Fasting has been out of vogue in the Christian church for many centuries. This is so, and in fact, rarely does anyone preach or teach on it. There is no time we are on the victory part and more closer to God than when we are fasting. Church fathers through the ages have recognized the importance of fasting and paid much attention to it. The church in her folly has largely neglected it and throws it into a corner to her own detriment and loss. It’s time to pick it up again.
FASTING AND PRAYER IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
(a) Israel fasted on the Day of Atonement
(b) Moses fasted on Mt. Sinai – Exod. 34:28, Deut. 9:19, 25-29. He obtained pardon for a wayward race through his fasting, called absolute fast-miracle fast.
(c) Ezra proclaimed fast for the Lords protection – Ezra 8:21-23. They were not attacked because they fasted.
(d) Nehemiah – Neh. 1:1-4. He got permission and started the rebuilding because he fasted.
(e) Esther Esther 4:16. The Jews were saved as a result of fasting
(f) Jehoshaphat II Chro. 20:3. The Lord gave him victory because they fasted.
(g) Jonah – Jonah 3:4-10. Nineveh was saved because they fasted.
FASTING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
1. Jesus fasted forty days before the beginning of his ministry – Lk. 4:2
2. John the Baptist taught his disciples to fast often – Mk. 2:18, Lk. 5:33
3. Anna served God in the temple with fastings and prayer Lk.2:36-38
4. Paul fasted following his conversion – Acts 9:9. And later on the ship – Acts 27: 33-38, 43,44.
5.Cornelius fasted and prayed and the Lord answered. Act. 10:30, 31
6. Practise common in early church – Acts 13:1-3, 14:23
7. Later church history states that every Tuesday and Friday was set apart for fasting.
CHURCH FATHERS
(a) Francis of Assisi
After the dark ages appeared a gospel light ignited by this man. He was a constant and frequent faster. He started a movement that lasted 100 years after his own death.
(b) Savonarola
God brought another awakening through this man and almost all the city of Florence professes salvation as a result of his flaming preaching. He was an inveterate faster. He often could keep his place in the pulpit as a result of frequent abstinence from food.
(c) Martin Luther
God was able to do all He did through this man because it was stated that He fasted drastically and permanently as to injure his health. Not recommending this, but many mighty works were wrought through him.
(d) John Calvin
He was an inveterate faster and lived to see his prayers answered in the conversion of almost a whole city. It is stated that there was not one house in the city of Geneva that did not have a praying person in it.
(e) John Knox
He prayed and fasted until God drove Mary Queen of Scots into exile and finally to death. She declared that she “feared. John Knox and his prayers more than the armies of Elizabeth.”
(f) John Wesley
He set great store by fasting and God was able to move mightily. It is stated that his movement saved England from war and invasion by France.
(g) Charles Finney
He said that whenever he discovers the demission of the Holy Spirits presence in him. He would go and fast for three days and he would be filled again.
WHY FAST?
There are good things which can happen to us through fasting.
(a) Means of genuine repentance and restoration – Joel 2:12, Isa. 40:28-31
(b) Fasting and prayer enable God to release His power on our behalf.
(c) It helps us to remove hindrance to growth -Dan. 10:2, 3. There are powers that hinder church and personal growth.
(d) Fasting is a harbinger of revival – Joel 1:13, 14, 2:12-20.
(e) Be a channel of blessing – Jn.7:37-39 with Isa 58:6-12.
(f) Powerful aid to prayer – Isa. 58:9, Jude 20:18-37; Neh. 1:4
(g) For effective ministry – Act. 13:1-4; 14:23; Mat. 17:17-21
(h) It established that our belly is not our God. Phil 3:19
(1) It gives us victory over fleshly desires, and diminished the power of the flesh over us.
(j) It helps us overcome unbelief and build our spiritual life so that we can interact with the Spirit and help us to operate more in the Spirit realm.
Recommended Reading
Seven Lessons From The Life of Nehemiah
PRODUCTIVITY: The Master Key of Abundance – New!
