The purpose of fasting

God is Spirit and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. We are flesh and we have soul and spirit. Our soul (mind) and flesh dominates most of the time. Fasting weakens our flesh and allows our spirit(conscience) to “surface”.

When we first invite Jesus into our lives and repent of sin, the Holy Spirit cleans our heart, (conscience) and makes us new. The Holy Spirit then also lives in us, with our spirit. God made us to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. We get involved with the cares of life and chase after the desires of the flesh, ignoring the soft voice of the Holy Spirit, who together with our conscience warns us and wishes to guide us into the will of God.

Fasting is a good way to deprive the flesh and focus on the spirit together with the Holy Spirit in us. As the body weakens through the fast, the spirit becomes stronger and we “hear” the voice of the spirit louder and clearer.

The objective of fasting is to get closer to Jesus. Jesus is always close to us but we are not tuned in. We ignore His Holy Spirit in us. So we need to deprive the flesh and force ourselves to focus on Jesus. A fast is useful for spiritual awakening and restoration.

Fasting without praying is a waste of time. You need to remove other distractions as well. The things that please the flesh must be put aside for the duration of the fast. No TV, no food, no reading, avoid friends and other distractions. Spend time praying. Your spirit must come alive as your flesh weakens. You can drink some water, but not too much, just to keep the fluid levels up.

Take time to pray. Spend time being quiet with Jesus. There are certain levels of isolation. It is sometimes not possible to eliminate all normal activities. You can go about necessary chores, looking after the family etc. The important thing is to remember, you are fasting to get closer to Jesus. If you don’t pray and spend time with Him you are wasting your time.

Fasting is a time to examine yourself and draw closer to Jesus. Ask Him to reveal to you wrong things, hindrances in your life. Repent of those things. Write the things down that come to mind when you pray and make sure to fix it up. You will find that your spirit (conscience) becomes “alive” and the Spirit of God speaks to you, that soft inner voice. Take note of everything, take it seriously, seek God with all your heart. Draw closer to him and He will draw closer to you.