The Call to Fast and Pray
a HOLY Invitation
40 Days of Prayer, Fasting, and Repentance for Marriage
A Call to Covenant Renewal
Our Creator, God, articulated the intimate relationship between Himself and His Creation in His original design for the Holy institution of Marriage as being
One Man - One Woman - One Flesh - for One Lifetime.
Marriage is the human echo of the relationship of
Christ, the Bridegroom, and His Bride, the Church.
The sacred structure of the marriage union reveals the holiness of God.
The only proper response to Holy God is Holiness.
God is absolute moral perfection and He expects His children to live according to His Holy standard.
Sadly, we have not!
We, His Bride, have not been presenting a view of our Bridegroom that echoes His Holiness.
We have been presenting a view of the majesty and beauty of our Lord that is utterly beneath His dignity.
Therefore, He has issued the trumpet call for His Bride to return to the bridal chamber
for a time of consecration; to purify our way of thinking about Him and cleanse our way of living,
so He can revive, rebuild and restore health to His Body, and bring necessary healing to our land.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself
up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the 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 5:25-27)
WHAT are these 40 days for?
The rising debate over the definition of marriage in the courts today is simply a new twist on that original question from that ol' deluder in the garden:
DID GOD REALLY SAY? (Genesis 3:1)
While the world is asking the questions, the Church is holding the answer key -
and, yet we are still failing the test.
We have failed to raise up God's holy standard in this land,
because we have strayed in our devotion to our Beloved Bridegroom.
We are in a covenant relationship with Holy God,
but rather than our hearts being wed to Christ we have become married to the world.
In our quest for less holy and unworthy pursuits
we have given up sacred ground and suffered significant spiritual losses.
We are meant to live separated from the world and set apart unto Christ -
It's time to repair the breach!
"I am the LORD your God;
consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy."
(Leviticus 11:44)
WHEN do the 40 days begin?
August 27th through October 5th , 2014
The Bride of Christ is being called back to a life of faithfulness, holiness and obedience
to our Beloved Bridegroom.
God is calling us to be still for 40 days.
He is calling us to wait upon Him.
Whenever God moves powerfully on behalf of His people He calls them to wait on Him.
When the Lord delivered Israel out of bondage from Egypt
He called them to stand firm in the face of an advancing army:
"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:14)
Before Israel could undertake the Lord's warfare in battle and take possession of the promise land
He first cut off their flesh and caused them to be weak:
"And after the whole nation had been circumcised,
they remained where they were in camp until they were healed." (Joshua 5:8)
And before His disciples could carry out His purposes and advance His Kingdom on this earth, they had to wait to be endued with power from on high:
"Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised,
which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1:4-5)
Ours is a spiritual life.
Every day we walk in a spiritual battleground that is filled with all kinds of obstacles meant to cause us to stumble and fall, and faced with every opposition intended to rob, kill and destroy
this new life we have been given in Christ.
The Lord wants us to be equipped to navigate this battlefield successfully and to live and walk in victory.
The battles we face are not ours, they are the Lords.
We don't fight with the weapons of the world (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
We need to do battle God's way - in His power.
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD Almighty" (Zechariah 4:6)
God's prescription for healing and His strategy for battle are unlike ours:
We want healing - He calls for cleansing (Malachi 3:3)
We want to strike - He says to be still (Psalm 46:10)
We want to be strong - He makes us weak (1 Corinthians 1:27-31)
We want revival - He calls for repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14)
He knows what we need.
We need to simply surrender our plans and humbly submit to His.
(Isaiah 55:8-13)
God has set the table for a glorious feast these 40 days and has graciously invited us to attend.
God is not calling us to some great work; He is calling us to Himself.
His desire is that we know Him, but we are so distracted by so many other things.
He longs to pour more of Himself into us, but we are too busy filling up on less satisfying things.
This time period will afford the Lord the opportunity to captivate our hearts once again
and to empty us of all earthly desire to find our fulfillment in Him alone.
He will not disappoint.
He has never left or forsaken us. He is always faithful and ever-present.
He will be waiting for us.
May we accept this divine invitation to dine with the eternal King of kings and experience the rich spiritual blessings He is longing to pour out upon us.
"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
(Isaiah 55:1-2)
WHO are these 40 days for?
The Body of Christ
The Bride of Christ, the Church
All who are married to Christ are invited to this marriage feast
The Lord wants to reconnect our heart to His.
He desires our undivided attention.
He is jealous for our wholehearted affection.
It is necessary for the health of the Body of Christ for every member to be willing to do their part.
We have become weak, malnourished, and disjointed
because we have disconnected from our Head, which is Christ Jesus.
God has given us the prescription for healing, but each of us must be willing to take the responsibility to accept God's diagnosis and administer His Holy treatment plan (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Our remedy will come when we humbly submit our weak, broken, and sinful state
into the capable, forgiving, and healing hands of our Great Physician.
"For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become One Flesh.'
-Ephesians 5:30-32
WHERE are we doing this?
All across the nation we are inviting the entire Body of Christ
to come together for this 40 day period of consecration and preparation.
