PRAYER AND FASTING GUIDE

2022

21 Days of Fasting and Prayer

 “Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.”
Joel 2:15

What is Fasting All About?

Many of us have either rarely or never participated in a fast and

have questions about what fasting involves and why it is
important. While Jesus never commanded us to fast, He clearly
expected His followers to fast (Matthew 6:16; 9:15), and fasting
was a vital part of the early church (Acts 13:2-3).

The fundamental purpose of fasting is to seek God. Jesus warned

against improper motives for fasting (Matthew 6:16-18) and we
would do well to remember that success in prayer, being filled
with spiritual insight or power, or even physical benefits are not
the reason why we fast. We fast because we want God. It is a
central expression of our hunger for God. We are praying asking
God for revival, to awaken us!

Fasting is an intentional decision to abstain from the nourishment of

this world in order to feast on the nourishment of God alone
(Matthew 4:4). We are feasting on the Word of God. When we fast,
we truly feast on God’s Word and God’s Presence in a way that
reminds us of His sufficiency and satisfaction.

Fasting also reveals to us the desires that control us. We have a

tendency to cover up what is in our hearts with food and other good
things, but when we fast these things come to the surface. God
uncovers our pride; He exposes our self-sufficiency; and He reveals
many areas of our life where we have compromised our relationship
with Him. He also brings to light our dependence on His presence
and His power to accomplish His purposes in our lives.
(John 4:31-34).
 A Lifestyle of Fasting
Mike Bickle

God uses fasting and the Word of God as a Holy Spirit catalyst to speed
up the process and to enlarge the measure and depth of which we receive
the beauty of the Lord.

Fasting has very powerful rewards that are primarily internal, aimed at the
human heart. In a word, we gain more desire. Not only is there an
impartation of new desires, but also there is the removal or diminution of
sinful desires.

o Fasting releases supernatural joy. You will find that the hunger to
experience God begins to dominate your life.

o Fasting tenderizes the human heart to God and increases our

spiritual capacity to receive from Him! John the Baptist was not
fasting for miracles but for the enlargement of his heart in God.

o Fasting illuminates the mind with the spirit of revelation and

sharpens our understanding of the Word! Your revelation of the
things of God will increase when you fast! God opens the realm of
secrets to those who draw near to Him. Psalm 25:14.

o Fasting enlarges our emotions, particularly righteousness. As we

fast, our emotional chemistry changes radically … in having zeal for
God’s purpose and God’s ways. We discover more of His emotions,
which we didn’t know He had.

o Through fasting God grants us divine perspective on life. Fasting

doesn’t always remove problems; rather, problems come into divine
perspective.

o Fasting gives you good decision-making power.

o Fasting strengthens a deep sense of our spiritual identity as sons

before a Father and a bride before the Bridegroom.

o When you hear the voice of the Bridegroom, it changes what you
want and what you fear losing! Fasting will increase your
detachment from irrelevant opinions.
 How Do You Fast?

I encourage you to miss breakfast and lunch and then have dinner
(if you need to). Drink plenty of water and fresh fruit or vegetable
juices. (If you choose to fast for 21 days please drink a glassful a
laxative of your choice to keep your bowel movements soft). You
will feel hunger pangs or discomfort at various points, your body
temperature will drop a degree or two, and initially you will get
tired as your body detoxes, but let this simply focus you on the
inner attitude of your heart. If you are able, devote the time that
you would normally eat or snack to prayer, meditation, or Bible
study. Then every night for 21 days, join us for one hour of prayer
in our sanctuary at 6.30pm.

Other Fasting Options

No TV, Internet, Facebook or Twitter for 21 days - go on a media

fast! Or, just read the Bible, no other books, for 21 days.

How Does Not Eating Affect Us Spiritually?

