Jesus clearly told us that in the days preceding His return, His friends would live in mourning, longing and fasting (Matt. 9:15), and that He will not return without this groan in place (Rev. 22:17). If we love Him, we will not be satisfied in His absence but will give ourselves fervently to this precious ache—yearning for Him and for His soon return.

Above all else, we were made to know a Person: the Lord Jesus. We must see His beauty, encounter His heart, discover His love, and then respond unreservedly to Him. This quest of knowing Him—comprising times of weak prayer, deep joy and satisfaction, desperate hunger, and even seasons that test our love for God—is the highest pursuit and richest fulfillment of our lives.

Love withholds nothing. God has given us His all, and His fiery love within empowers us to give our all in voluntary response. Discover the longings God has placed within you for full givenness to Him, and explore how to enter the deep interior joy of wholeheartedness.

God chose fasting as a means of grace to answer our hunger for Him and fuel our intimacy with Him. A lifestyle of prayer and fasting intensifies our experience of God’s heart and fortifies us interiorly to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit in perilous times.