After the arrival of the Holy Spirit, Peter starts to explain what Jesus has done to the people gathered to see the Holy Spirit. Peter is excited to tell them that Jesus fulfilled prophecies (over 300), He defeated death, and He gives life. As believers, we should be excited about what Jesus has done for us. Following Jesus isn't just part of our lives, it overflows into everything we do. Our excitement should spill over into love and witness to the would around us.

After the Ascension, the disciples knew that they had work to do but didn't have the Holy Spirit yet. They spent their time in preparation both spiritually and physically. Then when the Holy Spirit came everything was different. The Holy Spirit is not a weird mystic part of Christianity, but He is the part of God we experience the most. We should not fear the Holy Spirit, but open up and surrender more of ourselves to Him.

As we close our series on prayer we talk about the power that we have access to when we pray. Scripture teaches us that there is incredible power in prayer, but the power doesn't come from us. The power of prayer is that we have access to God, when we pray aligned with His will it has an incredible impact. Prayer shouldn't be our last line of defense but should be our starting point. If we understand the power of prayer it should drastically impact our prayer life and cause us to make it a priority.

Fasting is often mentioned in tandem with prayer so it makes sense to talk about fasting when we talk about prayer. Fasting should be a regular part of our life as a believer and there are a lot of benefits. Similar to prayer, it's important that we make fasting God-focused instead of self-focused. If we take a proper approach to fasting it will help us rid ourselves of distractions and increase our faith.

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you? In John 17 Jesus prays for His disciples, and then for us. We look at how Jesus prayed, and what that means for us today. It is a prayer filled with selflessness and love that shows us His desire for us as His people. He wanted us to be a people of unity and love.

Many people have asked the question: Who is Jesus? It is an important question for our faith. We take a look at the 7 "I Am" statements that Jesus makes about Himself in scripture. 

The concept of God's will can seem daunting to understand, and it is, but there is also an aspect of God's will that is easy to understand. God's will for your life is pretty clearly spelled out in scripture. There are things He wants all believers to do in their lives. We have plenty to do without trying to find more that God wants us to do. On the flip side, the more difficult part of God's will is when it doesn't line up with our desires. The attitude of "Your will be done" is the mark of a mature prayer life, but is one of the more difficult things to say. It becomes an easier concept the more we understand the goodness of God and that His ways our better than ours. 

We started the morning off by watching a video that was more performance than prayer (Which can be found here). Prayer is not a performance for others, or for God. We don't need to impress anyone else, and we cannot impress God. Prayer is about being in the presence of a God who loves us, not trying to perform something for Him.