Displaying items by tag: Fasting

Friday, 21 April 2023 10:09

Prayer, fasting and action

Intercessors across these isles fasted from 17 to 19 April and prayed to push back spiritual darkness. You may not have joined the three one-hour online prayer meetings, but here are some common themes which you can pray and do now. Pray for God’s Kingdom to come down in your street, neighbourhood, town or city. Pray that the Church may rise up boldly to proclaim the Gospel, loving God and loving people. Pray for the younger generation to be visited by God and His Word as they hear and respond to the Gospel. Pray for Bible-believing churches, movements and organisations to unite against unbiblical ideologies, same-sex marriage, and gender Identity. Pray for those in government and leadership. Pray for the incoming monarch, King Charles III. Pray for key prayer needs that are important to you in your location, sphere or context.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 03 September 2020 09:59

The Return / 10 Days: 18-28 September 2020

‘10 Days’ Joins ‘The Return’ in Calling Christians to Worldwide Prayer, Fasting, Repentance

Thousands To Converge on Washington Mall for ‘The Return’ on Sept. 26, Flanked by Prayer Inspired by Ancient ‘10 Days of Awe’' Sep 18-28, 2020

NEW YORK—As political discord and a pandemic threaten societies around the world, prayer movements are gaining momentum and some have united to shape a global Christian revival with Washington, D.C., at its epicenter.

Thousands of Christians and more than 100 denominations of churches have committed themselves in prayer and collaboration leading up to “The Return: National and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance.”

“The Return” (TheReturn.org) is set for 40 days before the presidential election, and on the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, in the days of America’s founding and dedication to God. Surrounding the “The Day of Return” on Sept. 26 at the Washington Mall will be 10 days, known from ancient times as the Days of Awe, to be set as a special time of prayer and repentance on Sept. 18-28.

“10 Days” (10days.net), a movement of prayer, fasting, and repentance in unity based on the 10 Days of Awe, has been invited to collaborate with “The Return” as movement leaders call Americans to turn from sin and humble themselves before God.

“We are in the midst of a multi-faceted crisis right now, a crisis that no human being knows how to solve,” said “10 Days” leader Jonathan Friz. “An insoluble problem should lead us to self-reflection. What if instead of blaming one another, we took time to consider how our own actions and self-will have contributed to the current state of political division, racial strife, pestilence? What if instead of placing ourselves on a pedestal as judge, we would humble ourselves before the only Judge, and seek His mercy in a time of national and global calamity?”

Echoing Jesus’s prayer at the Last Supper that His followers would be unified, “The Return” and “10 Days” are pooling efforts to inspire Christians everywhere to call on the name of the Lord as the only source of hope for their countries.

Ramping up to the September climax, “10 Days” is leading a three-pronged prayer strategy for “The Return” that includes personal intercession for movement leaders, weekly Zoom prayer calls, and a “Consecration Challenge” aimed at mobilizing 120,000 believers in dedicated prayer and fasting.

Grant Berry and Jonathan Friz are working with “The Return” by leading the weekly global prayer intercession.

Coordinated events within “The Return” movement will also take place throughout America’s cities, towns, houses of worship and homes, as well as in multiple countries around the world, as many believe the nation has been given a critical window of opportunity to repent and return to God.

Visit “The Return” at www.TheReturn.org to register and learn more. Follow “The Return” on social media at Facebook: @ReturnEvent2020; Twitter: @2020_Return; and Instagram: @The_Return2020.

Two brief videos about The Return's reaching out to make it an international effort:

Download your copy of the 10 Day Prayer Plan!

Please contact Jonathan Friz at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more info about how your nation can participate.

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Global Jesus Fast - Beholding the Lamb

March 1st - April 9th 2020

We want to join with Lou Engle’s call to a Global 40 day fast to see a world-wide manifestation of Jesus the Evangelist!  https://louengle.com/thejesusfast/

Before Jesus ever performed a miracle, before He ever preached the gospel, the Spirit of God drove Him into the wilderness to fast. He came out of that fast in the power of the Holy Spirit. Before there was an original Jesus movement there was an original Jesus Fast. For 20yrs Lou Engle has been calling an entire generation to extended prayer and fasting. Now at the threshold of a global harvest we are calling for a world-wide Jesus Fast. As the late Bill Bright (founder of  Campus Crusade/CRU) shared,

“I believe the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world”

Please prayerfully consider how the Spirit would lead you during this time of prayer and fasting. Here are some practical guidelines to help you think how to get started! https://www.ihopkc.org/about/fasting-guidelines-and-information/

I put together a devotional guide called ‘Beholding the Lamb’ to help us meditate on Jesus during this season of fasting.  You can download your copy at our website here.

