Awakening: Day 5

[Chad]

One of the reasons I think prayer and fasting are so powerful when combined is that together they activate a chain reaction where we see God’s kingdom manifest on earth. This sequence is what I call agreement…alignment…assignment. When we come into agreement with God, we are aligned with God’s perfect will on earth as it already is in heaven. When we are aligned with heaven, we find that God can use us in ways we never thought possible; then we begin to walk in our assignment –the purpose that God created us to fulfill.

God has given you a specific and unique assignment. You are a masterpiece designed by God to make a difference in this world. There is a very specific purpose for which you were created. God is the only One who can truly inform you of that purpose, and in order to fulfill it, you will need His power.

Here’s the deal: when it comes to pursuing our God-given assignment, if you and I are not in tune with God’s voice, we will only hear the voice of the crowd and get weighed down by the pressures of life. Like a radio station we can’t quite hear clearly, all the voices will cause static and make it difficult for us to tune into the Voice we need to hear.

As you fast, let your hunger help you focus on God. Every time you experience a pang of hunger, ask God to increase your hunger for Him in the same way that you hunger for food.

Excerpts taken from Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom by Stovall Weems (pp. 73 and 83)

 

[Dovegiven]

One of the reasons I think prayer and fasting are so powerful when combined is that together they activate a chain reaction where we see God’s kingdom manifest on earth. This sequence is what I call agreement…alignment…assignment. When we come into agreement with God, we are aligned with God’s perfect will on earth as it already is in heaven. When we are aligned with heaven, we find that God can use us in ways we never thought possible; then we begin to walk in our assignment –the purpose that God created us to fulfill.

God has given you a specific and unique assignment. You are a masterpiece designed by God to make a difference in this world. There is a very specific purpose for which you were created. God is the only One who can truly inform you of that purpose, and in order to fulfill it, you will need His power.

Here’s the deal: when it comes to pursuing our God-given assignment, if you and I are not in tune with God’s voice, we will only hear the voice of the crowd and get weighed down by the pressures of life. Like a radio station we can’t quite hear clearly, all the voices will cause static and make it difficult for us to tune into the Voice we need to hear.

As you fast, let your hunger help you focus on God. Every time you experience a pang of hunger, ask God to increase your hunger for Him in the same way that you hunger for food.

Excerpts taken from Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom by Stovall Weems (pp. 73 and 83)

Excellent thread! Very vital for Christians.

I act on my belief that there's a next higher hunger for God than even hunger for food. I'll explain if OK, or you can move this to the health section.

I've been keeping off excess weight a few years after dropping 50 unhealthy pounds. The Lord has answered my many prayers to help me conquer frequent hungers for food. What works for me is intermittent fasting, twice a week fasting 18 hours by skipping two breakfast meals a week, on odd numbered days. It's taught me not to eat anything even after the fasts until my stomach growls. Quite often now it doesn't complain at all. The fast has helped shrink the hunger pain frequency and intensity. That's a lot different from the majority of my life not missing a meal voluntarily, eating whenever others eat, on time morning, noon and evening, lest commonly feared the asteroid might hit and there will be no more.

That set me up to try a week long fast. It was too difficult, too much to get my mind focused on God at all. I lost weight but that wasn't my goal. It was necessary to train into that, adding 18 hour fasts back to back gradually. I realized folks who fast long periods of days and weeks don't just jump into that practice, but have made fasting with prayer a long-time practice for years, like Jesus did. A lesson learned is to ignore natural food hunger until the Lord releases me to resume eating a lot less food than most people believe they need.

A basketball pro needs up to seven thousand calories a day, yet stays in shape. I am retired, working on fair weather days (few this winter!), now requiring under 1,000 or less on days I do eat something. That doesn't leave me starving for any meal. But now what has replaced those pains is like a deer on a dry mountain panting for a sip of water. I wake up praying and getting into the word. When my wife gets up we pray. That goes on until I leave to do ministry or chores. We spend the days at home continuing to pray and study together. I like to cook, she eats it except for my limited sampling.

I say all that because most Christians agree they ought to fast with praying more, but what I hear is failure, folks just not knowing how to start doing it, or keep it up effectively. That natural hunger situation is in my opinion out of control like it was for me most of my life, needing to be broken by discipline. All of us Christians have power to just get to it. Prayer works to get over the natural hunger supernaturally, For me, on a fourth day of extended fasting I arise to not desire food at all even though surrounded by it. Having grand children here after school has a lot of snacks, but there is no temptation for that. Once that fourth day passes I can pray "through" with no distraction. I am fasting TV too, as the news boggles my mind and robs me of sound sleep. It needs to be set on the Lord's mind, not cable news, or food. Keep the water going!

 

[Dovegiven]

Chad, the mention 'together they activate a chain reaction where we see God’s kingdom manifest on earth. This sequence is what I call agreement…alignment…assignment. When we come into agreement with God, we are aligned with God’s perfect will on earth as it already is in heaven." is very significant.

When taking people along to bless vets in the VA home, putting hands on people with missing parts, praying for and sometimes with them, it can be daunting enough to want to find reasons not to be available to go with me the next week. I truly understand. I was there too, feeling powerless to be of any use, or not believing I was authorized to even try. "Me? What to say to them?" Folks freeze up when dealing with what seems impossible. The best secret Jesus had for success with ministry was I believe His frequent fasting and prayer. The results were astounding. That was passed on to disciples, and is meant to be a frequent occurrence for us too.

One thing about fasting is that by denying one's own flesh, it's easier to confront the weaknesses of others. It's very possible the main problem many people suffer from is loneliness, even if surrounded by people. A facet of manifesting the Kingdom of God is that fasting and prayer helps me detect such subtle possibilities, seeing there is no use in stopping the fast & prayer upon leaving the house. The Holy Spirit helps discern things like that, but that is easily squashed if watching the watch for lunchtime. He will also help you realize when to finish so as not to impose your lack of hunger upon a man looking forward to his lunch being delivered.