What does your relationship with God look like? How do you handle difficult situations in your life? When you go through the storms of life are you anchored in Jesus Christ, or do you feel lost? Be anchored in Jesus Christ so that you can go through hardships and still have peace, that you don’t worry, that you don’t stress, you don’t have anxiety. Trust in who God is and in His promises.
Only with a good relationship are you able to do it. You need to be anchored in Jesus Christ. Have you ever really searched for God with prayer? Seeking His face with an abnormal zeal? Maybe you pray because you want a fresh meeting with Him, or maybe you want Him to lead you, with a very important decision that you need to make. Whatever the reason, why not do it with fasting? Do you know why the people of the Bible fasted? Do you know why you as a Christian should do it, and how to do it effectively?
The Bible does not give us a command to fast, but it shows us that it will be very beneficial to us to fast. It also warns us not to do it in such a way where we just want the attention from other people, but we should do it in secret.
“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” – Matthew 6:16
If you pray and you live righteously, it has much power.
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” – James 5:16
So righteous prayer is good, and it is powerful, and it is often linked with fasting. There are so many good examples in the Bible of this. People prayed and fasted when they wanted God to lead them in making a very important decision or when they just asked God for something.
“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.” – Ezra 8:21
“So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.” – Ezra 8:23
God listened to their prayers when they fasted. When you fast, it shows God that you are serious in your prayer, you’re serious in seeking His face. When you fast, God will honor it. He wants us to seek Him with our whole heart and soul. Everything that you are, you go to God in prayer, and you are serious. You are seeking Him until He answers you. This is especially important when you want to be free of a certain sin. Some Christians struggle with a certain sin in their life, and they just cannot get free of it. Repent of it and fast.
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” – Joel 2:12
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” – Acts 13:2
Many people want to do something for God, and they might pray a little bit. When God is silent, when He’s quiet, they don’t hear Him, they stop, they just give up. But did it ever occur to you that God wants to teach you something first? The basics of ministry, prayer, and fasting. He needs to teach you first to seek His face so that He will be able to lead you in His ministry. It’s about your relationship with God. It’s not right, if you don’t have a good relationship with God where you continually pray with Him and where He’ll lead you in ministry, then you’re not going to be able to do any ministry. You might do it through the flesh, but not in the Spirit.
God wants to teach you first to take time to seriously pray and seek His face. To talk to Him about everything, with your whole heart, soul, and mind, near Him with an abnormal zeal.
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” – James 4:8
What is fasting? When it comes to fasting, most people only focus on food, but fasting is not just about food. It’s about sacrificing any worldly things that are important to you. It’s to take your focus off from the worldly things that are important to you and focus on God, a renewed focus, and then you do it for a certain amount of time. The time depending on how long the Holy Spirit wants you to talk to God, to pray, to fast.
There are different types of fasting as well. For example, the short fast. If you do a short fast, you need to abstain from something that is important to you for 6 to 24 hours. This can be food, sweets, coffee, a hobby, tv, anything that will be hard for you to let go of. If you’ve never fasted before, the short fast is a good place to start.
You can also try intermittent fasting, where you fast for a certain number of hours. A day has 24 hours. You can choose to fast for 16 hours, and if it’s food, eat within the 8 hours you have left. Or you can do a 24 fast, where you fast for 20 hours and eat within the 4 hours that you have left. Or even a full day fast, every 2 or 3 days in a week.
Then when you have the knowledge and you’ve seen your doctor, then you can also try longer fasts. A good place to start is the ‘Daniel from the Bible fast’. This is a partial fast, meaning you abstain from certain things for 21 days. If it’s food, you are only allowed to eat plant-based foods and drink only water, and that’s it. No junk food, no meat, no tea, no coffee, only fruit, veggies, and water. Remember fasting is not just about food it is a very good place to start because it is good for both your body, your health, and your spirit. There are many people who struggle to control themselves when it comes to eating. But your body is a temple of God, and He is against gluttony.
There are a lot of people that are very quick to judge other people on other sins like sexual immorality, drunkenness, swearing, gossiping, lying. These same people give in to their own selfish, sinful desires to overeat. That’s wrong.
“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh.” – Proverbs 23:20
Being a drunk and being at glutton are put on the same level. Sin is sin. As a reborn Christian with the Holy Spirit in you, you have control if you live through the Spirit, you have self-control over everything, and that includes your appetite.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” – Galatians 5:22
Every form of addiction is wrong. It’s a sin because you’ve lost self-control. You don’t have control over it, it has control over you. Whether it be drugs, alcohol, smoking, pornography, or eating. The day you became a Christian, you became a reborn Christian. You are Spiritually reborn, a new creation. Now a child of God. God sent His Spirit in you, you are now a temple of God, and He lives in you. You need to learn now how to crucify your old fleshly desire, and to be led by the Holy Spirit, to walk in it. You need to let the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts, your intellect, your emotions, and your own will. If you do this, you will not fall into sin and you will even control what you think, in order to obey Christ.
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:5
Fasting is a great way to stop a certain sin in your life, to ask God to lead you in a very important decision that you need to make, and just to connect with God, ask Him to reveal Himself to you, more and more, to grow Spiritually. Jesus led by example when He fasted.
“Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.” – Luke 4:2
I don’t recommend you fast for 40 days. Jesus is different. If you do it, you might die.
You can fast for a few days, maybe even a week, but go see your doctor first, educate yourself first on how to do it. When you come off the fast, you can’t just go and eat normal food again,
because your body is not going to be able to take it. You need to go slow, maybe start with soup and then go to full food. This an example of Jesus. His whole life. How He prayed to surrender to God the Father’s will.
40 “And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” – Luke 22:40-43
Fully surrendering every aspect of your life to God. That is the key to living a happy and peaceful life even on this earth. Even in difficult times, you will still have peace,
because you have the peace from God, as He gives it, not as the world gives it.