(Messiah's 20th Command)
By Brother R. Michel Lankford
Matthew 6:16-18"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites Do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will Not be noticed by men, But by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18 NASB
Messiah emphasizes three particular religious disciplines within His first sermon. I believe that He Emphasized these particular practices because He expected His followers to implement these things as a regular and frequent part of our own daily lives. The three spiritual disciplines that Yeshua Messiah especially emphasized were:
• Voluntarily contributing to meet the needs of others (Matthew 6:1-4
) • Personal Prayer (Matthew 6:5-13
) • Fasting (Matthew 6:16-18
) It is worth remembering that with each of the disciplines of giving to the needs of others, praying, and fasting, Messiah does not use the word 'if', but rather in each case, He specifically uses the word "when." That is significant, because it demonstrates that in the eyes of the Messiah, giving to the needs of others, praying, and fasting should become essential and normal disciplines for any true God follower. According to Messiah, it is never a question of whether or not we will engage in these disciplines, because He takes it for granted that any God follower would in fact fully engage in such essential practices. Since Messiah assumes that any true God follower would give, pray, and fast, the only issues that He addresses are those relating to how we should practice these disciplines in the most effective manner in order to achieve the best eternal results.
It is also essential to recall that according to Messiah, His specific commands regarding each of these practices is exactly the same. When we give, when we pray, or when we fast, we should not do it in such a way as to advertise or call unnecessary attention to what we are doing. These things are to be done so that God sees it and approves, and not in an effort to gain praise and approval of other human beings. If our motives and objectives in giving, praying, or fasting is set on gaining the approval, recognition and praise from human beings, we will then lose the praise and recognition of God in our sacrifice. In such a case, it would mean that we have given, prayed or fasted in vain, and we would render our sacrifice meaningless. So, in all our giving, praying, and fasting, our only motive and effort should be directed exclusively toward pleasing God. Only then will our offerings of giving, prayer and fasting be praiseworthy and achieve eternally worthwhile results.
It is also notable that Messiah gave these instructions not only because it is the most God honoring way to do things, but also as one way to counteract the leaven or the sin of the Pharisees.
The religious leaders of Messiah day had fallen into the snare of appearing outwardly righteous to others while they were privately indulging in all manner of wickedness. Yeshua was trying to arrest such spiritual cancer by eliminating the concept of practicing these behaviors for public viewing.
Understanding Fasting
Among the three disciplines that Messiah emphasized, I believe that fasting is the most under taught, underappreciated, and it is certainly the least practiced in modern-day American Christendom. I believe that part of the reason for this is that in our modern mindset, the ancient practice of fasting seems a bit outdated and mysterious, and so the importance and benefits of fasting get lost. Therefore this Bible study will attempt to unpack what fasting is, what the benefits and purposes of fasting are, and then discuss some practical ways of implementing fasting into our regular life experience.In modern-day Christendom it's become popular to repackage and redesign fasting into a more appetizing prospect (please pardon the pun), by suggesting that people can "fast" from such things as electronics, recreational activities and so forth. While these things can certainly be beneficial, giving up these things is more accurately called a sacrificial gift. However, temporarily giving up electronics or other earthly pleasures cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered fasting before the LORD. In Scripture, all forms of fasting include giving up food in some fashion. In other words there is no real fasting without giving up some food in some manner.
The Real Purposes of Fasting
I believe that part of the reason that fasting is so under taught and underutilized in our modern-day is that we are losing understanding of the benefits and purposes of fasting. So I will try to use some easy illustrations to explain these things. First, we need to remember that the human being is made up of three essential portions:The spirit: The spirit part of the human being is the portion of us that will live forever somewhere. We will either live in heaven with God, or in hell which is the place that was only intended for the devil and the demons who rebelled against God. Whenever a human being sins against God, the human spirit becomes defiled. Whenever a person receives Yeshua Messiah as Lord and Savior and becomes born-again, God fulfills the promise He made long ago and replaces our defiled human spirit, and puts the Holy Spirit within us in its place (Ezekiel 36:25-27
). The soul: The soul part of the human being consists of our mind; (our thinking and attitudes), our will; (the part of the human being where we make our determinations and choices about what actions we will choose to take), and our emotions; (this is where our feelings live and originally surface to inform our mind; emotions like happiness, sadness, compassion or anger etc. all originate here.
The body: This is the part of the human being with which we are all the most familiar. It consists of our physical brain and all of our organs and physical structures and our five physical senses.
