Fasting: Spiritual Warfare, Training Your Hand for Battle, 10 (1)

The people of Israel were sinning, so the Lord told them, 'Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.' That is one of the ways the Lord takes pleasure in, one of the ways He delights in seeing us turn our hearts back to Him. Of course, He wants it in obedience, with all our heart.

Blessings, and welcome all to our church, Jesus King of Kings. We continue our teaching series, Spiritual Warfare: Training Your Hand for Battle. Today we'll be talking about fasting.

We're in chapter 2, section 2 of the teaching.

We're talking about the tools, the weapons we have available to fight the battle. One of them, very important, significant, essential, is fasting. Fasting is our spiritual exercise — it's one of the things the Lord uses to strengthen us in the spirit.

So much so, that in spiritual warfare there are battles we cannot win unless we live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer. Prayer is also another weapon, but for it to reach maximum effectiveness, maximum authority, to be able to hit its target, to be able to do the greatest possible damage to the enemy, it has to be combined with fasting. Some of the points we'll cover in this teaching: Jesus Christ expects His disciples to fast.

It's a command from God — the Lord is waiting for us to fast. Point number 2 is that every great servant of God in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, fasted. Something very important we need to keep in mind, point number 3, is that the Lord does not receive every fast — very important, because if the Lord doesn't receive the fast, all we're doing is going hungry for nothing. I'll also share some of the types of fasts we can do — the fasts I personally practice.

Over these years, the last six, I've fasted approximately 600 days. I'll share a bit of my experience with you. Someone recently asked me how many days we can fast.

I'll answer that question too. And to close out this teaching, in point number 4, I'll share some reasons why we should fast. Starting with point number 1: Jesus Christ expects His disciples to fast. If you are a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, you must fast. If you're not, then perhaps you're still just a religious person — I don't mean to offend anyone, but everyone who is not a disciple of the Lord is religious. It's like in the Lord's time, there were different religious groups — the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, among others.

Those who are not yet disciples of the Lord are religious, even if they don't know it. But for those of us who truly are His disciples, the Lord expects us to fast. Many will ask, why? Is there a command? Of course — yes, there is a command in the word of God. But if we are His disciples, the word 'disciple' means being like the teacher, learning from the teacher. And the teacher, being God, being Christ in the flesh, fasted. So how much more should you and I, if He, being perfect, considered fasting necessary — how much more should you and I, who are imperfect? The word says in Matthew 6:17, 'But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but only to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.'

So it's as if I said to you, 'When you come to my house' — that's because I'm already expecting you to come to my house. It's a confirmation. Here the Lord is confirming that He's certain of it — 'but you, when you fast.' In other words, He is expecting that you will fast. And He's not only expecting us to fast — in this verse He is also giving us instructions on how we should fast. He says we should fast in secret, anoint our head, wash our face, look fresh, so that practically no one notices we're fasting. And that the Father who sees in secret will reward us openly. In other words, not only does the Lord expect us to fast, but He also gives a reward to those who are obedient and follow His instructions. It's clear that He does expect us to fast, and that there will be a blessing — He will reward openly what we fast in secret.

Matthew 9:15. By the way, in that verse the Lord Jesus Christ spoke directly about fasting — He Himself spoke about it while He was in the flesh.

This came up when it was brought to the Lord, not by Jesus initiating it, but once again through a question put to Him. The disciples of the Pharisees and the disciples of John came and asked Him, 'Why don't your disciples fast, when we — the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees — fast?' And the Lord gave this answer. He said, 'Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.' Here the Lord is clearly saying it. They asked Him a straightforward question: why do we, the disciples of John, the disciples of the Pharisees, fast, and your disciples don't? Why? And the Lord answered them: 'Because I am here present with them, and because I am the master of the house, they don't need to fast. But when I am taken away' — that is, when I ascend into heaven — 'My disciples will fast.'

So very clearly here the Lord Jesus Christ is confirming that it is His command that we fast. It's just that while He was on earth with His disciples, with the original twelve, they didn't need to. But once He was taken away, once He ascended, after He had been crucified and had risen victorious from the dead, then yes, we would fast.

