Fasting Devotional Final Day Jan 21

“Day 21: Your Final Day

Jesus said to His followers, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). Today is the final day of your fast. You have heard His Word, and you have obeyed. You are like that wise man with his house upon a rock! Don’t give in today. Press in and hear what the Spirit of the Lord would say to you.

Over twenty years ago when the Lord first called me to preach, He showed me some things that were for a time and season yet to come. I could not walk into all of His promises at once, but I knew He would lead me in His will as I was willing to sanctify myself and follow Him. Recently, the Lord has stirred my spirit with a sense that now is the time. It is as if He is saying, “You’ve prayed about it. You’ve dreamed about it. You’ve asked Me for it. You’ve longed for it. It’s been prophesied over you. Prepare yourself.”

“I traveled back to North Carolina, where I was born and raised. My grandfather still has a home in Middlesex, North Carolina. It is a beautiful mansionlike homestead set on acres of rolling, lush farmland with horses, cattle, even his own private airstrip for his plane. Twenty-eight children were raised in that house over the years, and all of them serve the Lord.

During that special visit back to my roots, my heritage, I spent time each day walking that airstrip and the fields in prayer and communion with God. I felt the Holy Spirit’s leading to visit the place down the road where He first called me to preach. I had not been back there in twenty-two years. I went down to that wonderful old Church of God sanctuary and sat down in the very spot of my calling. I can remember like it was yesterday. I was on a three-day fast, and I was crying out, “Oh, God, can You use me? Why are You calling me to preach? I can’t do it. I don’t know how to preach. I’m afraid. I’m not worthy. I’m not good enough.” “I was giving Him all the excuses and all the fear. I didn’t realize that during that three-day fast I was cutting off the flesh with a sharp knife.

Finally, on the third day, I heard His voice in my spirit say, “I’ve called you to preach. Go and do what I’ve called you to do.” I said, “Lord, if this is truly Your will, then let my mother confirm it when I get home, even though it’s past midnight. Let her be up, and let her confirm it.” I was young, and it never hurts to ask for clarity! I walked out of that tiny sanctuary weeping, got into my car, and drove barely a quarter mile home. When I walked back to Mom’s bedroom, she was on her knees praying. As soon as I saw her, she whirled around, pointed her finger, and started speaking with stammering lips: “Jentezen, God has called you to preach. Go and do what He has called you to do.”

“What if you set yourself to diligently seek the Lord, sanctifying yourself with a fast and journey back to the spot where it all began—where He saved you, set you free, filled you with His Spirit, and called you out? I actually physically traveled to that spot, but if you cannot do that, you can go back mentally. You can recall the ancient landmark, that same simplicity, innocence, and dedication with which you first responded to His voice.

• Just as Joshua called the children of promise to sanctify themselves—I believe that, likewise, your “tomorrow” is just around the corner. God is going to do wonders in your life, leading you places you have never been before.

•

Fasting will bring you into destiny. Fasting will bring you into alignment with God’s plan for your life. Now is the time to fast, to seek God diligently, to sanctify yourself, to discern God’s priorities, and to walk in His promises. Go for it!”

“On your twenty-first day of fasting, remember:

• Find someone and share your experience with that person.

• Replenish yourself with liquids, and prepare to ease back into solid food on the twenty-second day.

• Be thankful and rejoice.

• Write your feelings in your prayer journal.

• Anticipation increases regarding what the Lord is doing in your life.

Praise God!

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• On this final day, ask the Lord to reveal to you if there is any unforgiveness, bitterness, or other hindrances that you have yet to lay fully before your Lord.

• Prepare for blessing, harvest, and an anointing like you have never experienced before.

• Get ready because the rest of this year will not be like any other before it!

Prayer Focus Day 21: Spirit of Prayer for the Holy Spirit to Fall”

“Why is this the prayer focus on the last day of your fast? Because by now you are so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that you realize nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else will do in a world gone mad. This world needs the touch of God. It needs the sweeping movement of the Holy Spirit convicting men of sin and drawing them to the cross. But you have to hunger for it. You have to thirst for it. There’s a difference between wanting a drink and being thirsty. When you’re thirsty, everything in you says, “I’ve got to have it.” And when you get thirsty, He’ll pour out His Spirit. So, focus your prayers today on a spirit of prayer to be released in churches and homes across this land, prayer that God will pour out His Holy Spirit and revive us again!

