“The Weapons of Spiritual Warfare II: Fasting & Prayer”
(Roll delicious food footage) When it comes to food, we humans can get pretty territorial, can’t we?
Food is an all-consuming passion for people today, especially here in America! We love our food, don’t we? Some of us eat to stay alive, and some stay alive so we can eat, but we all love food, and I suppose that’s good, since we’d all be dead without it, amen?
How many of you can remember a time in your life when you were starving to death, and you noticed someone close by eating something slowly, that just made your mouth water?
Sometimes, I think that’s what our spirit man goes through inside us on a daily basis… He’s just starving to death, crying out for a morsel of the good stuff, and all the time having to watch us fill our natural stomachs with all kinds of delicious foods… Meanwhile, what are we feeding our spirit man?
The unfortunate thing for the spirit man is that he’s quieter and more polite than the natural man.
When the natural man is hungry, he lets you know it. There’s no ignoring that stomach on empty.
It’s like that annoying sound you get in your car when you forget to buckle up or fill up on gas…
Ding, Ding, Ding. Your stomach lets you know when it’s hungry.
But when the spirit man is hungry, he’s so week, there’s just this sweet, small voice that says, “I’m hungry.” “Shouldn’t we get up for church this morning and have some breakfast?”
The natural man loves to shut the spirit man’s voice out. He doesn’t want anyone threatening, endangering or coming anywhere near his comfort zone. Especially his food!
“Step away from the deliciousness!” But what about the spirit man?
We all know that in order to feed the spirit, we have to deny the flesh, and the flesh doesn’t want to be denied anything, even for a split second! In fact, with all this food talk, probably half of us are wondering what time we’re gonna get outta here so we can get to Hometown Buffet and feed our natural stomachs. Unfortunately for your natural man, this morning is breakfast for your spirit man, so as your pastor, I’ve seen to it that we go a few hours long, so this starving little body can get some sustenance.
All too often, the spirit man inside us goes throughout life, empty and weak because, we’re so focused on what we can see, and taste and touch in the natural that we forget there’s a bigger, brighter and more powerful existence in the spiritual. Since “what is seen was not made out of what was visible,”(Heb 11:3) the spiritual realm precedes, and is prevalent over the natural realm. Whatever happens in the natural is in direct proportion and is directly consequential to whatever is going on in the spiritual realm.
If we want to change things in the natural, we have to start with the spiritual.
REPEAT THAT WITH ME.
If we want to see a difference in the things of our natural lives, we have to start by making a difference in the things of our spiritual lives.
Now, when it comes to the human body, we’re happy to serve up a generous buffet… But what about our spirit man? How often do we feed the spirit inside us and make the natural man go without?
Not very often, do we? Because the natural man screams out against that.
What a lot of us miss most of the time is the fact that our spirit man is hungry too, and he desperately needs to be fed. Why? Because it’s our spirit man who is engaged in the spiritual battle. The spirit man is engaged in daily battle against “the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Eph 6:12
You mean, during the day when I’m eating my Macho Combo Burrito, my spirit man is off fighting a spiritual battle? No. Your spirit man is right there with you… That’s who you are.
During the day, when you’re in your prayer closet on your knees, denying the flesh, and you’re praying fervently, your spirit man is engaged in an activity called spiritual warfare, in which he fights a battle, using the weapons of the spirit, which have DIVINE POWER to demolish strongholds in heavenly realms, by the power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And in order for your spirit to be engaged in such a battle, the natural man has to be fully submitted: humbled before God: second place in priority. Just like any soldier, the spirit man must be well fed, well armed and skilled in the use of the weapons he uses for battle. Last week, we talked about weapon number 1: Fervent Prayer.
This week, I’d like to introduce another weapon to the arsenal… One that goes right along with prayer, like the stone King David used in his primary weapon, the sling… The two go together and they make a powerful weapon: strong enough to fall giants.
There is a powerful and necessary weapon, which goes hand in hand with the spiritual weapon of fervent prayer… When used together with prayer, it is as potent in delivering the final blow as that flat stone was, which King David placed in the sling he used to kill Goliath.
Along with fervent prayer, there is a weapon, which is seldom used today. It is a weapon, which possesses the power to deliver the final blow against its enemies in spiritual warfare. But because of the overwhelming human desire to fill our natural stomach, it is seldom used, or even recognized as valid… It is a weapon with unfathomable power to demolish spiritual strongholds, & it’s called fasting.
The idea of fasting is very simple. In most cases, the men and women of the Bible who fasted simply went without food for a specific period of time. So, the act of fasting is just to go without food and drink except water for a designated period of time, while we pray. (There are other types of fasts, but fasting food is the most common example we’re given from the Bible.)
Why go without food? Why fast? What’s the purpose?
1: As a whole-hearted petition to God for a dire need.
2: To lament over loss or punishment.
3: To make atonement for yourself or your people. (To get yourself or your friends / family right with the Lord.)
The prophet Daniel, who was carried off into exile along with hundreds and thousands of his fellow Jews. They were made slaves in Babylon, the city of their enemies… In Dan 9:2-5, he gives us an example of the purposes of his fasting.
One night Daniel was read the book of Jeremiah and God revealed to him that he and his people’s exile: their bondage to Babylon would last 70 years… (Dan 9:2-5) He said,
“…I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”
So, what did he do? “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”
What was the purpose of Daniel’s fasting and prayer? His first purpose was that of repentance.
“I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.”
His second purpose was the petition of his prayers:
Dan 9:16, “O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill.”
God’s response was a swift answer to Daniel’s prayer.
