Reading: Video Transcript: Going on Offense: Fasting

🙏 Welcome back to Session 28 as we continue to explore this idea of spiritual warfare.

⚔️ We are in that section where we’re going on offense.

• We’ve talked about the defensive armor of God.

• We’ve talked about the offense—the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, the Rhema of God.

• We’ve talked about the command that we are able to give: “Come out,” because we are under the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

• We’ve talked about the weapon of discernment and how that works.

📖 Today’s focus: Going on offense through fasting.
As I was researching for this class, I came across so many sources—books, teachings—and I found that fasting was a rather consistent theme. Interestingly, though, nowhere in Scripture are we explicitly given this model for fasting in spiritual warfare.

📚 One person I read—Doris Wagner—said:
"Anytime I know I’m going to be dealing with a demon or spiritual warfare, I spend the day fasting beforehand."

🍽️ Let’s be honest—fasting is not a popular topic within the Christian church.

• We’re used to fast food culture, right? We don’t even wait for food, much less deny ourselves any.

• Fasting feels out of place. There’s a lot of emotion around food—our comfort food, our cravings.

• The idea of voluntarily limiting our food intake feels wrong or uncomfortable.

👥 Fasting is personal. Food is important to me.

• Plus, it’s not a traditional subject. Growing up in the traditional Christian church, I never heard much about fasting.

• It wasn’t until college that I learned you could fast, and that it could somehow impact your spiritual life.

• Even then, I didn’t understand how to do it—how to limit food or when to eat. It just wasn’t taught.

📚 We’re going to fix that today.

• This is a summary from a short course I teach through Christian Leaders Institute, where I look at fasting a bit more deeply.

• I encourage you to explore that if you’re interested.

🔥 But in this session, I want to briefly highlight how important fasting can be for your engagement in spiritual warfare.

📖 The Bible says a great deal about fasting.
Here are just a few of the people who fasted:

• Moses fasted—he’s the one who stayed up on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

• David fasted—you read about that several times during his life and ministry as king.

• Elijah fasted—in fact, he had an interesting fast with a limitation of food for a period of time.

• Esther—remember when she was preparing to approach the king? She told Mordecai:

  “Get your friends together and fast for three days. I and my attendants will do that as well before I go in to the king.”

• Daniel fasted several times, starting when he was brought to Babylon. He told the steward he didn’t want to eat the king’s food or pollute himself, arranging instead for water and fruits and vegetables—a form of fasting we’ll see later.

• Hannah (in the book of Samuel), who longed for a child, fasted.

• Jesus—of course, we know about His 40 days of fasting.

• Paul—he also fasted, mentioning it at various times in his letters.

🌿 There’s plenty of biblical evidence that God’s people, seeking to draw closer to Him, fasted.
In fact, there’s more in Scripture about fasting than about repentance and confession!

💬 Interesting to note: Jesus spoke more about fasting than He did about baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

🤔 So why have we ignored fasting?

• Maybe it got a bad reputation around the Middle Ages, when all sorts of things were going wrong in the Church.

• Some may have seen it as a purely Jewish custom, not realizing its continued importance.

• Then there’s the cultural belief: “We need three square meals a day to stay healthy!”

• For others, it became associated with legalism—something to avoid.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Personal note: When my children were young, I fasted one day per week.

• My focus was twofold:
  1️⃣ Praying for their salvation.
  2️⃣ Praying for their future spouses.
  But over time, it became a legalism for me. I’d approach my fasting day with dread, thinking, “If I don’t do this, my kids will grow up as pagans, marry pagans, and have little pagan kids!”
  It wasn’t unto the Lord as Isaiah described fasting. It became a ritual rather than an act of faith.

🔎 And so, fasting has often been ignored.

📜 I don’t know, in the Old Testament, there was only one day commanded for fasting: the Day of Atonement.

• This day is described in Leviticus 16:23 and Numbers 29.

• Two goats were chosen:
  1️⃣ One was sacrificed for the sins of the priests. The high priest would bring the blood into the Holy of Holies and put it on the Ark of the Covenant.
  2️⃣ The second goat had the people’s sins confessed over it and was then released into the wilderness.

• This symbolized God casting away the sins of the people—far from them.

💭 Why fast?
The Old Testament word for fasting can be translated as “they afflicted their souls.” This act created an opening toward the spiritual world and a deeper sense of what God wanted.

✨ It was a day to:

• Reflect on my own sinfulness.

• Become more gratefully aware of God’s forgiveness and His substitutionary sacrifice (fulfilled in the New Testament, though the people of Israel didn’t know that yet).

📅 But there were other days of fasting in the Old Testament too:

• During war or threat of war:

  • 📖 The war against Benjamin in Judges.

  • 📖 The Philistine war at Mizpah, where Samuel declares a fast, calling the people to humble themselves before God.

• When loved ones were sick:

  • Remember David? His son (born from adultery) became ill, and David fasted, afflicting his soul before God.

• When seeking God’s forgiveness:

  • Moses fasted 40 days, not for his own sins, but for the sins of the people.

  • Even wicked King Ahab humbled himself before God, leading the Lord to acknowledge his humility.

  • Nineveh (during Jonah’s time) declared a 40-day fast, and God decided to relent from destroying the city.

  • Daniel fasted over the sins of Israel and to seek God’s will.

  • Nehemiah declared a fast over the sins of previous generations.

🌿 So fasting was tied to repentance, humility, and seeking God’s favor.

📜 So all of these were times when fasts were taking place—and there’s more!

