Miss the Fast, Miss the Reward: How to Fast Successfully

Sermon outline

Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes, and when you prepare for it with the right attitude, the right motive, faith and specific objectives, God rewards you openly.

1. The definition: fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes

   He starts with a definition, as he says you should with any subject. Normally fasting is abstaining from solid foods and not from fluids; he notes that after forty days Jesus was hungry, and the Bible does not say thirsty. Esther's fast was called in a crisis, before she tried to deal with it. When fasting and prayer are combined, a believer's power is amplified and what you need from God is heard quicker.

   Illustration: He makes the congregation read each passage aloud with enthusiasm, because if a Christian does not speak from the inside there is no power.

   “Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.”

   • Luke 2:37
   • John 7:38
   • Matthew 4:1-2
   • Acts 13:2-3
   • Esther 4:15-16

2. Fasting runs parallel to prayer: individual, group and regular

   Most believers know far more about prayer than about fasting, so he explains one by the other. You pray alone and you pray in a group; in the same way there is individual fasting, when the Spirit leads you and you keep it secret except from close family, and group fasting, like the three days the church has called. And as you have set times of prayer, fasting should be a regular practice in the life of a disciplined Christian, such as a set day each week.

   Illustration: Some people say, 'I fast every Wednesday' or 'every Friday'. If the Lord leads you like that, keep that fast.

   “Fasting should be a regular practice in the life of disciplined Christians.”

3. Live a fasted life

   He heard a man of God say you should live a fasted life, and he has practised it and knows it brings results. It means smaller portions, no second helping, and sometimes giving away a favourite food. Christians lack discipline in eating, especially when they have paid for a meal and want their money's worth. When you have no restraint on yourself, God will not anoint you in a tremendous way.

   Illustration: He loves ice cream, but has learned to take one scoop instead of three, and to cut a quarter off a Magnum and put the rest back in the fridge. At a buffet in a beachfront hotel he watched a family clean out a whole tray of prawns. Go by the smell of food rather than the food, like a small car that runs on the smell of petrol.

   “To live a fasted life means you eat smaller portions of food, and you don't have a second helping.”

4. Should all Christians fast?

   Fasting was a regular practice in Bible times: Israel fasted together on the Day of Atonement, and Moses, David, Elijah and many of the kings fasted. The early church in Acts fasted in groups when a special need arose, when sending out apostles, appointing elders and seeking guidance. Church tradition set aside Wednesdays and Fridays, and the early Methodists under John and Charles Wesley fasted regularly. Other religions fast with dedication, and it is time Christians did. He urges everyone to set aside one day a week to fast and pray.

   Illustration: John Wesley would not ordain a man who did not fast and pray on Wednesdays and Fridays until four in the afternoon. During the church's earlier three-day fast a young man from one of the families was in an accident, and looking back he believes the Lord may have called the fast for that one person.

   “It's about time we as Christians begin to fast.”

   • Acts 13:2-3
   • Acts 14:23

5. How to prepare, number one: have a correct mental attitude

   Make a quality decision between you and God that no food will pass your lips, whatever is put in front of you; without it you will let go as soon as you smell food. There is power in fasting, and if you have prayed, given and confessed but never fasted over the thing you need, try the fast. If you are desperate, go on a three-day continuous fast with liquids. These are trying times, with more temptation thrown at young people than at any generation, and fasting and prayer keep you pure.

   Illustration: Pastor Zubeda took him to the Cinnabon shop at the Pavilion; he bought a dozen, ate one and gave eleven away, not very happily. He tells of women who cooked for their families all through a forty-day fast, and of a lady evangelist in America who neglected prayer, lost her mind and was put in a padded cell, was prompted to fast, and walked out in her right mind. In a CNA store looking for decorating magazines he was struck by how bad the covers on the shelf were.

   “You've made a quality decision between you and God that I'm going to fast.”

   • 1 Corinthians 6:19

6. Number two: God rewards you when you seek Him with the right motive in a scriptural way

   Jesus said that when you fast you should anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to fast, and the Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Do not fast to show everybody that you are fasting; do it because it is right, for yourself and to God. The reward has a condition attached, so God cannot give it if the condition is not met.

