I think most of the people who read this are Christians so I don’t apologise for the challenge I am about to make. Fasting and prayer are key elements of our Christian life. Jesus fasted and prayed – that says it all cos if He needed to then I do.
Tomorrow is the start of the 40 day fast and prayer for revival. It is a Canada driven thing but God has no national boundaries. This world is in such desperate need of God’s love and redemption. I am sure you, like me, have family, friends, colleagues, neighbours who do not know the One who brings life. These 40 days won’t twist God’s arm, or persuade Him or blackmail Him into acting. He will do what He will do but they will focus our attention on the things that matter causing us (hopefully) to spend more time talking and listening to Him, less time doing things that perhaps are not as important in the big scheme of things.
The terms of any fast are between you and God but here are some suggestions of what you could do – it doesn’t have to be 40 days in the wilderness:
- Read the bible every day for 5 minutes (read extra if you already do)
- Get up 5 minutes earlier and pray or stay up for 5 minutes later
- Give up tea or coffee or alcohol or chocolate or meat
- Pray for your neighbours as you walk to the car or bus stop and travel
- Miss one meal a day and pray during that time
- Give up watching TV and pray or go talk to someone
- Offer your time to a good cause – sweeping leaves for your family and neighbours would work – connect with people
- Find someone with a like mind and keep each other faithful with encouragement and prayer together
Whatever God says to you just do it. I am certain this call is for all of us. People need to know Jesus, need to know God loves them, they need us to be ready to tell them and to be ready – we need to be God-aware.
16 Celebrate always,
17 pray constantly,
and 18 give thanks to God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. (This is God’s will for all of you in Jesus the Anointed.)
19 Don’t suppress the Spirit.
20 Don’t downplay prophecies.
21 Take a close look at everything, test it, then cling to what is good.
22 Put away every form of evil.
Just do it.
Shiny Thoughts 
Thanks for the reminder Jules. For me its the tea and biscuits. This is the central thing, but I will do other things along the way as well. There has to be extra time in prayer too and I do think that not having drinks first thing in the morning when I go to pray, will free up at least a few precious minutes and focus me on the matter in hand. May God be with us and hear the cries of our hearts.
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Lol, I laugh because I actually was going to put give up biscuits with your tea or coffee as one of my bullets but I thought you might take it as a dig – but maybe it was prophetic and I should do as Paul advises in the verse I quoted. Love you mum, thanks as always for your encouragement.
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This is what the Lord has been speaking to my heart over the last year or so:
https://tjustincomer.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/satan-destroys-nations/
I think the Lord is seeking for those who will stand in the gap for our nations. I pray often for the States and Canada, also including the UK, Sweden, Germany, China, South Africa, the Philippines, and Australia. There are spirits over our nations that need to be cast down, which demands of us maturity and prophetic perception. What precisely to pray, I can’t at this time say. However, I know that whatever it is that will bring the glory of God to our nations, it will come through a ‘woman’ who has travailed in Spirit.
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I just gave your blog a quick read and agree with you that we are in a spiritual battle not against flesh and blood but against those principalities and powers. We need to pray to discern them and be diligent in prayer like Daniel.
I disagree with you saying we don’t pray for revival because in my understanding revival is the move of God’s Spirit. His cleansing, restoring, transforming of people’s lives. When that happens and we respond and listen we will have eyes to see and ears to hear and the vision of God to pursue. Revival starts with the body of Christ, waking us from our apathy and slumber and then moves out to the lost as the very presence of God in us moves among them.
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I think revival is the word used when people simply mean to convey “the normal Christian life”. I’m not convinced we’re in disagreement, but have differing definitions. What I call the normal Christian life, or even ‘apostolic’, you call revival. My main concern is that we shouldn’t just pray that God sends revival if the only component missing is more hype or excitement from our meetings. Don’t forget, the disciples cast out demons, healed the sick, and proclaimed the good news before Pentecost. The power they received on Pentecost was that prophetic and apostolic component: the Spirit, heart, character, and voice of God living and active within them. If that is what is lacking, then let us pray for Pentecost.
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I agree absolutely, the normal christian life is what I call revival because sadly it is not normal and most of our life isn’t Christian, so I suppose I see revival as a reminder of what we ought to be and then from that comes change in us and then salvation for the lost 🙂
I think you are mistaken about the disciples. Yes they did the works while Jesus was with them – alive before His death and resurrection. But He told them to wait for the power from on high (luke 24: 49) and there’s no record of miracles between the ascension and pentecost – admittedly only 10 days. We need to pray for that same life changing power to make us holy.
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