Spiritual Fasting

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual fasting?

Spiritual fasting is about denying physical needs to focus on spiritual growth and dependence on God. The Bible teaches that spiritual fasting is an outward expression of inner commitment and denial of the flesh. It is not merely a ritual but a heartfelt dedication to God, often accompanied by prayer. In fasting, believers acknowledge their spiritual needs as they seek greater communion with God, as seen in the call to 'turn unto the Lord your God' with fasting and weeping (Joel 2:12). This act signifies our earnestness in seeking God's mercy and intervention in our lives.

Q: How do we know that prayer and fasting are necessary for ministry?

Prayer and fasting are essential as they cultivate dependency on God and align our hearts with His will for ministry. In the sermon, it is emphasized that prayer and fasting are vital components of a believer's walk with God and service in ministry. They serve to strengthen one's faith and focus on spiritual realities. As Matthew 17 illustrates, the disciples could not cast out demons due to their lack of prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). This teaches us that true effectiveness in ministry comes from deep reliance on God through prayer and the sacrificial nature of fasting, which demonstrates our commitment to spiritual matters over worldly concerns.

Q: Why is fasting important for Christians?

Fasting helps Christians prioritize spiritual needs over physical needs and deepens their relationship with God. Fasting is essential for Christians as it represents a denial of self and a prioritization of spiritual growth. By setting aside physical needs, believers focus on seeking God earnestly and humbly, reflecting their dependence on Him. The word 'rend your heart and not your garments' illustrates that true fasting is not about the outward act but about a sincere heart devoted to God (Joel 2:13). Fasting aids in cultivating a reliance on God's power and grace, which are fundamental to spiritual ministry and personal sanctification.

Back in Matthew 17 for a little bit, we saw how that our Lord mentioned three things that were lacking. If we examine this in simplicity of what's taking place, Here's a man in need, a sinner that needs the Savior. A man in desperate case, his son was possessed by a devil.

And the disciples were not able to help him. So they brought him to the Lord. And this teaches us so beautifully concerning the ministry that we're blessed to be involved in here, the ministry of our Lord, as the disciples were then. He's included us in his ministry in the same three things that were lacking in them will be lacking in us. You know, they were unable to do anything about this man's problem. But then when they brought him to the Lord, the Lord did something about it. Well, they didn't need to physically be in the presence of the Lord. They could have come to the Lord in prayer.

He said, prayer, this happens. This is only accomplished through prayer and fasting. And he had already mentioned their unbelief. So faith, Prayer and fasting are the three things that we see here that are needful in this situation. When we're carrying out, when we're involved in, when we're giving ourselves to the ministry of the Savior, as these disciples were, we need to pay attention to those three things. You know, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That's the first time faith comes, and that's every time faith comes. When there's an increase of faith, when there's a cultivation of faith, the Lord increases our faith over time, and He does it the same way He gave it, by the preaching of the Gospel, by hearing from Him, by communing with Him in His Word, by learning of Him. by experiencing the things that we say we believe, by actually experiencing them, He exercises our faith, and He increases our faith that way.

But also prayer, they could have brought this man to Him in prayer, without physically coming where He was. And we talked about that, prayer is resigning if we're gonna be effective in the ministry and who doesn't want, if you're in the ministry, you don't want to be a failure in it. But the way we're not a failure is through his strength, through him, through coming to him for our strength, for our energy, for our wisdom, to know what to do, what to say at any given time. We don't, and our ministry is not you know, what would Jesus do, not doing what, it's what did he do?

It's telling people what he did do, what he accomplished when he did it. And that's where we go back to every time we see it here in the last couple of chapters of our text in Matthew 16 and 17, we see, I believe three or four times where the Lord says, I must be delivered into the hands of men and suffer and be killed and raised again the third day. The gospel is the ministry that we find ourselves in. The commission is not complicated. Go and preach. And you remember what he said after that? I, when you go, I'll be with you always and I, Those that hear you and believe, I will save them. And if those that don't believe you, I'll damn them. I'll send them to hell. That's his business. And the whole ministry is his business. We come to him with every need, with every desire, with every problem, with every issue, with every trouble that arises.

We don't try in the strength of the flesh It's not how to build a church. It's how to trust Him. It's not how to get people saved. It's how to honor Him in the saving of sinners. And that's by prayer. It's by faith. It's by prayer. And it's by denying self. Fasting is a denial of our earthly needs and wants in preference to our spiritual needs and wants. That's the ministry too.

You know, Paul said, I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done. He said, I've been hungry. I've been thirsty. I've been in situations where I didn't have anything to wear. I've been cold. I've been shipwrecked. I've been whipped and beaten. That's fasting. That's to die. He said, I count not my life dear unto myself. Fasting is a symbolic thing. It is an outward expression of inner commitment and denial of the flesh.

