Fasting and Prayer
At the urging of several clients who are going through extremely difficult times, and who feel the need to harness great spiritual power to deal with problems or opportunities that they are facing, I am sponsoring a weekend of fasting and prayer to run Friday June 6th through Saturday June 7th. After considerable consultation, we have decided to open up this opportunity for anyone who is interested in making a genuine commitment to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to fast on this weekend, seeking divine favor both for themselves and for the others involved in this commitment.
I will be posting daily between now and then [ed. - below are selected posts that occurred during this time] to sort of lead us up to the moment of the prayer and fasting. I will also be making some recommendations as to where you might obtain more information if you so desire, so check back on this blog often. I will also be publishing to other blogs on other services, and have not yet determined the best way to make everyone's requests known to one another. Any suggestions on this matter would be much appreciated. Finally, this fast will be being celebrated in several small groups related to my church, and your requests will be prayed for in a couple of actual prayer meetings.
I will be fasting and praying all day Friday and Saturday, with occasional timeouts for any emergency business that may arise and for sleep. However, I have arranged to have those two days commitment-free to be able to devote myself to petitioning for the needs of my clients during that time. My suggestion for you, if you would like to participate, is to pick only one of the days to fast and pray, unless you are accustomed to fasting. Either Friday or Saturday, depending on what your own schedule and lifestyle allows. And if you have any reason to believe that you have a compromising medical condition, please seek medical advice before fasting.
In addition to those who will be participating, we will be allowing ANYONE who would like to post prayer requests during this time to allow myself and others to pray for over the weekend. If you would like to submit a prayer request, I ask that you find the blog page marked "Prayer Requests" and that you include AT LEAST the following information: a name for you, whether it is real or not is not important; the specific request; the specific answer that you are seeking for the request; a summary story (between five and ten sentences should be enough) to allow others to know as much of the "ins" and "outs" of the request as possible so that they may intelligently pray for you.
If you are not comfortable with posting the request yourself, you may email your prayer request to me and I will post it for you anonymously. Please be aware that I will be posting all requests, word-for-word, offsite as well, for others who are participating in the fast. So only put as much information here as you feel you can reasonably make public.
I will be posting suggesting reading, Bible verses, and other materials as we lead up to June 6. Feel free to email me questions or to leave comments on this blogsite.
My sincerest hope is that through this small two-day ministry, we might lay hold of God in such a way that He will "answer our prayers openly" (Matt. 6:16-18).
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Why Fasting and Prayer?
Why do Christians fast? And why couple fasting with prayer? Doesn't God hear the prayers of His children even when they do NOT fast?
John Wesley, in his sermon on Mattew 6:16-18, said about fasting that fasting "is not all, nor yet is it nothing. It is not the end itself, but is a precious means to a greater end; fasting is a means which God Himself has ordained through which, when it is properly used, He will give us blessing."
In fact, this agrees with the scripture, which in the passage above, assures us that when we fast in secret, "the Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you openly."
I. What is Fasting?
There are several legitimate kinds of fasting that have been used in Biblical or church history. The most basic, and probably what people anticipate when they read about "fasting," is the actual meaning of the Biblical term "fast" - to abstain from partaking of all food for a specified period of time. This type of fasting usually last for anything from one day to several days.
There is another type of fasting that has been popularized in church use, but which does not really have a Biblical antecedent - some people "fast" by eating very little. For a period of time they take smaller portions, perhaps even a single meal in a day, for a specified period of time.
A third type of fasting has to do with abstention from certain types of food. People who practice this type of fasting often call it "fasting from pleasant food" and it has a Biblical example in Daniel 1:8ff. In that passage, Daniel and his three friends rejected the sumptuous table of the King of Babylon and requested to merely be fed with vegetables as a show of their own separation from the ungodly influences of Babylon's political court. This type of fasting has been popularized in Lenten fasting, where people often swear off some preferred food for the 40 days of Lent.
