Fasting, the Biblical Way (Part 2)
Fasting: Its Biblical Practice and Spiritual Benefits • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:13:23
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Introduction
Introduction
How fasting was done in Bible times
How fasting was done in Bible times
Lengths of fasting
1-day fast - also called Yom Kippur fast
3 days fast
Esther - Esther 4.16
7 days
David - 2 Samuel 12.15-17
40 days
Moses - Exodus 34.28
Kinds of Fasting
Normal fast
Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough Four Kinds of Fasting
The normal fast is going without food for a definite period during which you ingest only liquids (water and/or juice). The duration can be 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month or 40 days. Extreme care should be taken with longer fasts
Absolute fast
Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough Four Kinds of Fasting
The absolute fast allows no food or water at all, and should be short. Moses fasted for 40 days; but this would kill anyone without supernatural intervention, and should never be attempted today. Be sure to test the spirit that tries to talk you into a 40-day fast
Moses and Jesus practiced absolute fasts at least once.
Partial fast
Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough Four Kinds of Fasting
The partial fast is one that omits certain foods or is on a schedule that includes limited eating. It may consist of omitting one meal a day. Eating only fresh vegetables for several days is also a good partial fast.
John Wesley are only bread and water for many days.
Elijah practiced partial fast at least twice.
John the Baptist and Daniel with his three friends also practiced partial fasting.
Rotational fast
Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough Four Kinds of Fasting
A rotational fast consists of eating or omitting certain families of foods for designated periods. For example, grains may be eaten only every fourth day. The various food families are rotated so that some food is available each day.
Main Points
Main Points
The Purpose of Fasting
The Purpose of Fasting
To humble the soul
Psalm 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.
Psalm 69.10
When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, That became my reproach.
To seek the Lord
2 Chronicles 20.3-4
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
Ezra 8.21, 23
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.
So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.
To prepare for spiritual warfare
Matthew 17.21
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
When to Fast?
When to Fast?
When facing the judgment of God
1 Kings 21.27-29
So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
“See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”
Joel 1.14
Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord.
Joel 2.12-14
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him— A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God?
During periods of national mourning
1 Samuel 31.11-13
Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
When challenged by personal concerns
2 Samuel 12.15-17
Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.
David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
When facing danger
2 Chronicles 20.2-3
Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi).
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Ezra 8.21-23
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.
For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”
So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.
Esther 4.15-16
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:
“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
When seeking guidance concerning current and future events
Daniel 9.1-4
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—
in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,
When engaged in spiritual warfare
Mark 9.29
So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
When ordaining ministers to the ministry
Acts 13.2-3
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.”
Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
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.
Activities that Accompany Fasting
Activities that Accompany Fasting
Personal demeanour
Matthew 6.17
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
Prayer
Fasting is really praying in a deeper level.
Abstinence from sexual contact
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.
confession of sin
1 Samuel 7.6
So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.
Nehemiah 9.1-3
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.
Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.
Humiliation
Psalm 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.
1 Kings 21.27
So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.
Worship
Nehemiah 9.1-3
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.
Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.
Reading the Scriptures
Nehemiah 9.3
And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.
Jeremiah 36.6, 10
You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.
Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house, in the hearing of all the people.
God’s Chosen Fast
God’s Chosen Fast
Israel’s hypocritical fast
Israel’s hypocritical fast
Isaiah 58.3-5
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?
“you find pleasure” - you entertain yourself while fasting
“you exploit all your labourers” - you commit sin against God and others
“you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of unrighteousness” - you intend to do harm against other people, to exalt yourselves above them
Fasting that pleases God
Fasting that pleases God
Isaiah 58.6-8
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
“to loose the bonds of wickedness”
“to undo the heavy burdens”
“to let the oppressed go free”
“to share your bread with the hungry” and care for the poor
The Rewards of the Right Fast
The Rewards of the Right Fast
Isaiah 58.8-12
Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
“your light shall break forth like the morning”
“your healing shall spring forth speedily”
“your righteousness shall go before you”
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard”
“you shall call and the LORD will answer”
“your light shall dawn in the darkness”
“your darkness shall be as noonday”
“the LORD will guide you continually”
“…satisfy your soul in drought”
“…strengthen your bones”
“…you will be like a watered garden”
“you will build the old waste places”
“you shall raise up the foundations of many generation”
“you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell in”
Conclusion
Conclusion