Twelve Kingdom Fasts: January

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Beginning in January, 2015, we in Live Dead Silk Road are fasting together to seek the face of Jesus, pray for the Unreached, and discipline our bodies. We’re inviting you to participate!

IMG_5899The intention of these kingdom fasts is to build solidarity among those who are fasting as they remind their bodies (flesh) that their spirits are in charge – and that both body and spirit are to be under the Lordship of Jesus. The hunger or difficulty of going without a good thing serves us to long for the most rewarding and best of all things and all persons – Jesus Himself.

Feel free to participate with us in these fasts for part or all of the month. Feel free to prayerfully select the fasts appropriate to your spiritual walk and stage of life and abstain from the others. We have a disciplined yet non-legalistic approach to all these fasts. Sometimes circumstances and relationships do not allow you to keep the letter of the fast – in that case, feast joyously, knowing that fasting and feasting are complimentary.

Our first fast of the year is a fast from meat, dairy, and grains. This is a “Daniel-like” fast (eating only fruits, salads, legumes and vegetables) to greet the New Year, and is a great way to refocus your body and soul on Jesus. As always, fasting is linked with prayer: by simplifying our diet, we’re physically acting out the simplifying of our lives so that we can slow down, listen to the Holy Spirit, and obey his directions in 2015.

Please Join Us!

We encourage you to pick some meals during the week, or a few days of the week, to fast with us this January. A fast like this is a great one to do in community – to gather together with friends or family and pray together, listening for the voice of God to speak into our churches and our lives. The laying down of certain foods is symbolic of our willingness to lay anything down for Jesus, and the beginning of the year is a great time to devote extra time to listening to Jesus and submitting to what we hear.

We invite you to join us as we give up meat, dairy, and grains in January, seeking to instead spend more time in the presence of Jesus, and ask of him: Lord, what do you have for us this year?

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