PRAYER & FASTING BREAKTHROUGH
By Kristie

Prayer AND Fasting. Jesus told His apostles, "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." Matt. 17:21. This is what God told the disciples when they asked why they themselves, who had been giving authority to cast out demons, could not cast the demon out of the boy whose father petitioned them to help the child. Jesus Himself then cast the demon out of the boy, but this happened just as Jesus had returned from fasting for 40 days on the mountain. He told them that is why He could cast out the demon and they could not, because this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting is a very important weapon in your marriage battle because your spouse is in bondage to satan, they are in captivity and in order to break them free from those chains that bind them, just as with this demon spirit in the boy, you must do what Jesus did which is pray and fast.

If you have been praying fervently and have checked to see if your ways are pure, but the breakthrough never seems to come, then you may be like the disciples who had the authority to cast out demons, as you have authority to do also, and fasting may be called for to get your breakthrough. Even Jesus fasted, and if Jesus could have accomplished all He came to do without fasting, why would He fast? He fasted because He knew that fasting opened Him up to the highest level because it unclutters your spirit of things of the world and brings you into a sensitivity to the things of God. As David stated in Ps. 42, "Deep calls unto deep." David was fasting and he reached a place where he could cry out from the depths of his spirit to the depths of God, even in the midst of his trial. Once you have experienced even a glimpse of that kind of intimacy with our God..our Father..the Holy Creator of the universe and the countless rewards and blessings that follow, your whole perspective changes. Fasting is a overlooded secret source of power, just like it was in the Bible!

Solomon, when writing the books of wisdom, (Kimberly, it was from Solomon that we got that scripture from God on with three of these things..the earth trembles and with four it cannot bear up, which has become a important scripture to me here lately and I think it applies to broken marriages) for Israel , made the point that a cord, or rope, braided with three strands is not easily broken. Eccl. 4:12. Likewise, when giving, praying, and fasting are practiced together in the life of a believer, it creates a type of threefold cord that is not easily broken. In fact, Jesus took it even further saying, "Nothing shall be impossible!". Remember the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold return Jesus spoke of? Mark 4:8, 20. When you pray you can release that thirtyfold return, but when both prayer and giving (most of you know that I teach to sow a seed offering for your marriage to get your breakthrough) are part of your life, that releases the sixtyfold blessing. But when all three - praying, giving and fasting - are part of your life, that hundredfold return can be released to you!

There are different lengths of fasts, and three types of fasts are noted in scripture, the "absolute fast", the "normal fast", and the "partial fast".

The absolute fast is extreme and should be done for only short periods of time. On a absolute fast you take in nothing - no food, no drink including water. This fast should be attempted only with medical consultation and supervision, especially if you suffer from some type of illness such as diabetes, as it is not recommended at all for those who do have a ailmen. Below is a biblical example of the absolute fast.

Esthers three day "Absolute" fast: Esther fasted "for favor" from her husband the king. She fasted 3 days for "favor". "God assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way." Esth. 4:16. This fast (or the 7 - day) has another benefit for those who are contentious or who can never stop talking. You will become too weak to argue!! It is also recorded that apostle Paul did a three day fast and Peter fasted three days.

On a "normal fast", you typically go without food of any kind for a certain number of days, You do drink water, and plenty of it! It is recommended that you use bottled water as this fast is also known as a great way to detoxify the body. Depending on the length of the normal fast, you may also choose to take clear broth and juices in order to maintain your strength. I have done the absolute fast for some things that were critical, such as a healing of someone close to death and you need to get serious and do so quickly, but the normal fast is the one I typically use. I, myself, usually do the water only for three days, and the go into the clear broth and juice for another four, for a seven day fast.

