AS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
Fasting is the voluntary denial of an otherwise normal activity in order to focus intensely on drawing near to God and hearing from Him
Troy Dixon: In my life prayer has preceded fasting. Building my prayer life with God has been enhanced/extended/increased through adding fasting
on various occasions, for a variety of reasons
Carole Kirton: Fasting and prayer is powerful. It makes us more sensitive to hearing God, and causes more power to be released through the Holy Spirit to combat Satan and his cohorts Troy Dixon: Often fasting is something done in times of challenge, obstacles, pressure or something specific purpose in mind (2 Chronicles 20:2. Joel 1:14, Ezra 8:23, Judges 20:26). Fasting is not something that is done purely by itself (that could be weight loss strategy), but needs to be combined with prayer. It helps me intensify my prayers on a particular issue, helping me to press closer on and into God, relying on Him for sustenance (more than just food). I believe that when we fast it shows God that there is a greater desire, perhaps and increased seriousness and commitment to Him and the prayer. Fasting basically is going without something with the purpose of drawing closer to God through it.
Russell Wang: People have to be passionate about what they go to God with. Most of the references on fasting in the bible are in the context of people going to God passionately about something (battle, mourning etc). For me it’s the passion that gets you through the fast. When you desire something so much that nothing else matters, you hunger and seek only God.
Introduction
We believe that God wants to gather in a great harvest of people into His family. Harvesting is hard work, and work which our enemy does not want to happen. It is something the whole church needs to be involved in. We would like to call the church to seek God’s face, to hear from Him on what God wants each one of us to do in order to gather in His harvest – in the Shire, in our city to the ends of the earth. Let us in unity give the week of 15 – 21 June for this purpose. We have prepared the following in order to make this a great week for you, and your relationship with God, and for an attack on the gates of hell.
Study on Fasting
Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to have a really deep unhindered time with God? Time enough to listen to and hear God, to worship, as well as bringing our worries to Him? Most Christians seem to encounter this difficulty at some time in their Christian lives. It is helpful to reflect and take action on the things that may prevent you from really consistently and deeply (not superficially) coming into the presence of God. Is it:
• Lack of time?
• Lack of the will to do it?
• Lack of a place?
• Too many other things on your mind?
• You don’t know how?
• You lack focus?
If we have the will to spend more time with God, it is usually not too difficult to commit the time and find a special place where we can meet with God.
We may need to give up an otherwise normal activity for the sake of our spiritual enrichment. This can be called fasting. In the Bible, fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. In our culture of distractions, some people find abstaining from things like TV, and other media, computer games, phones, etc also yield more time and give better concentration on the things of God. While there is no commandment in the Bible to fast, there are many references to it. Matthew 6. 16 "When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen, and your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches about giving, praying and fasting. He says, “When you …. Give/ pray/fast” not “If you ….” In Matthew 4, we have the example of Jesus who, because he went into the desert to spend time with God after his baptism, at the beginning of his ministry, went for 40 days without food. Matthew 9
14 Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” There is a time for celebration and feasting, but there is also a time for the disciples of Jesus to fast.
Why do we fast?
Do we fast to …
• Make God sorry for us, so He has to gives us what we ask for?
• To manipulate God?
• Show God we really are serious about what we want?
• To lose weight?
• To make us look good?
• To improve our health?
Losing weight and improving our health may be good for some of us, but none of the above is the purpose of a spiritual fast. The Bible makes it clear that it is possible to fast wrongly, with a wrong attitude. See what Jesus said in Matthew 6 quoted above. See also Luke 18
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
In the Old Testament God, through His prophets made known His unhappiness with some of the people’s fasting.
Isaiah 58
58:1 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 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?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Jeremiah 14
10 This is what the LORD says about this people: "They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins."
11 Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of this people.
12 Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague." Zechariah 7
7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.
2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, together with their men, to entreat the LORD
3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:
5 "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?
7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'"
8 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:
9 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'
11 "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.
12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
13 "'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty.
While there are examples of fasting that God was not pleased with, there are also numerous examples that God did require, and was pleased with.
2 Chronicles
20:1 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat.
