Fasting and Faith
Fasting
When you received salvation, your soul and spirit received the free gift of God and began to transform, as your relationship with God grew stronger. Unfortunately, your flesh remained the same. It remembers every sin and pleasure that felt good to it. This is the cause of many doubts, fears, and temptations set by the devil. The devil is always waiting for a point of weakness to be exposed. (1 Peter 5:8)
Fortunately, fasting is an excellent way to bring your flesh under submission. Fasting is defined as abstaining from food or other material things. Fasting is an expression of sacrifice. Spiritually, it is denying the flesh of a pleasure in order to allow the Spirit of God to increase in you. It is the practice of decreasing the wants of the flesh so that you can hear God, get revelation, and engage in a deeper relationship with God. The Bible speaks of fasting over and over throughout the Old and New Testament; therefore, showcasing how important it is to our spiritual growth. Ultimately the Bible states in Matthew 17:21, that fasting and praying are the only way some trials of life can be overcome.
Four Components of Fasting:
- Sacrifice: Choose either a food or something important to you to give up.
- Pray & Meditate: You must constantly talk to God and read His Word so that you can hear from Him clearly.
- Consecrate: Be mindful of what you watch, hear and who you surround yourself with. Also, set the atmosphere with worship music.
- Press: Don’t focus on the length of the fast. Instead, focus on the purpose: speaking to and hearing from God.
Faith
Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is trusting that God can and believing that He will. The trials of life sometimes make this difficult. Especially when what we see with our carnal eyes doesn’t line up with what the Word says or what we see with our spiritual eyes. But if you read a little further down, in Hebrews 11:6 it states that “…without faith it is impossible to please him.” This suggests that no matter what we are faced with we must continue to place our trust in God’s plan.
Faith is proven to be a pillar of spiritual growth. Matthew 17:20 tells us that if we have a little faith we are still able to defeat the obstacles we face. We just have to activate our faith to work on our behalf. The activation of faith begins with hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17) When you hear the Word of God aloud it begins to connect with your belief and encourages you to move forward towards the goals and desires in your heart. God has a plan for our lives and we must trust that He will bring it to pass. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
Faith also requires you to do something. (James 2:17) God is not an ATM who dispenses blessings at our convenience. He is not like Santa Clause- dropping off blessings at our request. He is, however, the only God (Revelation 19:11), our Father (8:15), our Provider (Philippians 4:19), and our Everything (Psalm 91:1). God is the supplier of all your needs.
Knowing who God is gives you the power to call on Him to address specific issues. It also allows you to know that He is with you no matter what the situation is. (Matthew 1:23)