benefits of fasting.

Fasting, when done right, can bring amazing changes in your life and your relationship with Jesus.

I believe God expects it and rewards the sincere sacrifice.

Jesus didn't say "If you fast," he said "WHEN you fast...."

Fasting is a good spiritual disciple - I miss being able to do it.

brodav9 said:

1. it may be hard for some to fast. Others may not think we should. But what is it for and will it be different than praying without it.

There are many questions but no answers. If fasting is for any purpose, the greatest is for growing close to God in fellowship.
Many think it's what causes the answer to come. It really is so we have a awareness of God and fellowship with him. As the stomach which God automatically put a alarm system in will keep reminding you to eat---we reject that and say we will see it as a reminder of God and his fellowship.

Praying and doing nothing else is not always possible. We must keep talking to God and seeking him to show himself to us.
He actually begins early in communicating to us. It is really the opposite of difficult. He comes to us. You must have the Holy Spirit to fellowship with him. No fellowship means no answer. He doesn't hide from us but comes freely and quickly.

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There are answers all through scripture. The men who were close to God fasted for forty days and nights. Moses when he was on the mountain. Elijah on His way to Horeb. Christ in the wilderness. The two witnesses at the end.

Deuteronomy 9
9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

1 Kings 19
7 And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

Matthew 4
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry

The only thing hard about fasting for forty days and nights is getting past the lies of the world. The lust for food leaves early in the days.

While you are out there fasting and praying ask for God to fill you with Himself and push out all the evil that is in you. Everything that is not pleasing to Him. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Fasting is to prepare us for the will of God and not the other way around where we fast and try to change the will of God. Please watch this video: http://ourmanna.com/videos/bible-study/king-davids-fast/

Fasting is a way for us to build and establish our faith. When we fast, we are, for a time, deneying ourself food, coffee, T.V.--whatever it is we are fasting. By deneying ourself in this way, we are letting the body know it is not calling the shots, and that the body is not in charge, but the real 'you' is: your soul. When your body is not calling the shots, 'you' can accually pay more attention to the spiritual side of your self. In doing that you become more spiritually minded and less carnally minded. It helps to break addictions.

I think the reason so many people don't see many results from fasting is because they think they can only fast food. Maybe food is not what the Hholy Spirit is trying to get you to fast. You can fast video games, junk food, music, coffee--anything. Also, you don't have to fast 21 days at a time. You can fast until noon, once a day or once a week, or once a month. God knows that if He actually told us how often to fast and what to fast, we would make a religion out of it and totally miss the point.

My point is, fast something as often as you will, and by doing so you will begin to able to hear the soft voice of the Holy Spirit and recognize it as His. I don't think it's that God is willing to reward us for fasting, think of it as this is how we become less carnal and more spiritual so that we can worship Him the way He desires. and believe me when I tell you, it won't just be on Sundays (or Saturdays) it will be all day everyday and you'll see that He's been speaking to you all along, but that's not what you were paying attention to, you were way too concerned with the flesh.

It is important for us to grasp why Jesus fasted! To get closer to God? He is the Son of God and knew it, He could not be closer. To put the flesh under? He had the flesh under from day 1, He was sinless throughout his life. To get more in tune with God? No, as this implies that all the previous times He prayed to God, there is a chance that they couldn’t hear each other, lol, not likely.

I believe that it was an inevitable by-product from fellowship with the Father. He was so consumed by fellowship that eating was the last thing on His mind.

So, if fasting is not accompanied by us making quiet time available for fellow-shipping with God / time to meditate on our prayer requests, we are mostly wasting our time. It is a good habit to identify potential idols and abstain from them for a period. But when we fast without our meds, water and if we have a heavy labour job, bananas, It is simply self-righteousness. Christians get victory over the flesh by the spirit. We are overcomers in Christ not in our effort to abstain from important food.