June 14, 2024
Fasting for Divine Guidance and Emotional Healing
Fasting for Guidance
What if you could deepen your spiritual journey and find clarity and strength through a time-honored practice? This episode promises to reveal the profound impact of biblical fasting, exploring its purpose beyond mere abstinence from food. We'll uncover how fasting can intensify your prayers, help you seek divine guidance, and express deep spiritual emotions such as grief and repentance. Drawing insights from biblical figures like Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and the early church, learn how to make fasting a meaningful and transformative part of your spiritual life.
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Thank You. I Love You!
SEE YA!
Rick
Be An Encourager...Not A Discourager!
Chapters
00:00 - The Purpose of Biblical Fasting
10:09 - Promotion of Wisdom for the Day
Transcript
WEBVTT
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Hey, this is Rick.
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I just want to thank you for tuning in.
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This is a bonus episode from Wednesday's Drop on Fasting.
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If you like this, drop me a line at renewedmindsetscom.
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Slash contact or go to the show notes on your podcast app and click on text the show.
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Let me know what you think of these bonus episodes.
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So now we know what a fast is.
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We kind of know how to do a fast.
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But what is the purpose of fasting?
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It's more than just food abstinence.
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It requires a special purpose.
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I've got one.
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I've got a special purpose.
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Without a purpose, fasting can be miserable.
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It's a self-centered experience about willpower and endurance.
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Purpose is extremely important Because, as you feel hungry, it should bring you a regular reminder of the purpose of the fast.
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So, really, the biggest purpose of fasting is to strengthen prayer.
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People of God have used fasting when there was an urgency in their prayer regarding the concern that they're bringing before God.
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When Ezra was going to lead the group of exiles back to Jerusalem, he proclaimed a fast in order for the people to seek the Lord for safe passage.
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They'd have to face many dangers on the 900-mile trip and they didn't have any military protection.
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They were vulnerable.
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It says in Ezra 8.23,.
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So we fasted and implored our God for this and he listened to our entreaty.
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It's not that fasting compels God to do what we want, but if we're asking for things outside of God's will, then fasting is not going to cause him to reconsider.
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It isn't meant to change God's hearing as much as it is to change our praying.
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Biblical fasting is God's idea.
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When we need to strengthen our prayers, god says to apply fasting.
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When we need to strengthen our prayers, god says to apply fasting.
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It brings more intensity and an urgency to our spiritual desire.
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Now we see prayer coupled with fasting in Nehemiah 1, verse 4, where it says Nehemiah continued fasting and praying before the Lord of God in heaven.
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And in Daniel 9, verse 3, it says that Daniel pleaded with God by prayers and pleas for mercy with fasting.
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And in Acts 13, chapter 3, the church at Antioch laid hands on Barnabas and Saul to send them on their missionary journey after fasting and praying.
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In Scripture, fasting to strengthen prayer is most emphasized Now they're often coupled together.
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When you look at all the other biblical reasons to fast in one way or another, they all relate to prayer.
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Fasting is one of the best things we can do to bring prayer into our lives.
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Another way to use fasting is to seek God's guidance.
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Seek God's guidance so to try to gain a clear understanding of God's will.
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You would fast In Acts, chapter 14, when Paul and Barnabas would appoint elders in the churches that they founded, the first thing they did was prayed and fasted to receive God's guidance.
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Now, while fasting doesn't guarantee a clear and direct guidance, when it's practiced correctly it does make us more receptive to the God who loves to guide us in what we do.
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People also fast to express grief.
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There's four references to fasting in the Bible that's connected to grief, and when King Saul was trying to kill David, saul's son Jonathan responded with "'Ate no food on the second day of the month, for he grieved for David'".
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That's in 1 Samuel, chapter 20.
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Right.
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Another reason to fast is to seek deliverance or protection.
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It's very common in the biblical times for them to fast seeking salvation from an enemy or some circumstance, and there's no reason that we can't do it now.
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You know, fasting, rather than reacting in the flesh, should be one of the first defenses against persecution from people in the world due to our faith.
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Flesh should be one of the first defenses against persecution from people in the world due to our faith.
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We might desire to strike back with anger or verbal abuse and we might even have anxiety about it, but we can appeal to God first for protection and deliverance.