But it's not only in the New Testament that the Lord expects fasting. For example, going back to the Old Testament, God — Jesus Christ — commanded His people to fast on many occasions. I'll only share a few verses, but there are many verses in the Bible where the Lord Himself commanded the people to fast. We have Joel 2:12: 'Now, therefore,' says the Lord, 'turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.' Here the people of Israel were sinning, so the Lord told them, 'Turn back to Me with all your heart, in fasting, weeping, and mourning.' This is one of the ways the Lord takes pleasure in, one that He delights in — that we turn our hearts back to Him. Of course, He wants all of the heart.

You'll see, if you pay attention as you read the Old Testament, that many times, when the people of Israel were walking in rebellion, one of the things they did once they realized their wickedness was to fast — they put on sackcloth, they mourned, seeking God in repentance for the forgiveness of their sins. In Matthew 9:14, the disciples of John came and asked, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?' In other words, John, who was a man of God, the last of the prophets under the law — because after John, with the Lord Jesus Christ, it becomes the time of grace.

The time of grace. We are under a new priesthood. The Lord Jesus Christ not only fasted Himself, He also taught His disciples to fast. And this brings us to point number 2: every great servant in the Bible fasted, including John, who was a great servant of God, but also Jesus Christ Himself. We have in Luke 4:1-2, as the word says: 'Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.' (Jesus Himself fasted for forty days.)

We have that example in Him. We also see it in Exodus 34:27-28. Moses also fasted for forty days, and the Lord said to Moses, 'Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.' And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. There, Moses fasted for forty days — he neither ate nor drank water.

Daniel 9:3: 'Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.' Another servant of God in the Bible who fasted. There are so many verses that show God's servants fasting, but I won't read them all, because it would take too long — the teaching would go on far too long.

In 2 Samuel 12:23: 'But now that he has died, why should I fast?' Here David had fasted for his son so that he would not die, but once he had died, what was there left to fast for? In Acts 14:23: 'So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.' The disciples prayed — in that time, the time of the disciples, the apostles — and they fasted too. In Acts 13:2, once again: 'As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."' It was while they were praying and fasting. The disciples lived a lifestyle of fasting and prayer.

Point number 3, very important: we already know we should fast, we already understand that the Lord Himself fasted, we already know it's a command from God that we do it — good. It's also very important to know that the Lord doesn't receive every fast, because we want to fast for God, we want a fast that the Lord will receive as a pleasing aroma, we want to receive that reward He promises to those who fast according to His will. Here we look at the Scriptures, at several occasions, of fasts the Lord did not receive. I'll share this with you because it's important that we understand why — and that truly afflicting our soul with fasting, abstaining from food, does not necessarily mean the Lord will receive it, if we don't do it according to His will. In Luke 18:12 the word says, 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' Here a Pharisee was speaking — the word says he prayed with himself and justified himself: he tithed, he did this and that. But the Lord says there was also a tax collector who beat his chest, saying, 'I am a sinful man,' who didn't even want to go into the temple, saying, 'I am not worthy of You, Lord, I am a sinful man.' And the word says that this man, who didn't fast, who didn't tithe, who didn't do any of those things, went home justified more easily than the Pharisee who did all those things.

But why did the Lord say that all of that was necessary to do? It's not that they didn't need to fast, it's not that they didn't need to tithe back then and do everything He commanded. He says all of it was necessary to do, but without having forgotten justice — that is, without having forgotten to do good, without having forgotten to keep the word of God. So they fasted, they tithed, they considered themselves very wise, they considered themselves children of Abraham, but they were rebellious and disobedient; they also held to many doctrines of men, they oppressed the poor, they didn't share their bread with the needy, they didn't do good — and therefore, the Lord did not receive their fasts.

It's understandable — it's not that fasting was wrong, it's that what was wrong was doing it in rebellion and disobedience. We have to understand this, because if we're going to fast to be filled with the presence of God, if we're going to fast to undo the works of the devil, which is one of the purposes of fasting, we have to do it according to the will of God, with a contrite and humbled heart, just like Daniel — seeking the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, in weeping and in sackcloth, making sure that our works, not only during the fast but before the fast, are in line with God's will. If we don't do that, the Lord won't listen.

