Notes on Fasting
Definition of fasting: choosing to abstain from food, one meal or several meals, to give special attention to some spiritual concern(s). Though fasting is neither a major biblical doctrine nor a foundation stone of the faith, it may open doors where other keys have not. It may open the way to new vistas of understanding and strength.
Motivation for fasting: first, to honor God by giving ourselves more fully to Him. Additional reasons may include any one or combination of the following:
- to express sorrow for our disobedience to God, for doing things our own way.
- to purify our lives and receive God's grace for the purification process.
- to turn our affections away from earthly things and toward eternal things.
- to express the seriousness and earnestness of our request.
- to avert the outpouring of God's wrath against evil; to appeal to God for extra time for His grace to work.
- to gain deeper insight into a particular portion of God's Word.
- to request the fulfillment of God's prophesies and promises.
- to sharpen our spiritual senses.
- to enhance our creativity in solving difficult problems.
- to discern God's will in a difficult situation and the steps to accomplish it.
- to mourn with God over the spiritual resistance and darkness both inside and outside the church.
- to reignite our desire to lead people to Christ and to see His kingdom come.
- to free those who are in spiritual bondage.
- to confirm the selection and ordination of elders.
- to keep the body and soul in subjection to the spirit. (Note: if fasting becomes a mere ritual, it loses its spiritual effectiveness.)
- to obey Jesus' words: "When you fast..." (Matt. 6:16, 17) and "... then they shall fast..." (Mark 2:20).
- to avoid the sins of Sodom: "...pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease" (Ezek. 16:49; Jer. 5:17; and Matt. 24:37-38).
- to gain insight leading to restoration and healing.
- to regain the spark of our "first love" for Jesus Christ
- to discern and dedicate the talents and skills God has given us for fulfillment of His purposes.
- to gain insight into God's chastening, a willingness to accept His discipline, and renewed commitment to obey. This page and all contents are copyright protected by Reasons To Believe, June 2015. www.reasons.org
Jesus does not want us to be satisfied with meager fruitfulness (John 15: 2, 5, 8). He wants our joy to be full and the fruit of the Spirit to overflow, to the glory of God the Father. When Jesus says "when you fast" (Matthew 6:16, 17), He uses both the singular you and the plural you (although English makes no clear distinction, the Greek text does). Fasting is for individuals and for groups.
Personal guidelines for fasting
Make sure you are physically able to fast. If you suffer from diabetes, ulcers, TB, or other health issues, or if you have undergone any type of gastro-intestinal surgery, you must consult a physician.If you are able to fast, be careful, first, to rid your life of spiritually corrosive influences, such as sensual reading material and sensual music. Fasting heightens your sensitivity to the spiritual realm. So if you have opened doors to Satan's influence in your life and have never closed them, you may find that you are subject to interference when you fast.
Be sure to wear "the whole armor of God" (Eph. 6:10-17). Begin with expressions of praise. Maintain a spirit of praise and allow significant time for praise. Set specific objectives. Examine your motives (Isaiah 58:1-12).Link fasting with sincere and practical charity. For example, before you fast, make a gift to help someone in need (Is. 58:7). Avoid ostentation (Matt. 6:16-18; Rom. 3:27; and Luke 17:10).If possible, fast before, rather than after, an emergency arises, but certainly do consider fasting in the midst of a spiritual crisis.
Consider making your first experience of fasting a brief one, say 24 hours or less. If you fast for 24 hours, fast from evening to evening. Important thoughts and insights that come to you in the evening will stay with you through the night and help prepare your mind and heart for the following day. Take time to read and meditate on Scripture. Allow God's Word to guide you, teach you, and sink into you as you fast. If at all possible, devote the waking hours of your fasting period to prayer, study, and contemplation. If you must give some time and attention to other activities, cut back on them so that your spiritual intake increases and your caloric requirements decrease to less than the usual.
Never ignore the "second hunger" that occurs after a few weeks or more of fasting. This hunger indicates that the body's reserves are burned up. Break a fast gently, with easy-to- digest foods.Keep in mind that the benefits of fasting often come many days after the fast has ended.
Rewards and warnings
"...Your healing will quickly appear" (Is. 58:8 and, for an unusual illustration, 1 Sam. 30:11- 15).
"Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and he will say: Here am I" (Is. 58:9).
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"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13).
"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten" (Joel 2:25).
"Put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the sins they see around them...Kill everyone whose forehead is not marked...And begin right here at the sanctuary" (Ezek. 9:4-6).
"The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray" (1 Peter 4:7).
