Week of Prayer & Fasting this Week

Why Pray & Fast
If you ever prayed & fasted, you probably noticed that the minute you started fasting, you felt really hungry & even weak.

Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. But you can also abstain from other things as a fast. Fasting is a way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with Him. You sort out whatever is necessary, and you cancel the meal, concert, TV time, or whatever else you had planned to do in order to fulfil that priority.

As you have heard it is often linked with prayer but it is its own discipline. We don’t like the word “discipline” in our world today but discipline is important. Fasting has been called “prayer without words”. And it can be seen in scripture in three different forms.

Forms of Fasting
A) Normal – No food whether solid or liquid, only water (Luke 4:1-3)
b) Absolute – No food or water (Esther 4:16, Acts 9:9). This should be no longer than 3 days as kidneys can shut down.
Any longer than that is only through supernatural means.
C) Partial – This is a restriction of diet like Daniel did. (Daniel 10:3-4)

If you want your faith to grow you can cultivate it by fasting (Matt 17:21).

Acts 13 – shows us that ministry to the Lord takes the form of prayer and fasting. It is not just something that we do for ourselves but it somehow ministers to the Lord.

Why Fast?
1) Jesus Christ fasted
2) The New Testament Church Fasted
3) God commands it and Jesus assumed it

Purposes of Fasting
A. For us Personally
1) It’s to humble ourselves
2) It’s to show repentance
3) It’s to mourn over personal failure
4) It’s to gain revelation and wisdom of God’s will

B. For Others
5) It’s to seek God by drawing near to Him and persisting in prayer against opposing spiritual forces
6) It’s to save people from bondage or evil
7) It’s to mourn over sin of the church, nation, or world

C. For God
8) It’s to honour God
9) It’s to seek grace for a new task or reaffirm our consecration to God
10) It’s to open the way for the outpouring of the Spirit and Christ’s kingdom to come on earth.

Conclusion
Jesus says that the fulfilment of all the Law and Prophets is to love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart and soul.
You will sacrifice much for something you deeply love.
Let your fasting be an invitation for Jesus to come, live and speak with you at this time.