While Fasting...

I heard a man of God say in one of his messages that “Fasting is not one of our Spiritual gifts" (you'd also agree with him) because it's not an easy task. Fasting takes discipline, consciousness and focus. There's been cases of forgetting you're fasting when you're cooking, and you decide to taste your food; boom! Your initiative is opened that you were supposed to be fasting but you just broke your fast. Then you bite your lower lip in regret, and then you go ahead and eat (you've already broken the fast... So what's the need?)

There are things you need to steer clear off while fasting. You know the reason you're fasting. You know why you're seeking the face of God by staying away from food and water. Doing some of the below listed does not nullify your fasting, but it does reduce the efficiency. You're supposed to be usually on a high frequency as a believer. Your antenna should be able to accurately trap the frequency from the realm of the Spirit! If this usual for a believer, then you decide to add the spice of fasting, you just happen to tune your frequency to a higher degree, and turn your antenna to trap things with the speed of light! In light of this, I believe fasting should be treated as sacred and engaged in with all consciousness.

I heard someone say once that “fasting doesn't help God. It helps you." God isn't in need of your fast, but you do need it to get access to certain things. 

Jesus fasted, but He didn't fast for His disciples, neither did He fast for you. He fasted to lay hold of certain things as touching what He came to do on earth (there's been some funny doctrines in the body of Christ that we do not need to fast again because Jesus already fasted for us. I'll like to know the scripture and verse that can back this up in the Bible)

 Matthew 17:20-21

“[20] And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 

[21] Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (KJV)

Mark 9:28-29

“[28] And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

[29] And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (KJV)

Nah wetin Jesus talk be this. On both occasions, He talked about the implications of prayer and fasting. He didn't say He fasted his initial 40 days and night fasting for us. Imagine if He wanted to fast for all of us (very funny), would it be just 40 days?? Una no go kill am?? He came as human o, as much as He was God. He could feel pain, feel parched, and experience the pangs of hunger. He fasted His own for what He was sent to earth for. You too, fast your own. 

Another person said, when you're fasting and you say you're hungry, you've broken your fast (I don't know about that one o). Well, I used to believe it then, until I realized I'm human, and it's normal to feel hunger pangs even while fasting. It doesn't reduce your spirituality, and it definitely doesn't break my fast!

Below is a list of some habits you should do away with while you're fasting (I don't want to call them bad habits, because they're not necessarily bad, but they're unnecessary when you're fasting, and most likely reduce the potency of your fast). Come with me...

1. Pressing of phone: I don't know what I have against this pressing phone of a thing, but I'll try finding out one day. I didn't say you shouldn't handle your phone for use while fasting but say you're supposed to break your fast around 2 or 5pm, and you spent about 4 hours of that time on social media. It's not that your work is on social media... But you're shuffling Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, TikTok etc... Reading memes, or checking the news or something else that's most likely irrelevant; and you're fasting o. Then you spend less than an hour praying and studying. Comrade, I'm here to gladly tell you, in case you're on this table that you've been embarking on hunger strike. 

Hunger strike is the art of not eating because of one reason or the other. I mean, how can you claim to be seeking God's face while being away from food, but you clinged to your phone, instead of the Word of God, and fellowship with Him?? If you spent ample time in the place of prayer, and the study of the Word, you yourself would know that you gained momentum in the Spirit. 

2. Watching a movie: men of the Spirit, hmmm... I'm talking about circular movies now, and I'm still going to get to Christian movies (Yes. I'm going there). Man of God, woman of the spirit, you watched a 2 hour circular movie, or even graduated to watching a seasonal movie all through your fasting day/time. You now spent five minutes to pray and then break your fast; I'm not happy to tell you this but I still have to tell you that you just punished yourself. If it was hunger strike, it would have been better. Yours is a punishment. You'd have just picked up a snack and a soft drink or yoghurt as you made your bed or your room into a cinema while fasting. If you cannot be fasting and go to a cinema to watch a movie, why do you do it at home?? It's all the same thing, in case you don't know. 

Then, my overly spiritual brethren who hides under the disguise of “I'm watching a Mount Zion movie, or a Christian movie," hmmm... There are two ways to this. If you're planning on getting something out of the movie, like there's a deep message in the movie you want to watch; so you fast to watch so you can pray afterwards. However, in the case of watching the movie just to wile away time, you've embarked upon a day without food. It's not necessarily fasting. 

3. Sleeping away the time: I don't have much to say to you if you're in this category. Out of 8 hours of fasting, you slept for 5 hours... Did other stuff for 2 and half hour and then used the small time remaining to pray and study the scripture. You're in the group of hunger strike, and punishment. You for just chop and sleep so you can enjoy the sleep (you should have eaten and slept so your sleep can be sweeter). 

It's not like you have the gift of dreams o, so we'll say you are sleeping so you can download some stuff from the realm of the Spirit; but you are sleeping so time can go. Bro, Sis, just rise from that bed and eat. Be like what God told Elijah, “Rise and eat for the journey is far." Just in your own case, it's “rise and eat so you stop punishing yourself." 

4. Not studying the Bible and praying less: there's definitely not a time frame for praying or studying the scripture, but 1 These 5:17 tells us, “Pray without ceasing." Praying without ceasing is definitely not a 5 minutes or a 30 minutes prayer. It's a “round the clock kind of prayer." After your usual devotion of maybe an hour in the morning, as you go about your daily activities, at intervals, you should be able to pray to your Father. He is not time limited or space conscious... He is omnipresent and omniscient. 

If this is usual for a believer, then I believe the energy should double during fasting. The Bible reading should double as well during fasting. 

You might say you fasted to pray and not to study the Bible, but is it possible for you to breathe in without breathing out?? Both are intertwined. None is more important than the other. Both are paramount to your Spiritual growth. 

In the scriptures quoted above, Jesus talked about Prayer and fasting; meaning you should be praying as you're fasting. Not fast and not pray. Prayer came first for a reason. It is more understandable to pray without fasting, than fast without praying. As earlier stated, fasting just happens to spice things up for you in the Spirit. 

Don't punish yourself by going on a fast and not performing tasks that'd aid the reason for the fasting. Don't engage in hunger strike and call it fasting. If you cannot discipline yourself and stay with God in your fasting period, just go ahead and eat. 

 

You should know that while fasting, you should feed your spirit man, not your body. While fasting, you're starving your body to feed your Spirit. You should do it effectively and consciously, and not end up feeding your body while starving your spirit man...