More and more Protestants are discovering the benefits and power of spiritual fasting. While the practice is common among members of the Roman Catholic and other ecclesiastical clergy (specifically priests, nuns and monks) until recently not so many laypeople have fasted. But that’s changing.
The Bible mentions fasting frequently. Fasting was common in Biblical times and still is for many Jews and Christians. Two specific times of fasting are Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, for the Jews; and Lent, which is practiced for 40 days before the celebration of Resurrection Sunday for the Christian. And there are many more.
In this article, I am going to center on Christian fasting, as that is my personal experience, while recognizing that many of spiritual fasts for followers of Jesus Christ are rooted in Jewish traditions (remember, Jesus was a Jew).
First of all, let me define fasting. The Hebrew word for “fast” means “cover over the mouth.” The Greek word for “fast” means “to abstain from food.” So fasting is abstaining from food for a spiritual purpose (for more information about what fasting is and is not, see links below for “The Daniel Fast is ALWAYS a Spiritual Fast”).
Additionally, there are different types of fasts, including an absolute fast (no food, no beverages), a normal fast (no food) and a partial fast (abstaining from some specific foods and beverages or abstaining from food and/or beverages during certain hours). You can learn more about the types of fasts by reading the articles referenced at the end of this article, including “Types of Fasting”.
Perhaps one of the most powerful elements of Christian spiritual fasting is that the believer is setting aside a specific period of time to give extra focus toward God. This is a time of “consecration unto the Lord.” Consecration means “dedicated for a sacred purpose.” So when a believer decides to fast, the goal is to focus more attention on God for a specific purpose.
Fasting without a purpose is like setting out for a journey without a destination. Several accounts of fasting are included in the Bible, and all were attached to a purpose. In Daniel 10, the prophet was burdened because of a dream. Daniel “ate no precious foods or meat and drank no wine” for 21 days. After this partial fast, the angel of the Lord visited Daniel and told him of things to come.
The New Testament notes other accounts of fasting, including the one where church leaders in Antioch were seeking the Lord’s guidance with prayer and fasting. Acts 13:2, 3 reads, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”
When we fast and pray, we are “pressing into God.” We are increasing our focus for a specific purpose. The purpose may be a particular need for guidance, healing, financial breakthrough or the desire to draw closer to the Lord.
The discipline of fasting positions us. The believer is putting he or her body, soul and spirit on alert that they are setting aside a specific time to seek God and His wisdom. Fasting unto the Lord always points us to Jesus . . . to His desires for us . . . and to His ways.
The Bible says in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” When we set our hearts on desiring more of God in our lives, and position ourselves to seek Him with prayer and fasting, He says He will meet us.
This is the power and the great benefit of spiritual fasting!
ARTICLES REFERENCED IN THIS ARTICLE: The Daniel Fast is ALWAYS a Spiritual Fast and Types of Fasting.
Susan Gregory has been called “The Daniel Fast Expert” and teaches about spiritual fasting on The Daniel Fast Weblog which you can visit at http://DanielFast.wordpress.com
Tags: resurrection sunday, Religion Belief, nuns and monks, followers of jesus, types of fastsFiled under: Fasting
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RT
So, hebrew words are read backwords? From right to left?
Hey bub, Hitler was FAR from right wing. His party was called the National Socialist German Workers Party, key word socialist. He supported a big centralized government that took side with the common worker over the business man and after taking power nationalized many companies. Then, he silenced free speech, took away gun rights and was rumored to be a cross dresser. NONE of those things are right wing. Also, he hated Jews and Jesus was a Jew… Hitler was NO Christian
Don't let the bucket-crabs sway you. The decision to drop out of the corporo-mafia will give you a new meaning and spiritual purpose. I dropped out years ago, thought not by my own volition, but it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. When we face adversity, or self-initiated change of circumstance, we are forced to adapt to new terrain. This process strengthens your mental clarity and your total outlook. I envy you right now, you are embarking on a beautiful journey.
Islam is a man made religion of war in quest of world domination. It rejects the followers of Jesus, but pretends to praise Jesus. Islam has robbed from Jesus, all of Turkey, all of Northern Africa, and most of the Middle East. It has recently slaughtered a million Sudanese Christians. Muslims have over 1000 youtube videos attacking Christianity when all along, only Islam is man made, as ONLY Islam is based on war, hatred, violence, deception, and oppression.
30 Days to Resurrection Sunday. We will start a short daily devotional from now until then. 5-10 minutes is all…
"Saeb Erekat, the PLO’s chief negotiator, is quoted promising Israel “the biggest Yerushalayim in history” – using the Hebrew word for Jerusalem – as his team effectively surrendered Palestinian rights enshrined in international law….The concessions did not end there, however. The Palestinians agreed to land swaps to accommodate 70 per cent of the half a million Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to forgo the rights of all but a few thousand Palestinian refugees."
