In this insightful episode, we delve into the often overlooked spiritual discipline of fasting as guided by the teachings of Jesus. Our journey begins by exploring the challenges faced by early disciples and how fasting can help in overcoming similar obstacles today. We examine the fundamental relationship between fasting and prayer as taught in Matthew 6, emphasizing the significance of intention and sincerity in practicing this powerful form of worship.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 17th. Stay with us to conclude the series, Learning to Pray the Bible Way, with an explanation of what scripture has to say about the place of fasting in prayer.
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On one occasion when Jesus was preaching in John chapter 6, those who heard him said, who can even listen to this? That is, when he began to talk about true discipleship, they didn’t ask the question, who can do this? They said, who can even listen to this? And by the end of the chapter, so many of his congregation had left, Jesus turned to his apostles and said, are you going to? I wonder… what your level of commitment is. Is your love and devotion to Jesus Christ beyond the level of convenience? Well, it was very difficult for them to hear what Jesus had to say about discipleship. And it may be a little difficult for some of you To hear what I want to say today. Because I want to talk about a subject that most folks haven’t talked about and a lot of folks don’t want to talk about. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 6, the Sermon on the Mount. And in this particular section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been giving instruction about giving to the poor and about prayer. And now he comes to a third word of instruction. And the title of this message is The Place of Fasting in Prayer. And beginning in verse 16, he says, And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do. For they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Now, by fasting, I simply mean the abstinence of food, and that can be abstinence of sleep, or it can be abstinence of the relationship, the intimacy of a husband and wife. But primarily, it is a fasting of food, and that is setting aside, abstaining from, refusing to eat in order to give ourselves to a time of prayer and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me say in the very beginning, you don’t fast to persuade God to do something He doesn’t want to do. You don’t fast to bend God’s mind, nor do you fast in order to get forgiveness. That is, forgiveness of sin is not the result of prayer and fasting. Forgiveness of sin is the result of the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary 2,000 years ago, and the blood of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus Christ alone provides for the forgiveness of sin. But on the other hand, there is a time in dealing with sin that fasting indeed is helpful. So let’s begin where Jesus began, and that is with a caution and a warning, as He did in discussing almsgiving or giving to the poor in prayer and in fasting and notice how in each of these subjects how he begins he doesn’t say if you do but when you do Verse 3, but when you give alms, and verse 5, and when you pray, and verse 16, and whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face. So he says in the very beginning, he talks about the proper method here, proper attitude in fasting, as he has in almsgiving and in prayer. And he says the proper attitude is this, we’re to do it with sincerity. No fasting should ever be done In order to show off one’s devotion to Jesus Christ, it should never be done in order for show under any condition. It is an intimate, private fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If a person fasts in order to be seen of men, he says you have your full reward. Not only are we to fast with sincerity, but he says we’re to fast in secret, that is secretly. As in prayer, we are to do it, not to be seen of men, but in a relationship to Him. And so we should not tell anybody unless our fasting involves other people. For example, let’s say that a husband decides he’s going to fast and his wife is planning to cook him a big meal. Then he should certainly be wise enough to tell her, honey, I’m going to fast today and I would appreciate you just holding off the meal till tomorrow. So we certainly do not want to make it inconvenient for someone else in the family. And if a church chooses to fast, it is not a matter of going around saying, well, I’m going to fast. It’s a matter of agreeing to do so, but to do it privately, intimately with the Lord. So he says the proper attitude toward fasting is with sincerity, not to be seen of men, but to do it unto the Lord and in secret because your fast is unto the Lord, not unto men. Now why would anybody want to fast anyway? If God promises answered prayer, then why fast? Well, there are numbers of reasons to fast, but I want to mention just a few because these apply to us primarily and specifically. One of the primary reasons for fasting is for the cleansing of sin. Now let me remind you of what we said before. We’re talking about fasting food. And that fasting itself does not cleanse us from sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ does that. Then the question comes, why fast? Here’s the reason. When a person abstains from eating, that is they refuse to eat for the proper reason. We’re not talking about fasting to lose weight. We’re talking about fasting for spiritual reasons. When a person chooses to fast, what we’re doing is this. We are bringing under control our normal, natural, physical desires. And fasting is a time when you and I choose to set aside what we normally and naturally do, the cravings, the desires of the body, which are natural and normal, in order to give that time to prayer. That is, food is not as important. as what we are seeking from the Lord. Food is not as important as what