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Tips for a 7 Day Fast with Prayer

Prayer and fasting are merely the intense seekings of God and His presence.   Many times, we enter a fast because we want something in our lives to change and we are desperately seeking a way to jump-start that change.   Unfortunately, when “getting God to move” is the purpose for a fast, we finished our fast hungry and disappointed.   The purpose is not to “get God to move” but to get us to change our perspective.   We cannot force God to refurbish our lives in seven days by eating less food and saying a few prayers, but we can seek Him to acquire from Him the wisdom and knowledge we may desperately need.

God’s desire is for us to be conformed to the image of His son Jesus is greater than His willingness to grant our prayer requests.   I make this statement with the understanding that He will give us anything according to His will when we ask Him in the name of Jesus.   He is a gracious father and will not withhold what we need from us.   He has instructed us to be anxious for nothing because He will take care of us.   Therefore, prayer and fasting are more about changing our perspective and obtaining guidance and direction from God.  It is a catalyst for an increase in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.   It gives us the courage to tackle difficulties, gives us creative solutions to problems, and specific directions regarding our next steps in life.

So let’s take time to pray and fast with the objective to obtain wisdom and understanding.   Here is a seven-day meditation plan to assist you along the way.   Each day focus on the scripture for the day by meditating on it and praying it over your life.

Chose a fast that you can stick to over seven days.   You may select one of the following:

  1. Specific Food or Activity Fast – Eliminating particular food from your meal (meat, processed or fast food, or sweets). Disconnect from the world (no TV, social media, etc..)
  2. Daniel Fast
  3. Juice Fast
  4. Water Fast
  5. Total Fast – no liquid, solid food, or water (please consult a physician if you have medical concerns.)

Here are the scriptures to meditate on during your fast.

DAY 1:  James 1:5-6 (NIV)   If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

DAY 2:  Philippians 2:5 (KJV)  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

DAY 3:  Proverbs 4:7 (KJV)   Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

DAY 4:  Proverbs 2:1-6 (NLT)  My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.  Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.  Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.  For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

DAY 5:  Colossians 1:9-10 (KJV)   For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

DAY 6:  Ephesians 1:17-18 (KJV)  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

DAY 7:  2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

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It’s A Privilege

It’s a privilege to preach the word of life.   It’s an honor to be called to carry living water and pour it out upon God’s people.   It’s a privilege to teach the word of God and explain mysteries such that revelation knowledge is imparted to His people.   It’s an honor to prophesy and speak words of encouragement and wisdom that gives God’s people confidence that He has great thoughts and plans for their lives.  It’s a privilege.  It’s an honor.

I believe we all start off in ministry just as Saul the first anointed king of Israel.   He was humble, and he saw himself as least among the Benjamites.  “… Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? …”  1 Samuel 9:21.   We often refer to Saul from the perspective of his actions toward David.  However, I encourage you to look back at how Saul began his anointed reign of Israel.   He was anointed and appointed by God for God’s purpose.  God told Samuel, “To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me,”  1 Samuel 9:16.   God heard the cry of His people, and even in their rebellion, He sought to deliver them from the Philistines.   Saul was to be the vessel God used to bring about deliverance, but this did not happen.   Saul became arrogant, prideful, and tormented by demons.   He did not fulfill the promise of God on His life because although he was anointed, his heart was full of self and not of God.

Saul had an anointed purpose, and God appointed him for that purpose.   We ignorantly think that we can behave any way we want and God will remain faithful and not remove His hand from us.   We forget that although Saul reigned for forty-two years over Israel (1 Samuel 13:1), God removed the kingdom from his hand long before his reign ended.  Holding the position is not the same as carrying the anointing.

As God was calling me into the ministry, He had me study Saul.   He showed me that just because we are anointed that does not mean we are in a relationship with Him.   God taught me how power can easily corrupt and cause one to believe in oneself more than in Him.   He showed me how our relationship with Him must be paramount to everything else not the number of members in our church, how much the people shout as we preach, or how much money we collected during the offering.   My primary goal in ministry is to please Him.

