Welcome To PART 3 Of ...

FAST AND PRAY

THE

BIBLE WAY

MUCH OF THE TEACHINGS PRESENTED HERE IN PART 3 ARE DRAWN FROM THE TEACHING MINISTRY OF BROTHER FRANKLIN HALL, WHOSE BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CONSECRATED FAST ARE CONSIDERED BY THOUSANDS OF CHURCH PASTORS, LEADERS AND TEACHERS TO BE SECOND TO NONE!!

Rev Franklin Hall

Brother Denis Beedie writes :

Many sincere brothers and sisters in Yah`shua are desiring to go on lengthy Fasting and Prayer seasons at this time.
Having experienced many consecrated Fasts of up to 40 days in my own personal life over a 50 years period, I can without doubt vouch for the multitude of both spiritual and physical blessings that attend such Consecrations.

Many Yah`shua Believers have a multitude of questions on how to fast.

Questions such as ....
`Should I drink water or not during Fastings?
Is it safe to fast for more than 3 days?
How can I enter a time of fasting whether short or prolonged?
How can I safely break a fast without harming my body or losing the benefits of the Consecrated Fast?`
Can a Consecrated Fast heal my sick body? .. etc.. and many others questions.

So as to help my precious brothers and sisters who have planned or desire to do a Consecrated Fast of 1 to 3 days or up to 21 - 40 days I sense the need to share advice and tips on how to safely enter and conclude periods of fastings.

Having met and fellowshipped several times with the late brother Franklin Hall who authored many books on Fasting from 1946 onward  (ie `Because of your Unbelief`; `The Fasting Prayer`;`Atomic Power With God` ...and many others) and whose books inspired the many Healing Evangelists of the second half of 20th century, and from whom I personally received much encouragement,  I will draw extensively from his experiences, as well as from some of my own, as I believe that his teaching on this subject is second to none.

YOU WILL FIND MANY PERSONAL TIPS, HELPS AND EXPERIENCES FROM DENIS` OWN LIFE,  BASED ON OVER 43 YEARS OF FASTING AND PRAYER FROM SHORT FASTS OF UP TO 10 DAYS,  TO FASTS OF 40 DAYS AND MORE ;

WITH DEEP JOY, EXCITEMENT AND ANTICIPATION OF YOU RECEIVING A MOUNTAIN-MOVING FAITH EXPERIENCE THROUGH FASTING AND PRAYER WE PRESENT TO YOU THESE AWESOME AND AMAZING, TRIED AND TESTED TEACHINGS ON

`CONSECRATED FASTING AND PRAYER`

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80 REASONS WHY WE SHOULD FAST

40 Biblical Reasons

Part I

40 Physical Health Reasons

Part II

By Rev. Franklin Hall

Authority on Prayer, Fasting, Healing and Faith

40 Biblical Reasons

1.

1.       Perhaps the main reason why we should fast is because Jesus, our Redeemer, placed a fast upon all of us. Matt. 9:15: "And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast."

We, therefore, are to fast to carry

on the works for the kingdom that Jesus started by His fasts and prayers.

2.      2. We should fast because fasting was a part and parcel of the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:1,-2; John 6:27) and He urged us to follow Him (Luke 9:23).

3. Jesus taught fasting as one of the four foundations of the Christian faith. These foundations are: giving, praying, fasting, and faith. (Please study Matt. 6.)

4. Paul was "in fastings often" (II Cor. 11:27). He instructed us to be " . . . approving ourselves as the ministers of God (among other things) . . . in fastings" (II Cor. 6:5).

5. Every single person in the early church fasted (Acts 14:23). We, therefore, are not to do less.

6. Fasting enables one to become a conductor of spiritual power for either blessing others or for bringing blessings to himself.

7. Proper fasting with sincerity and respect to the Lord will positively break the yokes of sin, sickness, and spiritual oppression (Isaiah 58:6).

8. Fasting becomes prayer to the praying Christian. When unable to pray (like David,) it enables one to be so anointed that his prayer reaches through to God. Ps. 35:13: "I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned unto my bosom."

9. Fasting intensifies the power of prayer many times so that even short prayers bring results.

10. Fasting reaches and obtains what prayer alone cannot, because it removes unbelief (Matt. 17:20-21).

11. Fasting brings one into direct contact with unbelief, so that it can be removed. Unbelief can never be fully apprehended until one fasts from ten to forty days.

12. Fasting is the greatest faith producer because the fasting and the faith organ are one and the same . . . the mouth organ (Romans10:9-10).

