Fasting Discussion

I have been interested in fasting and while I know it is told in scripture not to fast and brag about it or even let it be known, I don't wish to know how often you fast or when you fast but Why? What effects does it have on you?

I for one believe it is biblical to fast, anyone think otherwise?

There is always a scripture that makes me chuckle a bit and its Matthew 4:1-2 "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry."

I for whatever reason always thought that it took 40 days and 40 nights and THEN he was hungry, I fast for a day and I am starving like a wild dog. lol

Anyways I hope this is a fruitful, encouraging, and uplifting discussion on the topic at hand. Remember no funny business like derailing this topic ;) Oh you know I love you all lol

Brother
I believe fasting is biblical..Jesus said "when you fast", not if you fast. Thus the expectation that we would. I can only comment on my experience with fasting. The longest I have fasted was 3 days. When I've fasted led by the Spirit for that long I never was hungry. Other times when "I tried" to fast for a few days I was so hungry I could eat the sofa..lol.
I know fasting changes me, puts my flesh in check and allows me to hear the Lord more clearly. I'm not an expert on the subject....just the opposite....but I feel drawn to fasting and I know I never come away from a fast not feeling closer to my Lord, refreshed in spirit and with insight or instruction.....my 2 cents for what its worth

Worth more than two cents to me brother :).

I use to have a great passion for fasting and then my wife told me that I was doing it in an unhealthy manner and so for her peace of mind I stopped. But here recently the Lord has lead me back to this act of worship. My wife is more understanding and never intended for me to stop just to do it in a better manner, plus she said I would get really grouchy without food, which has changed. lol

I fast for a few reasons, one is health reasons, fasting can actually have great health benefits if done properly. You take on far less junk food and fasting actually gives your body a chance to get some of that junk out of your system.

I fast because it causes me to rely on the Lord, which is something I find hard to do sometimes when everything is readily available to me, one reason fasting causes me to rely on the Lord more is because I have Hypoglycemia and so my blood sugar can get low if I am not careful with fasting. There will be moments of struggle where my body says FEED ME, and its one of the only opportunties I get to tell me flesh off.

I definitely don't fast to show off how awesome I am or how spiritual I am because I am so dependant on Christ when I fast, without Him I couldn't even make it a day.

My other reason personally is I simply enjoy fasting there is just something about it that brings joy to my heart that I love, drawing unto God for strength and grace to get through, feeding upon His word, etc.

When you enter a fast do you tell your spouse? anoter question for all. :) I usually do out of respect for her because she feels bad for offering food to me if she doesn't know I am fasting, I told her it doesn't bother me but I have agreed to tell her if I fast and for approximately how many days.

Good Topic!

I will share a few bullet points that I keep in mind. Hopefully they are helpful.

1. It helps to bring the flesh under subjection to the Spirit. Most folks rarely, if ever, tell their flesh "no". If we get hungry our flesh says "eat..NOW!" Most of the time we then do what our flesh says. The first time your body says , "eat..NOW!" when you are fasting and you respond by saying, "NO.. we will not eat now. We are fasting today" ... your body will pitch fits and have a temper tantrum.. so to speak. It is used to getting its way. I have at times told my body to be quiet or we will fast tomorrow and stay up all night praying. In essence dong a nightly prayer vigil as well. It is strange how the body reacts when you make it come under subjection to your spiritual desires and man. That crucifying of the bodies ability to be the strongest voice in our lives is painful.. but so necessary!

FYI- have you ever noticed that your body never tempts you to break a fast with..say celery! It wants fried chicken..pizza..lasagna..etc.Just a thought :-)

2. It is necessary to be in prayer and the Word even more when fasting. Fasting dampens the voice of the flesh and therefor accentuates our sensitivity to the voice of the Spirit. That is why most all cults and occultists fast. Satanists, luciferians, hindus, buddhists, demon worshipping witch doctors etc. all fast. They do it for the same reason... to quiet the voice of their body and increase their sensitivity to the spirit world. They however are listening to different spirits than a person listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. None the less, the principle is the same... they are wanting to "hear more accurately" the spirit they are following. That is why it is so important to fill that time with extra prayer and God's Word. You will become more sensitive to spiritual realities and voices... so we must be diligent to hone in on the ones that come from The Holy Spirit.

