As we begin 2023, many of us will be disappointed that we are still battling with some of the same old problems we had last year, in fact our situation may have got worse. We need a breakthrough anointing this year.
Sometimes it seems like we are bouncing off a brick wall, going though the same old scenario time and time again. This is not the way things are meant to be, for God wants us to grow in His grace and knowledge, learning and maturing all the time. Proverbs says that our path should be getting brighter and brighter as we get closer to the day of His return.
God took the Children of Israel from the place of not enough (Egypt) to the place of barely enough (The Wilderness) and on into the place of more than enough (The Promised Land).
Jentezen Franklin wrote a book on fasting and brought out some interesting points. He showed how Jesus when he was giving us a pattern for Christian living emphasised three Christian duties in Matthew chapter 6; Giving, Praying and Fasting. “When you give, when you pray and when you fast.”
It appears that Giving, Prayer and Fasting are meant to be part of the normal Christian life. I have taught a lot on prayer and Giving in the past but very little on fasting, for I have considered it an optional extra, but Jesus seems to say it is to be the norm. Jesus fasted before He began His ministry. Why should He fast? If He could have accomplished all that God had called Him to do without fasting couldn’t He? Why fast? What makes us think that we will accomplish all God has called us to do without fasting? What blessings haven’t been released yet because we don’t fast?
We may be a giver and a prayer, but are we a faster?
Something we don’t see a lot of in the Church today is the practise of fasting. I remember in my early days as a Christian in Zimbabwe and South Africa that the Church was often called to fast and pray. Admittedly they were days of trouble and war for the future was looking really bleak, but things aren’t that much better today are they? The trouble is we are getting spoiled by affluence and the whole idea of denying oneself is completely alien to the pampered Saint.
Jesus said a lot about fasting and didn’t say that it was an optional extra either but a necessary part of a normal Christian’s life.
He said in Matthew 6:16 “When you fast.” This implies that fasting is something we should include in our Christian lifestyle but doesn’t say exactly how it is meant to be done. Is it a full fast without water or only having vegetables? Is it for 3 days or 10? Is it refraining from some pleasure for a season or continuing until the answer comes? There are so many different examples of fasting in the Bible and all for differing reasons.
Matthew 6:16 (MsgB) “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won't make you a saint.
The bible says that in the Last Days perilous times shall come and I believe that those times are on our doorstep right now. Crime is on the increase and the beliefs of the Evangelic Church are being threatened. It is a time of war in the heavenlies when Satan has come down with great wrath knowing his time is short.
Joel 1:14-15 (MsgB) “Declare a holy fast, call a special meeting, get the leaders together, Round up everyone in the country. Get them into God's Sanctuary for serious prayer to God. What a day! Doomsday! God's Judgment Day has come. The Strong God has arrived. This is serious business! “
In the book of Joel we see that a fast was declared when a time of trouble arrived on the land. It was a time to humble your self before God and call out to Him in prayer and concentrate on what really matters.
What concerns me today is how the truths of the bible are being threatened by wave after wave of unbelief, especially in the whole area of healing, gifts of the Spirit and the lack of souls being saved. We need to stop the flow and take back what the enemy has stolen from us.
There was a time in Bible days when the disciples couldn’t heal a sick boy and spoke to Jesus about it. He said something very important to them that still applies today.
Matthew 17:21 (KJV) “Howbeit this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting. “
It’s interesting to note that in some of the more modern translations exclude the word fasting and only mention prayer in this verse. The answer to the problem here was the added ingredient of fasting.
Fasting is a way of humbling ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and putting our flesh under so as to hear what God is saying. Paul said that he often kept his body under.
1 Cor. 9:27 (KJV) “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
I think that many Christians are being oppressed by the Devil because they pamper their bodies and have allowed the flesh and the carnal things of the world to take the upper hand in their lives. They would rather listen to the voice of the world than the voice of God. We need to put the flesh in its place and keep our bodies under by certain disciplines like fasting.
Isaiah 58 speaks about the motives of fasting and unfortunately some of us use these verses as an excuse not to fast food but concentrate only on social endeavours. I’m not going to go into that to much but it’s interesting to note the tie up between fasting and the release it brings.
Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”
It tells us here that fasting looses, releases, frees and breaks the bonds of the enemy and I have found this to be very true.
I once came down with alarming symptoms of tiredness, weakness and nose bleeds. I felt like I was dying and decided to fast and prayer about it. I believed God said that I should fast for 3 days. It’s amazing how this time of fasting and prayer turned things around and the enemies attack was broken.
When we fast we often feel weak, tired and vulnerable. It’s a humbling experience that is self inflicted but the end result is always good for you.
When we fast we also wait on God in our weakness and when it’s over our strength is renewed.
There are many ways to fast and as I said earlier the Lord doesn’t say exactly say how it should be done, only that we should include it in our normal Christian life. Here are some thoughts;
You can fast a meal a day over a period of time.
You can fast solids until tea time.
You can miss your tea break and spend it in prayer.
You can refrain from some pleasure in order to spend more time in prayer. This may include television, reading newspapers playing some sport or other hobbies.
You can refrain from a certain pleasure until the answer comes. Jesus said that He wouldn’t drink wine again until He sat with us in the Kingdom of God.
Mark 14:25 (MsgB) “I'll not be drinking wine again until the new day when I drink it in the kingdom of God."
You can fast sleep and get up in the night or rise early in the morning to pray.
One of the most drastic forms of fasting is having no water or food. Paul did it for 3 days at his conversion. You need to be careful if you decide to do this and seek advice.
God has said that He will reward those who diligently seek Him, Hebrews 11:6 and fasting is a way to show your diligence. It’s not a twisting of God’s arm but a form of humbling yourself in His presence so as to hear His voice clearer and release the Devil’s grip. You are showing God that you really mean business.
I personally feel as we enter this new year that we need to fast and pray for healings and miracles to be restored to their rightful place in the Church and this kind only comes out by fasting and prayer.