Important Facts About Fasting
Fasting: deliberately abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.
Fasting disciplines the soul, and as a result of abstinence from the earthy, the door to the heavenly is opened.
You fast in order to shut your physical senses down so your spirit transcends to
level that enables you to hear the voice of God clearly.
You never fast to punish yourself.
Four Kinds of Fasting
Supernatural fast: no food or water
Exodus 34:28 – “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water…”
In the natural, man can only go a few days without water.
Moses was protected because he was in the direct presence of God.
Esther went three days without food or water (Esther 4:16).
Total fast: without food, but drinking water
Water is an important element in the body, but contains no calories or nutrition of any kind.
The body is 80 percent water. It may lose several quarts daily by evaporation so it must be replenished.
Matthew 4:2 – “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he
Jesus hungered, so it is possible that He drank water. was afterward an hungered.”
Anyone who has abstained from both food and water will be thirsty first.
The fast should be broken slowly – first day only juices, light fruit, then gradually heavier foods.
Non-total fasts: taking of juices such an orange, tomato, pineapple which have very few calories but still permits the system to get into a true state of a fast
Quiets stomach – very little nausea
Sufficient strength to pray and seek God and to receive the benefits of the fast.
Drink small portions at a time.
The loss of surplus fat is rapid when on a total fast.
No pleasant bread: nothing that is stimulating or appealing
Daniel 10:3 – “I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.”
Daniel ate, but nothing that was pleasant.
“I ate no delicacies” (ESV).
Best kind of fast for those who are obligated to continue their daily work.
Two General Categories of Fasting
Proclaimed
Joel 1:14 – “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 20 – fasted to ask help of the Lord
The Holy Ghost spoke and gave instruction.
Acts 13:1-3 – “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said…” (v.2)
The Holy Ghost spoke.
Personal
Matthew 6:16 – “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a said countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”
Jesus Expects Us to Fast
Mark 2:18-20 – “But the days will come, when the bride groom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days” (v.20).
Matthew 6:16 – “Moreover when ye fast…”
Jesus said, “when” not “if.”
Don’t look sad.
Don’t appear unto men to fast.
Your appearance is important both physically and spiritually.
Anoint your head and wash your face. Get your body off your mind.
Jesus did not say you have to fast in secret, but you should not advertise it.
God will reward you openly.
Fasting Opened the Door of the Gentiles to the Gospel
Acts 10:2 – “A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.”
While praying and fasting, an angel appeared.
The angel gave him Peter’s name and address.
He had been fasting four days.
Acts 10:30-31 – “And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.”
Rewards of Fasting
Isaiah 58:6-14 – “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (v.6) “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the
Lord shall be thy reward” (v.8). “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in” (vv.11-12). “Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth…” (v.14)
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