How To Fast (part 1) by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Should We Even Be Fasting?

Jesus has done everything. So does he expect us to fast, or are we just starving ourselves for nothing? Is fasting a New Testament thing or an Old Testament thing?

2 Corinthians 3:12-16

Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, we use great boldness of speech. To this day, when the Old Testament is read, a veil remains, because it is taken away only in Christ. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The problem was never what Moses wrote, the problem was the veil.

Old covenant is reading the Bible with the mentality of what I will do to make God pleased with me, what seed I'll give so God will bless me, how hard I'll fast so God will pity me. New covenant is my approach to God based on what Christ has already done for me.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, and we, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image, by the Spirit, not by our fasting, not by our begging.

Why We Fast

We are not fasting from a "give me, give me, pity me" mentality. We are fasting to quiet the noise, to increase our sensitivity, and to align with what God is already doing.

Nobody ever fasted and begged their earthly father to pay their school fees. God is a good father too, but you can't walk up to him and hand him a bill, because he doesn't spend money, he's in heaven. What God gives is his word. Whatever your need, financial, healing, anything, God meets it by his word, the way he sent his word and healed their disease. So I fast to receive what he has provided, not to get him to provide.

How Fasting Works

Matthew 4:4

Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Fasting is not starving, it is feeding, you're eating the word instead of food.

If you're trusting God for school fees and fasting, you're not begging your uncles for money. You're reading scripture and letting a word be quickened to you, maybe "the Lord shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory." As you hold that word, the Spirit may nudge you to send a simple thank you message to someone, not a request. That person responds, and offers to help, not because you asked them, but because God sent his word first and moved them.

We Fast for Alignment, Not for Requests

This week we're praying for alignment and clarity, not asking for things. If you're Abraham, you don't pick your own destination, you go out not knowing where you're going.

Ephesians 3:20

He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. The highest imagination you have for yourself is only the starting point of what God has for you. Joseph woke up a prisoner and by that evening was made prime minister. Peter was looking for fish, God made him a fisher of men. Saul was looking for a lost donkey, God was looking for a king.

Matthew 4:18-22

When Jesus came out of his forty day fast, the first thing he did was go straight to Peter, to James and John, to Levi, and to Judas. He knew exactly who he needed. That's clarity. That's what fasting for alignment produces.

Fasting Is Not Begging

Romans 4:1-3

Abraham did not earn God's approval by what he did. He entered into what God was already doing for him, and trusted God to set him right instead of doing it on his own terms.

God is not reacting to our fasting, he already has a solution prepared. What we call answer to prayer is identifying the solution God has already set in place. When a door closes, God already has the open door prepared, we're only asking him to show us where it is.

Matthew 6:24-33

You cannot serve two masters. Don't be preoccupied with getting, so you're free to respond to what God is already giving. Consider the birds and the wild flowers, God clothes and feeds them without their striving. Seek first the kingdom, and everything else is added.

Two people trusting God, one for a job, one for a life partner, aren't random when God is working. He can place the very job that answers one person's prayer in the same city as the very person who answers the other's. That isn't delay, it's an open door being prepared in one move that answers more than one prayer.

Fasting Makes You Hear for Yourself

We're fasting so we can hear from God directly, not depend on someone else declaring something over us. Only God should tell you what to do. People can guide you or confirm what God has already told you, but if anyone starts telling you what to do outright, that's control and manipulation. What God wants to do in your life is custom made to you, the way Samson's power was in his hair and not in a rod like Moses. So you're not fasting for somebody else's prophetic declaration over you, you're fasting to hear from God and to obey it yourself.