{"id":471,"date":"2014-07-06T02:38:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T07:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cfcmankato.org\/?p=471"},"modified":"2018-12-29T11:19:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T17:19:21","slug":"why-fast-is-fasting-really-that-big-of-a-deal-by-crystal-maertens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/2014\/07\/why-fast-is-fasting-really-that-big-of-a-deal-by-crystal-maertens\/","title":{"rendered":"Why fast? Is fasting really that big of a deal? By Crystal Maertens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFasting inaugurates war in heaven and angels and demons fight over the future of your prayer,\u201d (Engle, MP3). Christian fasting is the act of going without food for a period of time for a specific spiritual purpose. Until a few weeks ago, I only understood fasting as a way to \u201csupercharge\u201d my prayer. It was something I did when I needed to be really serious about God or when I needed God to be really serious about my situation. It wasn\u2019t something I enjoyed particularly (I mean, who wants to go without food?), and in fact, was something I kind of dreaded. Over the last few weeks, I\u2019ve come to understand that fasting is about so much more than that; it provides us with a \u201ckey to unlock doors where other keys have failed,\u201d (Wallis, p. 9). To summarize, fasting is POWERFUL. It might be easy to neglect because it isn\u2019t fun, but when we do neglect it, we\u2019re missing out on an incredibly powerful tool God has given us for spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n

How does fasting work?<\/h3>\n

Fasting is actually more for our benefit than for God\u2019s. It doesn\u2019t just have physical results, such as making us hungry; it works on a spiritual level too. Here are some of the ways fasting changes our spiritual situation:<\/p>\n

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  1. Fasting literally humbles our soul before God<\/strong>: The Bible even relates fasting to a type of mourning; \u201cthe believer shares in a small measure God\u2019s own grief over the sin and folly of humanity,\u201d (Prince, ch. 6).<\/li>\n
  2. Fasting tells our soul and body who is boss<\/strong>: \u201cOur bodies, with their physical organs and appetites, make wonderful servants, but terrible masters,\u201d (Prince, ch. 6). Paul told the Galatians, \u201cThe flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please,\u201d (NASB, <\/em>Gal. 5:17). The \u201cflesh\u201d Paul is talking about is the desires of our soul (mind, will, and emotions) and the desires of our body. The \u201cSpirit\u201d he is referring to is the Holy Spirit. Basically our soul and body, if they are in the position of Master instead of Servant, are in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit working in and through our life. I know I\u2019ve definitely faced times when I wanted to do what God was asking me to do, but I wasn\u2019t doing it. Paul talks about this in Romans 7:14-20, and he concludes that it is the conflict between our \u201cflesh\u201d and the Holy Spirit within us.<\/li>\n
  3. Best of all, fasting releases the Holy Spirit to work on our behalf:<\/strong> It is important to understand that fasting changes us, not God (Prince, ch. 6). Sometimes we get the idea that we can make God do something or make Him answer our prayer by fasting. That\u2019s not the case. What we\u2019re actually doing when we fast is removing the barriers to the Holy Spirit working in and through our life, so that He is able to work in His omnipotence (all-powerful-ness) and His fullness on our behalf. \"HolyAn example that might help illustrate this is something that happened at our house a couple years ago. Our kitchen sink quit draining. If you\u2019ve ever had a similar issue, you know what came next\u2026 putting drain cleaner through the pipes, then when that didn\u2019t work, disconnecting the pipes and cleaning them out by hand. I won\u2019t gross you out with the sort of nasty stuff that came out of that pipe. But once it was cleaned out, our sink drained like a dream. Sometimes we get frustrated when the Holy Spirit isn\u2019t powerfully working through us, and we fail to think about all the crud in our pipes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why Should we Fast?<\/h3>\n

    In the book, God\u2019s Chosen Fast, Arthur Wallis quotes Andrew Murray (a Christian missionary to South Africa in the 1800s) as saying, \u201cFasting helps to\u2026 confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves to attain what we seek for the Kingdom of God,\u201d (p. 50). Wallis goes on to tell us that \u201cPrayer is warfare! Prayer is wrestling! There are opposing forces\u2026 When we plead our case in the court of heaven\u2026 [our] adversary is also represented in court,\u201d (p. 51). Fasting brings pressure to bear so that we can have breakthrough. It\u2019s really interesting that throughout the Bible you see examples of people who fasted AFTER they had received a promise from God. God already said to them, \u201cHey, you\u2019re going to get this thing I\u2019m promising you.\u201d And they didn\u2019t take that as permission to relax and wait around for His promise. Instead, they got on their knees and began fasting and praying, asking God to deliver on His promise (read the Bible story of Daniel who fasted and prayed for the promised restoration of Jerusalem). Sometimes we think we are waiting on heaven to deliver on a promise God has given us, but it could be that heaven is waiting for us to humble ourselves through fasting and prayer the way Daniel did (Wallis, p. 53). Below are some specific reasons for fasting:<\/p>\n