40-Day Corporate Prayer and Fasting

Preparing Your Heart for Spiritual Prayer and Fasting: Prayer and Fasting help us make intentional steps to cleanse our mind and spirit, aligning ourselves with God through repentance, confession, and seeking forgiveness so that we can approach prayer and fasting with a sincere and focused attitude, fully open to receiving God's guidance and presence; essentially, it's about creating a receptive spiritual state before engaging in these practices. They both allow us to approach God humbly, acknowledging our dependence on Him; so that we can recognize and understand our need for His grace. Prayer and fasting helps to posture our hearts in humility with God. We give the Lord opportunity to convict us where we have erred or compromised. “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm” Joel 2: 12-13 (NKJV).

Praying and fasting will also help you focus on the blessings in our lives and express thanks to God for His provision and love. These 40 days will also help you return to the Lord with a repentant and remorseful heart, ready and prepared to walk in your purpose with new hope and renewed faith. Reading the Scriptures and spiritual motivational books during your prayer and fasting time will help you deepen your understanding of God's word by meditating on relevant passages, allowing them to guide your thoughts and actions. If we want God to move, we must first prepare our hearts for Him; and we do this through prayer and fasting. This is the perfect time for you to completely turn to God with all your heart in prayer and during fasting. “The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” Proverbs 16:1 (Proverbs 16:1) NKJV.