3. There are indeed tremendous health benefits from types of fasting.These are easily found in researching it medically and I will for that reason not use the space here to address them other than to say it must be a secondary consideration. Fast for the spiritual benefits and receive the health benefits as an added bonus.

4. There are several types of fasting. Perhaps a person might start with a "partial" fast. Maybe eating only one meal a day for a week and filling the time normally spent at meals or eating in prayer.The well known Daniel fast is basically a restricted diet plan. Total fasts of food and water for a very short time..a day or two at most.. because the lack of water is soon fatal.

I once did a lengthy fast in "sections". It worked well for me and bore good fruit. I began it with a 10 day juice fast. Basically had a glass of fruit juice and a glass of vegetable juice per day with all the water I wanted. That was followed with a 30 day water only fast. I then ended it with an additional 10 day juice fast to "restart" my digestive system. A total fast of 50 days. 10 juice-30 water-10 juice. I continued to do physical labor. Was able to carry on normally but had less strength and much less endurance after a while. The way the fast is started and ended are very important.

5. Consistent fasting. I think we Protestant/Evangelicals (pick a stripe) have to some degree let the Catholics have this arena much to themselves... this is to our hurt. The power that is unleashed when churches corporately have fasting prayer days as a believing community is tremendous. I encourage all ministers, pastors, elders, boards, whatever your faith community tradition uses, to establish 1-2 days a week of corporate fasting and prayer. Ask the people to use this time to pray for specific needs when known and for a general conviction of God's Spirit on your community that leads to repentance and an outpouring of His Spirit as a result. Can you imagine the results that would be seen if our churches by the thousands began to actually fast, pray, repent, and cry out to God for a visitation in their towns and communities! Open the church altars up all day. Ask folks to come and pray at lunch if they can. Have folks there to help people pray before work. Encourage them to pray all though the day. Since they are fasting their spiritual senses are heightened and they will sense the Holy Spirit's leading in prayer. I believe this is perhaps the most overlooked key for renewal and revival in the US and Canada. It costs nothing but some time, commitment, and dedication yet yields the most precious fruit imaginable!

5. Celebration Of Discipline by Richard Foster. The book is a classic in developing spiritual disciplines and has a good chapter on fasting. Lots of spiritual thoughts coupled with practical insights and wisdom. In my mind the chapter is well worth reading if a person is considering incorporating fasting into their life spiritual disciplines.

Again, good and timely topic. In fact it has inspired me to take today as a fast day. I wasn't planning on it... but I feel the excitement in my heart even now of gaining a closer experience with Jesus and the Holy Spirit today!

mgulder thanks for your part in in that!

Blessings,

Solomon101

Eenoch and Solomon101 pretty much hit the nail on the head. Thank you gentlemen for also reminding me how important this act of worship really is and encouraging me to fast more often. I am afraid I don't fast nearly enough.

Isaiah 58 is a very good commentary on fasting.

Isa 58:3-12 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. (4) Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. (5) Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? (6) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (7) Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (8) Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. (9) Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; (10) And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (11) And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. (12) And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

I would also suggest a fasted lifestyle. One may fast food and this is the most common fast of Biblical context. However I also believe that fasting other things of the flesh that can control us. In 1Co 7:5 we find that husbands and wives would fast physical intimacy during times of fasting and prayer. "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency."

I think it is healthy to fast often and to also fast things other than food.

Such good points have been made, I can only agree with them wholeheartedly. Had the same experience as Enoch, I don't feel hungry when fasting (except in an extended fast), it's like night and day from dieting, which just about kills me. Solomon's Point 1 paragraph is hillarious - and so true!

What I would like to add is I'm usually drawn to fast for a time when there is an urgent prayer need. Who hasn't been so grieved over something they didn't even feel like eating? So to fast becomes almost natural when a need becomes overwhelming. To me it's like telling the Lord "Your presence, your listening ear is more important to me right now than my most basic physical needs."

The longest consecutive period I have fasted was 21 days.I entred it only after I was sure that the Lord called me to an extended fast(it's a bit different from the reason I mentioned above). The 21 days was impressed on my spirit and I made a commitment to it. Was drinking fruit/vegetable juices during the fast, and water. It's only with very few people I have shared this, for obvious reasons.

I entred that time expecting a spiritual mountain top experience. What I got was a struggle with racing thoughts until my mind finally cleared up, followed by day after day of heaviness and tears and feeling under spiritual attack to just quit and give up.