The fact is that all of us – without exception – use food to cover up

emotions, feelings, and circumstances in our lives. Food is a
medication of sorts, and fasting removes the medication from our
mouths. In its place, we have to find nourishment from God. In the
words of John Piper, fasting “brings up out of the dark places of
my soul the dissatisfactions in relationships, the frustrations of the
ministry, the fears of failure, the emptiness of wasted time. And
just when my heart begins to retreat to the delicious hope of
eating supper with friends…[fasting] quietly reminds me, not
tonight.” He continues, “The hope of food gave you the good
feelings to balance out the bad feelings. But now the balance is
off. You must find another way to deal with it.” And that “other
way” is through the presence of God.
In one sense, fasting is intended to be a personal and private
observance hidden from others (Matthew 6:16-18). At the same
time, evidence of God’s work in and through His people
throughout history show that God’s people have many times come
together for a corporate and more public fast.
(2 Chronicles 20; Esther 4; Joel 2; Acts 13).
Leaders of the church in South Korea point to corporate prayer
and fasting as the primary means by which God has brought about
spiritual awakening throughout their country. Fasting together as
a community of faith is a way to express not only personally, but
also corporately, that we are dependent on God and hungry for
more of Him.
Charles Spurgeon, the great pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle
in London, once said, “Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the
Tabernacle have been high days indeed; never has Heaven’s gate
stood wider; never have our hearts been nearer the central Glory.”
May God use our fasting at Island Church to open up the gates of
Heaven and pour out His Spirit on His Church so that we might
experience His great glory in our day.

EXPECTATIONS DURING OUR 21 DAYS

OF FASTING AND PRAYER

1. Start off your days of fasting and prayer with a focus firmly
centered on worshiping God, that He will:

ü Speak to us!
ü Renew our passion and zeal for Himself and His House!
ü Restore our energy and desire for the things of God!
ü Refresh us spiritually!
ü Awaken us to His reality and life!
ü Encounter us sovereignly!
ü Pour out His Spirit and send Revival!
ü That His Glory will reside among us!
 2. Some of the things you will encounter when you fast that you
will need to press through:

ü Spiritual resistance and opposition

ü Tiredness!
ü Wanting to give up!
ü A sense it is not making any difference anyway!
ü Be on your guard against intensified temptation!

Resist the enemy!

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink
from death.
Revelation 12:11.

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7.

Every night at 6:30PM during our 21 days of fasting and prayer we

will meet together for one hour of praise and worship to declare the
greatness of our God and to seek Him in humility.

Since ancient times no one has heard,

No ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 64:4.
 FASTING REFERENCES
Isaiah 58:6 - "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?”
Joel 1:14 - Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the
elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
Joel 2:12 17 - "Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all
your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your
heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is
gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and
have pity and leave behind a blessing - grain offerings and drink
offerings for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a
holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the
assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those
nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the
bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare
your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of
scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the
peoples, 'Where is their God?' "
Matthew 4:2 - After fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus)
was hungry.
Matthew 6:16-18 - When you fast, do not look somber as the
hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are
fasting. I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full.
But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that
it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your
Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you.
Mark 2:18 -20 - Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.
Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples
and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?"
Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while
he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.
But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from
them, and on that day they will fast.”
Luke 2:37 - and then Anna was a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and
praying.
Acts 13:2 - 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."
Acts 14:23 - Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each
church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in
whom they had put their trust.
2 Chronicles 7:14 - If My people, who are called by My Name, will
humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their
wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.

EXAMPLES OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO FASTED

Exodus 34:28 - Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty
nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the
tablets the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 9:9 - When I went up on the mountain to receive the

tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made
with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate
no bread and drank no water.

