Fasting, Prayer, and Praise!

“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:  ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” (Revelation 5 v 13)

Today is the day we are fasting and praying for one meal!

Praise God, all creatures great and small!

Andrew Linzey wrote in his book, “Creatures of the Same God” that “we need a Church that will publicly repent of it’s blindness and folly about animals, and especially it’s complicity in animal abuse and cruelty.  God needs that Church and the animals need that Church.  But it will not come without the work of many hands and much sacrificial effort, as well as the abundance of God’s grace.”

Along with all the prayers that we will be praying today, let’s also pray for this Church, as well as for the effort that it will take to build it – the Churches that:

• Will draw out all the animal friendly strands in scripture, and preach from an “Animal Bible,” one that includes animals in our Church teaching and sermons;
• Will develop a theology that gives voice to the animals’ causes;
• Will develop Animal Ministries that are “uncompromising and robust [in] understanding that it is a practical Christian duty to care for animals and alleviate their suffering” in the words once again of Andrew Linzey;
• And will develop Animal Rites, and worship as if the world of creation were not invisible!  Worship should involve a celebration of all creation, of all life, and invoke a sense of wonder, of awe, at God’s magnificent and marvelous works!  We corporately need to put God back at the center of ALL that He has created, not just endeavor in our worship to do so as though we are all that He cares for or died to redeem.

Lastly today, let’s pray through the Fasting Outline, as well:

• For revival (Matt 6:2) – revival is about taking authority over evil (we do have the authority to do that, part of what happened in Christ’s work on the cross was to give us the Holy Spirit so that we are able to take authority over evil, it is part of what we do as disciples of Christ);
• That we are a blessing to others;
• For the Holy Spirit to impassion us in our prayer life –prayer to be urgent, persistent – things hang in the balance on us praying according to God’s will, the larger the stronghold Satan has (his stronghold on us over proper shepherding of creation is huge), the more persistent we need to be, the more of us praying about the stronghold (corporate prayer) the better – it is God’s will that we not harm animals, that we live non-violently toward the animal kingdom, and that we take back His Kingdom in this regard on earth as it is done in heaven;
• That we are hungry for God and God alone, for His Kingdom to be displayed on earth;
• To put the Lord’s ordering in place in our lives – “Lord, Spirit, Mind, Body;” at the fall, this ordering got flipped upside down (the world orders life and all we do in it according to body, mind, spirit – this is our flesh, the perverse state of being), and the Lord Jesus has been left out; when we fast, we train our body (the flesh) to put it back in its place;
• That we know who we are, Who our *boss* is, Who defines us, know what salvation brings;
• Fast as an act of worship – tell Him we are serious and we want nothing to come between Him and us;
• That we get *aligned* with the Lord, we get right with Him; fasting can help us clear some of the static that clouds our hearing from God, what blocks our intimacy with God, we may hear from God more profoundly;
• Fasting intensifies prayer – a lot hangs on prayer, he made us moral responsible agents, fasting can increase our say-so in moving God in a given direction; it is a way we exercise moral responsibility, maximizes the power we have in Christ (Matt 17);
• Pray about all that you know that is going on in the world toward animals, ask the Holy Spirit to guide.

Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!”  Revelation 19:5

Thanks for tuning in to our blog; thanks for taking part in the prayer vigil and fast!  Your comments are always welcome.  Part Two of “Is Vegetarianism Biblical” by Marcello Newall to follow shortly.   ~Kathy