Heartfelt Sincerity and God's Reward

The Power of Prayer and Fasting: 21 Days That Can Change Your Life
by Marilyn Hickey

(Page 2 of 2)

I stated earlier that Jesus gave His disciples two general principles about fasting. This is what He said:

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:16-18)

Notice that in this passage Jesus said, "When ye fast" (v. 16). Again, Jesus did not command fasting but He recognized that His disciples would fast.

Jesus clearly taught His disciples that fasting was to be a very private matter between a person and the Lord. This does not mean that a group of people cannot agree together to fast and pray about a particular matter, or that a church cannot declare a time of fasting and prayer in order to call people to a renewed relationship with the Lord.

The disciples were taught that they should appear to the world as if they were not fasting. They were not to call attention to their fasting in hopes of winning recognition or sympathy from other people. Most of the people who fasted in Jesus' day walked with bowed heads and sad expressions, often putting ashes on their heads and as a result, ashes on their faces. They were trying to appear righteous. Jesus said, "That will work! People will think you are righteous if you do that. But it is only people who will reward that behavior. God doesn't." Jesus taught that people were to fast and pray as a personal and private spiritual discipline before the Lord. Jesus also taught, however, a second principle and it was this: what the Father sees in secret, He rewards openly. Jesus linked fasting with benefit-and it was a benefit that would have outward, visible, tangible results.

Sensing the Holy Spirit's Call to Fast

The New Testament does not tell us that Jesus taught His followers to fast and pray during a certain season on the calendar or on a certain date every year. Jesus, however, kept the feasts and fast days of the Jews while He was on earth, and He certainly must have kept the fast day that the Jews called the Day of Atonement.

On that one day of the year-usually in September on our calendar-the Jews fasted, prayed, and sacrificed two animals to the Lord. One animal was a blood sacrifice, with the blood sprinkled on the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies so that God would roll back the sins of the Jews and not punish them. The other animal had hands laid upon it-signifying the transfer of the guilt of the people-and was sent away to die in the wilderness. God commanded this fast day and all the rituals associated with it (Lev. 16).

But Jesus became our Atonement sacrificed on the cross. It was His shed blood that became the blood sacrifice for our sins. He absorbed the guilt and shame associated with our sins. The Bible tells us that the sacrifice He made was "once for all" (Heb. 10:10). As a sign of this, the veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple was supernaturally divided into two pieces at the time Jesus died on the cross. There was no more need for the rituals associated with the Day of Atonement and the Passover Feast after Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.

So when is a Christian to fast? When the Holy Spirit prompts a Christian to fast! Nearly always, the Holy Spirit prompts a person to fast by giving him or her a sense that the time has come to quit living with a problem. Sometimes the problem has an element of sorrow to it-there's pain, grief, disappointment, or some form of emotional or physical distress. Jesus indicated His disciples would fast when the Bridegroom was no longer with them-certainly at that time, after walking so closely with the Lord, they would be sorrowful in spirit.

What I have seen in my years of ministry is that most people have sorrow in their lives. In fact, most people walking around today with smiles on their faces have hidden aches in their hearts. They have just learned to push them down and go on with their lives. They have learned to put on a smile and to say "Fine" when people ask them how they are. They have grown accustomed to tolerating a certain degree of sadness, disappointment, sorrow, pain, grief, and hurting in their lives.

God never called His people to a lifelong pattern of sorrow. Throughout the Bible we find that God called His people to experience joy and to be people who would speak joy into the world! We praise with joy. We encourage with joy. We teach with joy. We love with joy. We minister with joy so we can bring other people into the joy of the Lord. We are to be people of joy!

God's purpose for us is joy, and because He desires to produce joy in us, God moves toward us in a very direct way when He sees us weighed down, slowed down, or pressed down by sorrow. In order to draw us to a time of fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit often allows us to feel our sorrow in more acute ways.

The Increase of Sorrow

What is it that increases feelings of sorrow in our lives? A number of things produce sorrow in our hearts, but these four are among the most common:

1. Impending Doom

The danger might be actual, potential, or perceived. When the people of Moab and other neighboring tribes threatened Jehoshaphat, he called a fast (2 Chron. 20:3). Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast as a sign of penitence to avoid God's punishment (Jer. 36:9). In the days of Esther, the Jews in Shushan fasted when they heard of Haman's plot against them (Est. 4:3). The prophet Joel fasted when faced with a plague of locusts (Joel 1:14, 2:15). Ezra fasted as he prepared for what he perceived to be a dangerous journey to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:21).

