- Why you should fast.
Number one is fasting is the part of a Christian discipline.
Important people in the Bible practiced fasting:
Like Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, Anna, Paul, Jesus,
just to name a few.
You were created to fast.
Think about it: we sleep about eight hours a day,
that means that one-third of our life we sleep.
So if you live 75 years, that's 25 years of sleeping,
9,125 days of sleeping.
And when you're sleeping you're fasting.
That's why the morning meal is called breakfast.
It's because you're breaking the fast.
So fasting is put into your body
and if you're going to live 75 years,
25 years you have fasted.
I mean how incredible is that.
But of course, fasting is more than just not just eating
when you're sleeping.
That time when you're not eating during those eight hours,
the reason why you're not eating is because you're sleeping.
So fasting is really abstaining from food
for spiritual reasons.
Not because you're trying to recover
or get a good night's sleep.
Jesus Himself said, "When you fast,"
He didn't say, "If you fast."
So that means Jesus expects His followers to fast
the same way He expects them to pray,
He expects them to be generous,
and He expects them to love their neighbor.
Jesus modeled fasting and therefore,
fasting is supposed to be a part of every Christian's journey
and every Christian's sanctification.
Now, do you need to fast to be saved? Of course not!
But you need to fast to be sanctified,
to be more like Jesus Christ.
The second reason of fasting is you must understand
is the first temptation that Adam, Israel and Jesus had
was with food.
And I do believe there is an importance in that.
Like for example let's look at Adam.
Adam's temptation was with eating. It was with food.
We see that God clearly stated,
"Not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
Not to think-- God didn't say, "Don't think about it,
God didn't say, "Don't look at it"
He said not to eat it.
We see with Israel same thing. The moment they exited Egypt
and they went through the Red Sea, they experienced hunger,
they experienced thirst, and they started to complain.
So for first few days they were forced to fast.
Of course they whined about it, let me read you the verse.
It's really an interesting verse; Exodus 16:3.
So that means that they experienced hunger.
And instead of drawing near to God
which is what happens when you fast,
they just started to complain and say,
"God is trying to kill us."
They should have fasted. It wouldn't hurt them.
It would hurt their flesh
but their spiritual life would have been just fine.
And they didn't.
Jesus experienced food temptation.
His first temptation we see that was involving food.
Food is good. We know that food is a gift from God
but it's given to satisfy us,
and it's given to us as a source of our strength
meaning physical strength. It's like our fuel.
Unfortunately, a lot of people have made food their idol.
They've made food to become like their spiritual medicine.
Some people medicate themselves by over-eating
and some people, they use their fridge as a point of comfort
instead of relying on the Holy Spirit as their comfort.
That's why fasting becomes difficult for them
because they have to address this unhealthy relationship
they have with food.
They've made food into an idol instead of a fuel for their body.
That's where the temptation with food comes in.
You know, gluttony is still a sin.
Gluttony is when we put food over God.
Gluttony is when we eat more than we should.
Gluttony is when we have this obsessive desire
and lust after food.
Some people don't see that as lusting food
because they think well, food is not bad.
But when you lust after pornography or other things
then that's bad.
My friend, any lust of the flesh is not good.
And we have to live our life disciplining our flesh,
and overcoming the temptation with food.
I really believe that if you overcome temptation with food,
you will train your body, your flesh,
how to overcome the rest of the temptations.
Because really fasting is a preparation for a temptation.
You are training your body what to do when it wants something
that God says, it's not what this body should have.
You're pretty much training your appetites,
"Hey, this is forbidden. This is not right. This is not good."
And when you don't develop a life of fasting,
your flesh is not disciplined.
And during the time of temptation,
it will control you instead of you controlling it.
The third reason for fasting is, fasting is trading the bowl
for the blessing. What I mean by that is
you are trading the temporary for the eternal.
You are trading the physical for the spiritual.
You probably remember what I'm talking about now
by Jacob and Esau's story.
Jacob traded the bowl of soup for the birthright,
for the blessing.
And Esau, he traded the blessing for the bowl of soup.
Let's put it in today's terminology.
Jacob fasted, and Esau didn't fast.
Esau had all the blessings.
All he needed to do was to go for a short time of hunger
and he would maintain his blessing.
Instead of fasting for a short time,
he yielded to the cravings of his flesh
and because of that he lost his blessing.
I wonder how many people lose God's blessing in their life
not salvation, but blessing of God, breakthrough in their life
because when the Lord wants them to fast, they feast. Hmmm!
Jacob on the other hand, he had a meal prepared, it was his;
he decided to forgo. He decided to let go of that
and he fasted, because now his meal was eaten by his brother.
Because of that fasting he got the birthright.
So he traded the bowl to get the blessing.
