The Trumpet Call to Fast and Pray

October 15, 2015 DebbieLynn 20 Comments

There has been a dramatic increase in fasting and prayer worldwide over the last several years. A few years ago Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, called for two million Christians to fast and pray for forty days for worldwide revival and for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. TheCall, led by Lou Engle is calling young people to fast and pray. When I was in Orlando, Florida, hundreds of young people came together to fast and pray for twelve hours. You can watch many of these prayer events on God TV. They are powerful, contagious, and life transforming.

Fasting combined with prayer and worship greatly affects our personal lives and releases the power of the Holy Spirit in us and in our cities.

When Solomon consecrated the temple (2 Chronicles 6:1-2) and requested that the Lord would be attentive to their prayer (2 Chronicles 6:40-42), the Lord answered, fire came down, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple (2 Chronicles 7:1). The Lord visited Solomon and made it clear that when the nation enters into a crisis, if they would humble themselves, repent, pray and seek His face, then he would heal the land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

This is God’s strategy for us in times of crisis. It’s time to return to the Lord with fasting, weeping, and mourning (Joel 2:12-13). We can change the future direction of a nation if we do this. God is merciful and slow to anger. He is gracious and compassionate, and He relents from doing harm (Joel 2:13b). We often look to honor, money, and the size of our ministry, but God values humility, serving, fasting, and prayer.

The Joel 2 fast in Scripture was God’s solution to calamity (see
Joel 2:12-17). Disaster was coming to the land, but it was not too late to avert it. The Joel 2 fast may not only stop the judgment of God, but it can also release the power of God. Isn’t this what we so desperately need in these days in so many of our nations? Instead of disaster we want the power of God released on the land. We read in Joel 2:13:

“Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

In the Bible blowing the trumpet announced the call to gather at the House of Prayer as a solemn assembly with fasting; it also signaled a crisis. The House of Prayer within a city is a perpetual solemn assembly. It is God’s solution in days of crisis. God is calling people all over the earth to enter into a lifestyle of fasting and prayer as the days get worse. The trumpet call is sounding all over the earth. Let’s respond to the call.

“The trumpet call to fasting is being heard throughout the world. This is the decade of fasting and prayer. ‘Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly’ (Joel 2:15)… Today, the trumpet call of the Spirit is clear. We are to prepare for the future with a great deal of prayer and fasting. Congregations and leaders are responding worldwide. Intercessory prayer, joined with fasting, increases the spiritual alertness and effectiveness of God’s people.” Frank Damazio

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC