Is Fasting God's Key to Victory?

Is Fasting God’s Key to Victory?

Some swear by fasting as being THE key to God’s heart. Fasting can either be a planned period of abstinence or it could simply be the result of an extended prayer session where the need is so great and prayer takes on such intensity that hunger is forgotten for a time. Such times would include periods of personal crisis, grief, or interceding for others to be delivered from satan’s power. Fasting should not be done to “beat yourself up” for being imperfect. Some believers are so sin-conscious they are not Son-conscious. Some give lip service to the all-sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself even as they “make up the difference” with fasting and other works.

Fasting, like “seed-planting”, “praising for miracles”, positive confession, etc, gets glory which should go to Jesus alone. Far from exalting the flesh, fasting can induce confidence in physical weakness to win God’s closeness and favor. But it is Christ alone Who opens the Way into the Holiest Place (Heb.10:19). Fasting, like eating, is a bodily function. Most everyone goes a few hours a day without eating. The weapons of our warfare not carnal (physical) (II Cor.10:4). Confidence must not be put in the flesh (Phil.3:3).

Fasting was an old Jewish religious custom. Scripture does not attribute fasting to the earliest saints, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses was the first faster in Scripture. When he received the Law on Mt. Sinai, he didn’t eat or drink for 40 days and 40 nights (Deut.9:9).When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he found the Israelites committing idolatry. Moses angrily broke the stone tablets of the Law, then went back up the mountain. Moses REPEATED his fast, for a total of 80 days (verses 15-19)! Moses was SUPERNATURALLY sustained! No one can live much longer than three days without water. Very few, if any, could survive 80 days without food. Two months without food led to necrosis (bodily decay) in Irish hunger strikers whose breathing had not yet ceased.

Religious tradition motivated the ritual fasting of the Pharisees, not Scriptural command. Fasting was never given as a church ordinance by the Biblical apostles. Even under the Law, only one regular fast was commanded by God: the Day of Atonement, when Israelites were commanded to “afflict their souls” (Lev.23:26-32). But zealous Jews thought they’d help God out by imposing more fasts. Several fasts were added to the Jewish calendar BY COMMANDMENT OF MEN: the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months of the year (Zech.8:19). They commemorated such national tragedies as the destruction of both Temples on the ninth of Av, and the assassination of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:25).

Although God never authorized those extra fasts, religious leaders thought “holiness” should be harder to achieve. The proud Pharisee who thought he needed no repentance fasted twice weekly (Luke 18:12). So much for praying for DAILY bread (Matt.6:11).

Pharisees would fast each Monday and Thursday. The only time a Pharisee felt okay about breaking this pattern would be if a religious feast fell on a Monday or Thursday, or if he were attending a week of wedding celebrations. During a wedding feast, all ritual fasting was suspended.

Did Jesus command the church to fast? In Matt.6:16-17 Jesus says “when”, not “if” ye fast, as many point out. But Christ was addressing Jews who lived under the Old Covenant. They already fasted regularly. Why Jesus tolerated this fasting is hinted at in Chapter 23.

In Matthew 23:2 Jesus said of the learned interpreters of Jewish Law: The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. *****They proudly presided in Moses’ place as Law giver. They added their own “oral traditions” (burdens) to the written Law.

VERSE 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.***Here is a key to understanding why Jesus okayed the fasting already practiced by His Jewish listeners: Christ encouraged reasonable submission to those who “sat in Moses seat”. But that was before the old Mosaic ordinances were nailed to the Cross of Calvary (Col. 2:14). Jesus did not veto the Jews’ obedience to expounders (expanders) of Mosaic Law, but He did not want them to “do after their works” of hypocrisy and religious pride.
VERSE 4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.***Jesus called extra religious requirements OF MEN heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. Christians have been eaten up with needless guilt over a harmful heresy going around: “The longer you starve your body, the quicker your hunger for Jesus will be satisfied.

“sANctOREXIA” sounds like a deeply spiritual doctrine but beware! The devil is a religious imposter! FAITH is the key to pleasing God, not fasting (Heb.11:6). Even Eastern mystics “fast for miracles”.

