Ministering: Tobi Thompson

Topic: Fasting

Date: 1st January 2024

Good evening people of God, happy New Year 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Father, we thank You for strength, for grace, for wisdom. Thank You for 2024 is already settled for us, by Your Spirit we see, by Your Spirit we possess our inheritance. In Jesus name. Amenn

We begin our fast in the next 3 days and I’ve chosen to do a short exhortation on fasting, and to let us ask questions regarding same.

Also, this will encourage you to partake diligently in the fast.

So, let’s begin……

Fasting is one of the essentials of the Christian faith, “essential” means that it’s a necessary exercise that should be done from time to time. It’s interesting that it is more of a SPIRITUAL exercise than a religious one, meaning that the reason for fasting is for CONCENTRATED DEVOTION TO THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

To say one is fasting and using all the time to sleep or get involved in more fleshly duties is just vibes and cruising around. Fasting is much more than that. It is a stirring of your spirit man unto greater manifestation of the things of the Spirit, a sharpening of your spiritual faculties and even better, the feeding of your soul with the implanted word of God in your spirit.

Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians, talked about how the flesh is enmity against the spirit. We can imply that to also mean that as we sojourn and live out God’s plan on the earth, we would be faced with things that can be distractions.

E.g. many are so busy with building a career path/business they barely have time for God, in fact many are even busy with ministry yet barely have time for God. It seems so strange right? But yet it’s a very strong possibility.

There are so many examples out there but the solution to all this is FASTING… which we have defined to be a concentrated devotion to the things of God.

Fasting is denying the flesh of its desires e.g. for someone who eats too much, fast from food.

For someone who is addicted to pressing phone, fast from phone.

For someone who is always jumping from relationships to relationships, fast from relationships!

FASTING IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT FOOD.

You know the very thing distracting you from growing in the things of God and you must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, put it under!!

Don’t make excuses that God understands, you must grow!!!! Don’t let the flesh stop you from possessing all God has planned for you.

Fasting is also a DAILY affair 😃, (which kind wahala be this one again Abi??) but let’s look at Scripture.

Isaiah 58 (NLT)

True and False Worship

58 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
    Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
²    Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple everyday
    and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
    that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
    pretending they want to be near me.
³ ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
    ‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
    and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.
    “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
⁴ What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
⁵ You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

⁶ “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
    lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
    and remove the chains that bind people.
⁷Share your food with the hungry,
    and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
    and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

⁸ “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
⁹ Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
    Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
¹⁰ Feed the hungry,
    and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
    and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually,
    giving you water when you are dry
    and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like an ever-flowing spring.
¹² Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
    Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
    and a restorer of homes.

¹³ “Keep the Sabbath day holy.
    Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
    and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
    and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
¹⁴ Then the Lord will be your delight.
    I will give you great honor
and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!”

For some of us, we are juggernauts in the Scripture and in prayer but babies in loving people. In this season of fasting, stop that wickedness! Let it die even as we fast.

Let your heart be more willing to heal the sick, to love people as Jesus loves you, to feed the hungry, be helpful etc.

This is the year of exponential wealth, and we must give no room to any distraction in the name of Jesus.

Alright, I want questions…. we have the next 13mins to ask… on fasting.

Question 1: Is sex allowed during fasting? I’m asking for those in marriage.

Answer:

1 Corinthians 7:1-6 (NLT)

Instruction on Marriage

7 Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations. ² But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.

³ The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. ⁴ The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

⁵ Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ I say this as a concession, not as a command.

I’ll place emphasis on, do not deprive each other of sexual relationships UNLESS YOU BOTH AGREE………SO, YOU CAN GIVE YOURSELVES MORE COMPLETELY TO PRAYER. Let’s see what other translations say.

1 Corinthians 7:5 KJV
[5] Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

Question 2: How can you fast effectively while you got a physically demanding job?

Answer:

If your job is physically demanding…. please eat LIGHT and drink water but ensure you are fully concentrated on spiritual things by having times where you pray and read the word. I’ll recommend just fruits or vegetables.
Thank you 😊