Prayer and Fasting

Genesis 17:1-4- “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant [is] with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.”

Intercession is the result of a covenant with God. Genesis 18:17-19- “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” A covenant will give birth to prayer, and prayer will give birth to revelation.

Ephesians5:14- “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Arise from the dead. A sleeping saint is like a dead sinner. Prayer brings life to a born again believer. Prayerless people have been overcome by the enemy. If you want to stay alive in the Christian life, you must pray.

Isaiah 52:1- “ Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” When we pray, we will be strong.

We will be beautiful with righteousness.

We will no longer fellowship with the world.

 

Isaiah 52:2- “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, [and] sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” When we pray, we won’t try to find anyone to help us out of our problems. We will do it.

Isaiah 56:9-11- “All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.” V.10, Prayerlessness produces ignorance and laziness. V.11, Prayerlessness produces greed. V.11, Prayerlessness causes selfishness.

 

Isaiah 52:3- “For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Prayerlessness is surrender to Satan.

Isaiah 52 :4- “For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.” Prayerlessness will cause us to return to Egypt. (The world) Where the Assyrian, (Satan) will oppress us.

 

We must pray that God opens our eyes to discern His ways better so we can follow Him. Samson lost the anointing while he slept. Judges 16:19- “And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.” Proverbs 23:21-

“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe [a man] with rags.” Luke 21:36- “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Amos 9:13- “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.” The harvest will come before we ask for it.

Fasting

How and Why

 

Matt.6:16-18- “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” Notice that Jesus says, “When ye fast”. Fasting is a part of the Christian walk.

5 things to ask before beginning a fast

Is it Spirit lead?
What are my motives?
What specific needs am I fasting for?
What results am I looking for?
Am I determined to minister unto the Lord while fasting?

 

Acts 13:2- “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Zechariah 7:5- “Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me?” 1Corinthians 10:7- “Neither be ye idolaters, as [were] some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Fasting takes the flesh off the throne.

1Corinthians 9:27- “But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The lust of the flesh is what brought Adam down. Fasting helps the presence of God to become closer and stronger on you. You will receive greater power in your Christian walk by fasting.

 

Three day fast- Esther 4:16- “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which [is] not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.” This one was done for a crisis. Acts 9:9- “And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.” Fasting brought deliverance from death.

 

Three weeks partial fast- 21 days. No meat, dessert, wine. For revelation. Daniel 10:2-3- “In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.”

Daniel 10:14- “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision [is] for [many] days.” After he fasted. Revelation came. Daniel 9:3,23- “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew [thee]; for thou [art] greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.”

 

One day fast for consecration and reexamination spiritually. Psalm 35:13- “But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing [was] sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.” Leviticus 23:27- “Also on the tenth [day] of this seventh month [there shall be] a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” Jeremiah 36:6- “Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.”

 

Always fast before going into battle. Ezra 8:23- “So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.” Judges 20:18-28- “And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah [shall go up] first. And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

 

And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day. (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.) And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God [was] there in those days, And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?

And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah. And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, [and] were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, [and] kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

 

And the children of Benjamin said, They [are] smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways. And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, [even] out of the meadows of Gibeah. And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil [was] near them. And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.”

 

Many times we pray and God says, “I’ll do it”. But, as we see in this passage of scripture, the children of Israel went to battle twice and lost horribly. On the third day, it says in verse 26, that they fasted and made offerings to the Lord, and God said, this time I will deliver you. Now, it is almost as if we pray and ask God for something and He say I’ll do it. But if you fast, He says I’ll do it now. So, this would be a oneday fast for deliverance. This is the kind of fast where Jesus said this kind cannot come out but by prayer and fasting. Matt.17:21 He said this because it was for deliverance. If we fast, God will fight your battles.

One day fast for deliverance 1Kings 21:27-29- “And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house”. Here, we see that fasting stopped the judgment of God.

 

 

Three day fast for healing 1Samuel 30:11-15- “And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk [any] water, three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom [belongest] thou? and whence [art] thou?

And he said, I [am] a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick. We made an invasion [upon] the south of the Cherethites, and upon [the coast] which [belongeth] to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.” Some people are sick because they eat too much. Some sicknesses can be healed by fasting. Here we see one such case. Not all are healed this way though.

 

40 day fast, supernatural fast. For dominion. Luke 4:1-2- “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.” The first Adam lost dominion when he ate. The second Adam gained it when He did not eat. Luke 4:14,18-

“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” Fasting brings the power of the spirit on your life.

Back To Teachings