REASONS TO FAST AND PRAY
I do, however, encourage every believer to fast and pray for two very
important reasons:
1. The Scriptures Teach Us to Fast and Pray
The Bible has a great deal to say about both fasting and praying,
including commands to fast and pray. The Bible also gives us examples of
people who fasted and prayed, using different types of fasts for
different reasons, all of which are very positive results. Jesus fasted
and prayed. Jesus' disciples fasted and prayed after the Resurrection.
Many of the Old Testament heroes and heroines of the faith fasted and
prayed. The followers of John the Baptist fasted and prayed.Many people
in the early church fasted and prayed. What the Scriptures have taught
us directly and by the examples of the saints is surely something we are
to do.
2. Fasting and Prayer Put You into the Best Possible Position for a
Breakthrough
That breakthrough might be in the realm of the spirit. It may be in the
realm of your emotions or personal habits. It may be in the realm of a
very practical area of life, such as a relationship or finances. What I
have seen repeatedly through the years-not only in the Scriptures but in
countless personal stories that others have told me -- is that periods
of fasting and prayer produce great spiritual results, many of which
fall into the realm of a breakthrough. What wasn't a reality . . .
suddenly was. What hadn't worked . . . suddenly did. The unwanted
situation or object that was there . . . suddenly wasn't there. The
relationship that was unloving . . . suddenly was loving. The job that
hadn't materialized . . . suddenly did.
The very simple and direct conclusions I draw are these: First, if the
Bible teaches us to do something, I want to do it. I want to obey the
Lord in every way that He commands me to obey Him. And second, if
fasting and praying are means to a breakthrough that God has for me, I
want to undertake those disciplines so I might experience that
breakthrough!
Every person I know needs a breakthrough in some area of his or her
life. I am no exception. I need breakthroughs all the time -- it may be a
breakthrough in understanding a situation, a breakthrough answer to a
problem, a breakthrough idea, a breakthrough insight, a breakthrough in
financial or material provision, a breakthrough in health. If you have
any need in your life, you need a breakthrough from God to meet that
need! Fasting and prayer break the yoke of bondage and bring about a
release of God's presence, power, and provision.
I certainly have seen this borne out in the course of my ministry.
When I was forty-two years old, I went to an Assemblies of God camp in
Alexandria,Minnesota, to speak for a women's retreat. The first two days
of the retreat went very well, and then I had one day in between the
first retreat and the second -- so many women had registered, the camp
could not host all of the women at the same time. I took that day in
this lovely place in Minnesota to enjoy the lakes and trees -- it was a
gorgeous environment -- and to fast and pray about God's will for my
life. I felt as if I was doing a lot of good things, but I also thought I
might miss God's best for me. I longed to hear from God and to receive a
revelation from Him about my life.
In that day of fasting and prayer, God spoke to me words from Isaiah
11:9: "I have called you to cover the earth with the Word." Through the
years, the Lord has confirmed that word to me a number of times, but
this was my initial call to take the message of God's Word to the whole
earth, and it came as the result of one day of prayer and fasting.
The breakthrough that you may need in your life is a sense of God's
direction -- not only for today and tomorrow, but for the broad scope of
your life. If you long to know God's purpose for you on this earth, I
strongly encourage you to seek God in prayer and fasting.
THE PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL FASTING
There are two main overriding principles related to prayer and fasting
in the Bible.
First, biblical fasting is going without food. The noun translated
"fast" or "a fasting" is tsom in the Hebrew and nesteia in the Greek
language. It means the voluntary abstinence from food. The literal
Hebrew translation would be "not to eat." The literal Greek means "no
food."
I know people who say they go without television or movies, and they
call these "fasting" times. I'm not opposed to that definition of
fasting-fasting does imply that we are giving up one thing in order to
replace it with something else, and in the Bible sense, specifically to
replace it with prayer. But in the main, I believe fasting has to do
with our abstaining from food. Second, biblical fasting is linked with
serious seasons of prayer. The more seriously we approach prayer and
fasting, the more serious the results we will experience.
I sometimes hear people say, "I'm giving up chocolate" and they regard
this as a type of fasting. I think this is a rather frivolous approach.
The first and foremost purpose of a biblical or spiritual fast is to get
a breakthrough on a particular matter that one lifts up to the Lord in
prayer. A spiritual fast involves our hearts and the way in which we
relate to and trust God. It relates to discerning and receiving strength
to follow through on what God might reveal to us about circumstances in
our lives or a direction we are to take.
I am not against people fasting in order to lose weight. Many people
fast to lose weight or maintain their weight.What I am opposed to is
making the losing of weight your primary goal in a season of spiritual
fasting and prayer. To have weight loss as a goal makes your fasting a
diet plan, not a time of genuine fasting and prayer. If losing weight is
your purpose in fasting, you will be missing out on the full reason for
fasting, and you likely will be concerned only with what you don't eat
rather than with what you are led to pray.
Now there's certainly an issue of food that is associated with many
seasons of prayer and fasting, and let me quickly add this: control of
eating is a valid reason to fast. The purpose is not the number of
pounds you might lose during a fast, but rather, trusting God to help
you regain mastery over food during a fast. Jesus said, "The spirit is .
. . willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). Fasting is a means
of bringing the flesh into submission to the Lord so He can strengthen
us in our mastery over our own selves. Fasting in the flesh makes us
stronger to stand against the temptations of the flesh. Those
temptations very often deal with food.
Abstaining from food is often God's way of showing that His desire for
us is that we regain mastery over all things associated with our flesh
in order to subdue our flesh and elevate our emphasis on spiritual
matters. God's promise is to help us as we overcome the flesh and put
all carnal temptations into subjection.
ABSTAINING FROM FOOD TO REGAIN MASTERY OF THE FLESH
We are wise to recognize that food was the enticement the devil used to
cause Eve and Adam to sin in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2 the Lord
God told Adam and Eve that they could eat freely of every tree in the
garden of Eden,
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