Fasting

Todd alerted me to the fact that there has been a request by the National Day of Prayer Task force for tomorrow to be a day of prayer and fasting for our nation. I know that it's a bit late posting this, but maybe a few will catch and want to participate.

Some verses that make me think:

Jeremiah 29:12 "You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."
Deuteronomy 4:7 "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?"
And a verse that really has opened my heart up to fasting:
Matthew 17:20, 21 "He (Jesus) told them, “Because of your lack of faith. I tell you with certainty, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. 21But this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.”


Fasting with Prayer for the November 4th Elections
Called by the National Day of Prayer Task Force

Fasting brings us to a deeper level of commitment; it intensifies our prayers.

As you know, we are entering increased intensity surrounding our November election. It is indeed a sobering time in America and our world.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force is calling for a fast with our prayers as we desperately seek God in regards to our nation in the days ahead.

We invite you, to join with us as we earnestly approach our Heavenly Father with the needs of our nation over the course of the next few weeks. We hope that pastors will also encourage their congregants and parishioners to also unite in this concerted time of prayer with fasting.

Indeed there are many churches fasting in their prayer efforts around the nation already.

This time of fasting falls in line with II Chronicles 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn form their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (NKJV).

The late Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, called fasting a “spiritual atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world.”

“But,” he added, “before God comes in revival power, the Holy Spirit will call millions of God’s people to repent, fast and pray in the spirit of II Chronicles 7:14.”

Henry Blackaby, excerpted from Authentic Prayer and Fasting:
“In truth our first motive in fasting and prayer must be to return to God. It must not be for what He will do in "revival," regardless of how crucial the need for revival may be.
Revival is not what happens to the "lost," but what happens to God's people when we come in brokenness and grief over sin - our sin - and are restored to that holy love relationship with God. Revival is when God's people are once again living to the praise of His glory and to the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We will always know, as God's people, when we have returned, because we will see fresh evidence of a fresh and powerful sensitivity to sin and to the Savior.
In this restored relationship with Him, God is once again able to work through his people to touch a lost world redemptively.”
-----

Fasting with prayer can take many forms:
· Daniel Chapter 1 Fast: vegetables, water…
· Forty Day Fast: 9/26-11/4
· Fasting one week
· Fasting one day
· Fasting one meal
· Let the Lord lead you in how to fast with prayer.

Many will be led to begin right away, maybe even today for a sustained, continued season to fast before November 4th.

But please join with us in taking no less than one day, Sunday, 11/2 as an appointment with the Lord to fast and pray. We are praying for untold numbers to join in this vital endeavor to redeem the very soul and thus future of our nation---the United States of America, one nation under God.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to clothe him...Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer..." Isaiah 58: 6-9a