Have you ever felt the need to fast? It’s an urge, really. Somehow, you just know you should do it.
Here are some reasons to fast:
- You feel distanced from God.
- Your prayers are not being answered.
- You are under attack from Satan and His army.
- You just want to get closer to Him.
- A sadness that will not go away.
- Fasting for a loved one who is struggling.
Why Fasting is good:
- It ushers us into the presence of God.
- It re-boots our systems.
- Some of the problems we have cannot be fixed with will power, prayers or effort. Fasting is the “Atomic Bomb” of the Holy Spirit.
- As the days progress during fasting, you get closer and closer to God.
- In spiritual Warfare, the stronger demons will not leave just by “casting them out” or by prayer alone. Only fasting will take care of these terrible creatures.
Warnings about fasting:
- If you are diabetic…check with your doctor before engaging in a fast. Your body needs to be able to maintain homeostasis (which means “standing still.”) while on the fast.
- If you are doing a juice fast - keep hydrated. You can still have the glucose your body needs and some nourishment through juices.
- Don’t drink excessive amounts of water (gallons at a time). This may seem like common sense, but it will throw off your electrolytes. Too much water at one time can kill you.
- Don’t fast when you are sick.
Types of fasting:
- Liquid fast - Consuming nothing but liquids for a designated time.
- Television fast- No T.V. for a time.
- Fasting one meal per day.
- Fasting from what you love (this may be chocolate (if you are a chocoholic), books, technology etc…
- Speech- My husband has done this in the past. Listen more, speak less.
Fasting is not easy…but when prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so, it is very doable.
An illustration on Fasting:
Imagine a huge building, maybe the size of a civic center. All around there are people working for Jesus. They are seated at tables, walking around, on phones…all doing the Lord’s work. I am there too. But something is not right. I work hard at serving God all day in this facility, I know several of the people, but I haven’t seen the owner (God) in a long time. He is in his office at the top of the stairs.
I have placed my focus on other stuff. ”The stuff” is not bad in and of itself, but I need to stop what I am doing and go talk to the owner and operator. The things I am doing He is not blessing (to my knowledge). I’m confused.
So I fast. No food. Just liquids.
This fast means that I stop my work for God while I sit at the table. I excuse myself and walk toward the steps. On the second day of the fast, I ascend the steps and wait outside God’s office. I gently knock. I need to talk to Him. I need answers, I want His blessing. I want to be with Him. The longer I fast, the more often during the day I cry out to Him.
On the third day of my fast, He opens the door and I am ushered into the office, the Holy of Holies and I get what I came for: Answers, fulfillment, purpose, joy, clarity and an anointing.
By obeying His answer, I know that I will have His approval. With His approval comes the anointing. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
For now, I’m at the bottom of the steps looking up. Tomorrow I will be standing outside of His office. Waiting.
Photo Credit: Linda’s photo Journal
Related articles
- Fasting (funandfiber.wordpress.com)
- The Power of Fasting. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
http://www.daniel-fast.com/ I’ve also done a Daniels Fast, which is approprate for some folks too….it is an awesome fast which has it’s own benefits along with the special spiritual ones.
I forgot about the Daniel’s fast! Thank you for the supplement!
Sent from my iPad
Good information…and reasons to do so…The scripture at the bottom of your post …I have used once today myself and now yours’ is the second blog I have seen it on as well….Just interesting to me…Diane
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been wavering about commenting but can’t help myself.
The reasons you have listed for fasting are resolved by placing faith in the work of Christ – we cannot get closer to God, He is in us through the sacrifice of Christ, we just need to believe it – our very existence is defined by His presence now that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but we must choose to believe it. Demons are not scared of our fasting they fear the blood of Christ (only), which now defines us. If people begin a fast to get closer to God they will be sorely disappointed – they are in God if they believe (there are no degrees)… we must begin to believe in the work of Christ and not our own spiritual activities to see the breakthroughs we seek.
I know I’m ranting but it’s so important we get this right… still friends?
cheers Graeme
Graeme,
Yes, we are still friends. Maybe this is a better example. If I am in my living room trying to watch T.V but there are 100 people in the room chattering, laughing and being loud, I can not hear nor see the T.V. (The T.V.) represents God. So….I decide that I will get rid of all the distractions (people) so I can hear and focus on God better. Fasting is all about focus. Matthew 4:1 says, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Jesus needed to fast.
