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- Aug 10, 2012
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A fast is something else you can do to try to get a closer relationship with God, in addition to praying. It has a historical precident in the bible.
No. Every Christian does not fast.
It is something that will help you focus on the word because the time that you don't spend eating food or doing other things that are worldy, you will be spending reading your Bible.
Jesus said that if the Bridegroom is with you, you don't need to fast. But if you are seeking Him and believe that you don't have a personal relationship with Him, fasting can be a kind of added boost to your faith in being able to get a hold of Him when you are praying.
Other ways include prostrating yourself on your bed or lifting your hands when you pray. In the former thing, it can become tiring to your legs to be on your knees for an extended period of time. At which point I have simply turned over and continued praying with my face facing upward. But the former way being a way to show with your body that you want to be contrite before the LORD (see Isaiah 57:15).
But none of these would I put before you as a rule or regulation when it comes to prayer. These are merely options to boost your level of faith. If you don't think you need them; if you know that God hears you without doing these things, then they are not necessary. They are merely tools to help get your faith going; they are a way of letting God know you mean business with Him.
It is something that will help you focus on the word because the time that you don't spend eating food or doing other things that are worldy, you will be spending reading your Bible.
Jesus said that if the Bridegroom is with you, you don't need to fast. But if you are seeking Him and believe that you don't have a personal relationship with Him, fasting can be a kind of added boost to your faith in being able to get a hold of Him when you are praying.
Other ways include prostrating yourself on your bed or lifting your hands when you pray. In the former thing, it can become tiring to your legs to be on your knees for an extended period of time. At which point I have simply turned over and continued praying with my face facing upward. But the former way being a way to show with your body that you want to be contrite before the LORD (see Isaiah 57:15).
But none of these would I put before you as a rule or regulation when it comes to prayer. These are merely options to boost your level of faith. If you don't think you need them; if you know that God hears you without doing these things, then they are not necessary. They are merely tools to help get your faith going; they are a way of letting God know you mean business with Him.
I believe that every new believer should start with the gospel of John, and then go to Romans, and then Galatians, and then Matthew; as these books are foundational to the faith.
What kind of worldly thing's, your worldly thing's might be different from other people's worldly thing's.
This is just a tiny, tiny bit of what I told you I have on "Fasting."
It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive (Matt. 6:16–18). To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want. At times there is such stress upon the blessings and benefits of fasting that we would be tempted to believe that with a little fast we could have the world, including God, eating out of our hands.
Fasting must forever center on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained. Like the prophetess Anna, we need to be “worshiping with fasting” (Luke 2:37). Every other purpose must be subservient to God. Like that apostolic band at Antioch, “fasting” and “worshiping the Lord” must be said in the same breath (Acts 13:2). Charles Spurgeon writes, “Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the Tabernacle have been high days indeed; never has Heaven’s gate stood wider; never have our hearts been nearer the central Glory.”
God questioned the people in Zechariah’s day, “When ye fasted…did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?” (Zech. 7:5, KJV). If our fasting is not unto God, we have failed. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights — these must never replace God as the center of our fasting. John Wesley declares, “First, let it [fasting] be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven….” That is the only way we will be saved from loving the blessing more than the Blesser.
Once the primary purpose of fasting is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes, ”I humbled my soul with fasting“ (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear — if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.
Fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, “All things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting! When the disciples brought lunch to Jesus, assuming that he would be starving, he declared, “I have food to eat of which you do not know…. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (John 4:32, 34). This was not a clever metaphor, but a genuine reality. Jesus was, in fact, being nourished and sustained by the power of God. That is the reason for his counsel on fasting in Matthew 6. We are told not to act miserable when fasting because, in point of fact, we are not miserable. We are feeding on God and, just like the Israelites who were sustained in the wilderness by the miraculous manna from heaven, so we are sustained by the word of God.
Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Paul writes, “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channels. “I pommel my body and subdue it,” says Paul (1 Cor. 9:27). Likewise, David writes, “I afflicted myself with fasting” (Ps. 35:13). This is not excessive asceticism; it is discipline and discipline brings freedom. In the fourth century, Asterius said that fasting ensured that the stomach would not make the body boil like a kettle to the hindering of the soul.
Numerous people have written on the many other values of fasting such as increased effectiveness in intercessory prayer, guidance in decisions, increased concentration, deliverance for those in bondage, physical well-being, revelations, and so on. In this, as in all matters, we can expect God to reward those who diligently seek him.
Contemporary men and women are largely ignorant of the practical aspects of fasting. Those who desire to fast need to acquaint themselves with this basic information.
It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive (Matt. 6:16–18). To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want. At times there is such stress upon the blessings and benefits of fasting that we would be tempted to believe that with a little fast we could have the world, including God, eating out of our hands.
Fasting must forever center on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained. Like the prophetess Anna, we need to be “worshiping with fasting” (Luke 2:37). Every other purpose must be subservient to God. Like that apostolic band at Antioch, “fasting” and “worshiping the Lord” must be said in the same breath (Acts 13:2). Charles Spurgeon writes, “Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the Tabernacle have been high days indeed; never has Heaven’s gate stood wider; never have our hearts been nearer the central Glory.”
God questioned the people in Zechariah’s day, “When ye fasted…did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?” (Zech. 7:5, KJV). If our fasting is not unto God, we have failed. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights — these must never replace God as the center of our fasting. John Wesley declares, “First, let it [fasting] be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven….” That is the only way we will be saved from loving the blessing more than the Blesser.
Once the primary purpose of fasting is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes, ”I humbled my soul with fasting“ (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear — if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.
Fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, “All things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting! When the disciples brought lunch to Jesus, assuming that he would be starving, he declared, “I have food to eat of which you do not know…. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (John 4:32, 34). This was not a clever metaphor, but a genuine reality. Jesus was, in fact, being nourished and sustained by the power of God. That is the reason for his counsel on fasting in Matthew 6. We are told not to act miserable when fasting because, in point of fact, we are not miserable. We are feeding on God and, just like the Israelites who were sustained in the wilderness by the miraculous manna from heaven, so we are sustained by the word of God.
Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Paul writes, “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channels. “I pommel my body and subdue it,” says Paul (1 Cor. 9:27). Likewise, David writes, “I afflicted myself with fasting” (Ps. 35:13). This is not excessive asceticism; it is discipline and discipline brings freedom. In the fourth century, Asterius said that fasting ensured that the stomach would not make the body boil like a kettle to the hindering of the soul.
Numerous people have written on the many other values of fasting such as increased effectiveness in intercessory prayer, guidance in decisions, increased concentration, deliverance for those in bondage, physical well-being, revelations, and so on. In this, as in all matters, we can expect God to reward those who diligently seek him.
Contemporary men and women are largely ignorant of the practical aspects of fasting. Those who desire to fast need to acquaint themselves with this basic information.
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If you're looking for a fast track solution to resolve your faith issues here I doubt you'll find one, and you'll be back where you started.
There's nothing you can do of yourself with this particular God, you can fast all you want, read the Bible, pray, worship with other believer's, but in the end all rights reserved go to God.
You could start with the Gospel of John, since the JWs distort the very first verse in their New World Translation.
Jesus (the Word) is not "a god" but simply God (with the Father and the Holy Spirit).
I still fast of this day, fasting has other benefit's that far outweigh the religiosity of the act.
And remember this verse:
Matthew 6:16-21 16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:16-21 16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The fact you have tagged your belief's as JW is a sign that you're are still holding on to them.
From your multiple posts, I was getting the impression that you wanted to leave this misguided group. Therefore you should be aware of their false beliefs. They wish to believe that Jesus is a creature, not the Creator. Hence they made him "a god".
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