Fasting is Feasting - 8 Fundamental Truths about Fasting

  1. Fasting is not a command but a spiritual discipline. Biblical Fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. The Bible assumes we will fast. Jesus simply takes it for granted ( 6:16-18/ “when you fast.” In Mark 2 we see the same emphasis. When the Pharisees queried why Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast, he explained it in terms of his own physical presence on earth. “The days will come,” he said, “when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” The point here is that the Messiah has come like a bridegroom to a wedding feast. Such a moment is too joyful and stunning and exciting to mingle with fasting. Groomsmen don’t fast at the bachelor party! The rehearsal dinner is no place to be sad. Jesus is present. The time for celebration is upon us. When the wedding feast is over and the bridegroom has departed, then it is appropriate to fast.
  2. Fasting is Feasting motivated by deep desire. That is to say, fasting is not the suppression of desire but the intense pursuit of it. We fast because we want something more than food or more than whatever activity it is from which we abstain. If one suppresses the desire for food it is only because he or she has a greater and more intense desire for something more precious. Something of eternal value.

    That is why I say that fasting is feasting! The ironic thing about fasting is that it really isn’t about not eating food. It’s about feeding on the fullness of every divine blessing secured for us in Christ. Fasting tenderizes our hearts to experience the presence of God. It expands the capacity of our souls to hear his voice and be assured of his love and be filled with the fullness of his joy.

    Fasting is all about ingesting the Word of God, the beauty of God, the presence of God, the blessings of God. It is not a giving up of food (or some activity) for its own sake. It is about a giving up of food for Christ’s sake.
  3. Fasting is not something you do for God. It is instead your appeal that God in grace and power do everything for you. Thus fasting is not an act of willpower but a declaration of weakness. It is not a work of our hearts and bodies but a confession of our utter dependency on God and his grace.
  4. Fasting is not a statement that food or other things are bad, but that God is better! In other words, fasting is not a rejection of the many blessings God has given to us, but an affirmation that in the ultimate sense we prefer the Giver to his gifts. Fasting is a declaration that God is enough.
  5. Perhaps the most instructive insight about fasting is what we learn when we compare it to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a feasting that looks backward in time, whereas fasting is a feasting that looks forward in time. The breaking of bread and drinking the cup is done “in remembrance” of our Lord’s historic, and therefore past, act of sacrifice. Thus by eating and drinking we celebrate the finality and sufficiency of that atoning death and that glorious resurrection. But when we fast we look forward “in expectation” to the consummation of Christ’s saving work and his personal presence forever. When we sit at Christ’s table with other believers we gratefully, fearfully, joyfully feast upon that food and drink that remind us of what has happened. And when we turn away from the table where otherwise daily meals are served we declare our deep yearning for what has not yet happened.
  6. It is crucial that we understand the difference between being seen fasting, on the one hand, and fasting to be seen, on the other. Or again, to be seen fasting is not a sin. Fasting to be seen is (see Matt. 6:16). True, godly fasting is motivated by a heart for God, not human admiration. Being seen fasting is merely an external, and often unavoidable, reality. But fasting to be seen is a self-exalting motive of the heart.
  7. Fasting opens our spiritual eyes to see him more clearly in Scripture and sensitizes our hearts to enjoy God’s presence. Look closely at Acts 13:1-3. Their fasting became the occasion for the Spirit's guidance to be communicated to them. Don't miss the obvious causal link that Luke draws. It was while/when or even because they were ministering to the Lord and fasting that the Holy Spirit spoke. I’m not suggesting that fasting puts God in our debt, as if it compels him to respond to us. But God does promise to be found by those who diligently seek him with their whole heart (Jer. 29:12-13). And what God said to them in the course of their fasting changed history. The results, both immediate and long-term, are stunning, for prior to this incident the church had progressed little, if at all, beyond the eastern seacoast of the Mediterranean. Paul had as yet taken no missionary journeys westward to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, or Spain. Neither had he written any of his epistles. All his letters were the result of the missionary journeys he was to take and the churches he was to plant. This occasion of prayer and fasting birthed Paul’s missionary journeys and led to the writing of 13 of our NT books! (I’m indebted to John Piper for these insights on Acts 13)
  8. Fasting is a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare and a preparation for anointed ministry! See Mt. 4:1-11 (Jesus fasted in preparation for resisting the temptations of Satan) and Mark 9:29 (Mt. 17:14-21). Fasting heightens our complete dependence upon God and forces us to draw on him and his power, and to believe fully in his strength. This explains why Jesus fasted in preparation for facing the temptations of Satan in the wilderness (Mt. 4:1-11; see Mark 9:29Mt. 17:14-21). When Jesus returns from the wilderness, he does so in the ‘power of the Spirit’ to Galilee! See Luke 4:14

Dr Jason Hubbard - Executive Co-ordinator
IPC Connect

Saturday, 29 February 2020 04:03

2020 National Prayer Assembly (USA)

History belongs to those who connect with God and one another in prayer!

If you are a prayer leader or intercessor with a heart for America, please join us at the 2020 National Prayer Assembly to seek the face of the Lord and be His history-changers!

View our video invitation HERE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxN8Of7Rw8&feature=youtu.be

Register Now!

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/regform?llr=xhwszpbab&oeidk=a07egq16hr746cc94db

National Prayer Assembly schedule and accommodations:

Wednesday, October 14 - 9 am to 9 pm (fasting is encouraged if you are able to do so; otherwise there are restaurants available nearby). Beverages will be served throughout the day. Please arrive by 8:45 am so we can start promptly.

