Introduction
There are different kinds of fasts: a total fast from foods and liquids for a short interval of time; a liquid fast, in which only water may be drunk; a juice of smoothie fast, which involves drinking water and a given amount of juices or smoothies at normal mealtimes; a fast from meats, in which only fruits and vegetables may be eaten. Our twenty-one (21) day fast is based on Daniel 10: 1-3.
It is important to understand the effects of fasting on the spirit, soul, and body. Before committing to a fast, I encourage you to study the Word of God and to read material that will provide important nutritional and other health information. Understanding will help to avoid harm and injury – both physically and spiritually. If there are certain foods you have to eat and medications that must be taken please continue to follow your diet and fast from those things that you know you can give up.
Do not flaunt or display your fast in a way that may cause others to think you are bragging about what you’re doing, nor do we want to feel like we’re in a contest with others. Our fasting is between us (individually) and God. Do talk with your family and close associates if necessary to let them know what you are doing.
Let’s pray for each other and ask God to bless everyone that’s participating in this 21 day fast, as we commit the first part of the year (a First Fruit Offering) to The Lord. Remember, this is our commitment to The Lord and to ourselves as we seek Him for Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding of His Word and to have a closer walk with Him. We’re also asking God to bless the remainder of the year for us as we have committed the first part (First Fruit) to Him.
Our Prayer for The Week as We Start Our Fast:
Heavenly Father, I consecrate this fast to You and set my mind to gain understanding in these matters for which I am concerned. (Write your concerns out and keep them before your eyes and in your heart. Do not lose sight of the reason for your fast. Please pray also for Union Bethel Christian Church (your church) and leaders of the church.)
Lord, I humble myself before You, Most High God. In accordance with Daniel 10: 1 – 3, I commit myself to the fast-starting January 15th at 6:00 pm until February 5th at 6:00 pm following the schedule of items that we will be fasting from at the beginning of each week.
I obey the words of Jesus by putting on festive clothing, so that no one will suspect that I am fasting.
Father, you know every secret, and I look to You for my reward. I am assured that You hear me when I pray according to Your will, and I know that I shall have the petitions that I desire of You.
Father, I delight myself in You, and You cause my desires to be agreeable with Your will.
I choose the fast You have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. I share my food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter. When I see the naked, I will clothe him, and I will not turn away from my own flesh and blood, especially those who are of the household of faith. Then my light will break forth like the dawn, and my healing will quickly appear; then my righteousness will go before me, and Your GLORY, Lord, will be my rear guard.
Father, thank You for cleansing me – spirit, soul, and body. All my ways seem innocent to me, but my motives are weighed by You, my Lord and my Master. I commit this fast to You, and my plans will succeed. I thank You that it is You Who gives the wise answer of the tongue.
Forever, O Lord, Your Word stands firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, like the earth You created; it endures by Your decree, for everything serves Your plans.
In Jesus name, AMEN!!!!
PRAYER BASED ON THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Matthew 6:17-18
I Thessalonians 5:23
I John 5:14-15
Proverbs 16:1-3
Psalms 37:4
Psalms 119:89-91
Isaiah 58: 6-14
Matt 17:17-21
(Please take time to read the prayer reference Scriptures)
Schedule for the Fast:
Schedule for the first week: January 15 – January 21 We will be fasting from meat (This includes chicken and fish)
Schedule for the second week: January 22 – January 28 We will be fasting from all bread, desserts, crackers, etc…
Schedule for the third week: January 29 – February 5 We will be fasting from all soda, coffee, tea, caffeine, and alcoholic beverages
Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you each week. There may be other things He will direct you to give up. Be sensitive to His leading.
Scripture Readings for the Fast (First Week):
Sunday – Proverbs Chapters 1 and 16
Monday – Proverbs Chapters 2 and 17
Tuesday – Proverbs Chapters 3 and 18
Wednesday – Proverbs Chapters 4 and 19
Thursday – Proverbs Chapters 5 and 20
Friday – Proverbs Chapters 6 and 21
Saturday – Proverbs Chapters 7 and 22
I am praying for each of you and myself as we go through these 21 days together. If you get tired or weary and want to quit, DON’T!! Think about the reason you are fasting and continue to press toward the mark. You will be glad that you persevered. Blessings!!