'Cause I hear a lot of people saying,
"Oh, Esau he traded the blessing for the bowl,"
yes, but Jacob traded the bowl for the blessing.
Do you know that you can trade your bowl for a blessing?
I'm not saying you can squeeze God, corner God,
but what I'm saying is there is breakthrough
and there is definitely benefits to fasting.
Your sensitivity to God will be sharpened.
Your discipline will increase.
You will become more like Christ
because you're doing what He did.
And you will gain mastery over your flesh and over yourself
which is the fruit of the Spirit- self-control.
We are not talking about some kind of a Middle-Eastern
or some kind of Buddhism or something where you practice
discipline for the sake of discipline.
No, we are talking about discipline for the sake of devotion.
Discipline for the sake of pursuit of the Lord.
That's what the purpose of fasting is.
Not for the sake of losing weight; it's not for diet,
it's for devotion.
C'mon somebody!
Number four is, fasting increases your spiritual weight
while decreasing your physical weight.
Now, fasting does not increase your spiritual worth.
It's important to notice that.
For those people who struggle in their identity in Christ
might watch a video like this and feel like,
"Oh man, God doesn't love me."
That is the farthest thing from the truth
because fasting doesn't make you be more loving to God.
God doesn't love you more or less because you fast and pray.
God's love for you is eternal.
God's love for you is unconditional.
So your worth doesn't change with fasting,
but your spiritual weight does.
Your awareness of your authority in Christ does.
Your awareness of your anointing--
A lot of times what happens during fasting is like an olive.
Olive has all the oil inside but unless the olive is crushed,
the oil doesn't come out.
How do you extract oil from olive? You crush it.
So fasting becomes a season of crushing.
A season of surrender, of consecration.
A season of brokenness. A season of contriteness.
You are breaking your pride and oil begins to flow.
It's not that you get the oil.
No, the oil is released. The oil is in you.
The anointing is in you, the Bible says.
But when you go through the season of the Nile,
the season of consecration, the season of sanctification,
the season of purification, something begins to happen:
You release the oil that you've always had.
And so fasting helps you to increase your spiritual weight
not your spiritual worth.
And while in fasting you can lose physical weight,
I do believe you get it back as a spiritual weight.
Personally, I've seen huge breakthroughs in my life
through fasting.
Let me say again: through fasting.
The breakthrough doesn't come from fasting,
breakthrough comes from God.
And fasting is one of the ways we seek Him.
It's seeking God with diligence.
The Bible says, "He rewards those who diligently seek Him."
I believe the word "diligent",
that effective prayer of the righteous man is fasting.
Fasting is a way you humble yourself before God.
And I've seen chains broken.
I've seen certain things I've battled with
where the Lord has given me victory in those areas
when I humbled myself to fast
because fasting is not something that boosts me,
it's something that breaks me.
I've seen my ministry go to another level
through an extended season of fasting.
And it's something that we do as a team.
This is not to brag. This is to invite you and say,
"Hey, let's do together. Let's get broken together."
You know, Jesus before He multiplied bread guess what He did?
He broke the bread.
See, some of you you want the multiplication
you want a blessing to the world,
you say, "God, I want to be a used by You."
And God's like, "Are you willing to let Me break you?"
"Oh, no God, I don't want to do that.
I just want to eat my hamburger and my chips and drink my Coke."
That's not the way of the breaking.
That's not the way of the breakthrough.
That's not the way of being a blessing.
I've seen that personally, firsthand.
And so, I'm not a special kid. Okay?
I don't have what it takes to be successful.
I really believe that it's the grace of God.
And the key to the grace of God is humility.
And the key to humility is obedience.
And the key to obedience is fasting.
So I want to invite you to do that.
I want to invite you to develop that as a lifestyle.
Don't just fast when you have problems.
Don't just fast when you have some kind of issues.
You know, fast because you want to draw closer to God.
Again, God doesn't love you more because you fast.
God doesn't love you less if you don't fast.
But it's about your being broken.
And if you are two loaves and two fish
and you feel like , "I don't have what it takes,"
just give yourself into God's hands.
but I gotta warn you, "He's going to start breaking you."
God doesn't bless what He doesn't break. Hmmm!
God doesn't release oil out of an olive until He crushes it.
Unless the grain seed falls into the ground and dies,
it remains one.
Jesus says, "If you want to find life,
you have got to lose it."
So the price for being used by God is you gotta be broken.
And that's really what fasting helps us.
Now, you can still be stubborn and fast.
But fasting helps to pave a way to brokenness
which yields to breakthrough,
which yields to us being a blessing to the world.
Thank you for watching this video.
Hey, what is some of the reasons you fast?
Let me know in the comments below.