PLUG INTO GOD'S POWER

We are currently in our 10 Day Daniel Fast in preparation for our "Night of Prayer" scheduled in August. This fast is simply a way of putting the people of God in The Sanctuary in touch with the life-changing power of God for their lives. We have two nights of All Night Prayer scheduled (see Night of Prayer for more details), and we need the power of God in it. And, you don't program the power of God into something, you pray the power of God into it.

Fasting gives you more time for prayer. You can use the time you'd normally spend eating as time in prayer for what God wants to do among us during this time. In the Bible, fasting is always connected with prayer. 

"While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." Acts 13:2-3 (NIV)

Fasting demonstrates the depth of your desire when praying for something. It shows you that you are serious enough about your prayer request to pay a personal price. God honors deep desire and praying in faith.

 "Even now," declares the Lord, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Joel 2:12 (NASB) 

Fasting releases God's supernatural power. It is a tool we can use when there is opposition to God's will. Satan would like nothing better than to cause division, discouragement, defeat, depression, and doubt among us. United prayer and fasting has always been used by God to deal a decisive blow to the enemy!

"God says, "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?" Isaiah 58:6 (NIV)

Prayer is the tool that God has given us to use on all the disrepair in our lives, in our church body, in our communities, in our country. I would urge you to use the experience of fasting to restore your focus and revive the power of prayer in your life. Feast on God during this important time.

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Intercessory Prayer

O Lord God, Creator of all creation and my Creator! Today I give You thanks for having arranged the world so wonderfully. Thank You for having given us this earth that bears us all kinds of fruit! Thank You for the food prepared from the fruits of the earth! Father, I rejoice in Your creatures, I rejoice in all the fruits today, and I thank You! Thank You for our daily food and drink.

Father, thank You for having made my body in such a way as to be able to use the fruits of the earth and so develop and serve You. Thank You Father, for all those who, through their work, produce new life possibilities. Thank You for those who have much and give away to others! 

Father, I decided to fast because Your Son Jesus Christ fasted and so did His apostles and disciples. Dear Heavenly Father, I present this day of fasting to You. Through fasting I want to listen to and live Your Word more. I want, during these 10 days, to learn to be turned more toward You, in spite of all the things that surround me. With this fast that I take upon myself freely..  Father, open our eyes, through fasting, to what You give us, to what we have! I am sorry for the blindness, which has taken hold of my senses so that I do not give thanks for the goods I have. I repent of every misuse of material goods because I used to judge their value wrongly. Make me able, through this fast, to see You and the people around me better. Through fasting, let love for You and for my neighbor grow in me.  I present You this fast for peace in my home, on my job, in my marriage and in my relationships. 

Dear Lord, I fast because I know that in this way my longing for You will grow in me. Eagerly and with gratitude do I think of your Son's words: "How blest are the poor in spirit; for the kingdom is theirs." Father, make me poor before You. Grant me grace that through fasting my desire for You may grow, that my heart may long for You as the deer panteth for waters. Oh Father, I especially pray to You, to grant me the grace to become aware that I am but a pilgrim on this earth, that when passing away to the other world I shall not take anything but love and good deeds. Let the awareness grow within me that even when I possess something I cannot call it my own, for I only received it from You to manage it. Father, grant me grace that through fasting I may become more humble and more willing to do Your will! So cleanse me of my selfishness and haughtiness.

Through this fast cleanse me of all bad habits and calm my passions, and let Your virtues increase in me. Let the depth of my soul open to Your grace through this fast so that it may totally affect and cleanse me.Help me to be always like Your Son in trials and temptations, to resist every temptation, so as to be able to serve You and seek Your word more and more, day after day so that we may become more and more like you and your Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit. Amen