Now, the three major parts of the human being; our spirit, soul and body intertwine and interact with one another. IF the ideal situation is working flawlessly inside the human being, then the Holy Spirit should be voluntarily given complete charge of the human being. In such a case, the Holy Spirit would fill us to overflowing and would overflow into our soul and would transform our mind, our will and our emotions to always completely agree and coincide with God, His Love, and His Righteousness. Once this has been thoroughly accomplished, of course we would make all our choices in total agreement with God and His Righteousness, which of course would overflow into how our physical bodies behave because we would direct all our actions to agree with God, His Love, and His Righteousness. So, there you have a brief snapshot; a glimpse into the ideal situation.
Unfortunately none of us live constantly in the ideal situation. Before we truly heard The gospel and submitted under the Lordship and salvation of Yeshua Messiah, our human spirit was decaying and dying, since it was separated from God, (the only source of all true life), because of sin; the transgression of God’s Law. As a result, the soul portion of our being became stronger and stronger in a vain effort to compensate for our dying human spirit which was rendered crippled by sin. Over the years of living in the sinful world we became quite adept at allowing our soul to rule the roost. Before coming to Messiah we became quite accustomed to allowing our own soul to be Lord and Master of our lives. We made all of our decisions and choices according to what seemed best to us in our own human intellect (Proverbs 14:12
; Proverbs 16:25; Proverbs 26:12). The problem is that the vast majority of the time, human wisdom and intellect is hostile against God (Romans 8:5-8), it is driven by sinful selfish ambition (James 3:13-16). So while we think that doing things our own way is freedom, this actually leads to more sin against God, which in reality leads to slavery instead of freedom (John 8:31-38), and eventually this leads to spiritual death and desolation (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23). Before receiving Messiah we were driven by our own intellect and emotions, and what we perceived to be the needs of our own intellect, our own desires, and our own physical cravings. Our mind, our will and emotions and our physical cravings drove all of our decisions. Our soul and body ruled. Unfortunately the deadly habit of allowing our mind will and emotions to rule our decisions and behaviors does not automatically go away when we become born-again and receive Messiah. When we are born again and love Yeshua, we desperately want the Holy Spirit that is working in us to have the control He should have, but our soul and body have grown so entirely accustomed to being in charge and directing our lives, so that our soul and body still have an incredibly difficult time relinquishing their long-held dominion over our lives, to the control of the Holy Spirit where such control truly belongs. That is why there is such a struggle inside the born-again believer. As it is written:
Galatians 5:17This is why the believers in Rome were specifically told NOT to think according to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind (Romans 12:1-2
cf. Romans 8:5-8; Romans12:3; Colossians 3:2; Philippians 2:5-8; Philippians 4:8; 1 Peter 2:2; Hebrews 3:15; Hebrews 4:7; Matthew 21:28-32 ). Consider: If transformation in the soul of the believer happened automatically and instantaneously upon receiving Messiah, then all these instructions to direct our mind, our desires, and our willingness would not have been necessary.
The Benefits of Fasting
1. Personal Recalibration The ultimate purpose of fasting then is to recalibrate the human being. It is about subduing the soul and the body which was once so completely accustomed to being in charge, and instead forcibly putting the Spirit back in charge. It's about breaking the habit of allowing our soul and our physical bodies to rule our lives, and instead we forcibly submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit's authority.Fasting is the voluntary choice of our will to purposely weaken our soul and body so that they will relinquish their vice grip over the control of our lives and return it to the Spirit where it rightly belongs. Fasting is about disciplining our soul and our body to settle down and allow the Spirit to rule in our being as God intended. Our mind will and emotions, and our physical bodies have grown too strong by being allowed to obtain too much control through being overindulged, so we must periodically refuse to indulge these things in order that the Spirit in us can exercise proper control in our lives. That is why fasting is said to discipline, humble or chastise the soul (Psalm 35:13
; Psalm 69:10). While the primary objective for fasting is to establish a closer more intimate communion with God on a personal level, Scripture also points out that there are other secondary, but still critical reasons for fasting. The secondary reasons are broken down into the following broad categories:
2. Submission to God (usually in the midst of His discipline or correction 1 Samuel 7:6
; Joel 1:14-2:12) 3. Personal or National Repentance (Jonah chapter 3; Nehemiah 1:4-2:10
