Marilyn Hickey - The Power of Prayer and Fasting: 21 Days That Can Change Your Life

Copyright 2006 by Marilyn Hickey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

The health advice in this book is not intended to replace the services of a trained health professional. Fasting can be dangerous and you are advised to consult with your health care professional with regard to all matters relating to your health, and in particular regarding matters which may require diagnosis or medical attention. If you are pregnant, overweight or have other special conditions requiring attention, you should seek a professional opinion and consider modification of the fasting program.

Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture references are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scriptures noted CEV are taken from THE CONTEMPORARY VERSION.

Copyright 1991 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scriptures noted NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scriptures noted NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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First eBook Edition: February 2006

ISBN: 978-0-446-55042-0

To my son-in-law, Reece Bowling, and my daughter, Sarah Bowling. Reece is better than a son; he is like seven sons to me. He is prayerful, encouraging, and sympathetic. Sarah has always been a good friend to me, but now she is my best spiritual friend. Sometimes I wonder how I can be so blessed!

I want to express my gratitude and acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Augustine Obinnah to this book. Dr. Obinnah is a physician I have come to know and respect; he and his family are members of our church congregation at Orchard Road Christian Center in Denver.

I asked Dr. Obinnah to do a thorough review of this manuscript prior to publication, and offer his medical insights on the subject of fasting, which have been incorporated into the text.

Thanks as well to Bob Rodgers for permitting me to use his comprehensive fasting program materials.

I also appreciate the online resource by Dr. Elson M. Haas, Nutritional Program for Fasting, and the online resource from Freedomyou.com titled How to Break a Fast.

WHY I PERSONALLY FAST AND PRAY

I not only teach people to fast and pray. I personally fast and pray. I have done so for the past forty-five years.

Why?

First, I have found that prayer and fasting go together like conjoined twins that cannot be divided. When I am in prolonged and fervent prayer, I automatically find that I have less desire for foodindeed, less need for food. When I feel a need to cleanse my physical system through modified forms of fasting, I nearly always find that I have a greater longing to cleanse all aspects of my lifeespecially my spiritthrough longer and more intense times of prayer with the Lord.

Second, as I have observed many ministers who are truly anointed of God and are highly effective in both reaching the lost and taking Gods healing power to people in great need, I have concluded that fasting and prayer are integral parts of their lives. An emphasis on prayer, accompanied by fasting, appears to be a very serious component of any ministry that results in life-changing conversions and miracles.

Third, I have found in my personal life that when I fast as part of a time of focused and intense prayer, I am more sensitive to the Holy Spirit, the voice of God, and I am better able to discern the direction God desires for me to take. Fasting helps me to put down my flesh and opens me to the still, small voice of the Lord. I usually find that after a fast, I have renewed enthusiasm and even greater courage for undertaking the tasks the Lord has set before me.

I have not engaged in what I consider to be prolonged fasting. My husband has been led by God to go on several forty-day fasts in his life. He has also experienced twenty-one-day and ten-day fasts.

Prolonged fasting of this type is hard on my body. The Lord gave me a personal pattern for fasting when I first began to teach. He led me to fast and pray seven meals a week. I found that I could do these in any orderfor example, I could fast one meal and eat two meals a day for each of seven days, or I might eat two meals a day for three days, eat only one meal a day for two days, and eat three meals for two days. For years, I followed a pattern of fasting seven meals a week except when I was on vacation with my family. This practice helped me greatly in staying at a consistent place in my spiritual life so I could hear Gods voice plainly.

If you study the early church, you will find that a number of the church fathers wrote about fasting and practiced those disciplines often. The Roman Catholic Church has recommended fasting for hundreds of years. The Protestant denominations, however, have not placed an emphasis on fasting, largely, I believe, because Protestant leaders in the last hundred years have not done a great deal of teaching about fasting and praying or encouraged people to do it.

Years ago I had an opportunity to travel to South Korea and to visit with Dr. Paul Yonggi Chos mother-in-law, who was the leader at a retreat center called Prayer Mountain outside Seoul. She, along with Dr. Cho, believed that prayer and fasting are what birthed a great revival in South Korea so that today, the nation is 40 percent Christian, when it formerly was 98 percent Buddhist. In attending services and board meetings with Dr. Cho, I learned a great deal about combining fasting and prayer, and especially fasting and praying in the Spirit. Much of what I know today about fasting and prayer I learned from Dr. Cho and his mother-in-law.

I also learned valuable lessons about fasting and prayer from my mother. When my father was admitted to a mental hospital and the attending psychiatrists told my mother that he would never come out of that hospital, my mother immediately began to fast and pray for his healing. Within a year, my father was born again, baptized in water, and out of that hospital! I believe my father is in heaven today largely because of my mothers practice of fasting and praying for him during the months of his illness.

I thank God for the way that fasting and prayer open the heavens so we might experience an outpouring of Gods power and blessings. I am 100 percent convinced that these practices are musts for believers.

A LONG-STANDING COMMITMENT TO FASTING AND PRAYING

About fifteen years ago, we began a more formal program of fasting and praying in our church in Colorado. We called it 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. We have done this at the beginning of each year, and we have found that our church comes out of this three-week time of prayer and fasting highly energized, highly focused, and highly unified to undertake the ministry challenges God has revealed to us as a body.

During the three weeks of prayer and fasting, we have special prayer meetingsincluding added prayer meetings early in the morning, at noontime, and some evenings. These additional meetings give all members of the pastoral staff an opportunity to lead in prayer, which is important both to them and to the people in our church. We also have designated nights for people to pray and then to write down their personal, spiritual, family, material, and financial goals for the coming year. We have special times of prayer for specific needs. Our entire ministry staff and church staff participate, as do the majority of the members of our congregation.