"We will cry out to you in our distress and you will hear us and save us" (2 Chron. 20:9).
In one of the most thrilling stories in Scripture, King Jehoshaphat led the people of Israel to a mighty victory over their foes using only the weapons of collective fasting, prayer, and songs of praise (2 Chron. 20:1-30).
Daniel, a key example
While studying the prophecies of Jeremiah, Daniel discovered that he was living at a special moment in God's plan (see Dan. 9:2). His people, the Jews, were about to be returned to their precious homeland. Understanding that the hour of deliverance and restoration was at hand, Daniel sought God with a greater intensity and fervor than ever, fasting and praying in all humility (9:3).
Though he was one of the most righteous men who has ever lived, Daniel fully identified with his people in all their disobedience and rebellion (9:4-19). He said, "We have sinned," not "They have sinned." Daniel linked himself with his countrymen, acknowledging that he and they together justly deserved God's judgment. He exemplified God's message in Ezekiel 9:4-6 and 22:30-31; he was ready and willing to "stand before me [God] in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it."
Daniel sought God's light with a wholeheartedness matched by few other men through the ages. In turn, God blessed him with wisdom and understanding beyond what Daniel could asked or imagined. Today, as in the time of Daniel, the light of God is desperately needed. In these dark days of spiritual apathy and moral degradation, God will give us all the light we need if we prize it highly enough to seek it as Daniel did.
Daniel's intercession demonstrates a very important principle: God's sovereign control over the future never gives us an excuse to sit back as spectators. Rather, God's prophetic words are given to compel us toward fasting and prayer with utmost zeal, humility, commitment, and hope. God reveals His plan not so that we can know our part and take out part in the action, His action, together with other members of the body of Christ. Revelation requires involvement!
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Suggested plan of action for a group fast
1. Among the leaders and members of your group, agree on specific goals for the fast, relying on prayer and Scripture to discern God's will.
2. Give each group member the freedom to determine, through his or her own communication with the Lord, whether he or she will participate in the fast.
3. Choose a day on which every participant is free to devote time and attention.
4. Meet some practical or spiritual need around you by giving financial or other assistance, as appropriate.
5. First evening: Spend time alone. Dedicate the fast to God's glory. Pray specifically for each group member, especially that the goals of the fast will be accomplished in and through each one. Study God's Word, asking for His guidance and insight.Pray that the goals of the fast will be accomplished not only in you and your group, but also in your church and through the entire body of Jesus Christ worldwide.Spend some giving praise.
6. Night: Sleep. Or, as an option, you may wish to organize a prayer watch, with each participant taking a specific time slot during the night for prayer.
7. Morning: Continue to pray, more and more specifically, for the goals of the fast. Mourn with God for the sin in your own life, in your family, your church, your community, your nation, the world. By late morning, individuals may begin to meet in small groups of two to four, continuing together in the morning's confession and prayer.
8. Afternoon: Bring the entire group together. Confess your sins to one another, and join together in prayer for one another's cleansing and healing. Pray that the church and the nations would be purified. Pray especially that God would purify and protect the leaders and would raise up more leaders who live and uphold the truth of Scripture. Pray again that the specific goals of the fast would be accomplished. Seek God's direction for your specific part in the accomplishment of those goals in the days and weeks ahead.
9. Early evening: Praise and worship the Lord together. Exalt His name. Take communion together, acknowledging the power of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. Break the fast with a light supper. You may wish to arrange for each member of the group to provide some portion of this meal. Or perhaps some person outside the group would be willing to prepare it. Make sure you consider the menu, serving only foods that are easy to digest, e.g., soup or stew, rice, bread, poultry or fish, cooked vegetables, etc.
10. Keep alert in the coming days and weeks as God reveals His answers to your prayers and rejoice in Him. He is and always will be the Good in the Good News.
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Prayer warriors, arise and take your place in the battle!
From the new book, Arise Intercessors, Arise! A Manual for the Birthing, Calling, Training and Restoration of Prayer Warriors (Outskirts Press, 2015) Available on Amazon.com
The end time harvest and revival awaits God's watchmen intercessors being birthed, equipped, and fully taking their place. Their training needs to be prompt and accurate. Those who have fallen and are wounded need to be restored.
