2012 Is Starting Fast!

I would like to wish each and every one of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is my first official “Word of the Week” for the year 2012 but the urgency for the subject matter fell upon me to act in December of 2011.

The week before Christmas, I had a dream my spirit was being lifted from my body head first from a horizontal position. While my body just laid there, I could see my spirit man being lifted, but there was difficulty releasing from the flesh. Quickly as I awoke from the dream, I heard repeatedly the word FAST, FAST, FAST three times!

“Lord, what did this dream mean?” I ask. Physically speaking I thought, “Maybe I do need to shed a few pounds (Smile)”. Spiritually, the dream was a revelation that the flesh was preventing me from arising. The message to me was very clear I was in need to undertake a fast to reconnect with the Lord and get a fresh word from God.

January 11, 2012 I will begin the Daniel Fast for 21 days and all are welcomed to join me as we will pray and seek to hear from the Lord together. There will be a page created on the PreachPastor.com entitled Daniel Fast along with a daily scripture to help us along during the day.

What is the Daniel fast? I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. - Daniel 10:3

Daniel fasted for three weeks, eating of only fruits and vegetables and drinking only water. (No sweets!) This is a great fast for Christians to practice spiritual discipline.

“Why must we fast?”

There are many reasons why we should fast and the bible is filled with numerous examples. When you need to hear the voice of God or need God to move on your behalf, prayer and fasting are spiritual aids that are at your disposal. According to the scripture, here are examples of fasting:

Jesus used the Word of God to defeat Satan (Fasting used as tool for Spiritual Warfare)

²And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. (Luke 4:2)

Moses, fasted before he heard from God and was given the 10 commandments (Fasting used to get a Word from God.)

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. (Exodus 34:28)

These are two examples of why we must fast and the importance of prayer why fasting and be summed up by referencing the following verses.

¹⁵And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. - James 5:15-16

“How do we fast?”

We are fasting to humble ourselves before God and offer our bodies as sacrifice to Him. So ask not what is our reward for what we have done but, we have done this because we want to please you Lord……

Isaiah 58:3-7

³Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

⁴Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

⁷Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Remember we fast……

Mathew 6: 16 - 18

¹⁶Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

¹⁷But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

¹⁸That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.