13. Fasting is more closely related to faith than any other Christian work, and, in fact, is the very gateway to trust and have faith in God after conversion. However, because it is little taught about and understood, folk fail to realize its value. (Here we are dealing with consecrated fasting).

14. Fasting will bring about word-faith power (Luke 4:2, 32, 36). Jesus’ "word" was not "with power" until after His fast.

15. Fasting will "BLITZKRIEG" the devil. (See above scriptures).

 16. Fasting masters the old man, subjugating the flesh (I Cor. 9: 27) and is mortification of the flesh and members (Col. 3:5).

17. Fasting pleases the Spirit. The flesh and the Spirit are at enmity with each other.

18. Fasting is the most sure spiritual method to bring a revival. A revival begins in our heart first, then one comes about in the community. Souls become saved.

19. Fasting enables one to transcend the natural and takes one quickly into the spiritual realm. We may become so personal and intimate with Jesus that we smell His body. He is a sweet smelling Savor.

20. Fasting brings one nearer to Christ than any other known process. It enables one to become clothed with the full Baptism of the Holy Ghost and with Fire. (Please see Ex. 14; 34:27-35; Deut. 34:7; Isa. 58:1-10; 60:1-5, 21, 23; 61:10; Matt. 3:11-12).

21. There is more judgment pronounced upon those given to food addiction than to alcoholic drunkards (in the Bible). Sin is sin whether it comes under the good name of "food" or under some more insidious term. (Please study Num. 11:9-34; Ps. 78; Matt. 24:38-39; Luke 21:34; and Rom. 16:17-18). Most Christians are unknowingly bound to the sin of "habit hunger" (actually food addiction). A protracted fast will break this yoke in as little as three days’ time, and will keep an individual free with temperate eating.

22. Fasting will undo all sins of intemperance (after Jesus’ blood has first washed away our sins).

23. Fasting will crucify the flesh and all unnatural desires associated with lusts of any appetite gratification.

24. Fasting can be self-chastisement, and will prevent many chastisements of the Lord from coming upon us (I Kings 21:25-29; Jonah 3:5-10).

25. Fasting is the easiest way for backsliders to come home. (Study David’s fasts). Refer to Psalms 35:13; 109:24.

26. Fasting places our natural appetites into a dormant condition, thus physical pleasures are not enjoyed while our flesh becomes sublimated. With pleasurable appetites static, God can come near us and we near Him.

27. Fasting thus changes one’s environment from the natural to the spiritual. A revival spirit comes about inside us, along with the proper burdens that we should carry for others.

28. Fasting will change a life of defeat into one of victory and will bring healing and new life to both body and soul.

29. Fasting, when properly entered into, is the surest method of consecration and sanctification.

30. Fasting develops the fruit of the Spirit and enables one to grow into maturity, with matured fruit.

31. Proper fasting will help one to receive spiritual gifts. Most Christians, like the children of Israel, are wasting forty years of their lifetime (even with speaking in tongues) without deeper spiritual gift manifestations and without the fruit of the Spirit, just because they fail to fast as they should. (Please study Deut. 8:2-3; Dan. 1:3-17).

32. Fasting consumes and burns out the very roots of fleshly lusts.

33. Fasting brings one into the misery and sufferings of the fleshly nature in such a manner that he can see himself in the same light that Jesus sees him. He realizes his nakedness (Rev. 3:17-18) so he begins to seek to be clothed with power, receiving the more complete baptism into the Holy Ghost healing Fire.

34. Fasting gives the child of God spiritual manifestations in a tangible manner. The absence of the natural menu prepares his appetite for the "Hidden (Supernatural) Manna" (John 4:32, 34; 6:27-58; Rev. 2:17).

35. Fasting always brings revelations and better understanding of the Spirit. Sometimes visions and unspeakable glory will also be attained and manifested (Dan. 10:2-21; Acts 10:9-16).

36. Fasting will always enable one to obtain the direction and anointing needed for the work to which he is called.

37. Fasting enlarges our capacity. Many of us have only a thimble-size capacity. We might be full at times, but how full? Shouting and spiritual emotion do not always indicate how large our capacities are. A person may be running over with only a thimble-size capacity. Fasting will give a well-size or even unlimited capacity to enjoy the riches of heaven, immortality, glory, honor, and power. (Refer to John 3:34; Rom. 2:7; Eph. 4:13).