2 Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea. It is already in Hazazon Tamar" (that is, En Gedi).
3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
4 The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard
6 and said: "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Ezra 8
21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, "The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him."
23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. Esther 4
16 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." “Fasting must forever centre on God. It must be God initiated and God ordained. Like the prophetess Anna, we need to be ‘worshipping with fasting’ (Luke 2.37)” Richard Foster. For study and reflection 1. What prevents you from spending quality time with God? 2. What are you passionate about? Are you passionate for the salvation of your neighbours, work colleagues, family, or a ministry at church? Do you desire it so much that nothing else matters, you hunger and seek only God for this? 3. What warnings are there about wrong attitudes for fasting? Read the following scriptures and write down attitudes to avoid: Matthew 6.16-17 Luke 18.9-14 Isaiah 58.1-11 Jeremiah 14.10-12 Zechariah 7.4-13 Can you find any other places in the Bible where God warns about wrong attitudes in fasting? 4. From the scriptures listed in Q2, what right attitudes and actions does God require? 5. Discuss the examples of fasting quoted above from the scriptures, and also any personal experiences in fasting? What can you learn from these? 6. What do you plan to do with this?
Further reading: Richard Foster “Celebration of Discipline”, published by Hodder and Stoughton.
Some practical guidelines on fasting from food
1. Pregnant ladies and people with medical conditions such as diabetes should not fast from food.
2. A partial fast may be a good way to start, say of 24 hours duration, from lunch to lunch, or breakfast to breakfast – you miss two meals.
3. Do not fast from fluids – fruit juices are helpful when you are new to fasting.
4. Break your fast with a light meal.
5. Gradually you can increase the time you fast.
6. It’s all about God, not about food, or lack of it.
How to use our time with God
Time and place
We need to find a time and a place where we will not be interrupted. Turn off your mobile phone, and go to a ‘lonely place’ as Jesus did. Some things you can include
• Start with praise, and thinking about the greatness of God. Use Psalms and other songs to help you focus.
• Have a good unhurried Quiet Time with Bible reading and prayer. Maybe you need to catch up with your regular reading programme, because it has become irregular.
• Journal as you spend time with Him. Do not lose, or fail to put into action, any thought He gives you.
• Ask God to search your life and convict you of anything that is preventing Him from doing what He wants and from being the person He wants you to be.
• Forgive those who have hurt you, as unforgiveness will block prayers (Mark 11:25, Luke 11:4; 17:3,4.
• Confess and repent of anything He shows you.
• Pray for each of your family and your life group.
• Pray through the Church Directory, asking God to strengthen families and marriages, to lead young people in His ways and plan for their lives, and for physical and spiritual health.
• Ask God to tell you anything He wants you to do to bring people into His Kingdom, including names, and how to reach those people.
• Pray for ministries of the church
Frog Crew
The Well Healing Rooms
Playgroup
RAW women / Full Throttle men’s ministires
Forever Young
Life Groups
Outreach Adventure
Kids Ministry – Schoolz Out Kids Club and Kids church on Sundays (0-12 yrs) and scripture / chaplains in schools.
Youth Ministry
Young Adults Overseas mission focus in Cambodia
Sisters, the new group started by Kim Taylor for the women who suffer Domestic Violence... we are having a special day for them and their children to come to Kingsway and be pampered, as part of the Shine Program, • Pray for the lost, the lonely, the widows, the abused, all those in our Shire, in our State and in our Country.
• Pray for God to empower us and take us to a new level of faith and boldness to "go into all the world" and make disciples
• Zimbabwe – Churches all over Australia have been asked to pray this week for the elections
• Pray for your church leaders – staff, elders, ministry leaders etc.
• Pray for our vision and mission into our community.
• Pray for the Shire Churches and greater unity. For your group
Most of the time should be spent actually praying, but some discussion on the following may be helpful. Do not waste time on any unhelpful questions. 1. What is the primary purpose of fasting? 2. What controls your life? Do you think fasting may show you some things that control you? 3. What is the most difficult thing about fasting for you? 4. Share any experiences you have had with fasting? 5. Discuss what you will do to ensure you have a good experience this week of spending time with God.
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