I have been reading a lot on the topic of fasting the past 11 days during my time of fasting and many questions have come from people around me. Of course at this point people are starting to notice that I have had a remarkable weight loss and they are asking why. I am simply telling them that I am fasting and praying for some very special issues and those issues are the salvation of 3000 people in Holston Conference between February 23rd and Pentecost Sunday 2010. I have yet to hear anyone outside the church say that I must be crazy. As a matter of fact they are very interested in learning more. Now on the flip side, I am getting all kinds of comments from those in the church who think I am absolutely crazy. To put it like a friend said the other day, “They look at me like I have three heads.”
Why is this? Why is the church absolutely ignorant of the biblical call to fast. It is here, just as much as prayer and giving are a part of what the bible teaches. Yet it seems that almost no one in the church practices fasting.
It is my prayer that not only will 3000 people be saved in Holston during this time but I pray also that people will begin to study the scripture and see what God has to say about this most important discipline. I started fasting around 15 years ago and through the years have fasted certain meals of the day, 1 day, 3 days, and the longest had been 7 days. This event in my life is the longest I have ever been without food. I am in my 11th day today and I feel more healthy today than I have in years, this is the honest truth. Now, I continue to say that I desire to eat but I am not hungry. The gospels tell us that Jesus fasted 40 days and then He was hungry. Interesting.
I learn this every time I fast, I am addicted to food. Now some will say yes,that is what we need to live and it is what we need to live but we don’t need all the junk that we put into our bodies. I believe it is why we are so sick. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness and God was giving them a perfect meal in the Manna every morning, the people cried out for meat. They were not satisfied with the perfect food that God was giving them every day. How often do we grieve Gods heart when He is blessing and has blessed us so much and we cry out, “I want more”? The bible says that while the food was still in their mouth they died. We are killing ourselves with our addiction to food!
One of the most uncomfortable moments I have had during my fast was at a meal with my mom and dad just this past weekend. I feel bad because they don’t really understand why I would go without food. I sat with my glass of lemon water and Misty, mom, dad, and the kids ate their meals and when the meal was finished, my dad said, “I wish I hadn’t eaten, I feel bad now.” It made me think how many times during a given week I will eat and then say I wish I hadn’t eaten, I felt so much better before I ate. We are killing ourselves with the amount of food that we eat!
I am not uncomfortable sitting down to a meal with my family, it is mostly about fellowship in the first place. We have built our busy lives around food and that is unfortunate to some degree. However, since it is the time that the family talks and has fellowship I still sit at the table most of the time when my family eats and I even still go out to restaurants with them. The temptation is not what you would think it is. I even cooked breakfast one day this week for the family and last night I cooked dinner for them. I love to cook and I do it now most of all to give Misty a break from the daily chores that she has to do.
At this point it wouldn’t matter if it was a steak, a piece of cake, or a peanut I would love to eat BUT I AM NOT HUNGRY.
I am fasting because I want to humble myself before our Lord and that is what the Bible tells me to do, over and over, and over. The only way I know to humble myself is to fast and I believe that is one of the ways God has given us to humble ourselves. I would love to hear how you humble yourself.
I want to humble myself that I might be in a position to hear God’s voice and that I might see God at work in His world. I believe our world is so tired and exhausted really from not seeking God. We run after things, we run to conferences, we run to do the work of God, but we never slow down long enough to see what He said would get us in touch with Him. Fasting will do that for us, there is a supernatural effect on our lives when we fast, just like there is a supernatural effect when we pray and when we give.
We cannot afford to overlook this spiritual discipline any longer.
Ronnie
Isaiah 58
True Fasting
1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
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