38. Fasting and its related terms of expression are mentioned one third as many times in the Bible as prayer. To every two sermons you hear preached on prayer, you should hear a third sermon on fasting. The author asks the reader this question: How many times has he ever heard a sermon on fasting in his lifetime? It is truly deplorable that author asks the reader this question: How many times has he ever heard a sermon on fasting in his lifetime? It is truly deplorable that such a major doctrine in both the Old and New Testaments has been so neglected, ignored, and disrespected.

39. The Lord placed a definite fast on the children of Israel (Deut. 6:11-12; 8:3, 12-14, etc.) in order that their unbelief environment, acquired in the land of Egypt, could be broken, and they could more speedily enter into the promised land. Because they rejected these fastings, their few days’ journey was drawn out to 40 years. We should take heed to this sad lesson and hasten to fast, so we may enter into the promises that the Lord has waiting for us (John 11:24-26; II Tim. 1:10; I John 2:25).

40. Jesus is very much pleased when we come to Him in this consecrated manner. As we free ourselves from the natural we exalt Him to the highest. Don’t worry; you will be rewarded a thousand times.

We have just touched briefly upon some of the spiritual reasons why we should fast.

Please remember that in the above statements, we are referring only to the consecration fast, one which is dedicated to the Lord.

SPECIAL NOTE:

In recent years, beginning in 1946 when the author called worldwide attention to the fact that fasting must be restored to the church, a tremendous revelation discovery came about. Fasts among deep saints brought forth healing. The present-time impartation of the continuous healing fire is being presented today with ever-widening enthusiasm to those who heed this reformation message.

40 Physical Health Reasons

(See Isaiah 58th Chapter)

We are again discussing why we should fast, only this time we are considering the subject from the scientific physical standpoint instead of the spiritual. Bear in mind that any person, saved or unsaved, can receive the secondary physical blessings of fasting, but only the consecrated child of God can receive the full spiritual blessings.

When we go into food abstention, we give the stomach a vacation and vacate into the Spirit. The tabernacle of the Holy Spirit then goes into house cleaning. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Nothing can clean up the house of the Holy Spirit more effectively and quickly than giving the stomach a holiday. If the physical benefits were all that were received, they would be worth fasting for, and people would live 25 to 35 years longer (according to some authorities). Many of God’s people are committing "Slow Suicide" by being continually on a three meal a day stuffing habit, not satisfied with stuffing God and faith out of their lives, but stuffing out their own life years ahead of time as well. They stuff health out and invite diseases and demons in. After wearing out one set of teeth digging themselves to the grave, many secure another set to finish digging with.

FOOD ADDICTS ABOUND IN THE CHURCH

Food addiction or food drunkenness is as harmful to the temple of the Holy Ghost as other types of addiction.

Please see Psalm 76 for proof of this.

We shall consider some of the physical reasons for fasting:

41. Fasting is the greatest curative agency known.

42. Fasting is the quickest curative agency known.

43. When you feed a diseased body you feed the disease; fasting starves the disease.

44. Fasting rids the body of practically all the unwanted poisonous filth of autointoxication.

45. Fasting purifies the blood stream.

46. Fasting improves the circulation. It even cleanses the blood vessels so that the blood circulates all through vessels that may have heretofore been clogged up. A blood transfusion comes automatically about.

47. Fasting rests the heart, improves health, and helps the body overcome heart troubles.

48. Fasting conserves energy. Sick people cannot get well unless there is a conservation of energy. Many times food will destroy or waste what little energy a sick individual has.

49. Fasting gives the overworked stomach a vacation as well as nearly all other parts of the body.

50. Fasting rapidly removes the cause of many diseases. Oftentimes the very disease itself is turned into food fuel for its own destruction, any value in it being utilized for nourishment.

 51. Fasting will cure 99% of functional ailments.

52. Fasting quickly heals simple diseases such as boils, skin blemishes, indigestion, dyspepsia, constipation (although at first the fast seems to aggravate the condition), rheumatism, fever, anemia, asthma, change of life and irregular periodical functions in females, restoring to normal and healing other diseases. Major fasting will also cure most other major diseases caused by impurities in the system.

53. Fasting improves the mental faculties, making it easier to think, study, remember, and concentrate. (During some parts of the fast, this may not always be true).

54. Fasting eradicates mucous, stringy, ropy fecal material and floating food particles within the body.

55. After ten or fifteen days of fasting the individual usually becomes stronger, physically, day by day, after the initial cleansing of the body takes place.

56. The headache generally felt while fasting is a sure indication that you should fast.

57. Fasting will remove ordinary headaches and the coffee or caffeine headache, along with the overuse of coffee or any other abnormal habits.

