The Call to Pray and Fast
"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
When
the men and women of the Bible sought the Lord with fasting and prayer
they did so knowing they were powerless apart from God's Word being
activated in their lives. Fasting afforded them the opportunity to be
still and listen to God (reference Psalm 46:10a), clearing the pathway
for them to receive the necessary confirmation, encouragement, and
confidence they needed to accomplish God's will."Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD,
and he proclaimed a fast for all of Judah.
The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD;
indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek Him...
For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us.
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.
Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.
For the battle is not yours, but Gods...
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions;
Stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you...
Go out and face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you."
(2 Chronicles 20:3-4, 12,15b,17)
Moses
was led to the mountaintop with the Lord, fasting 40 days and nights
without food or water, and received the Ten Commandments (reference
Deuteronomy 9:9); he returned for a second round after breaking the
first commandments (that is, breaking the original tablets of stone
after throwing them on the ground! (reference Exodus 32:19; 34:28;
Deuteronomy 9:18)). Elijah
was sustained for 40 days after eating bread and water and was able to
hear the gentle whisper of the Lord and responded in obedience to
anoint a new generation of leaders (1 Kings 19:8, 12-13; 15-16). Esther,
her maids, and the Jewish people, fasted food and water for three days
and nights and received the courage she needed to approach the king and
the discernment necessary to prepare the feasts while she waiting
patiently to boldly make her request that saved her people from
annihilation (Esther 4:16).
Daniel
requested that he and his friends be allowed to eat only vegetables and
drink only water for ten days and they were found to be ten times
better in every matter of wisdom and understanding when questioned by
the king (Daniel 1:12, 20). "To
these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds
of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand vision and
dreams of all kinds" (v. 17). Later, Daniel fasted for 21 days
with no choice food, wine, or lotions. This fast led to the resistance
over spiritual forces and resulted in a prophetic vision from the Lord
(Daniel 10:2-3, 13, 14). "Since
the day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble
yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in
response to them" (v.12).Jesus
fasted 40 days and nights without food and resisted the temptations of
the enemy and caused him to flee by speaking the Word of God; and was
prepared to undertake the greatest work in human history - the offering
up of His life for the salvation of mankind! (Matthew 4:1-11).
Why Fast?Jesus provided us two statements in the New Testament to guide us as we consider our response to His call to fast:"When you fast, do not look somber as
the hypocrites do, for they disfigure
their faces to show men
they are fasting..." (Matthew 6:16)
Notice
the Lord did not say, "if" you fast, He specifically said, "when" you
fast. He did so, because He expected that we would fast. Of the three
acts of righteousness cited in His Sermon on the Mount discourse -
giving, praying, and fasting - we would never question the necessity of
giving and praying; we only question the need for fasting. The Lord
expects us to fast, and we should. During our Christian walk there
will be times and seasons that the Lord will call us to fast and pray
because His ultimate desire is that we know Him and remain connected to
Him in an intimate and abiding relationship (reference John 15:7),
providing the pipeline for His power to flow throw us to used to impact
and transform the world for the glory of God."How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn
while He is with them?The time will come when the
Bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."
(Matthew 9:15)
The
Lord expected that we would fast and now He explains "when" that time
would come. That time is now! Our Bridegroom, Jesus, has gone to
prepare a place for us and is making preparations for an amazing
feast. While He is gone we have been told to "fast" in preparation for
His return. Just as the annual Day of Atonement was designed to purify
and cleanse the Jewish people, today the Church, the Bride of Christ,
has been called to be purified and cleansed. "To make her holy,
cleansing her by washing with water through the word, and to present
her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any
other blemish, but holy and blameless" (Ephesians 5:26-27). May our
Bridegroom return to find His Bride ready and waiting expectantly with
our oil jars full and our lamps burning brightly (reference Matthew
25:1-13). "Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give
Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has
made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to
wear" (Revelation 19:6b-8).The Power Within UsWhen we receive Christ as our Savior we were given the gift of His Holy Spirit: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God" (1
Corinthians 6:19). We have been clothed with power from on high, but
far too often we cling to our old filthy rags rather than tap into the
holy power that lives inside us. As His Church, we are God's building,
we are God's temple, and God's Spirit lives inside us.
"In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a
holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together
to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit" (Ephesians
2:21-22).Instead
of living, breathing, growing, impacting, and changing the world for
the glory of God - the church has been slowly losing its impact;
closing itself off to the world while conforming to the patterns of the
world in fear of offending anyone instead of fearing the One who bore
all our sin and shame. When Peter boldly confessed that Jesus was the
Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord responded, "Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in heaven...I will give you the keys to the kingdom of
heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:17, 19).The
same power is available to us today. The key that unlocks the door to
the secrets to the kingdom of heaven and unleashes the power that is
necessary to conquer the evil in the spiritual realm is prayer and
fasting. Yet, instead of clamoring for the key, we sit back wondering
"if" fasting is truly necessary to get the results we desire. We want
to live a life of holiness, but we would rather not have to walk the
difficult path to get there. Prayer and fasting is hard work, a real
labor of love, but it is holy work that reaps eternal rewards and
spiritual blessings for those who are willing to stand in the gap.The Prescription for DeliveranceThe
Scriptures clearly show, time and time again, that whenever God's
people responded to a national emergency with prayer and fasting, God
delivered - without exception!A
prime example of this is found in the all too familiar story of Jonah.
