The Invitation of Fasting and Prayer
If you read this post, you might very well have labelled me crazy, fanatical, or over the edge.
Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are, to have had such an intense encounter.
But if you think about it, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8) wouldn’t it make sense, that as I, and our team, did the Daniel Fast, we might just get answered from heaven, the way Daniel did?
Read it with me….
Daniel 10
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision.
At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 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.
4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael,one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come….
…Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. 19 “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”
When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.”
20 So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; 21 but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.)
Daniel, humbled himself, and obtained because he mourned for his people and He wanted his God. He sought and he found. He asked and he received. He emptied himself and he was filled….with insights and wisdom.
Are there insights and wisdom and vision and understanding that God desires to give to us? And maybe we are too busy and too distracted and too dependent upon our own strength to be in a place to receive them?
And maybe fasting in prayer is not suppose to be a source of guilt, or condemnation or burden, but rather an invitation?
An invitation to allow God to reveal himself to us, an invitation to still our mind and hearts long enough to receive HIS words, “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed…Peace! Be strong now. Be strong.”
Maybe it is an invitation to lose the choice food, in order to gain choice wisdom and insight.
Maybe it is an invitation to be weak, so that we can truly know His strength.
Maybe it is an invitation to forsake dependence upon ourselves and our plans, and embrace a continual dependance upon our Savior and the promptings into His plans.
And what if, just as the angel that appeared to Daniel was fighting in the spiritual realm for the authorities and politics of his day, he is continuing to fight?
And what if the invitation into fasting and prayer is a way in which we, ourselves can engage in the battle in the Middle East?
And what if the invitation is how we do battle for the unborn and the Planned Parenthood schemes of deception and murder?
And what if it is an invitation to fight for our own land by crying out for God for repentance and renewal?
What if it is an invitation to have the biggest influence on the political offices of our country?
What if all is not lost?
What if a simple invitation into fasting and prayer might be the way God uses YOU to change the course of history?
He is King on His Throne.
Over political races.
Over ISIS.
Over the Syrian refugee crisis.
Over our land.
Over our communities
Over our homes.
So let us approach that throne with confidence and boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)