We also have Zechariah 7:5 — it speaks to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me — for Me?' Very important — here the people of Israel fasted in the fifth and seventh months for seventy years, the entire nation. They were supposedly obeying God's command, that He had commanded them to fast at that time, but there was a problem — in Zechariah 7:9-12 — because they were fasting, but the Lord answered them... they had consulted the prophet of that time and told him, tell the Lord why He hasn't practically answered — if we're fasting, we're mourning in the fifth and seventh months as He commanded, and yet He hasn't listened to us in a long time, we don't see God's answer.

They realized the Lord was not answering them; they were practically complaining, because in their minds they were thinking, 'We're doing what You commanded us, and You don't answer us' — but here is the Lord's response. 'Tell the priests and all the people, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these sixty years, did you really do it for Me?' In other words, so much time wasted, so much needless hunger endured for nothing — seventy years, an entire nation, not just one person, not you or me, an entire country, fasting for seventy years, and in those seventy years the Lord did not receive their fasts.

The Lord went on, even though they thought they were doing it for Him: tell them, was it really for Me? In other words, it wasn't for Me — how can they say it was for Me when, even while they were fasting, they kept doing what I told them not to do? Here, in verses 9 through 12, it explains why the Lord did not receive their fasts for seventy years. I don't want it to be the same with you.

Well, I don't want it to happen even for a single month — that someone fasts for two months and the Lord doesn't receive it. Imagine a whole year, or seventy years! We don't want that. So we have to make sure our heart is aligned with the perfect will of God. Thus spoke the Lord of hosts, saying: 'Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor, and let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.' But they refused to listen.

Instead, they turned their backs and stopped their ears so they would not hear, and they made their hearts like diamond so they would not hear the law or the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. But here's why the Lord did not receive it — because while they were fasting, they were oppressing the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and these things do not please God. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to treat the most vulnerable with love, with respect, with dignity, to help them. That is why the Lord did not receive their fast. So let's learn from Israel and do the opposite. Isaiah 58:2-4: 'Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. "Why have we fasted," they say, "and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?" In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.'

Once again, this is another instance where the Lord did not receive the people's fast. Once again, why didn't the Lord receive it? Because while they were fasting, they were doing what does not please the Lord. So we have to examine our hearts. I understand that sometimes there are chains, there are emotional and spiritual weaknesses, that make it hard to fast in peace, to avoid arguing like they did, to avoid falling into strife. Unfortunately, all these things happen, but they do not please the Lord. But if we understand that these things don't please the Lord, the least that should be present is conviction in our heart and a contrite heart.

We should say, 'Lord, forgive me, Lord, I fell into temptation, Lord, forgive me, I argued, Lord forgive me, perhaps I had the chance to do good and didn't do it.' We must repent and persevere, setting our heart, our mind, our soul, and our whole being toward doing what pleases God. If we weren't doing good, let's start doing good. If we weren't giving to the poor, let's start giving to the poor. If we were selfish, let's start sharing what we have. We must do what pleases God.

Four types of fasting we can do. Because many people ask me — sometimes even pastors don't have a clear idea of how we should fast or what type of fast we should do. There are generally four types of fasting that I primarily practice, and I'm going to share them with you.

One of them is the water fast. What does a water fast consist of? Abstaining from food for a period of time — it can be one day, two, three, four, five. I recently finished one about three days ago — 16 days, water only, for 16 days. Over those 16 days I ate nothing at all; the only thing I consumed was water throughout the day, for 16 straight days. That's what I call a water fast, because water was the only thing I was consuming. Later on, I know some of you will have the question people have recently asked me, and I'll answer it: for how many days should one do a water fast? Or for how many days can someone fast? I'll share that further along.

It's important to understand this, and I'm sharing it based on my own experience. The fasts I'm sharing with you right now are fasts I myself have done, and over the last six years I've done more than 600 days of fasting. I'm speaking to you from my own experience fasting, and I think 600 days of fasting is quite something. Another fast we can do, and it's the strongest one — the second most important to me is the water fast, but the strongest of all, and the one with the greatest blessing, is one I've barely been doing myself lately. I've done it several times, but it's been a good while since I've done it recently. It's the dry fast. What does a dry fast mean? In a dry fast we abstain even from water. A dry fast means living on nothing but air and the word of God for a period of time, without eating anything and without drinking any water.