2. Sin

Sin, and especially a habit of sin, grieves the Holy Spirit. The guilt we feel when we sin is an expression of grief as well. We know deep within our spirits that we have acted in a way that will bring God's chastisement, and we feel sorrow that our behavior will have negative consequences. Sin is conscious rebellion- it is doing what we know God commands us not to do-and rebellion always separates a person from God's blessings. To be separated from God in any way should bring sorrow to a person's heart!

3. Hurtful Habits

There are times when the Holy Spirit allows us to become acutely aware of ways in which we have unknowingly made mistakes. Sometimes these hurtful habits are related to food or other substances we have taken into our bodies-we have injured our health by what we have consumed and by the quantity we have consumed. At times the hurtful habits are emotional or mental-we have fallen into a pattern of responding to life in unhealthy ways.

4. Confusion

At times the Holy Spirit allows us to become acutely aware that we simply do not know our problem or know what to do in response to a specific situation. The situation we are facing may not be negative-it may be the dilemma of choosing between two options that appear to be equally good. It may be at the start of a new ministry-we simply don't know how to begin or where to turn for help. At times the problem is one related to a relationship. We don't understand the motives or behavior of another person who is close to us.

Certainly all of us sense danger at times. All of us sin, develop unhealthy habits, and are confused occasionally. Usually our first response is to cry out to God for help, forgiveness, courage, and/or wisdom to make necessary changes in our lives.

In crying out to God, we usually feel God's presence with us and we begin to trust God in a renewed way to help us face or overcome the danger, repent of the sin and make new godly choices in our lives, change our habits, or seek out the knowledge and understanding we need to do what God commands us to do. But . . . there are times when the heavens seem to be shut to us.

God's answers don't seem to come. We can't seem to find our way. We can't seem to exert enough willpower to do what we know we should do.

We can't seem to break the power of an addiction or to resolve the difficulties in a relationship.

We sense deep within that we need to do more to put ourselves in a position to hear from God and to experience the power and presence of God in our lives. It is in those times that the Holy Spirit very likely is calling us to pray and fast.

When Things Are Going Badly

One of the most unusual times of fasting is recorded in the book of Judges. This fast came at a time when things were going very badly for eleven of the tribes of Israel.

We are told in Judges 19-20 the story of a man who was supposed to have been a priest, although there is no indication that he was really a man of God. This was a time in the history of Israel in which "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judg. 17:6). People were doing their own thing, instead of doing God's thing.

This particular priest had a concubine who went to visit her father. She was away for four months. When the priest went to take her back to their home in Bethlehem, he stayed for several days with his concubine's father. The two men drank a great deal. Then the priest and his concubine started back to Bethlehem. They entered a town of the Benjaminites and had difficulty finding lodging. Finally a man invited them to stay the night. The Benjaminites were well known for their cruelty and immorality. The priest gave the men access to his concubine for the night. They abused her all night and then left her dead on the doorstep.

When the priest was ready to leave the following morning, he found his concubine dead. He cut her body into twelve pieces and sent one section of her body to each tribe of Israel. What a grisly and terrible story this is! I can't begin to imagine opening a package and finding a piece of someone's body in it. The priest sent a message with his bloody package: "This is what the Benjaminites have done to my concubine!" So the other tribes sent a message to the Benjaminites, saying, "Give us those men so we can punish them." The Benjaminites refused.

The eleven other tribes of Israel joined together to take on the Benjaminites. As an interesting fact, the Benjaminites had seven hundred left-handed men in their army and "every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss" (Judg. 20:16). The Benjaminites ended up winning two battles, one in which twenty-two thousand men were killed!

When I first studied this passage in the book of Judges I thought this seemed terribly unfair. I thought, God, the other tribes were right! Why did You let the Benjaminites win? The Bible does not give us a direct answer to that question, but the more I have studied this passage, the more I have concluded the reason may have been that the other eleven tribes of Israel had moved so far away from God that the powers of darkness had overwhelmed the nation. Those eleven tribes apparently were moving against Benjamin totally according to their own understanding of what was right. They had no reliance upon God and they had failed to seek God diligently before they went into this battle against one of their own. It was only when the "children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God" that the tide of war began to turn (Judg. 20:18).

When things are definitely not going our way-when they aren't moving in the direction of righteousness that we believe is in accordance with God's command-we need to find out why! In those times, we should never get together in groups and exchange ideas out of our human knowledge and understanding. We need to have God's opinion! If ever there is a good time for prayer and fasting, it is when we appear to be losing battles to the devil that we believe we should be winning according to God's promises and commandments.

Finally we read:

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand." (Judges 20:26-28)

Anytime things are going badly in your life . . . when you are faced with great pain, trouble, or difficulty . . . when you are in a decision-making crisis . . . when you don't know what to do . . . ask the Holy Spirit if He is leading you to a time of praying and fasting.

