Ronnie Floyd

Archive for the 'Leadership' Category

August 26th, 2015

3 Powerful Promises When You Pray and Fast

Fasting, Leadership, Pastors, Prayer, Resources

There are many promises God makes in His Word in regard to the blessings we will receive through prayer and fasting. In my book The Power of Prayer and Fasting, I talk about seven specific promises. I want to mention three of them here that I trust will bless you as you read. I have seen each of these promises come true in my walk with God, and I’m confident they also can live in you, through you, and will be yours as you call on God to do His will in your life.

Promise 1: Prayer and Fasting Provides Freedom

When we pray and fast, God promises that He will liberate us. He will loose the chains of injustice. He declares that He’ll untie the cords of the yoke and will give the oppressed their long-awaited freedom. He will set us free from the bondage of what others think, making us realize that any comparison we make with others is a guaranteed fast track to misery. When we fast and pray, God steps in and frees us from the perceived alienation with Him that has kept us immobilized, fearful, and disobedient for so long. As you consider God’s call to fasting, perhaps for the first time, you may choose to start slowly, fasting and praying for only one day. Perhaps you’ll decide to fast and pray one day each week throughout the year where you declare that specific twenty-four hours as your time of obedience to be alone in the intimate presence of God. As you do, God will give you grace, comfort, and a new direction in your Christian walk. In the end you will be set free.

Promise 2: Prayer and Fasting Teaches us to Share

When we fast and pray, God teaches us how to share with those who have physical and spiritual needs. “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isa. 58:7 NIV). The book of Proverbs complements this passage by reminding us that when we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord. Fasting and prayer put the self-life into perspective. You are never more like God than when you give. Prayer and fasting can build within you the character to give. Giving is a joy, and we need to be willing to pour ourselves out to those who can do nothing for us in life. We need to be willing to pour out ourselves to anyone, anytime, anywhere. This is the heart of Jesus, and it needs to be our heart. Prayer and fasting build within you the power to give.

Promise 3: Prayer and Fasting Leads us to Answered Prayer

As you pray and fast, you will call on God, and He will answer you. Answered prayer is the quintessence of praying and fasting. If I were to share with you the five or six pages of the prayer journal I prepared prior to my first forty-day fast, and then walk you back through my journal since then, you would see one thing: My prayers were answered. They are still being answered. There is something to the disciplines of prayer and fasting. I could point you to every experience of long-term fasting where God has answered my requests before Him. This does not mean they were answered as I preferred, but it did not matter. He had worked in my heart, and I was released, fully confident that God was ordering my way. When we humble ourselves before the Father, and when God sees we are serious about giving Him our broken spirits, He begins to do things we have never seen before. It’s empowering. It sensitizes us to the needs of others at home and overseas as we suddenly find ourselves quietly praying for people, events, and situations with the knowledge that our prayers not only will be heard but that the Father will answer them.

Now is the Time to Lead,

Ronnie W. Floyd

Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

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August 12th, 2015

When Pride Walks On the Platform, God Walks Off

Leadership, Pastors

Toward the end of my first long-term fast in 1995, one Saturday night I just could not go to sleep. Already past midnight, I finally surrendered to the Lord, got out of bed, went and laid before God on the floor of our den, asking what He wanted to say to me. Finally, God pierced my heart deeply.

What I Felt God Said to Me

I believe that early morning, God revealed to me: “Ronnie, the biggest problem in your church is you. You are filled with pride. When you walk onto any platform with pride, I walk off.” At that moment, everything changed in my life. After more than thirty days of fasting and praying, the breakthrough happened. It came not with my church, but with me. That was the very place it needed to begin.

Personal Pride Obstructs Intimacy With God

The privilege of living in the presence of God is open to every believer. Yet many of us settle for remaining outside that Holy of Holies, filled with personal pride. This causes us to be satisfied to grow weary and irrelevant in the outer courts of the tabernacle. What prevents us from entering this gateway where power and breakthroughs occur? It’s not the character, nature, or actions of God, but the darkened veil of our own self-worship, our personal pride, or a life that has not been carried to the foot of the cross.

Yes pastor, scholar, Christian leader, and layperson: When pride walks on the platform, God walks off.

When you pray and fast, your life becomes positioned to encounter Holy God. When you encounter Him, the veils are lifted and the liberty begins. Breakthroughs occur because of God’s power moving in your life. That is holiness in action and when that happens in your life, you will enjoy intimacy with God.

When we begin to experience the holy presence of God that comes through fasting and prayer, we discover an intimacy with God like nothing we have ever seen or felt before. Intimacy with God is a lifestyle. If it is to do its work, it must change us from within and cause us to review and alter our behavior in the heat and torment of our days. Intimacy with God changed Moses on Mount Sinai when he prepared to give God’s Commandments to His people. Intimacy with the Creator means baring our hearts to the Father, allowing Him to see if there is any wickedness in us (And how quickly the verdict will be read!). But it will be read in love, with encouragement, and a prodding for us to return to our families, our work, our schools, and our churches as different people because we’ve been in the presence of God.

Intimacy With Others, Intimacy With Christ

Earthly intimacy will have a direct correlation to our intimacy with God, a closeness based on trust, faith, and love in Him. In our own strength, vulnerability and openness to others will remain a formidable challenge but when built on an intimacy with God, we will be given the strength to take the necessary risks to make intimacy with those we love a growing part of our lives.

Do you see it? Prayer and fasting move us into moments of self-examination spiritually, resulting in encountering our holy God personally. When we begin to see lifestyle change occur, we move to the kind of spiritual breakthroughs where intimacy with God occurs. Please know, standing in awe of the holiness of God will lead to an intimacy with God so special that your passion becomes living in obedience to God.

As pastors and Christian leaders, we must refuse personal pride that will pollute the pulpits and platforms of our churches and conventions. If we want the powerful anointing of God upon our preaching, praying, and leadership, we must rid ourselves of pride, abandon ourselves completely, and run toward the person of Jesus and the presence of God.

Ministry is not about singing nicely, preaching great, writing well, or leading strongly. Those are just things compared to a person that operates in their giftedness who is anointed by the supernatural power of God.