What is the Fasting Forty?

The Fasting Forty is a group of forty people who fast for one day a week in a given month of 1995. It may be different from month to month. Or some people may want to do it for more than one month.

At the end of each month I will print a wallet card called the Fasting Forty card, and make forty copies available after the morning service. When all the cards are taken, the Fasting Forty will be known—by God.

We will not make an effort to identify who the Fasting Forty are. This will accord with Jesus’ teaching that we should beware of fasting to be seen by other people (Matthew 6:16-18).

Each month I will try to give some special scripture and focus to the prayers of the Fasting Forty. This will be shared more widely so that any of you can join the forty if you wish.

What is the purpose of the Fasting Forty?

• To keep the Biblical discipline of fasting before us as a church, lest we treat the recent emphasis as a passing fad.
• To give more and more people a chance to grow in this practice of Biblical fasting.
• To avail ourselves of all that God has ordained for the empowering of prayer in the life of our church.
• To be unrelenting in our pursuit of the reviving power of God in our church for the sake of our city and beyond.
• To build in the habit of fervent intersession as the engine of our church life.

Is the Fasting Forty a Biblical idea?

In Acts 13:1-3 a group within the church was fasting, not the whole church. God used this group to launch a history-changing mission. I would be happy if this anonymous group of 40 people would be the lit match to the fuse of God’s spiritual dynamite in our midst.

May the Head of the church give you wisdom when it is your time.

Hungering for all the fullness of God,

Pastor John