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Another biblical reason to fast is to express repentance and a return to God.
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If you look at Joel 2, verse 12, it's kind of the same as expressing grief over sin.
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But repentance is a change of mind resulting in a change of action, and fasting can represent more than just grief over sin.
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It can be a sign of a commitment to obedience to God, of a commitment to obedience to God.
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In Joel 2.12, the Lord specifically calls the people to repent and to return to him by fasting.
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It says Even now declares the Lord return to me with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and mourning.
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Really, without repentance, fasting can be done in vain.
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If we're hardening our hearts to God's call to deal with specific sin in our life, it can be pointless.
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We need to be sensitive to God's conviction by the Holy Spirit and not pervert fasting by holding on to sin in our lives.
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I mean, why go through all that?
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Another biblical reason to fast is to humble ourselves before God and to express concern for the work of God.
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Now there might be a desire to fast and pray for the work of God in a place that needs his help.
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That was the purpose of Nehemiah's fast when he first heard that, despite of the many returning Jews from exile to Jerusalem, the city still had no wall to defend it.
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And it says they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.
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And when I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
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Fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
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We should be fasting in our desire to minister to the needs of others.
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I mean that kind of fasting is the kind that pleases God, because it results in concern for others and not just for ourselves.
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We can fast with the spiritual purpose of ministering to other people and we can fast to overcome temptation and a fast to dedicate yourself to God.
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In Matthew 4, 1 through 11, jesus is coming off of a 40-day fast to prepare himself for the public ministry and he was about to begin In the spiritual strength of that long fast.
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He was prepared to overcome the temptations of Satan, and the devil tempted him in so many different ways.
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Now, that passage has more to do with declaring who Jesus is rather than fasting, but there's something for us to learn there about his unique experience in fasting.
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Fasting was a way of overcoming temptation and of freshly dedicating ourselves to the Father.
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And sometimes we struggle with temptation or we anticipate a struggle to come, and we know that we need extra spiritual strength to overcome it.
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And, depending on your situation, it may be beneficial to fast for the purpose of overcoming temptation and for renewing your dedication to the Lord.
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And finally, we should just fast to express our love and our worship to God.
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Fasting is not just meant for tough circumstances and trouble.
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It can be purely an expression of love and devotion to God.
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It's a way to demonstrate that you love God more than food and that seeking Him is more important than eating.
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It's a reminder that our stomach is not our God.
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We desire spiritual bread more than physical, because we love God.
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What we hunger for most we worship.
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Think about that what you hunger for the most is what you worship.
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In Luke, chapter 2, verse 37, we read about an unforgettable woman named Anna.
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It says that she did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer, night and day.
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It was an act of worship.
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We can take time away from food to devote time to praise and worship God and, regardless of the purpose of our fast, it's all about God.
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On each fast, seeking God should be the first and most important thing that you should be doing it, for Fasting is when we hunger for God, for a fresh encounter with Him, for God to answer a prayer, for God to save someone, for God to work powerfully in our church, for God to guide us or protect us, more than we hunger for the food that God made us to live on.
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Just remember, before you fast, you must have a purpose, a biblical, god-centered purpose, and if you knew what God knew, you would give yourself to the identical blessing that he does.
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None of His rewards are worthless.
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Take a look at your life.
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There's something that you could be fasting for.
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There's a purpose for your fast.
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Hey, you don't know how much I appreciate you listening to this podcast, and if you're listening and you're regular, do you know that I have a second podcast?
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It's called Wisdom for the Day.
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You can find it at wisdomforthedayorg or right here.
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Wherever you're listening to this podcast, just do a search for Wisdom for the Day.
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It's basically a daily podcast from the book of Proverbs.
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I read about two verses a day and do a deep dive on those two verses.
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Now, when you say deep dive on two verses, it's only going to be about five or six minutes, so you don't have to devote your whole life to another podcast.
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As much as I appreciate you listening to this one, I really want you to listen to the next one and I don't want to take up all your time, so give me five minutes.
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You can listen to that while you're shaving.
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You can listen to it when you first get in the car and waiting for it to warm up or cool off.
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I guess now, since it's going to be summer, I'd appreciate it.
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If you like it, let somebody else know about it too.
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That's wisdomforthedayorg.
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I love you, see ya.
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