we want to know from God. So we set aside anything that would be distracting. Now here’s why it’s important. When a person fasts, it sharpens your mind. your perception increases. There is an intensity of power to concentrate. You’re able to think on a higher level and a deeper level. You’re able to think much more clearly, much more sharper than you would normally. And so when a person begins to fast, they’re able to perceive. There’s an intuitiveness about them. There is a perception they do not have otherwise because the body channels that energy to the mind. So that when a person begins to fast for the cleansing of sin, why does the fast enable them to deal with sin in a different way? Here’s the reason. When a person begins to fast and pray, what happens is that God begins to zero in. He begins to elevate and to bring to the surface little attitudes, things that we say, habits in our life, Feelings that we have that we’re not even aware of. Well, what makes us aware of them? What makes us aware of them is this. When we bring our desires under control, the Spirit of God has control of our mind and we begin to see things from God’s perspective. Little things that we put up with on a given day. Once we get serious with God about sin and dealing with sin in our life, what happens is this thing is no longer some little insignificant sin. It is a major problem I have to deal with. And here’s what will happen. If you set aside time to pray, God is going to surface in your life areas that you’ve not thought about, you’ve not dealt with, you’ve just sort of taken them for granted. Fasting so sharpens the mind, you begin to see in your life what you’re not going to see otherwise. And all of a sudden, these sins begin to be grievous things. And God begins to put His finger on issues in your life that you’ve not dealt with. Every single time that I’ve ever set aside a time to go away and fast, usually it’s to find out something or seek God’s direction in a given area. Every single time of that fail, God begins to work on me. Now, that’s not my purpose for going, but I finally learned, look, just go ahead and face it. You’re going to get worked on to begin with. So there’s no point asking God about anything else, first of all, but yourself. Because there’s so much that accumulates you’re not aware of. And just simply saying, Lord, I want you to forgive me of my sins today. The forgiveness is there, but we hinder God’s work in our life by not keeping our life clean and pure and obedient and submissive to God. And so I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to a time of fasting and praying for the cleansing of your life. I want to challenge you who are listening today for your own life to set aside a time and allow God to begin to examine your life under God’s viewpoint and begin to see yourself as God sees you. And once you do, you’re going to begin to see things you’ve never seen before. God’s going to clean up your life and then he’s going to begin to work through you with the greatest sense of power and freedom than ever before. The second reason for fasting, he says here, we are to be sincere and we are to do it in secret. The second reason for doing so is seeking God’s guidance. Now, oftentimes Christians come to the position, they think, what in the world am I to do in this given situation? And we worry and we fret and we fume and we ask this one and we ask that one. Friend, that’s never God’s intention. Do you realize that he says in his word, I will guide thee with mine eye. I will teach thee in the way which thou shall go. God is willing to give you clear direction every single time, not sometime every time. But oftentimes that requires a period of fasting and praying. Why? Here’s the reason. It is in this time of fasting that we bring our desires, our prejudices, our convictions, our persuasions under the light of God’s Word, under the scrutiny of God’s Word. We begin to see things the way God sees them. When I begin to see things the way God sees them, then my prejudices fall apart. My preconceived ideas begin to fall away, and I begin to see this thing from God’s perspective. When you’re seeking divine guidance, one of the wisest things you can do is to set apart a time of fasting and praying so that God can cleanse you so that your mind can be open and sharp and centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ in order to hear what He’s trying to say. Now most of us go to prayer, we’re seeking God’s guidance with some prejudices, some preconceived ideas, some notions that we already have. We listen to other people’s advice. What we want is the mind of God. You get the mind of God by bringing one’s own mind and desires into submission before Him so that we can see it as God sees it and only as God sees it. You recall, for example, when the nation of Israel had taken Jericho and then they were going up to Ai and they were defeated and they came back. And the Bible says that Joshua and the elders were on their face crying out to God, what in the world has happened? Why have you brought us out here? And what’s going on? The Bible says from morning till evening, he was in sackcloth and ashes before God crying out for God to show him what happened. And what happened? God says, get up off your knees. The problem is sin in the camp. And you recall that he stoned to death Achan and his family. God will give you clear direction every time if you’re willing to get yourself in a position to find out what does God want. And listen, God knows that in any given day, naturally we have our own prejudiced attitude toward things. And so to get the mind of God, the mind of man must be clear and sharp, must be brought under submission to the Holy Spirit. It is then God gives clear direction. direction and you see what happens is this when you know you have the mind of god you can speak with boldness with courage with clarity and it doesn’t make any difference whether anybody else believes what you