The Devil Knows the Power of #fasting and Prayer #2024 #prayer #jesus #f...

EXCEPT BY PRAYER AND FASTING

This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. —MATTHEW 17:21

YOU’VE COMMANDED, REBUKED, prayed prayers, done warfare, and shouted, but there’s more that needs to be broken off your life. It’s time to add some fasting to your warfare strategy. There is no other way around some demonic strongholds. No shortcuts. You have to fast and humble yourself until that thing breaks and leaves your life.

Demons are different in terms of their wickedness. There are demons that are stronger, more wicked, unclean, and stubborn, and higher in rank, ability, and intelligence. The longer a demon has been in your family or in your life, the harder it is to remove because its roots go very deep. Demons such as rebellion, pride, witchcraft, Jezebel, poverty, and lack may only come out with a high level of faith.

Sometimes it seems as if they cannot be dislodged, and people will get discouraged and frustrated and feel they have failed. In Matthew 17 the disciples of Jesus encountered a demon in a young boy and could not cure him because of their unbelief. Unbelief hinders us from dealing with strongholds. It takes faith to dislodge the enemy. Fasting helps you overcome unbelief and build strong faith.

This is the supernatural combination that Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 17: prayer and fasting. I am not saying that when you fast you will earn brownie points with God or that you are working your way to enjoying God’s blessings. We don’t fast to be saved, please God, or go to heaven. There is no law that says if you don’t fast you will go to hell. We fast for breakthrough and revival, for family and loved ones. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God!

Some things take fasting and prayer. There is no other way around. There are those kinds of demons that just don’t give up. They are strong, proud, arrogant, and defiant. They are familiar spirits that have been in your family. But you have to get to the point that you don’t care how messed up your family is; you say, “It is stopping with me. This is not going on to another generation. This is it, devil. If my grandmother or grandfather didn’t stand against it, if my mother and father didn’t defeat it, I’m going to defeat it. I refuse to be poor, broke, sick, rejected, messed up. . . . No!”

Sometimes you have to do something unusual, extraordinary, and beyond the norm to see breakthrough. Normal church, normal Christianity, normal preaching, and normal praying are not going to get the job done. Some little sweet prayer is not going to do. Religion won’t get it done. It is going to take an anointing that destroys the yoke. When you fast, the anointing increases in your life because you are so into the Spirit. The authority of God, power of God, and faith of God comes alive when you lay aside some things and fast. You will find yourself getting stronger and stronger. Shouting doesn’t do it. It is the anointing that does it.

Isaiah 58 talks about how we can fast to break every yoke to undo the heavy burdens. Fasting makes room so that the oppressed go free. Fasting breaks bondages and causes revival. When you are dealing with a serious issue—maybe you are dealing with something you don’t know how to handle—the best thing to do sometimes is to let go of some food for a little while. Pray against that thing. Man may not be able to help you, and you may not know how to defeat it, but with God all things are possible.

As you fast and humble yourself, the grace of God will come upon your life. The Lord will be the strength of your life. What you could not do in the flesh, you can do by the Spirit of God. Because it’s not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord that every mountain is removed!

Listen, extraordinary situations require extraordinary measures. Sometimes it only happens when you get desperate—when you are so tired of being defeated and hindered in an area.

HOW TO FAST

Fasting is beneficial whether you fast partially or fully. One-day fasts on a consistent basis will strengthen your spirit over time and give you the ability to disciple yourself for longer fasts. Three-day fasts with just water are a powerful way to see breakthroughs. Esther and the people of Israel went into a three-day fast when they were seeking deliverance from death at the hand of Haman, the king’s evil advisor (Esther 4:16). Fasts longer than three days should be done by people with more experience in fasting.

Est 4:16  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. 

I do not recommend long fasts unless there is an emergency or if one is led by the Holy Spirit to do so. Daniel fasted twenty-one days and saw a great breakthrough for his people (Dan. 9–10). Daniel was also a prophet, and God will use prophets to fast for different reasons to see breakthroughs. Jesus fasted forty days before beginning His ministry (Matt. 4:1–2). Moses and Elijah also fasted forty days (Exod. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8). I do know of people who have fasted forty days and have seen great breakthroughs.

A partial fast can include some food such as vegetables and can be done for long lengths. Complete fasts consist of only water, and water is important to cleanse the system of toxins that are released through fasting. The Holy Spirit will reveal to you when you need to fast. A fasted lifestyle is a powerful lifestyle.

Matthew 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 

Matthew 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 

Exodus 34:28  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 

Deuteronomy 9:9  When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water: 

Deuteronomy 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 

1 Kings 19:8  And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. 

FASTING BRINGS AN OPEN REWARD

Fasting has great rewards. Many believers are unaware of the great rewards that come through fasting. Understanding the great benefits of fasting will motivate more believers to make it a regular part of their lives. Matthew 6:17–18 says, “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you will not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

God promises rewards to those who fast in secret. Reward is God’s favor, abundance, and blessing. The open rewards of fasting include blessing, abundance, favor, and prosperity. Learn the secret of obtaining God’s reward through private fasting. Everybody doesn’t need to know you are fasting. As you are led by the Holy Spirit, make this a personal discipline between you and God and see how He rewards you.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. —HEBREWS 11:6