Free Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts by Elmer L. Towns Page A

solution to a problem that no one else has seen.
    Step 5: Choose the Best Solution
    As long as we live in this life, nothing is perfect except the Son of God and the Word of God. No human is perfect, nor is anything perfect that is done by humans. Therefore, we will never have a “perfect” solution to a problem. We can only have a “best” solution.
    And what is a best solution to a problem? One that is agreed on by everyone who has participated in the Ezra Fast. It is the best solution when it brings about the resolution of the problem and resolves tensions. It is the best solution when God is honored and Christians grow in grace.
    Finally, yield your problem to God. In His sovereignty, God may have given you the problem to draw you closer to Himself. Usually people want to be free of problems. The problem you long to be free from, however, may actually be the circumstance that allows you to become what you long to be.

Note
    1 . Graham Kendrick and Steve Hawthorne,
Prayerwalking
(Altamonte Springs, Fla.: Creation House, 1993).

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T HE S AMUEL F AST
    O NE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PERIODS OF REVIVAL CHURCH HISTORY grew out of a fast.
    In the early eighteenth century, the great evangelist Jonathan Edwards fasted for 24 hours before preaching the sermon many claim sparked the revival in New England that grew into the First Great Awakening. The sermon was called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
    A prayer revival swept throughout the nation in 1859, and some of it grew out of what might be called a type of fasting, because people did go without food. The revival began in the great metropolitan cities of the eastern United States. Christians left their work at noon, walked quickly to the nearest churches—not the churches of their memberships—and spent their lunch breaks in prayer.
    Technically, they did not call their time with God and each other a fast; but because they gave up their lunchtimes to devote themselves to prayer, it can be called a type of fast.
R OOTS OF R EVIVAL
    Historians usually attribute the great revival of 1859 to three things. First, interdenominational unity, exemplifed by the fact that believers prayed at the nearest churches. People of different denominations were bonded together in intercession. Second, the revival came not through preaching,writing or any other source, but through prayer. Third, the revival was inspired by the laity rather than the clergy.
    A great revival also swept throughout ancient Israel, when they were governed by the great judge, Samuel. Because this revival, too, involved fasting, we can draw inspiration for revival in our day by the Samuel Fast.
    Revival has been defined as “God pouring Himself out on His people.” There is corporate revival, sometimes called Atmospheric Revival, when people feel the presence of God. Then there is Individual Revival wherein believers are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Church has generally defined revival in the words of Scripture, as “times of refreshing...from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Notice three truths about revival:
    1. Revival is not an automatic experience. It is something to be desired, and prayed for.
    2. God is the source of revival. It comes from His presence.
    3. Refreshing results are experienced when revival comes.
    Scripture ties fasting and revival together. As believers fast and pray, God sends revival to His people. As we have seen, God proclaimed through the prophet Isaiah, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen...to let the oppressed go free?” (Isa. 58:6). The word “oppressed” can also be translated “broken.” Although we may not have oppression such as slavery to contend with in our society, we have masses who are broken in spirit and bound by sin. Furthermore, injustice throughout the world still results in oppressed people.
    The Samuel Fast can be a tool for freeing those who are oppressed, and healing those who are broken by sin.
B ACKGROUND OF THE S AMUEL FAST
    The