Hebrews 13:9: Be not carried about with divers (diverse) and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats (dietary restrictions), which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.* * * *The Book of Hebrews teaches faith in the all-sufficiency of Christ. Its tone is sometimes stern towards negligent believers. But fasting is NOWHERE mentioned in Hebrews as being a duty of discipleship!

Matt.23: 5: BUT ALL THEIR WORKS (including fasting) THEY (the Pharisees) DO FOR TO BE SEEN OF MEN: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.

In certain passages Jesus addresses MOTIVE. He said not to invite your own kindred (or rich people) to dinner, lest they reward you in this life (Luke 14:14). Rather, invite the sick and the poor. Jesus is not forbidding us to eat with our families. He’s saying: Don’t forget the poor!

Jesus okayed the Pharisees’ tithing of garden herbs, even while reprimanding them for omitting the weightier MATTERS OF THE LAW: justice, mercy and faith (Matt.23:23). Did Jesus say Gentile Christians must tithe today? No. Tithing, like religious fasting, was performed by Jews UNDER THE LAW AND BEFORE THE CROSS. Church Age believers are NOT under the authority of those ancient doctors of the Law who dictated twice-weekly fasting. We are under grace, not under the Law (Rom.6:14).

If Christians must fast, why didn’t the apostles teach more on its practice and merits? Whenever God ordained times and seasons for feasting, sacrificing or other rituals, He left no detail to speculation. Exodus Chapter 12 specifies which days the Passover Feast must be held. God says that some people qualify to keep the Passover, but others don’t (foreigners and hired servants). God orders unleavened bread to be eaten. God gives instructions on cooking the lamb and even disposal of leftovers!

If Matt.6:16-18 commands Christians to fast, it breaks God’s earlier pattern of specifying “who”, “when”, “where”, “how”, “how long”, and “how often.”. Jesus’ Jewish listeners already observed fasting traditions when they heard Him tell them to “appear not unto men to fast”. Jesus wanted their fasting, like their almsgiving (Matt.6:3-4) to be a private matter between themselves and God. How can today’s Christians “appear not unto men to fast” when everyone is talking about how hungry the big church fast is making them? The Pharisees would deliberately appear miserable, to get people’s sympathy and admiration. Jesus called that their only reward.

In Matthew 6:1-2 Jesus urges humility “when thou doest thine alms” (give to the needy). Jesus did not decree that everyone in all circumstances must give alms. According to the Jewish Talmud, a poor man was not required to give alms out of his meager subsistence. Jesus was telling people that when they did hand out alms, not to act like the Pharisees did.

Some scriptures are addressed to specific individuals, rather than having a universal application. Jesus told a healed leper to “shew himself to the priest” and offer a ritual gift (Gr.doron, sacrifice) (Matt.8:1-4.) Jesus also told him TO TELL NO MAN. Does that mean we must offer animal sacrifices today and keep it a secret when we are healed? Jesus asked the rich young ruler to go and sell all that he had (Luke 18:22). Jesus did not ask Zacchaeus or Jairus to sell all their possessions.

Matt.6:16-18 doesn’t say how OFTEN each person must fast. Once a lifetime? Once a week? Can you have juice? It wasn’t clarified whether fasting must be done without food and water night and day, as the Jews did in a time of danger (Esther 4:16). David sometimes fasted till sundown (Judges 20:26; II Sam.1:12; 3:35). Is that okay? That’s similar to how Muslims keep their month-long Ramadan fast. They fast by day and feast by night.

It wasn’t clarified whether expectant mothers, children, or sick and elderly Christians must fast to be faithful. Nowhere does Scripture command Christians to reserve specific day(s) of the week for fasting, or pick their own days. Christians who “covenant” with God to fast on certain days come under a law of “observing DAYS and months and times and years” (Gal.4:10). Every time “fast day” rolls around, the believer might worry that if he doesn’t keep the “spiritual disciplines”, God might discipline (punish) him. That’s fear, not grace (Rom.8:15).

Jesus’ warning against religious pride is the dominant, recurring theme of Matthew 6:1-18. Jesus warns that almsgiving, praying and fasting must not be done “to be seen of men”. Christ was addressing Jews who lived under Mosaic Law, not Grace. If you keep part of that passage as a law you must keep it ALL. Jesus tells fasters not to look unhappy. He instructs them to “anoint your head with oil”, another Jewish custom not universally observed. So if you must fast in response to this passage, you must get the oil bottle out too.

