One summer I went away to a two-week Girl Scout camp in Northern Michigan, near Traverse City. The lakes there are pristine and good for many water activities. As Scouts, we didn’t just sell cookies, but also learned survival skills like starting a campfire, digging a latrine, and preventing drowning.

Camp leaders taught us girls swimming strokes, how to tread water for extended periods of time, how to float to survive and how to rescue another person in danger of drowning. It was excellent training which carried into my older years.

The camp also had kayaks, the type used by Eskimos in the Arctic. A seal comes up around the waist, keeping the lower portion of the body dry and enclosed within the kayak. Getting out of a flipped kayak was very unnerving. I was upside down in the water and sealed in. I had to keep my cool to tuck my body forward, pull the loop in front of me, and push my body out of the floatable all while underwater holding my breath, eyes open. This “wet exit” required training.

A believer’s life is similar to learning drowning prevention techniques. It requires training. All Scripture is suitable for training. (2Timothy 3:16)

Training means to practice something until the process is mastered, learning a skill, or type of behavior. It takes diligence and time. One has to set his mind to it and not run away in fear, just as I had to overcome my fear of being upside down, stuck in the kayak.

Scripture reading and its application is necessary for life, for survival. (John 6:63)

One of the ways God speaks to us is through the Word of God. (Psalm 1:1-3)

The Word of God is not like other books; it is alive, supernatural, and its content has come from God, to tell us Who He is. (Hebrews 4:12)

Jesus is the Word of God. (John 1:1-2)

There is no life, no survival without Him. (John 14:6; Psalm 66:9)

Training also means teaching. Leaders must teach Biblical skills to the younger generation, like how to hear from God and follow Him. Without God’s leadership, they live in darkness and will follow any shepherd. (John 10:1)

Just as when a kayak is upside down, without proper technique and knowledge, drowning occurs. But when we practice and prepare ahead for danger, we keep our calm and know exactly what to do. Ask God. Hold to God. Stay in obedience to God.

In the Old Testament, there were three young men who would not bow nor take a knee to what was the religion of the moment, the worship of a newly created image of Nebuchadnezzar. They had already been through many traumatic situations, and The Lord had preserved their lives. Trusting Him, they stood when others bowed. King Nebuchadnezzar had them punished by throwing them into a fiery incinerator, but a fourth man walked around inside with them. The Lord. The three came out of the furnace without even the smell of smoke upon them. These young men grew up learning the Scriptures. Their life-threatened witness changed the course of religious freedom for true believers. (Daniel 3)

In the New Testament, Lord Jesus went through many trials. In the wilderness, tempted by satan, He resisted the devil with the Word of God. He is our example, He would not bow to the enemy. (Matthew 4:1-11) His physical witness produced the fruit of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Peer pressure, political pressures, and spiritual dangers come to believers. Without having received the preparation of training and the knowledge that goes with it, we will not know or even recognize the way out of danger.

To bend a knee or bow to anything other than the true living God, Lord Jesus, His Son, is idolatry. (Exodus 20:3) It is sin.

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

Are you training your children to remain obedient to God, to Lord Jesus?

Pastors—are you teaching your flocks how to follow Lord Jesus even in dark times?

Japan is a nation of one people, but in their hearts they are divided. Some are atheists, others Shinto (a traditional religion in which a variety of false gods are worshiped) and an equal number of Buddhists. Most Japanese practice both Shintoism and Buddhism. Only about 1.5% are Christians.

When I traveled to Japan as a missionary in 1983, the percentage of Japanese Christians was lower at only .5%.

I worshiped and taught English classes at Hallelujah Community Church in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, just outside of Nagoya, a major city. The church was full of youth, single adults, young men studying to become pastors and the fellowship was quickly growing.

Their lives centered around God as they lived believers’ lives in the midst of darkness. They clung closely to each other, believing, “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

What I remember most about these believers was their dedication. Three times a week they regularly fasted as a church body both breakfast and lunch. Before the fast broke, a time was set for prayer. They came together and on their knees loudly called on God to help them.

This church was open everyday. There was constant ministry happening.

Nearly 40 years later, we see the work of God and His ways reach fruition. Hallelujah Community Church is still in existence today and has grown to 13 Japanese branch churches, and plantings of international churches in Brazil, the Philippines and even in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This kind of work can only be accomplished with proper leadership, men and women, who are after God’s own heart and follow His ways. In this situation, Pastor Sakakiyama has led his church, with his wife, devotedly for decades as God directed.

Why fasting and prayer?

In Esther 4:16, the queen called for a fast of all the Jews in Persia. She too would fast three days, in preparation for her entrance to the king’s court. which was against the law, knowing very well that she herself could die at his command. In this case, the body of believers in God were called to act as one, for the sake of their queen, their representative at court.

Ezra and the Jewish people stood on the bank of the Ahava River. They needed God’s protection while traveling and invoked it with prayer, petition and fasting. (Ezra:8:21-23)

In Acts 13:2, the body of New Testament believers in Antioch were worshiping and fasting. During this time, Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Fasting and prayer are very powerful ways of God. They are His ways. Lord Jesus Himself fasted and prayed in the wilderness. (Matthew 4:1-11)

Church, have you humbled yourselves to God’s ways, praying and fasting together as a body on a consistent basis?

Pastors, elders and deacons, are you leading your church body in God’s ways?

Regular fasting and prayer directs us by Holy Spirit, in the way we should go, as seen in Acts 13:2, under the mighty arm of protection of God in an ever darkening world.

LOOK UP!