Then this entry in my journal on day 13: I'm slowly beginning to understand that fasting is not the spiritual mountain but the valley of tears, as it is in itself an expression of sorrow. This is why I felt somehow disappointed so far, wondering why I don't feel on cloud nine, like expected. The power will be released as a result of my completed obedience. But while I am in this, the Lord wants me to draw aside and place some of His own grief onto my heart. It is also a time to weep over my own sinfulness and battle temptation. James 4:9,10

Day 18: Hope has returned to my heart. Slowly but sweetly. I am at peace again. All that's required of me is to pull through.

Day 19; Battling hunger and being cold!

Day 21: I've made it! Now I feel like it went too quickly. I'm a little sad that it's over. I can easily pray all day long, feeling surprisingly strong and calm. Certainly the Lord is faithful. "Thank you for this experience, Lord. I love you a lot!"

I'm posting this in the hope that it will encourage some of you to start fasting. Truly satan will discourage the church from fasting because he knows of it's power and effect in the spiritual realm!

I agree, good topic.

I've never been a fan of making the 'fasting' thing real complicated. When I've heard over the years people say, 'You have to be in the word and prayer or it's not a biblical fast', well, those remarks have never rung true, though if you do that that's great.

I see it real simple, as most have already alluded to...

The flesh and the spirit war against each other in the life of a believer. So starve the flesh and make it weak, then of course you feel the strengthening of the spirit. I think it's that simple. Anything that is starved is made weaker, so fasting is great in bringing the body under subjection by simply weakening it.

The longest I've fasted for is 28 days if I remember right. one of the best times of my life (felt led to when my oldest daughter was breach). By the end I wished I never had to eat food again.

Great topic. Great reminder to fast again.

Don't legalize it. You don't need to pray or read or anything when you fast. If you're a believer, you'll simply want to, and all the more with the flesh so weak and set aside. Then you'll be worshipping all the more in SPIRIT and in truth.

FYI- have you ever noticed that your body never tempts you to break a fast with..say celery! It wants fried chicken..pizza..lasagna..etc.Just a thought :-)

Oh man do I know what you are talking about now, I always like to gorge myself after a fast which is the unhealthy thing my wife told me about, its definitely a struggle. One time I fasted the my wife had leftover pizza that had been sitting in the fridge all night. I looked at it and told my flesh Oh no I am not breaking my fast for leftover cold pizza satan's gonna have to try harder than that!

I am glad this thread has been an encouragement for some to begin to fast more or even start fasting. I also agree to not make it a legalistic type thing your already waging war on the flesh no need to wage war on the law all at the same time bringing you condemnation.

Has anyone here done a 40 day fast?

No :), I did watch a guy on youtube the other day attempt it and failed, he was trying to do it for health reasons he barely made it half way, 23 days, and he only drank water.

I don't know if I could make it 40 days but I have heard some friends who made it, its pretty interesting. I don't know if the Lord will ever lead me into such a fast but on second thought there will come a time when we will all eventually fast simply because we wont accept any mark so we may not have food but simply feed on the Word. :)

I have wondered if people who have done it would be willing to talk about it, as it is something that would definitely be Spirit led, and a personal thing generally. I would not want to try it without that clear leading. I don't do well without leading.

I am not really sure any of us are really good without that leading :) I found in fasting satan tries to make you second guess the leading the Lord gave you, he certainly comes on you strongly when you fast.

Its a constant battle and at times he will try to soothe you into giving up with sweet promises that oh don't worry about it, its not going to change anything, you don't need fasting. And once that disappears (especially for me) he tries to convience you, that something is terribly wrong and that you MUST eat or you are putting yourself in danger. Then he kicks it into high gear by trying to get your body to simply revolt with anger and extreme hunger pains.

For me fasting at work is the hardest because I will get juice or milk to subside the hunger which usually works out great. But at work I don't have milk to drink because there really is no way to properly refridgerate it without looking weird lol :)

Great topic, Matt! Everyone has given great answers and if there is any place for these opinions, I’d like to submit them ... I believe that fasting is the lost art of the church; when the church gets back to putting fasting in its rightful place; we could change things in America! And it’s the same on the individual level as well, when we put fasting in its rightful place; we could change things in our lives! And here’s a thought, the time that we usually spend at the table eating, we could use it to read the Bible or in prayer.

