Poster | Thread | swimmer Member

Joined: 2010/2/11 Posts: 29
| Re: | | I have wondered if people who have done it would be willing to talk about it, as it is something that would definitely be Spirit led, and a personal thing generally. I would not want to try it without that clear leading. I don't do well without leading. |
| 2011/8/27 2:08 | Profile | mguldner Member

Joined: 2009/12/4 Posts: 1862 Kansas
| Re: | | I am not really sure any of us are really good without that leading :) I found in fasting satan tries to make you second guess the leading the Lord gave you, he certainly comes on you strongly when you fast.
Its a constant battle and at times he will try to soothe you into giving up with sweet promises that oh don't worry about it, its not going to change anything, you don't need fasting. And once that disappears (especially for me) he tries to convience you, that something is terribly wrong and that you MUST eat or you are putting yourself in danger. Then he kicks it into high gear by trying to get your body to simply revolt with anger and extreme hunger pains.
For me fasting at work is the hardest because I will get juice or milk to subside the hunger which usually works out great. But at work I don't have milk to drink because there really is no way to properly refridgerate it without looking weird lol :) _________________ Matthew Guldner
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| 2011/8/27 2:16 | Profile | Lysa Member

Joined: 2008/10/25 Posts: 3699 East TN for now!
| Re: Fasting Discussion | | Great topic, Matt! Everyone has given great answers and if there is any place for these opinions, Id like to submit them ... I believe that fasting is the lost art of the church; when the church gets back to putting fasting in its rightful place; we could change things in America! And its the same on the individual level as well, when we put fasting in its rightful place; we could change things in our lives! And heres a thought, the time that we usually spend at the table eating, we could use it to read the Bible or in prayer.
We are not supposed to tell anyone we are fasting but we HAVE TO share with our spouse what we are doing so they know what to expect during meal times! What if your wife fixes a meal and expects you to eat it? What if someone invites your family (through her) to Sunday dinner? She needs to know so she doesnt inadvertently sabotage your fast AND so she can pray for you during this time.
The starving like a wild dog tends to go away whenever you fast over three days. When you get those sick hungry feelings, drink a couple of glasses of water to put something into your stomach. Im only telling you this so you will know that there is hope after approx three days!! Decide what you will drink before you fast or what you will allow yourself to drink, so the devil cannot tell you, "Oh this won't matter or won't that shake taste wonderful today?!" ...things like that! LOL
God bless you! Lisa
PS: Ive heard that it takes approx the same amount of days to exit a fast as you fasted this is for your bodys sake. Break a fast with liquid and salads and then gradually introduce solid foods. This takes as much discipline as the actual fast does and I admit I havent conquered this like I should. But if you just jump into eating a pizza or the like after a fast, you need to take some vegetable laxatives to help your body digest it or you will be constipated for days while your body adjusts. Just sayin and being honest!
_________________ Lisa
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| 2011/8/27 4:38 | Profile | brothergary Member

Joined: 2011/8/6 Posts: 103
| Re: | | great topic ,and a well needed descusion
it is a spirtual art ,that the chruch seems to have lost
im only new to it my self
i posted some writ ups from two brothers in another forum about fasting
maby i should post them here
icant remeber who it was ,it was a brother here that sugested a link ,it had some verry interesting imfo about this
bless you gys |
| 2011/8/27 6:23 | Profile | rufnrust Member

Joined: 2010/1/9 Posts: 261 Indiana
| Re: Fasting Discussion | | Amen to all. We have adopted fasting as a life-style rather than going for the longer fasting. (nothing against 21 and 40 day fasting) Humbling ourselves with fasting is so powerful.For those who find it hard because of work or other reasons, try 1, 2, or 3 days a week. Or every other day. It brings a continual heart-cry toward the Lord as a desperation for Him grows.
Ruf p.s. The Hidden Power of prayer and fasting. by Mahesh Chavda
A must read for anyone on this topic. _________________ Russell
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| 2011/8/27 6:38 | Profile | mguldner Member

