Right Perspective To Fasting

Of recent, I have been receiving questions concerning ‘prayer and fasting’ and what GRACE really has to say about it. Hmm… Are you ready for some raw truth?

Prayer is compulsory for a successful Christian living…but fasting is NOT compulsory at all!

Wow! All through the epistles of the New Testament… not ONCE was the church ever asked to fast!

Fasting does NOT make God love you more! (God already loves you)! – Eph 1:6

Fasting does NOT make you empowered! (Jesus got all POWERS and you are IN Him) – Matt 28:18, Col 2:10

Fasting is NOT a requirement for salvation! (Salvation is simply by believing in the finished work)! – Rom 10:9-10

Fasting is NOT recorded by God! (Nobody was ‘praised’ in the hall of faith for fasting) – Hebrews 11

Now listen carefully: it is very wrong to think that God won’t hear your prayers except you fast! That was only valid before Jesus died!

Don’t fast 40days because Moses, Elijah or Jesus fasted forty days! That is a sign of ‘spiritual foolishness’ or ‘religious addiction’! Moses was in the VERY presence of God! Those 40days would probably seem like 30minutes! (Exodus 34:28) Elijah went into the wilderness where he was visited by an ANGEL who gave him a meal to eat! It was in the power of this meal that he went 40days without food! (1kings 19:4-8). Hmm….you would probably go 70days without food if an angel gave you food to eat! Jesus was LED OF THE SPIRIT into the wilderness where he fasted 40days and night without food!

Don’t try to copy these three people! They were not ordinary people! Neither did they fast out of a personal or ‘church’ schedule! They were literally WITH GOD throughout their days of not eating!

Moses represents the LAW! Elijah represents the PROPHETS! Jesus represents GRACE! These 3 were all leading distinct ‘dispensations’! They are not to be copied!

Moses parted the RED SEA! Elijah parted RIVER JORDAN! Jesus WALKED ON WATER! Don’t copy them!

There is no place in the Bible after Jesus died… where a Believer was empowered because of Fasting! Nowhere! I am always marvelled at the fact that the disciples of Jesus NEVER fasted when Jesus was alive! Some people say…since Jesus has gone… we are now commanded to fast!

‘And lo…I AM WITH YOU TILL THE END OF DAYS’! (Matt 28:20)

Listen carefully: Jesus is MORE with us NOW…than He was with the disciples before He died! What Jesus referred to was the time of His crucifixion when the disciples won’t eat but fast…because they are going to ‘MOURN’ for His death!

‘Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber MOURN, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast’! (Matt 9:15)

Stop all these religious indulgence…that makes you feel you must fast before God can hear you! It’s a proof that you are still under LAW!

Some people will say… Jesus said… ‘This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting’! Try to read other versions apart from KJV!And you will discover that the word ‘fasting’ is not in that verse!

“This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Mark 9:29 NIV)

This kind can be cast out only by prayer.’ (Mark 9:29 NLT)

This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer’ (Mark 9:29 ESV)

This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.’ (Mark 9:29 NASB)

There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer’! (Mark 9:29 MSG)

Hmm… What’s going on! Why are these versions not having the word ‘fasting’ in them! Hmm… I love the way RWP commentaries explain this verse:

‘The addition of “and of fasting” does not appear in the two best Greek manuscripts…’! It is clearly a LATE ADDITION to help explain the failure. But it is NEEDLESS AND ALSO UNTRUE. Prayer is what the nine had failed to use’!

Wow! In fact, do you know that the parallel verse of Mark 9:29 which is Matthew 17:21…is NOT in the BIBLE? Hmm… Read other versions apart from KJV….versions like Message Bible or Good News Bible….and you will be surprised that they jumped from Matt 17:20 to Matt 17:22!

Please note that the disciples were busy arguing with the SCRIBES when they ought to have been praying for that possessed child! (Mark 9:14, 16) That was what Jesus referred to! Arguing with the SCRIBES (experts of the Law) is a sign that they were arguing about the aspects of the Law which they fulfilled in order to be able to cast out that devil! They were looking for their ‘self-effort’ reasons why they should cast out that devil! No wonder their faith was made void!

The Bible says:

‘if they which are of the LAW be heirs, FAITH IS MADE VOID, and the promise made of none effect’! (Romans 4:14)

Hmm… Stop arguing about the LAW! Simply PRAY! This kind goeth not out but by PRAYER! Don’t add ‘fasting’ to that verse!It was an interpolation by translators who felt that was what Jesus would have meant!

I know what I just shared would marvel many believers but…’I am NOT ashamed of the GOSPEL OF CHRIST for it is the Power of God unto salvation to everyone that BELIEVES’! (Romans 1:16)

Am I against fasting? Not at all! If fasting makes you pray well… please FAST! But it is NOT the fasting that brings the ANSWER! It was the PRAYER!

PRAYER DOES NOT NEED FASTING TO BE ANSWERED!

Hmm… Listen carefully: whether you prayed long… or …you prayed short… it is NOT ‘how’ you pray that brings the ANSWER! It is WHO you are praying to! Hmm….God does not need your fasting to answer you!I wish I could shout this on a ROOF TOP!

GOD DOES NOT NEED YOUR FASTING TO ANSWER YOU!

‘Now to him that WORKETH is the reward not reckoned of GRACE, but of DEBT.’! (Romans 4:4)

Stop clamouring on your ability to fast in order to get God to answer you! Else you won’t get a GRACIOUS answer but a DEBTFUL answer…as if God was owing you!

‘He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not WITH HIM also FREELY give us ALL things?’ (Romans 8:32)

Wow! I want you to read the verse above again! Did you compel God to give you JESUS?

Listen: the best GIFT God can ever give ANY man… is not money… not power… not fame… not success… not defense… but JESUS!!! And you did not ‘fast’ before He gave you JESUS!Why do you now think…you must ‘fast’ before He will prosper you in life!Hmm…

‘He that spared not HIS OWN SON, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not WITH HIM also FREELY give us ALL things?’ (Romans 8:32)

Why not believe that God can FREELY give you ALL THINGS! Hmm… I guess I have been able to answer your questions and clear your doubts about ‘fasting’!

Fasting is not a COMMANDMENT to believers!

Fasting is not a REQUIREMENT for empowerment!

Fasting is not a ‘booster’ to PRAYER!

‘…if ye be led of the Spirit (GRACE), ye are NOT UNDER LAW’! (Galatians 5:18)

Hmm…. If you must fast: Fast because you feel so! Fast because you want to enhance your spiritual concentration! But must you fast in order to have your prayers answered? The answer is a capital…NO!

Remain under GRACE!

Amen.