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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
WHY DO WE FAST?
This week we have begun a fasting and prayer schedule for all who wish to volunteer to join us in fasting and prayer. I think that it will be of benefit for us to examine some passages concerning fasting and prayer in the Word of God to find out why we fast and under what conditions it should be done.
The first example I want to give to you is that of Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry. Immediately after He was baptized, by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus like a dove out of the heavens and the voice of the Father was heard as he said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
What pleased the Father in Heaven was the obedience and spirit of His Son who was now set upon a course that would lead Him to the cross of crucifixion. Since we are desirous to be more like Jesus, it is in our best interest to follow His example in fulfilling all the ordinances of the Word of God. One of those ordinances is the ordinance of prayer and fasting.
Notice that in 3 of the 4 instances that we will examine today, prayer always accompanies fasting. Fasting, without spending time in prayer and meditation, even while you go about doing your daily work, is nothing more than dieting. Dieting doesn’t do anything for the spiritual man. Dieting may make the body into a lean, mean fighting machine, but the spirit will still be fat and lazy.
Fasting is meant as a spiritual tool to make us into more useful vessels of honor for the Kingdom of God.
One of the most obvious reasons for fasting is the humbling of the flesh and conquering of personal desires and lusts. You might be able to miss meals, or perhaps even go a whole day without eating if you just are busy and don’t have time to stop, but it has always been my experience that the moment I start to fast, my mind begins to think, Oh no, I can’t survive without food for the next 6 hours or for the next 24 hours. You may not get hungry if you miss breakfast or lunch or even dinner when you are busy, but let the body know that it “can’t have any of those meals” and you will start to hear your stomach growl like a tiger and your whole body will start screaming, “I’m hungry”, eat, eat, eat, I have to eat!”
You will begin to sense, in a very small way, the struggle of the spirit in the warfare against sin. You will begin to sense, in a small way, the power of the devil to tempt you to disobey God and eat anyway. You may even be tempted to fudge a little on your promise by sneaking a drink or taking a single bite of a cookie and still claim that you have fasted. If that happens, you just as well go on and eat a full course meal because it isn’t necessarily the amount of food or drink that you don’t take that makes the difference.
It’s the fact of putting down the flesh and holding true to your commitment to fast before the Lord and spend time in prayer before God, that really matters. In other words, IT’S MORE OF A MATTER OF OBEDIENCE AND FAITHFULNESS THAN THE ACTUAL GOING WITHOUT FOOD. Going without food or drink is only an outward sign of an inward commitment to refuse to surrender to the will of the flesh so that the will of the Holy Spirit may be manifest in my spirit and heart.
Matthew 4:1-2, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered."
Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil for 40 days. 40 is always God’s number of testing. 40 days was the time that Noah’s ark stayed afloat. 40 days was the time of the Giant Goliath withstood and taunted Israel until David killed him. 40 days Jesus tempted in the wilderness. 40 days Moses was on Mt. Sinai until the Law was given to him. 40 days was the length of time for Israel to send spies into the Land of Canaan before they turned back into the desert. Then 40 years they wandered in the desert until a whole generation had passed.
For 40 days, the entire time of His temptation, Jesus didn’t eat or drink anything. This was going to be the ultimate test of whether He would surrender to the desires of the flesh or be completely committed to going to the Cross. It was in these 40 days that Satan lost his battle for the souls of men. Jesus may have been weak in flesh during this time, but the Power of the Spirit within Him was as strong and as determined as it was the moment He left the throne of Heaven to carry out the Plan of Salvation.
So we can see that one of the reasons for fasting is the defeating of the desires of the flesh and the rise of the desires of the Spirit of God within us. This is a constant battle between flesh and spirit and this makes fasting on a regular basis one of the most important ordinances that we can adhere to if we want to remain strong and victorious over the flesh.
Acts 10:30-31, "And 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, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God."
In this passage of scripture we can find another reason for fasting and prayer. Again prayer is combined with the fast. Fasting, putting down of the flesh, and gaining strength in the Spirit, helps to build our faith and trust in God. When faith arises, we will begin to see the answers to our prayers come to pass.
