8 What Can I Accomplish by Fasting?

Ministering to the Lord The Bible gives us examples of people fasting to minister to the Lord. They weren't praying they'd get something; they just wanted to take some time to visit with the Lord. ACTS 13:2,3 2 As they ministered to the Lord,

 What Can I Accomplish by Fasting?

Ministering to the Lord The Bible gives us examples of people fasting to minister to the Lord. They weren't praying they'd get something; they just wanted to take some time to visit with the Lord. ACTS 13:2,3 2 As they ministered to the Lord,
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. You might ask, "Now what do you mean, ministered to the Lord?" Well, I'm sure they prayed, But the Bible also says in Ephesians 5:18,19, "And 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." They began worshiping God and magnifying His name, and went right through the meal! Sometimes I'll speak to myself all night in psalms. I'm ministering to the Lord. I've done that on more than one occasion. A psalm is a spiritual poem or ode. It may or may not rhyme, but there is an element of poetry in it. I get to going sometimes very quietly in the nighttime to myself,and they just keep rolling out of me. When the Bible talks about psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, this doesn't mean songs you get out of a songbook. Most of these are embalmed with unbelief. They are not inspired by the Spirit of God. The Bible is talking about something the Spirit of God gives you on the spur of the moment by the Holy Spirit. We have 150 psalms in the Old Testament that were given by the Spirit of God. They bless us because they are Spirit anointed. Many of David's psalms were given to him while he was going through tests or trials. They were his; they blessed him; they encouraged him. A psalm can be recited or chanted. The Jews chanted some of them. A spiritual song or hymn was always sung. I seldom sing, except in tongues, because I'm not a singer. (Paul said, "I will pray in the spirit and I'll sing in the spirit"; that is, in tongues.) I usually speak in psalms. Buddy Harrison, my son-in-law, sings spiritual songs and hymns; something that the Spirit of God gives him at the moment. Ministering to the Lord is worshiping Him, not wasting anything. We ought to have services in our churches where we minister to the Lord. If I were pastor of a church, I would have services once a week that I would call "believers' meetings." Nobody but believers would come, and we would minister to the Lord. In one church I pastored, we usually had just our own people in the Sunday morning service. Sunday night was our evangelistic service. We filled the building at night. People would even be out on the street looking in through the doors. But Sunday mornings we rarely had non- members, so I made that Sunday morning service a  believers' meeting. I don't suppose I preached half a dozen times on Sunday morning from 1939 to 1940. I said to the people, “I'm going to sit down here on the platform and turn the service over to the Holy Spirit. Whatever you feel led of God to do, do it. If you feel led to start a chorus, just start singing.” I think we got the closest to what Paul was talking about at Corinth when he said, 1 CORINTHIANS 14:26 26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. They went to church because they had something. But now most folks go to church to get something. We had some of the most tremendous services. I've never seen anything like them before or since. And I'm convinced God wants that in every church. But we get so taken up with our little form. We think we have to be out by noon. Sometimes in these meetings we would stay until 1:30 p.m. Sometimes the presence of God would move in on us and we would all just sit there. Not a child cried. Nobody moved. Nobody would say anything. We sat there sometimes 45 minutes. The power of God—the presence of God—was so real you didn't want to move. You were afraid if you moved a finger, the presence would go away. One fellow would bring his wife, who was saved, to these services, and then he would go uptown to talk, chew, whittle, and cuss. One time he came back around noon, expecting the service to be over, but it wasn't. He sat in the car but didn't hear anything. Finally he came inside. He felt what we were feeling the moment he walked in. Nobody said anything or turned to look at him. Since I was sitting on the platform, I could see him. He sat down, looked at me, and looked at the crowd. Nobody said anything; there was just a holy silence. I watched him because I knew something was going to happen. He sat there about 10 minutes and suddenly began shaking all over. Then he got up and started down the aisle, still shaking, and fell at the altar. He started calling on God and got saved! Still, nobody said anything. No one went down to help him pray. God started it and finished it. He saved that fellow. I saw that happen more than once. Sometimes the Spirit of God would move on somebody to start dancing. Before you knew it, 15 to 30 others would join him. They might dance all through the morning service. We charged that atmosphere with the Spirit of God. I would tell the people, "Now, when we come tonight, it's for a different purpose. We're not coming tonight to get blessed. We're not coming tonight to minister to the Lord. We are coming to reach the sinner. So be very careful that everything is done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40). We had people saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and healed every Sunday night. We had constant revival, because we kept that place charged with the power of God. In a lot of places the atmosphere is charged with deadness on Sunday morning. You need to get there early to expel all the demons the people bring in, otherwise, you fall flat on your face. We need times of worship, times to worship any way the Lord leads us. That's what it means to minister unto the Lord. Another reason they fasted in Bible times was to ordain men to the ministry or to separate them, as God would call them. I'm sure they didn't go on a long fast. They missed maybe one meal.

Facing Decisions and Times of Crisis Many times in revival meetings when people seemed to have difficulty getting baptized with the Holy Spirit, I would tell them not to eat their evening meal. Without exception, it seemed to work easily; I've seen times when every one of them was filled with the Spirit. You will find, too, as I've mentioned, that the Bible says in times of crisis men fasted. Many times before Jesus made certain decisions, like selecting the apostles, He spent time apart. Acts 27 is an example of Paul's fasting during a crisis. He was on his way by ship to appeal his case before Caesar and a storm arose. ACTS 27:20 20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. Paul had perceived danger by the Spirit of God before the voyage. ACTS 27:21-25 21 But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. 22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. 23 For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, 24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. 25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. I don't know how long Paul fasted here, but after abstaining from food he stood in their midst. He told the men their lives would be spared. He had abstained from food for some time and had sought God. In a letter to some of the churches concerning his own ministry he used the expression "in fastings often."