Wednesday Fast and Prayer! What Does Truly Effective Fasting and Prayer Look Like?
Thank you for continuing to fast and pray with us! God moved mightily throughout the school year! The gospel is powerful!
At the Atlanta club, we saw 109 students make commitments to Christ, 85 rededicate their lives, and 50 request a personal prayer call. This is the fruit of His Spirit at work!
The parent prayer group and the two student prayer groups (one for young men and one for young women) have been a vital part of this move of God—raising up disciples and strengthening students, parents, and teachers in the Lord!
Let’s keep pressing in and believing for a consecrated revivalist to come forth to lead the Atlanta club and for God to move in a redemptive, restorative, relational, and revival way—in the heart of every student, teacher, and parent (12-12-12-12 prayer vision). The best is yet to come because of the power of the gospel!
What Does Truly Effective Fasting & Prayer Look Like?
Ministry to the Lord: Returning to Our First Love
Fasting is first and foremost not a ministry for God or for others, but a ministry to God. Before fasting accomplishes anything in the world, it must recalibrate the heart to its first calling: to love Jesus. In Revelation 2:4-5, Jesus rebukes the church at Ephesus not for busyness, but for losing the one thing necessary—the love they had at first. In fasting, we lay down every other affection and come back to the feet of Jesus like Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:42), choosing intimacy over industry.
The goal is to touch the Lord with your life. He is the fast. He is the breakthrough. He is the reward. Fasting becomes a sacred offering, a fragrance to the Lord (Lev. 1:9), where we minister not with many words, but with surrendered hearts.
A Fast of the World to Feast on His Love
Biblical fasting is not hunger for hunger’s sake—it is hunger for Him. Isaiah 58:6 calls for a fast that breaks the yoke and removes oppression—but first, we must be freed from the world's hold on us. Fasting detaches us from inferior loves so we can feast on the superior pleasures of knowing Christ (Phil. 3:8). We turn down the volume of the world to turn up the voice of God.
Jesus, in the wilderness, responded to Satan’s temptation by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). This is the feast we’re after. In fasting, we say like David, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food... when I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the watches of the night” (Psalm 63:5–6).
Co-Laboring with God: Releasing His Heart on Earth
He doesn’t need more workers, He wants more lovers—because lovers will work and proclaim the gospel. True fasting always leads to alignment with God’s heart, not just answers to our prayers. Isaiah 58 shows that when we fast His way, we become repairers of the breach and restorers of streets to dwell in (v. 12). This is not a fast for results; it’s a fast for relationship—and from that place, fruit flows.
Jesus taught that when we fast in secret, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:18). What is the reward? He Himself. And when we are filled with Him, we become intercessors who pray His prayers, love with His love, walk in His authority and proclaim His gospel. Our fasting births justice, mercy, and healing—because it's no longer we who live, but Christ in us (Gal. 2:20)!
Will you join us as we continue to fast the world and feast on God's love and Word?
This is how revival begins—in hearts fully yielded, feasting on truth, and burning with love for Jesus. Let’s go after Him together!
United for the harvest,
Joseph and the Crossroads Team
