Imago Dei Individual Worship Plan (IWP) Imago Dei Leader Interest Meeting “26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 ‘Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.’ - Leviticus 23:26-28 “It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.” - Leviticus 23:27b Fasting is a way we demonstrate our sorrow over sin and desire for God. “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” - Exodus 34:27-28 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. - Acts 13:1-3 There is a Biblical connection between fasting and hearing clearly from God. We fast as a way to seek guidance from God “24 So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day. 25 And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed 18,000 men of the people of Israel. All these were men who drew the sword. 26 Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 27 And the people of Israel inquired of the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin, or shall we cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.” - Judges 20:24-28 “23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” - Acts 14:23 Fasting as a way to express concern for the work of God. “9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.” - Nehemiah 1:9 Fasting as a way to minister to the needs of others: “Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” - Isaiah 58:6-7 Fasting as a way to express our longing for Jesus “14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ 15 And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” - Matthew 9:14-15