To humbly wait on God to strengthen us and fill us with all wisdom and
knowledge and insight, so we can be informed, equipped and united to advance the
Kingdom of God and hold up the torch of righteousness in this land.
We are asking for the Family Policy Councils in each state to join efforts with
The Family Foundation to help lead the way in sharing this message with the pastors,
churches, and various ministries and organizations who value the family
and support traditional marriage in their respective states.
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord."
(Hebrews 12:14)
HOW can I participate?
40 Days is God's redemptive time frame in history.
He wants to awaken us, revive us, rebuild us and restore us.
It takes time to change destructive behaviors which rob us of necessary life
and build a disciplined lifestyle of dependence upon the One who gives us life.
With a willing vessel the Lord can do a lifetime of work in this short span of time.
What is the benefit of fasting?
The call to fast is a call to the abiding life in Christ.
The Lord's greatest priority for our life is for us to experience deep, abiding intimacy with Him.
Fasting puts us in a position of humility and dependence upon God in a way that
is only possible when we give up our physical food or other fleshly pursuits.
When we submit to the Lord with spiritual fasting we intentionally separate from the world
and all its fleshly impulses and influences to surrender to
the higher and holier influence and guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It is the Lord's desire that His Spiritual life take over - but we must first be emptied
of anything that is blocking or preventing us from tapping into His constant flow.
There is a divine process of stripping and filling which the Lord activates within us when we fast for extended periods of time. The Holy Spirit is able to utilize our more focused time of devotion to work His purifying and perfecting process in our lives; and having gained our full and undivided attention He can lead us into deeper spiritual truths in His Holy Word.
The new life we have in Christ is a spiritual life,
with the only food that matters - God's Holy word.
When we fast we put ourselves in a position to be stripped and emptied of worldly pursuits and fleshly appetites, and we give the Holy Spirit room to fill us with more of His abundant life;
transforming our fleshly appetites into a more healthy spiritual appetite
which will yield abundant fruit to feed and nourish others.
We have been denying ourselves of our necessary spiritual food and filling up on the unsatisfying, artificial substitutes of the world for far too long. We need to change our eating habits.
Our life, and the lives of others, depends on it!
Where the Lord calls He faithfully provides.
He calls us to the discipline of fasting so we will experience the supernatural sustaining power of His Word.
He will not leave us hungry.
The Holy Spirit will awaken in us an insatiable hunger and thirst for righteousness
which only He can satisfy.
He wants us to experience the fulfillment which comes from Christ alone.
We need only to be still and know that He is God.
When we answer the call to fast the number one question people ask is:
How can I go without physical food for 40 days?
We might ask ourselves instead:
How have I been going without necessary spiritual food for months and years?
We have been denying ourselves the vital nourishment of the Word of God for far too long.
We need to taste and see how good our God is.
He is our most basic necessity. We need to be living on Christ.
When we seek Him first - He will provide everything else we need.
The Lord has inspired a beautiful daily devotional email journey
which will provide our daily spiritual nourishment during these 40 days of consecration.
Written with the divinely-inspired process of feasting on the Word of God three times a day
we will experience His supernatural fulfillment and sustaining power
as we feed on the Bread of Life meal-by-meal and day-by-day.
The more dependent we are upon God's Word the more we will get out of the journey.
However, God is not calling us to harm us; His desire is to heal us.
This 40 day journey is meant to be a journey of revelation.
To experience the intended benefits and blessings of this journey it is important
to feed on the 3 spiritual meals given, each and every day.
The Lord wants to build within us a lifestyle of dependence upon Him.
Submitting to this discipline of "feasting" three times a day is a vital component of that process.
For those seasoned feasters who have fasted before, and who may want to go deeper
with the Lord and trust Him for a more extended period of consecration, it
is suggested dining on the three spiritual meals each day while following a Daniel-type fast
"Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published,
He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem.
Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed,
giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before."
(Daniel 6:10)
For more information on Biblical fasting, the types of fasts and how to prepare for a fast
Click on the FASTING 101 informational guide
The Lord is inviting us to sit at His table, to soak in His Presence,
and feast on the richest of fare - His Holy Word - and to be led
by His Holy Spirit on a glorious journey into the depths of His beauty and majesty.
Forty days will only afford us a mere Glimpse of God's Glory (click to listen to a special message).
Whether with fasting or in feasting we simply invite everyone to come
and partake of the banqueting table of the Lord!
"It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
(Matthew 4:4)
RSVP
Register Today!
to receive the daily devotional email journey which begins on August 27th
and to receive the weekly encouraging emails to prepare for our journey
In Virginia, register at www.familyfoundation.org/40daysformarriage
To find your state FPC visit www.frc.org/state-policy-organizations
If your state does not currently have a Family Policy Council you can participate
in the journey by registering at Trumpet and Torch, click HERE
Please share this with your pastor, your church, your state FPC, your family and your friends.
We want everyone to enjoy the benefits and blessings of this time of refreshment and encouragement
as the Holy Spirit takes us on this Holy journey
and reveals the majesty and beauty of our Beloved Bridegroom
during these 40 days for Marriage.
May our hearts be wed to Christ alone!
"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 19:6, 7)