In Matt.9:14-17 John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus why His disciples don’t fast like they do. Jesus immediately connects fasting with mourning. Jesus compares fasting to old wineskins which cannot contain new wine. They’ll burst. Jesus says it’s useless to patch up an old garment with brand new cloth. It will tear. Fasting is a perfect tissue match with Old Covenant legalism, not New Covenant liberty. Jesus wasn’t trying to patch up old Jewish customs to hand them down to the church!

Jesus says that the children of the bridal chamber cannot mourn while the Bridegroom is with them. But the days would come when the Bridegroom would be taken away from them, and then His disciples would fast. In the days between Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection, His disciples did mourn. Their joy returned when Christ rose again (Luke 24:52).

Many believe that since the Bridegroom hasn’t returned for us we must fast. True, Jesus is not among us in His resurrected, glorified body. But He is continually with us in Spirit. We are spiritually united to Christ by faith (I Cor.6:16). So how can we say the Bridegroom is not with us? Jesus Himself said, just before His return to heaven:: LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH ( Matt.28:20b). If you are filled with the joy of the Lord, why should you fast? That’s like getting married in a morgue! The normal Christian experience should be “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Pet.1:8).

Some think that only when Jesus is PHYSICALLY present with His people (in heaven or at the Rapture) will they no longer have to fast. There are a couple of flaws in this assumption. Even when Jesus walked the earth, He did not tell disciples of John and the Pharisees to stop fasting just because He was physically present with them. But Jesus did tell them that mourning was inappropriate for His own disciples while the Bridegroom was with them (Mark 2:19). Jesus did not object to religious Jews continuing their fasting customs. But Jesus did not order His disciples to fast.

The key question is: Is the Bridegroom with us or not? You believe He is only if you take Matthew 28:20b at face value. Even when Christ comes again, His glorified body will be a literal flesh and bone body (Luke 24:39). Jesus’ perfected body is awesome. It can vanish. It can pass through walls (John 20:19; Luke 24:31). But Jesus’ glorified body will be limited to one geographical location at a time. Whenever Jesus sits on His glorious Throne in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3), He will be physically absent from saints ruling in other parts of the earth.

Jesus will ALWAYS be spiritually present with each of His loved ones (Matt.28:20b). The best way to picture God’s omnipresence (being everywhere at the same time) is to think of millions of people viewing the same TV program at once . God is able to reach and teach billions of souls simultaneously. Christ our Bridegroom is spiritually present with us NOW, even though the marriage ceremony of Jesus to us, His Bride the Church, is yet future (Rev.19:7).

“The children of the bridal chamber” are widely assumed to be Church Age believers. But Christians, corporately, are Christ’s actual Bride. The wedding guests and the Bride cannot be one and the same! The Greek word for “children” in Mark 2:19 is “huios”. This word is used in a wide variety of applications in the New Testament. According to comments in Strong’s Concordance, “children of the bridal chamber” can be interpreted as “friends attending a wedding.” John the Baptist called himself the Bridegroom’s friend (John 3:29). Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:14: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I (not the Pharisees) command you.

Toward the end of Christ’s earthly ministry, He told His disciples that He would henceforth (from now on) call them His friends instead of His servants (John 15:14). But at no time before the Cross did Christ refer to His Twelve disciples as a church. Jesus didn’t even call the Seventy a church (Luke 10:1-24). But Christ did say “I WILL (future tense) BUILD My church in Matthew 16:18. Only in one other passage does the word “church” (Gr. ekklesia) appear before Jesus’ crucifixion, where He addresses disciplinary problems which would arise once the church came into existence (Matt.18:15-17).

Before Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, His disciples were still spiritually unregenerated and living under the Law. Like John the Baptist and other Old Testament saints, they were still “friends of the Bridegroom”. After His resurrection, Jesus breathed upon His disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). I believe it was then that they were spiritually born again (I Pet.1:23). I also believe that the Holy Ghost, not fasting, empowered them for Christian service at Pentecost (Luke 24:49). Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples didn’t include fasting! Jesus told them to tarry (wait) in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on High (Luke 24:49). Many teach that Christ’s followers fasted all ten days they waited for the Spirit in the Upper Room, but a plain reading of Scripture doesn’t support this (see Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-4). The disciples continued in prayer and supplication (no mention of fasting in this context).