I know this fast sounds intimidating — it's the strongest of all. This fast, in fact, was done in the Bible by people for as long as 40 days. Moses was one of them; Moses fasted 40 days without eating or drinking anything. But I only recommend this dry fast, beyond three days, to a person with a great calling from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, because it can be risky — it's very intense. Only when we're full of the Holy Spirit, full of His presence, does nothing happen to us. Moses came out of it even better, his face shining from the presence of God — the rest of the people were afraid to even look at his face, because they saw the glory of God on it. But in the Bible we see that it wasn't just one person who did it.

In the time of Queen Esther, the word says in 4:16 that she commanded, 'Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.' So even Queen Esther, with her maids, her servants, and the people — the Jews who were in Shushan — called for a fast, meaning not one person, not a small congregation, but an entire people called a three-day fast without eating or drinking. In our time, we say, how will I survive three days without eating? The queen fasted for three days — if you're not a queen and I'm not a king, why can't we do it? Nothing will happen — the blessing of God is the only thing that happens when we do it in love and in faith. The dry fast, once again, is the strongest, but I feel it's one of the most effective. When there isn't much time to fast, meaning someone only wants to seek God's presence in a few days and wants something significant, that's the fast that would be most ideal — if we have little time to fast, just one, three, four, or two days, but dry, seeking the presence of God.

So it's the strongest fast, and likewise I feel that the level of difficulty corresponds to the degree of blessing we receive when we do it. When we do a dry fast, the greatest blessing; when we fast with water, a great blessing too — I think I've done about 10 days total of dry fasting, but with water I've done hundreds of days. And one of the easiest, most recommended fasts, especially for those just starting to fast, for those who still lack the strength for it, and ideal for the first time someone is going to fast more than one full day and has never done it before — for example, out of nowhere we're going to do a 21-day fast, and some of you want to participate but have never fasted even a full day — well, that's the easiest fast you can do, but it's also a blessing. It's traditionally known as the Daniel fast. It's called the Daniel fast because in the book of Daniel there's an account of how Daniel sought the Lord through fasting in the way he did it — and it's clear that God's answer came immediately.

The word says that as soon as Daniel set his heart to seek God, the Lord heard him and sent an answer, but the prince of Persia held up that answer for 21 days, and Daniel fasted for 21 days until his answer arrived. The word says in Daniel 9:3, 'Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications.' And in Daniel 10:2-3: 'In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.' Three weeks — 21 days — and during those days Daniel abstained; he ate, but he ate nothing rich, no wine touched his mouth, and he did not anoint himself with oil until the three weeks were completed. What he did was abstain from certain foods, and that's why it's now known as the Daniel fast — when someone fasts while still eating, but abstains from various things.

