Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads (Nehemiah 9:1NIV).

The restorative process will not be maintained if the individual being restored is inactive. There must be a plan which needs to be executed. The people of Israel separated themselves from those who did not share their faith and came before the Lord with fasting, prayer and confession.

Fasting is a spiritual discipline which is easily abused. Many religious people recognise the need for fasting, prayer and a time to rejuvenate the spirit.  But sadly many neglect this discipline and others carry it out as a religious duty. Isaiah gives us an insight into the type of fast that we should embark on.

Fasting is setting aside a time when you refrain from eating your regular food and drinking your regular drinks. It is a time of separation to the Lord. There are many types of fasts: there is the Daniel fast, where you eat only fruit and vegetables for 21 days and pray for wisdom and revelation. Then there is the ‘Esther fast’ where you neither eat nor drink for three days to avert impending destruction, this is a dry fast and so on.

The purpose of any fast is to petition God so that his will be done. Many biblical characters fasted as a matter of course. Jesus would set aside regular times for fasting and prayer away from his disciples. Before he started his ministry, he fasted for 40 days and nights (Matt 4:1-2) so that he could resist temptation from the devil and perform the miraculous works of God.

Indeed Jesus told his disciples that certain kinds of demonic oppression and possession would not leave an individual unless there is prayer and fasting to dislodge them (Matt 17:21). This is an important tool in the armoury of the believer in Jesus and needs to be used as often as possible. John Wesley the founder of Methodism said that all his ministers should fast at least twice per week! He fasted every Wednesday and Friday. I wonder how many are still doing this.

Today pray and confess your faults, but plan a time for fasting so that God can reveal his secrets to you.

 Read Isaiah 58.