fast

Fasting – a definition:

To glorify God by abstaining from food and/or drink, normal activities, or pleasure with the intent that God would intervene in our lives personally, corporately, nationally, or globally.

Examples of Biblical purposes for fasting:

After receiving devastating news about yourself, other believers, or God’s work. 1Kings 21:27-29; 2Chron 20; Neh. 1:1-4; Ezra 9:1-5; Esther 4:3; Daniel 6:18
During a time of personal or corporate confession of sin and repentance. 1Sam. 7:6; Neh. 9:1; Jer. 36:1-9; Joel 1:14, 2:12; Jonah 3:5
Because of a difficult spiritual task for yourself or others. Exodus 34:28; 2Chron. 20:3 Esther 4:16
To get specific instruction/direction/answer from God. Daniel 10:3; Ezra 8:21-23
When praying, interceding, for the sins of God’s people. Daniel 9:1-20; Joel 2:1-18
When dealing directly with demonic forces. Daniel 10; Mat. 17:21; Mark 9:29
To seek the Lord for any reason. Ex. 34:28; 1Sam. 1:7; 2Sam.2:15; Acts 10:30; 1Cor. 7:5
Before or after choosing/sending spiritual leaders. Acts 13:2-3; Acts 14:21-23
When you are afraid. 2Chronicles 20:3
By doing what is right. Isaiah 58:3-6
During times of grief. Judges 20:26; 1Sam. 20:34; 31:13; 2Sam 1:12; 1Chron. 10:12; Mat. 9:15; Mark 2:20; Luke 5:35
In suffering for or serving the Lord. Matthew 4:1-2; Luke 2:37; 2Cor. 6:5, 11:27

Instructions for Biblical fasting:

Keep your external appearance the same as always when in public. Mat. 6:16-18
Fast to God, for His glory, not for personal recognition. Mat. 6:16-18
Make sure your actions do not negate your fast. Isaiah 58:3-6
Don’t fast at inappropriate times. Mat. 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34

Effects from fasting Physical and Spiritual (Biblical and Personal):

It humbles us. Psalm 35:13
It hurts. Psalm 69:10
It makes us weak. 1Sam. 28:20; Psalm 109:24; Matthew 15:35
It causes you to hunger at some point. Mat. 4:2
An involuntary fast can make you sick or die Acts 27:33-35
It keeps us from becoming a slave to our body and its desires. 1Cor. 9:27
It gives you clarity of focus, thinking, insight into Scripture/prayer
It makes you feel physically stronger (after a longer fast)
You can feel light headed, anger easily, become frustrated, etc.

Different types of fasts, Biblical or Personal:

Total fast from any food and water.

-Moses, Ex. 34:28 40 days

-Esther, Esther 4:16 3 days

-Elijah, 1Kings 19:8 40 days

-Jesus, Matthew 4:1-2 40 days

Total fast from food but drinking only water.
Total fast from solid foods but drinking juices.
Partial fast from certain foods/meat/wineDaniel 10:2-3
Fast from entertainment and food Daniel 6:18
Fasting from normal activities/pleasures1Cor 7:5
Fasting from personal hygiene Daniel 10:2-3
Fasting from sleep (voluntary/involuntary)
Involuntary fasting because of task/situationMatthew 15:35; Mark 6:36, 8:1; Mark 3:20, 7:2
Therapeutic fast—Fasting for medical reasons
Involuntary fasting because of famine/lack of food

Different lengths of Biblical or Personal fasts:

1 day – Jeremiah 36:6; Biblical fast days set for Jewish people (4^th, 5^th, 7^th months of Jewish year)
2 days [times] – Luke 18:12 (Not necessarily in succession but in the same week, a neg. example)
1 particular meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner) -All night, Daniel 6:18

3 days – Esther 4:16
7 days – 1 Chronicles 10:12; 1Sam 31:13
14 days – Acts 27:33-35
21 days – Daniel 10:2-3
Many days/long time – Nehemiah 4:1; Acts 27:21
40 days – Exodus
A time of your choosing 1 meal a week etc.; an unspecified period of time. – 1 Corinthians 7:5
1 day a week throughout the year (52 days a year)
A “tithe” of your year in fasting (35 days, not necessarily in succession)

Suggestions/Help:

If you have never fasted before start slowly with one or two meals
Drink plenty of liquids
If you drink coffee regularly and you fast coffee you will probably get a headache
Fasting may cause you to get a headache anyway, with or without coffee.
If you are a diabetic eat the minimum, don’t fast food or choose something else to eliminate
If you have any questions check with your Dr.
Spend the time you would spend preparing food or driving to and from the restaurant in prayer.
Clear your schedule from eating out with friends
If someone finds out you are fasting don’t make a big deal about it. It is fine to share with other ebc members and fellow fasters.
Fast some activities that takes your time: TV, internet, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Read the Bible in place of your other activities if you are not fasting from food
Turn off your phone while you are praying
Fasting is voluntary but Biblical. Jesus said, “When you fast…” not, “If you choose to fast…”
Don’t say “no” until you try. Remember God will give you grace to fast and He will give you the length of time too; ask Him.