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

—ROMANS 5:1–4”

Devotional Day 20

“Day 20: His Will, Not Yours

By now, your fast has led you through many different emotions and levels of God’s presence. You are beginning to see the reward of the humbling of your flesh that can only take place during a fast. You are dying to your own will and desires, and sensing the desires of His heart filling you and prompting you to great things. Continue on this journey!

God’s priorities are seldom our priorities. That is the difference in the nature of man and the nature of God. He even said so: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9, NIV). So, how do we position ourselves to hear from God? How do we free ourselves from our own desires, to know His will? Well, I can tell you from firsthand experience that fasting causes you to take that sword of God’s Word and separate what you “want” from what you “need.”

“When you fast and sanctify yourself unto God, it moves you off the bank and into the miracles! There are too many people on the edge of what God is doing, and not enough of us standing firmly in the middle of His will. Do you want things to change in your home? You are the priest of your home—fast, sanctify yourself, and take a firm stand in the middle of God’s will! When your family sees you stepping off the edge of mere “Sunday morning religion” and getting right into the middle of what God is doing, they will follow and find God’s direction for their lives.

You should be attached to a local body of believers instead of just trying to find your own way. If ever there was a time where we needed to be crossing together, taking a firm, united stand against sin in this nation, it is now. We need each other. We need a spirit of togetherness. We need a spirit of trust. We need a spirit of unity. We need a spirit of compassion for one another.”

“We desire to be in the will of God and to walk according to His plans. Sanctification is the key to being in God’s will. As Paul said, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). Fasting is an essential means of sanctifying yourself, pulling yourself away from the world, and getting closer to God. Fasting allows you to filter your life and to set yourself apart to seek the Lord.

Fasting is what prepares you for a new anointing (Mark 2:20). God can’t put that kind of wine in old skins. If you want new wine, new miracles, new closeness, new intimacy with Him, then it’s time to call a fast and shed that old skin for the new.

On your twentieth day of fasting, remember:”

• “Pray and stay in God’s Word.

• Worship God through music and praise.

• Cravings are apparent, but you’ve lasted this long!

Thoughts for your journal:

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• Take some time today and go back to read your journal entries from the start of the fast to this twentieth day.

• What do your journal entries tell you about your own personal journey these last three weeks?

• Take a moment and journal about the breakthroughs you have experienced or key things the Lord has shown you during the fast. Spend time in prayer and thanksgiving.

Prayer Focus Day 20: Laborers Into the Harvest Field”

“God said, “Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession” (Ps. 2:8). Jesus told us, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt. 9:38, NIV). On this twentieth day of your fast, focus your prayers on these two key instructions from heaven. Cry out to God to save multitudes in the valley of decision. Cry out for the lost and hurting, the poor, the addicted. Ask Him to send missionaries, ambassadors of His Word, into the earth.

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.

—MATTHEW 4:16”

Fasting Devotional day19

“Day 19: Rewarded Openly

Whether done corporately or individually, fasting is a personal, private discipline. It is a sacrifice born out of expectancy. Job went through a devastating trial and lost everything. Yet he continued to pray and fast, saying, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). God “restored Job’s losses,” and “blessed the latter days of Job more than the first,” and even gave him more sons and daughters. God’s open rewards flooded Job’s life.

I want to share with you some of the open rewards that God told me He would pour out on us at Free Chapel as we were diligent to seek Him in giving, praying, and fasting. These same rewards are open to every believer!”

“First, He told me that fasting will break poverty from your life. As I plant a seed each time I fast, major blessings return on my life. Again looking at Joel 2:15–16, the people were so poor and in such a famine that they couldn’t even bring an offering. But God said to “blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (KJV). After that fast, the threshing floor was full of wheat, the oil vats were overflowing, and they ate in plenty and were satisfied. The Lord brought great financial blessing to people who fasted and prayed. When fasting is a lifestyle, poverty will not be.