PRAYER & SPIRITUAL WARFARE: QUALITIES OF A PRAYING CHURCH
FLOURISHING MINISTERS, FLOURISHING MINISTRY: MINISTERY WITH INTEGRITY
KINDS OF FAST
(a) Normal fast
Totally refraining from food but drinking water. This can be for varying lengths of time from one meal up to 40 days.
(b) Partial fast
Involve abstaining from certain foods. This is also called white fasting (Daniel 10)
(c) Absolute fast
This is a fast of no food and no water. This should not exceed three days except you are sure that the Lord is leading you as He led Moses. Wherever the church is growing today in the world, it is the Holy Spirit working in answer to the prayer and fasting of His people.
In Korea, the people have learnt how to bind the devil that controls the nation, city, community and hearts of people through prayers and fasting. Therefore, mighty growth is being experienced.
In Argentina, Omar Cabrero, one of the leading evangelists consistently close himself in a hotel room between 5-40 days until the power of the Spirit controlling the area is broken and then he would go there and many would be saved, healed and delivered.
The church is recording explosive growth both in quality and quantity today in Asia, America, Latin America because the saints have learnt how to pray with fasting thereby releasing the power of Holy Ghost to perform signs and wonders and mighty acts of salvation.
100 days protracted fasting chain. Many churches are now waking up to the need for varying lengths of time for supernatural breakthrough. Our fasting should not be for crisis time alone. We should obey the wise old dictum; “If you want peace prepare for war. When shall we receive the challenge to rise up and fast, pray, organize and plan for growth? When shall we pay the price for all kinds of growth?
If not now, when?
If not here, where?
If not you, Who?
STEPS TOWARDS TAKING STRATEGIC FASTING
1. We should fast SENSIBLY.
Don’t feel that you must fast many days to be effective. Many biblical fasts were “until evening” (Judges 20:26; 2 Samuel 3:35; Acts 10:30).
2. We should fast SECRETLY.
Jesus cautioned His disciples never to boast about our times of fasting, but rather to keep our times of fasting as a personal commitment (Matthew 6:16-18).
3. We should fast SENSITIVELY.
When Israel fasted before a crucial battle, the Bible says they “inquired of the Lord.” When we fast we should take time to hear God speak.
4. We should fast SYSTEMATICALLY.
When Jesus taught His disciples about fasting, He began with the words “when e you fast” (Matthew6:16). He was suggesting that believers should have regular times of fasting, whether one day a week or a portion of a day each week.
5. We should fast SACRIFICIALLY.
If we do not normally eat breakfast it is not really a sacrifice to fast breakfast. A true fast must be a sacrifice.
6. We should fast SPECIFICALLY.
God said to Israel “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” (Isaiah 58.6). We must ask God to direct us in the focus of our fasting.
7. We should fast SUPERNATURALY.
The very nature of fasting requires dependence on God’s supernatural power to see us through. When the early church fasted before sending out workers, the Bible says, “The Holy Spirit came” (Acts 13:2, 3). We need God’s Spirit as we fast.
BENEFITS FROM FASTING
i. Brokenness: Fasting is a personal, voluntary humbling of the heart before God that increases spiritual brokenness (Psalm 69:10).
ii. Self-Control: Fasting is a commitment to self-control that enables a believer to die to self (Galatians 5:23 temperance, moderation in appetites).
iii. Receptivity: Fasting is a worship activity that increases spiritual receptivity by creating a climate for the Holy Spirit to speak (Acts 13:2, 3).
iv. Power: Fasting is concentrated spiritual preparation for Holy Spirit-empowered service that increases the believer’s power (Luke 4:1,14).
v. Ministry: Fasting is a specialized service ministry that increases spiritual use-fulness for the totally committed believer f (Luke 2:36, 37).
In Scripture, in times of national crisis, the Lord called upon the leaders of His people to declare a fast. Today the world situation is out of the control of men. Only God can save us. He intervenes through the fasting and prayers of His people.