Fasting: The Purpose

For the past day, I have felt the Holy Spirit pull me to do a study on the topic of fasting, and I just thought I would share it. Not many people know the true purpose of fasting and why we do it. So hopefully this will help, you know what, this will help, because these words I am going to write come from God, not me.




Isaiah 58:5-12 is the perfect description of why fasting is necessary. Now I'm going to write the scripture down, then I'm going to break it down for you and what it means.



< -- Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? [Is it] to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?-->

- Okay, so the original Hebrew meaning for afflict literally means to weaken. When we fast, it is to weaken our flesh so our Spirit becomes stronger. We can't do anything God wants us to do if our flesh has rule over our lives. The rest of this verse is describing humbling ourselves. Laying down our pride and flesh, and humble ourselves before God.



<--"[Is] this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?-->

- Now this verse tells our reasons for fasting, to loose the bonds of wickedness literally means to throw open those bonds that are holding not only us down, but if God leads us to fast for someone else, their bonds. Once we start getting freed up other people are going to start getting freed up just by being around us (Acts 16:26- ALL the doors were opened, and EVERYONE's bonds were unfastened). To undo means to set free, and heavy actually translates to oppression, and burdens translates to binding. So that part translates to: to set free the binding of oppression! Then break every yoke translates to: to tear apart and drag away every oppression! How awesome is that! Fasting weakens our flesh, bringing us closer to God and making us more powerful in Him, not only reaching full freedom, but freeing others as well!



<--[Is it] not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?-->

- We can't sit around just in prayer and the Word and spending time with God, but also, while we are fasting, and any other time for that matter, it is our responsibility to get out there and help others in need. Jesus did it all the time, so giving what we have to those in need does not need to stop with Him. We are called to do even greater than He did (John 14:12).



<--Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.-->

- This is what comes from our fasting; Translates: light of life, prosperity, and instruction will break through as the morning breaks through; to cause healing to grow abundantly with speed, and your righteousness (justification, deliverance, victory,prosperity) shall cause to walk (or proceed) in your prescense; and the glory of the Lord shall gather(harvest, take away) and be your rearguard. The definition of a reargaurd is to stand upright and to watch over and protect. By humbling ourselves and weakening our flesh it brings us closer to God, and He takes away all the bad in our lives, helping us prepare our soil getting it ready for our harvest, and He makes us stronger, and puts His protection around us.



<--Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I [am].' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,-->

- More results from fasting; It will makes us more sensitive to the Lord's voice, because of our fasting, all our oppression has been removed, and it makes us clean and pure. Fasting purifies us. Back before Jesus, no one could enter the temple if he was unclean or he would die. Shouldn't it be the same today? The answer is simple, yes. It says in Matthew 5:8 that the PURE IN HEART shall see God.



<--[If] you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall [be] as the noonday.-->

- By fasting, when our sould is weakened, instead of tv, music, food, whatever we are fasting from, instead of all that feeding us, it is God feeding that part of us, making us more like Him. All the darkness in our lives shall not prevail, and we will have victory over it! =]



<--The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.-->

- When it says "satisfy your soul in drought", when you are without what your are fasting from, instead of that being what satisfies you, God does. He fills up that emptiness and hunger, and we will begin to hunger more for Him and His prescence. It says that we shall be like a spring of water. We are so filled with God and so like Him, that His prescence falls on to others, bringing them to Him, to the true and living Water. It even goes on to say that our waters never fail! Think about it! We have Jesus in us, and He is the Ultimate Water! Really, think about it!



<--Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.-->

- Once we humble our selves to God and put more dependence on Him while fasting, we shall be all these things unto people, because we know who can really satisfy our true hunger and desires. Hunger you never realized existed.



In Matthew 17:20-21 it says,

So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayerAND fasting."



Fasting deepens our faith in God. We can never know the fullness of God without ever fasting. We can never reach our full potential where God wants us without fasting.



In Ezra 8:21 and in Esther 4:16 they both proclaimed fasts before they went into an upcoming battle, and they conquered.

Prayer and fasting are important when it comes to being closer to God and conquering the attacks of the enemy.You can't have one without the other.

Fasting makes us more dependent on God, and shows Him what is more important in our lives. That tv show, or Him? That soda or Him? Which are you mmore dependent on to satisfy you?



Whenever the Holy Spirit leads you to fast, or whenever your congregation is facing something corporately, fast. You'll always conquer. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. So if fasting was important to Him before Jesus and after Jesus, then it is imporatant now.



So, to close I'll leave you with this:



2 Chronicles 7:14 "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, THEN will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."