Natalie’s Causes for Fasting 2017

My causes for fasting and the promises God has spoken concerning them are the following.

I wrote about some of the backstory to these causes for fasting in this post.

1. The Ministry of Shades of Grace:

• Isaiah 54 1-2 — regarding expansion: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities (Isaiah 54:1-3).

• Psalm 72:12 — regarding helpers / staff / workers. “For He delivers the needy when he calls out, the poor also and him who has no helper.“

• Deuteronomy 8:18 –“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.”

“wealth” means — “a force, whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength:—able, activity, army, band of men (soldiers), company, (great) forces, goods, host, might, power, riches, strength, strong, substance…”

In terms of the ministry, this promise pertains to helpers / staff / workers Shades of Grace needs– an army of soldiers, a band of men and women, a company of great forces.

It also pertains to my personal health (next cause of fasting), as the original meaning of the word “power” includes “vigor.”

• Isaiah 49:6 — for spiritual fruit from the ministry: “I will also make you a light … that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” God gave me this promise originally in 1993, before Shades of Grace even existed. He truly makes known the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

2. Physical Health and Restoration

• Ezekiel 37:1-14 regarding the valley of dry bones. Physical, mental, spiritual bones that were too dry to function prior to the devastation of the past few years, have now had a few trips to the crematorium. They’re ashes. But God is going to put me back together, breathe life into me, and raise me on my feet, a mighty warrior. He’s going to bring me up from my grave!

• Jeremiah 31:25 — “I’ll refresh tired bodies; I’ll restore tired souls.” (MSG)

• Micah 7: 7-8 — “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” I love how the message words this and verses 9-13:

But me, I’m not giving up. I’m sticking around to see what God will do. I’m waiting for God to make things right. I’m counting on God to listen to me.

^8-10 Don’t, enemy, crow over me. I’m down, but I’m not out. I’m sitting in the dark right now,     but God is my light. . . . He’s on my side and is going to get me out of this. He’ll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I’ll see the whole picture and how right he is. And my enemy will see it, too, and be discredited—yes, disgraced! This enemy who kept taunting,  “So where is this God of yours?” I’m going to see it with these, my own eyes—my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter.

^11-13 Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city, a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings! All your dispersed and scattered people will come back, a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings! All your dispersed and scattered people will come back…

• Matthew 6:4 — “Your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Regarding health losses due to caregiving.)

• Romans 8:11 — “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (NIV)

• Plus the promises for my health that God gave over twenty years ago: Zeph. 3:19-20, Isaiah 49, Habakkuk 2:2-3

3. Spiritual renewal — Same ones as above (Ezekiel 37 …  Jeremiah 31:25 … Micah 7 … etc.) as spiritual drought occurred subsequent to health setbacks. When God spoke to one issue, it seemed to always address the other.

4. Increased Income:

• Genesis 22:13-14 “So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.” . . .

Seven years ago I fasted forty days concerning income. Shades of Grace could not support me financially. I had been serving faithfully, working in excess of 60 hours a week for years, without being properly compensated. Were I independently wealthy, I wouldn’t have minded at all.

I was not called to leave the ministry, nor did I want to. But I did need (and still need) sufficient income. On this 40-day fast, God led me to buy a book by Manley Beasley. As I read and re-read the sermons in it, over a period of weeks and months, God confirmed one thing. He wanted me to act as if I had already received sufficient income, as if I already had a sufficient salary from Shades of Grace.

This meant giving up the only income I had, a small amount that paid a bill or two a month, not enough to live off of. But still to give up that tiny amount was risky. It was my Isaac he wanted me to get to the top of the mountain—direction I never would have heard or obeyed apart from the 40-day fast. For years, I had been acting in such as way as to contradict scripture. I wanted the miracle first and then I would respond with actions. But God wants faith in action first—acting as if it’s so when it’s not so, in order for it to be so. I obeyed, took my Isaac to the mountain, and sacrificed it. And on this mountain, God promised, it will be provided.

• Deuteronomy 8:18 — “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.” God spoke this to me personally several years ago through word meanings in the original language.

• Matthew 6:4 — “Your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” God spoke this verse to me daily the first year of my Dad’s illness. I wrestled and struggled every day with the ways my role as caregiver was negatively impacting other areas of my life, health and finances included. This verse was like a daily drumbeat from the Lord.

• Psalm 72:12 — “For He delivers the needy when he calls out, the poor also and him who has no helper.” God first spoke this verse in 2010 regarding helpers for Shades of Grace. Over time, He has breathed life into the words regarding the ministry’s and my financial need as well.

• Psalm 103:6 — “God is making everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet.”

5. Mold in the House / Healthy Home Environment

• Psalm 12:5 — “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”

God will give me the safe home environment that I long for and need. He spoke this verse when I was first dealing with the mold problem. But as always, there are bonuses in what God speaks. His words always apply to so much more. So to me, this means He will also put me in the safe place financially that I long for. And the safe place spiritually and physically that I long for — with renewed passion for God and His word, and health renewed from the inside out.