And this whole thing, saving of sinners is the ministry. God is saving people. He has a universe because He has a people. And He included us in the ministry of bringing those sheep home to Himself. Faith, prayer, and fasting. And God has ordained these means. Like he did for the casting out of devils, he gave the disciples the gift to do that. But it required faith in him, prayer to him, dedication to him.

So it wasn't them doing it in the flesh. We read that passage in Acts where Simon said, why are you looking at us as though by our own strength we did something? Like we did something. This is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who you nailed to a cross. Men don't have the power to do this. This is the Son of God. He gave us this ministry. And that's how it is with us. He uses means, he uses a man.

The Ethiopian eunuch said, how can I understand this except some man should guide me? Just some man that God raises up and gives him the burden of the word of the Lord. So the Lord, this man was in such a He said, I brought him to thy disciples. And he said, Lord, have mercy, have mercy on my son.

For he is a lunatic. He's out of his mind. And that's our case by nature, demon possessed and lunatic. Everything that we know is wrong. We think we know who God is. We're wrong. We're wrong about him. We think we know who Christ is. We don't know who Christ is by nature. We don't have the slightest idea. Just listen to somebody that doesn't know him talk about him for a little bit. Sore vexed.

He falleth into the fire and oft into the water, and we learn in the other, I think the Luke version, or maybe the Mark version of this story, that the devil tossed him in there in the water and the fire to destroy him, to destroy. But the Lord was already with this boy, wasn't he? And think about that for a second. Do you think Satan has the power to destroy us? To absolutely just annihilate us.

You know, he wanted to sift Simon Peter as wheat. But what did the Lord say? I've interceded for you. I prayed for you. That your faith failed on there's faith again. It's our it's our union to Christ. That saves us. It's by that it's by that faith that he gives that we're. United to Christ and have hope in him a perfect hope But notice that that this this this young boy was gonna come before the Lord face to face one day And the Lord was gonna cast this demon out of this boy So when Satan tried to kill him before he wasn't able to do it I reckon if the Lord didn't stop him. He could probably get it done you reckon He took everything that Job had, everything dear to his heart, but God said, don't take his life. That's not yours. I'm not giving you that. And so he didn't. You think he could have?

It's the Lord standing between us and Satan. He could destroy us. He's seeking whom he may devour, and he will absolutely devour us unless the Lord intercedes, unless the Lord supports and keeps us in the faith, unless the Lord denies Satan and rejects him. And so even before there was grace, there was grace. The Lord was preserving his soul even before he met the Savior.

And that's true of all of us. You know him. But remember again, I want to I want to kind of stress this. We talked about it this morning, but. I believe it was in Luke chapter 10 where the disciples were given this power as as we see in our text that they had it, but they couldn't couldn't get it done in this case, and we wonder why. But we know this.

We know that when they were able to do that and they cast out demons, they came back to the Lord and said, they were excited about that. They were excited about the power that they had. And they said, look, the demons are subject unto us through thy name. They gave him honorable mention, but they said, the demons are subject unto us. Where did faith go? Where did prayer go? Where did fasting go? All of a sudden it's us. Look what we can do.

And that'll happen in this ministry if we're not careful. It'll happen in this ministry. And we know ourselves now enough to know that it will. We get to thinking maybe we have some capability that we're spiritually superior somehow. We neglect prayer, our faith becomes weak and we neglect our utter dependence and leaning all of our weight and all of our burden on the Lord and finding all of our strength in Him. Now He's going to bring us to the place though where we're going to confess our utter dependence upon Him. We're going to come like these disciples did and said, we're failures.

This man needs you, not us. That's true now. That's true now. That's always true. Sinners don't need me. They don't need you. They need the Savior. They need a person. They don't need to get smarter. They need the living son of God. to sovereignly and with almighty power, give them a new heart, give them faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, save their souls. How do spiritual demons get cast out? Well, we believe and we pray.

And to whatever extent the flesh must be denied, we deny it. Nobody can follow Him except they take up His cross and do so. We're going to die to self now to whatever extent. We're going to die all the way to self in the sense that if we ever see the Son of God and know Him, we'll never let anything get in the way between us and Him by His grace.

We're going to confess like these disciples our utter dependence upon Him. They found out that the devils weren't subject to them. They were subject to their master. We might as well find that out right now, you reckon? This would be a good time for us to find that out. We're never told anywhere in the text that the disciples prayed, that they cried to the Lord. And they couldn't do what was needed.

But, This man, this father, he did cry out to the Lord. What's necessary, these are cast out how? By calling upon him, by prayer. And what did that father do? Oh Lord, if there's anything you can do. Oh Lord, have mercy, have mercy on my son. Have mercy. That's what it takes.

