PRAYER & FASTING RESOURCE

 

The purpose of fasting and prayer is to establish God's order in our lives, strengthen our faith, and open our hearts to hear from God. This fast will involve skipping at least one meal per day and anything else God directs you to change from your normal routine. 

Under grace, there is no "formula" or "rules" for fasting that "moves" God. Fasting does not move God, it moves us! Prayer connects you to God. Fasting disconnects you from the world. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and follow your faith decisions.

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   ~ Pastor Bryan Hudson, D.Min.

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SCRIPTURAL REASONS FOR FASTING

 

Fasting & Prayer for Humility

Psalm 35:13-14 “I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.  I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”

 

Fasting & Prayer to Overcome Bondage & Selfishness

Isaiah 58:3-7 “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”

 

Fasting for Greater Anointing and Spiritual Ability

Matthew 17:14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief, for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

 

WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT FASTING & PRAYER 

Matthew 6:16-18 ESV

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

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Teaching: "This Kind Does Not Go Out Except by Prayer and Fasting"