Fasting
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What is fasting?
What is fasting?
Abstaining from food is a biblical fast.
There are other things you can fast from, but food is the only thing mentioned in the bible.
The more basic need the “thing” is from which you are fasting, the greater the power in reliance on God.
You are telling and showing God that you want him more than you want to eat.
So you could fast from your favorite show, but thats not nearly as powerful as fasting from something you cant live without.
There are 4 types of fast in scripture:
Normal fast - abstaining from all food but not water
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
These passages dont mention water, just food. Since they are 40 days and you can only live a couple days without water, then the assumption is only food fast.
2. Partial fast - fasting from certain foods but still eating
12 “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.
4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3. Absolute fast - no food or water
6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night, neither eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
4. Supernatural fast - When God provides a way to fast supernaturally without food or water more than 3 days
Possible instances:
9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
There are two methods to fast:
privately - doing it alone and not making a scene.
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
publicly
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children,
even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
What do we do when we fast?
What do we do when we fast?
-You dont eat, even when you hurt for food.
-You dont make a scene.
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
-Fasting can last for one meal or many days. There is no standard. The bible has all of them.
-Fasting without God is just a weight loss program so what should we do instead of eat?
Fasting brings a sense of urgency to our spiritual life and our reliance on God.
-Set a goal before you start
-can be for:
1. prayer
-for the will of God
26 Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
-for a particular person or event
23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
2. To repent and to fight sin and tempation
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Use with bible reading, prayer, and bible memory
-Do that “thing” each time you have hunger pains.
Why do we fast?
Why do we fast?
Did you know its expected of followers of Jesus?
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
He set the same standard for giving and for praying here in Matthew 6
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
So when Jesus was on this earth, they didnt have to fast, but now his followers do BECAUSE HE ISNT HERE.
Fasting is a cry to have more of Jesus!!!
“Someone said that fasting is making your stomach hunger become hunger and homesickness for Jesus”
Response / Make a plan
Response / Make a plan
When do you want to do a fast?