Considered to be the greatest revival in all history, the people of
Nineveh responded to the warning of impending destruction by "believing
God" and "declaring a fast". Giving up their evil ways they cried out
to God for mercy and the Lord spared them. "When
God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had
compassion and did not bring upon them, the destruction He had
threatened" (Jonah 3:10).God relented on His judgment because of the response of the people. He did not change His mind. "God is not a man, that He should lie" (Numbers 23:19a). He is a merciful, compassionate God who keeps His promises. "If that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disasters I had planned"
(Jeremiah 18:8). The once strong spiritual foundation that this nation
was built upon has been slowly eroding while much of the Church has
been slumbering. The Lord has allowed countless trials, challenges, and
circumstances to warn us, longing to capture our attention and cause us
to respond by subscribing to His time-tested remedy (reference 2
Chronicles 7:14). May we recognize the seriousness of our condition
and be willing to take our medicine so that we might experience revival
in the Church; giving the Bride opportunity to make herself ready,
returning to the Lord with all our hearts, and fulfilling the mission
we have been given (reference Matthew 28:18-20) so the full number of
Gentiles can come in (Romans 11:25).It's Time to Wake Up!The
Lord loves us too much to allow His sleeping Bride to slumber for too
long. In the Garden of Gethsemane, in the hour of His greatest need,
those closest to Jesus neglected to keep watch and failed to pray as
Jesus faced those crucial last moments before going to the cross. How
different those hours and trial might have been if His followers would
have remained alert and prayed. The
greatest privilege we have as followers and friends of Jesus Christ is
the ability to approach the Throne of Grace and make our requests and
receive the immediate help we need (reference Hebrews 4:16). Every
moment we neglect to exercise the high and holy call of prayer we give
the enemy an entryway to rob us of our faith. "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Corrie ten Boom has said, "The enemy finds great humor when we are up to our ears in work, but trembles in fear when we pray."
Satan is only threatened by us when we enter the battlefield on our
knees. Prayer is the weapon he fears the most. As long as he can keep
us distracted, too busy to pray, he knows he has nothing to fear, and
he can continue his advances of evil in this world. If we truly
understood the power we have against the devil when we take the posture
of prayer on the spiritual battlefield we would never leave our post.
The Lord gave us the full armor of God to equip us in the spiritual
battles we would face each day, but we are simply "all dressed up with no place to go" until we activate our armor with prayer (reference Ephesians 6:18).The Power of PrayerPrayer
is indispensable to God's work in the world. When we pray we admit our
dependence upon God and we release Him to work in our lives, and in the
world. Without prayer we are powerless. A prayerless church is a
detriment to society, for God only works through the prayers of His
people. "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16b).Prayer and the Word of God go hand and hand. "The power of one is dependent upon the presence of the other."
The disciples understood the priority of prayer and the ministry of the
Word (reference Acts 6:4). Prayer is the activation agent behind the
fuel found in God's Word. Jesus wielded the mighty Sword of the Spirit
when the enemy came to tempt Him, and He calls us to do the same
(Matthew 4:4). Jesus set the example for us by living a life of
prayer. Prayer was His priority - He let nothing deter Him from
maintaining His love relationship with the Father; and neither should
we. He came to accomplish the work of the Father and to build the
Kingdom of God and we have been commissioned to continue His work. Only
through prayer do we invite Him to participate in His work (reference 1
Thessalonians 5:24). Whatever we attempt to do apart from first
praying about it, will be done in our own strength and will ultimately
result in less than God's best for our lives.The
power of the heavenly realm is at our disposal if we will simply submit
to the Lord with prayer and fasting. Of all the things we can do to
show our love for God and our love for others there is no greater
expression of our love than our willingness to pray. Jesus exhorted
His disciples to remain steadfast in prayer, but they failed Him at a
critical hour (reference Luke 22:39-46). The Lord doesn't want us to
fail, rather He desires for us to triumph and experience daily the
victory He claimed for us on the cross.The
call to prayer and fasting is the call of faith. The Lord's ultimate
desire is to return to find a faithful people waiting expectantly for
His return (reference Luke 18:8). Our faith is kept alive by our
prayers as we acknowledge our full dependence upon the Lord, protecting
ourselves in the process from the temptations of an enemy who wants us
to lose hope (reference Luke 22:40). The remedy for every calamity,
catastrophe, and circumstance is found in prayer. Nothing is too
difficult for God if we will simply bring it to Him in prayer.The
Lord is awakening His sleeping Bride to respond to the call to fast and
pray. This move of God is a sign He is about to move in a mighty way -
but it is dependent upon the response of His people. The Lord is
waiting for us, the response is up to every individual believer to
answer His call:
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). "Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to
Me with all your heart, with fasting
and weeping and mourning.""Rend your
hearts and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for He is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and He relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave
behind a blessing -grain offerings and drink offerings
for the LORD your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
Gather the people, consecrate the assembly...
Let the Bridegroom leave His room and the
Bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister
before the LORD, weep between the temple
porch and the altar."