" if many types of people today feel linked to Rumi, it may be because in his lifetime he enjoyed unusually good relations with diverse groups. Born in or near .. in what is now Afghanistan — an area with Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish traditions — Rumi was familiar with all those religions and often friendly with their practitioners. After the death of his first wife, an Islamic woman, Rumi chose as his second wife a woman many people believed to be of Christian origin. And this second marriage took place, somewhat remarkably, at the time of the Crusades, when large portions of the Christian and Islamic worlds were preoccupied with conquering each other. The hagiographers tell us that there was no more beautiful tribute to Rumi’s universality than his funeral, a 40 day marathon of grieving attended by distraught, weeping Muslims, Christians, Jews, Greeks, Arabs and Persians."
Hanukkah sucks!! Jewish traditions Suck!!
Oppression has never bred innocence and just as they have the right to live lives unhampered because of their sexual orientation, gay people have the right to be corrupt, without it reflecting on their need for equality. It's the same for fighting all bigotry, we fight for the class of people, without
the need to believe they're any different in the gradations of human behavior.
root meaning of hebrew word for salvation is to become broad and spacious as opposed to being cramped and confined- Eugene Peterson
i always wondered why exactly the song is called “human behavior”, yet it centers around the bear suit character….A Very enchanting song and video nevertheless though!
Ass en all is a greek word 2 mean #arsenal
Hi Skippy,
Actually, the Bible does say that Daniel went without dairy in Daniel 1 when he ate only pulse (foods grown from seed) and drank only water.
Also, every place where the Bible uses the word fast, it means to restrict food for a spiritual purpose. So while going without television or some other time and attention consuming activity is a good choice to get closer to God, it isn't fasting as the Bible teaches.
Thanks for sharing your opinions and I hope the very best for you as you continue to grow in the love and knowledge of Christ.
14 yrs already..wow. what a day it was, blessed day of atonement to all
The Revelations of Jesus Christ – Nov 10,2010: Discussion and readings.Mormon | doctrine | theology | scripture …
RT rel=”nofollow” Jesus Christ—The Promised Messiah
The reason you never see the word “YHWH” in the Quran is because YHWH is a hebrew word, meaning God. Why would there be a hebrew word, in an ARABIC Quran?
This is incorrect – the hebrew word “hasatan” means the adversary, not dragon or any other crap. Jesus.
Going back on the Daniel Fast tomorrow with some of my brothers and sisters from 100!
The day of atonement is a high holy day! Christianity has all but faded away the true word of God! everyone should celebrate the feast days!
I remember one day on my way to work I was stopped at a light. I remember feeling this thing happen inside me & I had a “personal experience”. Or that I had seen God or something. I’d always been what you’d call a “Jesus freak” and my life plan was to go into service. Then, one day, I had a revelation. I realized how much hypocrisy, ignorance, outright lying and hatred there is in religion. It took my years to finally come to atheism. I tried everything! But reason won out & I’m very happy now.
WOW! Eric Cantor must be working towards NEXT Yom Kippur. #P2
Detox offers health benefits, purification: There are different types of fasts according to detox.org: juice, wa..
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I like how on the Gate is written the word Adonai, the Hebrew word for God. That was a nice touch by the creator of Fullmetal.
Rick Sanchez got fired for saying jews run the Media? How dare he do that during High Holy Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement"
Pope St Pius X begun new trend to reform catholic liturgy. And today we have Society of St Pius X who is fighting against reformed liturgy.
Michael, I made an edit so that my post was consistent with our doctrine, which is that part of what it means to keep sex sacred is to keep it between man and woman who are married. I don't mean to be insensitive or unkind, but that is the doctrine, and this post was meant to be built upon that doctrine. There are many other words that can describe what sex is. Sacred is just one of them, but I do believe that is an important one. Part of what makes this sacred is the potential and power to create. Infertility does not negate this sacred aspect in principle, but gay sex in no way can fulfill this sacred purpose of sexual relationships.
That said, howller, if you have found value with what has been said here, then that's a good thing, I suppose, even if I disagree with much of what you have said.
But comparing marital sexual intimacy to dogs copulating is exactly the kind of attitude that this post seeks to get off the table. Sex is NOT simply copulation.
jesus was a jew and these people are not JEWS black people in america is the real jews
From personal experience, only fats, and lots and lots of them, very sad to say.
