For many years the Foursquare Church has started each year with encouraging and uniting the Foursquare family and friends in the United States with 21 days of fasting and prayer. In order to assist us to better be involved each year they have provided a prayer guide for each day to help us focus our time of prayer and fasting on the same topic. Each day of the prayer guide has four parts. For example, day one this year the main topic is, “Jesus is Lord”, this changes every day. And each topic page for all the 21 days has three main parts, “Today’s Scripture”, “Prayer + Reflection” and “Family Moment”. This 21-day prayer guide can be downloaded from www.foursquare.org and you can also sign up for 21 daily emails with the prayer topic for each day.
Obviously, it is not a requirement the we pray all day each day. Nor it is required that we fast for 21 days. In addition to our regular daily devotions, we can make each prayer topic part of our daily time with the Lord.
Some of you who are reading this message take medications daily that require food to be eaten with your medication. If that is your situation, please do not stop taking your medication. There also might be other physical or medical reasons you cannot fast and that is okay, this does not disqualify you from participating. However, because you cannot fast it does not mean you cannot join your Foursquare Family and pray for each specific topic for the 21 days. If you can fast, prayerfully ask the Lord if you should fast one meal a day or half a day or even every other day. How long you fast, is between you and God. In part, fasting simply is a voluntary denial of food for a determined amount of time. “Fasting as a religious observance is marked by temporarily abstaining from food.” Faithlife Study Bible
Concerning fasting, there is an improper belief and confusion that fasting is refraining from doing something which can be applied to almost anything. This is abstinence not fasting. Abstinence is and or can be self-denial or abstaining from anything that hinders our relationship and fellowship with God such as; Watching TV, reading secular books and or magazines, listening to secular music, using the internet or playing video games, staying off social media and so much more that our culture has to offer. One Bible dictionary gives us this explanation of abstinence (self-denial) as – “The voluntary, self-imposed, and deliberate denial of certain pleasures…” The verb “abstain” is found six times in the NIV. The following three verses are 3 examples found in the New Testament.
In Acts chapter 15:1-31 the leaders of the early church in Jerusalem made a judgment and put it in a letter telling the gentile converts to Christianity to abstain from certain things that they were accustomed to do before their conversion.
Acts 15:19-20, 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
The apostle Paul, when writing to his spiritual son Timothy about false teachers and their heretical teaching states the following. 1 Timothy 4:2-5, 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Peter writing to the many congregations located in various Roman provinces encourages them to “abstain from sinful desires”. 1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
The Bible also demonstrates self-denial or abstinence of certain things for special personal dedication to God such as the vow of a Nazirite.
Numbers 6:2-8, 6 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the Lord as a Nazirite, 3 he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 4 As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. 5 “‘During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the Lord is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long. 6 Throughout the period of his separation to the Lord he must not go near a dead body. 7 Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head. 8 Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the Lord.
The “vow of separation to the Lord as a Nazirite” is seen with John the Baptist who lived a life of abstinence from wine and fermented drink.
Luke 1:13-16, 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.
So, what does the Bible teach us about what is fasting? Hayford’s Bible Handbook gives us a clear Biblical explanation concerning what means to fast. The following are a few excerpts.
FAST, FASTING—The Bible reveals fasting as a fully desirable, non-“religious” spiritually dynamic means for intensified seeking of God in prayer. To fast is to go without food or drink voluntarily, and generally was for the purpose of humbling the soul before God. Psalms 35:13, Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting.
Is fasting for the New Testament disciple? The evidence is clearly affirmative. Jesus taught fasting by His own word and example, and said that in the era following His earthly ministry, after His ascension, fasting would be among the disciplines of His Matthew 6:16-18, 16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The Bible nowhere suggests that fasting is to be thought a means of earning God’s favor or of improving one’s status with God. Therefore, one should not fast as a religious or as a superstitious exercise, hoping thereby to gain God’s special attention or to tip invisible scales of blessing in their direction.
Nonetheless, Christ’s people do partner with God’s almightiness through the acceptance and application of certain disciplines as the Holy Spirit directs. Scriptures teach by both precept and example a number of means by which believers may enter into the exercise of spiritual dominion through simple obedience to disciplines shown there. Fasting in prayer stands as one of these along with such commonly acknowledged ones as (a) receiving of the Lord’s Table, (b) anointing with oil, (c) tithing with offerings, (d) worship and song, and (e) the reading and study of God’s Word. It is also true that prayer joined with fasting is a proven means of advancing spiritual objectives.
What does one experience through fasting? Many testify today to a harvest of practical and visible results. See Isaiah 58:6-12, which shows fasting is not a mystical, ascetic exercise of piety. It is a normal and powerful participation point in seeing the release of God’s purposes and benevolent intent toward mankind: (1) food made available to the needy (v. 7); (2) genuine service and concern for those without (v. 7; see 1 John 3:17); (3) life and health-giving ministry begins to flow from believers (v. 8); (4) personal answers to prayer begin to be released (v. 9); (5) a removal of the spirit of criticism graces ones own life (v. 9); (6) God-directed and fruitful living ensues (v. 11); and (7) an edifying, uniting life follows (v. 12).
Why should we fast? Taking a quotation from the transcript of the video of “Got questions.org” under the heading “Christian fasting – what does the Bible say?”; will help us to understand what the Bible teaches us about fasting and the personal benefits.
“Scripture does not command Christians to fast. God does not require or demand it of Christians. At the same time, the Bible presents fasting as something that is good, profitable, and beneficial. The book of Acts records believers fasting before they made important decisions. Fasting and prayer are often linked together.”
Acts 13:2-3, “2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”
Acts 14:23, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”
Continuing from the transcript of the video, “Christian fasting – what does the Bible say?” it states some additional important points that help us experience and receive the full benefit of our fast. “Too often, the focus of fasting is on the lack of food. Instead, the purpose of fasting should be to take your eyes off the things of this world to focus completely on God. Fasting is a way to demonstrate to God, and to ourselves, that we are serious about our relationship with Him. Fasting helps us gain a new perspective and a renewed reliance upon God.”
It is my hope that the information given concerning fasting will encourage you as you participate in the Foursquare church’s 21 Days of Fasting + Prayer starting January 9th to the 29th.
For more information and free materials for your whole family please visit, www.foursquare.org
Pastor John
