Power of Fasting Pt. 2

Benefits of Fasting

    1.      Seeking clarity from God

When we fast, in this grace dispensation, we have seen that it is not to appease God, or get Him to move, or get His sympathy and so on. One of the reasons therefore why we fast is in order to seek God and get clarity from Him regarding an issue or issues. Jesus, in Matthew 4:1-3, was not fasting in order to please God or appease Him, as we see in Matthew 3:17 God saying that Jesus was His beloved Son, in Whom He was well pleased. Jesus fasted before ministry, and I’m sure it was to get clarity for ministry. We see that immediately after the fast He went in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and started teaching (Luke 4:14). We can only conclude that the purpose of His fasting was preparation for ministry.

While also seeking God regarding ministry, the prophets and teachers received instruction to separate for God Paul and Barnabas, for ministry:

Acts 13:2

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Our flesh is always striving against our spirit (Gal. 5:16-17), and is what hinders us from hearing God’s voice clearly. Fasting weakens the flesh, as the flesh always wants to be fed and satisfied. When we fast, we deny the flesh it’s most important necessity, food/ water, and so bring it into subjection, hushing its voice. At the initial stages of fasting, the flesh is usually very loud, always demanding for food and its right. It even makes you think that you will die. After a while of fasting, the flesh hushes and adjusts, realizing that no matter how long it pleads with you, you are not giving in and giving it food. When the flesh is silent, we can now readily hear God’s voice.

Fasting strengthens you spiritually and weakens your flesh. When you are strong spiritually, you can hear God clearly. From our definition of fasting, we saw that fasting is a spiritual act. So fasting helps you to be more spiritually minded (Rom. 8:5-6). When we are constantly giving our flesh what it wants, it is hard to hear God’s voice as the voice of the flesh is usually above that of God. Remember, God’s voice is that still small voice (1 Kings 19:12).It can only be heard when you are focusing on it. Just like when you are in a noisy environment you can only hear your phone ring (without a vibration) when you focus on it, and the more you focus on it the more you hear it loud, we can only hear God in this noisy world today when we purpose to focus and listen to His voice. In this world today, there are many voices (the world, the flesh, the devil); fasting helps you to shut them out, and focus on God’s voice alone.

When we fast, we are advised to try and cut off from things we are accustomed to (TV, friends, computers etc.), and focus more on spiritual acts (prayer, God’s word, fellowship, worship and praise etc.) Remember, if you have to hear you phone ring in a noisy place, you focus on where you phone is. If you want hear God clearly, you shut out any hindrance and focus on channels He uses to speak to us. This does not mean that we cut off from or normal duties and just stay at home, it says that even when we are attending to our normal duties we minimize anything that is not a necessity, and replace it with what will bring us closer to God. This is why Jesus did not go for His fast at home or anywhere else, but in the wilderness. Cornelius was in his house fasting, while Paul was in Damascus in a house. Immediately after recovering sight, Paul went to Arabia (wilderness) for a while. In order to receive radio waves, you have to tune in to the right frequency. In order to hear God, you have to tune in to the right frequency, and be spiritually minded.

Remember, in this dispensation of grace, everything we need has been provided for us. Whatever we do out of faith is to access what God has already provided. 2 Peter 1:3 says we have everything that pertains to life and godliness, and Eph. 1:3 says we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. So we essentially have everything provided to us by Jesus, which are deposited in our spirits. Our fasting is not to get God to do anything, but position us to receive that which grace has already provided. With the wisdom we have from God (1 Cor. 1:30), we can access everything, combining prayer and fasting, where we can hear the word from God that will position us to receive from God. God knows where He put everything He gave us, everything that pertains to life and godliness, and wants us to know. Whenever we come to a difficult situation, God asks us to ask Him for wisdom, to help us know what to do (James 1:5). This wisdom will help us to know how to access whatever He made available, and in order to hear and receive this wisdom with clarity we may need to fast; He may lead us to fast.

If what Jesus did on the cross and provided for you will not help you receive what God provided, nothing you can do will help you to do so. If you do not receive that which God provided to you by faith in what Jesus did, your fasting will not make God do anything. This is what it means to fast from an understanding of grace, that nothing we do makes God to do anything, He already did it.

    2.      Breaking off habits and strongholds

Isaiah 58:5-6

Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD? ⁶ "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

In Isaiah 58, God was telling the Children of Israel that they had zeal for God, seeking Him daily, obeying His ordinances, yet their fast was in vain. He told them that it was because they were fasting for the wrong reasons and while fasting they were doing the wrong things. In the above verses, He tells us the kind of fasting He requires. In those days, they slaves and people they oppressed, and God expected them to set them free and be merciful to them when fasting, while quitting from wickedness.

