Understand and Undertake the Divine Royal Priestly Service of Fasting and Prayer
As a king and priest (made so by Jesus Christ unto His God and Father in Revelation 1:6; 5:10), the believer is required by his Divine priestly ordination to fervently and frequently fast and pray as part of his Divine royal priestly service to God.
Fasting and Prayer are an indispensable offering of Divine royal priestly service to God. They are expected and required of us by our very ordination and privilege as priests of God.
This is why our Lord Jesus Christ said “When you fast…” (Matthew 6:16-18), not if you fast; “when you pray…”, not “if you pray…” (Matthew 6:5).
The Jesus-ordained king and priest (as we are) must fast and pray by The Holy Spirit to be able to reign well and victoriously; the Jesus-ordained king and priest must fast and pray to be able serve God acceptably and prevail at The Altar of The LORD.
Fasting and Prayer are so indispensably important for The Intervention of God in the affairs of man, and the manifestation of His Plans for man now in this time and The Age To Come.
Until Daniel fasted and prayed (Daniel 10), God did not do what He had said that He will do.
Even in God’s GLORIOUS, Eternal Plan and Promise of Salvation, willing vessels like Anna had to fervently and frequently fast and pray before Jesus was eventually Conceived and Born!
Just imagine and ponder: “this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from The Temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” (Luke 2:37 NKJV).
As we enter the turbulent and final stretch of The Race that believers have been running for millennia, the king and priest (the believer in Christ Jesus) must fervently and frequently fast and pray as and when led by The Holy Spirit.
Failure to do so is an egregious dereliction of duty and abandoning of one’s inheritance with grievous consequences now in this time and in The Age To Come.
As I shared in “Will You Do 100?“, The Holy Spirit instructed me through a dream to fast for ONE HUNDRED days!
It looked a daunting commitment; but, as Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26).
As He had commanded and demanded, I immediately launched into the deep.
When I submitted myself to God with Reverence and Godly Fear and fasted 100 days, it’s been a treasure trove of Divine Releases to me and using me for The Kingdom.
Brethren in different countries who yielded to do it have repeatedly likewise testified of experiencing amazing outcomes.
Some years ago, as became necessary for the particular season for us, my wife and I had to fast for about six to eight months, breaking in the evenings.
Fasting and Prayer are foundationally and totally powerful, powering and empowering to be able to overcome and have victory as a believer.
Jesus Himself had to fast for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before starting His Ministry on earth.
When He did, He overcame the immediate, consecutive attacks by the devil against Him and “returned in The Power of The Spirit“ (Luke 4:14).
Some things cannot happen without fasting
When undertaking deliverance, Matthew 17:21 kinds of evil spirits cannot be cast out without fasting.
About two years ago one day, I sensed by The Holy Spirit to fast that day. And I obeyed.
As I fasted and prayed, at 2:26pm, an American sister unexpectedly sent me a WhatsApp message, giving me an update regarding her orphaned granddaughter (in her twenties) who was occasionally demons-oppressed and violent.
(As I was told a few years earlier, her father had murdered her mother and then shot himself (I think in front of her) when she was a toddler or so.
This, obviously, traumatised and seriously affected her, and the enemy exploited the opening to oppress her terribly with demons.)
A serious perennial case, she was yet again kept in a facility, then hospitalised.
When she was latest discharged, she again ran away from home a few days earlier. Police and other authorities had to get involved, again.
Having been told her latest troubles, I had over the days been looking for an opportunity to minister deliverance to her on the phone, but the facility wouldn’t allow the call.
And now the grandmother’s message said:
“She is back home refusing to take her medicine my heart is breaking into pieces I am trying so hard to help her. She [is] not talking to me I am trying. My heart hurts and a bad headache. I want to give up on her. I [have] been praying for us to become closer and talk about [the] situation what happens to us.”
Perfect opportunity.
I sought The LORD and immediately called the grandmother to minister to her granddaughter.
