Throughout this week, we have been preparing and sensitizing ourselves towards the fasting period. We’ve learned that fasting ought to remind us that our lives are meant to be in devotion to God. We’ve also learned about being intentional in our fasting and discussed steps to maximize your fast.

 

Now that we’ve learned all these, we want to talk about some of what fasting ought to produce in you. Fasting is not a random ritual or practice that we do just because we’re supposed to; there are expected results we ought to see from a season of fasting, and there are benefits of fasting. Some of such include:

 

The Bible says that they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. This says that youths shall faint and be weary, the young shall fall; that is the people that are expected to have the most strength by natural means they will still fall, their strength can still fail.

 

To a natural man, he would expect waiting on the Lord would make you weak, would leave you tired and weary, but scripture says when you wait on the Lord, your strength is renewed. 

 

There is a kind of strength that is still in force when everybody depending on natural means is failing. That is when hardships, the state of the country or the stress of work has drained your strength reserves, you can be replenished again!  

 

When people look at you, they see possibilities beyond the natural realm. Because in natural science humans don’t fly but he says you can soar on eagle wings!

 

Maybe you’ve been having a hard time with achieving the plans of God, maybe you’ve tried and failed too many times, maybe you’re tired, maybe your knees are feeble. But the Lord is saying today that you can be strengthened to go again. 

 

1 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

 

2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

 

3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

 

The Bible says that as they ministered to the Lord and Fasted, they heard the spirit of the Lord give them clear instructions. 

 

Now, the Bible does not say that they set out to receive an instruction from the Lord and so they prayed and fasted. No, they were just worshiping. They were ministering to God in prayer and fasting. And while they were doing that, God spoke to them. 

 

Many times, when you have set aside every distraction and put laser focus on the Lord in the place of devotion, in fasting and prayer, divine instructions would come to you effortlessly. How about you focus on the person of God and not necessarily on the instruction you want.

 

They “ministered to the Lord,” and to minister is to attend to the needs of another. So, “they ministered” meant that they attended to the needs of the Lord—they waited on the Lord!  The same way a waiter would wait on a person to know what they need and attend to that need; they waited on God so they can attend to his needs.

 

And the outcome of that was clear instruction, clear leading. When you fast, your sensitivity to the voice of God can be heightened like never before! 

 

This is why, before you take any major move in God or before embarking on any form of assignment in God, going on a fast would be extremely helpful.

 

Jesus fasted and prayed before starting his ministry; the apostles fasted when appointing elders in the church.

 

Fasting is about denying flesh and feeding the spirit. It’s about subduing and starving the flesh of its desires and fortifying the spirit. You’re reminding the flesh that you have control over it.

 

 

This is how we will mortify the deeds of the flesh; by starving it. In this we are able to consecrate ourselves better, align our hearts better and heighten our senses more to the supernatural. 

 

 

 

When you fast, it helps in overcoming temptations. Your fleshly lusts can no longer lure you into sin because it has been mortified, it has been starved to death. If you find that you’re struggling with a particular habit or you’re falling into sins that you ought to have grown out of, go on a fast and remind your flesh that it doesn’t control you, you can subdue it, you can train it into obedience.

 

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27 

 

He can discipline his body and bring it into subjection. You can put your body under subjection, you don’t have to obey its lusts, the desires of the flesh are not irresistible, you can live above them and fasting would help you get there.

 

These and much more you can expect when you fast the right way. In this time, when you separate yourself onto God and wait on him, you can expect to soar on eagles wings, to leave the fast better than you came, expect to be strengthened even in your faith, to increase in intimacy with God, to hear the voice of the Lord like never before. 

 

Heavenly Father, let it show that indeed I separated myself onto you, none of the benefits of fasting would be lost on me. I will embody what it means to be a man consecrated onto the Lord.