Feasting On His Presence – A Seven Day Fast

FEASTING ON HIS PRESENCE 

I am calling for a fast and want us to be in union of focus on our 7-Day fasting together. We will begin the fast on Sunday, January 21st and wrap it up with our 12-Hour Prayer Chain on Saturday January 27th. I invite you to join with the family and Feast on The Father’s Presence. I am asking us to focus on some emphases together that I have included below. 

In addition, I want to bring some clarity and understanding of fasting and what a fast involves. I hope the following paragraphs will bring that clarity.   

WHAT A FAST INVOLVES 

 A fast involves sacrificing something important (even vital, like food) to create time, space, and focus to commune with God about the things on His heart and yours. In this way, fasting is feasting on His sustaining presence. In John 4 Jesus sent his disciples into town to get food, for he needed to rest from the journey. As he was resting at a well, he met Photini coming to get water in the middle of the day. After that encounter the disciples returned with his food and urged Jesus to eat. His response? Jn 4:31-34 (TPT) “Then the disciples began to insist that Jesus eat some of the food they brought back from the village, saying, “Teacher, you must eat something.” But Jesus told them, “Don’t worry about me. I have eaten a meal you don’t know about.” Puzzled by this, the disciples began to discuss among themselves, “Did someone already bring him food? Where did he get this meal?” Then Jesus spoke up and said, “My food is to be doing the will of him who sent me and bring it to completion.”   

Fasting is feasting on the Father’s Presence and there is food that is not food. The goal is to draw near to God, so it always involves speaking with and listening to God. Merely abstaining from food or some other activity is not the goal, but a means to create the space to focus on communion with Him. I propose in this communion with Him there is a sustenance even for the physical body.  

In all Scripture, humility, rather than pride or status-seeking, was a key component of holy fasting and prayer (Lk. 18:12-14) and fasting without obedience to the Lord’s commands was useless and self-deceiving. In the Old Testament, there was only one commanded fast in the law of Moses (most of their worship involved eating and/or feasting!). It was a one-day fast of repentance on the Day of Atonement when the high priest offered a sacrifice on behalf of the people for their sin. Old Testament leaders did call fasts in times of corporate repentance, crisis, grief, or desire for God’s direct intervention and protection, and when seeking His direction, facing opposition, or taking on a high-stakes assignment for the Lord and His People. 

 In the New Testament, while not elevating fasting in the way John the Baptist’s disciples or the Pharisees had, Jesus affirmed that His people would fast during the time when He was physically not with His disciples (Lk. 5:34-39) as a sign of their longing for “the bridegroom”. Jesus Himself fasted 40 days before beginning His ministry (Lk. 4:1-13). He also expected humility, focus on the Lord, and a complete lack of self-seeking attention when His people fasted (Matt. 6:16-18). At least once, the Church fasted before choosing and sending its leaders (Acts 14:23) 

Since communion with Him is the goal of the fast, we should each seek the Lord about the things on His heart for us individually and corporately. Asking Him what to fast, for how long, and what He’d like to accomplish in and for us is a great first step. Sometimes we get a clear sense of these things; other times we don’t, but instead move in faithfulness to wait on Him and take on some of the objectives revealed in Scripture or follow the emphases I am calling for below.  

This fast is shaped to last one week so we can corporately maintain focus and celebrate its conclusion on the next Sunday, January 28, 2024.  Additionally, some of you may want to invite your friends over to pray for an hour in the evenings or schedule times to go on prayer walks with others if you’re able. The hope is that we are fasting, focusing, and “feasting” together rather than merely trying to “go it alone”—although this might be the call upon some of us.  

If you have generally fasted things like sweets, technology, television, marital sexual relations (1 Cor. 7:5), coffee, social media, or negativity, we’d encourage you to fast something that creates time so you can spend it with the Lord and others for this fast. If you have never fasted food, you might talk to the Lord about fasting food for one or two meals or days (the first three days are generally the hardest), the whole week, or from sunrise to sunset during the week. We want you to partner with the Lord in this. It is wise to talk with God about your plan and then seek His grace to enable you to complete it.  

Finally, fasting will likely create blocks of time in your schedule that are often filled with other behaviors like eating. For this week, try to intentionally use these new blocks of time to pursue the Lord in prayer, worship, the Word, study of something that spiritually benefits you, journaling with the Lord, rich community, or service to others—rather than merely distracting yourself or filling up these spaces with other activities.  

Consider joining in the present prayer times on our schedule. Monday Night at 7:00pm at the church building or, Wednesday night via Zoom (LINK) at 6pm. Perhaps there is a Christian book or devotional you’ve meant to dive into and now is the time to read it while in conversation and connection with the Lord. 

I am excited for this time of consecrated communion with God’s presence as a body and as individuals. I invite you to join in this journey with anticipation of the inevitable, supernatural encounter and fellowship with God and His family.

Blessings with Anticipation and Expectancy,
Pastor Randy

EMPHASES TO FOCUS ON, PRAY THROUGH, AND FEAST ON DURING OUR 7-DAY FAST 

Focus on the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. “The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—his mirror image! He holds the universe together and expands it by the mighty power of his spoken word.” Heb. 1:3 (TPT) Let your heart be captivated by His presence. Reading through one or two of the gospels aloud might be good during this week. 

Partner with God in His passion for the lost and to see the world healed of sin and injustice. Lou Engle has prophesied a “Communion Revival” where the Church revived by a marked sense of union with God translates into the transformation of family, community, and culture as the lost are “jealous” of our peace, joy, and purpose and come home to their Heavenly Father. Consider focusing on prayer for our missionaries during your prayer times. 

Forgive fellow brothers and sisters and pray for unity in the faith “until we all attain oneness in the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed in the abundance of Christ.” (Eph 4:13). Pray that the global church would lovingly and faithfully stand for holiness, truth, and righteousness without bitterness and derision for those who oppose the Lord’s ways. 

Loose the peace of Christ. Praying for God’s supernatural intervention and the raising up of peacemakers for our cities and nations—that the wars currently raging would miraculously come to an end. “For he himself is our peace,” (Eph 2:13-18). 

Pray for the global Church, that we would be able to speak the Word with great boldness and that God would stretch out His hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of His holy servant Jesus (Acts 4:29-30). 

 Pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness upon our nations. Pray for national and regional leaders and for God’s active involvement in America’s upcoming elections (1 Tim. 1:1-6). 

 Pray for the congregation and leaders of Summit, that God would provide for us spiritually, emotionally, physically, intellectually. That He’d build our house so that we are not building leaders, people, or structures in vain (Ps. 127:1), and that the teaching of Christ would be our foundation (Matt. 7:26-27). 

Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit on all people. “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,” (Joel 2:28-29).