Fasting is a believer’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. Other types of fasting, despite the benefits they may produce for the mind and body, could not be classified as fasting for a believer in Jesus Christ, and fasting by an unbeliever obtains no eternal value. It is for believers in Jesus Christ, for the Discipline must be rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ and practiced with the desire to become more like Him. Believers should fast according to biblical teaching and with purposes that are God-centered.
It is voluntary in that fasting should not be coerced. And fasting is more than just the ultimate crash diet for the body; it is abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. Let me address first the fact that, strictly speaking, fasting is abstinence from food. There is an often-overlooked view of fasting in which, for spiritual purposes, a person abstains from or denies themself the enjoyment of something other than food.
We may perceive the need to “fast” from involvement with other people, or from the media, from a sport or hobby, from talking, from sleep, from sex, and so on. The reason might be that we sense the activity is exerting too much influence on our hearts or our time and we need to fast from it to regain a more biblical perspective. Or it might be simply that we want the freedom to become more absorbed in a particular spiritual focus. To understand fasting for spiritual purposes, realize that the Bible distinguishes between several kinds of fasts.
Although it doesn’t use the labels, that we frequently use today to describe these fasts, each of the following fast may be found:
1) A “normal” fast involves abstaining from all food, but not from water.
“Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit led Him into the desert, where the devil tempted Jesus Christ for forty days. Jesus Christ ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, He was very hungry.” {Luke 4:1-2}
1) A “normal” fast involves abstaining from all food, but not from water.
“Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit led Him into the desert, where the devil tempted Jesus Christ for forty days. Jesus Christ ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, He was very hungry.” {Luke 4:1-2}
2) A “partial” fast is a diet restriction, but not abstention from all food.
“Daniel said to the guard, “Please give us this test for ten days: Don’t give us anything but vegetables to eat and water to drink.” {Daniel 1:12}
3) An “absolute” fast is the avoidance of all food and liquid, even water.
“While Ezra was there, he did not eat or drink, because he was still sad about the unfaithfulness of the captives who had returned.” {Ezra 10:6b}
4) A “supernatural” fast. There are two instances of this kind of fast. When Moses wrote of his meeting with God on Mount Sinai, he said, “I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water” {Deuteronomy 9:9}. First Kings 19:8 may be inferring that Elijah did the same thing when he went to the site of Moses’ miraculous fast: “And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”
This fast required God’s supernatural intervention into the bodily processes and are not repeatable apart from the Lord’s specific calling and miraculous provision.
5) A “private” fast is the one referred to most often in this lesson and what Jesus Christ meant in Matthew 6:16-18, when He said we should fast in a way not to be noticed by others.
6) A “congregational” fast is the type found in Joel 2:15-16: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation.” At least a part of the congregation of the church at Antioch was fasting together in Acts 13:2, as evidenced by Luke’s words: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting . . .”
7) God established one “regular” fast in the Old Covenant. Each year, every Israelite (the descendants of Jacob) was to fast on the Day of Atonement {Leviticus 16:29-31}.
8) The Scriptures mention an “occasional” fast. This fast occurs on special occasions as the need arises. This was the kind of fast that Jehoshaphat {in 2 Chronicles 20:3}, as well as Esther {in Esther 4:16}, called for in view of their circumstances.
Fasting is expected
To those unfamiliar with fasting, the most surprising part of this lesson may be the discovery that Jesus Christ expected His followers to fast. Notice Jesus Christ’s words at the beginning of Matthew 6:16-17: “And when you fast. . . . But when you fast . . .” (emphasis added). By giving us instructions on what to do and what not to do when we fast, Jesus Christ assumes that we will fast.
Fasting is to done for a purpose
There’s more to a biblical fast than merely abstaining from food. Without a spiritual purpose for our fast it’s just a weight-loss fast. Having a biblical purpose - reason for our fast may be the single most important concept to take from this lesson.
The scriptures set forth many reasons for fasting. For this lesson, I have condensed them, only listing ten. Please notice, none of the reasons mentioned are to earn God’s favor. It is useless to fast as a way to impress God and earn His acceptance.
It is our faith in the work of Jesus Christ that makes us acceptable to God, not our efforts, regardless of their intensity or sincerity. Fasting has no eternal benefit for us until we have come to God through repentance and faith {Ephesians 2:1-10 and Titus 3:5-7}. Only after we come alive to God through Jesus Christ can we engage in fasting that pleases God. As believers, we must ache and yearn, and fast, to know more and more of all that God is for us in Jesus Christ. However, only because He has already laid hold of us and is drawing us ever forward and upward into “all the fullness of God” {Ephesians 3:19}.
As believers, whenever we fast, we should do so for at least one of these biblical purposes:
- To strengthen prayer {Erza 8:23}.
- To seek God’s guidance {Acts 14:23}.
- To express grief {2 Samuel 1:11-12}.
- To seek deliverance or protection {2 Chronicles 20:3-4}.
- To express repentance and the return to God {Joel 2:12}.
- To humble ourselves before God {1 Kings 21:27-29}.
- Biblical purposes for fasting continued:
- To express our concern for the work of God {Nehemiah 1:3-4}.
- To minister to the needs of others {**Isaiah 58}.
- To overcome temptation and dedicate ourselves to God {Matthew 4:11}.
- To express love and worship to God {Luke 2:37}.
Before we fast, we must have a purpose, a biblical - spiritual God-centered purpose. However, even in our best fasts, we do not deserve what we desire, and we cannot force God’s hand. So, let’s balance that truth with the incontestable promise of Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:17-18: “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
** Isaiah chapter 58, is the most extensive passage in Scripture dealing exclusively with fasting, God emphasizes fasting for the purpose of meeting the needs of others.
