The twenty-one day consecration guide

At the end of 2024 the Solid Rock community set aside the first twenty-one days of the new year for fasting and prayer, on the theme of Hebrews 13 verse 8. This is the guide that went with it. It is kept here as it was written, for the season it was written for, because people still look for it and because the substance of it does not expire.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

What a consecration is for

A consecration is not mainly about refraining from food. It is about giving the time and attention that food normally takes and putting it somewhere else: prayer, worship, and paying attention to God. The fasting is the method. The consecration is the point.

The shorthand the church used through the season was P.U.S.H., for Pray Until Something Happens, with an extra hour set aside each day for the prayer topics below. If you have not come across the practice before, there is a separate explainer on what a consecration fast is and where the idea comes from.

Five ways people fasted

There is no single correct method, and the guide deliberately offered a range so that people in very different circumstances could take part in the same season. Anyone with a medical condition, anyone pregnant, and anyone on regular medication was asked to speak to a doctor first and to choose accordingly.

• Complete fast. No food for a set period. Suited to people who can arrange their day around it.
• Partial fast. Skipping particular meals, or fasting between set hours and breaking it at a fixed time.
• Alternative fast. Giving up something other than food: social media, screen time, or whatever else has been taking the attention.
• The Daniel plan. A plant-based diet drawn from Daniel 1 verses 8 to 16, usually alongside exercise and earlier nights.
• Clean food. No processed food and no sweets. Often the right choice for anyone whose health rules out going without meals.

The seven things we prayed about

Each day of the season had a subject rather than a script, so that a household praying together and a person praying alone on a commute were still praying about the same thing.

1. Schools. Students, teachers, and the people who lead them.
2. Government. Every level of it, for wisdom, integrity and fairness.
3. Neighborhoods. Stability, resources, and the health of the places people live.
4. Churches. Unity and strength across congregations, not only this one.
5. Families. Healing, financial footing, and blessing that carries into the next generation.
6. Global concerns. Frontline workers, ethical leadership, and revival.
7. Revival. That God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10

Why fast at all

Fasting is older than any one tradition's use of it, and scripture shows it doing several different jobs. Jesus fasted at the start of his ministry as an acknowledgement that he depended on God rather than on bread, in Luke 4 verses 1 to 2. Daniel fasted as an expression of grief, in Daniel 10 verses 2 to 3. The early church fasted when it was committing its work to God, in Acts 13 verse 2.

What those have in common is a deliberate shift of attention from what a body needs to what a person actually wants, which is the reason a season like this is set apart rather than simply intended.

Practical notes

• Pray. Fasting without prayer is a diet. The prayer is the point of it.
• Drink water. Considerably more of it than usual.
• Talk to a doctor first if you are pregnant, managing a condition, or taking regular medication. Choose a method that fits your health rather than fitting your health around a method.

If you want passages to pray through, there is a companion collection of the scriptures most often used during a consecration, grouped by theme rather than assigned to days.

The booklet the church printed for that season is here too, as a PDF of 3 MB, with the prayer topics laid out a page at a time. Everything in it is already above.

Praying with this church

Consecration seasons are announced as they come. If you would like to be part of the next one, the simplest thing is to come to a gathering or tell us you are coming and someone will look out for you.

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