Monday, December 12, 2011

Awakening by Stovall Weems

Stovall Weems, pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, is challenging each of us to step out of the sluggish, mundane time spent with God in to a fresh vital relationship. Are you so distracted by the clutter of other things around you that you miss out on what God is saying to you? In AWAKENING: A New Approach To Faith, Fasting, And Spiritual Freedom, Pastor Weems sets you on a 21 day journey to revolutionize your relationship with God. (click on that link to read the first chapter)

The first 124 pages of the book are devoted to telling more about fasting, and how it helps you to cleanse yourself of all of the added "gunk". He rightfully stresses that this is not to be with a legalistic formula of strictly adhering to one certain diet or method, with a defined time of prayer, and carefully following certain steps. I mean, if we are so focused on doing things in a prescribed way, and following the rules, it would take away from the relationship we are forming with the Lord. This is simply about taking our focus off of filling our bellies and minds with whatever is available, and simplifying to spend more time drawing nearer to God. Each chapter also ends with a personal story from someone who has experienced an Awakening fast and prayer time.

View this video (recorded 12/10) of Stovall explaining Awakening:


The next section of the book is the The Awakening 21 Day Plan. In this section, Pastor Weems, goes into more detail of different types of fasts, how to prepare, and suggestions of additional tools to help. There is a 3 week plan of Scripture and prayer focus points, as well as a small area available for you to journal each day. After looking through it, I found it to be extremely useful, and a great starting guide for time spent with the Lord. I liked the book. It wasn't a spiritual heavyweight, but it was easy-to-read, and useful for those who are wanting to fill their spiritual hunger.

Although you may fast whenever you need it, whether alone or in a small group ( a study guide is included for those who wish to do this as a group), Celebration Church will be fasting January 15th- February 4th, 2012. You can be a part of this online. For more info, go to http://www.awake21.org/.

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"

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