) 4. Seeking God's Saving Deliverance from what would be otherwise an overwhelming force. This could be deliverance from physical calamity, a powerful physical enemy, or Seeking deliverance from evil demonic powers (2 Chronicles 20:1-25
; Esther 4:1-17; Matthew 17:14-21). 5. Seeking wisdom direction and understanding from God (Daniel 9:3
, 20-27) 6. Consecration for ministry and service to the Lord (Acts 13:1-5
) 7. Overcoming Satan and temptation through self-denial (Matthew 4; Luke 4; Matthew 17:14-21
) Different Types of Fasts
While the New Testament does not prescribe precisely when and how believers should fast, the fulfillment Scriptures of the New Testament does tell us that the Hebrew Scriptures were written for our instruction, so that through them we can learn perseverance and maintain our hope (Romans 15:4). So what do the first writing of the Whole Testament us about the different types of fasting? Which type of fasting one uses and its duration depends on the specific purpose for each particular fast, as well as the particular conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit which the believer receives on any given occasion. Scripture does designate different types of common fasts, which are as follows: 1. The Total and Complete Fast: This is by far the most radical form of fasting. In a total fast, one will neither eat nor drink anything at all for a specified period of time. It's usually reserved for times of great need or dire distress. For example, Queen Esther and all the Israelites engaged in this type of fast when the Hebrew people were facing annihilation, and a way needed to be found to change the situation (Esther chapter 4). Although it may vary at the Lord's direction, typically a fast of this nature lasts only about three days. Sometimes this can be known as a day's fast which can be a 24-hour fast, or from sunrise to sunset in a single day.
2. The Standard Fast: The more typical fast is where one abstains from food but continues to take in liquid refreshment such as juice or water. Typically in Scripture this type of fast can last from a single week to as long as 40 days. Once again this depends on the Lord's direction.
3. The Partial Fast: This is the most common. This is the type of fast where one will only omit certain particular types of food, but still eat all other foods. For example one might abstain from eating desserts and sweets, but they would continue to eat other foods. Or one might continue to eat all foods except for bread, or meat. This type of fasting is the most wide-ranging because it can last anywhere from one day to a lifetime depending on the Lord's direction (Daniel 1:8-14
; Samson in Judges 13:5-24). How We Should Fast - The Practical Stuff
If there is one overall Biblical principle that I wish every Messiah follower would learn, it is this. It's not the knowing of God's word that transforms and sanctifies your life. It is loving, believing and doing God's word with persistence that changes our lives and gives us ultimate victory.In God's economy, everything we do matters. Therefore, in every task we undertake, our motives, our choice of procedures, and our actions should be directed toward what God says pleases Him (1 Corinthians 10:31
). One of the most Godly men and all of the Hebrew Scriptures was the prophet Daniel. It's extremely noteworthy the before Daniel abstained from a single food, he first made a determination to have a correct heart (Daniel 1:8). We need to remember that we were created for God's pleasure, not our own (Colossians 1:16-17; Revelation 4:8-11; Colossians 3:23-24; Ecclesiastes 9:10). Therefore, seeking and doing what pleases God, and doing it with our best effort, should be our highest priority. It is in that spirit that Messiah specifically told us to make sure that our heart, motives and procedures were centered on pleasing God and receiving His attention not other people’s, so that our giving praying and fasting would have God's attention and His blessing. When Messiah gave the instructions that we should make sure our heart, our objectives, our motives, our procedures and our actions are correct when we fast before God, He was not really saying anything new at all. He was merely ratifying what God had already spoken through the prophet Isaiah (in Isaiah 58). With this in mind, let's take a look at the specifics about how God wants us to fast
1. Determine to be especially God centered and God pleasing Not self-centered or self- pleasing during your fast (Daniel 1:8
; Isaiah 58:1-6; Matthew 6:16-18). 2. Be deliberate and purposeful. There are some things you should decide and probably write down in your journal ahead of time:
(a) Determine and write down why you are feeling moved to fast: Which of the seven objectives or biblical purposes of fasting are you seeking to accomplish in this particular fast? (See above).
(b) Which type of fast do you believe that God is directing you to employ for this occasion? Is it a complete and total fast? Is it a standard fast, where you eat no food, but you will drink liquids? Is it a partial fast, where you will abstain from certain foods, but still eat other foods?
(c) Do you feel that God is leading you to enter a fast for a predetermined period of time? In other words do you know the duration your fast is supposed to take? All of these details should be written down in a prayer journal or somewhere close at hand.
