When You Fast, Not If: Seven Fasts and the God Who Answers by Fire

Sermon outline

Jesus said "when you fast", not "if", so go into this week's fast from the heart and in faith: the Father who sees in secret will reward you openly, answer by fire and give back what you have lost.

1. When you fast: Jesus expects it, and the Father rewards it

   Jesus did not say "if you fast", which would make it optional. He said "when", so fasting is a discipline for every Christian, and it carries a reward. He tells the church that this week will set the tone for the whole of 2011, and that God wants active, penetrating faith, not passive faith: a door that is shut will open and a mountain must collapse. The Lord's ears are open to the righteous, and believers are already the righteousness of God, so do not doubt your prayers. Elijah was a man of like passions and his prayers stopped and started the rain; whether you were saved two days ago or thirty years ago, God will hear you.

   “He didn't say, if you fast.”

   • Matthew 6:16-18
   • Matthew 11:12
   • Psalm 34:15
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • James 5:17-18

2. Not a religious fast: do it because you mean business with God

   As our faces differ, so our needs differ: a husband or a wife, a degree, a house or a car, a spiritual breakthrough, or someone unsaved at home whose eyes Satan has blinded. Do not fast because the church does it every year; do it from the heart. He speaks to those held in the grip of alcohol, nicotine or another vice and says God who delivered him will deliver them, and that God will give the poor an idea to prosper. It is time for Christians to have zeal for their God, drop their petty squabbles and criticism and fix their eyes on the living God. Man did not call you, God did, as His grace reached Paul the persecutor. The struggle is not with flesh and blood, and prayer and fasting bind those powers. He reminds them that 2011 is a year of victory, by the grace of God and not by good works.

   Illustration: There are old people in the church whose names nobody knows and who are never seen in public, but they have power with God, because when they pray God hears them.

   “Do it because it comes from the heart. Do it because it comes from the spirit. Do it because we mean business with God.”

   • 2 Corinthians 4:4
   • Proverbs 8:12
   • Romans 4:17
   • Isaiah 54:17
   • Acts 9:4-5
   • Ephesians 6:12
   • Psalm 37:4
   • Malachi 3:10
   • 1 Corinthians 1:18

3. God answers by fire

   Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to call on their gods and mocked them when no fire fell. Then water was poured over his own sacrifice, which made it harder. In the same way enemies and people who dislike you will pour water on what God wants to do for you. But when the man of God called on heaven, the fire fell and licked up the sacrifice and the water. That was not written by mistake: it shows that God answers by fire.

   Illustration: They'll pour water on your dreams and on your visions, he says, as water was poured on Elijah's sacrifice.

   “I don't know about you, but when I pray, I know God's going to answer by fire.”

   • 1 Kings 18:20-39

4. The spiritual benefits of fasting: four key points

   One, fasting makes you more spiritually sensitive: those who have not heard God's direction for a long time will hear His voice this week. Two, fasting is a catalyst that transforms us into the likeness of Jesus Christ: the vices of the flesh are deadened and Christ rises in your life. Three, fasting keeps a balance in our lives: it reminds us that we are not gods to ourselves and that every victory comes from God, so we cannot be proud. Four, fasting softens the heart and sensitises the spirit towards God and the needs of others, where the challenges of life have hardened it.

   “Where you are now is but by the grace of God.”

5. Seven types of fast

   He runs through them so that each person can decide which to keep. One, the total fast, which he calls the strictest: no food and no water. Two, the absolute fast: no food, water only. Three, the partial fast: going without certain foods and drinks, such as coffee and tea or desserts for the week. Four, the proclaimed or corporate fast, when believers fast and pray together, as the church is about to do. Five, the true spiritual fast, to strengthen repentance and bring the passions under control. Six, the consecration fast, the most serious: an extended fast of a week, two weeks or forty days for personal reasons. Seven, ordinary fasting, which is living a fasted life. This week the church is calling for abstinence from food.

   “God will not only bless us individually, he'll bless us corporately.”

6. Live a fasted life

   The best kind of fast is the fasted life, lived every day, and the church should work towards it. It means taking less than you would like, skipping a meal here and there, and saying no to the second helping. He closes this part with a prayer from his own mornings, which keeps him from going back for more.

   Illustration: Kenneth Hagin fasted and prayed regularly until, he says, God told him He would rather he lived a fasted life. If you like three hamburgers, have one; sixteen cups of tea, have three; nine scoops of ice cream, have one.

   “I said, Lord, deliver me from overeating.”

7. You are going to recover all

   He closes with Jehoshaphat. When Judah began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes and the armies that had come against them destroyed one another. Judah found only the fallen, and so much spoil that it took three days to gather. In the same way, whatever was lost in 2009 and 2010, money or spiritual ground, is coming back as the people fast and pray. It will be by God's Spirit and not by might, and as they humble themselves in the fast God will lift them up in front of those who thought they would never make it.

   Illustration: God will pick you up as a trophy, and all will see and say, 'I thought they'd never make it.'

   “Whatever you lost in 2010 and 2009, whatever you lost, you will recover.”

   • 2 Chronicles 20:22-25
   • Zechariah 4:6