Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts (11 page)

Revival required a priest-leader, so the people sanctified Eleazar, son of Abinadab, to guard the Ark of the Lord (1 Sam. 7:1). Then another leader, God’s spokesman, stepped to the front: “Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel” (7:3,
KJV
).

You enter the Samuel Fast to pray for revival and evangelism. As you pray for God to “pour His spirit on His people,” you must be “leadership conscious.” This means you must be willing to be a leader, pray for God to raise up leaders and pray for God to use the leaders that are already in place.

Step 1: Call the Body Together

The results of individual and corporate fasting are different from each other. Individual fasting makes a person individually responsible to God. Corporate fasting makes a person responsible for what God does to the corporate Body. There is a time for your church to fast, or for those in your Bible study to join together with a spiritual vow not to eat until God answers your corporate prayer.

Notice Samuel’s command, “Gather all Israel” (v. 5). At the time, Israel was only a confederation that was divided into 12 tribes. Although they were united in worship and common ancestry, the nation had no internal political, military or social structure.

When Samuel called for a gathering of the people, he was doing more
than getting them together for worship. It was more than a get-together for a sacred music concert or a citywide evangelistic meeting. Samuel was telling Israel to recognize its obligation one to another, and to fulfill its responsibility one to another. Samuel realized that to have revival, he needed oneness in mind, heart and vision. Fasting was one way to bring the people together in unity—and it can still serve that purpose today.

Step 2: Demonstrate True Repentance

If a public gathering of God’s people were the only criteria for revival, then we should have revival every Sunday morning. But that doesn’t happen. When you use the Samuel Fast to bring about revival, you must follow the example of Israel: “All the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord” (v. 2,
NIV
). They were truly sorry for their sins. Some might question the sincerity of their repentance, thinking it was only a “sorrow of punishment.” They say this because the oppressive taxation by the Philistines and the constant warring raids on their land brought about physical suffering and political wars.

Sometimes when a mother punishes her son for disobedience, she is not sure whether he is sorry because of the punishment or because he violated her standard. Nevertheless, most mothers believe that a sorrowful spirit can build character. Whether the son is sorry for the primary reason or a secondary reason, he learns not to do it again.

When Israel lamented after the Lord, Samuel tested the people to determine their true repentance. He said, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths” (v. 3). When you begin the Samuel Fast, God may convict you of a sin as you are praying. The evidence of your sincerity is seen when you stop sinning.

God gives the conditions for revival in 2 Chronicles 7:14. This verse is introduced with a conditional “if.”
If
God’s people meet the conditions, He will send revival. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).

In the Samuel Fast, abstaining from food is an outward demonstration of inward sincerity. For this reason, fasting is sometimes called “affliction” in Scripture. When his prayers were not answered, David said, “I humbled [afflicted] myself with fasting” (Ps. 35:13). People feel weak and
sometimes light-headed without food. Often the appetite begs for food. But the demonstration of sorrow for the sins committed is evidenced by continuing the fast to its end.

Step 3: Separate from Secret Sin

God’s people must search for hidden sin within themselves and separate from it—and the Samuel Fast’s temporary denial of the flesh in favor of the spirit can bring those sins to light.

Some people are convicted of sins as they sit praying in church or listening to a sermon. As a result they may have gone forward to the altar to confess their sins. Some may have remained in their seats, confessing their sins. Nevertheless, the confession of these “sins of remembrance” did not bring revival (God did not pour Himself upon His people). Why? Perhaps because other sins in their lives had not yet come to light. These are called “secret sins.” Therefore we must pray with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart...And see if there is any wicked way in me” (Ps. 139:23,24).

a. Backsliders are blinded to sin in their lives
. The very presence of sin in our minds blinds us to that sin. Because sin is choosing to turn from God, or ignoring God so that we turn from God, we are willfully ignorant of our obligation to Him. For this cause, Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesus that “the eyes of your understanding [may be] enlightened” (Eph. 1:18).

b. Backsliders are careless about sin in their lives
. Backsliders ignore the warning to the Hebrews, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard” (Heb. 2:1,
NIV
). When a person has willfully sinned, that person becomes a backslider, whether taking 1 or 100 steps away from God. The fact that a person has apparently gotten away with a first step away from God, and “escaped” punishment, gives the person false confidence to take more steps away from God.

c. During fasting God can show hidden sin to the believer—the sin that is prohibiting God’s blessing
. The prodigal son demanded his inheritance, then went out to spend all of his money in riotous living. He is the classic backslider who left the riches of his father’s house. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’” (Luke 15:17,
NIV
). When he was hungry, he remembered the good things he had received in his father’s house. So when we fast, bringing our physical bodies to a place of
hunger, we then can feel the hunger of our spiritual souls. During the Samuel Fast God shows us our hidden sins. The psalmist noted, “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance” (Ps. 90:8).

d. More sin is gradually revealed as we continue the Samuel Fast
. Fasting must be an ongoing process, meaning that we have to fast for more than one day. Sometimes we may fast for two or more separate days, separated by a time of partaking of food. Whereas a two-day fast may produce an intensive examination for sin, there are advantages of two separate days of fasting. The time we spend between our fasts provides opportunity to think through the ramifications of our needs, and our sins may become clearer to us. However it happens, fasting must be more than a one-time event. It must be an action we employ throughout our lives.

