We know that the Lord has called believers, even in the new testament to fast. Jesus didn't say
if you fast, He says when you fast. We know that the early church fasted. The history of the early
church tells us they fasted twice a week. We see apostle Paul served God with fastings and the Lord
calls believers today to fast. One of my favorite sayings is, if you want to last you got to fast.
Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual reasons. Fasting is not starvation, fasting is not
a diet and fasting is not a hunger strike. Fasting is us moving, it's not moving God. It's us being
moved closer, be sensitive and led by the Holy Spirit. Now here are the five types of fastings
you can do as a Christian. The first one is the absolute fast or some people call it the dry
fasting. It's when you don't drink water and you don't eat food. One of those people who did that
was Moses. He did 40 days of a dry fast. Don't try this at home, like this was supernatural. Let's
in fact read the verse in Exodus chapter 34:28 it says," and he was there with the Lord 40 days and
40 nights." I want you to remember this, he was there with the Lord. So this wasn't like you and I
are with the Lord, you know when we spend time in our devotions, the Holy Spirit lives in us. Moses
was actually like physically with God, like this was incredible okay. And in His manifest presence
God was actually there physically with him and it says he neither ate bread nor drunk water and
He wrote, so God wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. And so
this was like supernatural kind of a fast okay. So we are discouraged from doing that because
most of the doctors will agree that after three days if you don't drink water and you don't eat
food you are going to meet the Lord okay and that's not the meeting that you want yet because
the reason why you're fasting is so you can draw near to God to receive His power, His presence and
His purity in your life to fulfill His purpose in your life. And so the goal is not to meet the Lord
physically during fasting. The goal is to get closer spiritually so you can still fulfill
your purpose physically. So that is the first kind of fasting is the dry fast or the absolute
fast. No water and no drink. The other people who did that is actually the city of Nineveh.
They fasted for three days like that. In Jonah chapter 3:7 it says," that the king caused it
to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying,
let neither man nor beast, ouch, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat nor drink
water." I mean that's brutal. Cats couldn't eat, dogs, a little birdie is not gonna get any water,
chickens ain't gonna eat anything, like nobody. Pigs, cows, everybody is going on the fast
and the need was great because God was about to destroy them. And in their way of repentance
before God somehow they thought that this was the way to show humility and brokenness. I think the
people of Nineveh knew more about God than some of us in America or in other countries because so
many people still fight whether Christians should fast or not. This city was pagan and yet they knew
this is the way you humble yourself before God and you fast. Now you don't need to fast to get saved
don't get me wrong. But fasting does show your brokenness. It's not to move God, it's to move
you to a place of humility. And they did that for three days, no water and no food and they made it,
the whole city. The Bible doesn't say that neither of them died and so dry fast, you know,
is okay to do it. Paul went on a three-day fast it was also a dry fast. In acts chapter 9:9 it says:
Now Paul has this encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and he spends three days being blind.
He refuses to eat and drink and the Lord you know, revealed Himself to him. Now as a caution
I personally discourage people from undertaking more than three days of dry fasting or more than
one day of dry fasting because you are really, you need water okay. And so unless you get a clear
directive of the Lord and you're in good health this kind of a fasting is very harmful, could
be very harmful to your health. More than three days will kill you and if you make it four days
and a fifth day you're gonna die and so the Lord doesn't want us to fast again so that we can meet
Him physically. He wants us to fast so that we can meet Him spiritually and so personally I don't do
dry fasting for one reason is because you can last longer on water and what Jesus is living water.
So that's why I don't do dry fasting but I know some people who do it and it works well for them.
The second type of fasting is the normal fast. The normal fast is when you don't eat food but
you only drink water. Example of that is Jesus, Luke chapter 4:2 being tempted for 40 days by the
devil. In those days He ate nothing and afterward when they were ended He was hungry. Now the fact
that it does not say that Jesus did not drink anything indicates that He probably drunk water
because in other instances where it was very clear that Paul, Nineveh and Moses did not drink water.
Bible indicated so and so this was normal fast where you abstain from food completely,
all kinds of food non-stop, pretty much if you're doing a three-day fast, that you for
72 hours you don't eat food, you only drink water or sometimes. We call it the liquid fast where
some people sometimes add a little bit of like lemon or something or some kind of electrolytes
into the water to give them just a slightly boost of energy but the point here is liquid fast. Now
I don't consider this liquid fast for people who shove smoothies or who literally take every single
thing and make a juice out of it because some of these juices and smoothies can be so filling you
actually don't even need to eat you know. Heard of a person who put a burger in the blender
you know and yeah that doesn't count. Just because you can drink it through a straw it does not mean
you're really fasting. So you have to be honest. Unless you really can't go on and you need a
little smoothie to kind of help you not quit and not give up that's different but if you start
looking for these like, loopholes and to do this kind of a fast then you just have to be honest and
ask yourself what are you trying to get out of it. Are you trying to do minimum and get the maximum
out of it or are you're trying to get the minimum in and then get the minimum out? And so it's not
about legalism but it's about commitment and it's about disciplining your flesh and honestly denying
your desires and your passions to pursue God. So the first kind of fasting is the dry fast.
