It was already 2:20 am last night and I was still getting text messages from people who were so blessed with prayer and fasting that they could not sleep. I myself could not believe what I saw earlier. Where did these people get the energy to worship God passionately when they have been literally starved for seven straight days?
Last night was Day 7 of the fast, the day when we prayed for our personal concerns. There were three highlights of the prayer meeting. First was Pastor Ferdie’s exhortation: May breakthrough ka man o wala, kay Jesus pa lang, panalo ka na! (Thanks DocJun for this.) This simple statement cut through the heart of prayer and fasting. We do not fast to twist the arm of God so He will bless us. We are already blessed. We fast because we want Jesus.
Second highlight was the spontaneous outpouring of grace when people started blessing one another. We never planned this in the pastors’ huddle. When Pastor Noel broached the idea in the pulpit, it felt like the heavens were let loose. Some people emptied their wallets to bless others; others gave their entire purse and everything in it. I saw some who could not get up- they simply slumped in their seats crying at the spontaneous flow of goodness. The rest were awe struck. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the fledgling New Testament church in the book of Acts.
The third highlight was the worship. My God, what kind of worship was that! It was like the fire of heaven came down to burn our offerings at the altar of God. The presence of God was so thick in the air that you could almost touch it. How many times could you sing a song that only consisted of six lines? It took us about an hour to sing Planetshakers’ The Anthem (video above) and we can’t seem to get enough of it.
As we sat around our soft dinner last night and blabbered about how God showed Himself to us in the last seven days, I was simply amazed. For Victory Caloocan, it was a huge departure of the way we did church in the past years. People were brought near to God. They met Jesus in the fast. That, I believe is the single most important thing of all.
