Fasting

1. Fasting Abstaining From Food For A Spiritual Purpose

2. Matthew 6 • 16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 

3. Examples • Moses Exodus 34:28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nightswithout eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments. • Ezra 8:21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

4. Examples • Paul Acts 9:8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. • Esther 4:16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fastfor me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

5. Examples • Public Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. • Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

6. Purposes • Facing a National Crisis 2 Chronicles 20:2 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. • Repentance Jonah 3:4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

7. Purposes • Seeking an Answer Daniel 9:2 in the first year of his reign, 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. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. • Making Decisions Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

8. Purposes • Preparation of the spirit for God’s Work Luke 4:Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

9. Benefits to Us • Enhances Prayer • Improves Spiritual Awareness • Opens us up to God’s Guidance • Provides Physical Benefits • Refines Our Engagement in Spiritual Growth and Power • But the Main Purpose is to Get us In Touch With God Zech 7:5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? • Focus on the Lord-Not on Our Own Benefit

10. The Reason • Humbling of Our selves Psalm 35:I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. • A Denial of our desires and appetites • Places priority on what is important Matt 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on breadalone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 

11. The Reason • Demonstration of What Controls Us 1 Corinthians 6:12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”  • Realize Our Need of God and Our Unnecessary dependence on Things

12. The Practice • Must be Initiated in Relationship with God Matt 6:16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. • Accompanied by Repentance and Prayer

13. The Practice • The Length of The Fast May Vary-A Meal, A Day, Several Days-But don’t begin with a lengthy fast • Keep Your Medical Needs in Focus, Understand Withdrawal Symptoms • May Be A Complete Fast Ezra 10:6 Then Ezra went to the room of Jehohanan . While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. • May Be a Partial Fast Daniel 10:3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.

14. The Attitude and Outcome • Isaiah 58:“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:to loose the chains of injusticeand untie the cords of the yoke,to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?7 Is it not to share your food with the hungryand to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them,and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?8 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.9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.