Dominion City Church 21 days of Prayer and Fasting

January is the month of fasting and prayer. Let this guide help you maximize this period.

(Isaiah 58:1 – 14/ Matthew 6: 1 – 18)

The 3 Elements of Fasting

1. Self – denial: Abstinence

2. Prayer: Supplication

3. Giving: Charity

Before we discuss an acceptable fast, let’s see the things that make fasting null and void. That
is, the things that render your fast unacceptable. Anything that spoils prayer, spoils fasting.
Also, anything that spoils charity, spoils fasting. It is possible to give, and God will not accept it.
It is also possible to pray, and your prayers will not be answered.

PRINCIPLES OF AN UNACCEPTABLE FAST

(1) Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their
transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. (2) Yet they seek me daily, and delight to
know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God:
they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. (3)
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul,
and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all
your labours. (4) Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness:
ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. (5) Is it such a fast
that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day
to the LORD?

1. The presence of rebellion and sin in your life: This counters your fast. You cannot be
fasting and doing wrong at the same time. Verse 1: Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a
trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. (KJV)

2. A life of hypocrisy and pretence: this is when you have a seeming desire to delight in the
things of the Lord meanwhile your heart is not there. Verse 2: Yet they seek me daily, and
delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of
their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
(KJV)
Verse 2: yet they act so pious! They come to the temple every day and seem delighted to
learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its
God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. (NLT)

3. Absence of self – denial: Verse 3b …behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure (KJV)

4. Oppressing your Workers and your Subordinates: Verse 3b …even while you fast, you
keep oppressing your workers (NLT)

5. Living a life of strife, quarrelling, and fighting while fasting: Verse 4a …Behold, ye
fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness (KJV)

6. Making a show of your fast Verse 4b … ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your
voice to be heard on high (KJV) Matthew 6:16-18 (16) Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the
hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men
to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. (17) But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
thine head, and wash thy face; (18) That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father
which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (KJV) Be
private about your fast. Do not have a sad countenance to make a show of your fast.
Once you have impressed people you don’t impress God again.

7. Dishonoring the Sabbath day while fasting:

Isaiah 58:13 (13) If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my
holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him,
not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Don't miss church services in the name that you are fasting.

8. Not doing acts of compassion during your fast and making a show of it even while
you do: Matthew 6:3-5 (3) But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth: (4) That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly. (5) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are
for, they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

9. Vain repetition of prayers like the heathen: i.e. Not being specific in prayer Matthew
6:6-7 (6) But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly. (7) But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking.

10.Not walking in forgiveness: Matthew 6:12 (12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive
our debtors.
CONDITIONS OF AN ACCEPTABLE FAST
Isaiah 58:1-5, 13

1. Humble yourself and repent

2. Find the needy and less privileged and bless them

3. Walk in love: eliminate every form of strife and malice from your life

4. Remember your family, parents, spouse, kids, people you live with

5. Break every form of oppression and wickedness

6. Turn your talk and tongue from speaking evil

7. Deny yourself pleasure (e.g. food, television, parties, ceremonies etc.)

8. Honoring the day of the Lord, that is the Sabbath day

3 kinds of Fast

1. Absolute fast: Dry Fasting (Moses fast). 40 days: recommended 3 days:

Esther 4:16 (16) Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for
me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise;
and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

2. Total fast: Water-fast (Jesus Fast): 40 days

3. Partial fast. Vegetable fast (Daniel fast: 21 days):

Daniel 10:1-5, Daniel 10:2-3 (2) In those days I, Daniel was mourning three full weeks. (3) I
ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at
all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

Daniel fast is a kind of mourning. Matthew 5: 4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be
comforted.

As we fast, pray, seek God’s face over national issues and personal issues, we align our destiny
in line with His plan and purposes. It took 21days for the national angel of Israel to withstand
the Prince of Persia.

There are 3 Options you can choose from.

(6) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (7) Is it not to deal thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (8) Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee;
the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. (9) Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou
shalt cry, and he shall say, here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting
forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; (10) And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (11) And the
LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou
shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. (12) And they that shall
be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and
thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (13) If thou turn away
thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the
holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own
pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: (14) Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

1. Light: Your light shall spring forth as the morning: Clarity of vision and revelation.
Revelation: God’s Word

2. Health: your health shall spring forth speedily: A renewal of your body and organs. It
strengthens your bones and makes you like a watered garden. Physically: helps detoxify your
system and slows down the aging process.

3. Divine Visitation: Your righteousness shall go before you.

4. The Presence of God will be rich in your life

5. Fasting draws God to intervene at a faster rate to your prayers. It enables your
prayers to be answered fast.

6. Breaks addictions and bad habits: Fasting helps you to break besetting sins and moral
bondages. It breaks anything that is not of God in your life.

7. Continued divine guidance- for your life and nations.

8. Refreshing and restoration

9. Exercising dominion in your finances. God will satisfy your soul in drought. It breaks
financial yokes and stagnation.
10. Fasting breaks generational curses especially in families and rebuilds the ancient ruins.
It releases reformers and deliverers and nation-builders. God will cause you to ride on the high
places of the earth. Fasting causes you to be promoted and to have the heritage of Jacob.

Five Arsenals in Fasting

1. Your Bible

2. Your Notebook

3. Your pen

4. Find Christian books and CDs you must Study and listen to

5. Written down goals/topics you must pray through and write down every instruction that God
gives you while you pray.

Remember, this is the year of Supernatural Advantage