A Call to Prayer and Fasting

Calling All Saints to Prayer and Fasting!

We will be entering a time of Prayer and Fasting on September 24th to join with Generals International (Cindy Jacobs: http://vimeo.com/13657454) who is calling a nation wide 40 day prayer and fasting season.    It’s time now to get yourself ready for this important time.    I am asking that we all get involved in this time of prayer because we need to see God’s intervention in the life of our nation, our church and our own personal lives.  

Here are a few important things to remember during this call to corporate prayer and fasting:

1. Be Intentional:  As we look at Scripture and examples of prayer and fasting, we see when corporate fasts were called, they were called around specific goals.      Write down in your journal what you want to see happen during this consecrated time together.  Come into agreement with the corporate church for corporate matters.   Find someone to agree with you on personal matters and be realistic in your goals.       Also, decide the type of fast you want to do.  There are examples in Scripture of full, partial and special item fasts.   Decide which one you want to follow before you begin.
2. Stay Focused:   Be persistent in your prayer targets.    One person said to me recently they have had the “shotgun” effect in past times of prayer and fasting and became frustrated and did not see results.   Keep your heart focused on your target or purpose for fasting. 
3. Pray:   Many forget to replace the time spent eating with prayer.    In the Scripture, fasting is always assumed to include prayer.    A fast without prayer is no more than a diet.  Also, join with us in corporate prayer as we come together in unity and pray for what God has placed in our hearts.   It is important during this time to hear the voice of the Lord and to pray His will.   Watchman Nee said in The Prayer Ministry of the Church, “What is the prayer ministry of the church?   It is God telling the church what He wishes to do, so that the church on earth will pray out its accomplishments….many matters are piled up in heaven, many transactions remain undone, simply because God is unable to find an outlet for His will on earth.”
4. Journal:  Journaling your prayer and fasting experience builds faith in years to come.   George Mueller recorded over 50,000 answered prayers in his prayer journals.   But, he had to start with the very first one…then the 10th one…then the 1000th one…..  What faith and encouragement he must have experienced as he recounted through his journals those times that God answered his prayer.  
5. Prepare:  Begin to prepare ahead of time.   Your body will not like your denying its favorites, such as sweets, caffein, frequent snacks, etc.   Don’t wait until the day of the fast to start depriving your body.  Begin to cut back well in advance so you will not spend the first two days in bed with a sick headache or an upset stomach.   Start to slowly eliminate those “addictive” items such as caffein and sugar from your diet.   Instead of 3 glasses of tea, back down to 2 then 1 then none.   Start eliminating a meal a day rather than waiting until the time of the fast and eliminating all three.  Water is important during this time as it flushes the body of toxins as we prepare for a time of fasting.

Fasting is Biblical and found throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Great things happened when God’s people fasted.    Let’s expect great results  as we cry out to God for this nation, our church and our personal lives! 

Pastor Donna