• When danger threatened:

  • 🛡️ Jehoshaphat, hearing of an approaching army, declared a fast and went to the temple.

  • 🛤️ Ezra, preparing to return to Jerusalem with significant wealth, didn’t want to ask the king for protection. Instead, he declared a fast at the Ahava Canal.

  • 🏙️ Nehemiah, hearing of Jerusalem’s struggles, fasted and prayed before asking the king for permission to go.

• 📜 The Jews, when Haman's decree (Esther’s time) was read, fasted along with Esther and Mordecai.

• To commemorate calamities:

  • 📅 10th day of the 5th month: Temple burned (Jeremiah mentions this).

  • 📅 2nd day of the 7th month: Gedaliah murdered (also from Jeremiah).

  • 📅 10th day of the 10th month: Siege of Jerusalem began, ending in destruction.

  • 📅 9th day of the 4th month: Jerusalem fell.
    These fasts were acts of remembrance.

🌟 Summary:
People fasted when they sought forgiveness, restoration to health, protection from danger, deliverance from enemies—and fasting was always accompanied by focused prayer.

📖 Daniel’s fasts give us a personal example:

• Daniel 1: Daniel requested fruit and vegetables instead of meat offered to idols.

• Daniel 10: Daniel received a vision connecting to the future but didn’t understand it, so he fasted:

  • "At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips, and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over."

  • 🍇 This was a partial fast, not a complete abstention from food for days.

  • 🙏 Fasting enhances prayer and demonstrates to God the seriousness with which we approach a situation.

💡 This might be the origin of giving something up for Lent, where many people give up something meaningful for several weeks.

☕ My wife gave up cream in her coffee, and she loves cream in her coffee, but every time she had a cup of coffee during that Lenten season, it reminded her to pray. It became a reminder to prayer.

🍽️ Fasting can range from doing away with all food and water—an extreme fast—to most fasts where fluid intake continues.

• ⏳ The length of a fast can be:

  • One day (the usual)

  • One night

  • Seven days (as seen in Scripture)

  • 🌟 Supernatural fasts of 40 days (like Moses and Jesus)

• ⏰ The normal fast was from sunrise to sunset, similar to how Muslims fast during Ramadan: from sunrise until sundown, then they break the fast.

📖 We've read this passage before:

"Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. In those days he ate nothing."

🙏 Jesus anticipated the temptation, so He fasted to prepare spiritually. What might that mean for you?

🗣️ Jesus’ teaching on fasting (Sermon on the Mount):

"When you fast, it doesn't say if you fast, but when you fast, do not look somber as some of the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face, so it will not be obvious to others you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

📜 In the New Testament, Jesus fasted, taught about fasting, and encouraged fasting.

👦 Let’s revisit John chapter 9 and the demonized boy:

• "Jesus asked the boy's father, 'How long has he been like this?'
  'From childhood,' he answered. 'It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.'
  🤔 ‘If you can?’ said Jesus. 'Everything is possible for one who believes.'
  Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, 'I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.'
  When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit.
  'You deaf and mute spirit,' he said, 'I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.'
  The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, 'He's dead.'
  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
  After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked Him privately, 'Why couldn't we drive it out?'
  He replied, 'This kind can come out only by prayer.'"

🔎 And you’ll note the footnote…

📜 So manuscripts say prayer and fasting, and so they put that down on a footnote. Now the earliest manuscripts did not include that section and fasting. However, some believer thought it was so important that that’s how it got in there.

📖 For many, many years, that was part of the Bible. I think it’s there as a good reminder to us that fasting has a role to play.

🔍 What role does it play?

• 🏛️ We have some scriptural examples.

• 📚 Acts 14:

  • Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel in Derbe and won a large number of disciples.

  • They returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

  • “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

  • Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.

✨ In other words, this was so important—this idea of elders and deacons and the role of the church—that they committed them with prayer and fasting.

• ✝️ Jesus fasted in preparation for temptation.

• 🕊️ Jesus expected His followers would fast.

• 🤝 The combination of prayer and fasting is accorded great power in the early church.

• Paul fasted.

• 💪 Prayer and fasting seemed to go together when there was a desire for God’s greater blessing.

⚔️ This is, of course, about Spiritual Warfare. You are engaged in a battle with the enemy—a very powerful enemy, I might add.

• If Jesus thought it was important to prepare for that with fasting, shouldn’t you?

• Paul dealt with difficult situations and fasted in preparation—shouldn’t you?

👥 I have a good friend, my accountability partner for many, many years. For all the years we met, we couldn’t meet for lunch on Thursday because Thursday was his fast day. He would fast that day in prayer, spending time in silence at a nearby monastery.

• I once asked him what was the significance of that day and what’s been the impact of fasting in his life.

• He said:

  • “Every major idea I ever had that moved the regional force of the church forward—every idea came in those days of fasting.”

  • He kept a pen and paper to write down what God was saying to him, often while on walks.

  • The day was spent seeking God’s revelation.

🕯️ I want to challenge you to begin a practice of fasting.

• It doesn’t have to be three days, five days—although you may want to do that.

• It likely won’t be 40 days, certainly not the supernatural kind of fast—unless God calls some people to that in a unique way.

• 🌙 But fasting can be a tool, an offensive tool, as we go on the offensive against the enemy.

🙌 Use it well.

🛐 Join me in prayer:

“Lord, it’s challenging. Give us courage, give us wisdom, give us insight, so that we may do this well as we seek You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

👋 See you next time!