Pentecost was the birthday of the Church. Before Pentecost there was no church, just a band of disciples. When they were baptized into the Body of Christ, they were spiritually united to Him (I Cor.12:13; I Cor.6:17). They became members of His betrothed Bride (II Cor.11:2)! This is a much closer relationship to God than that enjoyed by Old Testament saints. Before Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary made spiritual regeneration of the disciples possible, they were among the GUESTS of the Bridegroom, the ones Jesus referred to when He said, “In those days they will fast”. Jesus was not ordering His Bride to fast. Jesus prophesied that His disciples would fast for sorrow of heart when He was violently taken away from them. Isaiah 53:8 speaks of the Messiah being “taken from prison and from judgment”. Translator’s notes in the margin read: “He was TAKEN AWAY by distress and judgment”.

Psalms 102:24 speaks of the coming Messiah: I said, O my God, TAKE ME NOT AWAY in the midst of my days. Christ was to be taken away by a violent death, and His disciples would sorrow greatly. But their sorrow would be turned into joy when Jesus rose from the grave (Luke 24:41; John 16:20; Acts 2:46).

Old Testament sinners are sometimes commanded to humble themselves with fasting, but nowhere in Scripture do people fast to celebrate their normal condition of joy in the Lord. I’ve heard of people going on “thanksgiving fasts” to show gratitude to God. But that’s akin to monks whipping themselves to achieve religious ecstasy through self-humiliation . It is said that St. Malachy, the Irish monk who had a vision of all the popes who would ever live, was taught that self-inflicted suffering would bring him closer to God. Malachy beat his body and slept on boards.

Such severe treatment of the body is discouraged by Colossians 2:20-23 as being a poor way to subdue the flesh. It’s almost as if some saints think that the unmerited gift of Jesus’ joy isn’t fitting for a proper sour-faced religion. Suffering-obsessed believers are still saddled with a sin nature. They think they don’t deserve to be happy this side of heaven. So they punish their own bodies to stay sad, in keeping with their lowly earthly estate.

Beware of false religious mysticism. Satan can appear as an angel of light (II Cor.11:14). Why do some people think God enjoys “sacrifices” of self-inflicted suffering? Failure to “live a fasted life” could lead to guilt feelings for “depriving God of a sweet-smelling sacrifice” He supposedly delights in. But Christ is the ONLY Sacrifice needed for peace with God (Rom.5:1)! Adding our own efforts to Christ’s finished work on Calvary is deadly to faith. Falling from grace results from putting ourselves under a yoke of legalistic bondage (Gal.5:1,4).

The early church has often been called “a fasting church”, and that’s supposedly why there were lots of miracles in those days. But could it be that those miracles happened more as a result of a heart full of love than from an empty stomach? Acts 2:44-45 and Acts 4:32-35 shows how greatly Christians loved one another in the beginning. They walked their talk. They would even sell their valuables to provide for needy brethren, so that there was none among them who lacked for life’s necessities. In the very beginning of the Church Age, the poor were tenderly cared for, not neglected . Can you imagine that happening today? Instead, Christians are taught that “successful” saints swim while those who don’t apply “God’s Seven Keys to Prosperity” sink. “Seeds of faith” are sent to rich TV preachers instead of being used to relieve poverty in the church. Helping a poor struggling family is a much greater love gift to God than starving on a fast. Isaiah 58:7 makes it clear that what God really wants is to see the hungry fed, the naked clothed and the homeless housed.

Acts 2:42 says: And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Verses 46-47: AND THEY, CONTINUING DAILY WITH ONE ACCORD IN THE TEMPLE, AND BREAKING BREAD FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE, DID EAT THEIR MEAT WITH GLADNESS AND SINGLENESS OF HEART, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved***. No mention of fasting in those verses. The early Christians shared meals in each others’ homes with gladness, instead of keeping mournful fasts.

