Declare a Holy Fast | Randy Frazee | Westside Essentials

Essentials

Dec 28

Teaching Notes

“A desert locus swarm can be 460 miles in size and pack between 40 to 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.”
National Geographic

Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
Joel 1:14

We are calling the assembly that makes up Westside together to 40 days of prayer and fasting from January 17- February 25. 40 days of crying out to the Lord to seek what he has in store for us.

“This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Mark 9:29

Fasting – Reframing from something you depend on for a set period of time for a spiritual purpose.

We do not fast because we are commanded to; we fast out of a place of desperation…to turn to or back to God.

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 3:7-9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

We do not fast because we are commanded to; we fast out of a place of desperation…to find direction or make a decision.

He “proclaimed a fast for all of Judah”
2 Chronicles 20:3

“For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
2 Chronicles 20:12

The Lord replied to them…the threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.
Joel 2:24-27

PRAYER + FASTING COMMITMENT CARD

Going Deeper Discussion

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:16-18

In the above verse, Jesus assumes that we are going to fast and pray. So, he gives some parameters for us.
1. What exactly is Jesus saying we should not do when we fast? Why?
2. Why is doing this in secret something that God desires from us?
3. What do you think the "reward" is from the Father when we fast according to these guidelines?
4. When we fast from food for an intentional period of time, what does the hunger do for us? What does hunger for physical food remind us of in our relationship with God? How is that helpful to us when we begin eating again?