Three Days of Corporate Fasting and Prayer
Gird
yourselves, and lament, ye priests
Howl, ye ministers of the altar
Come, lie all night in sackcloth...
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,
Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord…
And cry unto the Lord.
Joel 1:13-14
In this issue of the Remnant we are presenting an exercise that can be done privately
or corporately. Because I have given encouragement for private
seasons of fasting before, this time we will focus on the corporate
aspects of these principles. There are many examples of what
God has done in response to a people who became serious about
seeking Him. They are recorded in the Bible, and they are recorded
in the historical records of the past. The devil does not want
God’s people to get a glimpse of the power of these exercises.
He has done well at keeping most of the church blind to them.
For the next few minutes, I would like to pull the curtain
back and give a challenge to the many churches that read The
Remnant. You have in your hand the possibilities of a total transformation of your fellowship
and even your community. I pray that the Spirit of God will
cause a holy hush to settle down over many as you read and
consider this exercise.
A few weeks ago, the local elders at Charity felt the Lord leading us to have three days of fasting and prayer. The desire of the elders was for the whole church to enter in and seek God with fasting and prayer. We were burdened about three areas of need:
- Local needs perplexed us. We had no answers, and the needs were staring us in the face for months. God must have an answer to these.
- We were not happy with the complacency among us. There was a cooling off. We seemed to be floating along, slowly slipping but not aware of it.
- We were burdened about our missionaries on the fields and the hard situations they were facing: Poor health, money issues between them and the nationals, and the overwhelming task of winning thousands with so few workers.
Although you will have different needs and desires than we had, it is good to have some specific needs to fast and pray about.
We chose to fast and pray from Thursday at lunchtime until Sunday after church. We chose these days so that the men who had work obligations would still be able to work without too much weakness. Let me share our schedule with you so that you can get an idea of what we did.
We began our fast after the noon meal on Thursday. There were no other corporate plans for the day.
On Friday the brethren had a prayer meeting at the church building that lasted from 10:00am to 4:00pm. During this time some people slipped in and out; others prayed the whole time. Openness and confessions were encouraged. The time was spent in praying, burden bearing and singing.
On Saturday the brethren had another session of prayer from 10:00am to 3:00pm. The sisters had a special prayer time from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.
Saturday evening the whole church met for a prayer service. We started early so that the children could be home in time to rest for Sunday. This service lasted for three hours. A sermon was preached about fasting. Again openness, honesty and confession were encouraged. A season of prayer followed.
On Sunday, we had our normal service. However, the atmosphere from the preceding days permeated the service, and brokenness was settling down on all.
At the end of the meeting, we all broke our fast together with a fellowship meal. What a sweet meal we had together!
I am not sure that I can describe the powerful corporate effect this exercise had on everyone involved. Everyone felt it. Even those who did not enter into the fast for various reasons were all effected in the Sunday morning service. We had a beautiful time as a church. The Lord has continued to work in unusual ways from those days until now, several weeks later. The Wednesday evening after the fast we had an evening of revival when many broke down confessing needs. The rest gathered around to pray for them.
The three areas of need that I mentioned earlier in this article have received definite attention from the Lord since those days of prayer. Hallelujah! I remember other times when the church set herself to fast and pray. God has always come and honored her with special miracle-working power. I wonder what God would do if a church would do such a thing every week for six weeks, or even six months? History would trumpet its voice back to us and tell us that mighty things will be done in that place.
Here is the challenge. How many churches will try it for three days? What special needs does your church have? God is able to completely change that situation through fasting and prayer. Take the test in hand and prove the Lord in your difficult circumstances. He will show Himself strong on your behalf.
Are we an end-time church? Is the night fast approaching when no man can work? Do we believe we live in the time of the end? Then let us rise up and show the world around us that we serve a living God! Oh, may our communities say, "The Christian’s God has come. Let us go to the church and watch Him work." Let us make plans to attack the strongholds of the enemy with the weapons of our warfare. I know of a surety that if you will do this just one time, the fruit you will taste will convince you to do it again.
Father, in Jesus' name, bless this most important exercise to the transformation of many churches. Amen.
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