God always hears our prayer and He always answers. Sometimes though the answer is carried by the angels, God’s Messenger Service, kind of a “HEAVENLY FEDEX” if you want to call it that. Just as earthly messengers often have to contend with obstacles and barriers to deliver their messages, so do the angels of Heaven.
The story of Daniel in the Old Testament is our best example of what I am saying. Daniel had prayed for an answer to a vision that he had experienced. It seemed as though God wasn’t listening because it took some time for the answer to come but then we read these words from God’s holy angel.
Daniel 10:12-13, "Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia."
When we fast and pray, God is adding faith and power to our Spirit so that we can receive our answer and win the spiritual battle that keeps us from experiencing God’s best. We fast and pray to receive the answers to our prayers. We fast and pray to gain strength for the fight. We fast and pray to see God move on our behalf and begin to break down the barriers that have kept the victory from reaching us.
If you are praying, and perhaps you have been praying, for God to answer a specific prayer then keep on praying but start fasting along with your prayers and watch what God will do for you then.
Matthew 17:18-21, "And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Even Satan knows that God gives us more power and faith when we fast. That’s why he fights us so hard to keep us from doing it. That’s why most of the church world doesn’t even consider fasting anymore. Satan has deluded them into believing that it isn’t necessary or that it is actually a waste of time. When we consider that Jesus did it, that should be all that is necessary for us to believe that we should fast and pray also.
Another reason for fasting and prayer is to ask God for a special anointing for service in His Kingdom. The Apostles, Paul and Barnabas were called by God to go into a foreign land to preach the gospel. God instructed the other Christians to fast and pray on behalf of these Apostles so that they would be strengthened for the work ahead.
Acts 13:3, "And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away."
So we can see that another reason for fasting is that we can fast on behalf of other people to see God move for them. That’s a test of love when we must conquer our own flesh so that someone else may benefit from our fasting and prayer.
When we see other people in trouble or we know that they are fighting a battle for their soul in the realm of spiritual warfare, then why not fast and pray for them instead of talking about them.
There are other reasons for fasting and prayer that I cannot go into right now due to time limitations but understand that fasting and prayer are vitally important if we want to live an victorious, overcoming Christian life.
Jesus also gives us some practical instructions for fasting and prayer. It has never been established just what to eat or not to eat during a fast. That’s up to the conviction of your own heart. Personally I don’t consider it a fast unless there is no food or drink intake except for water. Others don’t think you should even drink water and there are times when I don’t do that too. Other considerations are the length of your fast and what your specific reason for fasting really is. Long fasts may, of necessity, include water or some type of drink. God may also place it within your heart and spirit to do without certain things that you like to eat or drink as a limited fast before Him. The conditions of your fast are between you and the Lord. I do believe however, especially on short fasts, that no food or water or any other form of nourishment or drink should be received but that we should have at least enough commitment to fast for a short while, otherwise why fast at all?
Matthew 6:16-18, "Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."
The Scribes and Pharisees of Israel loved to walk around and let everyone know that they were fasting. They had long, sad faces as though they were suffering greatly for the cause of Israel. They put on sackcloth and threw ashes into the air and put ashes upon their heads so that all could see their great “sacrifice”.
Jesus said that those men had their reward. There is no way that God would give greater faith and power to anyone who would attempt to gain praise and glory for what God was doing. When you fast and pray, no one else should even know that it is happening because it is just between you and God. Other people may know about it but you shouldn’t go around bragging or acting different just because you are fasting.
So you can see that fasting and prayer are so very important to living an overcoming life for Christ. You can also see that fasting and prayer help to build your faith and to defeat the desires of the flesh that so easily influence us to disobey God.
Fasting and prayer combined is the only way to see real revival and to experience God’s very best in your life. When our church falls on its face before God in fasting and prayer there is no limit to what God will do on our behalf and for those we are praying for. We can and will see a greater revival, with more prayers answered than every before.