say or not you know that god has spoken to you listen friend you know what gets folks in trouble what gets folks in trouble is mixing their desires with their reason minus god When it’s all my desire plus my reasoning, all I have is flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh. One of the wisest things the people of God can do before we make big decisions are small decisions. Listen, if you’re a parent… My friend, you ought to be fasting and praying for the protection of your children, that God would give them godly wisdom, surround them with godly young people who can build them up and not tear them down. And you see, when you and I begin to fast and pray, God sharpens the mind. We get God’s viewpoint. We’re able to make wise, godly decisions. You recall in Daniel chapter 9, one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. Daniel was in Babylonian captivity and he was reading the old manuscripts of the prophecy of Jeremiah. And he wasn’t quite sure what was going on. So the Bible says he set aside a time of fasting and praying and confession. Read that 9th chapter of Daniel. And as he began to pray and to fast and to confess and repent for the sins of his people… In the next few chapters, God gave to Daniel a revelation of prophecy. So that if you understand prophecy today, you must understand Daniel, Matthew, the Gospels, those eschatological passages, and the book of the Revelation. Without that prophecy of Daniel, a tremendous amount of prophecy would be missing. When did he get it? After time of fasting and praying, seeking direction from the Father. You and I have the same privilege. We have the entire Word of God. We have promise after promise after promise of instruction and direction. But my friend, oftentimes, if we’re going to get clear direction, the fasting brings our desires under control, a clear mind. We begin to see things the way God sees them. It is protection. Listen, it is protection in major decisions in life. Then there’s a third reason for fasting, and that is for deliverance and protection. And so let me mention two here. I want you to go back, if you will, and there are lots of passages here. But 2 Chronicles chapter 20 is an account. of Jehoshaphat being threatened by invasion by three of his enemies together. And what does he do? The first thing he does, the Bible says in verse three, and Jehoshaphat was afraid, turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And as they fasted and prayed, here again is the second tremendous prayer in this 20th chapter of 2 Chronicles. And he begins by saying, Didst thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham thy friend forever? And they lived in it and have built thee a sanctuary there for thy name’s sake. And what he does, he prays. And what you’ll notice when these men of God begin to pray and fast, notice the prayer that they prayed. These prayers are awesome. Because what these prayers are, these prayers are prayers of confession, of the majesty and the power and the greatness of God. That’s what fasting does. Fasting gives you an insight into God. We see Him in His majesty. We see Him in His power. We see Him in His might. And as these men begin to pray, God begins to act. And what did Jesus say? He says that when you and I fast sincerely in the proper fashion, our Father who sees us in secret will reward us. Every single time in the Bible with no exception. Every single time in the Bible with no exception, God’s people fasted. And they fasted in sincerity. God was there to answer and to give them a solution to the problem. But let me explain what I mean by a fast. I’m not saying that I’m asking you not to eat anything for a week. I’m not saying that. You may choose to fast one meal a day, two meals a day, or one whole day, two days, three days, five days, or the whole week. It’s not just a matter of fasting to say, God, well, look, I’m fasting, so you’re going to have to answer our prayer. No, what we are praying for primarily is cleansing. When our hearts are clean before God and submissive to Him, we will know His mind. He will give us His protection. He will keep our interest where it belongs on reaching people for Jesus Christ, building up the saints of God, getting the gospel around the world. All of that will be the overflow of God’s blessing. But He wants us to major on the examination of our heart, the repentance of sin, dealing with us. So when you set aside, if you miss a meal, for example, then give that time to prayer. Or miss a whole day of eating, then give that time primarily to prayer. It may be that you can’t just pray all day long. You mothers with small children, I understand that. You fellows who have to go to work. But you can pray. You don’t have to come home and eat necessarily. Or if you do, eat a little less. Then get in your bedroom or your den and get on your face before God. And begin to cry out for God to search your heart. Tell Him you want His very best in your life. And you know that that begins with confession and repentance of sin. There’s not any of us who does not have time to pray. Not any of us who cannot miss a few meals. And what’s going to happen? He’s going to start dealing with sin. And secondly, you’re going to discover something about God and about praying and fasting. Listen, once you learn the lesson, nobody will ever have to ask you to do it again. Because listen, something is going to happen to your intimacy with Christ. This Christ is going to take on a whole new sense of personality. That is, you’re going to sense a oneness with Him that you have never felt before if you’ve never fasted. God’s going to listen. I cannot predict. And so there’s no point in me trying to do that. What he’s going to do in your life. I just know what Jesus said. God will repay those who fast in sincerity.
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Thank you for listening to The Place of Fasting and Prayer. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