I often do the Daniel fast myself — eating nothing but fruit, vegetables, everything that comes from plants of the earth, while abstaining from meat, eggs, milk, and things like that — the more delicious things, I abstain from, and simply eat plain: fruit, vegetables, potatoes, rice, still things that come from the earth. But it's also very important to take into consideration the first part of what Daniel did — it says, 'I set my face toward the Lord in prayer, in sackcloth, in ashes' — meaning he humbled his soul, practically sleeping on the floor, I would say, in the dust, seeking God with all his heart. He did that fast not only by abstaining from certain foods, but because his heart was fully devoted to the Lord in those days — that's important. So that type of fast is called the Daniel fast; it's a fast you can do. I also recommend that fast — for example, right now I'm going to do a Daniel fast for several days. In this case I'm going to do it because over the last two months I've already fasted more than 40 days, and right now I've lost a lot of weight, I'm thin for various reasons, and I feel I need more fasting, but I don't feel it's ideal right now to do another water fast or dry fast — so to give myself a little rest, I'm going to do a Daniel fast. It's still a blessing, but while I'm consuming food it's more like — because my stronger fasts go many days without eating; last month I did 13 days without eating anything, and this month, 16 — so this way I give myself time to rest. So the Daniel fast is good for those who have never fasted, and it's also good for times when there's a certain weakness — for pregnant women, for example, it's not ideal to do a dry fast, and a water fast maybe only for 24 hours, but the Daniel fast they can do for 21 days: they're eating fruit and vegetables, eating things that are nutritious and good for the body, but they're still abstaining from certain things. So if they do it with love, in faith, and with a contrite heart, it's a blessing for them too. Also, in cases like this, like mine, where someone has already fasted a lot over a consecutive stretch of time and needs to recover a little physically, we do the Daniel fast for a month or two and give the body time to recompose itself, so we're strengthened again for another water fast or dry fast. Sometimes one of the things I recommend — because in this ministry we've often fasted 21 days, sometimes 30 days, sometimes 40 days, and many people are new to it, and doing, say, 10 days on water isn't easy for most people, it's very hard — but we can combine them. In other words, if we're going to do 21 days, and someone has the strength to do 7 days on water but can't finish all 21 that way, then the first 7 days on water, then you can do 7 days eating once a day — that is, one meal every 24 hours for 7 days — bringing you to 14 days, and then the last 7 days as a Daniel fast — that completes 21 days. So there you're doing a kind of combination: 7 days of pure water fasting, then an intermittent water fast, meaning water but eating once a day, and then the Daniel fast as another stage. Some people do what I'd call — I think this would also be — a partial fast, where they only fast one day but, say, from 6 in the morning to 2, 3, 4, or 5 in the afternoon — that's a partial fast; during those few hours they don't eat, or maybe only drink water, and then at 3 or 4 in the afternoon they start eating, and then eat again later. I believe that in the Bible people occasionally did this type of fast, but it's a fast that I personally don't advocate for as a partial practice — it's the final time, our adversary the devil prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and in my experience, the more effort we put into fasting, the greater the blessing. So fasting at least one full 24-hour day is a blessing, and honestly it is a blessing, but more than anything, a fast of just 24 hours is for when someone is just starting out, building up their strength — it's a blessing when someone is starting out, but especially for those of us who have a calling, who are pastors, prophets, evangelists, or teachers, I now consider a one-day fast more like something to maintain my spiritual condition. I'd say to truly fast we need to do at minimum three days; ideally, if we want something significant, seven days on water. Which brings up a question I'm going to answer: for how many days can we fast? It's simple — I'll tell you from my experience: the longer the fast, the more we do it, say, a fast on only water, the greater the blessing. If there's a serious problem in the family, in the finances, in the marriage, in the church, and we want a breakthrough — the bigger the problem, the bigger the fast has to be; the greater the blessing we want, the more extensive the fast should be. Those of us who have a ministry that the Lord uses for healing and deliverance, if we want to reach that maximum level of authority the Lord Jesus Christ reached, we should aim to do 40 days of fasting — that's the ultimate goal for those of us with a ministry who want the Lord to use us at the highest level. Forty days of fasting is hard — honestly, I've attempted it about six times, maybe seven, in recent years. I have done 40 days, but eating once a day or combining methods — a fast of nothing but water or dry, all the way through, I haven't been able to complete. I've done close to 20 days and had to stop there, or had to switch to a Daniel fast or eating once a day — but I keep trying; that's the goal, to reach that maximum authority. So that's the concept: the more we push ourselves, the longer the fast, the greater the blessing — and you'll notice this too. From my own personal experience, I can tell you: when I'm fasting, I feel God's anointing stronger in my life; I see it in the results when I pray for people — deeper healings, deeper and faster deliverances, things that before I couldn't do, that used to take me hours and the person would barely get healed. When I'm on an extended fast, the person gets set free much faster. If we want to be used more by God, we have to live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer. As for the sheep, I'd say at a bare minimum everyone should aim to do at least one 21-day fast a year, eating once a day, or a 21-day Daniel fast once a year — that fast as the very minimum, because it isn't that difficult if you're truly in a church that is strong in the faith and is fighting the spiritual battle. At first it feels hard, but after a few battles, once you start understanding the importance of fasting, and with prayers to break the opposition — because there are powers of darkness that oppose fasting — once all of that is broken, it becomes relatively easy to do 21 days eating once a day, or a Daniel fast. So, many days we need to fast.