Pastor Robinson
The Primary Focus of the Daniel Fast (Week 2)
As we continue the Daniel Fast (Dan 10:1-3), it is easy to focus on the food we’re giving up or the activities we have surrendered. It’s easy to focus on our abstinence and not on the basic purpose for which we are fasting. Let’s remember that God is not impressed just because we stop eating altogether or we stop eating certain foods, even if we do it for our health. God is not impressed with the outward actions of our fast. The secret of any fast is not what we keep from entering the stomach, but what comes out of the heart. God is primarily concerned with our inner person, not necessarily our outer body.
In Mark 9:29, Jesus described the spiritual energy (prayer and fasting) needed to remove spiritual barriers: “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Prayer and fasting works, Jesus tells us it does! So, we must give ourselves completely to prayer and to fasting, as we believe in God for growth, change, and intervention in our lives. We not only pray, we also fast; we not only fast, we also pray. The commitment of our outer body to fasting reflects our inner commitment to prayer. “Prayer and fasting” in this verse emphasizes continuous action. Which means we should fast more than once, or make fasting a regular practice, as a part of our “spiritual energy.” Remember what Jesus said, “when thou fastest,”(Matthew 6:17) this indicates we can decide to fast at any time. There may be times when we need direction on what to do, we can fast and pray. We may encounter difficult challenges, of various kinds, that require additional insight from The Lord; we can not only pray, but fast too. During our Daniel Fast, our decision of what we eat or what we withhold (fast) will have more influence on our prayer life than most other spiritual exercises. If we’re lacking respect for the fast, we’re likely to lack respect for praying, reading and meditating on Scripture. Our outer determination of what we are willing to give up (fast) is a great measuring stick of our spiritual desire and hunger for The Lord.
In Luke 9:23, Jesus says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” This involves turning to The Lord and putting Him first in our lives, and then turning away from anything that keeps us from following Him. There are three words in this verse that should influence our fasting. First, the word “deny” means that we should get rid of anything that hinders our relationship with The Lord. We must get off the throne of our hearts, and allow the Holy Spirit to sit there and control what we eat, drink, and especially how we pray. In Romans 8:26 the Word says, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The second word is “daily.” Following Jesus during our 21 day fast must be total dedication to The Lord during the entire fasting period, which ends February 5th at 6 o’clock pm. Remember, we started the fast last Sunday, January 15th at 6 o’clock pm. The third word is “follow.” Just as Jesus fasted (Luke 4:1-14) in preparation for His spiritual work, so must we follow His example with our Daniel Fast.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we continue to learn how to live in this natural world. We have a soul, and we live in a physical body. We are in the world, but we’re not of the world. We ask You to sanctify us in every way, and may our whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless during our time of prayer and fasting. Lord, we are called into this fast to seek and dedicate ourselves, not only for a 21day period, but for an eternity. We ask that our time of prayer and fasting has a powerful impact upon us, so much so that we’re changed inwardly to be even more committed to You, Your Word and Your ways. We simply ask that You bless us, O Lord, bless us indeed. Enlarge our spiritual territory, keep Your hand upon us, and keep us from evil, that it may not grieve us! Bless us and keep us, Heavenly Father, make your face shine upon us and give us hearts that will seek first Your Kingdom.
Lord, we are becoming spirit-conscious. We listen to the voice of Your Spirit and will obey Your instructions. We trust in You, Lord, with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding. In all of our ways we acknowledge You, and believe You will direct our paths. We walk in the light of Thy Word, Heavenly Father, depending on The Holy Spirit to be our Counselor, our Comforter, our Guide and Teacher. Your Word shall not depart out of mouths. We have been redeemed and we will continue to say so! We will meditate on Your Word day and night. Therefore, we will make our way prosperous, and we will have good success, not only during our fast, but also in life. We are doers of The Word and we put Your Word first.
In Jesus name!! AMEN!!!
PRAYER BASED ON THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
I Thessalonians 5:23, 24
John 16:13
Proverbs 20:27
Romans 12:1
Psalms 119:105
Ephesian 5:18
Isaiah 48:7
Ephesians 1:18
I John 4:12
I John 2:20
Romans 8:1, 14-16
Proverbs 3: 5-6
Psalms 107:2
Joshua 1:8
James 1:22
Matthew 6:33
SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR THE FAST (Second Week): Sunday – Proverbs Chapters 8 and 23
Monday – Proverbs Chapters 9 and 24
Tuesday – Proverbs Chapters 10 and 25
Wednesday – Proverbs Chapters 11 and 26
Thursday – Proverbs Chapters 12 and 27
Friday – Proverbs Chapters 13 and 28
Saturday – Proverbs Chapters 14 and 29
If you have the Bible App on your phone, listen and read along. Also, use different translations (KJV, NIV, NASB, etc….)