God also said that health and healing would follow fasting. Of His chosen fast God said, “Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily” (Isa. 58:8). Fasting humbles you and brings clarity, even allowing you to get unforgiveness and bitterness out of your heart. Some people have tried and tried to truly forgive someone but have never been able to let the matter go. “Begin a fast, and trust God to work that in your heart. Earlier in the book, I told you how fasting helps you physically because it cleanses your body and gives your organs time to rest. It also helps you “spring clean” in a spiritual sense because it makes you sensitive to the desires of the Lord. Unforgiveness, bitterness, and the like can all be linked to illnesses, fatigue, stress, and more.”

“Fasting will also help you overcome sexual addictions and demonic powers. It will break great sin off people. In Matthew 17:21, Jesus said of that stubborn demon that “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Remember? Now, we don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. But there is a spirit behind homosexuality. There is a spirit behind pornography. There is a spirit behind adultery. There is a spirit behind fornication. These demonic spirits of perversion manipulate and use people like puppets on a string. But fasting will break the stronghold of demonic sexual addictions like pornography, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, and lust.

God will also target your children who are being led off and destroyed by the enemy’s devices. In the Book of Joel, God called for a holy fast. And He said, “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28). Many times the rewards of fasting come after the fast, though from time to time answers can come during the fast. Look at the story of Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, who became king of “Judah (2 Chron. 33:1–13). Manasseh was a wicked king whom God had warned many times to no avail. Then the army of Assyria captured Hezekiah’s son, put a hook in his nose, bound him in chains, and took him to Babylon. In his distress, Manasseh cried out to God and humbled himself with fasting. The Bible says God heard his plea and “brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God” (v. 13).”

“The scandals and corruption on the front pages of our newspapers and the gross perversion that is prevalent on every level of society tell us how much we need revival in this country. How much more should we, as Christians, devote ourselves to fasting and prayer?

On your nineteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Continue to drink water.

• Pray for guidance and strength.

• Document your thoughts in your journal.

Thoughts for your journal:

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)”

• “Consider what you would be willing to share with others today. How you will articulate your experience, and what it has meant to you in terms of your relationship with God?

Prayer Focus Day 19: Revival

Revival is when Earth is attacked by heaven. Revival is an awesome move of God that affects you in powerful ways. Revival is when you get closer to heaven than you are to anything on Earth. We need revival in America. We need heaven to touch Earth with power. So, as you near the end of your fast, pray for revival. Ask God to send the rain of His Spirit on the land to break up the hardened hearts and bring forth a harvest of souls. Cry out for it as a desperate man crying out for water in the desert. Our young people need revival. We need revival. The church needs revival. In the past, the great revivals were always preceded by seasons of fasting and prayer. Do not grow weary, but stand strong in the power of His might!

“LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

—HABAKKUK 3:2, NIV”

Fasting Devotional January 18

“Day 18: God Is Your Rock

God doesn’t want you to worry. He wants to be in control of your life and guide you through your daily challenges. As you are fasting and giving God your body, give Him your spirit too.

Someone once sent me a mustard seed from Israel. Just to put things into perspective, a butter bean seed is about four hundred times bigger than a mustard seed, but it will yield only a small bush. On the other hand, a common mustard seed is only about one millimeter in diameter, and it grows into a small tree. The more common mustard plants are perennial, growing back year after year and developing deeper root systems each season. You could try to pull one of these little trees out of the ground, but the stems would most likely break, leaving the roots to regenerate a new plant.”

“That is the type of faith we are to have! Jesus put the emphasis on how great our God is, not how great our faith is. With only a tiny bit of faith, like a mustard seed, we can move mountains, and nothing shall be impossible.

As Christians, we need to stop measuring our faith by the size of the problem. We need to start looking instead at how great our God is. We need to plant that seed of faith—no matter how small—into whatever mountain stands in our way and believe it will be moved, because Jesus said it would.