As for fasting only from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, I don't advocate that — it takes a lot more than that. A one-day fast, just eating, say, once a day, is good for maintenance, but ideally, every so often, once a month or every two months at most, you should aim to at least do one to three days on water alone — that's ideal. And every three months at most, do a 10-to-15-day Daniel fast, or a fast eating once a day, ideally 21 days, and periodically another 21-day fast, if we want to keep climbing a spiritual staircase where we're constantly ascending, receiving more power, more strength. Fasting strengthens us; fasting means that when the devil attacks us — before, a single little arrow could make us stumble, but once we've done 21 days of fasting, he has to send 10 arrows to make us stumble, because with one it's like a mosquito bite, we just brush it off and nothing happens. Fasting strengthens us in the spirit, makes us stronger. When someone doesn't fast, the enemy comes and attacks their mind, and quickly they start making mistakes, or the enemy can control them with five demons — but when we're fasting fervently, he has to send 100 demons to accomplish what five used to do, because five little demons alone can't do it anymore — we're not weak, we're stronger in the spirit, and that alone brings a great blessing. Some of the reasons we should fast, to close out this teaching: one, to receive greater spiritual authority against demons — especially for those of us called to a ministry of deliverance, who function in that area doing miracles and wonders. There are demons we cannot deal with effectively unless we live a lifestyle of fasting, and there are some we truly won't be able to cast out until we reach a 40-day fast — that's the reality, at least in my own experience. There are mental demons that, to this day, take me hours to accomplish anything, and in many cases I'm still not fully effective, even though I've done 600 days total, even 19 and a half days on water alone, and most recently 16-plus days — and even then, with autism, I still wasn't able to fully cast it out and see the person completely healed even this time. It requires a longer fast. There are demons, as the word says here in Mark 9:29 — He told them, 'This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting' — unless we do a long fast, we simply cannot cast out certain types of demons.

Another reason we should fast is to turn our heart back to God, to pray for the salvation of our loved ones, of our family — for example, in Joel 2:12, that's why the Lord now says, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.' God Himself asked the people to turn back to Him, to turn to Him with fasting, weeping, and mourning — so this is one of the ways the Lord is pleased when we turn our heart back to Him. Daniel 9:3: 'And I set my face toward the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and supplication, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.' Daniel turned his face toward Him in fasting. Jonah — the men of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them — the entire nation was in sin; destruction was coming upon them. Jonah preached to them, gave them the prophecy of what would happen if they didn't repent, and the entire nation repented with fasting — it's a way we show a greater repentance. It's like saying, 'Lord, I repent' — that's good — but when we fast while repentant, it's as if the repentance truly reaches a deeper level.

In 2 Chronicles — he was afraid, and he set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah — the king once again feared the Lord, and everyone fasted to seek God. We can also fast to seek God's guidance — 'and I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions' — seeking the right way, if they wanted God's guidance for how they should walk. Another reason to fast is when a loved one is sick.

Psalm 35:13: 'But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart.' That's something I do often — when we're fighting continually over a period of time, and the closer we draw to the Lord, the more we realize when a situation is hard, when we can handle it as we are, and when that isn't enough. When a situation is beyond what we can handle, we need to fast. When I see there are sicknesses the enemy sends against some of the brothers or sisters, and at the moment I'm praying and it's not happening the way I want — a quick healing — even though they receive deliverance and feel better, but the full healing doesn't come.

Fasting on top of fasting is important when there is sickness, to ask God for protection. In Ezra 8:23: 'So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.' There are more reasons we can fast to ask for protection, but for the purpose of spiritual warfare, the most important reason you need to understand is that I receive greater authority and protection from God through fasting.

I hope this teaching has been edifying for all of you.

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Pastor Francisco Gomez

Thank you for reading our posts. It is our greatest desire that you be edified and blessed. Greetings in the name of our entire congregation, Jesus King of Kings.

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