Dan 9:21-23, “while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.”
Highly esteemed people, I want you to know that God hears your prayers, and when you get serious about your petitions, God gets serious about His answers. By fervent prayer, with fasting, God’s heart was moved to action. In the same way, your fervent prayer and fasting motivates the heart of God to action.
? Why is fasting so important to God?
First of all, fasting is an act of humility toward God. When we fast, we’re openly recognizing our complete and total dependency on Him, and that whatever we’re praying about means more to us than anything else… Even creature comforts and physical needs, like good food and drink.
But most importantly, fasting is an act of extravagant love. More than any other thing, fasting is the method by which we lay down everything our natural body longs after: our wants, our desires, even our needs, all in the name of love.
Fasting is the act of laying down one’s own life for someone else. It is a type of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for you and me, and that’s what makes it so important to God.
John 15:12-13, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Fasting is laying down your life for your friends’ and since the Father sees everything through the blood stained lens of His Son Jesus, when He sees us fasting in prayer, He sees His Son, and His heart is moved with compassion.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
What did He give? Everything! Jesus gave up His life, His wants, His desires and even His most basic human needs, all the way down to the last drop of blood that came from His body, that we might have eternal life!
We have an opportunity through fasting to stand in the gap for a loved one through the gift of fasting.
And we all know that Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights when He was tempted in the desert, but His real fasting period lasted the 33 years He lived among us here on this earth. For 33 years, Jesus had to go without all the comforts of His Heavenly home. Away from the glory of His throne, away from the splendor of His Father’s face and the joy of His Father’s embrace. Jesus fasted from all the comforts of home 33 years, all in the name of love for you.
Spiritual warfare, and the weapons of spiritual warfare ultimately boil down to one thing, and that thing is love.
How desperate are you to see changes in your brother, husband, children, friends?
How deep is your love for them?
John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
How do we lay down our life?
Through fasting and prayer: petitioning God for their needs & their salvation.
Are you willing to lay down your life for a friend? How far does your love go for the people in your life? Far enough to lay down your life that they might be saved?
Are you excited about Christ-likeness in your life? Is your life a type of Christ’s love?
Christians, as men and women of God at the end of a short span of 6,000 years of human life, we need to be serious about spiritual warfare. We need to be serious about fervent prayer and fasting, laying down our lives, our selves, for others… That they might be saved.
Are you willing? Could you lay down your life, your needs, your desires for just a few days?
Could you say, as Jesus did, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42
You see, fasting is a type of Christ’s loving sacrifice for you and me. Fasting is the ultimate expression of brotherly love. Fasting is the secret weapon of spiritual warfare. It is waving the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the face of the enemy.
No wonder fasting and fervent prayer are so powerful in the demolishing of spiritual strongholds because it is Jesus Christ manifest through love and mercy. It is the secret weapon: the atomic bomb of spiritual warfare.
In a location near Caesarea Philippi, on a mountain. (sermon on the mount)
Mark 9:17-29, “A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "’If you can’?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He’s dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. [RESURRECTED TO NEW LIFE!] After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?" He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer [and fasting.]"”
This man can only be freed from spiritual bondage by an act of extravagant love.
By the power of a man, who would lay down his own life for the sake of a friend…
And at that time in history, there was only one man, who knew that kind of love. That man was Jesus, who would model it for you and me on the cross.
There are certain spiritual strongholds, which can be overcome only by fasting and prayer.
You may be living under spiritual bondage because you’ve neglected your prayer life.
Your loved ones may be living under a spiritual stronghold, which can be broken by fervent prayer and fasting. They can be resurrected to new life like the boy was, if we’ll get serious about prayer, fasting and our love for eachother.
What is it we’re losing out on because we neglected God’s command to fast and pray?
People hardly ever fast today and we’re loosing out BIG as a result!
You may be living under spiritual bondage because of your failure to fast and pray. What are you missing out on? Pizza, or a spiritual breakthrough?
“This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting…” This kind requires fervent prayer, plus the magnification of Christ’s sacrifice in your life, amplified through extravagant brotherly love. This kind is strong, but the power of Jesus Christ lived out through your life is stronger!
Friends: Be like Jesus! Live like Jesus! Give like Jesus, then you’ll see the miracles of Jesus, you’ll heal people like Jesus and you’ll demolish spiritual strongholds in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Together with prayer, fasting is the spiritual atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world.
God’s purpose for fasting is revival!
Isa 58:6-9, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? …” Sounds like love to me.
God’s purpose for fasting wasn’t that we would become spiritually fat people, or people recognized as being super-pious. God chose fasting for spiritual warfare: that you and I might shatter the chains of injustice and free the slave of spiritual bondage to new life in Jesus Christ.
THE PROMISE: “…Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
Do you want that for your life?
If you want to see a change in the natural, then humble yourself before God and start by making a change in the heavenly realms first.
Jesus once said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:34-35
Friends, our calling is one of ministry to others, not just self.
Garibaldi was a man who had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal for recruits in these terms: “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!”
Jesus invites you to discipleship. But He lets you know up front that it is a commitment that will cost you something. It’s not going to be easy. To paraphrase Garibaldi, “Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and not with his lips only, be Jesus’ disciple!”
Today, I want to challenge you to consider fasting for a friend or family member: someone in your life.
What is the Lord telling you about your participation in spiritual warfare?
Should you fast? I can’t answer that for you. Though, my prayer is that you will embrace fasting as part of your walk with God. I really long to see us as a body growing in our hunger for God… that our passion for Jesus and our love for others would grow to emulate that of our Lord’s.
Phil 3:18-21, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
