“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. The One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord at their head.” Micah 2:12-13 (NIV)
As we move forward in this season of life as a community, we believe the Lord is inviting us into a corporate time of fasting and prayer for breakthrough. We will be spending the month of March focused on this during our Sunday gatherings as we launch a new sermon series called “BREAKTHROUGH”.
CCF will also be spending the days between March 3 and March 24 in fasting and prayer with the following focuses.
- March 4-8, 2024 – Personal Revival
- March 9-13, 2024 – Corporate Influence of Testimonies
- March 14-18, 2024 – National Unity
- March 19-24, 2024 – Global Healing
What is Fasting?
Fasting is a principle that we see throughout the Scriptures and that Jesus taught His disciples about.
Biblical fasting is a principle that is not about a public spectacle, but rather about us humbling ourselves before the Lord by giving up something in order to hunger and thirst for the Lord and experience His breakthrough in our lives, communities, and world. The concept and practice of fasting is one in which we follow the example of Jesus who “emptied Himself” (Phil. 2:6-11), as we empty ourselves to seek our God and brings our whole selves before Him with prayers, petitions, and a humble spirit.
The time spent in fasting is not so much about the “outcomes” or “production”, but rather about about focusing more on our connection with God. With this understanding in mind, fasting looks like personal repentance and humbly asking God to renew and revive us, and it looks like seeking God for corporate, national, and global breakthrough.
How Do I Fast?
In the Scriptures, we see many types of fasting and various lengths of time allotted for fasting and prayer. Some of these fasts were done partially (refraining from certain foods or drinks) and others were complete (not eating anything or drinking anything). Whether partial or complete, these fasts were all done for a particular purpose.
Our suggestion is to reflect upon something that you hunger and thirst for daily (food, drinks, sweets, television/entertainment, social media, shopping, etc.) and surrender it to the Lord for the next 21 days. Although you may find that items such as TV or social media may be something that you feel called to fast, we’d also encourage you to be thoughtful about giving up food and drink. There is a powerful breakthrough that takes place as we join in the Scriptural model of fasting foods and drinks.
Whether it be a partial or complete fast, we encourage you to be prayerful first, to seek medical consultation secondly (if necessary), and to continually come back to the foundation of fasting and praying as an act of humbly seeking God’s breakthrough both personally and communally.
10 at 10
As part of our corporate time of fasting and prayer, we want to incorporate a time each day that CCF will join in unified prayer. We believe there is power when God’s people come together to pray. We believe that when we are united and we actively seek God for breakthrough, things happen. With that said, please consider praying every day for 10 minutes at 10:00 am as CCF prays together (whether individually or with others) for personal, corporate, national, and global breakthrough.
Fasting Questions:
- What should I fast?
- That’s between you and God. Take some time to prayerfully consider what God is calling you to give up over the next 21 days.
- What if I fail?
- Fasting is not about “succeeding” or “failing”, but rather fasting is about connection with God through humbly seeking Him in prayer. God is not ready to smite you if you miss a day or eat a sweet. The Lord is joyful that you are willing to sacrifice and seek Him, and He is ready, able, and willing to meet you, hear you, and move on your behalf for personal and corporate breakthrough.
- Can I tell others I’m fasting or what I’m fasting?
- As a church community, we won’t be prioritizing telling each other what we are fasting, but instead encouraging one another to fast and pray. Our hope is that our communication would be more about what God is doing than what we are doing, and we’d propose that your communication about fasting would simply be focused on God’s activity rather than making it publicly known that you are fasting.
- Can I break my fast if people offer me something?
- Early Christians would fast on certain days, and when they were offered hospitality they were encouraged to break their fast to keep their fasting a secret and to engage in connection with those offering them food or drink. It was a way of seeing fasting that didn’t limit it to legalism, but rather kept the main thing the main thing: connection. This is just one way of thinking about it, but we’d encourage you to allow God to lead you and to be encouraged that God won’t cancel out your fasting if you choose to connect with others who offer you something you’re fasting.
- Do I have to fast?
- We aren’t forcing you to participate in fasting and prayer. This is simply an invitation that we believe to be incredibly important for Christ followers, both regularly and during the month of March 2024. We’d ask for you to pray about fasting and engaging in this corporate fast before any decision has been made.
- Do I have to pray and fast for only the topics that CCF is focused on praying and fasting for?
- As a congregation, we want to celebrate our unity together in fasting and praying for personal revival, corporate influence of testimonies, national unity, and global healing. We would strongly suggest focusing on these topics during your 21 days of fasting and prayer. However, we do not want to force you to only focus on these points. If God leads you to pray for certain things, please know we are 100% for what God calls you to do.