Hungry for More: How Fasting Shifts Desire and Prayer Releases Authority
Pastor Tim Johnson opens his message by promoting the upcoming freedom class, emphasizing that obedience and surrender are the two most important words in our walk with God. As the "freedom pastor," he's passionate about helping people experience breakthrough through fasting and prayer. The church is entering a 28-day season of prayer and fasting, and Pastor Tim wants to equip believers with practical understanding of these spiritual disciplines.
The first major theme is that fasting shifts hunger. Pastor Tim explains how we're driven by physical food and good meals, but God wants to shift our focus to hunger for His Word and presence. Fasting is mentioned over 70 times in Scripture, with figures like Jeremiah, Isaiah, David, Daniel, and Anna all practicing it. In Matthew 6, Jesus says "when you fast," indicating an expectation rather than a suggestion. The early church regularly fasted when making important decisions, and Acts 13:2 shows that "while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said..." Pastor Tim lists eight Biblical reasons for fasting: to humble ourselves before God, seek His guidance, seek deliverance and protection, repent, express love and worship, show grief, overcome temptation, and see justice and freedom. He defines fasting as "a temporary renunciation of something that in itself is good, like food, in order to intensify our expectation or expression of need for something greater, namely God and His work in our life."
The second major theme is that prayer decides dominion. Pastor Tim heard God clearly say this phrase during his preparation. He connects dominion with authority, Kingship, and power, referencing Luke 10:19 where Jesus says, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy." When we pray, we activate the authority Jesus has delegated to us. Prayer isn't about updating God on our circumstances - it's about realigning our hearts under His dominion. Pastor Tim challenges listeners to consider what dominates their thinking, because "what dominates has dominion" and "whatever dominates your thinking has dominion over you."
Pastor Tim then outlines five types of prayer from Richard Foster's work. First is simple prayer - just starting where you are and being real with God, using a "ripple prayer" that begins with your immediate situation and expands outward. Second is the prayer of the desert or forsaken - those dark times when God seems silent. Drawing from Psalm 22 and examples like Moses, Elijah, David, Joseph, and Mary, he explains that God sometimes allows these seasons to strip us of dependence on exterior and interior results, teaching us faith in God alone. Third is the prayer of examination, based on Psalm 139:23-24: "Search me, O God, and know my heart." This involves inviting God to reveal areas that need surrender and developing consciousness of how God is working around us daily.
Fourth is the prayer of tears, acknowledging that sometimes we need to be brutally honest with God about our pain. Pastor Tim shares personally about his struggle with pornography and how it affected his marriage, describing a season when he felt God's Holy Spirit was distant. He references Psalm 56:8, which says God puts our tears in a bottle, showing how precious our pain is to Him. Jesus himself wept and offered up prayers with cries and tears. Finally, there's the prayer of relinquishment - giving up our will for God's will, as Jesus demonstrated in Gethsemane when He prayed "not my will, but yours be done."
Pastor Tim concludes by addressing the "hyphenated sins" of self-focus that A.W. Tozer identified - self-sufficiency, self-pity, self-absorption, and others. He emphasizes that when we end prayers "in Jesus name," we're declaring a shift of dominion and authority, recognizing that at Jesus' name every knee will bow. The message ends with an altar call, encouraging people to come forward and surrender whatever has been dominating their minds, taking authority through honest, authentic prayer and surrendering control to God's dominion.