The apostle James was reputed to be a strict adherent of Mosaic Law, and very Jewish in His devotional practices. James allegedly spent so much time praying on his knees that he developed calluses on them like a camel’s. In his epistle James rebuked Christians for failing to prove their love in practical ways. He rebuked believers for talking dirty. He rebuked them for double-mindedness. He rebuked the rich for being proud and greedy. James rebuked Christians for fighting among themselves. But he never upbraided anybody for failure to fast! James, that most legalistic of Christ’s apostles, never once commands, or even mentions, fasting in his epistle. Instead of urging more fasting to refine your faith, James exhorts believers to do more than just pray when a brother or a sister is hungry for DAILY food (James 2:15-16). Feed them!

James tells Christians how to handle certain situations (James 5:13-14). If a believer is afflicted, he is to pray (no mention of fasting). If he is merry, he is to sing psalms (not go on a thanksgiving fast). Anyone sick is to call for the elders of the church and have them pray over him and anoint him in the Name of the Lord. James does not command the elders to fast and pray, just pray.

If fasting were such a critically important issue, why didn’t the apostles mention it more? Except for Paul’s “fasting oft” (going hungry because of persecution, etc.) not much is said about fasting in the epistles. These doctrinal letters to the churches NEVER bind fasting on believers! The apostles never specify how severe a fast has to be, how long it should last, how often a fast must be undertaken, etc. In I Thes.5:14-22 Paul gives a list of things faithful Christians are to do, including pray without ceasing, or staying in a spirit of prayer. No mention of fasting in that list. If you fasted without ceasing, you’d get to heaven faster than the preacher at the potluck!

Some point out that the apostles sought God’s counsel with fasting (Acts 13:2). During the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, the Jewish disciples still clung to some of their old customs. In Galatians 2:11-14 Paul rebuked Peter for refusing to eat with Gentile believers, out of fear of legalistic Jews.

If the apostles required Gentile converts to fast, they would not have assumed that a non-Jew raised in an idolatrous, party-going culture was already familiar with fasting. That convert would need to be taught about fasting and its merits from scratch. In Acts Chapter 15 the apostles convened to determine whether Gentile converts to Christ had to adopt Jewish laws and customs (that would include fasting). Even James, who was zealous for the Law of Moses, sat on this council (Acts 15:13). In verse 28-29 the apostles spell out what they, AND THE HOLY GHOST require of the Gentiles, besides faith in Christ and walking in the Spirit. They must refrain from: foods offered to idols, fornication, strangled meats, and eating blood. No mention of Gentiles having to adopt Jewish practices such as fasting, tithing, wearing of phylacteries, circumcision, etc. The old wine of Jewish legalism was replaced by the New Wine of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom.14:17).

The closest I found to a fasting commandment in the epistles was I Cor. 7:5, and it wasn’t even a commandment: Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer (some manuscripts omit fasting); and come together again, that satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
VERSE 6: But I SPEAK THIS BY PERMISSION, AND NOT OF COMMANDMENT.

The Christian is not commanded by Scripture to fast. But neither is he commanded to eat when he feels no need to. Faith, not food intake or lack thereof, determines the quality of a believer’s service to God.

I COR.8:8: BUT MEAT (FOOD) COMMENDETH (approves) US NOT TO GOD: FOR NEITHER, IF WE EAT, ARE WE THE BETTER; NEITHER, IF WE EAT NOT, ARE WE THE WORSE.

Whether we eat or don’t eat, it doesn’t affect our standing before God. You are free to eat and you are free not to eat. But if you decide to abstain from food and/or drink during a season of prayer, don’t look upon fasting as adding to Christ’s own redemptive work on Calvary. He meant what He said: It is finished (John 19:30).

CAN FASTING MAKE YOU A MIRACLE WORKER?

Fasting can induce a “God owes me” attitude. If some non-faster easily obtains the very blessing the faster prays for but doesn’t receive, this can cause resentment and envy which could imperil the faster’s relationship with God. God is not obligated to grant requests which oppose His express will or violate His Word. Fasting, however hard or long, can never purchase one solitary benefit from the Hand of God.

