November 11th, 2024
by Pastor Luke
by Pastor Luke
Matthew 4:4 says: "But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Notice it doesn't say "came," referring to a past-tense. It says "comes," referring to a present-tense.
The words of God in the Word of God have not grown stale, have not grown moldy, and have not collected dust. They live. Jesus relates them to spiritual food; necessary for spiritual nourishment. The Word is living. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us:
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12
Jesus' time in the wilderness shows us this:
Hunger is God's way of directing you.
How many times have you been hungry and found yourself at the refrigerator doors rummaging through the shelves hoping to find something you forgot about? I must open the refrigerator doors a dozen times a day looking for something to eat! "Are those leftovers still there? Is that fruit still fresh?" The power of the refrigerator doors cannot be overstated!
It's a little humbling, but I seem to always be hungry. I can always eat!
Hunger is God's way of directing you - it's His way of letting you know you need the nourishment.
How you satisfy that hunger will either bless you or burden you. If you eat healthy food, you will feel healthy. If you eat garbage, you will feel like garbage.
This era of the Church, more precisely in the Western hemisphere, will unlock a waterfall of supernatural power, greater revelation from the Word, and intimacy with the Father when we fast.
An appetite for the Word of God can increase in strength. It happens by fasting. Jesus is our model.
Fasting is the most potent way for your appetite for God and His presence to grow.
But judging from anecdotal evidence, there seems to be very little interest in fasting in the Christian life in this part of Church history.
Instead, we've been taught to feast. Feasting has its place in the Christian life, no doubt. After all, I just wrote a blog a few weeks ago emphasizing the importance of Christians gathering around food to connect with one another. As a foodie myself, I can say I think about my next meal about half-way in-between my last meal. Feasting most definitely has the power to connect us to each other, but it is fasting that has the power to connect us to God in greater ways.
We prefer feasting to fasting. Let's value and engage in both.
Humans wake up and think about where to find food. It's our wiring. And it's not something to be ashamed about. But that wiring is also an untapped power that can lead to greater revelation from the Lord - a scaling of your intimacy with the father can occur, and it will be by fasting. Your wiring to find food can be used to find the best food - the Word.
When Jesus responds to the enemies temptation while fasting in the wilderness, He teaches the devil that He doesn't need just physical food to stay sustained, but that His food is the Word of God, and a steady diet of it will sustain Him and create a nearness between Him and the Father that will carry with it supernatural power, the instructions from Heaven, and a curious joy that must be given from heaven, and not from earth.
The Bible references fasting 70 times! A few of the more notable stories are when Moses fasts for 40 days before receiving the Ten Commandments; Elijah, and Jesus too engaged in 40 day fasts. Daniel, and Hannah too, also engaged in meaningful fasts. The list is long. Fasting was also a lever the early Church in Acts pulled over and over and was necessary for it's effectiveness (Acts 9; 13; 14).
The most common fast in scripture is one day, sun-up to sundown, a 24 hour period.
Fasting in Hebrew is "tsom" which means "to abstain from food". Fasting in Greek is "nesteuo" which means "to abstain from eating".
It is vital that Christians resist the temptation to expand the definition of fasting to include non-food items. Attempting to fast from digital medias, or something that isn't consumable food will never produce the hunger that drives you to scripture and prayer like the absence of food will. (I didn't know how else to emphasis this other than bolding and underlining it!)
Fasting is God's provision for us to "level up" our spiritual life and scale to heaven's door and to knock loudly! "Ask, seek, knock." (Matthew 7:7)
Fasting will help you experience a nearness and intimacy with the Lord like no other! Let the hunger for food drive you to the scriptures and to prayer!
My vision for Salt & Light is to have a prayer and fasting calendar on our APP where we can sign up to fill days. My vision is that someone is always fasting and always praying for the ministry of Salt & Light.
Everything that can be pointed to as "breakthrough" in the last 6 months of my life in ministry can be traced back to fasting.
Be sure to engage in fasting in very small circles. The "secret" of fasting is its power. Do not post on social media that you are fasting...you will be doing it for the wrong reasons and the power will vanish.
Practical steps:
1. Start with an item: Go without your favorite food for a week, just to put your body on notice. (Read about Daniel's fast)
2. Move to a meal: go without one meal during one 24 hr period, also to put your body on notice.
3. Move to a 24hr period!
As the hunger for food grows, so should your hunger for God in His Word and in His Spirit.
The message you want to send your body is, "I am in charge, and you will do what I say." This is important, because the body is meant to be our servant, not our master. We should eat to live, not live to eat. If you can say "no" to food, you can say "no" to anything.
Don't fast unless you intend to feed yourself the Word and relate to God in prayer. If you are in an especially challenging season, engaging in a full three day, 72 hour fast could lead to a torrent of breakthrough and blessing, but if you have never fasted before, work up to this. If you are being lead to a three day fast or longer but have health conditions that a fast would further complicate, It would be wise to consult your primary care doctor to let them know what your intentions are. If you have a history of disordered eating please seek treatment or consult with your providers first.
Final word: fast for the right reasons. Fasting should never be engaged in for weight loss purposes. It is vital it is only engaged for spiritual purposes.
John Wesley gave some helpful insight on the right way to fast:
"First, let it be done unto the Lord, with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father who is in heaven; to express our sorrow and shame for our manifold transgressions of His holy law; to wait for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to things above; to add seriousness and earnestness to our prayers; to avert the wrath of God; and to obtain all the great and precious promises He has made to us in Jesus Christ."
