"You are [easily] deceived, because you don't know the scriptures or the power of God."

                                                                                                                    -  Matt 22:29

"[Evil] comes to steal and kill and destroy."                                            -  John 10:10

Yesterday, the most studied gospel passage in the world was Luke 14:15-24 which begins with the Master's call to invite many to a great banquet. Verse 18 however shows the response of humanity:

But they all alike, began to make excuses.

"All alike" … seemingly Jews and gentiles, men and women, young and old … all made excuses.

The passage continues when the Master then says:

“go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. I tell you, none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet.”

Those concluding words are another unmistakable scriptural confirmation of the brutal justice that is the Lord’s when our moments of mercy come to an end.

Your willingness to fast today reverberates through the heavens as you are clearly not making excuses.

You are going above and beyond what the modern church realizes is required of us.

At the end of the day, the reason we make the effort is exactly what this passage describes – that the Holy Spirit will “compel” people to come into the Lord’s house.  The King James and Douay Rheims, probably the two most accurate translations of scripture both use the word “compel,” an interesting word choice to contemplate. So, as we start our fasting day today, let’s pray together for one moment:

Good morning Heavenly Father, Yahweh. Good morning King Jesus. Good morning Holy Spirit. We praise your great name and we joyfully give you this tiny sacrifice of our bread and water fast today which is nothing compared to the huge sacrifice that You King Jesus made for us.  Despite our unworthiness and the smallness of this effort Father, we ask you to look upon our endeavor as You did the boy who gave Jesus his tiny lunch. You then took the unnamed boy’s tiny sacrifice in scripture and multiplied it to feed thousands.

Let each of our sacrifices today Lord lead to the conversion of thousands of Americans, giving them an unquenchable thirst to restore their lives, their families, their towns, and America to You.

Father compel souls as Your word spoke yesterday to conversion.

And we ask you Father to bless the families of us who fast along with the extraordinary gift of your protection from evil and all of its attacks in every area of our lives.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Before wrapping up, thank you to those who wrote in regarding our last Fasting Reminder and the potentially devastating spiritual consequences of yoga. Here are two comments that we thought may be incrementally helpful. First, in addition to Christian exercise groups that aspire to offer workouts that are good for both body and soul, here is one practical point you may wish to consider:

Static stretching is becoming out of vogue in elite circles anyway- dynamic seems to be better, and Pilates is a great non-religious alternative. I did yoga in my 20s but never felt great about it and am glad I stopped.

Secondly, here is one more comment from a former yoga practitioner with incremental bullet points revealing points that support the realization that yoga is inextricably tied to the spiritual:

Class always ends with a “corpse pose” which is strange, as well as the word “Namaste” which is spiritual.

Why We Fast – Our Core Fasting Intentions

1) We add the new fasting intention of taking back the church from evil. We submit the three-step process to achieve this victory is 1-Repent, 2-Prayer & Fasting and, 3-Imitate our Savior by throwing the evil leadership from the church. We will seek to emulate the Savior in our effort to End The USCCB, an organization that has been devastating to the church.  (“You shall know the spirit by the fruits” - Matt. 7:16)

2) For the Holy Spirit to reign down upon America, renewing our land as the Christian, capitalist meritocracy we were founded to be.

3) For the protection of our police, firefighters, military and their families from harm and that the Lord bless their courageous generosity on our behalf.

4) For the protection of the families who fast with us, and for God’s blessings of abundance upon them and that true to His word, we will be able to witness that He prospered us in famine.

Would you like to learn more about fasting?

We maintain a repository of ideas and information we have learned over the last decade while fasting weekly for America. From scientific studies on the benefits of fasting, to the differences between intermittent dieting vs intermittent fasting, to scriptural references regarding the power of fasting to the history of first century Christians who stated believers are obligated to fast weekly, we hope you will find numerous insights with our free resource located here.

Together let us also implore Heaven while fasting for intentions you have highlighted:

4) For all patriots who put themselves on the front lines in combatting evil and for all of the warriors who are stepping up around the nation to fight for the gospel – May The Father cover them in the blood of our savior,  protect them and their families from evil and bring victory to their endeavors.

5) For priests, ministers and all who aspire to lead others to the Lord, that the Holy Spirit will reign down upon them as at Pentecost filling them to overflowing. 

6) For the Americans jailed after January 6th who were admitted to the Capitol building by the police, and who were not found to have destroyed any property at the capitol yet who have been held captive ever since on our own soil - That God's Spirit will move quickly to bring justice back to this land and free them.


Who We Are
St. Joseph Partners is a for-profit business that has funded Fast for America for over ten years. To the extent you support our work to renew America and if you understand why gold and silver protect believers' wealth in this world, please consider us or recommend us when you or someone you know buys or sells gold and silver. From our website www.StJosephPartners.com you can buy and sell dozens of types of precious metals. We close on Sundays to honor the Sabbath. Click here for a link where you can view a brief video about our firm and a brief video about why all investors and families should have some gold and silver in their portfolios.