40-Day Corporate Prayer and Fasting

Prayer and Fasting Helps You Maintain Your Focus on Your Faith: Prayer and fasting can make our “ spiritual ears”  more acute, allowing us to better hear from God by renewing our spiritual vision. Prayer and fasting can help you turn away from the things of the world and recognize our dependence on the Lord. Prayer and fasting can help us develop discernment, recognize the voice of God, and make us privy to thoughts from the heart and mind of our heavenly Father. Nothing is hidden from God’s sight. Many times, the harder sins for us to acknowledge are the hidden ones, especially when they involve our concealed motives and selfish attitudes. During a fast, we can quiet our spirits long enough to see what we were really thinking at the time we hurt someone else or made a poor decision. “ For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols” Jeremiah 16:17-18 (NKJV).

Prayer and fasting can help you build your faith and grow closer to God. They help us  grow in our relationship with God and become more obedient to His will. Everyone should personally seek the Lord about the type and length of fast they will engage in, especially if there is a health concern. Maybe instead of food, you need to give up an activity you regularly choose so you can spend more time at the feet of Jesus. God says He will answer our prayers. As you fast, He will answer some of your requests with a welcomed “yes.” He will also build your faith by helping you trust when He says “no.” Whatever the answer, you will learn that you can believe God knows best. Our reward is the peace that comes from being fully surrendered to God’s control over our lives. It is amazing that Jesus would call us into a prayer and fasting relationship where we gain infinitely more than we give up. God can change our lives through prayer and fasting when we are ready for Him to change, as we surrender to God's will, by allowing us to  yield our spirit to God's will and say, “ Not my will, but yours, God!”   “ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” Hebrews 11:6-7 (NKJV).