   Illustration: 'How do we know Jesus is speaking? It's in the red.'

   “If you miss the fast you miss a reward.”

   • Matthew 6:17-18

7. Number three: go on a fast on the basis of faith

   Hebrews sets down the basic principle for seeking anything from God: without faith it is impossible to please Him. So you enter a fast in a spirit of faith, believing two things: that God is, your God and your Father, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

   “You must go on a fast on the basis of faith.”

   • Hebrews 11:6

8. God's promises for fasting: ten things from Isaiah 58

   Reading Isaiah 58:6-12, he lists ten specific things God will do when you fast: (1) more light in your life, (2) health restored, (3) righteousness increased, (4) the glory of the Lord strong on your life, (5) answered prayer, (6) continuous guidance, (7) satisfaction, (8) refreshing, (9) work that endures, (10) restoration of what was lost. When you fast you are obeying the revealed will of God in His Word, so you do not wait for a special revelation before you fast.

   Illustration: Daniel and his friends looked better before the king than the men who were eating the good food. What the cankerworm and the palmerworm have eaten, God will start to restore.

   “When you fast you obey the revealed will of God.”

   • Isaiah 58:6-12
   • Daniel 1:15
   • Joel 2:25

9. Have the right attitude towards your body

   From 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 he gives three things: your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, it has an important function as the residence of the Spirit of God, and it should be healthy and strong, because God can use you only if you are in good condition. We treat our cars better than our bodies. Fasting is a practical way to regain health, and he calls the church to restraint at the table and at functions so that they live long and well. If you need medical help with your weight, get it.

   Illustration: We change the oil and flush the car but will not do the same for the body; he recalls the older folk dosing the children with castor oil. He says his son Wesley went on a diet and lost twenty-five kilos, 'a whole person', and that he asked a sister in the church to write articles on eating well in the Faith Chronicles. A skipped meal lets the blood circulate and clean out toxins.

   “We treat our cars better than our bodies.”

   • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

10. The purpose of fasting: eight reasons

    (1) To humble yourself. (2) To come closer to God. (3) To understand God's Word more clearly and receive rhema and ideas. (4) To find God's will and direction, a right way for you and your children. (5) To seek healing. (6) For deliverance from evil spirits and oppression. (7) In a crisis or emergency, for anything you cannot handle by ordinary means, as Jehoshaphat did when he was surrounded. (8) To intercede for others, above all unsaved family. He then prophesies that the church will be people who fast and pray.

    Illustration: When he was first saved the church called a time of fasting and prayer, and he kept the whole of it for his family. Within a year all of them were saved.

    “Anything that you cannot handle by ordinary means, go on a fast.”

    • Psalm 35:13
    • James 4:8
    • Ezra 8:21
    • Isaiah 58:8
    • Matthew 17:21
    • 2 Chronicles 20:1-4

11. How long should I fast? Start on the bottom rung

    If you are fasting for the first time, or have not fasted for a long while, do not start with a long fast. Skip one meal, then two, then fast one day, two, three, five, seven, ten, fourteen, twenty-one, and who knows, forty. As you conquer each step faith, zeal and enthusiasm grow for the next. He gives the church Monday and Tuesday to practise by skipping a meal before the fast begins on Wednesday.

    Illustration: Picture a ladder and start on the bottom rung. Do not announce a forty-day fast when you have not fasted one day, and land in hospital dehydrated.

    “Don't run a marathon when you didn't jog around the car.”

12. Go into the fast with specific objectives

    Before Wednesday, write down your specific needs and the issues you need to settle between you and God, and bring the written requests to church when everyone prays together. He names examples: weight, a marriage partner and the money for a wedding, passing your subjects and finishing your degree in one sitting, a better car, extending your house, debt cancellation, a career decision and unsaved family, for whom you stand in the gap. God wants you to live long and live well.

    Illustration: An evangelist told him of miracle meetings in America after fasting and prayer: a very large man whose weight dropped so fast that his trousers fell off, a missing tooth replaced, and grey hair turned black. If God can do those miracles for them, He can do them for us.

    “Write down your specific needs before you embark on the fast and it will surprise you what the Lord will do for you.”

    • Romans 10:14
    • Psalm 91:16
    • Psalm 90:10