Deuteronomy 9:18 - Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord
for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,
because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the
Lord's sight and so provoking him to anger.
Ezra 10:6 - Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and
went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he
ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over
the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Nehemiah 1:4 - When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For
some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Esther 4:14-16 - For if you remain silent at this time, relief and
deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and
your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have
come to royal position for such a time as this?" Then Esther sent this
reply to Mordecai: "Go; gather together all the Jews who are in Susa,
and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and
my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king,
even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."
Psalm 35:13 - Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled
myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered.
Daniel 9:3 - So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in
prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel 10:3 - I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips;
and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
Matthew 6:2,5 & 16 - So when you give to the needy, when you pray,
when you fast.
Luke 4:1-2 - Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was
tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the
end of them he was hungry.
Acts 9:9 - For three days he (Paul) was blind, and did not eat or drink
anything.
BOOKS ON FASTING AND PRAYER
 GOD IN OUR MIDST
J.I. Packer

Proposes that, among the variety of God’s ways,

Five constants appear in biblical revivals:
1. Awareness of God’s presence:
“The first and fundamental feature in renewal is the sense that God
has drawn awesomely near in his holiness, mercy and might.”
2. Responsiveness to God’s Word:
“The message of Scripture which previously was making only a
superficial impact, if that, now searches its hearers and readers to
the depth of their being.”
3. Sensitiveness to sin:
“Consciences become tender and a profound humbling takes place.”
4. Liveliness in community:
“Love and generosity, unity and joy, assurance and boldness, a spirit
of praise and prayer, and a passion to reach out to win others, are
recurring marks of renewed communities.”
5. Fruitfulness in testimony:
“Christians proclaim by word and deed the power of the new life,
souls are won, and a community conscience informed by Christian
values emerges.”
No Church, no community can experience these heavenly powers
without earthly upheaval.
Moreover, it is a pastor’s job to pray for and preach toward biblical
revival. Therefore, a faithful pastor cannot do his job without
accepting that the gospel he preaches will shake things up.
Pages 24-35
 Eight Benefits of Fasting
Stovall Weems

ü Spiritual disciplines such as fasting and prayer are key

components to hearing from God.

ü In a focused time of fasting and prayer, we sense or experience

the pleasure, the power and the presence of God. It’s because
we have taken the time to draw near to God.

ü Jesus did say, when we pray, when we give and when we fast!

ü Fasting disconnects us from the world and connects us into the

power and presence of God!

ü Fasting hits the reset button on your soul!

ü Fasting brings you into greater alignment with God in a way

that prayer alone cannot!

ü Through fasting we shut down our natural man so that our

spiritual man can rise up!

ü Fasting is very healthy for your physical body!

 Breakthrough Fast
Apostle Guillermo Maldonado

Fasting is not about depriving yourself but about

expanding your ability to receive and release the presence
and power of the Spirit.

Fasting is not about being physically hungry but about

being spiritually hungry for God so you can be filled with
the life that truly satisfies.

Fasting is not about losing out on what is natural but about

gaining what is supernatural.

The value of fasting is incalculable—for your relationship

with God and for His purposes in the world. Make it a way
of life starting today.

Jesus said, “Your Father who sees [your fasting] in secret

will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:18).
 TWELVE PROTOCOLS OF THE PALACE
Tommy Tenney

1. Never underestimate the potential of one encounter.

2. Seek the heart of the King, not the splendor of His Kingdom.
3. One day of favor can be worth more than a lifetime of labor.
4. Worship is the protocol that protects the King and qualifies the
visitor.
5. Influence flows from intimacy, and access comes from relationship.
6. If you know what the King favors, you become a favorite.
7. If your enemy is the King’s enemy, then your battle is the King’s
battle.
8. Favor is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
9. The deeper you go into the palace, the fewer the people, but the
greater the provision.
10. When the enemy plots your demise, the King is planning your
reward.
11. Favor can restore in a day what was stolen over a lifetime.
12. One night with the King changes everything.

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position
for such a time as this!”
Esther 4:14
 I keep asking that the
God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the glorious
Father, may give you the
spirit of wisdom and
revelation (apocalypsis),
so that you may know
Him better.
Ephesians 1.17

“Apocalypsis”

Pulling back
Unveiling
the curtain

Breaking
Opening up
through