Breaking Misconceptions About Fasting

Before we fully discuss what fasting is, I think it is important to define what fasting is not.

Fasting is not starvation. Fasting is not a diet. Although there is proven science that fasting does benefit your health, the purpose of biblical fasting is not to lose weight, although that can be a benefit. Instead, Bible fasting helps you cultivate a humble mental and emotional state to lay aside sins and weights that can shackle the heart and mind.

It may sound simple, but although biblical fasting deals with the physical, it is not focused on the physical but rather on the spiritual. It is a commitment of time in prayer and study of God’s Word instead of eating.

Just think about it: If you were to add up all the time you spend on food, how much time would that be? If you include lunch meetings, coffee breaks, and food preparation for the day, I would say that you probably spend at least three hours of your day on food. Just imagine what would happen with your spiritual life if you spent that time in prayer and in the study of God’s Word? You would grow in God like never before.

The American or Western mindset seems to celebrate an addiction to food by using it as entertainment. Mindless snacking can also become a way to cope with stress or alleviate boredom. This misuse of food creates an unhealthy interaction with it and an attachment to food that can take on a demanding personality of its own. If you don’t believe me, miss three consecutive meals and see just how much your flesh will scream, demanding food even when you know you aren’t actually hungry! Fasting helps us break this addiction.

At a workshop I conducted on fasting, a young man walked up to me and said, “Fasting is so hard. I feel hungry, angry, and tired the entire time!”

My first question to that young man was, “How much time are you devoting to prayer and the study of God’s Word when you fast?”

 “Not a lot,” he replied.

“Well then, that explains it,” I said. “You aren’t fasting— you are starving yourself.”

 I continued to explain to him that every time I feel hunger, discomfort, or fatigue during a fast, I consider it a signal for me to pray. I will then go into my room and shut the door to spend a couple of hours with the Lord in His Word and prayer. I always come out of that time feeling stronger and more energetic than I was before.

True fasting takes place when prayer, study of the Word, and time spent with the Lord become your literal source of energy.

The Hebrew word for fasting is tsum, which means “to abstain from food or to fast.” In Hebrew, to fast means to shut your mouth and not allow anything to go in it.

True fasting, then, means to abstain from food and to not put anything in your mouth. Therefore, if you abstain from other things such as games, TV, social media, friends, sports, or anything else other than food, that is not fasting; that’s self-discipline—which, honestly, we should practice every day.

Important Guidelines in Fasting

 There are 15 spiritual precepts for fasting that I want to present for your consideration so you can invite the Holy Spirit to speak with you about their application in your own life.

Fasting and praying as a lifestyle before God is a very personal expression of worship offered from each individual to the Father. Therefore, although a precept is a principle intended to regulate behavior or thought, these are not formulas or a set of hard rules. Instead, these precepts are guidelines that can inspire heart changes and new expectations, resulting in changed behavior and mindsets. As a result, you will be able to enter deeper fellowship with the Lord through a lifestyle of fasting and prayer, which is a fasted life.

These 15 precepts of fasting as I have outlined them are as follows:

1. To abstain from TV, movies, or social media for a period is not fasting but behavior modification.

 2. To fast should never be required or forced. Fasting is a form of worship offered to bless and honor God in a spirit of grace, not legalism.

 3. To fast and pray will bring clarity that reveals God’s plan for your life.

 4. To fast helps silence the voice of the flesh, enabling you to hear the voice of God within your spirit more clearly.

5. To submit to God through fasting will replace pride with humility.

6. To fast releases physical healing into our bodies and equips us to handle pressure and stress.

7. The motivation of biblical fasting is to seek God’s heart in consecration, not just to seek His hand as a consumer.

8. To fast doesn’t change or move God. Fasting and prayer changes you to align with His will.

9. God sees you as a valuable son or daughter in His family.

 10. Be astonished and astounded at what God can do through your fasted lifestyle.

 11. Fasting will transform you to grow in God’s love and to develop a heart of compassion.

12. Fasting done with a wrong motive is pointless and will not produce the needed results.

13. New levels of righteousness will rise and be established in your personal, daily experience as fasting gives you a God-perspective to change.

14. Fasting and prayer will birth the next generation called into ministry. 15. To break a fast correctly requires self-discipline but reaps many blessings to your spirit, soul, and body.

These guiding principles will help you stay focused and on track with your motives and expectations as you minister to the Lord in fasting. Please note—none of these precepts address any sort of regulation regarding how long or in what manner you are to fast. All of that and more is between you and the Lord. The main thing is for you to present yourself to Him as a living sacrifice with a sincere heart. The Lord will direct you as He desires from that point forward.

Fasting Is Not Behavior Modification

Although behavior modification is a good thing, it is not fasting. You can benefit from abstaining from movies, television, or social media for a season. In fact, I recommend it as a means to clear your mind of needless clutter and to calm and cleanse your own soul from unprofitable influences. But to fast is to abstain from foods. Fasting is a powerful spiritual exercise that changed my life, and I believe fasting can change your life as well.

