Prayer and Fasting

Jesus knew there would come a time when he would not be physically present any

longer with his disciples.

Perilous times would come when supernatural strength would be needed.

When confronted about the issue of his disciples not fasting during the days of fast,

he said that while he was with them, there was no need to fast,

but the day would come when he was absent that they would be called upon to fast.

We're living in such days today. The bridegroom, Jesus, is absent,

and our needs for spiritual power are great.

Jesus intends for us to seek God with prayer and fasting, and oftentimes we neglect that.

I believe that there is great power in the principles of prayer with fasting,

but many of us ignore the idea of fasting.

It's not for me, or we misunderstand what fasting is all about,

or what's required for true Christian fasting.

As we begin, and this Wednesday will be the beginning of the Lenten season,

which is the season of sorrow leading up to the crucifixion,

remembrance of the crucifixion, and then the resurrection of Christ.

We hold this in a traditional church, and most traditional churches,

we hold this as a season to fast, a season to separate ourselves.

Most oftentimes, we see it as we'll give up meat on Friday, or we'll give up certain things.

Some people will give up Facebook for a month.

Well, fasting is really giving up something that costs us something,

whether it's the idea of eating and all of that.

And then we'll see some of these things in order to see something of the power.

Prayer and fasting, we need to turn to another passage of Scripture,

and this is Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 21.

Matthew 17:1–21

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James,

and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun,

and his clothes became as white as the light.

Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, Lord, is it good for us to be here?

If you wish, I will put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the

cloud said, This is my son, whom I love.

With him I am well pleased. Listen to him.

When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified.

But Jesus came and touched them. Get up, he said. Don't be afraid.

When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them,

Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.

The disciples asked him, Why then do the teachers of law say that Elijah must come first?

Jesus replied, To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.

But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him,

but have done to him everything they wished.

In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.

Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Jesus healed a demon-possessed boy. When they came to the crowd,

a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.

Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and is suffering greatly.

He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples,

but they could not heal him.

You unbelieving, perverse generation, Jesus replied.

How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.

Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, Why wouldn't we drive it out?

He replied, Because you have so little faith.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

you can move this mountain.

Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

So the Holman Study Bible refers to that verse 21.

It says, however, this kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting.

Jesus returned from his transfiguration, having been transported into a spirit-like life.

He returned from that, having been aside in the mountains with Peter,

James, and John. Upon their return, they were met by the other disciples and

the crowd of people who were following Jesus to see the miracles that he might perform.

It's interesting that the people were very good following Jesus during the first

two and a half years of his ministry, especially as he was feeding them with

bread and performing miracles and all that.

But then when he got to the last part of his life and he had some hard teachings,

people began to fall away, but these

people were following him to see what miracles he might still perform.

And the first thing we see waiting for Jesus is an unmet need.

There was a need that Jesus' disciples could not meet. It was beyond their resources,

both human and spiritual.

Prior to this, Jesus had already given the disciples the authority to heal the

sick and cast out the demons in his name.

And they went about teaching and preaching Jesus's message of the kingdom of

God, and they healed and they delivered just as Jesus said they would do.

And just as Jesus had done.

But now they have come up against a need that is obviously too great for them. Have you ever had that?

Have you ever come up against something that's just too great for you?

This young man was so violently afflicted with a demon that tormented him that

The disciples couldn't help them.

They couldn't do anything for them. In fact, no matter what they attempted,

it just didn't solve it, and they had been unable to deal with it. There was an unmet need.

Jesus came down from the mountain where he and his closest associates had been

in the presence of God to be faced with this unmet need.

They came down from the presence of God where everything seemed perfect and

the possibilities seemed endless or unlimited.

Back to the grim realities of life.

Have you ever been in a church meeting or a camp meeting or a revival meeting

where you experienced such a touch of God that you felt like you could walk

on water, almost literally,

and you knew that you could turn the world upside down, and so you charged out

of that building, that camp meeting, that revival meeting, only to run right

into somebody on the street that you've been praying for, and there was no discernible change in them.

In fact, they seem worse than ever.

At that time, you feel like the wind has been driven out of your sails.

In fact, you feel the wind out of your gut, almost like somebody who's kicked

you in the gut. You are confronted by the dilemma, the failure, and the tragedy.

Even though you're on a mountain high, you come down into reality,

and you realize that there was an unmet need.

Jesus and his associates came down to the mountain to face an unmet need.

But we can praise God that Jesus is the master of the unmet need.

If you have some situation in your life today you have no answer for, your only hope is Jesus.

He is the master of the unmet need. Nothing is too hard for him.

Then the disciples had received answers to prayer before.

They administered effectively at times. They had some successes.

So what was the difference this time?

There was an unanswered question. And not only was there an unmet need,

but there was unanswered questions.

Why could we not cast out this demon?

Oh, Lord, we have tried everything we knew to do.

We sang, we danced, we raised our hands, we did all we could in worship.

Not really there, but here.

We do that, and it just doesn't seem to cut the bill there.

We prayed just as you've taught us to pray. We've prayed just as we heard you pray for the people.

