Fasting? What’s not eating got to do with spiritual gifts? Believe it or not, everything. Fasting is consistently portrayed in Scripture as one of the primary ways that we seek God and those blessings that he has promised to us if only we would ask. So, when someone asks about the relationship between fasting and spiritual gifts, I direct their attention to Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 14:1 that we seek or pursue spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. Fasting is pursuit. Fasting is spiritual seeking. Fasting is asking with an extraordinary intensity and passion.1
But first let me set the record straight about fasting. Fasting is not primarily about not eating. In fact, fasting is all about eating, of a sort. Fasting is feasting on God, drawing deeply upon his presence, depending wholly on his power, enjoying his goodness, gazing on his beauty, and trusting him to do for us what we could never remotely expect to do on our own. The reason we don’t eat is to help us focus on the energy that comes from God. As Dallas Willard says, “Fasting is, indeed, feasting. When we have learned well to fast, we will not suffer from it. It will bring strength and joy.” We gain real power from fasting.
Needless to say, this calls for some explanation. My reason for saying that fasting is crucial to the presence and exercise of spiritual power is found in what the Bible as a whole has to say about it. I have in mind specifically the way in which fasting is portrayed as the expression of God’s people who are desperate and needy. Fasting is not about denying yourself; it’s about satisfying yourself . . . in God. Fasting is not about physical pain, but spiritual pleasure. Fasting is the first cousin to prayer in the sense that together they are the ordained means by which God is pleased to give us what we need.
I realize that nothing seems as silly to our natural minds or as repulsive to our bodies as fasting, especially in light of the instant self-gratification of our consumer-oriented world where life is all about seeking and obtaining whatever suits our fancy. “You deserve the best,” they tell us. “You can have it now!” “Grab for all the gusto you can!” To our world, fasting makes absolutely no sense at all.
Even from a Christian point of view, it seems a little odd. If God has generously created food “to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:3 NASB), what possible reason could there be for abstinence? It seems like something reserved for weird people, odd people, or, at worst, the masochist who somehow enjoys inflicting pain upon himself!
The reputation of fasting has also suffered because of its association in the minds of many with the ascetic abuses of medieval monks and hermits. In centuries past, fasting was often subjected to rigid regulations and was combined with extreme forms of self-mortification and self-denial. Little wonder, then, that fasting seems so often to contribute to that “holier-than-thou” mentality we all want to avoid. In the minds of many, fasting is inseparable from showy and ostentatious self-righteousness.
One thing that will help us in our attitude toward fasting is to distinguish it from other reasons why people don’t eat. For example, fasting is not a hunger strike, the purpose of which is to gain political power or to draw attention to some social cause. Fasting is not health dieting, which insists on abstaining from certain foods for physical reasons. Saying no to burgers and shakes so you can look better in this summer’s swimsuit is not biblical fasting. Biblical fasting has nothing to do with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a person starves herself to lose weight, either out of self-contempt or in hope of becoming fashionably and loveably thin (or for any number of other reasons). And fasting must be distinguished from how it is practiced in numerous pagan religions: to control or appease the gods, or perhaps to make contact with spirits in order to manipulate their power.
So what does the Bible say about fasting? Let me highlight six fundamental truths about fasting for you.
(1) Remember that fasting is always motivated by deep desire. There is certainly a measure of physical pain or inconvenience that comes with fasting, but contrary to popular opinion, fasting is not the suppression of desire but the intense pursuit of it. We fast because we want something more than food or the activity from which we abstain. We say no to food or certain conveniences for a season only to fill ourselves with something far more tasty, far more filling, far more satisfying. If one suppresses the desire for food, it is only because he or she has a greater and more intense desire for something more precious. Something of eternal value.
That is why I say without apology that fasting is feasting! It’s about feeding on the fullness of every divine blessing secured for us in Christ. Fasting tenderizes our hearts to experience the presence of God. It expands the capacity of our souls to hear his voice and be assured of his love and be filled with the fullness of his joy.
Let me say it again: Fasting is not primarily about not eating food. It is primarily about feasting on God. In other words, what you don’t eat or how long you don’t eat or whatever activity you deny yourself isn’t paramount. What you do eat, spiritually speaking, is critical. Feed on God. Don’t simply taste; don’t nibble; don’t snack. Feast on him! Seek him. Part of this is a time issue: If you take something like eating out, that frees up more of your time to cry out to him, focus on him, and worship him. Invite him to fill you up “to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 NASB). Entreat him to sustain you and supply you and succor you. Lay your heart open before the Lord and ask for him to search and stretch you (cf. Psalm 139:23–24). Repent often! Then, when your fast is finished, rejoice in the food or the fun he has provided and give him thanks for all good things.
