If You Are Hungry, Fast!

If you are physically hungry, you eat. However, if you are spiritually hungry, try not eating. It’s called fasting. Fasting means you are choosing hunger so that your hunger for God may be more intense. Are you hungering to know God and experience God?If you have not practiced this spiritual discipline, I passionately invite you to try it. What is fasting? Fasting is going without food (or some other kind of pleasure) in order to fully turn your attention to god, seeking Him, and demonstrating to God in a tangible way your desire to know Him and His will for your life.Fasting expresses your heart-hunger for God and experiencing Him. Be aware, fasting is hard. It was never intended to be an easy exercise but a life-transforming tool in your spiritual arsenal against strongholds, seemingly impossible situations, and intense spiritual warfare.There are three types of fasting taught in the Bible: (1) Eating no food and drinking no water (Acts 9:9); (2) Abstaining from food but not from water (I Kings 19:8); and (3) Giving up certain foods for a specific period of time such as a Daniel Fast (Daniel 10:3). Jesus assumed we would fast, saying, “When you fast,” not “If you fast” (Matthew 6:16,18). Jesus placed the spiritual discipline of fasting in the same category as giving and praying and promised a reward to those who fast His way (Matthew 6:18). Isaiah tells us that for fasting to be effective, we must fast God’s way which me3ans being motivated only to bring glory and honor to God and to humbly seek His will, guidance, and instructions. If fasting is done to impress others, to attempt to make God do something, to lose weight; becomes a ritual; or try to get something you want, you will not see the “reward” or results God has promised. God’s kind of fast places you in position where you are most likely to hear from God.Fasting is a tangible way of demonstrating to God that your hunger for Him is greater than your hunger for food. There have been those times in my life where I have needed to do something beyond praying to express that desire. There are some issues, some problems, some circumstances that may not be addressed unless you fast. The reward Jesus refers to in answer to fasting may come through a specific solution, a tangible provision, a breakthrough, or a divine appointment.You may be facing something personal—a struggling marriage, a broken relationship, a disease, illness or pain. Emotionally you may be experiencing a difficult time with sorrow, grief, depression, loneliness or fear. You might be struggling with a sin habit, stronghold and nothing you have done has brought you freedom. You may have people problems and don’t know what to do. Possibly you are facing a decision and there is still a fog about specifically what to do.As Americans, we are only a few days away from what I believe is the most important election of our lifetime. So much is at stake. We are divided as a nation and the spirit of unrest fills the air along with a spirit of lawlessness that awaits the election results. If we as Christians ever needed to practice fasting, it is now!I am challenging you to join Moses, David, Paul, Isaiah, Elijah, Joshua, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Hanna, Nehemiah, Paul and Jesus. They knew that fasting mattered.Whether one meal, two meals, one day or more, fasting changes things. Fasting makes a difference according to God’s Word. Fasting attacks Satan and charges the gates of hell. Fasting changes you and ushers you into an atmosphere of experiencing God’s presence. As Andrew Murray said, “Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting, the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible.” If you are hungry, hungry for God, hungry for revival, hungry for God to move, fast.