Call on Heaven: A 25 Day Journey of Prayer and Fasting

How You Can Use This Resource

Weekly Themes, Fasts, and Lengths

Throughout this four-week journey, we will be coming around our four 'For Statements' to guide us in what we are collectively fasting for.

Week 1 - For God

Week 2 - For People

Week 3 - For the City

Week 4 - For the World

Each week, we will collectively be focusing on one of these themes, with daily application and devotion opportunities that are aligned to lead you deeper in your pursuit. We encourage you to pick a form of fasting to practice, either for the entirety of our journey or you can practice different forms of fasting over the four weeks. An example might be:

Week 1 - Routine Fast (Choose something to substitute this week)

Week 2 - Corporate Fast (Pick a friend and choose something to limit together)

Week 3 - Common Fast (Choose one day and refrain from any food for 24 hours)

Week 4 - Celebratory Feast (Choose a day and focus on rejoicing over what God has done!)

Fasting is not just the “going without,” but it is saying ‘no’ to something to say ‘yes’ to something else.

Fasting Forms

There are a variety of ways to practice fasting, either individually or corporately, including:

Common Fast – No food or sustenance of any kind for an extended period of time* (except water)**

Partial Fast – Giving up certain kinds of foods (wheat, meats, coffee, sweets, etc.)

Corporate Fast – Committing to abstinence from something as a group.

Routine Fast - Substituting technology, social media, socializing (solitude), etc. to seek God

Fasting lengths

Single Meal – If you desire to make fasting a more consistent rhythm or if you are new to fasting as a practice, consider fasting from a single meal to seek God.

24 Hour – Traditionally speaking, food fasts last 24 hours (roughly 6p to 6p)

Multiple Day – There are many examples of multiple-day fasts in Scripture (between two and forty days)**

**If you have a health condition that would be negatively impacted by going without food and or water for a period of time, please consult with your doctor if and before you choose to participate.

Fasting Purposes

Fasts for Help

[Ezra 8:21-23; 1 Kings 17:9-16; Acts 9:9; Esther 4:16; 5:2]

In these passages, biblical figures went without food to seek God for guidance, healing, and restoration.

Fasts in Repentance

[1 Sam. 7:6; 2 Sam. 12:16; Jonah 3:5; Joel 2:12-13]

Individuals or people groups fasted in response to the humbling reality of personal or corporate sin, for the sake of life transformation.

Fasting in Mourning

[Neh. 1:4; 2 Sam. 1:12; I Samuel 31:13]

Food fasts were a common response to death, brokenness, and suffering in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Fasting in Preparation

[Luke 1:15; Matt. 4:1-11; Acts 13:3]

Fasting was implemented as an act to prepare one’s heart for the spiritual calling on their life.

Other Examples of fasting:

A fast for Leaders (Acts 14:23)

A fast for Humility (Ps. 69:10)

A fast for Mental Health (1 Kings 19:4-8)

A fast for Favor (Dan. 1:5-21)

A fast for Justice (Is. 58:6)

A fast for Worship (Lk. 2:37)

As we begin our fasting journey, we’re starting by declaring our desire to dwell in deep communion with God.

To linger in His presence and to gaze upon His beauty. The Psalmist writes in chapter 27: “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” We want this posture to be true of our own lives and so we’re asking God to renew within us a desire for His Name and His glory.

This week, we want our hearts to be recaptured with the awe and reverence that we have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. That this God not only knows us, He hears us. Even further, He loves us so much that He gave us His greatest treasure: His son Jesus.

We want to dial back the noise of the world and block out any and all distractions that would deter us from fixing our whole gaze on Jesus. What could it look like to pursue God with an undivided attention this week? What Scriptures could steady your soul? What truths about His character could give you confidence for the days ahead?

Over the next few days, we’re committing to denying our usual worldly appetites, and, instead, hungering for more of God. We want to be people who are For God, and that means we need to be people who are with God. So take these days to dwell with Him. Reflect on His provision, His righteousness, and His salvation. Call out to Him, humble yourself before Him. He is near and calling out to you. He desires to be deeply known by you, and He is able to satisfy everyone who hungers and thirsts for Him.

This week, consider denying yourself a form of distraction. For some, it might be a phone or a tablet. It might be that TV show you’ve been binging to start the year or the social media app that leads to mindless scrolling. Consider a Surrender Fast, something to put aside so that you can press more fully and intentionally into time with God.

Define your exchange:

This week, I am going to deny myself: ____

This week, I am hoping to enjoy more of God’s (choose a characteristic): ____

As we embark on this journey together, start by watching this message from Ben Stuart as he explains why we are undertaking this journey. Be sure to take notes or journal about it afterward so that you are actively engaging with the content and not just passively listening to it.