Today, we have lowered our standards for what is the most sacred experience in the kingdom of God, and that is to be a vessel for the master’s use.    I know we have lowered our standards by the number of ministers whose behavior is nothing like the behavior of Christ.   We have become lords over our congregations, moguls of the ministry, and defenders of the perversions of the world.  We have forgotten the power of the “good news,” and we have mixed it with words that tickle the ears of people and comforts their flesh.   We have forgotten that all power in heaven and earth was given to Jesus Christ and if we point His sheep to Him, HE will save, heal, deliver, and set free His people.

I encourage you to do a heart check.   I know that as I write this, God is purging my heart and breaking the fallow ground of complacency that had become rooted within me so that I can be used as a double-edged sword that strikes the kingdom of darkness into submission. He desires that we are apostles, prophets, teachers, and preachers that consider everything worthless except the value of knowing Christ Jesus.   So, let’s all do a heart check and remember that it is indeed an honor to be called by God.  It’s a privilege.

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Bold Prayer

Simply, prayer is a conversation between God and us.   It is a time to make requests and to ask God to intervene on our behalf and behalf of others but more importantly it is a time to hear Gods’ voice.   Prayer is where we can seek and find answers to our problems and find peace to execute the instructions given to us by God.  Bold prayer starts with confidence in God.  Our confidence is in God’s willingness to hear us and His ability to answer our petition.   We go to our Father God assured of His love for us and confident that He desires nothing but the best for us.  God so wholly loves us that He gave Himself for us.   For that reason, we cannot doubt His willingness to hear our hearts prayer.

The covenant written with the blood of Jesus gives us confidence in our prayers.   This covenant has freed us from the grips of sin and death and has given us full authority to intercede by petitioning God.  The blood of Jesus ratifies or validates our covenant with God.  In this new covenant, God has accepted the ultimate sacrifice, and no other sacrifice is needed.   This new covenant so satisfies God’s holy requirement for sin’s punishment that no other sacrifice is required for us to have an intimate relationship with God.   This new intimate fellowship with God is why Jesus tells us in John 14:13-14, John 15:7, John 15:16, John 16:23-24, and John 16:26 to ask anything in His name.   We are to pray in the name of Jesus, or we are to present all that Jesus is and know confidently that His cleansing blood takes away all our sins and permits us to go boldly before the throne of God in prayer.  We do not go before God hesitantly hoping that maybe he might hear us.  We are free from the fear of condemnation and our transgressions.   The blood of Jesus has ripped the veil that prevented us from entering the holy place.  We now have full, open, unhindered access to God.   That is why we can be confident and persistent when we pray.   There is nothing that would prevent God from hearing us or moving on our behalf.

We also pray because we believe that God has the power and the willingness to address, change, and improve the situation or circumstance for which we are praying.   Our prayers are petitioned for the will of God to occur for us and those for whom we are interceding.  The model prayer is in Matthew 6.  That model instructs us to invite the kingdom of God to come and for God’s will to be done just as His will is in heaven.

Your kingdom comes, You will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matt 6:10 (AMP)

Invite the will of God into your prayers and be confident that God hears you every time you pray?  How exciting to know that the creator of the universe desires to have a conversation with us and is still listening and responding to us.   We must believe that He is.   We cannot hear God if we don’t think that He would talk to us.   We cannot allow our prayers to become routine and repetitious void of the joy found in conversing with our Redeemer.  We pray confidently knowing that God always hears and is still listening to us.       Just as God always hears Jesus, he hears us.   A hindrance to prayer is the lack of belief that the petition or prayer is heard. Not that God can perform the request but that he listened to our petition.  Be confident that the veil has been pulled away and because you have surrendered your life to Jesus, God hears you.   Pray with your whole heart, pray your heart’s desire and trust in the God that hears you.