Pastor Luke
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Notice it doesn't say "came," referring to a past-tense. It says "comes," referring to a present-tense.
The words of God in the Word of God have not grown stale, have not grown moldy, and have not collected dust. They live. Jesus relates them to spiritual food; necessary for spiritual nourishment. The Word is living. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us:
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12
Jesus' time in the wilderness shows us this:
Hunger is God's way of directing you.
How many times have you been hungry and found yourself at the refrigerator doors rummaging through the shelves hoping to find something you forgot about? I must open the refrigerator doors a dozen times a day looking for something to eat! "Are those leftovers still there? Is that fruit still fresh?" The power of the refrigerator doors cannot be overstated!
It's a little humbling, but I seem to always be hungry. I can always eat!
Hunger is God's way of directing you - it's His way of letting you know you need the nourishment.
How you satisfy that hunger will either bless you or burden you. If you eat healthy food, you will feel healthy. If you eat garbage, you will feel like garbage.
This era of the Church, more precisely in the Western hemisphere, will unlock a waterfall of supernatural power, greater revelation from the Word, and intimacy with the Father when we fast.
An appetite for the Word of God can increase in strength. It happens by fasting. Jesus is our model.
Fasting is the most potent way for your appetite for God and His presence to grow.
But judging from anecdotal evidence, there seems to be very little interest in fasting in the Christian life in this part of Church history.
Instead, we've been taught to feast. Feasting has its place in the Christian life, no doubt. After all, I just wrote a blog a few weeks ago emphasizing the importance of Christians gathering around food to connect with one another. As a foodie myself, I can say I think about my next meal about half-way in-between my last meal. Feasting most definitely has the power to connect us to each other, but it is fasting that has the power to connect us to God in greater ways.
We prefer feasting to fasting. Let's value and engage in both.
Humans wake up and think about where to find food. It's our wiring. And it's not something to be ashamed about. But that wiring is also an untapped power that can lead to greater revelation from the Lord - a scaling of your intimacy with the father can occur, and it will be by fasting. Your wiring to find food can be used to find the best food - the Word.
When Jesus responds to the enemies temptation while fasting in the wilderness, He teaches the devil that He doesn't need just physical food to stay sustained, but that His food is the Word of God, and a steady diet of it will sustain Him and create a nearness between Him and the Father that will carry with it supernatural power, the instructions from Heaven, and a curious joy that must be given from heaven, and not from earth.
The Bible references fasting 70 times! A few of the more notable stories are when Moses fasts for 40 days before receiving the Ten Commandments; Elijah, and Jesus too engaged in 40 day fasts. Daniel, and Hannah too, also engaged in meaningful fasts. The list is long. Fasting was also a lever the early Church in Acts pulled over and over and was necessary for it's effectiveness (Acts 9; 13; 14).
The most common fast in scripture is one day, sun-up to sundown, a 24 hour period.
Fasting in Hebrew is "tsom" which means "to abstain from food". Fasting in Greek is "nesteuo" which means "to abstain from eating".
It is vital that Christians resist the temptation to expand the definition of fasting to include non-food items. Attempting to fast from digital medias, or something that isn't consumable food will never produce the hunger that drives you to scripture and prayer like the absence of food will. (I didn't know how else to emphasis this other than bolding and underlining it!)
Fasting is God's provision for us to "level up" our spiritual life and scale to heaven's door and to knock loudly! "Ask, seek, knock." (Matthew 7:7)
Fasting will help you experience a nearness and intimacy with the Lord like no other! Let the hunger for food drive you to the scriptures and to prayer!
My vision for Salt & Light is to have a prayer and fasting calendar on our APP where we can sign up to fill days. My vision is that someone is always fasting and always praying for the ministry of Salt & Light.
Everything that can be pointed to as "breakthrough" in the last 6 months of my life in ministry can be traced back to fasting.
Be sure to engage in fasting in very small circles. The "secret" of fasting is its power. Do not post on social media that you are fasting...you will be doing it for the wrong reasons and the power will vanish.
Practical steps:
1. Start with an item: Go without your favorite food for a week, just to put your body on notice. (Read about Daniel's fast)
2. Move to a meal: go without one meal during one 24 hr period, also to put your body on notice.
3. Move to a 24hr period!
As the hunger for food grows, so should your hunger for God in His Word and in His Spirit.
The message you want to send your body is, "I am in charge, and you will do what I say." This is important, because the body is meant to be our servant, not our master. We should eat to live, not live to eat. If you can say "no" to food, you can say "no" to anything.
Don't fast unless you intend to feed yourself the Word and relate to God in prayer. If you are in an especially challenging season, engaging in a full three day, 72 hour fast could lead to a torrent of breakthrough and blessing, but if you have never fasted before, work up to this. If you are being lead to a three day fast or longer but have health conditions that a fast would further complicate, It would be wise to consult your primary care doctor to let them know what your intentions are. If you have a history of disordered eating please seek treatment or consult with your providers first.
Final word: fast for the right reasons. Fasting should never be engaged in for weight loss purposes. It is vital it is only engaged for spiritual purposes.
John Wesley gave some helpful insight on the right way to fast:
"First, let it be done unto the Lord, with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father who is in heaven; to express our sorrow and shame for our manifold transgressions of His holy law; to wait for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to things above; to add seriousness and earnestness to our prayers; to avert the wrath of God; and to obtain all the great and precious promises He has made to us in Jesus Christ."
Pastor Luke
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