Maria Harbajan gives you the keys to experiencing the fulfillment of your call and ministry as an intercessor. Discover what intercessor should know in order to fight spiritual battles successfully. These include:
- Intercession- knowing its dangers and how to avoid pitfalls
- Specific instructions for praying for the family, church, and nation
- Powerful praying children-- releasing the youth and children
- How pastors and intercessors can be a dream team
- Dealing with different types of curses through intercession
- Intercession in the marketplaces- in your workplace, business environment, public places
- Restoring falling prayer warriors
"This book should be required reading for every serious, committed intercessor. In it Maria is candid and honest and plainspoken of herself. She offers volumes of revelation and truths for anyone who takes seriously the ministry of intercession. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned intercessor, you will learn as I have from this excellent work." (Esther Ilnisky, founder of Esther Network International and Children's Global Prayer Movement)
Maria Harbajan is President and CEO of the National Intercessory Prayer Network of Jamaica and prayer center of the Caribbean located in Kingston, Jamaica. She is also a member of the International Prayer Council leadership team.
Praying for a Great, New Revival for Europe!
May 15 Report from Wiesbaden, Germany
The Lord seems to have His finger on Europe these days! A prayer event just concluded in Rome and there will be several additional prayer gatherings in the UK, Holland and Romania coming up over the next couple of months. Right now, the Nordic Summit for marketplace people is happening in Stockholm and the Arab Europe prayer conference is happening here in Wiesbaden, Germany, both continuing today through tomorrow. Here in Wiesbaden, there are 300 Arab immigrant believers who have gathered from all over Europe- Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians, some who are refugees from the conflicts going on in the Middle East.
It all reminds me of a visionary experience I had years ago not far from where we are here in Germany in which I saw pin pricks of light approaching in the great darkness. As they got closer, they were warriors with burning swords cutting through the dark canopy and I heard the words, "These are the intercessors". Afterwards, I heard these words, "New Reformation." A few days later, I received a communication from Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth with a Mission, in which he was calling Christians in Europe to pray and work for a "New Reformation"! Wow, could the Spirit of the Lord be doing this now, moving brothers and sisters in Christ to gather others together across this great continent that has known wonderful revivals in the past and was the major mission- sending center for a couple centuries?
Later on, a local prayer leader and I visited Herrnhut, the place where Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians began a prayer chain in the 18th century that went on for 100 years and sent out hundreds of missionaries, the first Protestants to go to the ends of the earth. A few years ago, some local believers started it up again as a 24/7 prayer ministry! Germany was also the home of the Reformation in the 16th century and the great Pietist revival that swept through this country in the 17th century.
Would you please pray with us for a great outpouring of His Spirit upon upcoming prayer gatherings and upon the nations of Europe over the coming weeks?
1. Pray for great unity and clarity for the leaders and participants to know how they should pray for their nations and for this continent as a whole.
2. That the prayer movement which has at times been a trickle will become a mighty river, stirring Europeans so accustomed to empty, deadening secularism, to be hungry to know the Lord and return to Him with all their hearts.
3. Pray that the principalities and powers that have influenced the thinking of so many with their various -isms will be bound and driven to the feet of Jesus and that people here will go free from the materialism that blinds so many.
4. For genuine and widespread spiritual revival as happened in centuries past. It can happen again!
The Lord wants Europe back! Let's pray and trust Him to do "far more abundantly".
He can transform regions as easily as individual nations when His people pray. "According to your faith, it will be to you", He said. Thanks for joining in!
May 18 from Herrnhut, Germany
"But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, "I am only a child." ...Now I have put my words in your mouth. See today, I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:7, 10)
"When God gets ready to do a new thing with His people, He always sets them a-praying!" - J. Edwin Orr, scholar on the history of revivals
Thanks for your prayers of support for the Arab Europe prayer event. It was invigorating- with dynamic, Spirit-filled worship and faith-inspired praying together for all the nations of Europe where these Arab immigrants are now living. They came to understand that they are not refugees but sent by the Lord to pray and work for His restoration and revival of this continent that in the past has so much blessed the world through its strong spiritual legacy and now needs to recover that legacy with the help of these on-fire immigrant believers. Pray with us that they will be able to start prayer groups in their towns and unite with the nationals so that they can continue the process of united intercession they began in Wiesbaden.
It was a privilege to be in Hernnhut meeting with the church that has begun 24/7 prayer, renewing the practice of the Moravians and Count Zinzendorf who founded this place in the 18th century. As we worshipped, I noticed lovely young children, entering into worship with joy, and some were dancing freely in the presence of the Lord in front of us. The pastor then asked my colleague and me to pray fatherly blessings over the whole congregation. I felt moved to pray that from this fabled place a new and great revival would flow out to Germany and Europe.