A final type of fasting involves fasting until nightfall as a means of devoting one's self to seeking God during the day. This practice is foreshadowed in II Samuel 1:12 and other passages.
II. Why Fasting?
Of course, this is the real question. Our culture teaches the indulgence of the body, and if fasting is not required, why would anybody choose to engage in self-denial of something as essential as food. There are several Biblical reasons why people can, and should, fast.
First, people often fast as a demonstration of sadness - but more than a demonstration of sadness, an overt plea to God to relieve their sadness (Matthew 9:14-15).
Secondly, people often fast in order to focus themselves on prayer (Matthew 17:21). More than just a physical focusing, by practicing physical self-denial, we stir up and sharpen our spiritual senses for participation in the discipline of prolonged and powerful prayer.
Thirdly, fasting can be a means of seeking the Lord's will (Ezra 8:21, Acts 13:2-3, Acts 14:23). When we enter times of great confusion or when we have a special sense that we are in need of God's guidance, it may be time to couple fasting and praying as a means of gaining specific Divine direction.
Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, fasting and praying, when practiced together as a single discipline for a time, can be a means of obtaining great spiritual power, or of focusing the power of God Himself.
In Isaiah 58:3-6, the prophet notes that fasting was given to God's people in order to obtain certain spiritual objectives. Isaiah says that when a man fasts in such a manner as to "afflict his soul," then God will respond by "breaking the chains of wickedness, untying ropes [which bind our souls], setting the oppressed free, and tearing off every yoke [of bondage]."
In Matthew 17:14-21, Jesus Himself comes upon a person possessed of a spirit, whom his disciples had failed to help. Jesus approaches the oppressed person and frees him immediately. When the disciples asked Jesus how it was that He was able to free this person whom they had not been able to free, Jesus replied "THIS KIND does not come out except by prayer and fasting."
There is something unusual that goes on in the lives of people when they become serious enough about their prayers to practice self-denial and humble themselves before God. When we fast and pray, God says that we enable him to break chains, set people free (and since Jesus set ANOTHER PERSON free, we know that sometimes God will do this for third parties when we fast and pray), and overcome all sorts of spiritual oppression.
We lay hold to some sort of special power - a power sufficient to accomplish something that prayers alone will not do - when we fast and pray.
Whatever your need is, I hope that you will bring it to God for our weekend of fasting and praying. Whether you intend to join the fast or not, we encourage all to post their requests so that those who are fasting and praying will be able to pray for God's special working in your life, or in the lives of those whom you love.
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Intercessory Prayer
Intercessory prayer is prayer that is offered to God on behalf of another. Intercessory prayer can be offered for anything - from salvation, to moral reform, to some sort of blessing, to a cessation of oppression.
Frank Hammond, in his book "Pigs in the Parlor," deals with getting things done for others through intercessory prayer. He writes that the first thing that should be a matter of prayer, before anything else is asked, is that the person's spiritual condition be brought to right standing with God.
Then, he writes: "Sometimes we are led to enter into direct spiritual warfare on behalf of those who are not directly open to other avenues of truth. The person's will may be so overridden by darkness that he is unable to respond to available help. No amount of reasoning or persuasion will cause that person to open up for ministry. His will is dominated by forces he himself does not understand....
"Jesus has given His church the power to overcome and bind the powers of darkness....
"'Upon this rock I will build my church," [said Jesus], "and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give to you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.'....
"One caution!," [adds Hammond]. We must realize that we cannot control another person's will. Intercessory prayer is the process, and has as its goal, the releasing of that person's will in order that he can respond directly to the truth and receive the help that God has for him."
In cases in which the person is in bondage by decisions of his own free will, even where the will is released and God's help [through prayer, counseling, or anything else] is offered, and he nevertheless chooses bondage again, he is responsible for his own decisions.
However, it has happened many times in my own life and in the lives of thousands of others, that when a person's will is freed through intercessory prayer and the person is offered help or the truth, they become able to respond and God is often able to do amazing things in people's lives.