Why do we fast?
As we begin this fast, I’ve received a couple of questions from people who have never fasted before as to why Christians fast, and I’d like to address it briefly before getting into what I’m feeling for this fast. Unlike for Muslims during Ramadan, fasting is not something that is legally required of us as Christians. It is a voluntary spiritual discipline that we engage in, to remind ourselves and declare — by more than words — that we depend on God more than we depend on the things of the flesh.
John Piper describes fasting in this way:
Fasting is a temporary renunciation of something that is in itself good, like food, in order to intensify our expression of need for something greater, namely God and His work in our lives.
In the Bible, Jesus predicted that His disciples would be a fasting people:
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matthew 9:14-15)
And, they proved Him right. It was an essential part of the story of God’s mission to the Gentiles:
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)
There is a connection between fasting and our desire and longing for God and His Kingdom, and there are many examples in the Bible of God being moved into action based on prayer with fasting. We have to remember that our God is a jealous God (Deut. 4:24), and He notices when we fast (Matt. 6:18). He seems to be compelled by the expressed affection of His beloved.
However, we do not fast in order to get something from God. A man might buy his wife flowers because he’s done something wrong or because he wants to get something from her. Or, a man might buy his wife flowers simply to say “I love you,” and the flowers (and their associated cost) lend help to the man in expressing the sincerity of his affection for his wife.
In a way, fasting is like the flowers we bring to God as we tell Him, “Thank you for giving me so many good gifts, including the food you give me to eat, but I just want you to know that I love you and need you more than any of those other things.”
Isn’t Jesus worth giving up three days of food, or whatever else competes for our affection for Him? Not because we need anything from Him, but simply because we want to show Him that we want Him more than anything else.
With that said, I want to share what I am feeling for our community for this fast.
Invocation, Impartation, and Celebration
This is the word that came to me as I was praying this morning for the fast. I believe we are to call upon, ask, invite, invoke God to bring a greater measure of God’s presence and power to help us in our personal lives and our collective mission.
It is an understatement to say that 2020 has been a strange and challenging year, but I believe there is purpose to it. I believe the Lord is shaking the earth and His Church in preparation for what is to come.
Clive Baker, a trusted prophetic voice at Coastlands Church in Adelaide (an Advance partner church in Australia), shared a prophetic picture for One Light Church last month. It was a picture about the Holy Spirit providing Himself to us as a new stronger support structure to help us “Stand in the face of adversity” and to support and carry us through “until there is a day of Breakthrough and Breakout.”
God has done some amazing things in the past 2 years for the sake of His glory and Kingdom. We’ve taken enemy ground in Yafu through the new church plant, and continue to plunder Satan’s kingdom there, by bringing sons and daughters of God out of bondage and into Christ’s marvelous light. We’ve also seen God do some great things related to our Next Gen ministries at Thantip and Baan Farm, even reaching beyond those schools to go into the students’ villages to evangelize, which we did earlier this year.
As a community, we have our hands on a lot of great opportunities, whether it’s Andy’s evangelism with expats, Mitch, Christine, Marcia, and Brent at CRIS and Fiat Lux, or the various marketplace, community development initiatives we are involved in. I can also see God using us to plant a new church in Jalae in the very near future. We’ve got our hands to the plow in some great fields.
With all of these wonderful things God is doing, I sense a greater-than-ever opposition from the Enemy in trying to oppose us and the works of God. COVID has separated the Harpsters, Dai Lei, and Eric from us, and caused all kinds of travel, visa, and financial problems. I’ve also been made aware in recent weeks of the various spiritual struggles of many people here, and feelings of spiritual heaviness and opposition.
Pastor John Kilpatrick, who led the Brownsville Church through the Pensacola Outpouring, says that whenever there is a move of God, there is a corresponding move of Satan to oppose the move of God. This is something that is supported by Scripture and Paul’s life in particular, as he writes:
But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Cor. 16:8-9)
For Paul, effective work came with much adversity, and yet his response was not to run, but to stay. In order for us to have staying power in the open doors that God has given us, I think we should expect heavy adversity. That sounds uncomfortable, but the good news is that God is with us and will fight for us, if we will let Him.
I say that because sometimes, we can get in the way of God helping us by trying to do things in our own strength. I believe that is the “old Victorian style Iron Girders with very large rivets … looking a bit tatty and rust-brown and charcoal grey” from Clive Baker’s prophetic picture, that the Holy Spirit is wanting to replace with Himself.
WE CANNOT DO IT OURSELVES. WE NEED GOD.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we read about “a great multitude” coming against the people of God in battle. King Jehoshaphat was “afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.”
They gathered and fasted as an invocation for God’s help:
“For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
And, an amazing thing happened. The Spirit of God came upon Jahaziel and there was an impartation from God to his people:
“Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s … You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf … Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
What followed was one of the greatest worship celebrations we see in Scripture:
“Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.”
“Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.’”
“And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.”
We will break up this fast in this way: Day 1, we will invoke God’s presence and help. Day 2, we will wait for God to impart (speak, give us more of Himself). Day 3, we will celebrate God’s victory.
I look forward to gathering and seeking God together with you all over the next few days!