58. Fasting will also eradicate tobacco, drug and drinking habits in as little time as three days, water only taken during the fast, with temperate eating habits after the fast. The roots of these habits are imbedded within the stomach. Fasting consumes these very roots, banishing addiction.

59. A person cannot starve while fasting. Only the things that are not needed within the body are used. Some of these are poisonous, contaminated, rotten food particles that have been on the walls of the stomach for months. Some doctors have said that dehydrated food and even worms were found impacted in the walls of the intestinal tract for more than 15 years. This very condition invites disease and demons, and with fasting they are starved out.

60. Fasting is the greatest natural youth restorer known. It also beautifies the complexion.

61. Regular fasting prolongs life from twenty to forty years, depending on how much and how properly the fasts are entered into.

 62. Fasting will remove tumors as large as watermelons, also ulcers, cancer and goiters, and will revitalize the glands.

63. The weakness felt while fasting generally disappears after the worst poisons and pollutions are removed by the house cleaning process. (This weakness is caused by rubbish and poisons being stirred within the body).

64. Fasting, after two weeks, more or less, causes the breath that was so foul during the first of the fast to become clean and pure like that of a child.

65. Fasting removes bad tastes from the mouth.

66. Fasting will so purify the skin that often the complexion becomes rosy and like a young person’s.

67. The older a person becomes the more often he should fast, though shorter fasts should be taken. No one is too old to fast. In fact, the older one is, the less food is required. History and the Bible show us that the men and women who fasted the most lived the longest. Study the lives of Moses, Elijah, and Anna the prophetess. These individuals were likewise the most spiritual.

68. Fasting helps us to overcome many bad habits.

69. Fasting develops patience, aids temperance, and enables one to have proper spiritual growth as well as physical prosperity.

70. Fasting overcomes and aids in the prevention of disease.

71. Fasting draws the intestinal tract up and into its normal size and overcomes and prevents colitis and piles.

72. Fasting restores a natural, normal appetite (after the fast is broken properly).

73. Thin persons might not realize that they need to fast, in some cases even more than a heavy person. The reason is very simple. The thin individual has so many times overworked his organs by overeating, that he is incapable of putting on weight. I have seen many an underweight person fast from two to three weeks and weigh more after breaking the fast properly than he weighed before fasting. A heavy person usually is in good enough health so that his organs put on weight. However, one should not in any case be a glutton.

74. Fasting is a normalizing agent: It will help to restore weight to underweight folk and aid in preventing excessive weight on overweight folk.

75. Fasting will aid in cases of insomnia. At first an automatic blood transfusion is set up within the body by the blood remaining from the weight that is lost. This excess blood goes through the body to bathe the organs and it enters into the head causing sleeplessness for a time. Later on, and after the fast, one finds rest and sleep easier and more refreshing.

76. Excess starches and sweets cause the body to be converted into an alcohol factory. This, in turn, causes habit hunger (lust hunger) which is entirely different from true hunger. There are perhaps more people bound to this habit than there are to the drinking habit. The former is about as difficult to break. Jesus classifies it as just as much of a sin as the drink habit (Luke 21:34).

77. Fasting will undo the hunger habit of lust and will prevent folk from being drunk on food. Actually, when folk have great difficulty in fasting, they are under bondage to the food addiction habit in the same manner as those who are under alcohol, drug, tobacco, or other types of bondages. Fasting only a few days can break the bondage of food addiction.

78. Fasting aids and improves our sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. All sense faculties are benefited.

79. Fasting should be frequent, to clean and keep clean the temple and home of the Holy Spirit and to keep from food addiction habits.

80. Fasting seems to take one into a different world. It is wonderful to taste and experience. It makes for better harmony for the person, his family, friends, and community. Couples having family difficulties and discord oftentimes come together in a new understanding with new love and success after a major fast (see I Cor. 7).

WARNING:

 Please do not attempt a long fast without first having complete information as to the proper procedure of breaking into eating again.

Consecrated Bible fasting is not harmful, but the way and manner of starting in to eat again can prove detrimental and the physical benefits received may be undone if too much is eaten, too soon. Satan tempted the Lord to eat after His fast.

We also may be tempted to overeat right after a major fast.

