The Principle of Fasting
The four main points about the concept of fasting. First, let’s study the principle of fasting. In the Bible, fasting occurs when there is a need for a spiritual breakthrough due to the burdens of life. These burdens could be emotional, circumstantial, relational, ministerial, directional, or any other kind. Fasting is the way that the saints of God received a breakthrough to direct them and help them deal with a crisis in their lives.
What exactly is fasting? Fasting is a deliberate abstinence from physical gratification—usually going without food for a period of time—to achieve a greater spiritual goal. Fasting is intentionally denying the flesh in order to gain a response from the spirit. It means renouncing the natural in order to invoke the supernatural. When fasting, you say “no” to yourself and “yes” to God. In Zechariah 7:5-6, we read the words of the Lord: “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?’” When we eat, we eat for ourselves. We eat because we need to, and sometimes we eat just because we can. The only reason to eat is for our own benefit. But God tells us in these verses from Zechariah that when we fast, we fast for Him. When we fast we are saying that the cry of our souls is greater than the cry of our stomachs. It is more important that God feed us and meet our spiritual needs than to take that time to meet today to make your voice heard on high” (vv. 3-4).
Fasting, when done in the proper way, is a means of making your voice heard on high. Verse 5 says: “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself ? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?”
Fasting as God intends is meant to be a humbling experience.
Sacrificing the desires of the flesh is self-denial, and self-denial brings humility when your thoughts aren’t focused on yourself. Jesus tells us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
That is heavenly nourishment, not earthly food. The Bible teaches a very important principle at the heart of Christianity: You must die to self if you want to truly live. In Philippians 1:21 Paul says: “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Jesus also explains the sacrifice of a true believer: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). James 4:10 says: “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” It is both humbling and freeing to bow down before God and confess that He is Lord and that He has all the power and the glory. Fasting is one way to bow down to God and acknowledge your need for Him in all areas of your life.
Big daddy has encourages us to fast from 1st October to 31st of the month, He declares that the first seven days of the fast should be fruit fast. The Bishop advised to let our mind focus on the word of GOD at this moment of Fast because God is willing to meet us in our place of needs.
