A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

3. Follow carefully prescribed and understood practices associated with the absence of food (see Celebration pp. 57-61). Be certain that your physical health is not risked in your fast. Remember Matthew 4.6-7 – and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”[7] Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

4. Determine the context and reason behind your desire to fast. What in particular are you seeking the Lord to provide, reveal, or transform?

5. Do not call attention to what you are doing in your fast, whether you are fasting. Remember, unless it is a public convocation of shared vision, fast in secret.

6. Understand the nature of fasting: entering into the realm of the spirit before God, and receiving his direct guidance and blessing as a result of his extraordinary provision and presence.

7. Look for instances in your church family and community that call for serious seeking of the Lord in prayer and fasting. Make the opportunity known; do not require participation or involvement.

8. Expect God’s response: if the people of Nineveh and Ahab can receive God’s blessing and intervention due to them humbling their hearts before him, so can we!