Posted on 04/05/2019 12:53:59 PM PDT by Red Badger
There are many promises God makes in His Word in regard to the blessings we will receive through prayer and fasting. In my book, “The Power of Prayer and Fasting,” I talk about seven specific promises.
I want to mention three here that I trust will bless you as you read. I have seen each of these promises come true in my walk with God, and I’m confident they also can live in you, through you, and will be yours as you call on God to do His will in your life. Promise 1: Prayer and Fasting Provides Freedom
When we pray and fast, God promises that He will liberate us. He will loose the chains of injustice. He declares that He’ll untie the cords of the yoke and will give the oppressed their long-awaited freedom. He will set us free from the bondage of what others think, making us realize that any comparison we make with others is a guaranteed fast track to misery.
When we fast and pray, God steps in and frees us from the perceived alienation with Him that has kept us immobilized, fearful, and disobedient for so long. As you consider God’s call to fasting, perhaps for the first time, you may choose to start slowly, fasting and praying for only one day. Perhaps you’ll decide to fast and pray one day each week throughout the year where you declare that specific 24 hours as your time of obedience to be alone in the intimate presence of God. Some are unable to fast from food due to medical reasons.
Choose something else to fast from – television, Internet, social media, etc. Take it to the level God would have you go. As you do, God will give you grace, comfort, and a new direction in your Christian walk. In the end, you will be set free. Promise 2: Prayer and Fasting Teaches Us To Share
When we fast and pray, God teaches us how to share with those who have physical and spiritual needs.
“Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:7)
The book of Proverbs complements this passage by reminding us that when we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord. Fasting and prayer put your life in perspective. You are never more like God than when you give.
Prayer and fasting can build within you the character to give. Giving is a joy – one that we experience when we learn to give like God does. We need to be willing to pour ourselves out to those who can do nothing for us in return, which means we are ready to give to anyone, anytime, anywhere. This is the heart of Jesus, and it needs to be our heart. Prayer and fasting build within you the power to give. Promise 3: Prayer and Fasting Leads Us To Answered Prayer
As you pray and fast, you will call on God, and He will answer you. Answered prayer is the quintessence of praying and fasting. If I were to share with you the five or six pages of the prayer journal I prepared prior to my first 40-day fast, and then walk you back through my journal since then, you would see one thing: My prayers were answered. They are still being answered.
There is something to the disciplines of prayer and fasting. I could point you to every experience of long-term fasting where God has answered my requests before Him. This does not mean they were answered as I preferred, but it did not matter. He had worked in my heart, and I was released, fully confident that God was ordering my way.
When we humble ourselves before the Father, and when God sees we are serious about giving Him our broken spirits, He begins to do things we have never seen before. It’s empowering. It sensitizes us to the needs of others at home and overseas as we suddenly find ourselves quietly praying for people, events, and situations with the knowledge that our prayers not only will be heard but that the Father will answer them.
Will you see these promises in your life? Take hold of them by fasting and praying.
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Ronnie Floyd is senior pastor of Cross Church and president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. He is the author of Living Fit: Make Your Life Count by Pursuing a Healthy You. Follow him @ronniefloyd.
Another perspective:
In the Jewish tradition, there are three ways in which we are all tempted to sin: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We see this understanding reflected in 1 John 2:16. The lust of the flesh represents the desires of our appetites (ie: gluttony and sexual pleasure). The lust of the eyes represents our desire for all we want (ie: greed and envy). The pride of life is our disordered desire to be greater than we are (ie: pride and vainglory). These are the temptations the world throws at all of us.
Where do we first encounter this in human history? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were tempted by the Devil to disobey God. He tempted Eve with the promise that she would be like God if she ate of the fruit. When Eve considered her actions, Genesis 3:6 records that she “saw that the tree was good for food (Lust of the Flesh), and a delight to the eyes (Lust of the Eyes), and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (Pride of Life)…”. In other words, from a Jewish perspective, they were tempted in every way…and the Bible records their joint failure as Adam was with her.
Our first parents failed so Christ came to restore in obedience what had been lost in disobedience.
In preparation for His earthly ministry, Our Lord spent 40 days in the desert. Luke 4 tells us He was led there by the Spirit and was tempted by the Devil. Jesus fasted for that whole period. When the Bible says He was hungry at the end of this time, note that he wasn’t just ready for a meal. There comes a time without food where the body begins to consume what it can of itself. After 40 days, His Body was ravenous. Enter the Devil.
Satan’s first temptation is for Christ to turn rocks into bread. Here, he is playing on the Lust of the Flesh…and he knows Jesus is VERY hungry. Our Lord answered this temptation with the truth that man lives not by bread alone but by the Word of God.
In the second temptation, the Devil took Jesus to a high mountain and offered Him all of the kingdoms of the world in return for Christ’s worship. This temptation is challenging Jesus through the Lust of the Eyes as Christ came to call all people to Himself–but definitely not this way. In fact, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see that Jesus doesn’t want to die. His only desire is to do the Will of His Father in Heaven. God alone deserves our worship… even if we see before us the very goal we think we were made to do.