Joined: 2009/12/4 Posts: 1862 Kansas
| Re: | | Brother Gary DO IT :) Post them here if they line up with the topic and will bring edification and encouragement :)
I once was doing every other day and my goal was for a year but this was what my wife saw as unhealthy because I would fast and gorge myself the next day and I had to agree it wasn't wise to continue to do that. I have however convinced her to allow me to fast every Monday and my wife is just now getting into fasting she is starting slow by fasting two of her meals, I told her to take her time and that she was doing great.
OH Something I thought I would point out, does anyone else feel the social ackwardness of fasting? meaning when I was fasting every other day every now and then I wouldn't eat on Sundays and so go to lunch with my parents and simply order a glass of water while everyone else ordered whatever they wanted? Just kind of curious because this was always something that interested me. :) _________________ Matthew Guldner
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| 2011/8/27 7:41 | Profile | brothergary Member

Joined: 2011/8/6 Posts: 103
| Re: | | yea i will post it then
iv noticed that when i go over my mother and father who are professing christan they seem to feel uncomfetable some times when i come over ,and they relise im fasting ,through conviction ithink ,and at times they will try to discourage me from doing it ,which nomale results in a firey sermon at the coffie table
but for me i wont cook ,or go out to dinner ,im just to weak ,and wont put my self in that situation,i dont want to be tempted , that would be like arkwardness on my part |
| 2011/8/27 7:56 | Profile | brothergary Member

Joined: 2011/8/6 Posts: 103
| Re: | | Fasting Is A Powerful Aid To Prayer By Gordon Cove
In early church history, fasting was considered one of the pillars of the Christian religion. When the church had power, fasting was an essential part of the faith. Fasting is not mere abstinence from food or from any other pleasure, but is abstinence with a purpose.
Further, fasting is a kind of mortification or self-chastisement, which aims at self-control. Fasting is not meant to weaken the body, but to strengthen the will. Our greatest goal in life should be to be men and women after Gods own heart. How often we have felt this great purpose to have been frustrated through fleshly and carnal appetites! Fasting helps to subdue the flesh. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:5).
One of the "woes" that the Savior pronounced was "Woe unto you that are full" (Luke 6:25). A luxurious diet, habitual overeating, produces an unbalanced animalism, and induces spirit-blindness which can see nothing beyond the natural. A body, sluggish with eating and drinking chains our spirit and keeps it from rising above the earthly. Oftentimes a sort of vicious circle is created. We overeat, and then we are too sluggish to pray, and hence we never come within the range of the Spirit, where He can do great things for us and through us. If we would see with the eyes of the Spirit, we must mortify the deeds of the body.
It is strange how much we miss by the willful neglect of such a power as fasting a power entrusted to us by the Lord Himself. For the flesh is an upstart, ever trying to drag the spirit down to its own fallen level, and fasting is one of the greatest measures used against the flesh to bring about self-control.
God-Given Desires, God-Forbidden Ways
Fasting will often prevent self-indulgence not by crushing our God-given desires, but by preventing them from being used in God-forbidden ways, by keeping them within the barriers of God-imposed limits. Fasting is the sworn foe of sensuality! Fasting is also an expression of mourning either over ones personal sins or when we are burdened for the souls of others.
Fasting means that you have reached the place of spiritual desperation. It means that you are now determined at all costs to put God first. There are times when we should turn our backs on everything in the world, even our daily food, in seeking the face of God. Fasting means that we are determined to seek the face of God and get our prayers answered. It simply means that we put God first, before everything, including food.
Ordinary fasting means to abstain from food, but the same spirit of desperation will also lead us to abstain from other things as well, such as business, talking, visiting, etc. Fasting is a voluntary disuse of anything innocent in itself, with a view to spiritual culture.
So fasting is putting God first when one prays, wanting God more than one wants food, more than sleep, more than one wants fellowship with others, more than one wants to attend to business. How could a Christian ever know that God was first in his life if he did not sometimes turn from every other duty and pleasure to give himself wholly to the seeking of the face of God?
"One object of fasting is the mortification of sin. Is your mind distempered, your heart hard, your grace weak, and corruptions strong? Does pride, envy, malice, the love of the world, or any other filthiness of the flesh or spirit, prevail? Fasting, then, is your duty. Some demons will not come forth but by prayer and fasting (Matt. 17:14-21; Mark 9:29). When this is the case, fasting is the proper remedy, and should be used as the chief means thereunto." (J. Beaumont 19/08 7:20 AM
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| 2011/8/27 8:12 | Profile | brothergary Member

