Learning to Pray & Fast

by Pastor Cesar Crisostomo |  March 18, 2018

Learning to Pray & Fast
 
How many of us today have a desire or even a need for greater power in our prayers? Have you been sensing that God wants to do great things in your life, but your own prayer life is just not up to the challenge? Are you unable to lay hold of certain things God wants to give you? I know for myself, I have. I understand how important it is to pray through a situation until there is spiritual break through but being able to pray with conviction that change is really taking place is another matter. Yes, I have had those moments of break through prayers and so have you, but not enough of them. I still see too many needs going unmet and the enemy’s power seems too strong in some situations.
 
I know that I am growing in the discipline of prayer, but for a long time now, God has been calling me to go deeper in another discipline that I had only practiced on occasions. God wants me to learn how to fast. Familia, I want to share with you some of the things I have learned and still discovering and invite you to times of prayer and fasting. I am no way an expert in this, but I have already seen enough to know regular fasting is a missing piece in my prayer life.
 
Three Christian Disciplines (Matthew 6:1-18)

• The intent of this portion of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus correcting our attitudes about three basic disciplines which He assumes are part of our lives: giving, praying, and fasting. His point in this passage is faith. He is challenging us to believe that God is there, even though we can’t see Him. So:
  1. When we give we are not to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing, which means, don’t brag about it to others. We can be confident that God sees our gift and will reward us. (v. 1-4)
  2. When we pray, we are not to try to impress people with our eloquent words, but trust that “The Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” And we are not to use a lot of words when we pray. We should say what we want to say, briefly and to the point, because He already knows what we need before we ask Him. (v. 5-13)
  3. When we fast, we are not to go around looking hungry, so people will be impressed by how spiritual we are, but we are to trust that God sees our fast and will reward us. (v. 16-18)
     • Jesus does not expect His followers to stop fasting any more than He expects us to stop giving or praying. He simply wants us to do these things with a right attitude, so we will please God and be effective. Yes, He did acknowledge His disciples were not fasting during the years He was still with them (Matthew 9:14-15) but He went on to say they surely would fast in the future after He went to heaven.

 
Familia, once we open our hearts and minds to the idea that fasting is not one of the requirements of the Law that passed away when Jesus came, but is a gift God has given us to help us draw close to Him, then we are ready to understand some of the benefits fasting can bring us.
 
Why fast? Here are four benefits of fasting that I have been learning:

1. It is a loud, wordless prayer.
   • The Bible often talks about “calling upon the Lord” (Acts 2:21) or “crying out” to Him (Psalm 5:1-2), but for a long time I have wondered how to do that. Am I supposed to shout my prayers or cry with tears while I am praying? I know I have done both. Sometimes that was helpful, other times not. But on those occasion when I was fasting, desperately needing God to move in a situation, He revealed to me that my fasting was a way of calling or crying out to Him. In other words, it is wordless prayer.
     • By fasting I am saying to God “I hunger for you more than food. I choose to humble myself, deny myself, to prepare my spirit to hear from you. I attentively wait in faith for you to act, not trying to make you do my will, but desperately pursuing yours.”
   • “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).” I have always loved this promise in Jeremiah, but rarely felt I was able to do my part. This promise was originally given to Israel assuring them that God would deliver them from exile, but because every promise is ours in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20), it is now true for us as well. When we seek Him or search for Him with all our heart, we too will find Him. And I believe fasting can help us do that. It helps us humble our pride, quiet our flesh, and clear our minds. It gives us a practical way to wait on God for an extended period of time.

 
 
 

2. It prepares us for spiritual warfare. (Mark 9:14-29 NKJV; Matthew 17:14-21 NASB)
   • You don’t fast a demon out of somebody, you fast to prepare yourself to pray with authority. The fasting itself is for us, not the demon. Jesus was mentoring His disciples. He had already given them authority over demonic powers (Matthew 10:1, 8), but in this case they had encountered a situation too difficult for them. So, He explained to them why they failed. He told them they had been spiritually unprepared for the challenge. They had not been Spirit-led or empowered at that moment. They had ministered only in their own authority against the demon and had lost. This is a precious insight that we should not let pass by unnoticed. Don’t try to minister without first preparing yourself spiritually.

 

3. It opens our spiritual ears to hear God’s guidance (Acts 13:1-3; 14:21-23)
   • Luke shows us how these leaders in the early church waited for God’s guidance. When sending out missionaries, selecting elders or preparing themselves to lay hands on someone, they fasted as a part of their preparation. This means we, too, should learn to fast when making key decisions, selecting leaders or seeking God’s will in a difficult situation. Jesus will guide us as surely as He guided them.

 

4. It is a way to find peace of mind.
   • Some of us deal with a lot of anxiety, depression, or mental temptation, and trying to escape it has been exhausting. We can find momentary relief, but the thoughts or heaviness comes back, and we return to that same condition. There can come a peace of mind, a quiet, restful feeling while fasting.

 
What fasting is and is not.

• Fasting is one of those disciplines that can be used wrongly. If we are not careful, we can turn it into a self-righteous work. We can decide we are going to fast more than others just to prove we are more spiritually hungry than they are. 
• Let’s remember: It is not a hunger strike to force God to act. It is not a form of self-inflicted suffering to impress God. It is not a weight loss system.
• Fasting is:
  • A way to humble myself. It is essentially a form of mourning (Daniel 10:2-3). We are so sad over the situation, or our own sin, we have lost our appetite.
  • A way for my spirit to take authority over my flesh, to weaken the control of my appetites and the thoughts generated by my flesh.
  • A wordless prayer which God hears loud and clear. By my actions I am “praying without ceasing” for a season.

 
What do we fast?

• Food. There are many levels of fasting (how much, how long), but God will guide each of us on how and when we are to fast. The main point we need to remember is that God sees our heart. Some will fast by restricting the amount they eat, or the kinds of foods. Some will not eat a meal or two, or maybe more. The point is we should start somewhere and let this discipline mature over time.

 
An invitation

• I would like to invite you to pray and fast for the next two weeks in preparation for Resurrection Sunday. I would like us to cover this important moment in serious Spirit-led prayer. We would like to “call upon the Lord” as a spiritual family, asking Him to do greater work in our island community than we have ever seen before, to bring in the harvest, souls saved for the kingdom.
• Would you consider at least one meal or one type of food for as many days as you feel you are able over the course of the next two weeks, and asking God in prayer to:
  • Bring us people who are hungry for God.
  • Open doors of opportunities to proclaim the Gospel message and that many will come to hear the truth of who Jesus is, what He has done for them, how much He loves them, and they would turn to Him, believe and be saved.
  • Spiritually awaken the churches (Believers) in our island.
  • Breakdown spiritual strongholds of darkness over our island.
  • Bless our island.