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Posts tagged ‘40-day fast’

Why No Herbal Tea or 100% Juice!

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive about the Daniel Fast concerns herbal tea. People have a hard time understanding why they can’t have it on the fast, especially if it’s caffeine-free and organic. The same question is asked about fruit and vegetable juice.

The answer is really quite simple and it’s found in Daniel 1:12 where the Prophet’s words are recorded:

“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.”

This is the anchor text that says we drink only water on the Daniel Fast. Tea and juice aren’t off the list because they are bad for you. They are off the list because there is no room for juice or tea in “drink only water.”

I hope this helps solve some of the confusion as to why  no other beverages are allowed on the Daniel Fast. When you think “beverage” during the Daniel Fast, you think “water.”

Now, let’s move to a little bit of a complicated matter, and that has to do with “juiced fruit and vegetables” that are allowed on the Daniel Fast. The reason they are listed is because many people have meals of juiced produce. It’s not a beverage . . . it’s a meal. One woman wrote to me today and told me she uses juiced meals when she’s traveling and at work.  But she also accompanies the juiced meal with a beverage . . . which is filtered water. So if you are making meal replacements by juicing fruits and vegetables, then they would be acceptable. It’s a fine line. Juice as a beverage is not allowed . . . liquid meals like smoothies and other plant-based protein drinks are okay.

Water has many benefits . . . including thwarting hunger, helping with detox headaches and cleansing the body. The average adult should drink at least 1/2 gallon of filtered water every day. If this is a new practice for you, you will be very surprised by the benefits you experience.

Daniel Fast Guidelines

If you want a copy of the Daniel Fast Guidelines, just to go http://Daniel-Fast.com and you will receive a convenient brochure that you can use for meal planning, shopping and dining. The complimentary Daniel Fast Guidelines are in a PDF file that will be emailed directly to you.

Lent 2009 and the Daniel Fast

I am writing this post on Ash Wednesday, 2009. Today marks the first day of Lent for millions of Christians throughout the world. Lent is a period of fasting for 40 days prior to Easter, with most fasting six days and week and then eating moderately on Sunday. The big feast is on Easter as we celebrate the most important day of the entire year – Resurrection Sunday!

Many will “give up” a type of food during Lent, such as chocolate or coffee. However, a growing number of followers of Jesus Christ are using the Daniel Fast for their Lenten discipline of prayer and fasting.

If you are using the Daniel Fast as your method of fasting during this time of consecration, I do encourage you to sign up for the Daniel Fast Mailing List by going to www.Daniel-Fast.com so you can receive periodic free information that will help you be successful in your fast. Also, when you do sign up you will receive an invitation for the free Daniel Fast Notes, which are daily email devotions that receive very positive reviews from readers.

Also, since so many people do the Daniel Fast for 21 days (see Daniel 10) you will find the 21-day reference throughout this site. However, the Daniel Fast is not restricted to only 21 days. So a 40-day Daniel Fast is totally appropriate.

God bless you on your Lenten Fast. My prayer is that you will draw closer to the Lord and receive even more of the love, grace and direction He has for you.

The Daniel Fast Blogger is catching up!

Good morning!

I want to thank everyone for their patience as I continue to catch up on all the comments left on the Daniel Fast blog in the last few days. I think there are now only 32 that still need a response. My little fingers are typing as fast as they can go . . . and I have to admit that by late into the evening (after writing from dawn) my brain just gets mushy and you wouldn’t want my response!

All is well and I hope to be caught up by the end of today. I am away from my keyboard for a few hours while I do some volunteer work at my church. But for most of the day I will be tapping away on my computer in my little cottage in frozen Central Washington State (it’s currently -2 degrees – say, “Burrrrr.”).

Be blessed as you enter into the New Year fast. And please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. I love offering you any assistance I can.

Oh, one more thing. I am in the process of building another website that I hope will be useful to members of our friendly Daniel Fast Community. You can check it out at www.Daniel-Fast.com but please keep in mind that it’s a lot like me . . . still under construction!

Have a great day!

A New Daniel Fast Website

Okay, after the last few weeks of designing and putting together a new Daniel Fast website, autoresponders and a new shopping cart . . . I think rocket science really is easier!

Please take a look a the ‘new Daniel Fast site that I am currently building. It will be one of the support sites where I can offer all kinds of tools and helps to support you in your Daniel Fast.

You can find the site here: www.Daniel-Fast.com

Please visit it periodically as it will be changing almost every day. The same is true of this Daniel Fast Blog. Now that we have entered 2009 you will find new content, thoughts and information every day.

God bless you and I hope the very best for you as you enter the 2009 Daniel Fast.

40-Day New Year Fast with Henry Fernandez

Bishop Henry Fernandez and Pastor Carol Fernandez of Faith Center Ministries in Sunrise, FL have called a 40-day New Year Fast. He is teaching about the power of prayer and fasting on his television program.

They are calling for a consecrated 40-Day Fast from January 7th to February 15, 2009. Many people will use the Daniel Fast as their way of entering into this powerful discipline.

Be blessed during your fast!

TheCall California – September 23 – November 2

Brothers and sisters in Christ! TheCall has established a 40-day fast for The Call for California. I just received word from the headquarters about the official dates for this fast. It begins on Tuesday, September 23rd and ends on Sunday, November 2nd.

Many faithful men and women from California are joining in this powerful expression sanctioned by TheCall. However, thousands of believers throughout the world are supporting this effort by also joining in the 40-day Fast for California.

Some people are using a normal fast (water only), but most of those joining in the Call for California will use the Daniel Fast, which is a partial fast (abstaining from specific foods).

