Fast, Pray and Seek God

Below you will find an excerpt from my latest book, The Reslience Factor, written along with Warren Bird and Ryan Hartwig.

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If you’re like most people, you’ve lived through enough mediocre-at-best team experiences that you’ve come to accept and even expect more of the same. Perhaps without realizing it, you’ve lost vision for a high-performance team to lead or contribute to a thriving organization. Maybe you also lack both the imagination of how your team could be better as well as the inspiration to even try.  But renewed hope and momentum await! As you begin your journey toward building a resilient team, this chapter will help you reflect on your situation; seek God for His perspective, vision, and call; look deeply into the challenges you’ve faced; and set the stage for your team’s transformation.  

“Let’s fast for three days to seek the Lord.” 

With the news of the pandemic hitting hard in March 2020, Léonce called the leadership team of Renovation Church, the congregation he and his wife Breanna founded together in 2011, to fast and pray on what to do next. 

Like so many churches, the Renovation team decided to immediately take all their worship gatherings online. It was a massive undertaking, requiring an incredibly quick turnaround.

A fantastic marketing group pulled off the filming and editing for that first digital service. The team gathered late on Saturday to record worship and the message live, without any rehearsal. God was kind, and blessed their efforts beyond what they could have possibly accomplished in their own strength. 

For over a year Renovation Church gathered only digitally, in every conceivable way, including prayer, small groups, and member meetings. It took a great deal of effort and innovation to accomplish, but through several rounds of prayer and fasting God met them every time.

A year later, when considering whether to launch physical gatherings again, in a new location and without a Certificate of Occupancy (more on that in another book), the team—and the entire church—went back to what they knew—prayer and fasting for God’s guidance and favor. 

God met them there, and has met them at every juncture since.

If you are going to be a part of building an unbreakable team,  all of the work we will set before you over these eight movements will have to be rooted in prayer and often fasting. Certainly, “for unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1, ESV). 

Step 1: Fast, pray, and seek God.

Did you read the version of Nehemiah’s story where he watched a few home remodeling shows on HGTV, decided that this is the year to do a fixer-upper on his hometown of Jerusalem, told his friends “I’ve got this,” and rode off into the sunset full of great expectations?

We didn’t either. Nor did we read the version where he heard the news about his beloved city still being in ruins, made a snide remark of “what else is new?” and promptly turned his attention to other more enjoyable tasks. 

What we read in Nehemiah’s story is almost paradoxical against our cultural backdrop: a skilled leader with incredible insight, intelligence, and vision, who still took the time to place himself and his work before God. 

We can imagine that when you read our bold call to fast and pray right out of the gate, especially in the context of a leadership and teams book, it probably felt a little strong. The challenge also may feel so “Christian” that it almost seems trite.  

Yet, at the core of every great God-centered movement are women and men committed to that very thing. Does a season of seeking God diminish the roles of hard work, learning, grit, or vision? Absolutely not. But we encourage you to consider doing what we see throughout biblical history and beyond. Respond to your leadership moment just as Nehemiah did: bowing before God and seeking Him with all you have.  

The familiar story of Nehemiah 1:1-2:8 offers a powerful vision of what it looks like to prayerfully seek God’s face. Take a few minutes now to meditate upon how he prayed after hearing that the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem was in great distress, helpless with the city’s walls broken down. Notice the bold actions he took. 

As you read the verses below, take the time to reflect on whether it is necessary to take a day and seek God before you do anything else on your team-transformation journey. As you seek God, and what He has for you and your team in this next season, ask God to: 

• Reveal His desires and plans for your team. Don’t skip this particular prayer! God has a vision and a plan for your team that will exceed your wildest dreams. 

• Show you anything you need to repent of, such as ways you haven’t honored Him through your team, ways you have been totally dependent on “self” and not Him, and ways that you have hurt or diminished your teammates.

• Give you divine insight into what you need to see and understand to be able to build a resilient team of great impact.

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.  And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (Nehemiah 1:4–11, ESV, emphasis added)

Take some time to pray like Nehemiah modeled—as individuals and as a team. If you are so inclined, even take some time to fast to open up those deep spiritual pathways. Talk to God and invite Him to speak to you. Seek His future for your team. God has plans for you, plans for your welfare, for a future and hope. Take this first step and open your hearts and minds to that possibility; you might be surprised how grand God’s dream for you is!

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Find out more by reading the recent publishers weekly write up! Also, pre-order today!