Today, we can apply this into saying that we should use fasting to let go of wickedness we have been holding on to, those sins and bad habits that the Spirit is always convicting us of, the heavy burdens and the yokes that have been preventing us from walking in God’s purpose.

We all have that one thing that hinders us from walking in God’s purpose, and if we don’t all we have to do is ask God to show us and I’m sure more than one thing will pop up. Some habits and things are easy to let go of, but some others do not seem to go easily. Since all habits are rooted in the soul, the only way to break free is to afflict the soul, and in so doing we will break them. Fasting can also be a way of exposing these bad habits. When we are hungry, as we have seen, the flesh is usually afflicted and shouting, especially during the first few days. While doing so, it will manifest in form of a habit or two, trying to find satisfaction on the things, e.g. anger, gossip, bitterness, malice, desire for sexual satisfaction etc. When these do, it is for us to receive the grace of God and bring our flesh to subjection, and ensure that the flesh remains subject to our spirit, to the word of God, by acting only according to the word of God.

Most of the worst habits I’ve broken in my life have been through fasting and prayer, and this is where I realized that there is no stronghold that is too hard to break. (If you want to understand more about stronghold, refer to earlier notes from a sermon I did on Renewing of The Mind, subtitled “Renewing the Mind: Strongholds”). When you deny your flesh its most important necessity, and it learns to listen to you that it will eat when you (you are a spirit) say so, then it will also learn to listen to you when you are not fasting, obeying you in doing the word. This is why Paul said that:

1 Corinthians 9:27

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

1 Corinthians 11:27

…in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often…

We see in the immediate above verse that Paul used to fast often, and we can conclude that fasting is how he used to discipline his body and bring it into subjection. If you want to discipline a child, you take away what they love most, and they will learn that you are the authority and if they want to have it back they better start listening to you. Same thing for the flesh, God used the same thing to discipline the children of Israel:

Deuteronomy 8:3

"So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

You don’t have to wait to lack food so that you start humbling yourself before God and breaking off those habits, wicked behaviors, strongholds, yokes and oppressions. Start denying yourself food and water as the Spirit leads, and be on your way to walking in victory over your flesh and body, walking in the Spirit. Remember, to be carnally minded (led by the flesh and body) is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

     3.      Overcoming Unbelief

 Matthew 17:20-21

So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  ²¹ "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

The disciples had tried to cast out demons from a boy to no avail, and asked Jesus why they could not be able to do so. Keep in mind that these are the same disciples who had been sent to cast out demons, heal the sick, preach, cleanse lepers, raise the dead etc. (Matt 10:7-8), and had come back rejoicing that the demons were subject to them (Luke 10:17). Many have interpreted the above verse into meaning that Jesus was saying that there are demons that cannot come out except by prayer and fasting. This is not the case, as if it were then when the disciples had gone out and cast out demons they would have encountered these demons that could not come out except through prayer and fasting. However, they did not. Actually in Matthew 10:1 we’re told that Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, heal all kinds of sicknesses and disease. There was no exception.

Therefore Matthew 17:21 can only mean that the unbelief that hindered them from casting out that particular type of demon from the boy could not go out except through prayer and fasting. How? Unbelief is rooted in the soul. Your body is physical, and cannot contain unbelief; it can act in unbelief, but when the unbelief arises from your soul. Your spirit has the faith of Jesus. This means that unbelief is rooted in the soul. There are three types of unbelief:

          a.  Ignorant unbelief

This is unbelief that arises from lack of knowledge. It is how we react to new things, especially if we have never heard of it. For example, if someone came and told you he can fly, you will doubt it because you are not used to seeing people fly. If someone came and told you though that he can swim, you will not doubt because people can swim, you know it and have seen it before. When you hear of something new from the Bible that you have never heard of before, unbelief is the first reaction, from your soul, since it is new to you. The more you get acquainted with the thing, the more unbelief dwindles.

          b.  Disbelief

This is the type of unbelief that arises from rejection of what one has heard, regardless of interaction with the information. It arises from conviction and faith on the contrary to what one is hearing. For example, if someone came and told you that they can chew nails, you will be in ignorant unbelief. If they did it before you, you will still not believe it because it is humanly not possible, based on the knowledge you have. If someone came and preached to you over something you have always known, something you have heard other people say, and you continue to disbelieve what they are saying, you will be continuing in disbelief.

          c.  Natural unbelief

This is the type of unbelief that arises from carnality. We have been created to operate in the 5 senses, believing that which we see, feel, hear, touch and smell. Whatever comes against sense knowledge is opposed by our minds, and we tend to doubt it. For example if someone came and told you based on God’s word that you can raise the dead, you will be in unbelief because you have never done it before, though you may know it is true since the word of God says so, but you just may not see yourself doing it. This is natural unbelief.