Consider Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 4:31–38. I’m sure Jesus appreciated their concern for his welfare, but he wanted to make a point. So when they insisted that he eat something, his response was startling: “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (4:32). No, Jesus didn’t have a double-patty Big Mac or an extra-large meat-lovers pizza hidden inside his robe. Nor were his words a clever turn of phrase. Jesus is telling them (and us) that he is strengthened and sustained by the presence of his heavenly Father.
Fasting is about ingesting the Word of God, the beauty of God, the presence of God, the blessings of God. Fasting is about spiritual indulgence! It is not a giving up of food (or some activity) for its own sake. It is about giving up food for Christ’s sake.
We are always driven to fast because we hunger for something more than food. This means that fasting is motivated by the prospect of pleasure. The heart that fasts cries out, “This I want more than the pleasure of food!” Some (wrongly) fast for the admiration that people give to those with amazing willpower. But we rightly fast for the reward from God alone, given without regard for the praise of men. We don’t fast because we hate our bodies and look to punish them. Whatever immediate discomfort we may experience, it is a sacrifice that pays immeasurable long-term benefits. We do not fast for pain, but for the pleasure of experiencing still more of Christ Jesus and the revelation of his powerful presence.
(2) Fasting is not something you do for God but an appeal for God in grace and power to do everything for you. Fasting is not an act of impressive willpower—it is a declaration of our weakness, a confession of our utter dependency on God and his grace. Our desire for spiritual gifts must always be driven by the urgency to help others in ways that we could never achieve in our own strength or ingenuity.
(3) Fasting is not a statement that food or other things are bad but that God is better! In other words, fasting is not a rejection of the many blessings God has given to us but an affirmation that in the ultimate sense we prefer the Giver to his gifts. Fasting is a declaration that God is enough.
(4) Fasting should be motivated by the desire to glorify God. It is crucial to understand the difference between being seen fasting and fasting to be seen.2 In Acts 13:1–3, the believers in Antioch fasted together as a group. Clearly they did not believe that Jesus’ warning about fasting to be seen by men in Matthew 6:17–18 precluded corporate fasting. When you fast as a group others obviously know, but this is evidently not a violation of Christ’s instruction. The church leaders at Antioch did not take Jesus to mean that we sin if someone knows that we are fasting but that we sin if our motive is to be known for our fasting so that men applaud us.
What, then, is the “reward” that God promises to give if our motive is only to be seen by him in secret (Matthew 6:18)? God sees us fasting and knows that we are motivated by a deep longing in our hearts for him and for his purposes to be fulfilled in the earth. He knows that we are not fasting to obtain the applause of people. “He sees that we are acting not out of strength to impress others with our discipline, or even out of a desire to influence others to imitate our devotion. But we have come to God out of weakness to express to him our need and our great longing that he would manifest himself more fully in our lives for the joy of our soul and the glory of his name.”3
And when he sees this, he responds. He responds by giving to us more of himself and the blessings secured for us in Christ. He “rewards” us by answering the prayers we pray in accordance with his instruction in Matthew 6:9–13 that his name be hallowed, that his kingdom come, that his will be done on earth. Surely God can and does give us other things that we seek through fasting (whether a spiritual gift, physical healing, guidance, etc.). But chief among the results of fasting is the exaltation of God’s name and the expansion of God’s kingdom.
(5) Fasting opens our spiritual ears to discern God’s voice and sensitizes our hearts to enjoy God’s presence. The gentle words of the Spirit are more readily heard during times of fasting. God often grants insights and understanding into his will and purpose, or perhaps new applications of his Word to our lives as we fast.
In Acts 13:1–3 we see Saul (Paul) and Barnabas, together with leaders of the church in Antioch, seeking direction from the Lord as to where they should go as a church in terms of ministry. Their desperation to hear God’s voice and follow God’s will could find no more appropriate expression than through bodily denial. As they turned away from physical dependence on food, they cast themselves in spiritual dependence on God.
“Yes, Lord, we love food. We thank you for it. We enjoy it as you want us to. But now, O Lord, there is something before us more important than filling our mouths and quenching our thirst. Where would you have us go? Whom shall we send? How shall it be financed? Lord, we hunger to know your will. Lord, we thirst for your direction. Feed us, O God!”