We are not supposed to tell anyone we are fasting but we HAVE TO share with our spouse what we are doing so they know what to expect during meal times! What if your wife fixes a meal and expects you to eat it? What if someone invites your family (through her) to Sunday dinner? She needs to know so she doesn’t inadvertently sabotage your fast AND so she can pray for you during this time.

The “starving like a wild dog” tends to go away whenever you fast over three days. When you get those sick hungry feelings, drink a couple of glasses of water to put something into your stomach. I’m only telling you this so you will know that there is hope after approx three days!! Decide what you will drink before you fast or what you will allow yourself to drink, so the devil cannot tell you, "Oh this won't matter or won't that shake taste wonderful today?!" ...things like that! LOL

God bless you!
Lisa

PS: I’ve heard that it takes approx the same amount of days to exit a fast as you fasted – this is for your body’s sake. Break a fast with liquid and salads and then gradually introduce solid foods. This takes as much discipline as the actual fast does and I admit I haven’t conquered this like I should. But if you just jump into eating a pizza or the like after a fast, you need to take some vegetable laxatives to help your body digest it or you will be constipated for days while your body adjusts. Just sayin’ and being honest!

great topic ,and a well needed descusion

it is a spirtual art ,that the chruch seems to have lost

im only new to it my self

i posted some writ ups from two brothers in another forum about fasting

maby i should post them here

icant remeber who it was ,it was a brother here that sugested a link ,it had some verry interesting imfo about this

bless you gys

Amen to all. We have adopted fasting as a life-style rather than going for the longer fasting. (nothing against 21 and 40 day fasting) Humbling ourselves with fasting is so powerful.For those who find it hard because of work or other reasons, try 1, 2, or 3 days a week. Or every other day. It brings a continual heart-cry toward the Lord as a desperation for Him grows.

Ruf

p.s. The Hidden Power of prayer and fasting. by Mahesh Chavda

A must read for anyone on this topic.

Brother Gary DO IT :) Post them here if they line up with the topic and will bring edification and encouragement :)

I once was doing every other day and my goal was for a year but this was what my wife saw as unhealthy because I would fast and gorge myself the next day and I had to agree it wasn't wise to continue to do that. I have however convinced her to allow me to fast every Monday and my wife is just now getting into fasting she is starting slow by fasting two of her meals, I told her to take her time and that she was doing great.

OH Something I thought I would point out, does anyone else feel the social ackwardness of fasting? meaning when I was fasting every other day every now and then I wouldn't eat on Sundays and so go to lunch with my parents and simply order a glass of water while everyone else ordered whatever they wanted? Just kind of curious because this was always something that interested me. :)

yea i will post it then

iv noticed that when i go over my mother and father who are professing christan they seem to feel uncomfetable some times when i come over ,and they relise im fasting ,through conviction ithink ,and at times they will try to discourage me from doing it ,which nomale results in a firey sermon at the coffie table

but for me i wont cook ,or go out to dinner ,im just to weak ,and wont put my self in that situation,i dont want to be tempted , that would be like arkwardness on my part

Fasting Is A Powerful Aid To Prayer
By Gordon Cove

In early church history, fasting was considered one of the pillars of the Christian religion. When the church had power, fasting was an essential part of the faith. Fasting is not mere abstinence from food or from any other pleasure, but is abstinence with a purpose.

Further, fasting is a kind of mortification or self-chastisement, which aims at self-control. Fasting is not meant to weaken the body, but to strengthen the will. Our greatest goal in life should be to be men and women after God’s own heart. How often we have felt this great purpose to have been frustrated through fleshly and carnal appetites! Fasting helps to subdue the flesh. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:5).

One of the "woes" that the Savior pronounced was "Woe unto you that are full" (Luke 6:25). A luxurious diet, habitual overeating, produces an unbalanced animalism, and induces spirit-blindness which can see nothing beyond the natural. A body, sluggish with eating and drinking chains our spirit and keeps it from rising above the earthly. Oftentimes a sort of vicious circle is created. We overeat, and then we are too sluggish to pray, and hence we never come within the range of the Spirit, where He can do great things for us and through us. If we would see with the eyes of the Spirit, we must mortify the deeds of the body.