Some justify compulsory fasting by saying Jesus did it. But what does the Bible really say about how Jesus ate? The lifestyles of Jesus and John the Baptist are contrasted in Matthew 11: 18-19. John “came neither eating (bread) nor drinking (wine), so people said John had a devil. Jesus “came eating and drinking” so Jesus was called a winebibber and a glutton. BOTH men drew criticism! People noticed that Jesus didn’t habitually fast. Jesus’ enemies twisted that fact to discredit Him. If Jesus had eaten barely enough to keep a fly alive, the “winebibber and glutton” allegation would be as ridiculous as calling a lion a vegetarian!

John was a frequent faster (ascetic). Jesus wasn’t. John lived on locusts and wild honey (Matt.3:4). Locusts are grasshoppers, though some airbrush John the Baptist’s bugs by saying they were really locust pods (carob). Carob is a cocoa substitute.

Scripture records only ONE occasion where Jesus went without eating for a prolonged time: The fast in the wilderness, where He ate nothing for forty days and nights, and was tempted by satan (Matt. 4:1-5). Christ was supernaturally sustained by the Word of God (verse 4). AFTER Jesus finished the fast He felt hungry (verse 2).

Eating daily was Jesus’ usual practice (Matt.6:11). He even feasted with despised social outcasts and sinners (Matt.9:10-11; Luke 5:30). The Pharisees upbraided Christ for dining with tax collectors and other scoundrels. They criticized Jesus for freely enjoying His meals instead of fasting often. But did Jesus’ eating and drinking, even in the company of sinners, diminish His miracle ministry? No. Unless hindered by other people’s unbelief, Christ enjoyed total success in His healing ministry (Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:40). Devils were cast out. The dead were raised. Blind eyes were opened. Deaf ears were healed. While John the Baptist languished in prison, he heard about Jesus’ mighty miracles. Christ’s signs and wonders proved that He was the Jews’ long-awaited Anointed One (Gr.christos) (Matt.11:2-6).

John the Baptist was among the greatest of mortal men born under the Old Covenant (Matt.11:11). John was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). John was specially anointed by God to call the nation of Israel to repentance (Luke 1: 16-17; 3:2-18). John ate grasshoppers and honey, and only enough to keep going.

But if fasting were the key to a mighty miracle ministry, John the Baptist should have healed many more people than Jesus, because he did much more fasting than Jesus and His disciples. But it was Christ, the One Who “came eating and drinking” Who performed those supernatural works of God. John had a wonderful prophetic preaching ministry (Luke 1:76-77; 3:1-18). But NOT ONE miracle is attributed to John by Scripture!

John called Jesus Someone Who was mightier than himself, One whose shoelaces he was unworthy to untie (Luke 3:16). Christ would increase, while John was to decrease (John 3:30).

If going hungry could work miracles, every fashion model could empty hospitals and raise the dead! If fasting makes miracles happen, then why did people travel over rough terrain to GO TO JESUS for healing in the Bible? They could have just prayed and fasted at home to get healing from God!

Ephesians 6:10-18 speaks of the warfare of the Christian believer, and the spiritual armor of that warfare. Verse 17 describes the Christian’s Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Verse 18 exhorts Christians to pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, with perseverance and supplication for all saints. Some think “supplication” means “fasting”. But “supplication” (Gr. deesis) simply means “a prayer of petition”. If fasting is such a powerful weapon against satan, why is it not even mentioned in Ephesians Chapter 6? It is the Word of God and prayer in the Spirit which bring victory, not physical hunger.

Some think prayer in the Spirit must include fasting, even if they aren’t one and the same. But I Cor.14:15 indicates that prayer in the Spirit is praying in tongues. Paul says: What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.***Prayer and singing with the understanding is distinguished from prayer and singing with the spirit, which cannot be understood by the natural mind.

Just before Christ’s crucifixion, He ate (Luke 22:15). After supper, Jesus fought his hardest prayer battle ever in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was an agonizing ordeal for Jesus, a situation in which most wouldn’t even be ABLE to eat! Jesus won that battle WITHOUT FIRST FASTING, strengthened by an angel so He could go to the Cross (Luke 22:43).

Ultimately it is God Who gives the increase (harvest) for our labors here below (I Cor.3:6-7). Fasting is not a cure-all for spiritual weakness. The key to victory is abiding in Christ and having His Word abide richly in us (John 15:7). We are to look unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith (Heb.12:2). If Jesus finished it, what can we possibly add to it to improve it?

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