What is Fasting?
Fasting, according to the Bible, means to voluntarily reduce or eliminate your intake of food for a specific time and purpose.
- Fasting is a spiritual discipline
- Jesus expected His followers to fast
- God rewards fasting
- Matthew 6:16-18
According to The Spiritual Discipline of Fasting by Pastor Lance Witt
- Fasting is not so much about food as it is about focus.
- Fasting is not so much about saying no to the body as it is about saying yes to the Spirit.
- Fasting is not about doing without, it is about looking within.
- Fasting is an outward response to an inward attitude and cry of the soul.
Why Fast?
There are many reasons why we fast. For the purpose of Harmony Fellowship’s corporate fast 2021, we will focus on the following reasons to enhance our ministry:
- Guidance
- Repentance
- Strengthening Prayers
The Importance of Fasting
Fasting prepares you to receive God’s blessing.
- Fasting is not “earning” an answer to prayer. God cannot be blackmailed by human effort. God wants to answer our prayers and He answers out of grace. Fasting simply prepares us for God’s answer.
In the Bible, God’s people fasted immediately before a major victory, miracle, or answer to prayer.
- Daniel fasted in order to receive guidance from God.
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” Daniel 9:3
“While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.'” Daniel 9:21-22
- Jesus fasted during His victory over temptation.
“For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.” Luke 4:2
- The first Christians fasted during-decision making times.
“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” Acts 13:2-3
Harmony Family,
As we begin our 2022 corporate fast at Harmony Fellowship, I pray that God hears our plea to Him for unity and to be closer to Him as we move forward in this ministry.
Below is our pledge for January 2022:
I will choose a minimum of one day per week (throughout the month of January) to commit myself to corporate fasting and prayer.
* Fast from food only if your health allows it at this time. If you are able to do only a partial fast – do it in faith and God will honor your intentions.
*You are free to have your regular prayer time, the corporate fast should be a special time of prayer focused around the unity of our corporate body at Harmony Fellowship.
I beseech you brothers and sisters to follow me as I follow Christ. To God be the Glory!
Pastor Lyndrell Randle
The following is the prayer guide we will use as we pray together in unity as a body of Christ:
Unity Fast 2022 Fasting Outline
WEEK 1: UNITY WITH GOD
Start out 2022 giving God all of you. Search your heart and mind and surrender all to the will of God. Matt 22:37 tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Meditation Scripture:
John 17:23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Goal: This week commit yourself to God. Focus on what areas of your life need attention so that you can have perfect unity with God.
WEEK 2: UNITY WITH FAMILY
For any Christian, your 1st ministry is your family. I’m encouraging each of us to take time to focus on our families and allow God to guide us in unity.
Meditation Scripture:
Psalms 128:3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table.
Goal: This week fast and pray for your families. Try having family dinner every night and discuss how the fasting and prayer is growing each member of the family.
WEEK 3: UNITY WITH THE CHURCH
The church is God’s tool for reaching people for Christ. God made each of us unique and we each have something to offer to the body of Christ to make our ministry more fruitful. Ephes 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Meditation Scripture:
Colossians 3:14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Goal: This week pray about sharing your time, your gifts and your finances to grow the ministry.
Areas that need your love in the ministry:
Children’s Ministry Youth Ministry
Life Group Ministry Outreach Ministry
Clean up Ministry Van Ministry
Campus Maintenance Ministry Food Pantry Ministry
WEEK 4: UNITY WITH THE COMMUNITY
Our community today needs to see mature faithful Christians. The church is the bride of Christ and we play a major role in bringing balance within the family, community and the world. Scripture shares Matt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
Meditation Scripture:
Acts 2:46-47 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Goal: Throughout this week pray and ask God to show you how to be an active part of sharing Christ and bringing others to know God.