2 Fasting: A Look at the New Testament

Nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus institute any kind of fast. In His commands to His disciples, Jesus never enjoined any fast to be kept. Paul said he fasted, but in all his letters to the Church, starting with Romans, there is not a single reference telling

 2 Fasting: A Look at the New Testament

Nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus institute any kind of fast. In His commands to His disciples, Jesus never enjoined any fast to be kept. Paul said he fasted, but in all his letters to the Church, starting with Romans, there is not a single reference telling
the Church to fast. We're encouraged to pray, but in connection with demon activity, healing, or anything else, we are not told to fast. Fasting, then, must not be as important as some people would lead you to believe. There would have to be some kind of instruction to the Church if it were! There are instructions on the gifts of the Spirit, praying, and giving, but none on fasting. Let's go to the four Gospels and look at some things Jesus said about fasting. LUKE 5:33-35 33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? 34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. At one point Jesus did leave the disciples, but He did come back, and He's with us today.

"Appear Not Unto Men To Fast" We read in Matthew 6 something else Jesus said about fasting: MATTHEW 6:16-18 16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. In my opinion, a person who talks about how long he fasts and encourages others to fast a long time is a hypocrite. I held a meeting once for a man and his wife. The pastor's wife was also a minister. She got up every night and said something like, "I'm on the fifth day of my fast. I wonder if there are those who will join me?" It would have helped just as much if she had twiddled her thumbs and said, "I'm on the fifth day of twiddling my thumbs." As far as God was concerned, she had lost all her reward, Even though I was fasting, I never publicly joined her, because I didn't want to appear unto men to fast. There may be certain occasions when you would solicit the church to fast as the Lord would lead you. But what she was doing was getting up and bragging every night about herself. If we go around bragging about how much we pray and how long we fast, that's not good. Jesus said not to appear unto men to fast. To me, that would mean don't let them know it. Do it as unto God, your Father, in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Fasting in the Book of Acts The Word of God mentions fasting again in Acts; nevertheless, there is no direction given to the Church on when to fast. The Bible says in Acts 10 that Cornelius was fasting. He wasn't even saved at this time. But being a Jewish proselyte, he naturally fasted because the Jews did. ACTS 10:30 30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.... That was an angel, of course, who told him to send for Peter in Joppa to come and preach to them. Since Cornelius was a Jewish proselyte, we can't count that as a reference to members of the Church fasting. He wasn't saved until Peter came. As I studied this, I was amazed at how little fasting is mentioned in the Bible. We do have further references in Acts 13 and 14. Acts 14:23 says, "And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." Here elders were being ordained. It's good for people to fast and miss one meal. It is a good thing to fast before you pray for the sick. But it doesn't mean the apostles went on a long fast. In Acts 13 something similar happened. In the first verse, five prophets and teachers are mentioned. Among them were Saul (Paul), and Barnabas. As these five men ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (v. 2). Verse 3 says: "And when they had fasted and prayed...." They already mentioned they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. We read this as though the two incidents happened together. But evidently that is not true, because it takes time to fast again. It says, "And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them. . . ." This probably took place over a period of time. They took some time to wait on God. Again, fasting didn't change God. But it did help them become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Did you know spiritualists fast? They are in contact with demons and evil spirits, and they believe fasting helps them become more sensitive to evil spirits. That is the reason the devil gets to working on some people when they start fasting—especially when they try to fast for long periods of time. You've got to realize there are many spirits in the spirit world. We find two other references to fasting in Acts 27. "Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them..." (Acts 27:9). When Paul says the fast was over and sailing was dangerous, he is referring to the second day of the tenth month—the time of Atonement —which was a time of fasting.Many Jews in the Early Church, even though they were born again and Spirit filled, still kept the traditions of the Jewish religion. Prayer was more of a struggle under the Old Covenant, because Jesus hadn't come and conquered the devil. In the 33rd and 34th verses of that same chapter it says, "And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." Often the Bible uses the word "meat" to stand for food. The ship had sailed and weathered a storm, and Paul was inferring he didn't want them to go too long without food. He said, "This is for your health." Verse 35 says, "And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat." An angel of the Lord had appeared to him and told him they were all going to be saved. I repeat: There are no instructions given to the Church to tell them to fast or not to fast. The records we have in Acts show that the apostles ministered to the Lord and fasted, and it seems the Lord would be pleased if we would set aside some time just to minister to Him. If you fast and don't minister to the Lord, it might not do you too much good. But fasting will give you that extra time to wait on God. At the same time, it will help you keep the flesh under.You Must Have a Purpose As mentioned before, it seems in the New Testament that people fasted under these conditions: to minister to the Lord, to ordain men to the ministry, or to seek God in times of extreme danger. You always must have a purpose. Don't fast just because someone tells you to.

Don't Fast for Revival I've known some pastors who try to fast for a revival. But as Charles G. Finney said, a revival is no more miraculous than a farmer's reaping a crop. The farmer has to till the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and trust God to send the rain. (I know we have irrigation these days, but we still need rain in the first place.) Remember that Paul, in writing to the Church at Corinth, said: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Cor. 3:6). You can fast until doomsday that God will save souls, but if you don't get out there and witness to people, preach salvation, and "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," nobody will get saved—and I don't care how long you fast. Nowhere in Scripture did they fast for a revival. Nowhere did they fast for a mighty move of God. What did they do? First, they ministered to the Lord. They weren't praying they'd get something; they just wanted to take time to visit with the Lord. I'm sure they ministered to Him like the Bible said: "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:18,19). When I was in revival meetings I'd spend the whole day (we didn't have day services in some of the churches) in the church building. I would be walking up and down the aisle; reading my Bible around the altar, praying, and ministering to the Lord. I just set that time aside to minister to the Lord. Second, they fasted in Bible times to lay hands on ministers to send them forth. And third, they fasted in times of extreme danger. If I had an emergency come up, I would begin to fast and pray to get an answer. I never fasted as long as three full days, because I always got my answer. I took extra time to wait on God, to pray, and the answer would come in various ways. If I had a spiritual question, for example, I would get the revelation.