It takes us coming to the end of ourselves and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all that we need, because he is indeed all that we need. If the Lord is going to use us, we're going to cry out to him, aren't we? We're going to cry out to him, Lord have mercy, God have mercy. Then, when he cried out, a miracle took place. Just what the Lord said was necessary. When it happened, the miracle of His grace happened.

Now fasting, let's talk about fasting a little bit. Do I fast? Yes. Not like I should, but I do. And so do you, if you know the Lord, if you're involved in this ministry, if you're a part of His ministry in this world. Fasting, as we talked about a little bit this morning in Old Testament times, was done involuntarily. It wasn't planned. It wasn't a ritual. Nothing in the worship of God is a ritual. It never has been.

You say, well, they did do things on certain days in the Old Covenant. Yeah, but that was a reminder. It was a reminder, and God gave them days and things like that so that they wouldn't neglect it. This is the day we're going to do this. And it was a constant reminder of who He is. It was the Feast Days that pictured Christ. It was the Day of Atonement that pictured Christ. It was everything was designed to set their minds and hearts back from the cares of this world that choke out the Word back to the Son of God. That's what the Lord has ordained here, His table. This is to remember, remember. Well, I haven't forgotten. Yes, you have. Yes, you have. I have too. He brings us back over and over and over again to the simplicity that's in Christ.

That's why most preaching is inconsistent with the Lord's ordinances. It's inconsistent. If the preaching is complicated, and there's all these points, and you have to keep, no, you have to keep like, OK, you know, you have to create like a body of divinity in your mind and like, OK, this is true and that makes this true and all that. No, no, no. It's very simple.

It's the son of God came down to this earth and became flesh that he might represent me, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, for us, for his people. and he shed his precious blood to redeem us from our sins. And religion has made it complicated. There's nothing complicated at all about Christ shedding his blood to redeem, and when he shed his blood to redeem, he redeemed. There's nothing complicated about that. It's when you try to wedge your way into that somehow, wedge your will into it. Trying to make that up to you, that gets real complicated. Because it's blasphemous. It's not according to the truth.

The simplicity that's in Christ is that salvation is of the Lord. It's not up to you. We preach Christ and Him crucified. And salvation is of Him. It's up to Him. He'll add to the church daily such as should be saved. He will open eyes, He will give faith. The Word will not profit you unless it's mixed with faith in your heart. And faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's just as simple as it can be. What gets complicated is people say, wait, well, where's my part in that? Don't complicate it.

Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Fall at his feet and ask for mercy. He gives mercy. But fasting, we do that. It's like when David's child was dying. I use that example. And as a Jewish tradition, to stop eating for a time as a sign of earnest attention to prayer. It wasn't a ritual, but it was something that they did. So you could call it a tradition. But to stop eating, to devote yourself to prayer and to God.

Prayer and fasting are almost always mentioned together in the Old Testament and the New. Not mentioned a whole lot in the New Testament, but in the Old. Prayer and fasting, you look it up, they're always together because they're two sides of the same coin. You're neglecting bodily needs because you have spiritual needs that supersede those. And so you dedicate yourself to prayer, and fasting goes along with that. They're always mentioned.

But what fasting essentially is, is the denial of self. And this, in its true form, is a spiritual denial, not a physical one. Everything like prayer and fasting and all that, the physical, it's all spiritual. The physical takes place as an expression of the spiritual.

Like with prayer, if you want to get on your knees and pray, that's perfectly fine. If you want to stand up and pray, that's perfectly fine. If you want to sit on the couch and pray, You know, we think of the outward form and give more credence to that than we do what's going on in the heart, what's necessary. And I happen to think it's a good thing sometimes just to get on our knees, if you're physically capable of doing that. Paul said, I bow my knee unto the Father. And what I like about that is what I've told you before is, You know, you're pretty much, what else are you gonna do? And even so, our minds still wandered.

You know, the Lord went apart to pray. That word apart is associated with prayer a lot. Because you gotta come out of this world. We gotta forget about this world. We've gotta exert our hearts and pour out our hearts before God. without any distraction, without any of the vanities of this world intruding upon that. That's why he went apart. He went into a mountain apart and he prayed.

And if you want to get on your knees, I think that's a good thing to do. But the important thing, what's necessary, what makes it prayer is bowing with the heart, bowing with the heart. You can stay on your knees, you know, I think it was Martin Luther, they used to climb up the steps of the cathedral on their knees as some kind of, you know, to impress God with their piety, I suppose. And one day when he was doing that, the Lord saved him. The Lord made him see the vanity of that and he got up. And then the Lord saved him. Listen to Joel 2, listen carefully to this, verse 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments." That was another tradition of the Jews. It was an outward expression of great sorrow, great loss, that experienced loss. They would rend their garment. And that pictured the rending of their hearts.

