In 2015, I participated in my very first 21 day fast. I thought about what I wanted to pray about for the year – I wanted favor everywhere I went and in everything I did. Holy Spirit told me how exactly to participate in the fast. I obeyed. The outcome was astonishing; however, looking back a year later the outcome has floored me.
My instructions were different for the 1st day compared to the remainder of the fast. Within 21 days the Lord spoke 20 times to me. Yes, I went back and counted in my journal :). Some of the things He said were things I didn’t understand in the moment. Other things were answers to immediate situations (and what I didn’t recognize until later those same answers ended up applying to future situations as well.) I journaled all of it. Every single word.
Of all the things He said to me, one statement overwhelmed me with more emotion than any of the others.
You see, I have always had a secret prayer. When I died, I wanted God to have considered me so full of faith I could be in the “Hall of Faith”. (For those of you who may not know what I am referring to, it’s Hebrews 11.) For years I had secretly desired this and for God to see my faith. I wanted God to consider me faithful. I wanted people to be able to stand and speak at my funeral saying, “If Jade had anything, she had faith.” On the third day of my fast he spoke to me:
“You are my child of faith.”
Uh! Wow. If I hadn’t received anything else through the 21 days, that was worth it. To hear those words – words I had been praying to hear for years. Remember when I said the things He spoke in the current situations were also for future situations? This was one of them. It’s crazy how we think a situation is so helpless or overwhelming but once we are through it – we look back and it is never as big as we had once thought. Then we turn back around and standing in front of us is a mountain larger than the previous one. Little did I know, the situation that had God calling me His child of faith, was more like a mountain range. The big picture was I needed to get from one side of the mountain range to the other. The only way to do it – was go through it. (Read “It’s Your Trial. Guilt? Or Innocent?” and “Breaking Through The Mountain” when you have time.) Like a mountain, going up represent struggles and then coming down represents things seemingly getting better. Oh! There’s another mountain. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
The things I discovered while fasting ranged from answers to previous prayers, things I was curious of but never actually asked, direction for the future, and just being loved on by God. How often we really do yearn to be loved on by God whether we admit to it or not. That stands for male and female!
I encourage you to embrace the challenge of the 2016 twenty-one day fast. If you have not already, join in. Once you begin, I bet you go past the “official” end date and finish your own twenty-one day fast. In December, I began asking God what should I pray for the year 2016? He answered: fulfillment, action, and implementation. The promises and dreams He has given me in years past all happen this year. I’m so ready. In the months to come, I will share some of the things God spoke to me within the 2015 year with you. My only intention of doing this is to be as transparent as I can be so you can see God’s power and ability. I want you to see how much God loves us. To do so, I open up my heart and leave it out for strangers to devour if they so choose to do so. I am okay with that – because for every ten that devour my heart, one is helped in the process.
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
Confession Letters 