A "Partial fast", can be interpreted many ways, but the way it cannot be interpreted is to include that time when you are sleeping at night. A partial fast usually involves giving up particular foods and drink for an extended period of time. This fast example is found in the book of Daniel. Daniel and his companions refused to eat the choice meats and sweets from the kings table, consuming only vegetables and water. They did this for ten days to prove they could be just as healthy as the kings men without the foods. Later, David did another partial fast, taking no sweets, no meat and no wine for three weeks, focused in prayer. At the end, his prayer was answered by an angel, and this is one of the scriptures God gave to me during my marriage crisis. The angel explained to David that his prayers had been heard since the second he first uttered them, three weeks earlier, but it had taken the answer this long to arrive, because the angel had to fight his way through the powers and principalities to bring Daniel the answer. This is a very good scripture for explaining the waiting period one goes through sometimes waiting on a answer to prayer...there may be opposition trying to stop or hinder the response from God, and the angels have to fight the way through the oppostition before you will see the results.

The duration of fasts can vary. There are significant numbers we find in the Bible, which include 3 days, 7 days, 21 days, and 40 days. But there are also references to half-day fasts and 24 hr. (one day) fasts. A 21 day fast of no sweets, bread or meat is called a "Daniel Fast". A three day fast of nothing again is called a "Esther Fast" and again is a fast that is used often for immediate healing needs, many miracles have come from a three day absolute fast, tumors disappearing, brain waves reappearing. We talked about these two, but lets go over the others.

The day fast begins in the evening after your evening meal. You drink only water until the the 24 hr. period is complete, then eat the next days evening meal. You fast and pray during this time for your petition. This fast can be done a couple of times a week. I do want to say right here though that the fast, any fast, must mean something to you for it to mean something to God. Sometimes believers know that a fast is used to bring breakthrough in prayer, so they do it but their hearts are really not in it. It is more a ritual thing of not eating, especially these 24 hr. fasts, with nothing spiritual put forth. I feel that a 24 hr fast needs to be accompanied by the majority of that time on your knees and face in prayer. A fast has to be a sacrifice to mean something..a giving up and in spiritually. Longer fasts need daily prayer, set aside an hour to pray, but there will be days that it is hard to do so, like day three is the worst because they say that day three is when your stomach finally completely empties out. For three days your body is detoxifying, so they are just rougher days and harder to concentrate on. Just do your best on longer fasts, but do not feel like a failure if you just cannot feel good enough to pray sometimes.

Seven day fast: There is a fast that is 7 days (which represents completion). "Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven." Neh. 1:4. Usually it will be during great sorrow that you are "called" to fast for seven days. What does "called" mean? When you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, sometimes He will call you to do a fast, like He did to me when He told me to start the worldwide fast for broken marriages, that went for over 40 days. Some people say that you have to be called to do a fast for it to be effective, but that is not true, as long as you make it a spiritual effort and your heart is in it. This is saying to God that your situation is critical to your heart and you will do whatever you need to do to get His help, you will sacrifice and devote yourself to the cause!

Many churches as a group dedicate to a 21 day Daniel fast in the beginning of each year for revival.

The 40 day fast, this is the most interesting in my opinion. First remember that Jesus fasted 40 days and stated that some demons only go out by fasting like this. Moses also recieved the ten commandments during a 40 day fast. Joshua fasted for 40 days as well. Now, interesting story I heard from Pastor Franklin Jentezen. He said that he was reading the book, Prophetic Whisper, by Richard Gazowsky and it told of he and his wife, during a time of fasting, were praying on the beach. His wife has walked further away down the beach from him and began praying for a woman they knew who was being tempted into adultery. The moment she spoke the womans name out loud, a swarm of flies ascended from the ocean surface, as if orchestrated by an invisible conductor, and swept like a blanket across the water and onto the beach. He rushed over to see if his wife was okay. When she told him that she had been praying for the friend, the Lord revealed what Gazowsky refers to as a "vunerability in satans kingdom", that being the flies. Franklin says that he immediately thought of the scripture in Matt. 12:24, "Now when the Pharasees heard it they said, 'This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." They were accusing Jesus of operating with the power of satan, or as they referred to satan..Beelzebub, which means Lord of the flies. He found it very interesting, and so do I, not surprizing at all either, that during a prayer for someone who is being tempted by demons, a horde of flies came out of nowhere and descended upon this couple. Gazowsky says that he found the "weakness" or vunerability, relates to the life span of flies. Pretty much any species reproductive cycles range from one day to 40 days. That is why in order to exterminate a infestation of flies from a crop, you have to spray pesticides for 40 consecutive days in order to utterly destroy them. If you stop short of 40 days, you only destroy the existing generation, but the next generation will live on. This is a good point when it comes to generational curse and breaking them also. You may be free of a sin, say addiction, that has been a history in your family, and even though you are free, you see it happening in your children. This leads one to think that a 40 day fast is necessary to break generational curses off your family once and for all. Throughout the Bible, 40 days represents cleansing and purifying. The flood in Noahs time cleansed the earth of wickedness for 40 days and nights. Moses life could be divided up into three different seasons of 40. He spent 40 years in Egypt. He spent 40 years in the desert and 40 years bringing and delivering the Israelites to the Promised Land. He also fasted for 40 days two different times, once recieving the Ten Commandments and once interceding for the sin of the Israelites and God spared them. When Jonah went to Ninevah, he gave the inhabitants 40 days to repent of expect judgement, and the king of Ninevah called a fast for the entire land, of which they were awarded with mercy instead of judgement. Elijah fasted for 40 days in the desert, and during that time he spoke with God and recieved new direction, remember the valley of the dry bones, and prophesizing, this is when it occurred. The word Eljah recieved during that 40 day fast also affected the next generation. There is a prophetic release that occurs in and individual who fasts continually for 40 days. This does not necessarily have to be from food either, it could be from tv, or the computer, or anything unproductive to the Kingdom of God. Wonder what kind of cleansing would occur and glory would be released if we fasted an additional hour of every day for 40 days to spend in prayer with the Lord (meaning dedicating without fail one hour daily for 40 days to prayer).

Flies represent demons in the Word, ad do other animals. If you could see into the spirit world, many demons resemble animals. Do some of you remember me telling you about when I blessed my house when my husband went out, the last time when he was in captivity to seven demons, and within 24 hours these silvery very shiny winged fly looking creatures who could only hop came up out of the bathroom floor, through the carpeting, and literally covered the dining room floor as they marched, hopped that is, towards the side porch door. There were millions of them, and within a hour there was not a single one to be seen, they went under the door of the side porch and on out. I called my pastor hysterically and he advised me I was such a sceptic about demon possession that God showed me the manifestation of the demons that were still in my home leaving when the house was blessed. These demon spirits attach themselves to our lives, they carry off our spouses in captivity, into adultery, or addictions. They are generational curses, mental illnesses, bondages, strongholds of the mind, lust, perversion, and addictions of every kind, they are divorce! The problem with most churches is that they just swat at flies for a few days when they are right in their faces, then they go away for awhile, but they keep coming back! Its time to clean house! It is time for a scriptural season of cleansing. With cleansing, devils will start dropping like flies! WhooHoo! Not only in your life, in your generation and in the future generations of demons that are passed down to your children. Solomon wrote, "Dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor." Eccl. 10:1. Flies would get into the special annointing oil, they'd get stuck in it, die, and spoil the fragrance. Flies hinder the annointing in our lives. Worship gets polluted by flies of fleshly desires, and draws one away from God and into captivity. This is their job folks! It is time to get rid of the flies with 40 days of fasting! It may be time for you to cast out demons from your spouses with 40 days of fasting and praying!

My knees are weak from fasting.
When you are hungry or weak, use that time for prayer and reading His Word.

In order to be seen.
Keep as quiet about your fast as is possible. During the fast, you are to be silent, never complaining or drawing attention to yourself. "And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, annoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." Matt. 6:16-18.

You want to really push for the breakthrough, add sowing a seed for your miracle to prayer and fasting!

God bless...