Please go to the following scripture references for yourselves and read the full chapters or even books to understand the context, but for the sake of time I am only quoting the specific verses as it pertains to this topic.
The translation being quoted from: The Scriptures 2009 edition (ISR)
Do not let His Words depart from your eyes.
Proverbs 4:21
PRAYER, FASTING, AND REFINING FIRE!
And they said to me, "The remnant who are left of the captivity in the province are there in great evil and reproach. And the wall of Yerushalayim is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire." And it came to be, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days. And I was fasting and praying before the Elohim of the heavens, and I said, "I pray, Yahuah Elohim of the heavens, O great and awesome El, guarding the covenant and loving-commitment with those who love You, and with those guarding Your commands, please let Your ear be attentive and Yours eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, for the children of Yisrael Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Yisrael which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not guarded the commands, nor the laws, nor the right-rulings, which You commanded Your servant Mosheh. Please remember the word that You commanded Your servant Mosheh, saying, 'If you trespass, I shall scatter you among the peoples, but if you shall turn back to Me, and guard My commands and do them, though you were cast out to the end of the heavens, I shall gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen, to make My Name dwell there.' And they are Your servants and Your people, whom You have ransomed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Yahuah, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your Name. And let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him compassion in the presence of this man."
Nehemiah 1:3-11
Never has there been a season of life in which praying and fasting feel more necessary than now. This prayer of Nehemiah is a great place to start! I believe The Word can edify and encourage us all as we walk through the refining fire many believers find ourselves in.
PRAYER
If I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people upon whom My Name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I shall hear from the heavens, and forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Search me, O El, and know my heart; Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if an idolatrous way is in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23-24
Teach me to do Your good pleasure, for You are my Elohim. Let Your good Spirit lead me in the land of straightness.
Psalms 143:10
He does the desire of those who fear Him; and He hears their cry and saves them.
Psalms 145:19
He who turns away his ear from hearing the Torah, even his prayer is an abomination.
Proverbs 28:9
"But this kind does not go out except through prayer and fasting."
Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29
"Watch and Pray, lest you enter into trial. The spirit indeed is eager, but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 26:41
"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours... And now I come to You. And I speak these words in the world, so that they have My joy completed in them. I have given them Your Word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the wicked one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Set them apart in Your Truth-Your Word is Truth."
John 17:9-17
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, so that you are healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much.
James 5:16
FASTING
So I set my face toward Yahuah the Elohim to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
Daniel 9:3
"Yet even now," declares Yahuah, "turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." And tear your heart and not your garments, and turn back to Yahuah your Elohim, for He shows favor and is compassionate, patient, and of great loving-commitment, and He shall relent concerning the evil.
Joel 2:12-13
And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Yisrael were assembled with fasting, and in sackcloth, and with earth on them.
Nehemiah 9:1
But I, when they were sick, I put on sackcloth; I humbled my being with fastings; and my prayer would return to my own bosom. I walked about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down mourning as one mourning for a mother.
Psalms 35:13-14
Because ardour for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. And I wept in my being with fasting, and it became my reproach. And when I put on sackcloth, I became a proverb to them.
Psalms 69:9-11
I then proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahawa, to humble ourselves before our Elohim, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.
Ezra 8:21
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Yahuah."
Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4, and Deuteronomy 8:3
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they shall be filled."
Matthew 5:6
"And when you fast, do not be sadfaced like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces so that they appear to be fasting to men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly."
Matthew 6:16-18
"But this kind does not go out except through prayer and fasting."
Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29
REFINING FIRE
"For My Name's sake I postponed My displeasure, and for My praise I held it back from you, so as not to cut you off. See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it. For how is it profaned? And My esteem I do not give to another."
Isaiah 48:9-11
Let us search and examine our ways, and turn back to Yahuah!
Lamentations 3:40
Come out of her midst, My people! And let everyone deliver his being from the burning displeasure of Yahuah.
Jeremiah 51:45
"And I shall bring the third into fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My Name, and I shall answer them. I shall say, 'This is My people,' while they say, 'Yahuah is my Elohim.' "
Zechariah 13:9
For He knows the way that I take. When He has tried me, I would come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
And some of those who have insight shall stumble, to refine them, and to cleanse them, and to make them white, until the time of the end, for it is still for an appointed time.
Daniel 11:35
Many shall be cleansed and made white, and refined. But the wrong shall do wrong-and none of the wrong shall understand, but those who have insight shall understand.
Daniel 12:10
For You, O Elohim, have proved us; You have refined us as silver is refined.
Psalms 66:10
I have thought upon my ways and turned my feet to Your witnesses.
Psalms 119:59
Search me O Yah and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if an idolatrous way is in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalms 139:23-24
My fruit is better than gold and fine gold, And my increase than choice silver.
Proverbs 8:19
And He shall sit as a refiner and a cleanser of silver. And He shall cleanse the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver, and they shall belong to Yahuah bringing near an offering in righteousness.
Malachi 3:3
"I say to you that He shall do right to them speedily. But when the Son of Adam comes,
shall He find belief on the earth?"
Luke 18:8
Blessed is the man who does endure trial, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which the Master has promised to those who love Him.
James 1:12
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of Elohim! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved ones, now we are children of Elohim. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone having this expectation in Him cleanses himself, as He is clean.
1 John 3:1-3
"I advise you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so that you become rich; and white garments, so that you become dressed, so that the shame of your nakedness might not be shown; and anoint your eyes with ointment, so that you see. As many as I love, I reprove and discipline. So be ardent and repent."
Revelation 3:18-19
And I heard another voice from the heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues."
Revelation 18:4
There is a consistent outcry in scripture for prayer, fasting, and refining. I pray that whoever reads the Words of our Father and the Words of our Messiah (The Father's Word made flesh) will allow the refining fire to cleanse you of all your impurities so that you can stand in front of our Creator where righteousness dwells.
So then, beloved ones, looking forward to this {His promise of a renewed heavens and a renewed earth (explained in verse 13)}, do your utmost to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless!
2 Peter 3:14
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