Fasting

45. Fasting

You might be wondering why something like fasting be in my 2008 lists of reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this lifetime. Well, let me give you a rundown why. I was encouraged to fast by Bo Sanchez in one of his preaching in The Feast.  I am not doing a 40-day fast by the way because I can't since I was working in a call center on the first few days of Lent and it would not be healthy if I fast then work in the evening. I might have fainted or something if I did the 40-day fasting.

Here are the benefits of fasting (these are taken from Bo's booklet about 40 days of prayer and fasting):

1. Prayer and Fasting Brings You Closer to God.

When you fast, you’re telling God that He’s more important than food.

So instead of eating, you spend it in prayer, reading Scripture, writing your journal, before the Blessed Sacrament, reading Spiritual books…

It declares that you’re dead serious about pursuing Him because you’re crazy enough to say No to something as basic as food.

If you can say No to a very basic need, what else can you not do for the Lord?

You also gain discipline—something crucial for any kind of success in the world.

2. Prayer and Fasting Unite You with the Poor

Every time you fast, you  remind yourself that this is the daily experience of 12% of the world’s population. Not because they’re fasting. But because they’re poor.

740 million people will sleep tonight hungry.

And out of those 740 hungry people, 30,000 will die of starvation. 

Half of those 30,000 will be children.

Fasting shouldn’t just make us more spiritual.

Fasting shouldn’t just open me up for more blessings and miracles.

Fasting should also move us to love the poor in a more passionate way.

3. Prayer and Fasting Opens You to God’s Power

When you pray and fast, you’re inhaling a greater amount of God’s power into your life!

Fasting isn’t a bribe. “Lord, I’m fasting, so you better give me what I’m asking for!”  That’s not how it works.

When you fast, God doesn’t change. You do.

You become more expectant, more open, more sensitive, more attentive.

So when you fast, you can pray for something specific in your life.

·       wisdom for an important decision you need to make;

·       freedom from a particular bondage;

·       physical healing;

·       family restoration;

·       financial blessing;

·       any miracle that you need!

4. Prayer and Fasting Cleanse Your Body

One way of caring for it is by fasting.

By relieving the body from the hard work of digestion, it focuses its energies on getting rid of the toxins we’ve piled up in our system from all the wrong food we’ve eaten. All the junk, the chemicals, the stuff that shouldn’t be in our body in the first place. These toxins weaken our immune system and make us more susceptible to disease.

Your body, after three days of fasting, will also burn up and decompose diseased, damaged cells in your body. What a beautiful way to purge the bad!

If you fast, you’ll do some “house cleaning” for your own body, removing the toxins and diseased cells naturally—while blessing your soul at the same time.

(Now you have an idea why I feel healthier than ever before. ü)

5. Prayer and Fasting Empower Our Ministry

(As you all know, the church that I am regularly attending now every Sunday is The Feast with Bo Sanchez and this is what Bo Sanchez has to say about the fasting that we are taking)

In the Bible, people fasted before they started their ministry or before a big change in their ministry. Moses did it. Elijah did it. Daniel did it. Esther did it. And Jesus did it.

So fasting will release God’s power in our ministry.

Because we need God’s anointing for the many things we’re doing. To name a four prayer intentions:

1.    We’re growing our Central FEAST to three and four sessions

2.    We’re planting weekly Local FEASTs all over the world;

3.    We’re using more radio, television, and the Internet to share God’s love;

4.    We’re expanding KerygmaFamily.com;

5.    We’re aiming to raise more funds so that we can use 50% for evangelism and 50% for our ministries to the poor.

The five blessing above that you read is the reason why I am doing a fast this Lent (this is my first time by the way to fast). I did a juice fast for the past six Fridays since the start of Lent and I will be on my final stage this Holy Week where I will do again a juice fast from Holy Monday to Black Saturday. It will be really, really hard but I know I can do it. And when I do, I will post down the Seven Dreams I wrote down after taking this commitment to fast. Watch out for it. You will be in for a little shock.