She said the young lady would neither open the door nor talk to anyone.
I told her to put the phone on speaker and take it to the door or a window (all locked!) and tell her that I wanted to speak to her.
All the while I was speaking in Tongues under my breath to clear and destroy the satanic hindrances, as well as asking Jesus to make the way.
“K[…], Pastor is on the phone. He wants to talk to you…,” the grandmother said to her.
I then came in, ensuring that the young lady could hear my voice.
The 1 hour 32 minutes-long story short, she opened the door immediately and took the phone, but barely responding.
In The Name of Jesus Christ, I violently CAST out the unclean spirits oppressing her as The Holy Spirit gave me Revelation and Utterance.
Oh, I launched such a blitzing, OVERPOWERING Fire on them, casting them out of her by The Power of The Holy Spirit.
Suddenly, the recluse, seriously demons-oppressed young lady (who was often violent), uttered a soft, gentle, gratitude-filled statement with great relief: “Thank you Jesus…”
My curiosity was piqued. I pricked up my ears.
“Did she just say, ‘Thank you Jesus’?” I asked her grandma with great expectation to confirm.
“Yes,” she answered.
I was exceedingly jubilant, praising JESUS for what wonderful works He had just done setting the young lady free.
So you see, The Holy Spirit, knowing that He had the deliverance assignment for me later that day, needed me to fast to be able to do it.
Although Jesus had dramatically called Saul of Tarsus — also known as Paul (see Acts 9, 22, 26), The Holy Spirit only revealed and released His Purpose for him and Barnabas as they fasted, and were only sent away on the missions after having fasted and prayed.
‘Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to The LORD and fasted, The Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.” Acts 13:1-3 NKJV.
Certain types of ministry, stewardship, accomplishments, achievements and inheritance in The Kingdom can only be done/ obtained with fasting:
“So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to The LORD in Whom they had believed.” Acts 14:23.
Fasting and Prayer therefore are indispensably necessary for the believer to succeed in his race by God.
Fasting is a Divine, holy, royal priestly service to God; don’t profane It!
If you go around claiming and proclaiming to be the president or prime minister of your country, you will be arrested, charged and prosecuted by law enforcement.
Fasting is a holy, royal priestly service of privileged Divine obligations and duties performed only by kings and priests in Christ Jesus. It cannot and must not be used by anyone else for anything/ any practice not by The Living God.
Just as priests in The Old Testament served God with the various sacrifices, Fasting and Prayer are part of our holy priestly services we serve God with. They are two major priestly services by which “you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1).
This is a major reason why it is a most blasphemous perversion and indulgence for anyone to engage in the very satanic fad of fasting for weight loss (the profane “intermittent fasting”).
Just as Aaron’s first two children offered strange fire and were killed by God, so are people inviting The Wrath of God by profaning His holy priestly service of fasting with the blasphemy of fasting for weight loss.
Who has bewitched you?! (Galatians 3:1).
Fasting is a purely priestly undertaking unto God, to serve Him with our body as we deny it food so as to pray and seek Him.
What, when, how to fast and why are well defined and codified in Scripture (for example in Isaiah 58; Zechariah 8:19; Matthew 17:21).
Anything else claimed and done as “fasting” contrary to God’s Word, is an offence punishable by Law — The Law of God (His Word. The Word of God is The Law that governs all things — in Heaven, on earth and under the earth).
As I shared in a previous Word, Fasting is a holy and very important sacrifice at The Altar of God. It is a major way by which we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1).
Throughout The Bible, fasting involved abstinence from food to seek God, to pray to Him.
The woke ideas and deception by some today of fasting television, social media, chocolate, etc. is a lie from the pit of hell.
Imagine if the people of Nineveh had “fasted” some other things rather than food, would they have met God’s requirement and escape His imminent Judgment on them?
No! They would have been destroyed!
Even their animals fasted too!
So then, would the animals have fasted television and social media too then, if it was today?
