Last week, I wrote that we should never fast to gain something, but only fast for God. It is a fleshly message to teach that we should give to get something or fast to gain something. That changes a sacrifice into a down payment we are bartering about with God.
Yet throughout Scripture, God shows that when we fast for Him, not expecting anything in return, it is there that He will pour out His blessings. Just like prayer, when we fast with selfless intentions, it is there that God will move the most.
Never expect to gain a thing in your sacrificing, and it will be God Himself you will gain in return. Sometimes the only benefit of your fasting will be that you’re strengthening your inner spirit to reign over your outward flesh.
Spiritual strength is not fueled by natural nutrition. “And when He [Jesus] had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ So He said to them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’” (Mark 9:28-29 NKJV).
In 2015, the Lord poured a message through me at a church where I was preaching about fasting. I added a few things prefixed with [Added]. Here is the third and last part of that message:
Different reasons for fasting:
For me:
- To get nearer to the Lord.
- To hear the Holy Spirit more clearly.
- Not to gain gifts, but to gain God.
Fasting to hear the Holy Spirit
“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” (Acts 13:2 NKJV).
Several years ago, I was at a major crossroads in my life. I was working at a company where I had just received a good promotion, and then a few days later, I had a great job offer from another company.
The company I was at was quite hostile, and people did not last long, but I had been doing well. I didn’t know what to do. When I am like this, I wait on the Lord. I entered into a fast and was doing much praying.
I lay down to take a nap and fell asleep. The Lord came to me in a dream and told me, “You’re going to get fired.” I woke up and knew He was talking about my current job. I took the other job and was most blessed with all that happened in the years ahead.
“So Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing” (Acts 10:30 NKJV).
Only fast as regularly as you would like to hear from the Lord.
I fast two or three times each week. Let the Lord lead you on how often He would have you fast.
I hear Him every day, because every day I tear down the natural hindrances.
You can hear the Holy Spirit, too.
[Added] He may not speak to you as much or as often as others, but you can be sure of this: He can lead us all.
Fasting in times of great crisis:
Many years ago, my mother had to have heart surgery. She was older, maybe in her early eighties, and so we are all very concerned about her. When others are faced with some great crisis, I like to pray and fast for them.
[Added] Praying is powerful. Fasting is powerful. Praying and fasting together is explosive. It’s not that we pray and fast to get something, but only to draw nearer to the Lord. God will do what is in His plan, but He looks to our hearts in His decisions.
My mother did well in surgery and recovered from that experience. She made it to her early nineties; she just went to heaven last year. She has a new glorified heart now that beats in heaven to the rhythm of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Mordecai sent a message to Esther, ‘for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: ‘Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!’” (Esther 4:14-16 NKJV).
[Added] Just as corporate praying amplifies the request to heaven, the same is true with corporate fasting.
Fasting to return to the Lord:
“’Now, therefore,’ says the LORD, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm” (Joel 2:12-13 NKJV).
With all your heart requires all your stomach too, your soul, and your flesh.
Fasting to seek the Lord’s favor or direction:
“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3 NKJV).
[Added] Seek the Lord’s direction, knowing your best intentions can yield the worst results. “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21 NASB).
[Added] Fasting consecrates you from the world. Praying consecrates you to God. Either by itself is beneficial, but together they will change who you are.
[Added] There are many who speak of prayer and fasting, but the rare few who actually do it.
[Added] Be one of those few.
Fasting just because you love the Lord:
“And then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37 ESV).
Fasting to repent or to express grief:
“And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’ So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:3-4 NKJV).
“And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5-10 ESV).
This was the third and last part of the message I preached back in 2015. It’s so important when we teach on fasting, and the same with giving, that we teach from a spiritual foundation, which is that we must have a selfless and surrendered heart to do it right.
My prayer for you is that the Lord would lead you to the reasons you should fast. Write it down, track the fasts that you do, and then make a note of what you were fasting for. Later, add a note to record how God blessed others in your fasting.
If you ever get a chance, read a book by Mahesh Chavda called “The Hidden Power of Prayer and Fasting.” There are people on this planet who would be greatly blessed if you would only pray and fast for them.
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
While all the right reasons to fast are good and even noble, as in all things the Son of God sets the standard. In consideration that the intent of the Godhead is to transform us into the image of Christ let us ponder John 4: 31-34. The context of this is Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well at Sychar also referred to as Jacob’s well. The disciples where concerned that Jesus had not eaten. The reply from the Messiah was I have food that you do not know about. The food of Jesus was to do the will of Him who sent Him. Can it be that Jesus did not purpose to fast, but fasting was a natural byproduct of doing the father’s will. I have studied some of the great inventors of the past 2 centuries, not only did many forget to eat, but did not even know the day of the week, or it it was day or night.They were so caught up doing what they were destined to be that food was only a source of fuel, not in anyway a desire of the flesh. This also can be a higher road to fasting, when we are so caught up in the work of the Kingdom that eating is necessary for life. Remember it was Jesus who said in John 4:34 My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and accomplish His work.
You have some powerful words here. I think you are spot on, that there is a higher form of fasting, a consecration from the world and to the kingdom. I think you point out a great ideal here, to be more like Jesus, and His ways were so pure and so holy. May we all learn to fast at higher level than we do now.
The entire essence of fasting is conformity to the character of Christ. When a person is ablaze with the fire of desire that makes glad our Abba’s heart, the Spirit of grace, Who set the fire, is pleased to encourage and enable fasting. Each one of us ought to be ceaselessly breathing prayer that the One Beautiful Triune God of all grace and all glory increase in us a holy hunger for Christ’s likeness and Spirit thirst for empowerment, to exult in and extol Christ in word and deed, as our Forever First Love and All Magnificent Obesession.
In the case of fasting from physical food, after three or four days, bodily hunger is absent for weeks, while spiritual hunger is sustained, and the spirit is strengthened.
Such a good word, thank you. I find it so interesting, that what we do for the Lord is not anywhere near as important as why we do. The Lord weighs the motives and knowing that it is our motives that we must get right.
This great message helped me to realize my need to fast and pray more
Thank you, it is a most blessed life that is consecrated to the Lord!
Same experience for me as the person above.. I have run Bitdefender for many years. Jasa konsultasi blocked as a threat.
And that warning I posted of Bitdefender blocking the website as a critical phishing attempt, to which you have commented, doesn’t appear here anymore on this page. Please, can you see it from where you sit?
I can not see it any longer. I suspect the posting was removed.
I took out some of the comments around that original bad post. So sorry if I removed one of your warnings. Thanks for speaking out about it!
Thank you for alerting me on that bad post!
Thanks kindly for your reply.