When Peter tried to walk on water, he made it only a few steps because he took his eyes off Jesus, and fear dragged him down.

When he began to sink, Jesus lifted him up out of the water and said, “You of little faith” (Matt. 14:31). Peter did have little faith because that is what it took to walk on water.

If he could do that with just a little faith, imagine what will happen when that faith increases!”

“In the closing chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the writer tells us, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7, NIV). As I asked before, if our Lord fasted, why would we think that we should not fast? There is no record of Jesus ever healing anyone until He returned from the forty days of fasting that launched His earthly ministry. Jesus said we would do even greater works than He did, because He was returning to the Father. If Jesus did not begin to minister before fasting, how can we?

Satan gets disturbed—and defeated—when you decide to do more than be a Sunday-morning Christian. The devil knows that fasting releases God’s power.

On your eighteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Pray and stay in God’s Word.

• Continue to journal your experiences.

• Meditate on what this fast means to you.

Thoughts for your journal:”

“(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

Examine any areas of unforgiveness and bitterness that the Lord is asking you to surrender to Him.

Prayer Focus Day 18: Binding Oppression and Fear

There may be times in your life when your enemies or circumstances seem to be so large and so powerful that they are all you can see. In Psalm 69, David is crying out that he was sinking in “deep mire” (v. 2) and the floods were overtaking him. But his heart turned to worship despite his circumstances. When you worship, you not only magnify God, but you also reduce the size and power of everything else around you. God will hear you when you set your heart to worship Him. When you magnify the Lord, you shrink the supposed power of your enemy, the devil. The greatest thing you can do in the midst of a battle is to magnify the Lord. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:30).”

“What areas do you need to magnify the Lord in today?

(Write your answers in a separate journal.)

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

—PSALM 34:3–4”

Fasting Devotional Day 17

“Day 17: Nothing Is Impossible With God

God desires to move powerfully in your life. His plans for you are always progressing and developing. He desires to speak to you, as one would speak to a friend. That’s how He spoke with Abraham. We must get to the place where we are desperate for God again. We must begin to desire Him more than food or drink. Let us be filled with the bread of presence instead of the refuse of religion.”

“The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews is often referred to as “the hall of faith,” beginning with the words, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Some of the most encouraging words in the Bible are found in this book. It is said that after the birth of Seth to Adam and Eve, people began to call on the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26). Enoch was born many years later, and his life went a step beyond merely calling on the name of the Lord. Thousands of years after his departure from this earth, the writer of the Book of Hebrews said of him: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5, KJV).

What was it about Enoch that was different from those before him? What about his life was so pleasing to God? The answer is found in Hebrews:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

—HEBREWS 11:6, KJV

Enoch knew God. Not only that, but Genesis 5:22 also says that Enoch “walked with God” for three hundred years! Now, if I were to choose what could be said of me, I would want my testimony to be “he pleased God.” Notice that Enoch did not try to please people. In fact, Jude records that Enoch prophesied in a manner that would have made him very unpopular with the party crowd (Jude 14–15). Enoch’s primary concern was walking in faith, which is what pleases God. According to Hebrews 11:6, it is reasonable to say that Enoch came to God, he believed God, he diligently sought God, and he was rewarded.”

“If you want to please God, believe God. Take Him at His Word. When the apostle Paul was teaching the Corinthians, a knowledge-seeking society, he told them, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked by faith and not by sight. The three of them joined Daniel in his initial fast from the king’s delicacies. Think about what they saw on their way into that furnace. It had been heated seven times hotter than normal. The heat was so intense that it killed the guards standing by the doors. If they had walked by sight, they would have said, “Today we shall surely be ashes.” Instead, by faith, they walked on, saying, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king” (Dan. 3:17). Faith is the evidence of things unseen.

Jesus put the emphasis on how great our God is, not how great our faith is. With only a tiny bit of faith, like a mustard seed, we can move mountains, and nothing shall be impossible.”

“On your sixteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Listen to worship music for inspiration and support.

• Reflect on your fast and how it is helping you to grow spiritually.