Fearing God at the preaching of Jonah, the king of Nineveh, “caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.” (Jonah 3:7).
They explicitly fasted food and drink in response to God’s Warning.
Jesus fasted food, Moses fasted food, Daniel fasted food; yet, by disobedience for convenience, many today claim to “fast” television, social media, etc. instead of obeying The Word of God to fast food!
Again, Jesus said a kind of evil spirits cannot be cast out except by Prayer and Fasting (Matthew 17:21).
Dear one, would your just “fasting” television, social media, etc. suffice in powering and empowering you to cast out demons?
If you walk in that deception and dare casting out the Matthew 17:21 kind of evil spirits, they will whack you like they did the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19.
The Word of God must not be adjusted to fit spiritual indolence and compromise.
Evil spirits know if you are truly obeying The Word of God or not. Lukewarm Christians are easy prey.
They only fear and obey believers walking in The Truth, repentance and humility — daily seeking, knowing and doing only The Will of God.
Fasting, even by reason of the etymology and linguistics, has to do with abstaining from food (and for married couples, from sex as well by mutual consent — 1 Corinthians 7) so as to pray and seek God, and was practiced as such by The LORD Jesus Himself, Moses, Daniel, Paul, and all others who fasted in The Bible.
Yet some today want to change The Word of God to suit their disobedience.
Rightly eliminating distracting and lustful indulgences such as social media, television and Netflix is not fasting. Claiming so is to be “deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13).
When we fast, the body is denied the sluggishness and dullness of being belly-full, enabling the spirit and the soul to better be attuned to God, spiritually sharper to commune with God.
If you really want to please God, overcome and make it, you have to fast and pray exactly as Jesus did, Moses did, Daniel did, Paul did, others did in The Bible (by abstaining from food) and praying as led by The Holy Spirit.
Don’t profane God’s holy priestly service of Fasting — by name or motive
Fasting is very holy to God, and should not be profaned with the fads and demonic ideas of the so-called “intermittent fasting” as practiced by some unbelievers. And some children of God are copying the world, profaning the holy Things of God?!
Fasting is not just abstinence from food. It is abstaining from food so as to fervently seek GOD (in prayer, The Word, praise and worship, and so on).
Therefore, if one chooses not to eat food for other reasons (that are not sinful, of course), it is not fasting (and should not be termed so) — just as being immersed in a body of water for recreational purposes is not baptism, nor does eating bread with red grape juice for a quick lunch amount to taking The Communion.
Fasting is a specific Spiritual exercise by man before God as commanded by Him in His Word.
It is Holy. It cannot and must not be profaned either in nomenclature or practice.
Believers following the world in the evil of “intermittent fasting”, profaning God’s holy priestly service of Fasting, will not escape His Judgment (except you repent and stop).
And those who claim to “fast” television, social media, chocolate, coffee and other indulgences and idolatries they shouldn’t be obsessed with in the first place, please know that it is profane and perverted to think and claim stopping the idolatries as fasting.
Many believers have imbibed doctrines of demons by the catholic church and practice them to their own hurt.
During a WhatsApp conversation with a dear sister in America recently, she mentioned the use of “holy water”.
I told her: “…”holy water” is a doctrine of demons; it is not Biblical.”
She replied: “Oh no, you see growing up as a catholic we use[d] to have our priest pray over the holy water and bless it. Every day is a learning. When we were young all we knew was the Catholic way of living our life for Christ.”
I said in response: “Indeed, sis. I understand. 🙂
The catholic church indulges in a lot of demon worship (“virgin mary”, praying the rosary, [using] holy water, canonising/ venerating [so-called] dead “saints” etc.)
So yes, we’re all learning indeed. 😀”
The point is that, many believe and practice things that are demonic but are either ignorant of this fact or choose to continue in the spiritual errors.
During the so-called “lent”, catholicism teaches abstinence from certain things as “fasting”, which many fervently practice as though it is Biblical.
It is demonic!