MANY SAINTS UNKNOWINGLY ARE UNDER

FOOD ADDICTION ENVIRONMENT

In summing up the facts of fasting in this enlightening bulletin, the author calls attention to two major desires of Jesus Christ, our Forgiver of sins and our Baptizer of divine healing. His full aim is to keep us from sin forever, and likewise from sickness forever. He liberated us from both the Adamic sin and the Adamic sickness. When we (really and truly) possess the experiences of both bodyfelt and heartfelt salvation, we have no more sickness, tiredness, or sin, ever, just as long as we continue serving Jesus, the giver of these blessings.

It was never intended for man to always be on a two, three, or more meal a day stuffing program. By obtaining the above double blessing experience of getting our body saved as well as our soul, we, then, by fasting become loosened from the food-addiction-bondage. We become acclimated to a new, supernatural, tangible, tree of life menu. After we become weaned away from the food bondage and food slavery addiction appetite, our attentions are focused to the new menu of eating from the life giving menu of the Lord’s everlasting body. Feeding from His remarkable body nourishes us back into everlasting life. We, then, lose our natural appetite for things that are corruptible, carnal, temporal and earthly. On Jesus’ (John 6:27) enduring, eternal life menu, we will not get hungry again. We can be nourished away entirely from sickness, disease, and harmful, accidental things. (See all of John 6; Rom. 16:17-18; Phil. 3:17, 19; etc.).

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INTRODUCTION :

FASTING BRINGS FAITH FOR SURVIVAL

By Rev. Franklin Hall

“Have Faith As A Grain Of Mustard Seed

And Nothing Shall Be Impossible Unto You

By Prayer And Fasting”

(St. Matthew 17 : 20-21)

We are studying a subject that has been hidden, yet in plain sight, for more than nineteen hundred years;

 Still, we hear sceptical `Doubting Thomases` say they read about FASTING in the Bible and that is all they ever intend to learn about it. When asked how long it has been since they have fasted  ten or even three days, they cry out against it, condemning the very thing that they know nothing about, trying to excuse themselves for their wilful or ignorant neglect.

These `truth-condemners` read fasting in the Bible; But they close their ears and push the thought of it right out of their minds just like they stuff God right out of their lives in their `three or four meal a day` stuffing habits. They wilfully refuse to GIVE HEED to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Word of God for fear they may see something in fasting to convict them so, that they can`t go on fulfilling the lusts of the flesh (Romans 13 vs 14.)

It is very peculiar how folks cry out against something that they, themselves, won`t accept, simply to excuse their ignorance, etc.

“For the time will come when they will not endure SOUND DOCTRINE; but after THEIR OWN LUSTS shall they heap to themselves TEACHERS, HAVING ITCHING EARS; AND THEY SHALL TURN AWAY THEIR EARS FROM THE TRUTH, AND SHALL BE TURNED TO FABLES”

(2^nd. Timothy 4: vs 3-4)

The word `Lusts` can be defined as the wrong `desire` or use of our appetites, the most powerful of our habits being HUNGER. Many times in the Old Testament, God distinctly called `HUNGER` a LUST. This was `habit hunger`  --- but real, true hunger demands food to nourish the body and is necessary. (Deuteronomy 12 :15-22)

No wonder prayers are seldom answered any more; The Spirit of God has departed from so many Christians and there is such a lack of the gifts and the old-time power.

Jesus spent a great deal of time teaching `Fasting and Abstemious living`. His very Life was an example of fasting and prayer.  Fasting is called a pillar of the Christian religion. Jesus stressed fasting in His Sermon on the Mount in the same manner in which He stressed `giving` and ` prayer` (St. Matthew 6 :1-18).  He promised a special reward to those that fasted, the same as He did for `prayer` and `giving`, called alms. These were fundamental truths of the religion of Jesus Christ. In the early church they were called, `the three foundations`.

Since when are they not to be??

The same Jesus that said,

"It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you"

(St John 16:17),

also said,

"When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall THEY FAST"

(St. Matt: 9:15)

Here are two major things that His children will do when Jesus goes. When the Christ goes away, they were to tarry in Jerusalem and He would give them the Comforter (St. Luke 24:49) --

then the `Power.`

The disciples and believers also remembered His precious words about fasting. They would (1) FAST and receive the (2) COMFORTER if he went away.

After they received the Comforter, they could also obtain the power (St. Luke 24:49). 

Did He go? 

All right, the fast is already laid upon one here!

We do not have to wait and wait for the Lord to lay a fast upon us. He had already done so when He went away 1900 years ago. Let all of us obey His Commandments and Teachings;

Let us follow our Jesus all the way through to see results.

This pleases, glorifies and honors Him.

It wasn`t necessary for the Bridegroom`s children to fast when their Bridegroom was present.