The second one is the normal fast. The third one is the partial fast. The partial fast could be
abstaining from certain foods or abstaining from food for a particular time. Some people
do intermittent fasting where they don't eat breakfast, they only eat lunch and then
dinner. Some people like Daniel for example, he abstained from sweets and meats and the Bible says
that no wine entered into his mouth and he did not anoint his face with oil in Daniel 10:3. And so
a partial fast could be abstaining from meals on the set days or abstaining from certain kinds
of foods, commonly referred to as the Daniel's fast. No sweets, no meats, no dairy. Soups only,
fruit and vegetables only and water. And so some people practice this kind of a fasting especially
for those who cannot go longer without food or for those who have certain medical conditions
which prohibit them from abstaining from foods completely or those that are taking medicine or
some who are pregnant or nursing mothers or in other categories. So that's also a good fast to
consider but if you're in good health just go all the way brother, go away sister. You can do it.
God is with you and I encourage you. Number four is non-food fast. So this is mainly from
people or for people who have medical conditions, non-fast food is the safest way to practice this
spiritual discipline. Like we see Daniel did not anoint himself in Daniel chapter 10:3. That's one
of the ways that you can abstain is I probably would discourage you like, not taking a shower
and not like you know washing your face, brushing your teeth because you know, you
may scare people when you go into the world or not changing your clothes and so but
for Daniel this was a way of abstaining from something. Not only abstaining from sweets, meats
and dairy and wine but he also did not anoint his face and for some people it could be abstaining
from sexual relationship with your spouse. Not with your girlfriend, that's not fasting okay.
You should not be sleeping with your girlfriend in the first place according to the scripture. The
Bible says the marriage bed should be undefiled and fornicators and adulterers God will judge but
within the marriage covenant you can abstain from sexual relationship. Now there's no indication in
the new testament that you have to do that in order to seek the Lord's face but the fact that
Paul mentions that in 1 Corinthians 7:5 gives us a directive, that that's something that is optional.
That is the only scripture that I could see in the new testament where
fasting and prayer is connected to not having sex with your spouse. Maybe it's
taken from the old testament when Moses told the men in Exodus 19:15 he says:
And some people even go as far as during communion or during their fasting times they encourage men
and women not to sleep together based on these premises but we don't see that in the scripture
as a clear directive to abstain from sexual relationship during the time of fasting, unless
some people choose to with consent remember, and then we have to come back together to not allow
satan to tempt us because of lack of self-control. Another thing that we can abstain from that's
non-food is things like certain items, places. People practices for example, it could be social
media, it could be television, it could be certain gatherings, certain social things maybe that bear
no fruit but they can help us by avoiding those things. They can help us to regain our sensitivity
and closeness to God and give us more free time to spend time reading the Word, praying and
studying the scriptures. We see this in Joshua 3:5 that Joshua says: In Genesis 35:4 it says that:
And so not only we see people would separate themselves but in the case of Jacob they actually
took their earrings off but these earrings and this jewelry was dedicated to foreign gods. It
probably had foreign gods engraved in it and so Jacob would bury that. That was their way
of separating themselves to God. Now the fifth fast is the corporate fast. So the corporate
fast is the fast that is called by God through a person that is in leadership position. Now we know
there's a private fast which is done in secret in Matthew chapter 6:16 Jesus gives us clear
directive that when you're personally fasting don't blow a trumpet in front of you, don't try
to do it to appear spiritual. Meaning don't go on social media, hey everybody I'm fasting, I'm
taking a day off from social media, like it's not like somebody's gonna notice if you and I don't
post for one day okay. We're not that important but this kind of a private fast shouldn't be to
draw attention to ourselves but there's a public fast. It's slightly different in the public fast.
It's proclaimed by leaders and it's kind of a public knowledge that everybody's fasting. We
see the Samuel calls call the nation to fast in 1 Samuel 7:6. We see that Esther called the nation
to fast in Esther 4:16. We see that Ezra called people to fast in Ezra 8:21-23 and we see king
of Nineveh declare the fast in Jonah 3:5. These people declared a public fast and the nation,
the people that it concerned they fasted. Israel fasted once a year on the day of atonement and so
they afflicted their souls the Bible says. And so a lot of churches do it in the beginning of
the year. Sometimes a local pastor will declare that the Lord is leading him and the local church
for a week of fasting. When that happens you know that is a green light for you to fast. For those
of you like, oh but God didn't speak to me. Well He doesn't have to. People who were under the
leadership that time when Esther was the queen, God didn't have to speak to them. He moved Esther,
he moved Ezra, He moved Samuel. He moved king of Nineveh. He moved other people too fast and
so I would encourage you that as we're approaching the new year or depending on when you're watching
this video that as your local church declares a fast take it personally, this is God leading you
into a fast. A lot of breakthroughs can happen. I've seen people get healed. I've seen people
get breakthrough in the area they couldn't get a breakthrough through fasting and I have
another video about health benefits of fasting. I personally experienced tremendous breakthrough in
my life through simple one day three day, 21 days and 40 day fast. And so I encourage you to jump
into this, embrace this lifestyle as a Christian and see God break through in your life in amazing
supernatural ways. Hey thank you for watching this video. Which fast do you practice? Which
fast have you never tried before? Drop that in in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.