Need For a Time Set Apart

In addition to a growing inner sense of burden, heaviness, or sorrow, we often have a growing feeling that we need to make a break with the current way of doing things, and in turn, make a new start. This, too, is a way in which the Holy Spirit leads us to fast as we pray.

A period of fasting sends a signal to your own body, soul, and spirit that you are not conducting your life in a "business as usual" manner. You are declaring an intermission, of sorts, between the way things have been and the way you desire things to be. You are setting aside a period of time to devote yourself more intensely and fervently to the Lord in a sacrificial way. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that they were to present their bodies as a "living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1). In many ways, a time of fasting is a time of personal sacrifice. A sacrifice is something we give to the Lord completely-never to receive it back again. The food that you give up in a time of fasting is food that you will never eat. The time that you give up in praying is time that you will never experience again. The offering of your praise and thanksgiving to the Lord takes your intention, your energy, your effort-you are giving to the Lord the very essence of what makes you you. You are giving up to Him your identity, your life.

A time of fasting is a way of saying to the Lord, "If You do not act, Lord, to help me, I will perish. My life and my times are in Your hand."

Certainly when we are faced with danger, we often feel this way. Unless the Lord acts, we may very well lose our lives or a valuable aspect of our lives.

Certainly when we are confronting our own sin or unhealthy habits, we feel this way. Without God's help, we are on a slippery slope to our own demise. Unless we receive the Lord's assistance, we are likely to fall into a miry pit.

Certainly when we are confronting our own confusion, we feel this way. Without God's wisdom, we will not succeed. Our marriages will fail, our businesses will fail, our ministries will fail.

Fasting is moving away from the things of this world in order to draw closer to God, and in drawing closer to God, to receive from God the things we need most:

• A renewed sense of trust, and an increase of faith.

• Forgiveness and restoration.

• Health and wholeness.

• Wisdom and understanding.

A person who has those four things in his or her life-in abundance-is a person who has joy, not sorrow. A person who is trusting God, fully forgiven, healthy and vibrant, knowing where he is going with a direction and passion from the Lord to accomplish a mission: that is a person who experiences great confidence. Such a person feels a closeness to the Lord, a nearness of the Bridegroom that defies all logic or rationality. Outward circumstances may not be different, situations may not yet have changed, danger may still exist, but the person who walks in trust, faith, forgiveness, healing, and wisdom is a person who is eager to face whatever life may bring with a confidence that God can and will work all things to that person's good (Rom. 8:28).

An Expectancy That God Will Act

Part of the way we know that the Holy Spirit is leading us to a fast is a sense of mystery. Even though we might feel great sorrow and sense that we need to pull away from the world for a season, we nearly always have a sense that now is the time for us to fast and pray because God desires to do something very good in our lives! We have an expectancy that God is going to make Himself known in a very powerful and personal way.

The person who begins to fast and pray may feel fear about impending dangers, but he will also feel that God desires to show Himself strong in the situation and that God desires to deliver. The person who begins to fast and pray may feel great guilt or sorrow over sin, but he will also feel that God desires to forgive and to cleanse and to restore.

The person who begins to fast and pray may feel that he has become the victim of his own mistakes and errors in allowing certain habits to take root in his life, but he will also feel that God desires to free him from past habits and to guide and help him develop new habits that will lead to wholeness.

The person who begins to fast and pray may feel confused and even depressed in his confusion, but he will also feel hope that God is going to cause the confusion and depression to lift so the person can see with a renewed vision what God has planned for the future.

Read again what the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD; . . . and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

God has something wonderful for us. He has a breakthrough for our lives. He does not call us to fast and pray so that we can die, but so that we can experience a newness of life. He calls us to a time of fasting and prayer so that we might give up everything that keeps us from experiencing the abundant life He has for us. He calls us to fast and pray so that we can experience His peace and move into the future that He has already prepared for us-a future in which those things that have held us captive no longer do so! We will no longer be the victim of enemy assaults, sin's consequences, poor health, or dark confusion.

The Holy Spirit leads us to fast and pray so that we might transition from the way we have been living to a new and higher way of living.

Copyright © 2006 by Marilyn Hickey

About the Author

Marilyn Hickey, the founder and president of Marilyn Hickey Ministries, has been in full-time ministry for the past 30 years. Her outreach is international in scope via television, satellite, books, audio and videotapes, and conferences. Her ministry is also known for its worldwide program of Bible and food distribution, and for its fully accredited Bible college. Marilyn and her husband, Wallace, founded Orchard Road Christian Center 44 years ago and the church is considered one of Denver's largest. They are the parents of two grown children and make their home in Greenwood Village, Colorado.