• Cravings are apparent.

Thoughts for your journal:

(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• Reflect on those situations from God’s Word that seemed impossible but for the power of God.

• What situations in your life seem impossible and need God’s touch?

Prayer Focus Day 17: Mentors and Discipleship”

“As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, ‘I will follow You wherever You go’” (Luke 9:57, NASU ). It is one thing to say you will follow Jesus; it is another to see it through, even when the road is narrow, steep, and nearly impossible. We all need fathers and mothers in the faith who have walked the road with Jesus and can gently help us along at times. These mentors are invaluable when they are of the Lord. Pray today that God will bring right relationships into your life…fathers and mothers in the faith who can strengthen you and build you up.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

—EPHESIANS 4:11–13, NIV”

Fasting Devotional Day 16

“Day 16: Purest Worship

The discipline of fasting breaks you out of the world’s routine. It is a form of worship—offering your body to God as a living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1). The discipline of fasting will humble you, remind you of your dependency on God, and bring you back to your first love. It causes the roots of your relationship with Jesus, and your worship, to go deeper.

Heaviness drains worship out of your life. Church is depressing unless you learn to worship. I know that is a strange statement, but it is true. There is nothing worse than a Spirit-filled church that loses the garment of praise and picks up the spirit of heaviness. God desires our praise more than our mere church attendance. That is not to say we should forsake assembling together as a corporate body. But our times together, just as our times alone, should be to glorify and praise our awesome, mighty God. Praise pushes back the enemy!”

“One of my favorite examples of this fact is found in 2 Chronicles. King Jehoshaphat is told “‘a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar’ (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah” (2 Chron. 20:2–3).

Now, Jehoshaphat had just gotten the kingdom of Judah in order. Things were going well. No sooner did they start enjoying that peace when they heard that an army—far larger than they could defeat on their own—was already on its way. Jehoshaphat could have died under that spirit of heaviness. The scripture says that he “feared,” but he only paused a moment there. He immediately set himself and all the people of Judah to seek the Lord through fasting and prayer. Then he took his place in the assembly of the people and began to praise—proclaiming who God was and all that God had done for them. He ended by saying, “We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes“are upon You” (v. 12). Then they waited.”

“How many times do we find ourselves saying that same thing: “I don’t know what to do. This problem is far too big for me to handle.” We must put our eyes on God! The story continues: “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel…a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly” (2 Chron. 20:14). God told them that the battle was not theirs but His. He told them exactly where the enemy would be, but He said, “‘You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you” (v. 17).

I don’t know about you, but realizing that the Lord was going to destroy my enemies would be reason enough to shout! And that is just what the people of Judah did. Young and old “stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with voices loud and high.” The next day, they went early to the place the Lord had directed them. “Then Jehoshaphat addressed the people again saying:”

 “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever.

—2 CHRONICLES 20:20–21

Now, notice what happened when they began to praise: “The LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated” (v. 22).”

“There is power in corporate fasting and power in corporate praise! It creates a river of healing, a river of deliverance and victory, a river of cleansing in the house of God. It is time to exchange ashes for beauty, mourning for joy, and a garment of heaviness for a garment of praise.

The discipline of fasting breaks you out of the world’s routine. It is a form of worship—offering your body to God as a living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1).

On your sixteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Observe your prayer time and prayer place.

• Reflect on your fast and how it is helping you to grow spiritually.

• Your senses become more sensitive to your surroundings and the voice of God.

Thoughts for your journal:”

“(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• Remember to stay the course. Write out your thoughts on how you can continue to present your body as a living sacrifice, and see if the Lord does not open up the windows of heaven to you and shower you with His presence.

• Fasting is a form of worship that will humble you. Remind yourself of your dependency on God.

