Why Should You Fast

WHY YOU SHOULD FAST

Fasting allows us to focus in upon God.  Throughout the scriptures you will find many different reasons why a fast was called.  Sometimes fasting was called for to accompany corporate repentance.  At other times it is as simple as a regular part of Jehovah worship.  Still yet at other times fasting is called for in situations where the outcome of current events seems hopeless, “desperate times call for desperate measures” type situation.  It is in this last way we must exercise extreme caution.  In times of distress we make our appeal to God and He provides for us help in our time of need.  One can erroneously surmise that it was the fasting alone which forced God into action.  As if He was not paying attention at the time or did not want to help and was forced to, just because we were missing a few meals.  Sounds a little silly when you put it like that!  We must always be careful to focus our attention on God and who He is.  The reasons will always vary but the purpose will always be the same, to draw closer to God!

“But wait”, you say, “Jesus himself taught that fasting would help us overcome our lack of power and lack of faith.”  Both of these two issues can be traced to our trust in God and that is directly relative to our closeness to him.  For instance, if you do not believe that Jesus can save you from your sins, you will not trust Him as Savior and make Him Lord of your life.  Your faith in Jesus is based on your relationship with Him and that alone determines to what extent you will obey Him.  To trust in God with out any reservation in every area of your life requires you to have a working relationship with Him based on the past and the present leading you to a conclusion about the future.  It is that kind of relationship that causes you to have the attitude of Job, “. . .the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”

  If you miss this simple concept about fasting you open yourself up to corrupt doctrine, which can easily lead you astray, and at the very least cause you to miss your focus on God.  The better we know God, not just more about Him, we are in a better position to be used by Him to accomplish His purpose in this world.  Remember, the church was left in the world to change the world not so that they could bask in the wonderful things God was doing through them. 

There are some things, which can be accomplished through fasting which can not be accomplished any other way.  We are in the midst of a society that needs to be set free from many addictions and blinding bondage.  God has anointed us to be among those who bring deliverance to the captive and to mend the broken hearts around us.

Just as the disciples could not deliver the one young man from a demonic possession without fasting and prayer, we must fast and pray to set our society free.  Every one of us could use more power in our lives to effectively work the work for which God has saved us.  It is not the power of God that is lacking but we are the ones who are carriers of far too little of it.  The whole earth groans to once again see the genuine power of the living God restoring order to that which is confused without Him.  We in the church have somehow traded in the elementary steps that lead us to God for a dazzling vapor that is only an indicator of where He has been.  The works of God in yesteryear and even yesterday are wonderful examples of His concern for His creation but they are not sufficient for the evil of today.  Isaiah says the God is doing a new thing.  It becomes necessary for us to take the slow meticulous steps methodically and repeatedly over and over until we once again walk full of the power of God.  Until our shadows, like Peter’s, have a life changing affect on those in whom we come in contact.  God does not need another generation to bring a new light into the world, He needs the present generation to shake off the works of darkness and step onto the hill so the light of Jesus shining through us has the most effect.  It is time to awake those who are asleep and roll back the drooping heads, for the time of our coming Savior is at hand.  It is time for the church to go into the world and expose the works of darkness, but we cannot do that with a dimly lit torch.  Only through the awesome power of our All Mighty God are we going to be able to change those around us.

It is at this point the challenge is issued to you, this is personal.  How much of God in your life do you want (watch it, it is a trick question)?  The answer is that you have exactly the amount of God in you right now that you have been willing to reach out and obtain.  Your desire for God is the only limit to what you can accomplish for Him.  It is easy for us to speak with our lips our wishes, but it extracts a price from us to see those things come about with our eyes.  Abraham was promised every place on which the sole of his foot stepped for an inheritance.  What a promise!  The only requirement was that he had to do some serious walking, hundreds of miles of walking, in order to see the desire of his heart fulfilled.  What prices are you willing to pay to be a carrier of the presence of God in a greater way than you are now?  Does your heart begin to race as you think of your neighbors getting saved, your friends being healed, your church being filled with hungry God seekers instead of “satisfied saints”?  Does it cause your imagination to work overtime as your spirit man thinks of those “things” that are to grand for us to dare to dream?  The answer, my friend, comes to those who will challenge the Lord at His word.  Those who will draw near to Him are the only ones who will ever see what happens when He moves close to mankind.  The discipline of fasting, when performed properly, will transport you into the throne room as nothing else can do.  As this author writes of these things there is such a presence of the Lord in this room, it is as if God is bidding me to provoke you into good works.  Not the works made with the hands of man but the works that propel you into those long lonely hours spent on your face before the Omnipotent God.  Those works that send you into His presence.  Not to get some new revelation, or a sermon series but so that you might understand the heart of God.  Those sessions with God which force you to put this book down and slip from the chair in which you are sitting to the floor and spend time with your Lord and Savior.  How many more books are you going to have to read, how many more tapes are you going to have to listen to before you catch on to the idea that God created you for communion with Him?  Take some time right now to stop and listen to Him.  He is ready to fellowship with you.

Perhaps there is some old baggage from your past, or even some sins you are carrying right now that are obstructing your view of God.  There is no time like right now to ask God to forgive you and to reestablish a right relationship with Him.  Put this book aside for a few moments and spend some time with your Heavenly Father.  All of the instruction which follows will be lost time for you if you do not first make the commitment to deepen your relationship with God.