Joined: 2011/8/6 Posts: 103
| Re: | | Fasting Necessary to Repentance
In the Bible there are many examples of fasting. David fasted over his sick child (2 Sam. 12:16, 21). "I proclaimed a fast
that we might afflict ourselves before our God," writes Ezra of the whole Jewish nation (Ezra 8:21). The fast of the Ninevites (Jonah 3:5-7), and the fast which the prophet Joel ordered (Joel 2:12), were regarded as necessary elements in corporate repentance. So with the individual. Paul after his conversion, fasted three days in self-surrender to Christ (Acts 9:9).
The men of Nineveh fasted in sackcloth and ashes, as a symbol of deep national mourning. There are times when some deep experience, some profound humility of repentance, causes us to reject all food and earthly pleasures. In its sorrow for sin or the burden for lost souls, all luxury jars upon the soul.
Prayer in itself is very often a shallow thing a light and insincere thing. Fasting is an evidence of our intense earnestness and of our fervor. It declares to God that we will not "let up" until the answer comes. It really says, "I have set myself to seek God as long as necessary, and as earnestly as I possibly can."
It requires faith to pray an ordinary prayer, for "he that cometh to God must believe that He is
" (Heb. 11:6). But it requires even more faith to fast and pray. Fasting reveals a greater desire, a greater determination and greater faith, and God observes this when He sees one of His children fasting and praying. He sees that His child has forsaken all pleasures, including one of the chiefest pleasures of life, the pleasure of eating.
Fasting is the deliberate clearing of the way to be more effective with God in prayer. It is the laying aside of all weights and hindrances (Heb. 12:1). To lay aside every weight is to lay aside all the hindrances to prayer, and a heavy stomach is a hindrance. Try praying on an empty stomach, and see how much easier it is to prevail in prayer.
We are too much wrapped around with soft physical indulgences. We are too padded and protected. We must lay bare our pampered lives! We must make an avenue for God through the throng of lusts.
When men are wholly absorbed in grief for some loved ones, they are not hungry. They do not want to eat. Then we may also expect that when Christians are wholly absorbed in passionate and earnest prayer for souls, for revival will they not also be glad to do without food?
Fasting shows that we are persistent. Often mere prayer is indefinite and brief, and really gets nowhere. On the other hand, when we begin to fast and pray, it simply means that we have settled down to the real business of praying with a persistence that will take no denial. It is certain that Gods people would see more answers to their prayers if they would fast more and spend the time in seeking the Lord.
When a person wants a thing so much that he is willing to go without food to obtain it, then the fast itself becomes a prayer. It is an inward, unspoken heart cry, a deep-rooted longing, and a reaching out to contact the Lord, the only One who has the power to grant the desires of the heart (Psa. 37:4).
Fasting Produces Faith
Now let us come to the benefits of fasting, which are numerous. Among the spiritual benefits, one of the greatest is that fasting helps to generate faith. Our unbelief is far greater than we realize. It is like an unseen and powerful enemy. Fasting brings us to the threshold of a new faith in God and His Word. One of the main purposes of fasting is to get an increase of faith faith so that we can believe and receive. Jesus said, "When ye pray, believe that ye receive
and ye shall have" (Mark 11:24). Fasting is the great faith producer. It kindles and develops faith far quicker than any other process.
Although it may seem difficult at first to grasp, the very weakness that one develops through fasting is the building up of faith. When one seems to be groping around in the dark during a fast, and perhaps the devil whispers that you are accomplishing nothing, that is the very time you are building up your faith, for Paul says: "When I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
Your unbelief will be eliminated through fasting. Fasting is a powerful spiritual factor in obtaining special favors from the Lord, and one of these favors is added faith. Faith is increased through fasting. Remember, there are certain kinds of demons that only come out through prayer and fasting. If you want to move those mountains of pain and fear, then pray and fast. Faith and fasting go together! 19/08 7:21 AM
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| 2011/8/27 8:13 | Profile | brothergary Member