Their fasting became the occasion for the Spirit’s guidance to be communicated to them. Don’t miss the obvious causal link that Luke draws. It was while or when or even because they were ministering to the Lord and fasting that the Holy Spirit spoke. I’m not suggesting that fasting puts God in our debt, as if it compels him to respond to us. But God does promise to be found by those who diligently seek him with their whole heart (Jeremiah 29:12–13). People who are merely “open” to God rarely find him. God postures himself to be found by those who wholeheartedly seek him, and fasting is a single-minded pursuit to know, hear, and experience God.
What God said to them in the course of their fasting changed history. This revelatory word was spoken in a moment of spiritual hunger for God’s voice to fill the void left by mere human wisdom. The results, both immediate and long-term, are stunning, for prior to this incident the church had progressed little, if at all, beyond the eastern seacoast of the Mediterranean. Paul had as yet not taken missionary journeys westward to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, or Spain. Neither had he written any of his epistles. All his letters were the result of the missionary journeys he was to take and the churches he was to plant. This occasion of prayer and fasting birthed Paul’s missionary journeys and led to the writing of 13 of our NT books!4
(6) Fasting is a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. (See Matthew 4:1–11.) Jesus fasted to prepare for resisting the temptations of Satan. Fasting heightens our complete dependence upon God and forces us to draw on him and his power and to believe fully in his strength. This explains why Jesus fasted at the beginning of his ministry.
It is important to note that as Jesus was standing on the brink of the most important public ministry the world had ever seen, he chose to fast! Have you ever paused to reflect on the eternal consequences of what transpired in the wilderness of Judea those forty days? Heaven and hell hung in the balance. Had Jesus wavered, had he faltered, had he balked, all hope of heaven would have been dashed on the very rocks with which the Enemy tempted him. Of the dozens of things Jesus might have done to withstand this temptation, he is led by the Spirit to fast. Hence, if you are even slightly inclined to dismiss the importance of fasting, you would do well to remember this incident and that in a very real sense your salvation is due to the fasting of Jesus.
You may be wondering: “Are we commanded to fast? Am I in sin if I choose not to?” No. But the Bible assumes we will fast. According to Matthew 6:16–18, Jesus simply takes it for granted, twice saying, “when you fast.” Therefore, although Jesus does not say “if you fast,” neither does he say “you must fast.” He says, simply: “When you fast . . .”
In Mark 2 we see the same emphasis. When the Pharisees queried why Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast, he explained it in terms of his own physical presence on earth. “The days will come,” he said, “when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day” (Mark 2:20).
The point here is that the Messiah has come like a bridegroom to a wedding feast. Such a moment is too joyful and stunning and exciting to mingle with fasting. Groomsmen don’t fast at the bachelor party! The rehearsal dinner is no place to be sad. Jesus is present. The time for celebration is upon us. When the wedding feast is over and the bridegroom has departed, then it is appropriate to fast.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the variety of ways in which one might fast. Contrary to what many think, one need not always fast from food or drink to achieve the desired goal. Do not feel pressure from others to fast in precisely the same way they do. Nor should you impose your choice in regard to fasting on someone else or judge anyone for the decision they make in this regard. Fasting is always susceptible to legalism, so beware! Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and your own conscience (not someone else’s). So let’s note some ways in which you might choose to approach a corporate fast.
This, of course, is the most popular and explicitly biblical expression of fasting. It too, however, comes in a variety of forms.5 You may choose to fast from caffeine or soda or wine or other special liquids that you regularly imbibe. But you need not go “cold turkey”! If you are fasting from caffeine, wean yourself from coffee or sodas gradually, reducing your intake over a span of days before you stop drinking them entirely.
You may choose to fast from sugar or from some sort of food that is a regular, even daily, part of your diet. Perhaps you choose only to eat fruits or vegetables for the length of the fast, refraining from all meat (or vice versa). In the case of both of the former two forms of fasting, you would continue to eat and drink other items to maintain your strength and health.
If you should choose to go on a liquid fast, you would refrain from eating all solid foods for a time. You might still drink Gatorade or fruit juices or perhaps eat only soups. If you choose this approach there are several things to keep in mind.
First of all, a progression should be observed in your fasting, especially if this discipline is new to you and you are unfamiliar with its physical effects. Don’t start out with a weeklong water fast! Begin by skipping one meal each day for two to three days and setting aside the money it would have cost to give to the poor. Spend the time praying that you would have used for eating.