What went wrong? We're so frustrated. Where did we go wrong?

Have you ever felt like that? You ever felt like when you pray,

it's like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling of the building you're in,

and you just wonder, what's really happening?

Is God really there anywhere?

I don't know about you, but I've been right where these disciples were many times. Why, Lord?

Why are there unanswered questions? The disciples had unanswered questions.

Why could we not cast this demon out?

But to their question, Jesus gives them an unexpected reply.

In Matthew 17, verse 21, as I said in the Holman Study Bible, it says, however,

Matthew 17:21

this kind, talking about the disease, the demon, can only come out through prayer and fasting.

The enemy will do anything to keep Christians from praying and fasting.

In fact, he would do anything to distract us from spending time with Jesus.

He would do anything he can to keep us from calling on the Lord.

Jesus says, guys, you only need a little bit of faith, and you can move mountains.

Let me encourage you, he says. Don't doubt the power of faith God for a moment.

However, I'm going to let you in a little secret.

This kind of evil cannot be removed except by prayer and fasting.

In other words, we need to get serious about what we're doing.

That's what Jesus is saying.

You guys need to really be serious about who you're paying attention to.

There are needs that are especially great, obstacles that have a whole different

dimension of difficulty about them.

Some things require a specific breakthrough in the heavens. There are spiritual

problems spiritually discerned, and they require spiritual power to break them.

Ephesians chapter 6 tells us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

but our struggle is with the rulers and authorities and powers of this dark

world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

They're all around us, people, waging war on you and your soul and your loved ones.

And Jesus says there is a way to obtain the spiritual power to break through

such needs. He talks about, and Paul talks about the spiritual armor we should be putting on.

And that's why I believe that God has brought us to this point in our church.

I believe that what we need as a body of Christ is a season of prayer and fasting.

And so we're beginning that. I'm beginning to call you to that this week.

Now, we don't need Spacebook or MyFace. Wait a minute.

Well, whatever. We don't need the television media. We don't need email. We need an email.

There are many events that have brought us to almost perfect storm in our need

to get into the presence of God. I've been reading another book. I like to read books.

I read probably two or three books a month.

And one of them is talking about a group of Down syndrome kids who have been

learning to thrive in this world, to be self-sufficient and be on their own and all that.

They were in a restaurant, and one of the students talked about a particular

need that somebody had, and the rest of the students said, we should pray about this.

And in the middle of the restaurant, this group of Down syndrome students got

down on their knees in the restaurant and began to pray for the spiritual need for somebody.

And it was interesting, it says in the story, that there were teenagers all

around them, and they didn't laugh or anything like that. In fact,

they came over and thanked the kids for praying.

In that we need to spend more time on our knees. Now, the problem with knee-mail

is getting up from the knee-mail, but I can guarantee you that if God will let

you get down on your knees, he'll also find a way for you to get up.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, verses 17 and 18, but when you fast,

Matthew 6:17

anoint your head and wash your face 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 your opening. So what was the practice at that time?

When people were fasting, oftentimes the religious elite were fasting,

they would put sackcloth and ashes on, they would pour ashes on their head,

walk around the town as if, oh, I'm so, so in mourning, I'm fasting,

and I'm doing this for God, you know, and all this kind of stuff.

And what Jesus says, don't even do any of that.

In fact, anoint your head with oil, put oil on your hair, make sure you're clean

and dressed up, wash your face, get the ashes off, 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.

Now, I say that to say this, a tradition in Lenten services is Ash Wednesday,

starting with ashes, where on Wednesday you have a sign of a cross put on your forehead with ashes.

And oftentimes people will go out into the streets with those on.

I'm not saying I don't want you to do that, okay?

But what I'm saying is Jesus said, don't make yourself a spectacle.

If you're fasting and praying, do it so only the Lord knows what's going on when you're fasting.

You don't have to announce to everybody in the church that I'm fasting for the

next 40 days or whatever, but spend that time in secret.

Fasting, as it was recorded in the Bible, had different purposes.

Sometimes days of fasting were called because of a particular trouble that the

people of God were facing.

Sometimes fasting took place to get direction from God. Sometimes fasting took

place to wait for the Lord to bring an answer.

Sometimes fasting took place simply to spend unimpeded time in the presence of God.

Sometimes we just need to cast everything away And spend time with Jesus Isn't that true?

But in all the situations, the main purpose of fasting brought glory and honor

to God, not to the person who was doing it.

God wants his kids to spend time in his presence.

Our church seems to have fallen on times where over the past,

I don't know, 100 some years, we have begun to grow complacent and content.

And I think Dave spoke about this several weeks ago when he preached.

We have come to the point, and in Christianity, especially in America,

we've become very content and complacent.

It's okay for us. Salvation, it's great. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior

forever, so everything's great.

But we have forgot a world out there that desperately needs Jesus.

We have forgotten what times are like, but I believe that God still wants us

to do a new work in us and through us.

You know, and it's been repeated many times in our church, God is on a mission

to redeem a lost world to himself, and he chooses to use us,

his chosen people, to accomplish his mission.