Joined: 2011/8/6 Posts: 103
| Re: | | Fasting Intensifies Prayer
Then, secondly, fasting reaches and obtains what prayer cannot do alone. It is a powerful aid and asset to prayer. If your prayer is not answered, then go into prayer and fasting.
Many Christians have been praying for years about certain problems. Sometimes these prayers are not answered. But in many cases, where fastings have been added to the prayers, along with deep consecration and weeping before God, the answer has miraculously come to hand. Without fasting, prayer is often inefficient, but when coupled to fasting the prayer power is greatly amplified.
Many have proved that shorter prayers under the influence of fasting are far more effective than longer prayers without fasting. We do not claim that fasting, in itself, will produce miraculous answers in every case. But it prepares the heart by humiliation as almost nothing will do.
Sometimes there is something in us that displeases God, and that is why prayer is not answered at first. Therefore, to find out what this is, the best thing to do is to fast and pray. Many a Christian who does not prosper could learn the reason if he would wait before God with such sincerity and abandonment of self that he would not eat, would not sleep, and would not carry on his regular affairs of life until God revealed what was wrong.
God does not tell lies, and the reason many have not their prayers answered is because they have not met all of Gods conditions, and one of these conditions is to fast. Some things never come to a child of God except "by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). There is a big difference between prayer alone, and prayer combined with fasting. Even a few minutes of prayer during a fast are equivalent sometimes to several hours of prayer when not fasting, especially if the fast has been going on for some days.
The true incident is recorded of a certain minister who, before he entered the ministry, was locked up in prison in New York, awaiting his trial. He already had a life sentence awaiting him in Canada, also. His mother spent twenty-two days fasting and praying for him. At the time she did this, she was not aware that he was in prison, but she was praying for his conversion. He was converted and afterwards pardoned by the authorities, and became a pastor.
Another Christian prayed eight years for her brother, who was a drunkard, with seemingly no results. Then she got desperate, and prayed and fasted for twelve days for him to be saved. Thirty days after she finished fasting for him, her sister-in-law wrote to say he was completely delivered from the drink to which he had been addicted for thirty years. He had no desire for it and was serving the Lord. Fasting is praying intensified!
Fasting Brings Deliverance and Power
And so we see that fasting produces great power and also victory over sin. Fasting can bring revival when ordinary prayer fails. The great victories of faith mentioned in the Bible often happened after fasting.
A protracted fast will often bring to naught the devils devices in a Christians life. It will assist you to bring deliverance to those who are bound. Fasting and prayer makes faith strong enough to cast out demons. You may receive a still deeper experience than you have yet had, through fasting.
With fasting will come added power and liberty in your preaching, if you are a minister of the Word of God. It will so neutralize the flesh that you will become a conductor of spiritual power. The tragedy is that many Christian workers, just for the pleasure of eating regular meals each day, will continue in their powerless condition spiritually, when all the time they have within their finger tips the secret of power.
Certainly one needs an iron will to practice fasting, but God would not ask us to do it if it was impossible. 19/08 7:22 AM
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| 2011/8/27 8:14 | Profile |
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