Thursday, October 15 - 9 am to 5 pm (a deli lunch will be served along with beverages available throughout the day). Your beverages and lunch are included in your registration fee.

If you need a hotel during your stay, you can find the best deals on Trivago.com or Booking.com. Please make your own accommodation arrangements. There are several reasonably priced hotels within a few blocks walk to the National Housing Center. 

The NPA is an alliance of prayer networks and ministries that enables us to flow together as One Body for the revival and transformation of America.

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. (Ps 134:2)

Let's come together to praise our mighty King and lift up His name for our nation.

It takes place here:

National Housing Center
1201 15th St NW
Washington, DC 20005

Tracey de Blank
INTERCESSORS FOR AMERICA
800-872-7729
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

More: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07egq16hr746cc94db&llr=xhwszpbab&showPage=true

Friday, 21 February 2020 07:57

People broken before the Lord

Revival is happening in Tennessee. People from various denominations, by praying and fasting together, are seeking to ignite the fire of God to transform lives in a thousand churches across the state. ‘Awaken Tennessee’, a prayer and fasting initiative from 26 January to 23 February, is described by Pastor John Butler as ‘a concentrated prayer effort across the state for true revival in our churches that triggers an awakening in local communities, the state and the nation’. The initiative started last year when 400 churches in Nashville came together to pray for every single resident of their city. This was a huge success, so this year organisers invited churches across the state to participate. Award-winning singers / songwriters Terry and Barbi Franklin, using their prayer network, contacted churches to take part in the initiative. Pastors are reporting that their services are exploding with revival services as a result of the Holy Spirit showing up and taking over.

Published in Praise Reports

Media Release

For the fifth year in a row, Australia is calling the nations of the world to join with them to pray and fast for five days for America, from 30 April – 4 May 2017.

April 30 is America’s National Day of Repentance. May 4 is America’s National Day of Prayer.

‘For your Great Name’s Sake – Hear Us, Forgive Us and Heal Us’ is the theme for 4 May, 2017.

Promo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwpqby8fJK0

Wesley Leake, a member of the National Day of Prayer team said, “God has done amazing things in America since we began to pray and fast, but God can do greater things yet! We in Australia believe it is our turn to stand in the gap for the nation of America and pray for revival and transformation for the USA through prayer and fasting according to 2 Chronicles 7:14. The new administration cannot bring revival to America, only God can do that. We in Australia are grateful for the protection that America gave Australia and the nations of the free world during World War II. The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought by USA in 1942, was the turning point in the Second World War for Australia. Thank God for America!”

Ps Melissa Haigh, also part of the National Day of Prayer team said, “Abraham Lincoln, on 30 April 1863 called for a Day of ‘Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting’ at a time of great national crisis by Governmental decree which said, “We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God…We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness”.”

Haigh continued, “Unfortunately, today America is again in crisis because it has forgotten God.  America is in great danger from within and without. The situation in Australia is not much different. We in our nation have forgotten God and we are paying the price for our rebellion.”  

Warwick Marsh, from the National Day of Prayer team said, “We welcome Vice President Pence to Australia and are thankful for his strong Christian conviction but we need what governments cannot do. America and Australia need revival and reformation. We need God. We invite you to join with us in five days of prayer and fasting for the USA. Together we can make a difference.” 

National Day of Prayer & Fasting. www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/nationaldayofprayerandfasting    

Please get the word out to others you know in different nations to join in this wonderful effort. Pray for five days of anointed and powerful prayer that God will use to bring breakthrough in the USA and a healing of the awful divisions that have developed even stronger since the US national elections. Pray that America will indeed come back to the Lord in a massive wave of repentance and revival. May it be ignited during these days that start this Sunday!

Wednesday, 18 January 2017 12:53

21 Days of prayer and fasting

We are encouraging a period of prayer and fasting at the start of the year in 2017.

We sense the need to push in prayer at the start of 2017 because of the potential of this significant year.

The lining up of the national 'Mill statement' by prayer leaders in 2015, Malcolm Duncan’s refocusing on the Smith Wigglesworth revival prophecy at the World Prayer Centre conference this year, the deep significance of Brexit, the Trumpet Call about Jubilee over the British Isles, anointed street evangelism in Reading and other places - all point towards an increase in the move of the Spirit to expect in coming months.

We are aware that the prophet Daniel in Daniel chapter 9, when he realised a 70 year prophecy was soon to be fulfilled, didn’t just rejoice and accept it, but prayed and fasted to help pray in the fulfilment of it. We sense the need to partner & birth the new season.

As Beacon house of prayer, supported by UK houses of prayer network, we are suggesting 21 days of prayer and fasting to start when appropriate in January; we are going from Monday 23rd to Sunday 12th February, but we know a couple of other HOPs are doing the start of January.

Exact timing is not so important, as long as there is a covering of prayer at the start of 2017.

We are attaching a very simple prayer guide outline for any HOPs and prayer groups that would like to take this up.

Download the prayer & fasting guide

Download prophetic words

 

Source: Beacon House of Prayer

 

Published in WPC News