As I spoke of in my previous post, we as the leadership team in the church body, where I have the privilege & responsibility of being the senior or lead pastor (depending on your particular persuasion) have been taking aim at a handful of targets as we move forward as a community. One of the things that helps you gain clarity, passion, direction & power as you move forward is the principle of prayer & fasting.
It is an important principle that Christ-followers should make regular use of, especially as they are embarking into a new time or direction for life & ministry. Consider Jesus, spending 40 days in the wilderness before publicly starting His ministry & the leadership team from Antioch giving themselves to “worship & fasting” just before launching Paul & Barnabas on their first missionary journey. 
Let me speak to the idea of why we should fast. When I was a child growing up in Christian circles more times than not, fasting was more of a hunger strike with the purpose of getting God to do something. Though I give a lot of credence to the idea of desperation & recognizing that there are times “if God doesn’t do something we are sunk”. As I look especially at the concept of fasting in the New Testament, I see fasting as much more than that. It is more than getting God to do something, it is there to help connect or reconnect to Him, find His heart, then embark on fulfilling His demands with fresh fervor, vitality & wisdom from His Spirit. The reason why we give up food most of the time is because the most instinctive craving each of us have & is a necessity for survival is the craving to “feed”. Fasting teaches and helps us put down our natural cravings so our hunger for God can be given more & fuller attention.
There are many ways to start & do a season of prayer and fasting. We must have a plan with some specification as to type and duration, and a correct heart.
Let’s tackle the idea of a plan. The important thing is to have a plan
and carry out it out. You must clarify what kind of fast you will do.
Here are some types:
- A complete fast. No solid food, only liquid, probably something only “veteran fasters” should engage in. Take Baby steps not giant leaps. If you have never fasted in any way this one is not for you, most likely.
- A partial fast. You choose a meal(s) each day where you will not eat, so you can engage in prayer & bible study or serving in some capacity.
- A “Daniel” fast. There are official Daniel Fast guidelines. Google it you will have
more to read than you will know what to do with. Basically, this type of fast you engage in not eating certain, unhealthy delicacies. It is based on a story in Daniel chapter 1. At it’s simplest level, you choose not to eat things that you really like that you don’t necessarily need. Indulgences: chocolate, sweets, carbs, soda, coffee,… the list goes on & on. - A soul fast. A soul fast is one where you cut out particular things you feed your soulish person, your intellect, your emotions. You might stop engaging & reading social media, or watching TV, or reading the newspaper, etc..
With all these types of fasts, the thing that creates the best outcome for you as a Christ-follower is not just to give up something, it is what you do in place of that thing you normally do. At this point we take the plan and determine, what we do with our time.
Here are some examples:
- Instead of eating breakfast, I will read devotionally from scripture & pray.
- Instead of having lunch, I’ll spend time doing the same. I
- Instead of consuming hours of TV, I’ll spend some of that time praying, & other pieces intentionally engaging my family or a neighbor, or discipling a younger Christian.
- You may want to serve others by writing notes of encouragement.
- You might want to take the money you normally spend on lunch & send it to a missions organization & be praying for them as you DO NOT eat each day.
Once you have determined the type of fast & what you will do in its place, you must decide for what period of time.
- A week
- two weeks
- 40 Days
- Maybe even a variation of that like every Friday for the next three months.
After you have a plan, you must bring your heart into the matter. The whole purpose should be to connect to your maker. If this happens His desires will suddenly be transplanted into your heart & become yours. You should let Him read your heart & see what lurks inside. You should come to a place where you can hear God utter, through His word or in prayer, certain directions & then you utter like our Savior, “Not my will, but your will be done.”
We have taken aim as a church toward those four targets I previously mentioned. Now we are crystallizing that focus with a 21 Day, church-wide, season of prayer. We want to be near God. We want to hear His voice. We want to be energized by His Spirit, & granted His wisdom. It might be that He tweaks our targets or completely changes them. That will be ok.
Pastor Aaron 