Spiritual Fasting
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Mark 2:20 “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
This section also falls under the heading of that which God counsels us, because it is not considered sinful to the saint that chooses not to follow God’s counsel in this area. One aspect of presenting our bodies to the Lord is in the area of fasting. We all know that our Lord Jesus fasted for forty days prior to the launch of His earthly ministry (Matthew 4:2). Obviously the Lord does not expect all of His disciples to go on forty day fasts, although some have, nevertheless in the above quoted passage of scripture He did say that as His disciples, we would fast after He was raised from the dead. And so although the Lord does not command us to fast and there is no transgression incurred if the saint chooses not to fast, nevertheless it is clearly evident that He expects that as His disciples, we will fast from time to time.
Matthew 6:17-18 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, (18) so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
As we have already said, clearly the Lord Jesus expects His saints to fast from time to time, for He even gave us instructions as to how we are to conduct ourselves when we fast. In the above quoted passage of scripture He stated that we are not to appear to men to be fasting, but rather that it should be done as an act between ourselves and God alone. And so the Lord would not have given us this instruction if it wasn’t His will that we should fast.
Acts 14:23 “So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
We know that fasting was an integral part of the believer’s lives in the early church, for the book of Acts mentions the saints fasting on numerous occasions, and the apostle Paul also refers to fasting in a number of his letters to the church. For example, in the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul stated that he and his entire ministry team always prayed and fasted before appointing elders in any of the churches that they had planted.
1 Corinthians 7:5 “Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
Someone said that fasting is really only for those who are called to the ministry and not for the saints. That narrative is not correct however, for in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit even teaches married couples how they are to conduct themselves when they fast, for He counsels them to abstain from intimacy during their time of fasting. And so the Lord would not give the church this type of counsel if it was not His will that all of His disciples should fast from time to time.
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.”
So why do we fast? There are various scientific studies that have shown that fasting benefits one’s health over the long term, nevertheless even though it may be beneficial for our health that is not the reason why we fast. Someone said that fasting does not change God and that is true, for the Lord is the same before we fast, during our fast, and after we fast. Scripture does reveal a number of reasons why we fast however, one of which is to enable the believer to more clearly discern the leading of the Holy Spirit. For example, in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us that while Paul and Barnabas were fasting and praying, they received guidance from the Lord regarding their apostolic ministries. There are numerous other incidents that can be quoted from scripture that confirm the same truth to us, i.e. that God gives guidance to His saints when they fast. For example while Peter was fasting and praying he was given the vision that led him to minister to the gentiles for the first time (Acts 10:10). In another example we see that while Cornelius was fasting and praying, that the Lord gave him an angelic visitation instructing him to call Peter to his home that they might hear the gospel so that he and his household could be saved (Acts 10:30). And so we can clearly see that fasting is one of the mechanisms that the Lord uses to assist the saints to more easily discern the Lord’s guidance for their lives.
Mark 9:28-29 “And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" (29) So, He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Fasting impacts our spiritual walk in many different areas. For example there are certain demonic spirits that are able to resist the believer who does not fast, and our Lord revealed that truth to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. The context of this passage is that the disciples had tried to cast out a certain demon and they were not successful, even though by that time that had cast out many demons in the name of the Lord Jesus (Luke 10:17). Our Lord then came along and He cast the demon out. And so when the disciples asked the Lord why they were unsuccessful, He told them that it was because certain demons only obey those who spend time in prayer and fasting. When the disciples walked with the Lord Jesus they spent very little time in prayer and they spent no time fasting, which is why they were unable to cast out this demon. The Lord Jesus on the other hand, had given Himself to spending much time in prayer and fasting, and so had no problem casting out that particular demon. So why did prayer and fasting enable the Lord Jesus to cast this particular demon out? The answer is that prayer and fasting increases the anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so because the Lord Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer and fasting He carried the full measure of the power of the Holy Spirit upon his life, which meant that no demon could stand against His command.
Psalms 35:13 “But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart.”
Another area where fasting impacts the life of the believer is in experiencing the grace of God. Again we can look to our Lord Jesus as our example to show us this particular truth. The scripture teaches us that God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). As we have already mentioned, our Lord Jesus practiced fasting throughout His time here on the earth, not just when He fasted for the forty days in the wilderness. The above quoted passage of scripture is a record of our Lord’s words spoken while on the earth. I want you to notice that the Lord mentions that He humbled Himself with fasting, and there is no one who received more of God’s grace than our Lord Jesus. And so we see that what fasting does do is to release the grace of God in our lives. Clearly if the Lord Jesus humbled Himself before God through fasting and thus received the grace of God, then we are no different if we want to experience God’s grace in our lives.
Leviticus 3:16 “and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma; all the fat is the Lord's.”
Spiritual truths cannot be understood with natural thinking and fasting is one of those truths. Nevertheless if we look at types and shadows under the old covenant it helps us to have some understanding of spiritual truths. Under the old covenant the sacrifices that were offered to the Lord were the sacrifices of animals burnt on the altar. Not always was the whole animal burnt on the altar however, but there was a very specific part of the animal that was always offered to the Lord, which was the fat of the animal. So why was that? The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that the reason for that was because the fat belongs to God. Fat speaks of the abundance of the Lord’s blessing, and so we see that the abundance of God’s blessing belongs to Him and it this abundance that was always offered to the Lord.
Psalms 109:24 “My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.”
And so under the new covenant we see that when we fast it serves as a type of our fat being offered to the Lord as a sacrifice. Again we can look at the Lord Jesus as our example in this area. In the period leading up to our Lord’s crucifixion He spent a lot of time in fasting and prayer. We know that to be the case because in the above quoted passage of scripture the Lord teaches us that when He went to the cross that, because of fasting, He had no fat on His body. And so the reason Jesus did that was because He knew that His body was about to be sacrificed and He understood the concept of the fat belonging to the Lord. And so we have clearly seen in this section that fasting is part of our service of presenting our bodies to God as acceptable sacrifices. I also want you to notice that fasting is always linked to prayer, for fasting without prayer serves no purpose in the spirit.
Michael E.B. Maher
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