengthens you. The devil's voice weakens you. God's voice heals. The devil's voice hurts. God's voice gives. The devil's voice steals. God's voice instills hope that devil's voice causes despair. God's voice forgives that devil's voice accuses. God's voice induces peace. That devil's voice induces stress. God's voice is kind. That devil's voice is cruel. God's voice is gentle. That devil's voice is harsh. How to care for ourselves in sickness? And so you go, you need to see the doctor when it comes to sickness. Make sure that you're also taking the right medications or the right help. And so I would encourage you to just see the doctor. Can you give some information for those continuing the fast, a 40 day fast, such as how to come out of it safely? So I have a video on a 40 day fast that that I've released, as well as in my book, I also share about how to come out of the fast in the first introduction. And I would encourage you to follow those safety guides there. You're encouraged to take seven days to come out of a 40 day water fast and three days to come out of a 21 day water fast and to come out slowly. Never eat a normal meal, you know, with like a chicken broth or some kind of a broth. I just cook a tomato usually and I drink that. And so that's my way of coming out slowly and I do that for a few days. I was yesterday ministering an unbeliever in their house and she was preparing food and made me feel rude to not eat what she prepared. So I was able to eat yesterday. Is that okay? Well, I mean, you already ate, so God bless you. And yeah, so it's tricky situation sometimes when you're witnessing to unbelievers and they're preparing food and they're asking you to take a look at it, then yeah, you can follow your conviction. That's what I would just encourage. If you're eating, no big deal, just resume the fast. How do you feel seek the Lord when you feel God is rebuking you for sin? Part of that pursuit of God is humbling and repenting. So when God is rebuking, when God is convicting you, then repent. Can I start the fast right now? If so, how can I get information for the fast? Very good question. I would encourage you to go to the fast forward right now and just download the book on Kindle or get the book on my website and just really from the first introduction, we start talking about how to fast ABCs are fasting and you just dive in and or just go to my YouTube right now and watch Fasting Challenge or watch a 21-day fast video that I did in the beginning of this fast to help people start the fast and that will kind of give you some guideline. How to know my purpose? So I would encourage you to go to YouTube and watch What Should I Do? One of the days during the fast, I shared a video called, I shared a teaching called What Should I Do? And it will answer some of those questions. Okay guys, so it's been about an hour and three minutes that I have streamed today. I believe that many of you were blessed. Victoria, thank you for your donation. Daphne, Taimi, Patience, thank you for your donation. As well as Christine, thank you for your generous donation on the VINMO and those of you that are giving on the website as well. We appreciate you very much. Yanko, thank you for your donation on the website. Tameka, thank you for becoming a partner. Mark and Childa, thank you for becoming a partner. Sean, God bless you for your donation. Arya, God bless you for your donation. Livia, thank you for becoming a partner today as well as Margaret. Thank you for giving your donation today. Amen. So I believe you guys were blessed today. Encouraged, amen. I was blessed sharing this. It blessed my own faith. Amen. So I will see you once again tomorrow. We're going to continue the tomorrow, day 10. And then after tomorrow, it's going to be halfway through. So we're going to, it's just going to be downhill from there. So it's going to be easier, I believe. So persevere, hang in there. Don't give up. God's got you. We're in this together.