Second, remember also that there are degrees of fasting. There is a regular fast which consists of abstaining from all food and drink except for water (Matthew 4:2–3; Luke 4:2). Apart from supernatural enablement, the body can function only three days without water. A partial fast is when one abstains from some particular kind of food as in the case of Daniel while in Babylon (Daniel 10:3; cf. 1:8, 12). As noted above, a liquid fast means that you abstain only from solid foods. Again, most who choose this path are sustained by fruit juices and the like. A complete or absolute fast that entails no food or liquid of any kind (Ezra 10:6; Esther 4:16; Acts 9:9) should only be for a very short period of time. For anything longer than three to five days, seek medical advice. There is also what can only be called a supernatural fast, as in the case of Moses (Deuteronomy 9:9), who abstained from both food and water for forty days (enabled to do so only by a miraculous enabling from God).
You may also wish to fast from all food for only a particular meal each day. In other words, you may choose to skip lunch for a day or two or a week, or dinner, or even breakfast. All such forms of partial fasting are entirely appropriate.
If you’ve never fasted before, be aware that in the early stages you may get dizzy and have headaches. This is part of the body’s cleansing process and will pass with time. Be sure that you break the fast gradually with fresh fruit and vegetables. Do not overeat after the fast. Chili and pizza may sound good after several days of not eating, but please, exercise a little restraint and say no!
How long you fast is entirely up to you and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Bible gives examples of fasts that lasted one day or part of a day (Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6; 2 Samuel 1:12; 3:35; Nehemiah 9:1; Jeremiah 36:6), a one-night fast (Daniel 6:18–24), three-day fasts (Esther 4:16; Acts 9:9), seven-day fasts (1 Samuel 31:13; 2 Samuel 12:16–23), a fourteen-day fast (Acts 27:33–34), a twenty-one day fast (Daniel 10:3–13), forty-day fasts (Deuteronomy 9:9; 1 Kings 19:8; Matthew 4:2), and fasts of unspecified lengths (Matthew 9:14; Luke 2:37; Acts 13:2; 14:23).
Many choose to fast from some form of technology: TV, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, email, Instagram, etc. This can be a total fast from all participation or a partial fast from just one form. The choice is yours. The length of your fast may also differ: from one day to one week, etc.
Some choose to withdraw from a certain activity that has become a regular part of their rhythm of life, such as participation in some athletic event or some routine social gathering (other than a local church small group). What is of critical importance in regard to both of these sorts of fasting is that you not simply refrain from these things but that you fill the time and energy otherwise devoted to them with prayer, Bible study, worship, witnessing, or some other spiritual endeavor.
Not long ago we were facing a crossroads at Bridgeway where I serve as pastor. A significant and far-reaching decision, both spiritually and financially speaking, was pressing upon us. So I called for a church-wide, corporate time of fasting and prayer and praise. Not everyone participated in the same way or to the same degree, but many joined in wholeheartedly.
You don’t need to follow our example. There are countless ways that you can do this that may be more suitable to your church and the rhythms of life among your people. In our case, we decided to set apart every day Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for prayer, meditation, and worship. We arranged for worship music to be continuously channeled through our sound system in the auditorium. No other events were scheduled for that space. People were encouraged to come for five minutes or five hours, depending on their other responsibilities. Some came for half an hour; others dropped in during their lunch break. A few of us spent most of every hour of every day during that week in prayer and passionate seeking of God’s will for our body.
It was a truly remarkable time in the history of our church. God answered our prayers and made provision for our need in a way that can only be deemed supernatural.
You may choose to follow a different path in the pursuit of spiritual gifts. But I encourage you to consider adopting some version of the practice we embraced. I say this because I am altogether persuaded that if you truly long for the manifestation of spiritual gifts, one of if not “the” prescribed means for obtaining what I believe God wants to give is by prayer and fasting. Of course, in the final analysis, it is the Spirit “who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). We cannot coerce him or contrive ways to induce him to act contrary to what he knows to be the best and most beneficial distribution of his gifts.
1 I’ve written more extensively on fasting in my book Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Enjoying God (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000), 165–84. I also highly recommend John Piper’s book A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2013), on which I’m greatly dependent for what follows.
2 I owe this insight to John Piper, A Hunger for God, 65–76.
3 Ibid., 74.
4 Ibid., 93–112.
5 It is important to remember that some people simply cannot refrain from eating and drinking in any degree at any time. This is usually due to certain medications that they cannot cease taking and often have to ingest only after eating. If you have unique physical problems that would make fasting dangerous or unhealthy, please do not alter your prescribed regimen of medication or of eating and drinking without first consulting with your physician. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you cannot fast in regard to food and drink. Simply choose another way to fast, such as those noted above.