The best way to make fasting effective is to pair it with a specific prayer for breakthrough.
Last Sunday, Journey started our new series, “Fast: 40 Days to Breakthrough.” Here’s a quick overview of fasting and what is in store for us when we pray for breakthroughs.
WHAT IS FASTING?
Sometimes acknowledging what something is not is the best way to define what it is. Fasting is not a diet, and it’s not a life-hack to get what you want from God. The point of fasting is not to be seen as a “super-Christian” or achieve some holiness award. The purpose of fasting is to focus our attention on God and admit our neediness for Him to act.
Fasting is a spiritual discipline, just like prayer and reading the Bible. There are multiple ways we discipline our bodies for our physical health (i.e. getting enough sleep, eating healthy, monitoring time on screens), and spiritual disciplines serve the same purpose for our spiritual health. Fasting helps discipline ourselves to seek God rather than turning to other things for satisfaction.
Fasting is a humbling experience. It humbles us by helping us rely on God to meet our needs. When we fast, we are choosing to refrain from something physical for a spiritual purpose. It’s a way we grow in our loyalty and devotion to God by showing we are not enslaved to something else for our satisfaction. It shows we need Jesus and His power more than we need food (or whatever you might be fasting).
Fasting is a way to deepen our relationship with God and our knowledge of Him. When fasting is recorded in the Bible, it’s partnered with prayer. By giving up certain physical things, we create more space in our day to communicate with God, whether that’s through prayer or reading the Bible. Just like we grow closer to loved ones the more intentional time we spend communicating with them, the closer we grow to God by talking with Him and letting Him speak to us.
WHY FAST?
There are a few different reasons people fasted in the Bible, but the most important reason we should fast is that it’s a practice that is expected of Christians. In the book of Matthew, Jesus gives His disciples instructions for when they fast, not if they fast. This implies that Jesus expected His followers to fast. Fasting is never commanded in Scripture, but it was a practice recorded repeatedly in the life of people following God.
We don’t fast as a way to impress others or try to flaunt superiority. In the instructions He gave, Jesus told His disciples to take care of their appearance when they fasted. He didn’t want them looking or acting in a way that would draw attention to what they were doing. Fasting isn’t done to get the approval of people or admiration for our own self-sacrifice. If that’s the motive, we shouldn’t be doing it. God is pretty clear that His interest is more in our hearts and motives than the specific actions.
Other examples in Scripture show that fasting was used as a way to seek God’s guidance and ask for His help. At Journey, we are using this time of fasting as an opportunity to pray for breakthroughs, both personally and in the life of our church.
THE DANGER OF BREAKTHROUGHS
The term breakthrough is a military concept. It’s what happens when a military force breaks through a weak spot in the enemy’s defenses. I don’t know a lot about military strategies, but I am an avid reader of fantasy novels, and where ever there is a point of potential breakthrough, the fighting intensifies in that spot. The most powerful warriors go to the weak point, desperately trying to hold in the line, no holds barred because they know if the line breaks, they’re done.
This idea holds true for spiritual warfare as well. Whether we’re praying for a breakthrough in our own lives or in the life of a loved one, it’s not going to come easy. We don’t always remember the forces at play beyond what we can see, but there’s a very real spiritual battle going on. We’re up against “cosmic powers” and “spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). I don’t know exactly what this entails, but it does not sound pleasant.
By fasting and praying for a breakthrough, we’re essentially testing where our hearts are. “And when it reveals that the heart is with God and not the world, a mighty blow is struck against Satan” (A Hunger for God, John Piper). We’re asking God to break through Satan’s defenses. Once that breakthrough begins, the fighting will get fierce. Satan considers the earth his territory, and he’s not going to passively sit by and let God move in.
Scripture has a pattern in the accounts of fasting where times of fasting are followed by severe temptation or opposition. After Jesus fasted for 40 days, Satan jumped in trying to exploit on Jesus’ physical weakness (Matthew 4:1-11). If Satan dared to try to discourage the Son of God, why wouldn’t he do the same to us?
I don’t share this to discourage you; I want you to understand the opposition that will come when you pray for a breakthrough. But I also want to encourage you. If fasting brings about opposition, you’re probably on the right track. Know that we worship a God who has already claimed victory over Satan. We may be up against more than we know, but we follow the One who has overcome it all.
Keep going. Don’t lose heart. A breakthrough will come.
For more information watch Journey’s live-stream here.
Or, listen to the message via Apple Podcasts here:
If you have questions or would like some guidance in the area of fasting, reach out to Pastor Darrick. We would love to hear from you!