Prayer Focus Day 16: Personal Ministry”

“God has given you giftings to use for His purposes. It makes me think of Abraham and the five dynamics that brought him into the place of ministry, the place of destiny that God had for him. First, he could “hear” God. Second, Abraham believed what he heard. Third, he came to a place of denouncing the comfort zone he lived in, in order to follow God’s leading. Fourth, Abraham had the courage to follow God’s direction for his life. And finally, he had the tenacity to focus on the promise and not the problems that stood in his way. So, on this day of the fast, I encourage you to pray and seek God about His purpose and plan for your life, your ministry unto Him.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

—MATTHEW 16:24, NASU”

Fasting Devotional Day 15

“Day 16: Purest Worship

The discipline of fasting breaks you out of the world’s routine. It is a form of worship—offering your body to God as a living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1). The discipline of fasting will humble you, remind you of your dependency on God, and bring you back to your first love. It causes the roots of your relationship with Jesus, and your worship, to go deeper.

Heaviness drains worship out of your life. Church is depressing unless you learn to worship. I know that is a strange statement, but it is true. There is nothing worse than a Spirit-filled church that loses the garment of praise and picks up the spirit of heaviness. God desires our praise more than our mere church attendance. That is not to say we should forsake assembling together as a corporate body. But our times together, just as our times alone, should be to glorify and praise our awesome, mighty God. Praise pushes back the enemy!”

“One of my favorite examples of this fact is found in 2 Chronicles. King Jehoshaphat is told “‘a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar’ (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah” (2 Chron. 20:2–3).

Now, Jehoshaphat had just gotten the kingdom of Judah in order. Things were going well. No sooner did they start enjoying that peace when they heard that an army—far larger than they could defeat on their own—was already on its way. Jehoshaphat could have died under that spirit of heaviness. The scripture says that he “feared,” but he only paused a moment there. He immediately set himself and all the people of Judah to seek the Lord through fasting and prayer. Then he took his place in the assembly of the people and began to praise—proclaiming who God was and all that God had done for them. He ended by saying, “We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes“are upon You” (v. 12). Then they waited.”

“How many times do we find ourselves saying that same thing: “I don’t know what to do. This problem is far too big for me to handle.” We must put our eyes on God! The story continues: “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel…a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly” (2 Chron. 20:14). God told them that the battle was not theirs but His. He told them exactly where the enemy would be, but He said, “‘You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you” (v. 17).

I don’t know about you, but realizing that the Lord was going to destroy my enemies would be reason enough to shout! And that is just what the people of Judah did. Young and old “stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with voices loud and high.” The next day, they went early to the place the Lord had directed them. “Then Jehoshaphat addressed the people again saying:”

 “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever.

—2 CHRONICLES 20:20–21

Now, notice what happened when they began to praise: “The LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated” (v. 22).”

“There is power in corporate fasting and power in corporate praise! It creates a river of healing, a river of deliverance and victory, a river of cleansing in the house of God. It is time to exchange ashes for beauty, mourning for joy, and a garment of heaviness for a garment of praise.

The discipline of fasting breaks you out of the world’s routine. It is a form of worship—offering your body to God as a living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1).

On your sixteenth day of fasting, remember:

• Observe your prayer time and prayer place.

• Reflect on your fast and how it is helping you to grow spiritually.

• Your senses become more sensitive to your surroundings and the voice of God.

Thoughts for your journal:”

“(Write your thoughts in a separate journal.)

• Remember to stay the course. Write out your thoughts on how you can continue to present your body as a living sacrifice, and see if the Lord does not open up the windows of heaven to you and shower you with His presence.

• Fasting is a form of worship that will humble you. Remind yourself of your dependency on God.

Prayer Focus Day 16: Personal Ministry”

“God has given you giftings to use for His purposes. It makes me think of Abraham and the five dynamics that brought him into the place of ministry, the place of destiny that God had for him. First, he could “hear” God. Second, Abraham believed what he heard. Third, he came to a place of denouncing the comfort zone he lived in, in order to follow God’s leading. Fourth, Abraham had the courage to follow God’s direction for his life. And finally, he had the tenacity to focus on the promise and not the problems that stood in his way. So, on this day of the fast, I encourage you to pray and seek God about His purpose and plan for your life, your ministry unto Him.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

—MATTHEW 16:24, NASU”