In the third temptation, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the Temple and told to throw Himself down since the angels will rescue Him from harm. This is the temptation of the Pride of Life by tempting Jesus to reveal His Glory to all before His hour had come. Consider that what the Devil promised here is true… the angels will rescue Him. Jesus knows, though, that His Father plans to raise Him up in sacrifice, not in personal glory. Though we trust that God will protect us, that doesn’t mean we should test His resolve.
Luke 4:13 tells us that “all temptation” was ended after the third one. From our limited perspective, we are inclined to point out all of the other ways we feel tempted in life. Again, Christ suffered temptation in all ways possible, though not in every variation of the same temptations… and He succeeded where Adam and Eve failed.
Where Our Lord led, we are to follow. We will be tempted in life and He has given us tools to help us on our journey. What can we do to control temptation and the occasions of sin? We can focus our efforts on the opposite of the temptations mentioned here. In fact, outside of the two Great Commandments to love God and our neighbor, Jesus told us to do three things: fasting, alms-giving, and prayer. It is so important that He taught us how to do all three in Matt 6:1-18 where He said, “When you fast… give alms… pray…”. He didn’t say, “If you fast.” This is our life in the Church, especially during this time of Lent.
When we focus on self-denial in fasting and abstinence, we can’t be focused on the Lust of the Flesh… seeking to satisfy these same desires.
When we focus on alms-giving, it would be hard to also focus on thoughts of greed and envy in the Lust of the Eyes.
When we turn our hearts to God in humble prayer, we acknowledge our lowliness and leave behind the Pride of Life.
So, in following Christ, listen to the Church, His Bride, as She exhorts us to lives of fasting, alms-giving and prayer. She is leading us to deeper faith and closer communion with Her Bridegroom through self-denial, supplication and sacrifice.
BFL
I’m paraphrasing a quote that I read recently; “Fasting without prayer is demonic...even the demons don’t eat”.
That is awesomely true. After all, most of these "hold muh beer" guys we hear about do not have things ending up well for them, one way or the other.
Also, since I have been Saved, God seems to have protected my weak ankles from giving way completely like they used to when I walked or ran, causing much pain and swelling. However, he didn't prevent me from injuring my calves, hips or glutes. He's not going to do everything for us.
I began to fast with prayer in the early 1980s. I did so because our exemplar, Jesus Christ, did so, and because he said “when” - not “if” - you fast...
I habitually attended only conservative, orthodox churches; I sometimes attended as many as four services per week. I became concerned that I had never once heard a sermon on fasting.
I went to the head pastor, and simply asked him to preach on fasting sometime; I cited The Beatitudes [Matthew 6:17]. He refused; he said it would promote the idea of works righteousness.
I was too humble and polite back then; I did not call his sophistry what it was: He had no problem with preaching on tithing [Matthew 6:2] or praying [Matthew 6:6]; he did not worry about promoting a sensibility of works righteousness on either of those accounts. (How would he get paid if no one tithed?)
I left and began to fast with prayer on my own. My physical health was poor. It eventually failed altogether. In my long recuperation, I began studying fasting as a physical, rather than spiritul, regenerative practice. I read many books on the subject, learned how to do it safely, and benefited much thereby.
I have fasted between three (3) and eleven (11) days numerous times. Hunger pangs largely recede after three days, if one was well fed prior to that. A friend of mine once fasted thirty-eight (38) days; only I and one other, her prayer partners, knew. The people in the church assumed she was on a diet; it did not even occur to them she might be fasting with prayer.
The truth is that American culture is abundant, and fasting involves self denial: It is not an attractive idea. The organized church has largely abandoned focused, extended fasting (three days or more, necessary for obtaining the full benefits).
The best sources of information on how to fast safely - how to enter and exit a fast properly - are therefore in the naturopathic modalities, especially Natural Hygiene. Any fasting is of some benefit, but part-day or one-day fasts are not as comprehensively beneficial.
Fasting Can Save Your Life, by Herbert Shelton, is one classic on the subject. There are many.
I only recall one contemporary Christian book that discusses it: Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster. (I am not endorsing his entire theology here; that is not my point.)
Thanks for the post. I will check out that book.
Perfect
I have fasted for years. Not too regularly but intermittently. I feel better healthwise. And thoughts and prayers are much more focused. My sleep is better too.
I will go to bed after a regular non-fasting day and awake. Fast for 24 hours then break-fast.
Then eat 3 meals and repeat.
It works out to around 32 to 36 hours of fasting.
Once I fasted for 5 days. It was very difficult and I think there is a certain amount I would have to do in order to accomplish that again.
I can see where he would think that. But fasting is not a 'work' as defined by James and Paul. It is a solemn act of faith solely between the person fasting and God. Just as Christ did so should you do as well. But remember the admonition of Jesus about the Pharisees that would seek out the praise of their fellows, by having a sad countenance and acting weak and faint. And then there's the tale of the Pharisee and the Publican (Tax Collector), where the Pharisee essentially reiterated to God a list of his own accomplishments....................
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