What is fasting and How to prepare for a fast.

The Bible says men shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4 NLT

When God formed human beings he created them from the dust of the ground, hence when you die your body returns to the ground, to the earth. If you have studied biology you would notice that the human body has many parts that are strikingly similar to nature, the reason being that God formed the body from the dust of the earth. 

But for man to become a living being, meaning to breathe, reason, feel, think, decide, move, and speak, it had to take God to breathe the breath of life into man’s nostrils. Our physical bodies are created from the dust but our inner man (the spirit, the soul) that which makes a person come alive is from God, Genesis 2:7. Hence no one has the power to resurrect a dead body apart from the supernatural power of God.

Now God is Spirit, John 4:24 What does that mean? This means he is invisible. What is another thing that is invisible in you? Your spirit, your breath, your soul. You can’t possibly point or see your Spirit, but you know. You could even say by faith you know you have a soul and a spirit. Since God is Spirit, those who would call to him in worship, that is fellowship with him, must do so in Spirit and truth. The truth part also plays a role because we are living a fallen world, that has been corrupted with sin. God on the other hand is incorruptible, He is holy and blameless. So hence when we approach him we must do so rooted and grounded in truth. Jesus is truth. 

Fasting causes us to focus on the spiritual realities other than the physical, as your body needs food, your spirit needs God, to commune with Him more deeply you must lay down food and connect your spirit to him, by and through faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, it shows the reality of what we hope for Hebrews 11.So if faith has an evidence, it means when we physically fast, we are demonstrating that we have something we hope for. So when you fast you’re essentially saying I know that the God who is invisible exists and I’m gonna my lay down what I can see to tap into what is not seen. 

We therefore fast because we want to tap into the very essence of who we are. When we eat physical food, we connect our bodies to what it was made from. When we fast we connect our spirits to where it came from, God. It is imperative that we fast because once the world fell into sin, the man and the woman were removed from the presence of God. When we fast we are essentially returning to that presence. Not because Jesus didn’t make a way by his death, but because as long as we are still living in a fallen world, we must make an effort to commune with the God who is holy. The Lord said to the disciples of John, when they were asking why don’t the disciples of Jesus fast. He says wedding guests don't fast while celebrating with the groom. They Can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast, Mark 3:18-20. We are in those times when our groom is not here physically, but is in the realm of the spirit, therefore we fast.  

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A FAST

Whether you will be fasting for a day, two, or more, you need to prepare your body, mind, and Spirit for a time of fasting.

Fasting is a time of consecration. Consecration means to make or declare sacred, to set apart to the service of God, and lastly to dedicate one’s time primarily to God. The key thing to note about fasting is that it is a sacrifice, this is the core thing, you sacrifice, pleasure, time, and mind for a set time. 

Many of us we usually go into fasting without having to position our minds for sacrifice. Hence when hunger strikes there’s the temptation to quit. The first important thing is to position yourself for sacrifice

How to prepare for a fast physically.

1. Fasting is a sacrifice, expect to be hungry( if you’re taking a food fast). Have the expectation of hunger, it’s not a sign to quit, there’s no sacrifice without discomfort. 

2. Increase your intake of water at-least 3 to two days before a fast. 

3. Eat lesser portions of food 2 days before the fast, so that when you completely stop eating your body will not be in shock. 

4. Decide to complete before starting the fast. Set your mind up for success. How? Think about the benefits of fasting, this will help you to endure the temptation to quit.

5. Resist the resistance, because you are embarking on a spiritual discipline dedicating your self to God. There will be resistance. This can come either in the form of hunger, distractions, irritation. And one that’s very common in my life, the feeling like this is in-vain and God feels far away. He is not. God is all the more close.

Spiritual preparation

1. Pray before starting the fast. Write or pray about the reason you’re fasting. Talk to God about why you’re taking the fast. Ask him to help you cleanse any motive that is self- cantered and self-seeking. Ask Him to set your heart and mind on things above, his will. 

2. We are not fasting for God to love us, that’s impossible because he already does whether we fast or we don’t. What fasting does is that it causes your eyes and ears to be sharpened to discern him, so we must understand that when we engage in fasting it is to seek his kingdom, we want his kingdom to be saturated in our lives.

3. Repent. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart for any offenses or anything that needs repentance of and ask him to forgive you and if he highlights an instruction to be done whether reconciliation with someone or acknowledgement of something. Lean towards that and obey him.  Please see Isaiah 58

4. Believe. One of the things that will keep you going till the end is faith in whom your sacrifice is going. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God for He who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently and earnestly seek him, Hebrews 11:6 . God will not look away when you fast, he will reward you. You must hold firm to this truth because you will be tempted to break the fast or to complain throughout the fast. Be still and wait patiently in his presence in quiet trust.