We stood amongst the 6000 graves of Count Zinzendorf and the godly saints who prayed in "the Lord's watch" (the meaning of Hernnhut in German) from 1727 for 100 years. Out of only 600 people in this small village, they sent 300 missionaries to the ends of the earth. I was so moved to hear about the children of that day who went out in the fields in the night and cried out to the Lord. Adults in neighboring homes tried to get them to shut up; however, they were irrepressible and kept on praying! Along with three Hernnhut women, we prayed for the children of Germany and for the raising up of a new generation like this former one.
These same Moravian children who cried out to God in the fields at night later went out as the first Protestant missionaries, many of them never coming back to their homeland but laying their lives down for the Lord among the unreached peoples. Others returned and are buried here. The women who were guiding us around showed us their graves and those of Zinzendorf and his family. This humble noble was the benefactor of the much-persecuted Moravians, followers of Jan Hus, the great reformer from Prague, a Pentecostal charismatic Bible teacher who was burned at the stake for his efforts to bring reform and encourage the study of Scripture. As a child, Zinzendorf was deeply influenced by Francke and Spener who were leaders of the German Pietist revival, as well as by his own godly grandmother with whom he spent some years in this same area of Saxony.
I felt the Lord stirring me that this ground still has powerful, earned spiritual authority, so that like the ancient prophets did, they could pray, speaking out things that the Spirit puts in their mouths for the revival and transformation of nations and it will happen. Adding to this conviction, I was told that in 1989 a prayer gathering in Hernnhut with hundreds of intercessors proclaimed the end of the Berlin Wall. It came down soon after they were praying this! Indeed, history does belong to the intercessors, who believe the future into being!
Pray for the government of Germany that has become so politically correct as to say that, "Islam belongs to Germany" and to adopt sex education for little children, including introducing them to homosexuality. It is the same in the USA, the same wicked, perverted agenda that some in our own government are seeking to introduce to our nation while much of our "Christian majority" is occupied with our own comfort and entertainment. May the Lord shake us all out of our sleepy, complacent state to pray and prophesy to unjust, corrupted power like Jeremiah did!
Let us pray with expectation for His revival, restoration and transformation to come upon Europe and other Western nations through the youth and children and that this new generation will be protected from the dark, perverse influences that are now at work in the governments and education systems.
John Robb
IPC Chairman
MEXICO CHANGING CRIMINAL LANDSCAPE
The rapid spread of one crime group in Mexico is revealing a shifting power base for the country's illicit drug trade. Prior to 2010, most Mexican crime groups that emerged from the rural region known as Tierra Caliente worked as subsidiaries of powerful Sinaloa- and Tamaulipas-based syndicates such as the Gulf cartel and the Sinaloa Federation. However, the expansion of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), one of Mexico's most powerful crime syndicates, reflects the gradual breakdown of organized crime in Sinaloa and Tamaulipas states since 2010, which has made way for the spread of Tierra Caliente groups into other parts of Mexico.
The CJNG originates from the organization led by a Sinaloa Federation lieutenant, Ignacio "El Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, who was killed by federal troops in July 2010. After continuous infighting and years of aggressive pursuit by the military and law enforcement, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas groups began to lose control of organized crime in Tierra Caliente, leading to the expansion other independent groups.
Now the CJNG is rapidly expanding. In Baja California state, the cartel has allied with crime groups derived from the Arellano Felix Organization (also known as the Tijuana cartel or the Cartel de Arellano Felix) to seize control of the Tijuana plaza, the Tijuana-based investigative journal Zeta reported June 15. If the report is accurate, the CJNG is apparently seeking to end the dominance that Sinaloan groups have had around Tijuana since at least the 1980s. Meanwhile, in San Luis Potosi state, the group appears to be attempting to wrest control of towns from several other drug trafficking operations: the Velazquez network (also known as Los Talibanes or the Gulf cartel) and possibly Los Zetas.
As with all organized crime networks facing persistent law enforcement pressure, the CJNG is doomed to one day decentralize, a fate all the more inevitable after the Mexican government vowed to dismantle the group earlier this year. But for the time being, the cartel will remain the fastest-expanding crime group in Mexico. And as it spreads, it will cement the status and influence across Mexico of criminal groups that originated in the Tierra Caliente region.
Stratfor.com
Give thanks to God for the "gradual breakdown of organized crime in Sinaloa and Tamaulipas states since 2010". This positive development parallels the increased prayer focus that prayer organizations including the IPC have devoted to the drug cartels. Pray for the Mexican authorities to be strong and effective in dealing with the criminal organizations and for the dissolving and overthrow of the CJNG cartel, now "the fastest-expanding crime group in Mexico".
