Fasting - Desperate Seeking of God's Will

Ah yes...the famed topic of fasting. Let us begin! 

What is fasting?

Fasting is intentionally witholding or abstaining from a certain material, usually food. Fasting serves many purposes, many of which we will look at through examples in the Bible:

-Fasting in sorrow. Because you are extremely grieved for other people or for a particular situation, you fast because you are mourning and you desire for God to take away the reason for that sorrow. Nehemiah 1:4

-Fasting in desperation. When David's son was on the sickbed, David fasted for three days in hopes of changing God's will to save his son's life. We see here that fasting is a way to communicate to God our desperation for His power to work. 2 Samuel 12:16-17

-Fasting in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew 9:13-17. Mourning = fasting = missing Jesus' Presence. How much would the disciples miss the presence of Jesus after He ascended?

-Fasting for God's discernment. Acts 14:23

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" 

- 2 Corinthians 12:9

When we fast, we are weak. No food = no energy. Our physical state is weakened because there is no physical energy to sustain us. We desire for God's power to be fully exemplified and glorified in our lives; therefore, we desire to set ourselves in that posture of weakness. With a lifestyle of fasting, we are posturing our lives to be weak so that God's power is made perfect in our life. This is why we choose to live a lifestyle of fasting; so God's power is constantly being perfected in our lives. This is also why fasting transforms the heart, for if God's power is constantly working in your life, over time, your heart will be like steel, hardened and willing to give up that which increases the Father in our lives; your spirit strong with the nearness that God brings when you distance yourself from physical, worldly things. 

In your moments of fasting, you don't just abstain from food and go about your day. Whenever a character in the Bible is fasting, it is always coupled with prayer. What is about fasting that intensifies the request that we make to God? Why was it that David fasted and prayed instead of just praying to God that God would save his son? As I mentioned earlier in the bullet about "fasting in desperation", David fasted so that God could see his desperation for His power to be at work. When David's son passes away, David gets up and goes and starts eating again (2 Samuel 12:18-22). I love David's mindset here because it really depicts his desperation; he did everything he could to try and persuade God's will. In the same way, when we have that prayer request that we so desperately want answered, do we, as individuals or as a fellowship, do everything on our side to allow God's power to work? How badly do we want our prayers to be answered? Are we desperate for God hand to work?

Another thing to note is fasting for God's discernment as we see in Acts 14:23. I feel like fasting is our way to try and listen to God's will and to try and sense how His Spirit is trying to move and work in our lives. More on heightened spirituality in physical weakness in two paragraphs. 

In our posture of weakness, there is something that happens behind what the eye can see. Something about weakening the physical state of your body strengthens the spiritual state of your mind. Wes Martin, a pastor at IHOP, spoke about the "Great Exchange". When we fast, we are weak and in that state of physical distress, our spirit is crying out to our Father for sustenance. You are saying, "God I will abstain from eating food, in order so that I free up time to spend more time with you, in order so that your power can be perfected in me, and in order for you to transform me into a more humble and willing servant." Truly, I say to you all, when you fast and you pray, over time, you will, indeed, develop a closeness with God. I am actually not one to really say if that's true; that came from Wes Martin lol. He says, "Don't observe the fruits of fasting until a decade later." Fasting is a trial of patience, patience for God's power to transform you over time; it's a lifelong process. 

Here is just a thought: When Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, He became extremely weak, but became spiritually strong and sound. Jesus fasts while He is in the wild and then He is tempted by Satan, but refuses Satan's offer for all the glories of the world. There is some implication here that Jesus' fasting heightened His spiritual sensation of God's will (I mean, I know He's God, but He is like-minded with God while He is being tempted) to resist Satan. Thoughts. 


Here is the link for the IHOP sermon on fasting. When you get to the website, click on the "Messages" tab and scroll down to the message titled, "The Great Exchange - Wes Martin", dated 12/30/10: 

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000098570

*there are other sermons, too, if you want to check them out. They are interesting, if not thought-provoking, so I encourage you to check them out when you have time. 

Fasting, I believe, also changes your heart to be more gracious. Primarily of food, of course, but I am sure over time, you will develop a heart of acknowledging the grace of God. This is why fasting works; we don't only eat food for sustenance, but we eat because it is GOOD. And when you sit down to break fast and you're sitting there with your meal waiting in front of you and pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God, you PRAY a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Fasting creates a genuine spirit of graciousness. Ever wonder why God calls us in Phillipians 4:6 to do "everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving"? After fasting, thanksgiving seems to overflow into all parts of your life. 

Another principle of fasting is brought up in Matthew 6:16-18. Don't complain when you fast. Don't show it while you're doing it. Why? For all the reasons I stated above. You would completely contradict the reason why you're fasting in the first place. Besides, God promises a reward in heaven for the things you do in secret (which is great, but I think the former reason is more important for a better mindset). 

One other point that many have used Matthew 6:16 for. They interpret "When you fast" as a command; Jesus gives you no choice, it is implied that you are already living a lifestyle of fasting. Of course, while I say it's a command, we know that there are people with limitations that exclude them from needing to fast (people with eating disorders and pregnancy I should think, are two that come to mind). And the whole purpose of this blog post anyways is to get all the reasons for why we should be fasting down in writing. 

And what of corporate fasts? What does fasting corporately accomplish? I believe it aligns with why we pray corporately: when two or more gather and bring their request to God, God will answer that prayer (Matthew 18:19-20). In the same light, when two more gather and desperately bring their requests to God, God will definitely answer that prayer. And simply put, I believe fasting corporately brings the community together in a God-centered way. We, as a fellowship, are enduring this physical hardship together and because no meals free up time to pray, we would pray together (to pray for the topic of why we are fasting). And that I believe, is solid reason enough to fast corporately. 

And lastly, fasting for preparation for the return of Jesus, the Messiah. I do not know too much of the Second Coming (personally, I feel like I haven't looked into it enough to make any claims or to take any stance yet), but what I do know for sure is that Jesus is returning and we better not only ready ourselves, but also intercede that the rest of the world be ready also. Wes Martin delves deeper into the Word, interpreting Matthew 9:13-17. Jesus says himself that His disciples will begin fasting when He leaves them. Martin associates that with the longing and mourning for the absence of Jesus' presence. He says, "When your spouse passes away, or a family member, or close friend passes away, you mourn because you long for their presence; you miss their presence." And so he compares that to Jesus' statement of the disciples mourning for His presence when He leaves (described in the bridegroom comparison in v.15). We fast because we long for Jesus' presence. 

So where does this leave us? Right now, I encourage all of you to pick ONE day of the week to fast. I understand it's a jump to go from eating every meal to missing one whole day of the week. But I believe we can do it, and not only just do it, but do it good and do it until it merges with our lifestyle. Personally, I feel like missing one day of eating is easier to do in college because our sleep/eating schedules are sorta screwed up so I hope that is some encouragement to you.

And for the chapter? I had mentioned during CFW that I wanted to do corporate fasting during (or up until) NSO. We have several ways we can do this. We can pick a week and have everyone fast one meal on each of those days (or fast all day and eat when the sun goes down) and be in constant prayer as a chapter. We could also have a schedule and have people sign up for one day out of like 40 days to fast and pray for NSO (Caleb's idea). That way, there is at least one person in the chapter fasting and praying for NSO during the span of 40 days. Comment and let's discuss what you think! 

That's all I have for fasting. You're a champ for reading this entire blogpost. I was going to post pictures of food, but dangling food in front of people fasting is like a stumbling block. We don't do that to each other :) And I'm just keepin' this post reverent and righteously real haha. 

Thanks for reading!