Fasting

What is fasting?

Fasting is an intentional period of intense spiritual focus, where we abstain from food, drink and other comforts in order to focus our attention on God.

Essentially, when we fast, we live out the important truth that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The context of this passage is where Jesus had been fasting for 40 days (definitely not what we are recommending!), and was tempted by the devil.

This shows us the intensity of the spiritual practice of fasting and also shows us the focus of fasting: fasting is feasting - not on the material things of the world, but on Jesus.

It is important to note that fasting is not just a form of asceticism, the belief that we can twist God’s arm for favours by punishing ourselves. It is simply a physical expression of a spiritual hunger and longing. We don’t fast to get God’s attention, we fast so that God gets our attention.

We should fast for the following reasons:

• Revival for the church

• Spiritual breakthrough in Karratha

• Guidance from God

How do we fast?

There are a number of Biblical examples of fasting and a veritable ‘who’s who’ list of Bible characters who fasted:

• Moses fasted for forty days before receiving the Ten Commandments

• Elijah fasted for forty days on his journey to mount Horeb

• David fasted for seven days as he prayed for his sick son

• Ezra fasted as he mourned the sin of his community

• Daniel fasted for twenty-one days as he sought clarity on a vision from God

• Paul fasted after his radical encounter with Jesus

• The leaders of the church in Antioch fasted before sending out the first missionaries, and as they prepared to appoint new leaders

• Jesus spent the first forty days of his earthly ministry in prayer and fasting

So we see that the Bible has a number of examples of people fasting, but it doesn’t prescribe any one particular way to fast. Jesus, in his teaching, deals with the motives of fasting, not the mechanics thereof. This is important, as our emphasis must be the same: focused on our motives and not getting caught up in a “formula”.

Based on the examples above, we can identify four types of fasting:

1. Major Fast - abstaining from any food or drink (except water) for 24 hours, or longer. This generally would run from after supper on one day through to supper the next day. We don’t recommend this for people starting out with fasting for the first time.

2. Minor Fast - abstaining form food and drink (except water) for some time during the day. This could involve not eating or drinking anything except water, from after breakfast until your evening meal.

3. Partial Fast - abstaining from certain items of food and drink for a day or longer. This may be avoiding coffee, or cold drinks, or something else that you enjoy consuming daily. Another example of this is the so-called “Daniel Fast”, based the account of Daniel abstaining from any delicacies for three weeks (Dan. 10:2,3) or meat for ten days (Dan. 1:8-12)

4. Soul Fast - this more modest fast involves abstaining from other material items besides food. This could be abstaining from media (TV or FaceBook, etc), or any other material habit we have become dependant on, for a limited period of time.

We generally suggest a minor fast, as a start, abstaining from food and drink (except water) from after breakfast through to your evening meal. Try to build up to a major (24 hour) fast over the space of a few months.

If you’re brand new to fasting however, or have a medical condition that may prevent your from abstaining from food, then consider a partial or soul fast.

In addition, be sure to be focused on prayer for the entire duration of your fast. You will notice that fasting provides a clarity and intensity to your prayers that is hard to attain otherwise.

We suggest dividing up your day of prayer and fasting by focusing your prayers as follows:

1. Pray for you own personal spiritual renewal. This could include confession, praise, request for specific guidance in areas of your life where you are struggling, or just an expression of general longing for more of God and a closer walk with him.

2. Pray for revival in our church, for a growth in spiritual depth and awareness, for growth in our reach into Karratha and for growth in numbers. Also pray for revival in the universal church - in Australia and throughout the world.

You could break your day up into 3 parts and whenever you feel hunger pangs, or when you would normally take your coffee or lunch break, turn your heart to prayer, focusing on one of the areas above.

The Great Invitation

When Jesus teaches about fasting in Matthew 6:16-18 he mentions a reward. This is not an earthly or worldly reward but a spiritual and heavenly one, part of which certainly involves more of Jesus in our lives. This is precisely what we, and the world, most desperately need at this time!

Please join us in this endeavour, as together, as God’s people, we seriously seek his face and desire his hand on our church, our town, our lives and our nation.

Blessings

Nick Bekker

For further reading:

Revival Starts Here (Dave Clayton)

A Hunger for God (John Piper)

Habits of Grace (David Mathis)

The Life You’ve Always Wanted (John Ortberg)

Celebration of Discipline (Richard Foster)

(Adopted from a work produced by Richard van Lieshout for Rosebank Union Church)