And even though we know we are to be on a mission with God, we're not sure what that looks like.

So this coming Wednesday, March 5th, is the beginning of what we call Lenten

season, the season that calls for prayer and fasting leading up to the passion of Christ.

His death, his burial, and his resurrection. and we don't have to wait until

Ash Wednesday to begin prayer and fasting.

We should probably be doing it periodically all the time, praying continually,

as the scripture says, but we should be looking at these.

But I'm asking you to join me as a church in a time of prayer and fasting leading

up to Easter this year in anticipation of God bringing his revival in our midst.

Last night about 7 o'clock ended what was called Gather 25. It was a worldwide

gathering for 25 hours of people on worshiping God and calling out to God for revival.

It began in some of the universities and has extended her out.

It was a purpose purpose.

The purpose of it was to set those 25 hours to call in God preparing us for

this time of great revival that we believe God wants to bring in this world.

So I want you to join me to leading up to Easter and in time of fasting and

prayer, particularly inviting you to begin a season of prayer and fasting as

a matter of humility before the Lord.

I want you to continue the season through Easter Sunday, and let's see what God can do.

And as is practiced during the Lenten season, specifically, I may choose to

fast on Monday through Saturday.

The 40 days of Lenten do not count Sundays, because Sundays are the Lord's day.

And we look at those as day of feasting and celebration and of service of the

bride, the bridegroom, excuse me, of the Lamb who has come for us.

So you don't have to fast on Sunday, you may choose to.

You may fast in whatever way you believe God is asking you, and to the extent

in time you believe he is asking you to fast.

Some may choose to begin even today.

Others may wait till Wednesday. That's fine.

And so I want us to look at a little bit. Now, fasts come in different types,

and we do this for a certain reason.

You may fast however you wish, but the benefits of fasting. One is it helps

us overcome the calamities of life.

Number two, it renews our connection with God.

Three, it empowers us to fulfill God's calling in our life. Four,

it defeats the devil. Here are some fasting types.

A full fast is to drink only liquids. You establish the number of days and liquids

that can include fruit and vegetables, though one should avoid caffeine during a total fast.

I will tell you that from experience. If you are on a total fast,

a full fast, where you're only drinking liquids.

Caffeine will mess you up. Okay, just saying, okay?

Partial fast is a fast from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., so during daylight hours or from

first light till last light.

You can select three different types of fast, a full fast, a Daniel fast,

or give up one item of food, chocolate.

That's not too hard for me to get. Well, yeah, it is. Anyway,

or you can do the Daniel fast, which is to eat no meat, sweets,

or bread, but to drink water and juice and eat fruits and vegetables.

Here is one where it would probably be good to limit your caffeine intake as well.

If you're doing fruits and vegetables, you can still have some caffeine,

but it would be good to limit.

The reason I say that is because some people are not physically,

medically able to do a full fast, okay?

We don't want you to get sick, okay?

We want you to use this. What is the purpose of it?

It's the purpose of being close to God and spending time with him.

How to begin? Start with a clear goal.

Be specific about what you're fasting for, what you're praying for.

Prepare spiritually. Number three, decide what to fast. What are you going to

give up during that time?

Number four, deciding how long you're going to do it. Number five, what to expect.

This is one that's important. You want to read that through.

Your body detoxifies and eliminates toxins.

It will cause some discomfort, irritability.

Right, Nancy and me?

And headaches, it will cause you some issues when you withdraw from certain

things, especially when you withdraw from caffeine.

Just so you know, I had one missionary come to our church and—.

In Peoria, Illinois, and I'd given the message. And afterwards,

the missionary came up to me and said, man, you are so full of energy.

What's the reason for that? I said, massive quantities of caffeine.

And sometimes it's that case. We need to be very careful on what we do to consume

in our body. And then number six, how to end.

Don't overeat when you do. When you come to the end of the fast,

do not overeat. Begin to eat small portions. Why do you think that is?

You will get sicker than a dog. So then the last part is about prayer.

If you would, I would love for you to join me in some kind of fast for the next

40 days or leading up to Easter.

We'll see what God wants to do with us as a community.

Maybe you only want to fast one meal a day, but spend that time in concentrated

communion with God during that time.

That's the purpose of what we do in a fast, time of prayer and time of setting

ourself aside to get communion.

I know in Oklahoma City, when I worked at the hospital, oftentimes I would take

my lunch period, go into my office, close the door.

I would not have lunch, but I would close the door, turn off the lights.

I'd have one little lamp on my desk that I would read from Scripture and just

spend that hour in prayer.

And some of those were the most beautiful times of communion with the Holy Spirit

and with God in those times.

Father, as we have looked at this idea of prayer and fasting,

this is oftentimes something that we just kind of glibly go over and don't look at.

Father, I would ask, you know, the pastor can do all he wants to say things, but I would ask you.

Through your Holy Spirit, to call each one of us, including me,

to specifically spend this season in prayer and fasting before you.

I want to see what you'll do.

I want to see your experience in me. I want you to see you renew me in a way

that you haven't done before.

I want you to take hold of each one of us and fill us through your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.