He had fasted and was well able, with this more perfect Faith to heal the sick and supply them with everything, including their meat.

It would not be courteous or hospitable for Jesus, their Bridegroom, to come expecting His children to fast when He,  a very wonderful Saviour, had come to visit with His own and be present with them.

We find Jesus, also, placed a new meaning upon the subject of fasting.

Fasting would no more be just for a Memorial Day like the Jews were keeping it, but, after He would leave, His followers could obtain, through fasting, what they had without fasting  when He was in their midst.

In other words "they would fast" to bring back His glory and power in their lives, similar to the manner in which they had it by His very Presence when He was in their midst.

Fasting would give them the FAITH so they too, could go out and do everything that Jesus had done (St. John 14:12)

and because Jesus fasted often and, also, He fasted forty days, then Jesus went out, with all FAITH, to undo the works of Satan.

Jesus said they would do even greater things than He had done but, however, not without fasting because proper fasting brings out the glory of the Spirit and the power of Faith.

Again in St. Matthew, chapter 17, given at the beginning, we are given a great revelation as to WHY JESUS FASTED.

He fasted so that He, too, would have the FAITH that removes mountains.

He revealed to the powerless disciples that .... 

HIS FAITH WAS A PRODUCT OF FASTING AND PRAYER.

HE WENT SO FAR AS TO INFORM THEM THEY COULD HAVE THE VERY SAME KIND OF FAITH HE HAD,  ONLY,  THEY,  ALSO, WOULD HAVE TO GO INTO THE PROPHET-LENGTH FAST, AS HE DID, AND PRAY IN ORDER TO SECURE IT.

This is the only logical explanation of Jesus` fast... Otherwise why did he fast??

Here is the great FAITH PRODUCER, .. FASTING AND PRAYER.

It works like a miracle and it is tremendously powerful.

Fasting is prayer Intensified.

It is the power of prayer amplified many times:

Prayer that reaches beyong ordinary prayer.

Prayer That Sees No Defeat!!

One explanation why the average person who has very little faith, cannot understand why fasting gives faith, is for the simple reason that FASTING IS TOO MUCH LIKE FAITH ITSELF.

Sometimes it may be likened unto faith`s brother.

We do not go by sight when we go by faith, and fasting is so much related to FAITH that it is the very threshold of FAITH itself.

It may be called the ...

FATHER OF FAITH. FAITH IS BROUGHT FORTH AND IS CONCEIVED BY FASTING.

FAITH IS ILLUMINATED LIKE ATOMIC ENERGY THROUGH FASTING!!

A person without the `fasting faith` is like an automobile without sufficient power to climb a hill. The car will run on the level, but where great power is required, it becomes a failure, like the powerless disciples were, when they had not fasted.

The very weakness that one develops, through fasting, is the building of faith.

When one seems to be groping around in the dark and accomplishing nothing during a fast, that is actually the building of faith.

Paul tells us, "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2nd. Corinthians 12:10). 

Of course, the fast has to be dedicated to the Lord by anointing oneself with oil or, when a large group unites in a fast together, the elders could anoint with oil.

This dedicates and makes the fast more holy.  It also acknowledges that the spirit has something to do with the successful conclusion of the fast.

An individual should also go into very deep consecration, yieldedness, prayer, "and rend your heart"

(Joel 2:13)

Sometimes it will be difficult to pray, but don`t worry, even a few moments of prayer during the fast is  equivalent to several hours of prayer outside the fast, if the fast has been underway more than a few days.

One should weep and mourn.

After the weakness and the refinement of the blood, the body usually becomes stronger day by day and the candidate can pray longer. It usually requires between eight to fifteen days for the faster to become stronger.

The body has to purify itself through the fast;

Likewise, the purification of the heart and soul has to get underway.

Satan`s great bugaboo is that we are harming ourself and are becoming delapidated, old and haggard-looking.

This is all a lie; There is not one word of truth in this.

Fasting purifies the body and cleans up the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit when water is taken.

If one was  weak or had headaches and other weaknesses, the fast, in itself, will eradicate this and make a new creature out of the individual, as well as a new spiritual Giant.

The physical benefits are secondary blessings, however.

The main object of fasting is to have the power and faith of the spirit.

Let us thank Jesus for both the physical and spiritual benefits the food abstentionist receives from the Father of Faith!!  ...  

Amen !!!

The above article is from the teaching ministry of the late Rev. Franklin Hall of Phoenix, Arizona

____________________

 The Book ...

  `Atomic Power With God Through Prayer And Fasting`