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

SCRIPTURES ON FASTING

Ezra 9:5 NKJV – At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.

Nehemiah 1:4 NKJV – So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [for many] days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 9:1 NKJV – Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.

Esther 4:3 NKJV – And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Esther 9:31 NKJV – to confirm these days of Purim at their [appointed] time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting.

Psalm 35:13 NKJV – But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing [was] sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart.

Psalm 69:10 NKJV – When I wept [and chastened] my soul with fasting, that became my reproach.

Psalm 109:24 NKJV – My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.

Jeremiah 36:6 NKJV – You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the LORD, in the hearing of the people in the LORD’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

Daniel 6:18 NKJV – Now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no musicians were brought before him. Also his sleep went from him.

Daniel 9:3 NKJV – Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Daniel 10:2-3 NKJV- In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. ³I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

Joel 2:12 NKJV – “Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

Matthew 6:16 NKJV – “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Matthew 6:18 NKJV – …so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who [is] in the secret [place]; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Matthew 17:21 NKJV – However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Mark 2:18 NKJV – The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Mark 9:29 NKJV – So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Luke 2:37 NKJV- and this woman was a widow (Anna) of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

Acts 10:30 NKJV – So Cornelius said, “Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

Acts 14:23 NKJV – So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

1 Corinthians 7:5 NKJV – Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

2 Corinthians 11:27 NKJV- in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—(Paul)

SCRIPTURES ON FAST

2 Samuel 12:23 NKJV – But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

1 Kings 21:9,12 NKJV – She wrote in the letters, saying, proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people; 12 They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people.

2 Chronicles 20:3 NKJV – And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Esther 4:16 NKJV – “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which [is] against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

Isaiah 58:3-6 NKJV – ‘Why have we fasted,’ [they say], ‘and You have not seen? [Why] have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. 4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as [you do] this day, to make your voice heard on high. 5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? [Is it] to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 “[Is] this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

Jeremiah 14:12 NKJV – When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

Jeremiah 36:9 NKJV – Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, [that] they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.

Joel 1:14 NKJV – Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders [And] all the inhabitants of the land [Into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Joel 2:15 NKJV – Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly;

Jonah 3:5-8 NKJV – So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

Zechariah 7:3 NKJV – and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”

Zechariah 7:5 NKJV – “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [months] during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me–for Me?

Zechariah 8:19 NKJV – “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.’

Matthew 6:17 NKJV – But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

Matthew 9:14 NKJV – Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Matthew 9:15 NKJV – And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Mark 2:19 NKJV – And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

Mark 2:20 NKJV – But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

Luke 5:33 NKJV – Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

Luke 5:34 NKJV – And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

Luke 5:35 NKJV – But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Luke 18:12 NKJV – I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’

Act 27:9 NKJV – Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them…

SCRIPTURES ON FASTED

Judges 20:26 NKJV – Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

1 Samuel 7:6 NKJV – So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured [it] out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

1 Samuel 31:13 NKJV – Then they took their bones and buried [them] under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

2 Samuel 1:12 NKJV – And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 12:16 NKJV – David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

2 Samuel 12:21-2 NKJV – Then his servants said to him, “What [is] this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child [while he was] alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell [whether] the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

1 Kings 19:8 NKJV- So he (Elijah) arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 21:27 NKJV – So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.

1 Chronicles 10:12 NKJV – all the valiant men arose and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons; and they brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Ezra 8:21-23 NKJV – Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. 22 For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.” 23 So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.

Isaiah 58:3 NKJV – ‘Why have we fasted,’ [they say], ‘and You have not seen? [Why] have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.

Matthew 4:2 NKJV – And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

Acts 9:9 NKJV- And he (Paul) was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Acts 13:2 NKJV – As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Acts 13:2-3 NKJV – As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

HEBREW:

צוּם a prim. root; to cover over (the mouth), i.e. to fast

צוֹם

צֹם

GREEK:

νηστεύω from 3523; to abstain from food (relig.):— fast.

νη̂στις from the insep. neg. particle νη (not) and ἐσθίω (to eat); not eating, i.e. abstinent from food (relig.):— fasting.

νηστεία abstinence (from lack of food, or vol. and relig.); spec. the fast of the Day of Atonement, fasting

“Radical prayer goes to the root, the heart, the center. The word radical itself comes from the Latin radix, which means root. Radical prayer refuses to let us stay on the fringes of life’s great issues. It dares to believe that things can be different. Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies. Radical prayer, you see, is prophetic.” Richard Foster “Prayer”