Fasting and Prayer - Part 2 of the Series, Walking in the Spirit

Luke 4:4 (New King James Version)
4. But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

Now here’s a popular topic that gets our attention! A good thing for a Pastor to do when he plans on talking about fasting and prayer is to never announce it ahead of time. Then, when everyone has been secured in the building, have the ushers lock the doors and stand guard so nobody can run out once they hear what the message is going to be!

Seriously though, fasting and prayer can be described as one of those things that we all want the benefits and results from, but we’re not interested in DOING what is required to GET those benefits and results. Anytime you read about the “great men of God”, fasting and prayer is something you’ll see over and over incorporated into their lives. One of the greatest benefits of fasting and prayer is that it positions us to hear the Lord. Not that we can’t hear Him apart from fasting and prayer, but we put ourselves into a much better position to hear Him clearly.

The thing I see from our scripture here, Luke 4:4, is that God does indeed have a “word” for us. I don’t believe Jesus is specifically talking here about some random verse from the Bible. If God does have a word for us or direction for us, I believe it is in our best interest to find out what it is – whether it actually is a word from the Bible, or something more specific the Holy Spirit wishes to speak to us. Jesus is  saying "bread" is necessary, but so is God’s Word to us, and even more so.

The thing we’re after in fasting and prayer is to simply sharpen our spiritual perception. When the information that our five senses feeds us becomes the “ultimate gauge” by which we conduct life, we’re not placing ourselves in a very favorable position to hear from the Lord on anything specific. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul talks about the process of finding the will of God for our lives. He talks specifically about presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, and to not be in a place where we are conforming (being poured into the mold of) this world. So it would be safe to say that these two instructions could be called the “foundational” or “primary” will of God for us. The statement I want to make is this: if you’re not willing to first do the “foundational” or “primary” will of God, don’t ask Him to give you anything specific!

I John 2:15-16 tells us not to love the world, or the things in it. It goes on to tell us what we’ll find in the world:  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. All these things we experience through our flesh, or our five senses. The problem with this is that according to Galatians 5:17, these things (fleshly, of the five senses) are in direct contrast to the Spirit of God. So when we find ourselves embracing that information only or specifically, we’re taking ourselves out of “position” to hear from the Lord.

Food is something that is a part of our lives every day. We need it to live. It gives us nourishment, energy, vitamins, nutrients, and it just plain satisfies us in a way that nothing else can. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen how some animals act when someone “gets in their face” when they’re trying to eat. It’s not a pretty sight. You’d think that Fort Knox was under attack. But that’s how much they value that food. I’ve noticed myself at times get pretty agitated with my wife when I have my dinner in front of my face, I’m hungry, and she wants to chat. That’s just NOT going to work – I’m eating now!

The truth is that something is triggered within our flesh when food is seemingly “withheld” from us, and it’s not pretty. It can change our demeanor, it can give us headaches, and it’s just not a good situation. We’ve all been there, we’ve all experienced this. Whenever we purpose to fast, and decide that we’re not going to eat for a day or two or three, we’ll begin to experience those “voices” calling out to us. You know what I’m talking about.  I’m hungry!!! Feed me!!! I have a headache!!! I’m going to be crabby unless I GET SOME FOOD!!! They seem to get louder the longer we allow the whole fasting process to go on. We become short tempered, agitated, and the simplest things become a big issue – all because we haven’t had anything to eat. When we are in the midst of this place, and those voices are “screaming out”, this is a good indication for us how much we have relinquished our control over to our five senses. When these things take place, if our "flesh" is to be defeated, we’re going to have to put another party into power. And that other party is our spirit.

Mark 9:29 (New King James Version)
29. So he said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

Without going too deep, the topic that Jesus is referring to here is unbelief. This type of unbelief will not go from our lives except by prayer and fasting on our part. The point I want you to see here though is that Jesus couples prayer with fasting.  Fasting is not just about “not eating”. Equally important is the need to fill the void created by the “lack of food” with something else. And this is when the “word” that Jesus spoke about in our text scripture (Luke 4:4) becomes our food. What do we do? We pray. In the time that you would set aside to eat, you pray instead. What we’re doing in a practical way is giving ourselves over to the control and leading of the spirit instead of the flesh (our five senses). As a result, we’re able to more clearly “hear” that word the Lord has for us.  This is a process, however, and those voices we spoke about are going to continue for awhile. But if we will purpose to pray, to cast those cares (and voices) onto the Lord like He tells us in I Peter 5, those voices will begin to die down, and then shut up altogether. We can finally get to the place where our five senses relinquish their control over to our spirit. That’s a good position to be in.  We are now able to concentrate on spiritual things because we now are being spiritually influenced and can hear from the Lord, and hear Him more clearly.

I think if we were honest, the reason that many of us (I’m not excluding myself here) don’t practice fasting and prayer very often is simply because we’ve become too enamored with pleasing our flesh. That statement hurts me, and I’m the one that wrote it. Let’s endeavor to commit ourselves to using these tools to seek the Lord in a deeper way, even if it’s only one day at a time. I know the results will be worth it.

Blessings!

Dan Owczarzak