A Call to Fast and Pray

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October 9, 2007

A Call to Fast and Pray

This week we are observing a special time of fasting and prayer at Rock Church. Every day at Noon and every night at 7pm we are coming together as a staff and Church Body to pray and seek the Lord.

Our fast is a “Daniel Fast”.

In Daniel 1, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, besieged it and captured several young Israelite men from the royal family and the nobility. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the chief of his court officials to find “… young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace”. The official was to “teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians” and “the king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service”.

In Daniel 1:8 it says, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” So Daniel and his friends ate vegetables and drank water for ten days and ”…At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.”

A Daniel Fast is a spiritual commitment to God. In verse 8 it says Daniel “…resolved not to defile himself…” He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the King’s food.

Fasting is an external commitment as much as an internal commitment. We must consider our food choices, pray as we are fasting, fast a set period of time and stick to it and guard our testimony as we step out by faith to fast.

Fasting is a choice to set aside our natural wants and desires to seek the Lord and to hear His voice better than ever.

Job 23:12 says, “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”

We need to continually reaffirm that nothing else matters more than the Word of God and the Presence of God. Not even food and drink.

Please join us as we come together for a time of unity, seeking God’s direction for the future and for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

For more about the Daniel Fast, please see the link below.

http://www.daystar.com/Daystar/Prayer/Daniel+Fast_landing.htm