Fasting will enable you to humble your heart before the Lord so you can come into agreement with God and into alignment with His will. Here’s some practical advice: It is easier to fast evening to evening than to start a fast in the morning and end it the next morning. Just think about it: For that 24 hours, you are spending time with God instead of eating. During that time period, you are in a constant state of humility before God—and He loves the humble. Proverbs 3:34 (NLT) says, “The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble.”

 Fasting is the opposite of being prideful. To fast and pray does not push your own agenda; fasting helps you align with God’s agenda. When you align yourself with His will, Satan has no foothold in your life.

The only power that the enemy has over your life is the authority that you give to him. All authority in Heaven and earth belongs to Jesus (see Matt. 28:16). If all authority belongs to Jesus, that means Satan has none, because Jesus disarmed him of everything. As Colossians 2:15 (NLT) states, “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

 So let’s look at the facts:

 1. Jesus stripped Satan of all his authority.

2. Christ’s resurrection power is on the inside of you.

3. Fasting /humility aligns you with God’s plan and power so you can live a life of victory.

I challenge you to make the choice today to take your relationship with God to the next level. He wants you to draw near to Him. If this has touched your heart, it could be the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart to draw closer to Him. He wants to communicate with you on a more intimate level. He is both inviting and challenging you to draw near.

What Does Fasting Accomplish?

In Romans 12:1 (TPT), we find the perfect description of what fasting and prayer accomplish in our lives:

Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.

The first words I want you to focus on in this scripture are living sacrifices. This scripture is usually used to explain the act of crucifying your sin nature, and that is correct. But I want us to consider a different aspect of this scripture that has become a revelation for my life.

Whenever I read the phrase living sacrifice, I think of the times I have presented my body as a sacrificial offering to the Lord in fasting. I may have felt pain in my stomach from hunger, but that was part of my sacrifice.

I remember how it felt to be cold in the middle of summer because I hadn’t eaten in several weeks. This happens because our body cannot heat itself without calories from food. We truly do not realize how much food warms our bodies until we go without it for a while.

It has been in those periods of fasting that I believe I became a living sacrifice as I chose to deprive myself of food so I could devote my time and attention to the Lord. I deliberately chose to resist my need for food in order to yield to His desire for fellowship with me.

I remember going into my room and shutting the door feeling weak, only to come out strengthened by the Word and the presence of God. I chose as an act of my will to hold myself on the altar of sacrifice to the Lord through fasting. As I offered myself to Him as a living sacrifice, He truly became the Strength of my life.

So, when I see the phrase “living sacrifice,” I automatically think fasting and praying. Why is it important to be a living sacrifice? To offer one’s self as a living sacrifice is important because it is a choice to humble oneself before God.

Being a living sacrifice is an act of humility and selflessness that acknowledges God, His Word, and His ways as first and most important. It adopts a posture of humility that honors God. As we empty ourselves of self-focus, we make room to be filled with more of God. According to James 4:6, God opposes the proud and self-absorbed, but He gives grace and shows favor to the humble.

 I like to think of God’s favor as the moment when we turn toward Him to be a living sacrifice to Him. In that moment, God turns His face toward us, releasing the brightness of His grace and favor into our lives, and the light of His countenance rests upon us.

The next word that I want to focus on is holiness. There is no doubt in my mind that a standard of righteousness rises within us when we fast and pray. This happens because we are spending time with our righteous Father.

 Through salvation, we are made partakers of His divine nature, which is righteousness. But we must cultivate an awareness of it if we are to truly walk in it. The more time we spend with the Father, the more His nature is revealed to us. And the more His nature is developed within us, the more His righteousness will be revealed through our words and actions. We feed and fortify the nature of God within us through time in His Word, His presence, and in prayer.

I remember when I first started fasting! Within about a week, I was shocked by how the things of world were not enjoyable to me anymore. I didn’t want to watch TV. Even fellowship with my friends was not as satisfying. Their jokes and the thoughts and ideas that were brought to mind by what they said and did were actually distasteful to me. If I agreed to hang out with them, it was as if I had to force myself to do it.

I really didn’t have a desire to hang out with friends when I could be learning from the Holy Spirit and spending time with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. All I could feel was this constant pull back into the presence of God.

The more time I spent in fasting and prayer, the more I longed for the purity and sweetness of God’s presence. Nothing else could satisfy my heart anymore. In fact, what I once enjoyed or perhaps was able just to ignore began to grieve me. People shouting! Watching television! It all grieved me!

Even commercials that didn’t have blatant sin in them grieved me. I would think to myself, Why did that commercial grieve me? Why couldn’t I watch it? It only had just a hint of sin! Then I would hear the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, “The closer you are to Me, the more you will hate the things of this world.” I could sense my standard of righteousness growing stronger and stronger.

 Authentic Worship

 The next phrase to focus on in Romans 12:1 is “experiencing all that delights his heart.” I used to read that and think, Wow, God wants to give me the desires of my heart. Don’t get me wrong! This is true—God does want to give me the desires of my heart. But the more I meditated on this scripture, the more I saw that it’s not about my desires that I think up on my own. It’s about His desires.