But God said, rend your heart before me and not your garment. Instead of rending your garment and that just being a ritual, let's try it the other way. Let's do it the other way. Let's flip that. And don't even bother rending your garment, but rend your heart before me.

That's what we're talking about with fasting. And listen, I'm going to start over. Therefore also now saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.

For he is gracious, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness. That's true fasting. That's true prayer. That's true faith. It happens at heart. It's the work of God on the heart, and it's the work of the heart thereafter before God. Fasting is what our Lord had just said in the context of our passage. What did he say? If any man will come after me, let him deny himself. That's what it is. How are demons cast out this morning, this evening? How are demons cast out in the ministry that the Lord has given us? Well, we believe, don't we, by his grace? And like this man, faith is not perfect.

He said, Lord, I believe, help. I think that that word help should always be included when we say, Lord, I believe. Help. Help mine unbelief. That prayer, you might say, well, boy, that sounds real wishy-washy. It doesn't even sound like he believes that much. That prayer got the job done as far as God using it to get the demons cast out and his son to be saved. So I don't reckon there's a whole lot wrong with that prayer. Lord, I believe. Help me. Help me believe. Help me believe. Prayer. We're shut up to Him. We got nowhere to go. Lord, to whom shall we go? We're going to come to Him in prayer and fasting.

If I'm going to do what I do, self has got to be denied. and you say well how much do you have to deny self as much as it takes as much as it takes and if you're going to truly be a part of the ministry of christ in this world self must be denied if necessary however long is necessary we've got to deny our own ambitions in this world and our own pleasures in this world, our own fulfillment of the flesh, even necessities. It wasn't that they gave up going to the opera house, they gave up eating for as long as necessary in order to dedicate themselves, in order to rend their hearts before the Lord and cry unto God. Do we love our children that much? Do we love them enough for that?

Self must be denied. The dead are going to have to bury their dead so that we could follow him. Somehow this is going to have to be all about him and his glory. If demons are going to be cast out, he must increase and we must decrease if demons are going to be cast out. Can't play at it and see God work in our midst.

In our study a long time ago, in Exodus chapter 32, Moses came down out of the mountain after meeting with God face to face, and his face shone. He was in the presence of God in so much that his face shone. And he saw the evil that was taking place at the base of the mountain, how that they were worshiping a false god. And he cast down the tables of stone that the Lord had written his law with his finger in the presence of Moses. And he cast down those tables of stone and they were broken. And the golden calf that the people were worshiping, he ground that golden calf up into powder. And he put the dust, the gold dust in water and he made them all drink of it. And after that, Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and he said to every one of them, he drew a line in the sand, and he said, who is on the Lord's side, come and stand with me. That puts things in very simple terms, doesn't it?

Who are you gonna worship? Who are you gonna worship? Who's God and who's not? And those who didn't, you think about that, they had been found out, they had been caught in their sin, but they had no shame. There were many of them that still would not cross that line and say, I'm with the Lord. I'm with the Lord. They still wouldn't do it. They were still obstinate. They would not confess their evil. They would not admit that they were wrong. They would not be ashamed of worshiping an idol of brass, a cow of all things. And they died that day to a man. They all died that day. And those who stepped across that line lived.

And they said, we're on the Lord's side. We're on the Lord's side. He's always been on our side. But we're gonna let it be known today, we're on his side. By his grace, we're on his side. Now, if you wanna know what fasting is, ask yourself this question and answer it in your heart. When they took sides with the Lord, we're on the Lord's side. Who did they take sides against? That's what we have to do. By the grace of God, that's what we have to do.

This table was such a precious thing. It's easy for this to get reduced to a ritual if we don't think about what we're doing. The Lord gave us this simple ordination, this table to commemorate himself. He didn't say to do anything, but remember, to take the cup, take the bread. He broke it and gave it to him and said, take this and eat it. This is my body, which is broken for you. And likewise, he took also the cup and said, take this and drink it. Drink it. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink all of it.

And he said, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Remember what Christ did for us. It's never been easier to forget it than it is in this world in which we live. To forget what's important, to forget what's vital, to forget the simplicity that's in our Savior. Pray the Lord would impress it on us tonight and give us the grace to remember him truly in our hearts.

Spiritual Fasting

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual fasting?

How do we know that prayer and fasting are necessary for ministry?

Why is fasting important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

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Spiritual Fasting

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual fasting?

How do we know that prayer and fasting are necessary for ministry?

Why is fasting important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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