It is the natural unbelief and disbelief that can be broken through fasting and prayer, since it is based on the sensual knowledge, rooted in the soul. Ignorant unbelief can be broken through repetition of the truth and information; disbelief natural unbelief can only be broken through fasting and prayer, when the soul is humbled and made to believe in what the spirit believes. Information alone is not enough to break disbelief and natural unbelief. Fasting humbles your soul, making it understand that there is a superior authority to the soul and sensual knowledge, which is your spirit. With this in mind, we understand that with the spirit as the authority, the soul will believe whatever the spirit says. When your spirit agrees with the word of God, and your soul goes contrary, if you have disciplined your soul to listen to the spirit, then it will believe what your spirit is saying. If you have not trained your soul to listen to your spirit through fasting, you will always go with sensual knowledge. Again, remember that to be carnally minded (led by the flesh and body) is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

     4.      Health

1Timothy 4:8

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

It is important to take care of our bodies, as God also told us to honor Him with our bodies and spirits (1 Cor. 6:20), as they are His. God expects us to take care of these bodies, as they are vessels that He uses. If our bodies are not in good condition, then we won’t live long, to accomplish God’s purpose for us. We ought not to fast in order to lose weight or be healthy as the key motive, as this beats the meaning of fasting as a spiritual act, but when fasting we ought to remember that it is not destroying our bodies when we feel weak and maybe dizzy; it’s a good thing for our bodies when we fast. Sometimes when we fast we feel like we are about to die and feel like we are punishing our bodies, but on the contrary fasting is good for our bodies, health-wise. Many doctors around the world have realize this secret and continue to encourage many skip a meal, two or go a day a weak without food, it’s good for their bodies.

     5.      Unity

As we saw in the story of Esther and also the king of Nineveh, they fasted in order to call unto God with one voice. Since we have also seen that fasting helps us be spiritually minded, and is a spiritual act, when we fast we are more spiritually connected with one another. Carnality separates us human beings, and is a work of the flesh, brought about by carnality (thinking according to the flesh):

1Corinthians 3:3
…for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Since fasting is a spiritual act, when we fast we weaken the flesh and can only come together in unity of Christ, in the spirit. This is especially achieved when we proclaim a fast and engage in it collectively, as a body of Christ. This also positions us to hear from God clearly, individually and as the body of Christ. Look at it this way: Jesus said where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in their midst (Matt. 18:20). He will manifest Himself to them definitely, and they can receive from Him in more clarity when they are in unity of faith and spirit, achieved through fasting. When we are fasting, our spiritual antennae are sensitive, so you can imagine how sensitive they are when we gather together and listen in unity.

Fasting also helps us to join our faith to receive from God, understanding that He has already provided all we need. When we fast in unison and believe God for something, we join our faith and position ourselves to receive from Him more efficiently. Sometimes our faith may be wavering, but when we join other believers we notice that our faith is strengthened and manifestation in this case is more inevitable.

     6.      Humility

Psalm 35:13

But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting;

Pride resides and is rooted in the flesh. The most effective way of dealing with pride is fasting, as when you fast you are denying the flesh what it desires most and believes has a right to. When you are not fasting, the flesh usually demands for food, and always gets. When you are fasting, the flesh will still demand food, and when you deny it it will fuss and even threaten you that you will die, but the more you discipline it and deny it then it quitens down and “learns its position”. It will learn to listen, and know there is a part of you that’s more powerful and authoritative than it, your spirit. The best time and way to get your flesh to submit to you and always embrace humility is through fasting and prayer.

There are more benefits of fasting out there, but for now I wanted us to concentrate on and learn these 6. I believe that you will make a decision to make the most out of fasting, with this information, and be on your way to living a successful spiritual life. Make it a habit to fast, always subjecting to the leading of the Spirit, and win the war over your flesh.

Blessings. 

-- Sam Gitonga. 



(25/05/14 Sunday Service Sermon, Teaching Transformation Ministry.)

Brother Sam Gitonga is a Youth Leader at Teaching Transformation Ministry. We are located along the Thika-Ruai Flyover Junction (at the Thika Rd./ Bypass intersection), Next to Eastgate Restaurant.