The heresy of “lent” was formerly established at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The Council was the first ecumenical conference, held in the ancient Bithynian city, Nicaea (which is modern day İznik, Turkey).
It was called by the Roman emperor Constantine I.
Lent, as Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it, is “a 40-day period of penitential preparation for Easter.”
By this heresy, some people abstain from sweets, alcohol, meat, social media, etc. as “fasting”.
Again, Fasting in The Bible, is abstaining from food to pray and seek God; it’s not just food abstinence.
It is Holy, and should not be profaned.
Fear God and do exactly as He says in His Word and by His Spirit.
Just too many believers willfully live according to the flesh instead of according to The Spirit.
To even fast (escape just a meal or two) and pray, many won’t; they rather feed on doctrines of demons, saying they fast TV and social media.
As THE HOLY SPIRIT warns us, we must be “looking carefully lest anyone fall short of The Grace of GOD.…lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.” (Hebrews 12:15-16).
If the Jews had failed/ refused to fast and pray as Esther had commanded them (see Esther 4:15-16), they will all have been annihilated by Haman.
Look what annihilation many believers suffer in various areas of life today!
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by The Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13 NKJV.
The Day of Atonement is one of The Feasts of The LORD. Yom Kippur, as It is called in Hebrew, is entirely dedicated to fasting and repentance.
Fasting is this important to God for us to do. Don’t neglect to serve Him with It fervently and frequently.
Paul said that he was “in fastings often” (2 Corinthians11:27 NKJV).
You can see then the seriousness that God attaches to Fasting and Prayer as a royal priestly service to Him.
Somethings cannot be revealed and released to us by God without fasting.
As noted above, Barnabas and Paul’s destinies were only revealed and released by The Holy Spirit while they fasted.
Our LORD Jesus Christ Himself had to pray for forty days and nights before He could accomplish His Destiny on earth.
When He necessarily fasted, He returned in The Power of The Holy Spirit to Galilee and His Fame spread.
To walk in Power and accomplish our destiny in life we must fast and pray fervently and frequently, led by The Holy Spirit.
In these heady days, being ready, willing and available to fast and pray as and when The Holy Spirit demands and commands us is a major means by which we can have Peace, reign and rule with power and boldness.
These are the days in which our Lord said that we shall fast.
“But the days will come, when The Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” Mark 2:20.
In law (legal practice), “shall” is mandatory.
It is a ‘must’ for The Bride of The Bridegroom to fast. It is mandatory for the believer in Christ to fast often (as Paul testified in 2 Corinthians 11:27).
We must through FERVENT prayer and fasting secure and execute the “judgment…made in favor of the saints of The Most High, [for]…the time came for the saints to possess The Kingdom.” (Daniel 7:22).
Our set time has come; let us press in with prayer and fasting.
It is only by Holy Spirit-led fasting and prayer that we can reign and rule, powerfully decree and declare as kings, and effectively minister as priests with consequential effect in Heaven and on earth.
See the Word below to learn how to fast hunger-free:
“The LORD Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.” 2 Timothy 4:22.
“Farewell” Acts 15:29.
~ Jacob Addison Awagah
Jacob, an apostle of JESUS CHRIST by The Will of GOD, according to The Promise of Life Which is in CHRIST JESUS, (2 Timothy 1:1).
Like John, I like to put my head to The Heart of JESUS so as to know and do His Will always. What’s in His Heart is what matters now and FOREVER. His Heart’s Desire is my only desire. My will is to do His Will.
As John was, I am the disciple whom JESUS loves. And like Paul, I am “the prisoner of CHRIST JESUS” (Ephesians 3:1) for His Purpose forever: to obey Him always.
NB. Surely, the disciple whom JESUS loves and “the prisoner of CHRIST JESUS”, like ALL The Promises of GOD, are available to every believer to obtain, just as John and Paul did.
“And having been perfected, He [JESUS] became The Author of Eternal Salvation to all who obey Him,” Hebrews 5:9.
Absolutely beautiful..thank you.