It is strange how much we miss by the willful neglect of such a power as fasting – a power entrusted to us by the Lord Himself. For the flesh is an upstart, ever trying to drag the spirit down to its own fallen level, and fasting is one of the greatest measures used against the flesh to bring about self-control.

God-Given Desires, God-Forbidden Ways

Fasting will often prevent self-indulgence – not by crushing our God-given desires, but by preventing them from being used in God-forbidden ways, by keeping them within the barriers of God-imposed limits. Fasting is the sworn foe of sensuality! Fasting is also an expression of mourning – either over one’s personal sins or when we are burdened for the souls of others.

Fasting means that you have reached the place of spiritual desperation. It means that you are now determined at all costs to put God first. There are times when we should turn our backs on everything in the world, even our daily food, in seeking the face of God. Fasting means that we are determined to seek the face of God and get our prayers answered. It simply means that we put God first, before everything, including food.

Ordinary fasting means to abstain from food, but the same spirit of desperation will also lead us to abstain from other things as well, such as business, talking, visiting, etc. Fasting is a voluntary disuse of anything innocent in itself, with a view to spiritual culture.

So fasting is putting God first when one prays, wanting God more than one wants food, more than sleep, more than one wants fellowship with others, more than one wants to attend to business. How could a Christian ever know that God was first in his life if he did not sometimes turn from every other duty and pleasure to give himself wholly to the seeking of the face of God?

"One object of fasting is the mortification of sin. Is your mind distempered, your heart hard, your grace weak, and corruptions strong? Does pride, envy, malice, the love of the world, or any other filthiness of the flesh or spirit, prevail? Fasting, then, is your duty. Some demons will not come forth but by prayer and fasting (Matt. 17:14-21; Mark 9:29). When this is the case, fasting is the proper remedy, and should be used as the chief means thereunto." (J. Beaumont 19/08
7:20 AM

Fasting Necessary to Repentance

In the Bible there are many examples of fasting. David fasted over his sick child (2 Sam. 12:16, 21). "I proclaimed a fast…that we might afflict ourselves before our God," writes Ezra of the whole Jewish nation (Ezra 8:21). The fast of the Ninevites (Jonah 3:5-7), and the fast which the prophet Joel ordered (Joel 2:12), were regarded as necessary elements in corporate repentance. So with the individual. Paul after his conversion, fasted three days in self-surrender to Christ (Acts 9:9).

The men of Nineveh fasted in sackcloth and ashes, as a symbol of deep national mourning. There are times when some deep experience, some profound humility of repentance, causes us to reject all food and earthly pleasures. In its sorrow for sin or the burden for lost souls, all luxury jars upon the soul.

Prayer in itself is very often a shallow thing – a light and insincere thing. Fasting is an evidence of our intense earnestness and of our fervor. It declares to God that we will not "let up" until the answer comes. It really says, "I have set myself to seek God as long as necessary, and as earnestly as I possibly can."

It requires faith to pray an ordinary prayer, for "he that cometh to God must believe that He is…" (Heb. 11:6). But it requires even more faith to fast and pray. Fasting reveals a greater desire, a greater determination and greater faith, and God observes this when He sees one of His children fasting and praying. He sees that His child has forsaken all pleasures, including one of the chiefest pleasures of life, the pleasure of eating.

Fasting is the deliberate clearing of the way to be more effective with God in prayer. It is the laying aside of all weights and hindrances (Heb. 12:1). To lay aside every weight is to lay aside all the hindrances to prayer, and a heavy stomach is a hindrance. Try praying on an empty stomach, and see how much easier it is to prevail in prayer.

We are too much wrapped around with soft physical indulgences. We are too padded and protected. We must lay bare our pampered lives! We must make an avenue for God through the throng of lusts.

When men are wholly absorbed in grief for some loved ones, they are not hungry. They do not want to eat. Then we may also expect that when Christians are wholly absorbed in passionate and earnest prayer for souls, for revival – will they not also be glad to do without food?

Fasting shows that we are persistent. Often mere prayer is indefinite and brief, and really gets nowhere. On the other hand, when we begin to fast and pray, it simply means that we have settled down to the real business of praying with a persistence that will take no denial. It is certain that God’s people would see more answers to their prayers if they would fast more and spend the time in seeking the Lord.