(d) Prayerfully and purposely determine ahead of time what kind of support you need if any. Depending on your purpose in fasting, the type of fast and its duration, you may need some support. While fasting is never to be done for competition, for public display, or to receive praise from people, there are times when we fast together as a community of believers. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to these group fasting times as solemn assemblies. During group fasts or solemn assemblies, we are seeking God's help, advice or deliverance for church-wide or nationwide issues. For another example, if you are seeking for God to deliver someone from demonic oppression or possession, you will definitely need to seek two or three other brethren to fast and pray with you.
Also, please be wise. It you are frail of health or you are on some vital medication, you should most definitely seek the advice and assistance of your health professional before engaging in any change of diet, but especially if you're planning a prolonged or difficult fast.
3. Be deliberate about mixing prayer with your fasting. Fasting without prayer is nothing more than a glorified hunger strike. Please don't do that. It only really works when you mix it with prayer. So, when we are fasting we need to be deliberate about making sure that what would be our normal eating times now becomes time especially set aside to pray concerning the situation that brought us to the fast in the first place. Otherwise you're really wasting your effort.
4. Remember to work on reconciliation of relationships during your fast (Isaiah 58:3-6
): As with the other disciplines that Messiah deals with in this chapter, proper relationship with other people is paramount. When we bring an offering to God, and we remember that There is a broken relationship between us and another person, we must leave the altar, do our very best to make peace and be reconciled with the person, and then we can bring our offering, and it will be accepted (Matthew 5:21-26). Again we are told that when we are praying we should forgive those who have sinned against us. If we do not forgive others who sinned against us God the Father will not forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:25). So is it any wonder that the principle would be exactly the same when we are trying to bring a fast before the Lord that He will accept? Actually, this principle is even more important when we are fasting. Why is this? Well, because many times when we are fasting, we are doing so for the expressed purpose of receiving God's delivering power to overcome some form of oppression in our lives. Therefore, it is all the more critical that we would be diligent to, "Undo the heavy burdens," that we have placed on other people. There is a spiritual law that clearly says that we will harvest what we plant into other people's lives (Galatians 6:7-10; Matthew 18:23-35). For example, are you holding people under condemnation because they have not lived up to your demands and standards? Are you absolutely sure that you are treating your workers or those over whom you have authority, in the very same manner that you yourself would want to be treated if the roles were reversed? Are you certain that you are not taking advantage of people? Are you certain that you are not making other people's life and work more difficult than necessary? If you are doing any of these types of things, you must repent, seek the forgiveness of these people, and turn away from such attitudes and deeds, because you cannot plant and nurture the seeds of oppression, while crying out to God for your deliverance. You cannot plant and nurture seeds of oppression into the lives of others and expect to reap a harvest of God's deliverance in your own circumstances. To harbor such a wicked attitude is to mock God, and that is extremely dangerous (Galatians 6:7-10
). God save us and keep all such mocking far away from our being. Let us never be found in the seat of the mockers, but only in the congregation of the righteous; who love honor and obey the Lord. In Messiah, amen. While we are fasting we are also to concentrate on other important tasks, because it's the kind of fasting that the LORD has chosen (Isaiah 58:6): • Repent from wickedness and deal with sin; Loose the bonds of wickedness (Isaiah 58:6
; John 8:31-34; Romans 6:12-16). • Share food with the hungry, find lodgings for the homeless and clothing for the naked; and do not abandon needy family members when you are in reality able to help them (Isaiah 58:7
,10; Proverbs 19:17; Luke 3:11; 1 John 3:17). • Refuse to point the finger of false accusation (Isaiah 58:9
). This does not mean that we never point out sin, because that would violate the requirements of Isaiah 58:6 as well as John 8:31-36, since people can only be freed from the yoke of slavery to sin when they recognize sin as being sin, when they recognize that they are trapped in sin, and when they repent and walk toward God and away from their sin. If people do not see their sin, they will not see their need for a Savior, they will not repent, and they will remain enslaved in their sin. So what does Isaiah 58:9 refer to when it talks about not pointing the finger of accusation? Well, the last part of Isaiah 58:9 explains it: Isaiah 58:9
"Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, (Isaiah 58:9 NASB) When Isaiah 58:9
