Fasting & prayer for breakthrough, for the impossible to become possible, for the supernatural to manifest in the natural, for God’s Kingdom to prevail over the realm of Darkness and God’s Glory and Power to arise and defeat the enemy of our soul
This teaching is an exhortation for anyone who wishes to fast for the purpose of prayer. This exhortation wants to help in a practical way concerning fasting with dedication, and not just fasting in the sense of not eating. The key to fasting is not whether we eat or not, but whether we have been able to dedicate/consecrate a period unto the Lord to seek His Face.
Why do we find it hard to fast, and especially when it is for a period of several days, as opposed to one day fasting? It is because there needs to be a goal first, a vision, which mobilizes us and generates in us the strong desire to discipline our body and apply self-control.
1 Corinthians 9:25 And everyone who competes [for the prize] is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a perishable crown, but we [for] an imperishable [crown.] 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as [one who] beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring [it] into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Proverbs 29:18 Where [there is] no revelation [prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint; But happy [is] he who keeps the law. [Alternative: Without revelation people run wild, but one who listens to instruction will be happy.]
Fasting and prayer for breakthrough:
Mark 9:28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
1 Corinthians 7:4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband [does.] And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife [does.] 5 Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
In Isaiah chapter 58, God explains through the prophet that the day of fasting is not just a day of not eating. Here Isaiah speaks about the day of the Sabbath rest, which was for the Jews a day of abstaining from work, which included all the preparations for the meal and for the feeding of the animals. This chapter exposes the wrong motives for fasting, and, explains the vanity of religious fasting. It shows the true purpose of fasting, which is to manifest God’s Kingdom on earth by means of how people live their lives as a community, and, the good that God wants to do to His people. In other words, it is implied that through true fasting of faith instead of religion, God’s true purposes can be accomplished in the earth.
An important key for a successful fast is the dedication/consecration:
Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room.
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George E Markakis is the founder/Pastor of “Shalom Center”, a House of Prayer in the center of Athens, Hellas (Greece, since 2003). His main ministry is to the nations, since 1997 that the Lord called him to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God (“Shalom Apostolic Ministries”).