When a person wants a thing so much that he is willing to go without food to obtain it, then the fast itself becomes a prayer. It is an inward, unspoken heart cry, a deep-rooted longing, and a reaching out to contact the Lord, the only One who has the power to grant the desires of the heart (Psa. 37:4).

Fasting Produces Faith

Now let us come to the benefits of fasting, which are numerous. Among the spiritual benefits, one of the greatest is that fasting helps to generate faith. Our unbelief is far greater than we realize. It is like an unseen and powerful enemy. Fasting brings us to the threshold of a new faith in God and His Word. One of the main purposes of fasting is to get an increase of faith – faith so that we can believe and receive. Jesus said, "When ye pray, believe that ye receive…and ye shall have" (Mark 11:24). Fasting is the great faith producer. It kindles and develops faith far quicker than any other process.

Although it may seem difficult at first to grasp, the very weakness that one develops through fasting is the building up of faith. When one seems to be groping around in the dark during a fast, and perhaps the devil whispers that you are accomplishing nothing, that is the very time you are building up your faith, for Paul says: "When I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

Your unbelief will be eliminated through fasting. Fasting is a powerful spiritual factor in obtaining special favors from the Lord, and one of these favors is added faith. Faith is increased through fasting. Remember, there are certain kinds of demons that only come out through prayer and fasting. If you want to move those mountains of pain and fear, then pray and fast. Faith and fasting go together! 19/08
7:21 AM

Fasting Intensifies Prayer

Then, secondly, fasting reaches and obtains what prayer cannot do alone. It is a powerful aid and asset to prayer. If your prayer is not answered, then go into prayer and fasting.

Many Christians have been praying for years about certain problems. Sometimes these prayers are not answered. But in many cases, where fastings have been added to the prayers, along with deep consecration and weeping before God, the answer has miraculously come to hand. Without fasting, prayer is often inefficient, but when coupled to fasting the prayer power is greatly amplified.

Many have proved that shorter prayers under the influence of fasting are far more effective than longer prayers without fasting. We do not claim that fasting, in itself, will produce miraculous answers in every case. But it prepares the heart by humiliation as almost nothing will do.

Sometimes there is something in us that displeases God, and that is why prayer is not answered at first. Therefore, to find out what this is, the best thing to do is to fast and pray. Many a Christian who does not prosper could learn the reason if he would wait before God with such sincerity and abandonment of self that he would not eat, would not sleep, and would not carry on his regular affairs of life until God revealed what was wrong.

God does not tell lies, and the reason many have not their prayers answered is because they have not met all of God’s conditions, and one of these conditions is to fast. Some things never come to a child of God except "by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). There is a big difference between prayer alone, and prayer combined with fasting. Even a few minutes of prayer during a fast are equivalent sometimes to several hours of prayer when not fasting, especially if the fast has been going on for some days.

The true incident is recorded of a certain minister who, before he entered the ministry, was locked up in prison in New York, awaiting his trial. He already had a life sentence awaiting him in Canada, also. His mother spent twenty-two days fasting and praying for him. At the time she did this, she was not aware that he was in prison, but she was praying for his conversion. He was converted and afterwards pardoned by the authorities, and became a pastor.

Another Christian prayed eight years for her brother, who was a drunkard, with seemingly no results. Then she got desperate, and prayed and fasted for twelve days for him to be saved. Thirty days after she finished fasting for him, her sister-in-law wrote to say he was completely delivered from the drink to which he had been addicted for thirty years. He had no desire for it and was serving the Lord. Fasting is praying intensified!

Fasting Brings Deliverance and Power

And so we see that fasting produces great power and also victory over sin. Fasting can bring revival when ordinary prayer fails. The great victories of faith mentioned in the Bible often happened after fasting.

A protracted fast will often bring to naught the devil’s devices in a Christian’s life. It will assist you to bring deliverance to those who are bound. Fasting and prayer makes faith strong enough to cast out demons. You may receive a still deeper experience than you have yet had, through fasting.

With fasting will come added power and liberty in your preaching, if you are a minister of the Word of God. It will so neutralize the flesh that you will become a conductor of spiritual power. The tragedy is that many Christian workers, just for the pleasure of eating regular meals each day, will continue in their powerless condition spiritually, when all the time they have within their finger tips the secret of power.

Certainly one needs an iron will to practice fasting, but God would not ask us to do it if it was impossible. 19/08
7:22 AM