The question usually comes from someone with a genuine desire for deeper intimacy with the Lord and knowledge of God’s perfect will. For me, fasting has been the secret to obtaining open doors, miraculous provision, favor and the tender touch of God upon my life.
I was on a three-day fast when God called me to preach. I was on a 21-day fast when our ministry received its first million-dollar gift. When I was an evangelist, my brother and I traveled together. We would rotate our preaching nights. On my night off, I would fast all day for him. On his night off, he fasted all day for me. We went from obscurity to doors opening all over the world through the power of fasting.
Every assignment has a birthplace. When God has placed a dream inside you that only He can make possible, you need to fast and pray.
Good or bad, what’s in you will come out only when you fast and pray.
Now that I’m a pastor, our church begins each year with a 21-day fast. From those early years of ministry until this day, fasting has become a lifestyle. When I feel myself growing dry spiritually, when I don’t sense that cutting-edge anointing or when I need a fresh encounter with God, fasting is the secret key that unlocks heaven’s door and slams shut the gates of hell.
The discipline of fasting releases the anointing, the favor and the blessing of God in the life of a Christian.
I don’t know about you, but there are some things that I desire more than food. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” (Matt. 5:6).
Since you are reading this, you are probably not content to go through this year the way you went through last year. You know there’s more. You know there is an assignment for your life. You know there are things that God desires to release in your life, and there is a genuine desperation for those things gripping your heart.
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces so they may appear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you will not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly,” (Matt. 6:16-18).
To learn more about the spiritual impact fasting has on your life, click here!
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Mike Rakes 
James Lasher 
