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Fast and Pray
(Overcomer Wu)

“When you fast...." Matthew 6:17

One of the best starting point for us to learn the need of fasting is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount. Though the matter of “the Lord's prayer” or sometimes called the “the disciple's prayer” are frequently studied and referred to; however, the matter of fasting is often neglected. In Matthew 6:1-18 Christ gives instructions to His disciples on three related duties: praying, fasting, and giving. In each case He places His main emphasis upon the motive, and warns against religious ostentatious display for the sake of impressing men. Perhaps we may have neglected the matter of fasting in prayer due to the fact that some may have the concept that this is only a practice for the most spiritual ones among us. However, the Lord Jesus made it clear that all His disciples will practice all three of these normative part of our Christian living. (I will only stress the matter of prayer and fasting as it is the topic of this discourse.) This is indicated by the language which He uses concerning each:

In verse 2 He says, "When you give alms..." In verse 6 He says, "When you (singular) pray..." (individually); and in verse 7, "When you (plural) pray..." (collectively). In verse 16 He says, "When you (plural) fast..." (collectively); and in verse 17, "When you (singular) fast ..." (individually).

In no case does Christ say, "if" but always "when." The inference is clear. Christ expects that all His disciples will regularly practice all three of these duties. In particular, the parallel between prayer and fasting is exact. Since our Lord Jesus expects His disciples to pray regularly, then by the same token He expects them also to fast regularly. We can say therefore that fasting is a mark of true Christian discipleship, because it is ordained by our Lord Himself. Fasting is not merely taught by Jesus, but it was also His own constant personal practice. For instance, we know in Matthew 4 immediately after being baptized in Jordan by John the Baptist, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to spend forty days fasting in the wilderness for a period of trial. This is also recorded in Luke:

"And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil, and in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered” (Luke 4:1-2).

The record says that Jesus did not eat at all during those forty days; therefore it says that "He afterward hungered." We are told that during this period of forty days, Jesus came into intense direct spiritual conflict with Satan. There is a significant difference in the expressions used by Luke to describe Jesus before and after His fast. At the beginning in Luke 4:1, we read: "And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan...." At the end, in Luke 4:14 we read: "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." When Jesus went into the wilderness He was already full of the Holy Spirit. But when He came out again after fasting, He returned in the power of the Spirit. It would appear that the full potential of the Holy Spirit’s power, which Jesus received at the time of His baptism in Jordan, only came forth into full manifestation after He had completed His fast. Fasting was the final phase of preparation through which He had to pass, before entering into His public ministry.

The same spiritual laws that applied in Christ’s own ministry apply also in the ministry of His disciples/saints. In this respect Paul was a true disciple of Jesus. Fasting played a vital part from the very beginning of his Christian life. Immediately after his first encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, Paul spent the next three days without food or drink (Acts 9:9). Thereafter fasting was a regular part of his spiritual discipline. In 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 Paul lists various ways in which he had proved himself a true minister of God. In verse 5, two of the ways which he lists are: "in watchings, in fastings." Watching signifies going without sleep; fasting signifies going without food. Both these disciplines were practiced at times by Paul to make his ministry fully effective. Another passage in 2 C orinthians 11:27 Paul says, "In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often...." This indicates that Paul devoted himself to frequent periods of fasting. Hunger and thirst refers to occasions when neither food nor drink was available. Fastings refers to occasions when food was available, but Paul deliberately abstained for spiritual reasons.

The Christians of the New Testament not merely practiced fasting individually, as a part of their personal discipline. They also practiced it collectively, as a part of their public ministry to God. This is attested by Luke’s account in Acts: "As these ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:1-3). The Holy Spirit revealed that He had a special task for two of them – Barnabas and Saul – only after they had fast and prayed. Even then they were not yet ready to undertake the task. They still required the impartation of the special grace and power that were needed for the task that lay ahead. For this purpose, all five men fasted and prayed together the second time. Then after the second period of fasting, the other leaders laid their hands on Barnabas and Paul, and sent them forth to fulfill their task after being endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Spirit Himself.

Suffice it to day that prayer and fasting is very much an integral part of a healthy Christian life as revealed to us from the Word of God. Yet it is important for us to understand that fasting changes us, not God. The Holy Spirit, being Himself God, is both omnipotent and unchanging. Fasting breaks down the barriers in man’s carnal nature that stand in the way of the Holy Spirit’s omnipotence. Thereafter, with these carnal barriers removed, the Holy Spirit can work unhindered in His fulness through our prayers. If we are to experience the fullness of the power of prayer, whereby we allow the Lord “... to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that operates in us..." (Eph 3:20), we need to fast and pray. The power that operates in and through our prayers is none other than the Holy Spirit Himself. By removing the carnal barriers, fasting makes a way for the Holy Spirit’s omnipotence to work the "exceeding abundantly above" of God’s promises. There are many other aspects to fasting and praying that we can still delve into, but for the sake of brevity of this weekly discourse, I will limit the coverage here. May the Lord impress us with the need for this healthy and necessary practice for us to pray not so much for ourselves, but for the will of God to be done and to bring in His kingdom.