is talking about not pointing the finger of accusation and not speaking wickedness, it is NOT referring to pointing out truth about sin which in fact would set people free (John 8:31-32; 1 Corinthians 13:6; Isaiah 5:20-24), but it is talking about avoiding speaking wickedness which refers to avoiding accusations which are made falsely or maliciously. The cross reference in my ESV translation helped me to spot this as well. It led me to Proverbs 6:12-13 (I would also include verse 14). In any event, what Isaiah 58:9 is commanding us to avoid when He tells us not to point the finger of accusation, is do not make false or malicious accusations. What is also implied in that when you combine it with Proverbs 6:12-14 is that we should not purposely use people's weaknesses against them, meaning of course that we should NEVER secretly plot and scheme and devise plans for people to fall into sin, so that we could later point the finger of accusation against them. • Satisfy the desires of the afflicted (Isaiah 58:10
). In other words instead of being consumed by our own desires, we should spend our fasting time trying to meet the desires of those who are worse off than we are. Remembering the Rewards
It is beneficial to remember that there are always huge payoffs and benefits to obeying God, and persisting in doing good:Galatians 6:9-10• When we give to the needy in a manner that God desires, He sees it and will reward us (Matthew 6:1-4
). In the day of trouble and famine, God will deliver those who have been generous to the poor (Psalm 33:19; Psalm 41:1). God promises that when we are generous, He will be generous with us, but if we are stingy, then God will be much less generous with us (Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:6). • When we pray in a manner that God desires, He will hear us (Matthew 6:5-13
; Psalm 34:15; Matthew 7:7-8). When we live in His Words, and allow His Words to live in us, we could even reach the point where we receive from God everything that we request (John 15:1-7). The rewards for fasting correctly before the LORD are also virtually limitless:
"Then your light will break out like the dawn." Almost everyone in the world recognizes dawn and daylight, right? So what the first promise that is guaranteed for proper fasting basically says that almost anyone in the world would be able to recognize that God gave you breakthrough in your circumstances when you fast correctly. It's very similar to the precept that the sinful world will be able to recognize and believe that it is God who sent Yeshua Messiah when we walk in unity with God and other believers (John 17:23
). The correct way to walk becomes more obvious and clear to others when believers do right. "And your recovery will speedily spring forth" Remember that in our section on the purposes of fasting (see above), we discussed that one of the main purposes of fasting was to receive God's power and deliverance from sin (this sin that keeps beating us), also from different kinds of oppression, and deliverance from demonic forces? Well, when we fast correctly God promises to speed up our deliverance and our victory. Moreover, Isaiah 58:8
not only promises that God will speed up our deliverance and victory, but He also promises to be, "Our rearguard." This means that as we advance and make spiritual and circumstantial progress in our lives, God will maintain the victories that we gained in the past so that we are free to press forward into new victories. That's what a rearguard does (Isaiah 58:8). God even promises to do more than that:
• When we pray God will answer (Isaiah 58:9
). • The Lord will continually guide us (Isaiah 58:11
). So this will successfully fulfill another purpose in fasting because we will receive the guidance we were seeking when we started. • The Lord will revive and refresh us (Isaiah 58:11
). • The Lord will revive and restore our society and also bless our efforts to restore it (Isaiah 58:12
). The Lord will revive, restore and firmly reestablish what works in our lives, in our families and in our society, and He will bless our efforts to build and restore those things according to His righteous standards (Isaiah 58:12). The Conclusion
Beloved brethren, I hope that you can see that there are profound benefits in learning to give and contribute God's way, in praying God's way, and in fasting God's way. I hope that you feel better informed and encouraged about the importance of fasting. I pray you will see the value in proper planning and being more deliberate when you fast. Most of all, I pray we will fast more often and more deliberately in a manner that God has chosen so that we will see God's salvation and deliverance in our lives, families, communities and our nation.Almighty God, Lord Yeshua Messiah, Lord God Holy Spirit; blessed be Your name forever more. I love You, but I want to love You more and better, to trust you more and better, to obey You more and better, and to honor You more and better than I ever have up to this point. Please forgive me for falling so short of the standards that You desire and deserve to receive from me in all these areas. Please help me to be more deliberate and intentional about establishing good habits of giving, praying and fasting in ways that will truly please You, so that whenever I give, pray, or fast, they will achieve the best eternal results for myself, my family, my family of believers, my community, my country and beyond. Mercifully grant this for the sake of Your unfailing love and Your Son Yeshua Messiah, amen.
Brother R. Michel Lankford
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