Overview
Following Jesus’s example, our prayer is for God’s will to be done here on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6v10). But why does it seem so difficult to know God’s will in the specific sense? Throughout the Scriptures, a great myriad of admirable and decidedly less so characters ask God for things, and God answers. Jesus pleaded with his disciples to understand God not as uncaring or aloof but as a loving father eager to provide for his kids. Though complicated, we can wrap our heads around the idea of asking God for things.
Fasting, on the other hand, we understand a bit less. In one sense, fasting is a means by which the disciple of Jesus prays with their entire body. After all, you are not simply a spirit in a body; you are a spirit and a body. The discipline of fasting draws our attention to both our spiritual and physical being. In fasting, the great hunger of the heart and mind for answered prayer permeates the body itself.
We believe that God is responsive—he acts differently than he would based on the prayers and actions of his people. Indeed, fasting is not a manipulative device by which the fasting person assumes they can pressure God into doing something they want. Fasting is not a way we jump ahead in the prayer journey, but how we pray and do it matters. Fasting is a critical method of engaging your entire person (not just your mind) in prayer. Fasting fosters an internal intimacy, a quiet space in which God’s voice has more room. God is relational. Like any other intimate relationship, we hear one another better when we focus our entire person on the other. Fasting is not a hunger strike but a way of expressing to God our hunger for him to move in our life.
Here's The Practice
First, mark out a time to fast. We recommend fasting starting after dinner one evening until dinner the following evening, somewhere between 12 and 24 hours.
In which area do you want to hear God or be heard by God this week? Perhaps it’s one of the five categories:
1. To repent: Is there something you need to repent from? Is there a sin in your life in need of contemplation and forgiveness?
2. To grieve: Is there something you need to repent? Have you experienced a loss you must hold before the Lord in prayer and fasting, grieving with God’s Spirit? This can be something in your life – such as a loved one, a job, a relationship, or a failed plan – or something outside of your situation – such as a natural disaster, a school shooting, war, racism, global violence against women, or some other current event.
3. To cry out in crisis: Are you in or on the brink of an emergency and need God’s intervention?
4. To change God’s mind in a situation: Is there an area of your life in which you need to see reality shift? Do you need to wrestle with God about something in your life?
5. To know God’s mind in a decision: Is there an area of confusion in your life about which you’d like to hear God’s thoughts? Are you making a big decision and desperately need to listen to what God wants?
As you fast, allow the hunger you feel to prompt you toward prayer. Use the time you would typically eat in communion with God, engaging in one of the above conversations with him. Sometimes God speaks to us in the midst of our fast. Make sure you write down what you hear, whether you are sure it is God or not.
Spend time reflecting on these things:
Is what I heard something I find in the Bible? Does it contradict something in the Bible? (Note: God will never say something to you that contradicts what he has already spoken in the Bible.)
Invite someone from your church to pray with you about what you’ve heard and to help you discern its source.
If I feel that God has or has not spoken, how will I respond? What are my next steps? Do I need to make fasting more of a habit in my life? Or is there another direction in which I need to take action?
Find someone in your church to talk to about what you heard in prayer.
Questions To Think Through
1. Has your view of fasting shifted?
2. What area of your life would you love to discern God’s will?
3. Is it easy for you to hear God’s voice?
4. Do you have a fasting story you would like to share with someone?
Prayer
Do you feel distant from God, ask God to allow his presence to be near and perceptible to you as you fast. Declare God’s delight in speaking to and hearing us, his children. Ask God to silence every voice that isn’t the Spirit and to amplify and clarify the Spirit’s voice.
Ask God to bring your mind to a place of silence. Spend some time in silence, allowing the Spirit to speak.