Step 4: Have Corporate Confession of Sin

Although some don’t believe in corporate sin, maintaining that only individuals sin, the Bible does give illustrations of individuals who confess sin for the group as a whole. Daniel privately confessed Israel’s corporate sin: “We have sinned and done wrong” (Dan. 9:5,
NIV
). Although each person must privately confess individual sin (see 1 John 1:8-10), each person must also confess the group’s sin. Notice that in the original Samuel Fast there was a corporate confession of sin. The people confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord” (1 Sam. 7:6).

When you confess “We have sinned” in private, you obviously include yourself in that sin. When the group prays corporately, “We have sinned,” each individual must include himself or herself and his or her sin in the prayer.

As an illustration, perhaps the Sunday School at your church is dead. No matter how well you teach the Bible, nothing seems to happen. Leadership is lethargic and pupils seem to care less that the Bible is being taught. Somewhere along the line, leadership made bad decisions that brought about the lethargy. The bad decisions influenced the attitudes of the students. To bring revival to a Sunday School in this condition, the leadership must pray, “We have sinned.” Although they did not make the decisions, they now represent the institution where the bad decisions were made. The present leadership can’t pray, “They sinned.” That’s a cop-out. The current leadership represents the institution where God is not working, and they must pray, “We have sinned.”

Before Nehemiah could rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem, he also had to enter into corporate confession. Notice how his prayer began: “Lord God of Heaven, you are great and fearsome” (Neh. 1:5,
CEV
). Then he comes to his part of intercession:

I am your servant, so please have mercy on me and answer the prayer that I make day and night for these people of Israel who serve you. I, my family, and the rest of your people have sinned by choosing to disobey you and the laws and teachings you gave to your servant Moses (vv. 6,7,
CEV
).

If you have been guilty of criticizing your church, or the spiritual life of the people where you fellowship, you are in bondage to their sin (see the Disciple’s Fast). As you enter the Samuel Fast, first confess your sins, then the sins of all the people. The greatest spiritual power occurs when all the people confess their sins. Then God hears from heaven and revival can occur.

Step 5: Acknowledge the Power of the Word

No revival has ever occurred without the involvement of the Word of God as “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16,
NIV
).

During Samuel’s early days, the Bible says in the
King James Version
, “The Word of God was precious in those days” (1 Sam. 3:1). But the word “precious” meant “rare” when the
King James Version
was translated. The verse actually means, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions” (
NIV
). But when Samuel came to minister to Israel, he brought the Word of God to them. He was both judge and prophet, and one of the duties of the prophet was to interpret God’s will to the people and to give them God’s Word. Samuel was a prophet who was faithful to his calling as he ministered the Word to Israel. As a result, God sent revival.

As you enter the Samuel Fast, spend time studying the great revivals of Scripture, which show clearly the power of the Word of God.

•
Under Jacob
. On the return to Bethel, Jacob ordered his entire household to put away their false gods and to wash and change their garments. They did this as Jacob built an altar
to the true God. The false gods were then buried under an oak in Shechem (see Gen. 35:1-4).

•
Under Samuel
. In response to the exhortation of Samuel, based on God’s Word, the people put away their false gods and prepared their hearts to serve the only true God (see 1 Sam. 7:3-6).

•
Under Moses
. Revival occurred when complaining Israel saw the mighty hand of God in the parting of the Red Sea. On the safe (eastern) side of the sea, Moses led the people in a song of praise, while Miriam and the women furnished the special music (see Exod. 14:31—15:21).

•
Under David
. (a) When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem for the first time (see 1 Chron. 15:25-28; 16:1-43; 29:10-25). (b) At the dedication of the materials to be used in building the future Temple (see 1 Chron. 29).

•
Under Solomon
. This occurred at the actual dedication of the temple (see 1 Kings 6-8).

•
Under Asa
. King Asa removed the Sodomites and all false idols out of the land. He even deposed his own grandmother because of her idolatry (see 1 Kings 15:11-15).

•
Under Jehoshaphat
. The king led a revival when he ordered the cleansing of the Temple and the sanctification of the Levitical priests—all based on the Word of the Lord (see 2 Chron. 19).

•
Under Elijah
. This took place after the contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (see 1 Kings 18:21-40).

•
Under Jehu
. He exterminated all Baal worshipers and their temples (see 2 Kings 10:15-28).

•
Under Jehoiada
. This godly high priest led the people in a covenant whereby they forsook their idols and worshiped God (see 2 Kings 11:17-20).

•
Under Hezekiah
. Like Jehoshaphat, King Hezekiah and God’s people experienced revival when he cleansed the Temple of God (see 2 Chron. 29-31).

•
Under Manasseh
. When wicked King Manasseh became converted, he led his people in a revival by ordering the destruction of all idols (see 2 Chron. 33:11-20).

•
Under Josiah
. This revival began when the Book of the Law
was accidentally discovered during a Temple cleanup event. The public reading of God’s Word had a profound effect upon both King Josiah and his people (see 2 Kings 22—23).

•
Under Ezra
. Through Ezra’s preaching, God wanted His people to be separate from the pagans surrounding them, so the Jewish remnant ceased their ungodly marriage alliances with the heathen of the land (see Ezra 9—10).

•
Under Nehemiah
. After Nehemiah had rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem, Ezra stood by its gates and publicly read and taught from God’s Word, causing a great revival (see Neh. 13).

•
Under Jonah
. The Ninevites, through Jonah’s preaching of God’s Word, repented and stayed the destructive hand of God (see Jonah 3).

•
Under Esther
. This time of repentance and rejoicing followed the salvation of the Jews from the plot of wicked Haman (see Esther 9:17-22).

•
Under John the Baptist
. John preached the imminent appearance of Israel’s Messiah, warning the people to repent and submit to water baptism (see Luke 3:2-18).