Prayer is a discipline demanding faith because so often it calls for the Christian to align his thoughts with God's Word when everything in the natural world is speaking against it. An example of this might be when a doctor gives a Christian a bad prognosis but God's Word tells him that he is healed.
Regarding prayer, Foster points out that while it is, of course, important to know God's Will for a situation about which we are praying, we should tend to avoid adding to our prayers the disclaimer "..if it be Thy Will." It is not God's intention for us to be in-the-dark regarding his Will.
God gave Christians His Word. We should therefore go to the Bible and determine God's Will regarding the situation about which we are praying, e.g. God's Will about bodily illness, God's Will regarding prosperity, God's Will regarding our relationship with our spouse or our children, etc. After determining God's Will for our situation, we should then attune ourselves to Him and begin to pray that His Will be done. This is truly the faith-filled prayer.
Foster states that Christians are expected to fast at God-initiated and God-ordained times. He notes that fasting is done primarily for spiritual reasons rather than secular reasons such as gaining political power or even becoming more physically fit.
Bible-based fasting can take several forms. Specifically, there are water only fasts, and fasts in which one eats but does not eat heavy foods such as meat or sugary foods like cake or pie. There are also absolute fasts in which one refrains from both food and water. However, after three days, the physical body must be given water so such fasts should be short. Christians can fast on an individual basis or they can fast as a group.
Foster states that the primary purpose of fasting is to worship God and increase our sense of connectedness and relationship to Him. However, there can be a number of subsidiary purposes. One of...