Praying for each of you as we move into our second week. We are not eating bread, desserts, crackers, or any bread product. Again, thank you and GOD BLESS!!
Pastor Robinson
Click here to view Week 2 as a PDF document
Moving Towards The Finish Line – Ending The Fast (Week 3)
I’m definitely not a pilot, but I’ve done some flying in my lifetime traveling to various places. I normally pay attention to any and all announcements made by the pilot. The pilot usually lets passengers know the altitude reached and often mentions how the plane will be leveling off at that altitude for a period of time. As the flight gets closer to the destination the pilot tells the flight attendants to prepare for landing and at some point will let the passengers know we are making our descent and the fasten seatbelt sign is turned on. The descent is important and critical to a safe landing. The pilot does not abruptly bring the plane down from the highest altitude reached during the flight. The plane is gradually brought down slowly in order to ensure a safe and smooth landing.
Ending a fast properly is just as important as landing from a long flight, or any flight for that matter. How we “come down” is critical to our safe arrival, as we move back into our regular lifestyle of eating. Our bodies need a gentle transition back to normal eating. The longer the fast, the longer the reentry period should be. We should patiently introduce the food we’ve given up, for a period of time, back into our bodies. If we return to normal eating too quickly, we can cause short term unpleasant symptoms such as nausea and stomach aches.
It is best to break a fast by eating fruit, broth, or a light salad, gradually adding other foods day by day. Continue drinking plenty of water, which is always a great thing to do. Drinking grape juice and eating our favorite fish meal (grilled or smoked) is good too. A good salmon meal is also a great idea in breaking a fast.
The fast will end at 6pm, Sunday, February 5th. At our 11am service, February 5th, there will be a special anointing service as we start the process of ending the fast. We will pray for everyone that participated in the fast and anoint those who come out for our in-person. After the anointing service we will continue fasting until 6pm. Spend time in prayer, thanking God for this season (21 days) of prayer and fasting. Take time to reflect on how The Lord opened our eyes and revealed various things to us during this season. Whether it’s spiritual insight in praying more effective and sincere prayers, getting understanding and wisdom from Scripture, or being creative in finding new meals and healthier foods to eat. As you’re led by The Holy Spirit, reflect and meditate on the fast and changes we’ve made, and things we’ve learned to get us closer to The Lord. Let’s not be in a hurry to get back to “the normal,” “familiar” things we’ve been used to doing. The
Lord may have shown us a better way of doing things during this season of fasting. Let’s use them!!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, You are our Light and our Salvation; whom shall we fear? You are the Strength of our lives; of whom shall we be afraid? We thank You for blessing us to get to this point in our fasting. As we move toward ending this season of prayer and fasting, we are grateful that You have blessed us with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of things we did not know before starting the fast. Continue to speak to us as we look to You for all things. We believe You’re blessing us with the desires of heart. Our greatest desire, O Lord, is to have a closer, more intimate walk and relationship with You. So bless us Lord like only You can!
We have given the first part of this year to You as a first-fruit offering. We’re believing You are going to bless the rest of our year in ways that we have not seen before. So we thank You, O Lord, for allowing us to honor You with this season of prayer and fasting. We pray that this season of sacrifice is acceptable unto Thee.
We rest in You, awaiting the manifestation of all that We required and inquired of You, Heavenly Father.
We thank You for giving us strength to face each day of our fasting with spiritual vitality and high expectations of Your presence. As we end this fast, continue directing us and blessing us, as we turn our hearts more and more towards You. We thank You for the spiritual and physical food You have blessed us with during this season of prayer and fasting, and we thank You in advance for what You have in store for us in the future. IN JESUS NAME!! AMEN!
PRAYER BASED ON THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Psalms 27:1
Psalms 92:14
I Timothy 4: 4-5
I Corinthians 2: 9-10
Psalms 37:4
Psalms 34:4
Jeremiah 29:11
Scripture Readings for the Fast (Third Week):
Sunday – Proverbs Chapter 15 and 30
Monday – Proverbs Chapter 31
Tuesday – Daniel Chapter 2
Wednesday – Daniel Chapter 6
Thursday – Daniel Chapter 9
Friday – Daniel Chapter 10
Saturday – Psalms 91
Click here to view Week 3 as a PDF document