LIVING THE FAST LIFE!

My first attempt at fasting was a disaster! I was about eighteen and knew very little about this mysterious subject called fasting. I had been told that it would release God’s power and presence into my life in a strong way and I was hungry for that. About all I knew was that you were to stop eating and make yourself available for God to meet you. I was ready to go to new heights in Him and so one morning I got up and said to myself, “This is the day,” and I ate nothing for about five hours. Around noon hunger got the better of me and I made a stealth trip to MacDonald’s. Wow, was that cheeseburger good!

While my first effort to fast was a rather dismal failure, whether I understood it at the time, I was on the right track. Later I would learn much more about fasting and would come to value it as a part of my spiritual life. I believe in fasting and I believe it is important for hungry believers to fast, but I resist any attempts to turn it into something legalistic or ritualistic. Fasting is a choice that I make to assist me in pressing into Him, shutting out the noise of the world, and quieting the base appetites of this carnal man called “me.”

Right up front let me say that there is no indication that Jesus commands his followers to fast. However, there is clear evidence that He believed in fasting. He fasted for forty days before He went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. In His teachings He assumes that His followers will be fasters. There is very little indication that any of the New Testament writers taught on fasting!

I said a moment ago that I resist the legalistic or ritualistic tendencies that seem to creep into teaching about fasting. An acquaintance of ours from the ‘70’s was a very arrogant, prideful proponent of fasting. He would tell everyone he ever met that he fasted every Saturday, eating nothing from sundown Friday until sundown on Saturday. He wore his fasting like a Boy Scout merit badge. What he failed to mention, and I discovered by accident, was that he would eat a huge meal late on Friday afternoon, and I mean a big meal. Then he would proudly say, “I fast one full day every week.” Actually, he didn’t fast; he overate and then skipped some meals. This is phony legalism with no spiritual value at all.

Let me share with you a couple of reasons why I fast:

1. I want to get close to Him; I want to know Him better and fasting helps me do that.

2. I occasionally need to shut out the screaming voices of the world (and no, I’m not talking about my wife and daughters). I mean the unrelenting voices/noise of the world system that are continually beckoning for our attention. Sometimes I need to close the door on the clamor of the world and have some extra time in praise, worship, prayer and the Word.

3. I have found that fasting is a key that unlocks the door to personal victory in many areas of my life. Let me explain! The desire to eat is one of the basic appetites of our life. When we bring the desire for food under our control and we dictate to it (and not it to us), it is my experience that this helps me establish control in other areas of my life.

So I do fast and will continue to throughout my life. I am a purist when it comes to fasting; I drink water, juice or broth, and that’s it. Personally, I think the “Daniel fast” is somewhat of an illusion. Daniel fasts tell you what you can eat and what you can’t; that’s not fasting that’s dieting! If you’re going to fast, do it right, not with some pseudo-contemporary dietary system.

There is a paradoxical element to fasting. The key to getting started in fasting is “hunger,” to be hungry for more of Him, for more of His presence in your life, hungry to see Him break through obstacles. How are we to respond to this hunger? We respond by denying ourselves natural food, becoming increasingly hungry in the natural in order that we might press in and be fed in the spiritual.

In 1968 I was travelling with David Wilkerson as his crusade director and we were in Dallas, TX, for several days of meetings. While driving to a meeting I was listening to Christian radio station KSKY, which in those days had a lot of local preachers broadcasting. The preacher that afternoon was really going to town on prayer and fasting and the more he preached, the louder he got; he shouted until I could almost feel the sweat coming right through the car radio. The over-heated preacher began to talk in a sing-song voice about his love for prayer and fasting and he said something that I can still hear, “Oh, brothers and sisters, I have to tell you that I love to live the fast life!”

And my heart says, “Right on, brother, ’cause I know you meant well and I know your heart was right. Me, too. I want to live the fast life!”