Fast And Pray

One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.”

Acts 13:2

To hear God’s present voice, we have to clear the clutter from our hearts and get the acoustics right. We want to hear his voice without distortion.

Keeping our lives clear of clutter is an ongoing task. Like keeping a house clean, it requires daily diligence. Fasting is one of the elements of a praying life that helps keep our hearts uncluttered. Notice that worship and fasting go together. One enhances and empowers the other.

Fasting is not a way to influence, impress, or manipulate God. Fasting does not prove anything to God. He knows your heart better than you do (see John 2:25; Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 33:15). Nor is fasting or a hunger strike designed to persuade God to release what he has, up to now, withheld. Instead, fasting is a way to let go of what binds you to this physical world—food—in order to receive your sustenance from the spiritual world.

When you fast, you determine that for a period of time you will deny your physical cravings to focus on your spiritual cravings. You allow your spiritual hunger to become stronger and more focused, and you feed your spirit with the same enthusiasm with which you would feed your physical body. Spiritual hunger takes priority over physical hunger. Ole Hallesby says, “Fasting loosens the ties which bind us to this world of material things and our surroundings that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal.”

Fasting is not a last-ditch effort to get through to God. Instead, it sharpens your spiritual senses so that God can get through to you. It will sensitize you to the things of the spiritual realm so that you will be more aware of God’s presence and his present-tense voice.

Father, cause me to desire you and seek after your voice above all else. I treasure your words more than daily food.

Faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong. Prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development.

Andrew Murray(1828–1917), South African pastor and author