Our walk with Jesus Christ teaches us new things every day. Day after day we are learning new ways to live in communion with the Lord ways of exercising our faith.
There are three things that are essential in a Christian’s everyday life. Bible reading, prayer and fasting. Of course, no one has any doubts about how to read the Word of God and how to pray daily. But something that has always been difficult for me to understand as a Christian was how to fast correctly.
In the beginning, I used to do fasts of food for purposes. Fasts of some kinds of songs and even of social networks. But did I do it right?
WHY WE MUST FAST?
First we must understand the reason why we fast. There’s a lot of people that do it for material things or blessings for the earthly life. And ok, I can’t say that this is going wrong. After all, we live by faith and not by the ways stated in the law. As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:16,
“know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in” (NIV)
We were created to have eternal life with the Lord, and not to have eternal life in the earth. So we should focus our lives and activities in the Kingdom of Heaven. Where we will not have material blessings, but spiritual blessings. Thinking this way, we see that fasting must be done to strengthen us in our walk with Jesus and to achieve more of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 9:28 we find a well-known passage. The disciples ask Jesus why they have not been able to cast out an evil spirit from a child, and Jesus responds by saying that that species would only come out with fasting and prayer.
“After Jesus had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately,” Why can not we cast him out? “(29) He replied,” This kind only goes forth in prayer and fasting “(NIV)
Many Christians confuse themselves with this passage and begin to believe that fasting brings us a kind of gospel superpower to cast out evil spirits and better manifest the gifts. But the truth is that it only does one thing to us: it increases our faith, and makes us more aware of the authority that has already been given us by the name of Jesus
A few moments before the passage quoted, in Mark 9:19, the father of the demon-possessed boy tells Jesus that the disciples failed to expel that spirit from the boy and Jesus responds:
“O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How much longer will I have to endure them? Bring me the boy. ” (NIV)
It is clear when we link verses 29 and 19 that the greatest problem of the disciples was not “lack of powers” but lack of faith. That is, the way to correct this lack of faith would come through fasting and prayer. Because it is something that brings us closer to Heavenly Father and leaves us more in communion with Him.
And what better way to have the freedom to ask something to God, or to see the manifestations of the Holy Spirit happening through your life than to be in full communion with Jesus?
THERE IS A CORRECT WAY TO FASTING?
The Holy Bible teaches at no time a pattern for fasting. The only thing that is clear in all the texts is that the person who dedicated himself to fasting abstains from essential or pleasing things to the physical life.
In particular, I do not believe that my social networks or my television are things worthy of a fast for my life, in fact I think it’s good to stay away from them to dedicate myself more to God. But when I cut something that I can not really live without, as is the case with food and water, I believe that I am literally hurting my carnal needs to approach of Jesus Christ through prayer. But each one must fast according to his faith, according to the quotation from Paul at the beginning of this text (Gal 2:16).
You can fast the way you want, for a few hours or for a whole day. You just need a time dedicated to strengthening your friendship with Jesus. Then a fast is worthless if it is not accompanied by prayer, praise, and worship of God.
If by chance there is no time in your daily life because of work and studies, no problem. God is fair and will see you separating a while, even if you are in the midst of your everyday activities and remaining without food to think of the things of Him. Praying in thought, listening and singing praises and reading some passages from the Holy Bible.
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! Amen!
Marcelo Brandão, from Bible Offline.
Amen and amen God bless all the prayers of God’s blessings. 💯👍🇬🇭👫
This is soul strengthening. Sometimes we fast as obligation but learnt we must constantly and consciously pray, praise and worship God amidst it, otherwise it’s worthless.
Thank you and more Grace
@Mrs Mokwele
Your first breakthrough is realising your problem with tobacco and now desiring to quit it. I advise that you draw closer to Jesus and ask Holy Spirit to give you grace and help you quit it. As we learnt above, whenever you crave for it, go on one or few hours of tobacco fasting (that it denying yourself of tobacco for those hours) whilst setting your heart to Jesus, singing praises to God and studying the word of God (the Book of Proverbs is loaded with some wisdom that could help you, read and meditate on it). As you do this regularly, God will release grace to you to conquer the addiction. May God help you and everyone in similar situations in Jesus’ Name.
A scripture clearly showing God’s idea of fasting:
Isaiah 58:1-14
1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
His fast is all about the 2 commands Christ left us with…loving God and loving our neighbor…THAT is the fast He desires…denying self for the love of God and others. This is not being said here to be hurtful or to correct but to elaborate on God’s defining of a fast.
Thank you so much for sharing scripture, I needed the direction of God’s word.
Wow what an eye opener! AMEN!! Thank you so much, and God bless you!
Amen amen thank you for your encouragement God bless you
Thank you. This was so helpful!
More Grace
I would like to be able to share this information on WhatsApp…
Any options?
Hi Eartha! How are you?
Yes, you can share on Whatsapp using this link: https://bibleoffline.com/2019/02/28/am-i-fasting-correctly/
Thank you very much for reading.
God bless you!
I love your trust in God, may you run this race to the end
This is just amazing and has given me some clarification about what fasting is all about
Thank you that’s very uplifting and good knowledge for me
Thanks for that God bless you..
Thank you for the clarification on fasting. Somebody like me, I fast once in a month but I don’t always remember to do the praise and worship before breaking the fasting, though it wasn’t my fault. I am a single mother of two kids, schooling and working. No relative around …thank God for the strength.
Thanks so much for this understanding…
Grateful!
I struggle with fasting food i am addicted to snuff, i snuff tobacco, I need to quit, I have been trying for more than 30 years. Please help me
Mrs. Mokwele,
We’re the apple of God’s eyes and definitely you are. Our healing/good health, deliverance and restoration have been completed in Christ Jesus. As Christians or believers, we suppose to confess who we are in Christ Jesus. The bible says life and death lies in the power of our tongue(proverbs 18:21), and He recommended us to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). Confess daily who you are, and that is “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”(Romans 10:21).
This is one of simple but most powerful ways believers have gotten healed, delivered and restored from anything. According to the scripture, the word of God is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword(Hebrews4:12)…and when it is used in faith, it has to accomplish it was spoken for(Isaiah 55:11). I have seen countless testimonies when this confession is used daily in faith. Don’t let the devil tell otherwise that it won’t work or you’re wasting your time. Continue and you’ll have a miraculous testimony. Remember God does not get tired when we failed; His grace is sufficient for us. Stay blessed in Jesus Christ name, amen.
I recommend that you follow Pastor Joseph Prince on any social media or TV. He’s amazing…
Amem and Amen
This has strengthened me. Thank you
M diciples of god