Now, let’s be honest. Your dreams and desires barely change your life. They aren’t high enough. So how are they going to change the lives of those around you? Honestly, they can’t! That’s why you have to ask God to replace your desires with His desires. You need to ask Him to switch out your dreams for His. In this way, His dreams and plans for your life will not only change your life but also the lives of those around you.

The next phrase in this verse is powerful: “This becomes your genuine expression of worship.” In other words, presenting yourself as a living sacrifice is what God wants you to do as an expression of your worship of Him. Being a living sacrifice should be your lifestyle.

I believe that fasting and praying is a lifestyle, not merely a one-time event. Because it pleases God for us to fast and pray, it should be something that we do on a regular basis. The length of the fast could be a single meal. What matters is that we choose to make God and His Word our focus above all else. That honors the Lord, and it will produce change in us every time.

In God’s mind, the humble surrender of fasting and prayer is a genuine authentic expression of worship. God doesn’t want something fake from you. No one likes a fake relationship, and God is no exception. He wants you to be authentic with Him.

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. Romans 12:2 TPT

 I love this verse because it unravels the next beautiful truth about fasting in the very first phrase: “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you.” We are to be imitators of God.

 I remember the first time I fasted for 40 days. I had people lined up telling me I was crazy. I had doctors tell me that what I was doing was unhealthy. I had youth laughing at me because I wasn’t eating. I had my own leaders laughing at me.

But the funny thing about it all was that I didn’t care. All I cared about was what God thought about me. I didn’t care about other people’s opinions. In other words, I was set free from the fear of man. I could not have cared less. All I cared about was God’s opinion.

I wasn’t always that way. I used to care too much what people thought of me. But through fasting, the character of God was being developed in me. As His nature was revealed to me through His Word, I began to yield more and more to the Holy Spirit in prayer for God’s own character traits to be developed in my life. I exercised my faith to grow in the grace of God. As a result, strong conviction grew in me.

Through fasting and prayer, you will develop a strong spirit that will not cave in to the fear of man. Man’s opinion will not intimidate you. Man’s money will not control you. You cannot be bought because with every decision you make to put His Word into your spirit instead of putting food into your mouth, you are growing strong through Jesus Christ.

The more you spend time with God in prayer, seeking Him, listening to Him, and aligning your thoughts with His, His opinion alone will become supreme in your life. A holy, reverential fear of the Lord will make His approval alone all that you care about and seek.

 Romans 12 is so encouraging to me. If you grab hold of the words in verses 1 and 2, it will be life changing for you. The phrase that holds the key is this: “but be inwardly transformed.” As you fast and pray, waiting upon the Lord and exchanging your thoughts and ways for His, the Holy Spirit will transform the way you think.

As your thoughts come more and more into agreement with God’s will, your perspective changes. You will not only see Him as He is according to His Word, but you will also begin to see and identify yourself in agreement with how God sees you—as His beloved son or daughter. You will not think like a servant who believes he isn’t worth anything and is unworthy to receive anything. Instead, your thoughts will be conformed to align with God’s thoughts. You will draw your identity from Him and see yourself as a child of the King. You will acknowledge and accept your rights and authority in the Kingdom of Heaven from your Heavenly Father, who has much to impart to and bestow upon His children.

The best ideas, messages, and songs I have ever received from Heaven were the result of time spent in fasting and prayer.

 While ministering to the Lord in fasting, giving myself to extended time in His Word and prayer instead of eating, I was increasingly aware of the Father’s heart and His thoughts and desires. I could sense Him aligning me with His perfect plan as I yielded myself to His Spirit. I could distinguish more clearly His direction or revelation insights.

I have found that during times of fasting and ministering to the Lord, Romans 12:2 (TPT) becomes your reality: He will “empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”

There may be times when it seems as though you don’t know what to do or where to turn. Remember, God gives grace to the humble (see 1 Pet. 5:5). By choosing to present yourself to the Lord in a posture of humility through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit will illuminate your understanding and realign your thoughts to be in sync with the perfect will of God.

When you come into agreement with God in that way, you will be filled with “knowing.” His truth will flood you with light, enabling you to see His plan for you. And the grace of God will teach you what steps you need to take to see His will accomplished in your life (see Tit. 2:11-13).

So if you are walking in a place of darkness, in a place of not knowing what you need to know, just know that in His light, God will cause you to see light. He will reveal His plan to you through your time spent with Him in prayer and fasting.

 My Prayer

 Father, I thank You for teaching me how to imitate Your heart. I know that through my fasting and prayer, You are teaching me to be like You. I submit to You in everything I am. I understand that fasting and prayer positions me in a place of deep humility as I submit to You to strengthen and change me daily. I choose to crucify my flesh, and I commit to becoming a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to You. I know that when I do this, I am aligning myself to Your perfect will. I understand that as I do this, I will not conform to the world but to Your way of doing things. I receive Your instruction in the name of Jesus. Amen.