Jesus told His disciples on one occasion that the reason they could not cast out a particular spirit of infirmity from a demonized boy was because of their unbelief (See: Matthew 17:20-21). A few verses later, He added these words: “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” The point is that prayer and fasting combined can debunk our unbelief and re-empower our prayer lives. When prayer alone doesn’t work, prayer and fasting will bring the breakthrough.
I speak from experience. In 1980, my dad gave my sister and I an ouji board. We played with it three times and it opened Pandora’s box. (I will post my testimony someday on my blog….I’m just not ready to do it yet). Demons plagued me on and off for 20 years. Fasting is all about focusing on God and taking the focus off yourself. I know your a guy, so you may not be emotional, but for me, when I focus on God, I get teary-eyed, tears of gratitude, of how big He is and how small I am. I agree that demons are not fearful of our fasting, but they want to thwart the Christian from moving from a powerless christian walk to a powerful one. Fasting broke the strongholds that Satan had on my life. Focus, self-denial.
You think that there are no degrees in our walk. I agree, however I think that there are degrees of wisdom from Christian to Christian. The baby christian has very little wisdom. If he never matures in Christ, his growth is stunted and he continues to remain unwise. Then you have the person who loves God and tries to walk in his statues and obeys his commandments. This person asks for wisdom. God grants this person wisdom and he becomes extremely wise.
I hope I did not ramble too much. In summary, I believe is all about focus on God and denying ourselves in order to hear God better.
Still friends? Lisa
ok, firstly the Matt. 17 reference did not include fasting in the earliest manuscripts. The fast that Jesus undertook in the desert was not to get Him closer to God nor was it to give Him authority over demons, we dont know exactly why He fasted but we do know that He was still fulfilling the old covenant, something we don’t need to do. Paul who wrote half the new testament and instructed that church in the ways of faith never told anyone to fast – if it was so important why didnt he talk about it?
When Jesus was asked in John 6:28 “what are the works that we should do to do the work that God requires” he answered “believe in Him whom He sent”.
I fasted in years past, I know people who have fasted for 40 days – I could have saved myself the trouble and rested in the work of Christ, everything we need for life and godliness is found in Him. Indeed God grants wisdom freely, the wisdom from God is the work of Christ. Friends? cheers G
Matt 17 is currently in my bible. I’m going to follow what my bible says. The Holy spirit led Him into the desert to fast. After this, He would begin His earthly ministry. So….you think fasting is old testament? That it is irrelevant? Pastor John Hamel says, “The New Testament does not offer much teaching concerning the subject of fasting. Nowhere in the New Testament is the Church instructed as to when to fast or even how to fast. However, this is not an excuse to set fasting aside and ignore it altogether. There are tremendous benefits to fasting, particularly when it comes to guidance and increasing the power of God in your life.” http://www.johnhamelministries.org/guidance_super_biblical_13_fasting.htm Graame, you talk a lot about resting in Christ, belief and faith. What about works? How do you mature in Christ? Faith (a gift from God) without works ( acting on your faith-not just belief) is dead. We can’t just believe with inaction. I am with you in that everything we need for life and godliness is found in Him….no doubt. friends?
Lisa
always friends… I’m not sure how to proceed with this conversation as our perspective is so different and we both seem pretty determined about what we think – may be time to drop it. cheers G.
P.S. I was talking about the Old Covenant not the Old Testament
I guess the big picture is that we are both believers and that is all that matters. When I get to heaven, I’ll shake your hand and say thanks for stimulating my thoughts.
indeed, see you there we can have a coffee!!
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have to disagree. There are degrees….not degrees of the Holy Spirit, but there are degrees in how much I allow God to ‘have’ the various areas of my life. These above are the verses that come after the one that was sited. If you notice that as we are instructed to add to our faith (because we need faith to add anything to our lives from God, as He will not shove them down our throats…so faith comes first so we can recieve)…so, add to our faith these things….*for if you possess these things in increasing measure*….they will keep us productive. >> ‘increasing measure’ is basically degrees. In Eph. 4:15 it speaks about growing more and more like Christ…again degrees. Humans cannot take God all at once…His Spirit yes, but in maturity and full expression, no…as it speaks about in Eph. 4:13 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:”