Fasting

Lilian Ajose led us in a Bible study at the Monday group

Fasting takes our focus off of ourselves, it opens us to experience God's power. Simply put, fasting is the abstinence from food for a spiritual breakthrough, ultimately to get to know God better. To fast means primarily “not to eat.” It calls us to renounce the natural in order to invoke the supernatural. You say “No” to yourself so you can hear “Yes” from God in a time of need or crisis that demands a spiritual breakthrough.




Is Fasting a Commandment?

Matthew 6:16-18 - two factors bear directly on the issue. Jesus taught directly in context with his teaching on giving and prayer. We have no more reason to exclude fasting from our practice than we do giving and prayer as part of Christian devotion. Secondly, Jesus states, “When you fast...” He seems to make an assumption that people will fast, and gives instruction on how to do it properly.



Matthew 9:15-17 - It is clear that Christ both upheld the discipline of fasting, and though he did not “command” in the strictest sense, he anticipated that his followers would fast.





God's Purpose for Fasting

Isaiah 58 is the most full of information concerning the topic. It lists warnings and positive results of fasting, kinds of fasts that do not please God, and the kinds of fasting that do please God. God says in Isaiah 58: 6-8 that he has chosen fasts that (1) loosen the chains of injustice, (2) untie cords of the yoke, (3) set the oppressed free, (4) break every yoke, (5) give bread to the hungry and provide the poor with clothes and housing, (6) allow the people’s light to break forth like the morning, (7) cause their health to quickly appear, (8) cause their righteousness to go before them and (9) cause the glory of the Lord to be their rear guard.



Other Purposes:

1. Intimacy with God Jesus Luke 4:1-13

2. Burdens Nehemiah Nehemiah 1:1-11

3. Revival Joel Joel 2:12-25

4. Deliverance Elijah 1 Kings 19:3-18

5. Needs Ezra Ezra 8:21-23

6. Guidance Paul Acts 9:9 -19

7. Health Daniel Daniel 1:8-17

8. Ministry Church Acts 13:1-5

9. Protection Esther Esther 4:8-16





Types of Fasting

A Sexual Fast

1 Corinthians 7:3-6 says, "The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control."



The Daniel Fast

The Bible nowhere commands believers to observe a Daniel fast, it is a matter of Christian freedom whether to observe a Daniel fast.

The concept of a Daniel fast comes from Daniel 1:8-14, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.’ Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.” So, a Daniel fast is eating only fruits and vegetables for a certain amount of time and abstaining from meat products..



The Normal Fast

It usually means fasting from sunset of one day to the sunset of the next day. This fast was from sunset of one day to sunset of the next (Leviticus 16:29;23:32). So in this type of fast the person abstains from food and liquid for a period of one day (from sunset to sunset). Example: Jesus “ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them was hungry” (Luke 4:2).



Partial Fast

Daniel's vegetable fast is an example of a partial fast. Another example is to give up food between meals such as some people do for Lent. Since food is eaten, some people argue this isn't really a fast. In this type of fast, the person fasts on vegetables and water. There is no complete abstinence from food. Examples of this fast, seen in the bible are with regards to Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego who ate only vegetables and drank only water (Daniel 1:15) and later on when Daniel alone practised a limited diet for three weeks (Daniel 10:3). Some people would argue that this isn’t really a fast at all, but Daniel 10:3 does use the word “mourned” which is a Biblical occasion for fasting, and a common synonym for fasting.



Radical Fast

When no food or water are taken, like Jesus did when he fasted in the wilderness. Or when only water is allowed but nothing else. You can find a number of biblical examples of radical fasting. Here are a few:

• David (2 Samuel 12:15-20)

• Esther and her family (Esther 4:15-16)

• Moses (Deuteronomy 9:9-18)

• Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11)

• Ezra 10:6 "Ezra. . . did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned . . ."

• Acts 9:9 ". . . and neither did eat nor drink"

• Acts 27:33 ". . . This is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing."



Corporate Fasting

Corporate fasting is a time when a group of believers joins in fasting and prayer. This group may be a family, such as when Esther told her uncle to fast and pray, or may be a group from a church or churches. 1 Samuel 7:5-6, Ezra 8:21-23, Nehemiah 9:1-3, Joel 2:15-16, Jonah 3:5-10, Acts 27:33-37



Samuel Fast

The Samuel fast found in 2 Samuel tells of the account of Samuel instructing the Israelites to separate themselves from the world. They had drifted far from God's will and were persecuted by the Philistines. Along with getting rid of the false gods, Samuel told them to fast and pray.



Paul's Fast

St. Paul's conversion was a dramatic one. A bright light appeared and he fell from his horse. As a blind man, he fasted and prayed as he sought God's will for his life. (Acts 9:1-22)



John the Baptist Fast

John the Baptist lived life in the wilderness and ate a limited diet of locusts and wild honey. While that isn't going to be the diet of choice for most people today, this fast represents separation from the world.



Public – fasts

Called to times of special need and emergency. Almost all regular fasts were public fasts, but all public fasts are not necessarily regular ones.

Examples: King Jehoshaphat when Judah was invaded (2 Chron. 20:1-4), Ezra returning the exiles (Ezra 8:21-23) Ninevah, as a result of Jonah’s preaching (Jonah 3:5,10).



Involuntary

No desire for food because of anxiety, sorrow, or mental distress (Dan. 6:18), and where a person finds themselves in a situation where no food is available (Matt. 15:32; 2 Cor. 6:5, 11:27)