In May of 2016, one of my friends and I were discussing fast's that we felt impressed to do and she was going to do a Daniel Fast and I thought that I would go home and pray about it and seek the kind of fast that God wanted from me. As I went home and thought about this, the fast that he brought to mind was Isaiah 58:4-12 which states:
Isa 58:4 - Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5 - Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6 - Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 - Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isa 58:8 - Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
Isa 58:9 - Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Isa 58:10 - And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
Isa 58:11 - And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isa 58:12 - And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
Isa 58:13 - If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isa 58:14 - Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
So after figuring out the fast that the Lord wanted me to do, I got a journal and started a prayer list, which started out small at first: healing, spiritual warfare, salvation, our church and Pastor, the nations, were some of the categories that I had listed. Later I added more categories: ninteen all together. One day when I was doing my prayers, I had finished them (it probably took, maybe 15 to 30 minutes), and I had a little game on my cell phone that was called "Happy Street" and another one that was about some kind of farm animals, a game that the kids had put on my phone, for their own needs, so they could get things from me for their games. I would play them everyday and I can't say how much time I put into these little insignificant games but everyday diligently, I fed my little virtual farm animals, did whatever the games required me to do to get points, rewards or whatever, and I kept up with these little games without fail. One day when I was sitting there, and had just gotten finished feeding my little virtual farm animals... I don't know how long it took me, but I could truthfully say maybe it took me 20-30 minutes, which was practically the whole time that I spent in my prayer time. Suddenly, the Lord spoke to me very tenderly and softly ... the only way I know how to describe it - he was not condemning. He didn't yell, just quietly said: "Do you have any idea how much time you spend on those little games that you play everyday?" I stopped and thought about that, as I had never considered how much time it took me each day to take care of those little game things, so I started thinking about this: how much time do I spend on these little games? I guessed it was probably somewhere around a couple hours in a twenty-four-hour period. I thought about the Lord saying in his word in Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Immediately I decided I was going to give up my games and I said: "Lord, I'm going to take these games off my cell phone and delete them; I'm not going to play them anymore from here on and I'm giving that extra time to you in prayer. "
Something else I realized during my prayer time, was Mat 6:6 - But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. I made my room my prayer closet and started praying them outloud as I figured the bible says that every idle word will be held accountable... Mat 12:36 - But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Also Pro 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. So I began speaking them aloud and figured if I'm going to be held accountable, then I will make them count and also if we can have whatever we say, I will say it in light of God's Word: Mat 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
(Pay attention to the words: ye shall say unto this mountain).
After a few months, maybe six months down the road, I was doing this prayer vigil when again the Lord spoke to me. I use to have a TV program that I liked to watch every week, which I recorded called "The Pretender", plus I loved cooking and quilting programs, Hallmark Channel, Science and History documentaries, clean, safe programs, right? So usually when I finished my prayer time, I would turn television on and watch the Hallmark Channel or I would watch my other channels of interest or the one program I recorded at least once a week, whenever I found some slack time I would watch "The Pretender" program that I had recorded. One day after I had finished watching my recorded program, again the Lord spoke very tenderly and softly to me, and said: "Have you ever stopped to think about how much time you spend watching that program each week?" I immediately looked up the time and it said 43 minutes for each program. The Lord then said : "Do you know how much I would love to have that time with you?" After that I decided I was going to take the cable box out of my room, which I did. I disconnected the box, called the cable company, canceled my cable TV, except for basic cable, which I still have but nobody watches, and the only reason I didn't cancel it was because I got a price discount for having basic cable which reduced my internet cost. So I gave up my cable TV time for the Lord and decided that I would concentrate on my prayer times again. This was probably around six months to a year after I started my prayer vidual from fifteen minutes and after approximately a year, it increased to about two and a half hours to finish all my prayers, as it seems no one is ever removed. I thought I would be bord and lost without TV to fill in the times but I can honestly say I don't miss it at all. Also I do watch videos that edify and keep me up to date on end time signs as well as bible related programs (Perry Stone, Chuck Missler, etc).
One day as I was thinking about my prayer time and that they were all written down (19 different lists) I asked the Lord If this was vain repetitions you spoke about in Matthew 6:7 - But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. The Lord answered: "The reason you can pray Daniel 9:3-19 today is because Daniel wrote it out and is why you have those prayers today". So I realize my prayers were still effectual even though I had written them down to keep me on task and make sure I cover everything and don't leave anything out, but I felt impressed to pray till I got the answer, pray without ceasing or till you get the answer, according to 1Thesalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.
Something else the Lord revealed to me during these prayer times was he brought to my mind Elijah: James 5:17 - Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. God is no respecter of persons and he is the same yesterday today and forever so I kept Elijah in mind as I was speaking my prayers out loud.
One of the final revelations that the Lord gave me or asked of me again, very softly and tenderly... he said: "I need for you to pray everyday as if you are the only one on Earth giving me prayers to work with. I want you to pray everyday as if those are the only prayers that I will have". So everyday I take that assignment from him seriously and I do not let a day go by without praying, giving him my "to-do" list. He also constantly reminds me in John 14:12-14: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. Jhn 14:15 - If ye love me, keep my commandments (Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.)
During this prayer fast which has become a two and a half hour vidual daily for two and a half years (I figure I tithe 10% of my 24 hour day to the Lord) the Lord has given me several dreams regarding the prayers of the righteous availing much. I will add the links to my blog page to these for your reference.
1. DREAM: THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
2. DREAM: BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD
3. DREAM: DRAGON AND THE BEAST
4. DREAM: SPIRITUAL WARFARE
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