The sad part is that there are some very spiritual people that go there and (again, personal experience) some have fixed their eyes on God, some other ones the pastor and some is mixed………………………
Sorry if I sounded against them (I am) but I can not erase the past or the experineces.
I just found your site while scoping out all the picky pants on ravelry. What a collection you've made! I saw your post from a few months ago about trying not to have your little one become engulfed with all the commercialism and marketing that is out there these days. One of the best books I've found (back when I read books – my little guy was born in March) was Buy Buy Baby by Susan Gregory Thomas. I highly recommend it, if you have a chance to sit down and read. Ellie is adorable, and your knitting is beautiful. Keep it up!
We can clearly see that in the three other uses of the Greek word petra (nominative singular; “petras” in 1 Cor. 10:4 is genitive singular) we find it referred to as a large immovable mass of rock in which a tomb is carved out (Matt. 27:60) and in reference to Christ (1 Cor. 10:4; 1 Pet. 2:8). Note that Peter himself in the last verse referred to petra as being Jesus! If Peter uses the word as a reference to Jesus, then shouldn't we?
Parakalo is from the Greek word PARAKALEO, which is the exact point I am making. Parakalo is not a different word than Parakaleo, but rather is the 1st person singular from it.
The difficulty is that Hebrew names are Hebrew words so sometimes it can be difficult to determine if it is referring to a name our a word. In the Masoretic text it is pretty clear that aviyad is a name as it is two nouns put together which is always a name, but in the DSS it is written as two words and could be names or nouns. In the DSS elgibor is written as one word meaning it is a name, but in the Masoretic text it is two words and could be names or words.
I have a few quistion's to the blacks who believe tehy are the real Jews. If you are the real Jews then where is your Torah? Where is your jewish traditions? Why do jews have it & you don't? & why would anyone else want to be a nation that is always going through suffereings?
This movie is a “hollywood” style look at the life of Jesus Christ. Some of the story is told according to how the writer of this movie, saw things. He felt sorry for Judas Iscariot and placed him in the role of victim, while making Jesus seem like a egotistical, weak man. In actual fact, Jesus came first to the Earth to reconcile the Jews to his Father but eventually he had to tell them that they would eventually be discarded by his Father because of their badness.
Susan Gregory later moved to KGO-tv with Pete Wilson in 1984.
Study after study has shown that users are the weak link when it comes to security. Some of it, however, is not their fault: best security practices often go against everything we know about human behavior or mental capacity. A study that will be published in the Journal of Consumer Research adds another one to this list. It turns out that the warning signs that might tip users off to a web site that’s more likely to compromise their personal information actually causes many users to treat said information casually. The authors approached the issue with a simple question: what motivates people to reveal personal information on the Internet? Understanding the phenomenon could go a long way towards explaining everything from blogging to phishing victims, but the authors chose to focus specifically on whether people would hand over embarrassing personal information, including sexual habits and illegal acts. After several rounds of tests, they conclude, "A central finding of all four…
“Thanks for the review–I’ll need to read this volume. Figuring out the devotional/personal religious views of ANE peoples is a tough task indeed.”
There are less arduous roads. Hoffner has a nice chapter on the Royal Cult at Hatti in Text, Artifact, and Religion (SBL Press).
“religious texts serve as aids for the ritual bureaucracy in ways”–”the Day of Atonement” text sounds pretty egalitarian. Plus there were several copies.
Homemade Electricity – My Personal Experience With Free Energy! Part 1
I believe there is a difference between Christian fasting and Muslim fasting (although I'm not sure of the specifics at the moment, except it would be done to and for one's relationship with Jesus). That said, I would not say it is “inappropriate to fast alongside Muslims” as long as a Christian is doing a Christian fast. At the same time, I do not think a Christian fast shows “solidarity with Muslims” either (only the author knows what 'solidarity' means here). I'm okay with fasting during the period of Ramadan, but done to Jesus and for relationship with Him.
I'm interested in the comments here about the xmltv not being that great, as the feedback I've heard from from other HTPC afficionados is that the xmlTVNZ thingy by Reven Interactive does the trick. No personal experience myself, so I'm interested in any potential causes of hairloss for when I do finally get into this stuff.
That's too bad. Jason was one of my favorites. I gladly wake up early on to listen to Resurrection Sunday.
During Elul one gets ready for the upcoming Days of Judgement (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) with a three-pronged approach: Teshuva; repenting. Improving ones Mitzva observance Tefilla; praying. Asking Hashem for help and praising and thanking Him for being good to us. Tzedaka; giving charity to those less fortunate than ourselves. Read More »
Fact: The word "comet" comes from the Greek word "kometes" meaning long hair and referring to the tail. jokes facts