This is an exciting time for following of Christ! Praise God that we have access to the most powerful God. And in these times of economic turmoil, presidential elections, and weather disasters – we can keep our eyes on the Redeemer instead of the circumstances of the world.

Please, let us know if you are among those called to The Call for California. Let us support you in prayer!

The Call California – 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting

Lou Engle just announced that there will be a new gathering of the faithful in California on November 1st. Preceeding this gathering, he is asking for believers to support this event with 40 days of prayer and fasting. Many will use the Daniel Fast.

Here is information for The Call website:

TheCall California – November 1, 2008

Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego


TheCall California Part 1:

They came like waves crashing onto the shores of California. Leaving behind a legacy of glory and apostolic influence, great manifestations of the power and love of God broke in on past generations of hungry saints. Waves of God’s great presence cascaded upon her shores in 1906, 1919, 1947, 1948, 1967, 1971, 1980, and 1994. These waves are California’s revivals. In the midst of unspeakable decadence, corporate greed, cultural trend setting, and global pornographic exportation, there lies deposited deeply below California’s crusty surface gold-there’s oil in her hills. Something continually draws God to the scene. Could it be that God is drawn to her pain? Maybe God sees her shores as hosting planet’s lost prophets with misplaced passions or maybe he is drawn to the cry of her wandering masses. Whatever be the case, He comes, and when he does, the entire world is changed. The tongues of fire that erupted at Azusa have lit up the world. The revivals sown in Hollywood loosed great evangelists like Bill Bright and Billy Graham. The Jesus Movement gave us Calvary love songs that have kissed the youth of the globe. The new wine of worship and healing came from California’s vineyards. These ancient songs awaken us from our nightmare and remind us something that was and can be again. Hollywood, the “woman at the well”, could become the great evangelist again in these last days.

In 1946, Franklin Hall launched a fasting and prayer movement out of San Diego with a book called Atomic Power With God Through Fasting and Prayer. Thousands were stirred to enter into extended consecration fasts. Shortly after, the great healing revival broke out in 1947, followed by the campus revivals, and the Hollywood revivals in 1948. In the very same year, across the globe in the heart of the middle-east, by God’s divine mandate Israel was again called a nation. Could there be that there was a connection between what God was doing in California and the orchestrating of His divine purposes in the creation of the nation of Israel? Is it possible that the outpouring of God presence and the igniting of prayer in California were in reality connected with God’s heart to birth an entire nation? I believe it was global Joel 2 moment in which the scripture promises that after the fast, God would restore the land and pour out his spirit on all flesh. I hear TheCall again; “Gather the people, call a fast, and afterwards I will pour out my spirit.

Now 50 years later, California sits within a fog of Jezebel confusion. Recently the Supreme Court of California disregarded the votes of the people and legalized homosexual marriage. The entire world listened attentively as the mayor of San Francisco boasted, “As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. Its inevitable, this door is wide open. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. This is the future, and its now.” The world is looking to California for moral leadership while California finds herself caught in the snare of idolatry and self-worship. Recently I received an urgent call on behalf of hundreds of pastors admitting that California wouldn’t be saved simply political petitioning and confessed the reality of an ongoing spiritual battle within the state and the need to mobilize for mass fasting and prayer. They asked us to bring TheCall to San Diego, not knowing that we received several powerful directives from the Lord a year ago that TheCall was going to go to the stadium in San Diego.

This bill mentioned is a reflection of how far down the line we have come in removing the very moral foundations that preserve society. The moral levies in America are breaking and once marriage is redefined, it will be a matter of time before the entire structure of morality collapses within our nation. In one sense, this bill mirrors our own inward moral concessions as a church to the prevailing culture, and it is the fruit of a compromising silence that has failed to confront the rising spiritual and political contenders. But it is not too late! This is not a time for hiding in caves. This is a time to resist mightily the spirit of peaceful coexistence and apathetic resignation in the face of this prevailing darkness. We are coming to a Mount Carmel moment, which I believe could be the church’s finest hour where she challenges her own compromise and then gains authority through prayer and action which is her true vocation. Then our light will break forth like the dawn and truth will no longer be trampled under the feet of renegade kings and judges. The church is not at the mercy of political decrees of destruction. Jesus is the Lord of history! Though these decrees stand today, they will not stand forever. God is the one who reverses the edicts of man, using the church as an agent of righteous revolution to displace kings and overthrow their decrees through the weapons of fasting and prayer.

Therefore, we are summoning believers from all across the state of California and the nation to gather for a Joel 2 moment. When there is no remedy, when there is no natural hope, God still has a holy prescription. Blow the trumpet in Zion, gather the people, and call a fast. Let the believers of this great state gather and cry out to God believing that California could become the flash point of real change in America not the open door to societal collapse. Let us return to the fasting praying womb in San Diego and seek the face of God on November 1st, 2008 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA. 

MorningStar Call to Prayer & Fasting 08.08.08

MorningStar Ministries, under the leadership of Pastor Rick Joyner, has been led to call a 40-day fast leading up to 08.08.08 or August 8, 2008. Here is what they announced:

We are going to proclaim a solemn assembly and fast for forty days leading up to August 8.  Some may want to do a total fast; others may want to fast from something like desserts or television.  Let the Lord lead you, but if possible, we will be gathering on August 8 for a celebration and, I think, a commissioning.  If you can join us at H.I.M. for any part of this, please do.   If you cannot be here, you can still join us by webstreaming wherever you are. – Rick Joyner

You can learn more about this fast by visiting the MorningStar Ministries website. You can also see a video presentation by Rick Joyner about this very important call to prayer and fasting. Even though the fast has already started, it’s not too late to join in this corporate movement.