As you prepare yourself for the 21 day fast starting January 1, you might consider the following information. It is the combination of fasting with prayer that will bring breakthrough to your lives.

Prayer and Fasting - a Powerful Combination

Two tremendous things happen in the life of a person when fasting and prayer become like the two sides of one coin.

• 1. A greater awareness of your human need - heightened awareness of your own limitations, weaknesses and frailties. Fasting makes a person acutely aware of his dependency upon God's provision - not only of food and water, but for all things that are beneficial to an abundant life. Fasting calls us to confront our weakness as “earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). We recognize as we fast that there is only so much we can do, know, accomplish, accommodate, take in or give out. The Bible says we are a vapor, a wisp, weak and without strength of our own. All we have comes from God. He is the author and finisher of our faith, and every other aspect of our lives. Fasting brings us to an awareness of ourselves and a greater understanding of our need for Him.
  To truly have breakthrough in our lives, we need to identify the real problems and needs of our lives. Very often during a time of fasting and praying, the Lord will reveal the deeper issues of our lives. Those are the issues we must address in prayer and with faithful obedience to the Word. It is in prayer while fasting that the Lord strips away layer upon layer of excuses, justification, procrastination and inattention to the deeper issues that lie in the soul and spirit. As we fast with a heart open to God and begin to confront our weaknesses as a human being through prayer, it is likely the Spirit will lead us to dig deeper and take responsibility as we address those things that stand in the way of experiencing real breakthrough.
  
• 2. A greater awareness of Almighty God - as fasting brings about a greater understanding our human shortcomings, prayer points us toward the unlimited, all-powerful, and all-wise nature of our loving, eternal God. Prayer opens us to a heightened awareness of God's presence and glory. Prayer produces in us greater faith and confidence that God is the Problem-Solver of our deepest need.

A process unfolds:

o What is revealed in fasting becomes the focus for prayer - fasting brings us to the place of knowing what we must pray. It gives clarity and insight.
o The focus for prayer becomes the battleground in the spirit realm -we know how to pray, and how to wage spiritual warfare. We become more sharply focused on our expectation that God will answer. We know God wants us to have our answer.
o What is won in the Spirit becomes the victory or breakthrough that changes us from the inside out. We come through spiritual warfare with new commitment, new discipline, new strength and a new level of faith. The end result is better, greater, more - the abundant life Jesus spoke of in John 10:10.

Fasting and prayer together position us to receive all He desires for us: spiritual riches in Christ Jesus, health and wholeness, restoration, reconciliation, righteous living and right standing with God to receive His blessings, a life-producing witness and outreach to others.

Adapted from The Power of Prayer and Fasting, 21 Days That Can Change Your Life by Marilyn Hickey, pp.31-35, Warner Faith Publishing, 2006.