Thread: Do you ever fast?

I remember Kenneth Copeland saying once that if you are 'thinking about fasting you are about to eat the biggest meal of your life'....maybe we work too hard at the concept rather than just following the Spirit into the wilderness....so to speak...

Originally Posted by Nikos

Many fast when they should just call it for what it is to them: a DIET!

I consider a fast a spiritual venture. God as shown me many things and given direction while fasting. It helps us to rise up to a higher level spiritually. It resets our priorities among other things.

I remember my mother saying that when she fasted for spiritual reasons, she did not lose weight.

Originally Posted by fuego

That's typical. I'm the same way. Last night I hardly got any sleep at all. In heavy ketosis from fasting is one reason. But sleeplessness is a common side effect of fasting. Well at least total fasting, just water, once you get past a day or two.

Could the sleeplessness be a good thing? Our body naturally waking us up being an intended consequence of the Spirit?

Thinking of military training how one's training and focus stimulate the brain in a positive and focused way...

I have a friend who has a high metabolism...naturally grazes all day and sleeps no more than 5 hours a night and is always sharp....rather than this just being who she is, maybe it is who she has become?

I run fast

Originally Posted by krystian

I do 'intermittent fasting' a time or two a week but that isn't a true no food fast because I can have up to 400 low carb calories. However I do do a true one day no food fast a few times a year...actually it would be a 36 hour fast since you stop eating at night, skip a whole day and then break the fast the next day.

Much respect to those who have fasted for a few days and especially to those who did it for a few weeks...does it get easier the more you get into it, how do you feel physically during it?

Well, sometimes you feel ok, sometimes you don't. lol.

The 'feeling' I get from fasting wares on me after a while. That's why it gets so difficult sometimes. Of course you're weak. It does get easier in some respects I guess. But it's just that 'feeling'. Hard to take for me.

One thing also is that ketosis kicks in and that curbs your hunger. I can't really say I've been been truly hungry on a fast, but your appetite really does want to eat. One time I was on a lengthy fast and on the 16th day I was sitting in the recliner wanting a cheeseburger really bad. lol. But I wasn't even hungry. and I said to myself, 'why do I want to eat so much when I'm not even hungry?' And the Holy Spirit said to me without missing a beat, "The emotions are the strength of the flesh." That's when I understood the emotional element of addiction. It's not just a body thing, it's an emotions thing. The emotional part is really the hardest to break. Our emotional attachment to food. When the Bible speaks of the 'flesh' as opposed to body, it's really talking about the emotions ties. That's why strongholds are of the mind. It's an emotional thing more than it is a physical thing.

That's why when Paul talks about the works of the flesh, he mentions things like envy, etc. Envy isn't a physical thing. You don't envy with your big toe or any other body part. It's an emotion. Fasting deals with emotional strongholds, especially against food than any other thing you can do. That's why it's so powerful. You really find out how strong your emotional ties are and how much your 'flesh' has a hold of you when you try to fast with water only. That's why most don't do it. And those that do don't for any length of time for the most part.

Fasting from food may help with observing a connection between the flesh and some types of emotions but the hold the flesh has in the heart in terms of inclinations, attitudes, ways of thinking, it being in control of one's priorities, reactions, talk, walk etc is broader and deeper. The Spirit searches all things and fasting from food may function as a tool for that. Walking in faith during all circumstances including persecution is an other one, the Spirit will illuminate and correct things during that walk.

Originally Posted by Ezekiel 33

It is hard to fast if you have a lot of physical work to do, because your body is weaker.

Or walk around all day like Torben did.

Most fasts are just dieting. They are not a part of one's desire to get close to God.

Originally Posted by Colonel

My body doesn't respond well to that and I lose sleep. It's more a spiritual/mental attitude for me...

Originally Posted by Colonel

...A fast can also be from various activities or lifestyles. Most fundamentally it's a fast from the works of the flesh, to where the works of the Spirit prevail instead. It can include giving of one's time or money. Serving God in the Spirit at all times qualifies as a fast from the works of the flesh at all times. Submitting to God instead of to the desires of the flesh is a form of fasting.

Originally Posted by Colonel

...It's related to the fellowship of His sufferings. He did fast from food for forty days before his ministry began but that hardly qualifies as the bulk of his sufferings. We are however called to take up and carry our cross and follow him, thereby parttaking in his shame and humiliation as he walked to Calvary. Our lives, when lived in Him before the world, qualify as crucifying the flesh and parttaking in his sufferings, and therefore as a form of fasting.

Originally Posted by Colonel

...It can mean forsaking the honor and glory and fellowship that this world welcomes one to for the sake of having the life of Christ live through one instead. Dead to the world, alive to God in Christ. The deepest possible form of fasting.

Originally Posted by Colonel

Living life as if one belongs to Christ by purchase is a continual fast.

Originally Posted by Colonel

...Fasting from food may help with observing a connection between the flesh and some types of emotions but the hold the flesh has in the heart in terms of inclinations, attitudes, ways of thinking, it being in control of one's priorities, reactions, talk, walk etc is broader and deeper. The Spirit searches all things and fasting from food may function as a tool for that. Walking in faith during all circumstances including persecution is an other one, the Spirit will illuminate and correct things during that walk.

Umm Colonel...per my opening post, this thread is specifically about fasting from food yet in every one of your posts here so far you have been diverting from that and advocating types of spiritual fasting instead.

Methinks thou doth protest too much...crucify that flesh!