Session 4
THE DISCIPLINE OF FASTING
(Righteous Hunger - Matt 5:6)
Fasting: abstaining from food for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for God
Compare your hunger for God with your hunger for food. John 4: 34-35
The Discipline of Fasting
- We have little hunger for God.
- We only have so much hunger.
- The attempt to satisfy self apart from doing the will of God is inevitably not just a frustrating and empty thing but even a very discouraging thing.
- Our enslavement to food hinders our hunger for God. (Deut 32:15, Philippians 3:19)
- There has to be a humble recognition that food is filling a place in my heart, is giving a strength, is giving a comfort, and is giving a relief that God wants to give.
- Fasting breaks our enslavement to food. (1 Cor 6:12-14, 19-20)
- Anything I have to have is enslavement for me.
- Fasting reveals the things that control us. (1 Peter 2:11)
- Fasting can ignite our hunger for God.
- (Psalms 69:10, Esther 4:16, Ezra 10:6, Daniel 10:3, Acts 9:9, Joel 2:15, 2 Chron 20:3)
- Kinds of Fasts
- Normal Fast - Partial Fast - Absolute Fast - Corporate Fast
- When to fast: (Isaiah 58:3)
- When you are caught in a sinful pattern. (Isaiah 58:5)
- When you have a heavy burden. (Isaiah 58:6)
- When you are oppressed by the enemy. (Isaiah 58:6)
- When you want to give to someone else. (Isaiah 58:7)
- When you need encouragement. (Isaiah 58:8)
- When you need an answer to prayer (Isaiah 58:9)
- When you need to examine yourself. (Isaiah 58:10)
- When you need direction. (Isaiah 58:11)
- When you need to be spiritually restored (Isaiah 58:12)
- When you need to be revived (Isaiah 58:13)
