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Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief… This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” – Matthew 17:19-21


In 2003, prior to TheCall at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, I was mobilizing Hispanic pastors and young leaders. After the meeting, a young Hispanic youth leader came up to me and said that he’d never heard of TheCall before but the name of his ministry was The Call. He received it one night through a dream. In the dream, He saw all these young people falling into these devastating and destructive fires and waters. The fires were sexual immorality and deep perversion. The waters were brooding and swirling with death. He saw suicide, drugs, witchcraft, and the cords of death destroying these precious lives. The scene was so dark that he found himself trying to claw his way out of the dream. As he was scrambling to get out, he heard an audible voice, “The answers to this darkness will only be found in Matthew 17.”

Eventually, he fell back to sleep and dreamed the same exact dream with the same audible voice. The answer to this darkness will only be found in Matthew 17.” A third time he dreamed that same dream followed by that same message. Upon awakening after the third dream, he immediately turned to Matthew 17. The young man was stunned beyond amazement. He found that Matthew 17 was the story of how a father’s son was possessed by a demon who was throwing the boy into the fires and into the waters. The disciples could not cast the demon out. Jesus rebuked the demon and delivered the boy. When asked by His disciples why they could not cast it out, Jesus replied, “Because of your unbelief… this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:20-21).

I was blown away by the graphic nature of this young man’s dream in so accurately depicting the spiritual reality of Matthew 17. As I pondered this young man’s encounter, I was drawn to the beginning of the chapter. The chapter begins with the transfiguration of Jesus with Elijah and Moses on the mountain. It is more than interesting to me that all three of those men fasted 40 days. Moses fasted 40 days, saw the glory of God, and delivered a whole nation from the demons of Egypt. Elijah fasted 40 days, broke the power of Jezebel’s witchcraft, and then anointed the next generation with a double portion of his prophetic spirit. Baal worship was brought low and the altar of Baal became a latrine. Jesus fasted 40 days and broke the power of Satan himself and through His death and resurrection destroyed the works of the devil. Through prayer and fasting, we too will cast the powers of death out of a generation!

It is more than interesting to me that the only recorded fast that Jesus ever did was a 40-day fast. Could it be that the global 40-day fast will begin to shatter the powers of death, sickness, disease, and sexual insanity over the coming generation?!

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