At the beginning of each new year, King’s Church International, along with many other churches in the UK and around the world, sets aside 21 days for a time of focussed prayer and fasting.
‘More is achieved by prayer than this world dreams of,’ wrote the poet Tennyson.
And Pastor David Yonggi Cho, founding pastor of the world’s largest church said‘Nothing you can do will benefit you more than prayer’.
Our senior Pastor Wes Richards said: ‘Prayer releases the supernatural anointing of God in our lives. Prayer is the fuel that powers the church. Prayer can change your life, your family, your circumstances, and prayer can change whole nations.'
Jesus regularly got up early to pray and demonstrated that prayer should be the great priority of our lives, saying in Mark 11:17 ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’.
In these 21 days we will also be fasting which means focussing our minds and bodies to see new levels of spiritual breakthrough.
In his New York Times bestselling book ‘Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Intimate, More Powerful Relationship With God’, Jentezen Franklin says:
“We must get to the place where we are desperate for God again. We must begin to desire Him more than food or drink. Let us be filled with the Bread of Life instead of the refuse of religion.”
Fasting means abstaining from food and can take different forms. Fasting should always be carefully considered if you need medical advice and be done according to your health and physical state. You could consider fasting food and drinks like wine, but not water, in some way each day, maybe fasting a meal or more.
There are different ways to fast, such as fasting for a set time period or a particular meal each day or fasting specific types of food depending on your circumstances. Some may choose to start the 21 days with a 10-day Daniel fast and then to continue the rest of the fast in another way. Also, it is good to ‘fast’ from other distractions like tv and social media.
These 21 days should be viewed an extended spiritual encounter with a set time of individual prayer each day. But also, everyone can use this time to pray together as families, and to pray together with the church as part of the weekly KCI Thursday night prayer meetings on Zoom too.
In these 21 days, we’re focussing our prayers in four main areas:
1. Your personal spiritual development
for pure hearts
for the presence of God
for the power of God
2. Your family
that all will walk close to the Lord
for close and united relationships and
for all to all faithfully serve God together in ministry
3. Your church – King’s Church International in Windsor, London and Robertson
Pray that this year God will help us to establish a strong team and a large church in London which is capital of the UK and which has also been called ‘the world’s capital city’ as hundreds of nationalities are represented there.
Pray particularly for each church to overcome every challenge and to move forward in all areas. Please also pray:
for the leaders of the church: senior Pastors Wes and Adriana Richards, for the teams of 12 and all cell leaders
for fruitfulness in every member and multiplication of disciples of Jesus
for financial blessing and buildings and land
4. Your generation and nations
that national and local leaders would have protection and wisdom
for a great movement of spiritual revival, reconciliation and restoration
The 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting start Thursday 5th January with a special two hour prayer meeting from 6-8pm in the UK and 8-10pm in South Africa, and finishes on Wednesday 25th January . There will be Spanish interpretation throughout the meeting too.
Keep an eye out for communications from your Life Group Leader about prayer meetings during the week over the 21 days of prayer and fasting. Should you have any questions, please speak to your Life Group Leader.
We look forward to seeing you there!