Should Believers Participate in FASTING?

Fasting is a spiritual discipline in which the individual goes without food for a period of time to, ideally, humble themselves and focus on spiritual things. It is denying the needs of the outer man to attend to the needs of the inner man.

The Messiah insinuated that the Church would fast after he was crucified:

14Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

15Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

Matthew 9:14-15

(Parallel accounts can be found in Mark 2:20 and Luke 5:35).

Christ also expected believers to fast, with these instructions:

16“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

So it’s assumed that believers will fast, but it’s a personal matter between the believer and his/her Creator. And notice that nothing is said about how long or how often one should fast. Furthermore, believers are not commanded to fast anywhere. Hence, you have to be led of the Holy Spirit regarding both, keeping in mind that the Spirit is the believer’s counselor and teacher (John 16:13 & John 14:26). This of course requires relationship, which develops as you mature spiritually.

What Are the Benefits of Fasting?

There are several profitable things about fasting assuming it’s not used to manipulate God into answering prayer or devolves into a legalistic work that fuels religious arrogance (Luke 18:12):

It’s a way of humbling yourself before the LORD and humility attracts God’s grace (James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6, Psalm 35:13 & Ezra 8:21).
It helps you focus on the needs of the inner man and honestly look at areas that need improvement (Matthew 4:4 & 2 Corinthians 13:5).
It naturally provides extra time to devote to God and the things of God since you’re not preoccupied with preparing & consuming food.
By coming nearer to the LORD in this manner, the LORD comes nearer to you and you will be blessed because of it, one way or another (James 4:8 & Hebrews 11:6). It’s an axiom.
It thus increases faith (2 Corinthians 10:15).
It keeps the flesh under via the practice of self-control, which is a fruit of the spirit (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Corinthians 9:25 & Proverbs 16:32).
It gives a needed break to your digestive system, not to mention cleans out your system (stomach/bowels).
It naturally helps prevent you from becoming massively overweight — which isn’t healthy — since fasting shrinks your stomach and so you won’t need as much food to feel full.

If you’re not used to fasting, I suggest starting with skipping a meal or a one-day fast once a week for a few weeks — assuming your medical condition can handle it — and then be led of the Spirit from there. You can consider a two-day fast now & then; then maybe an occasional three-day fast or even longer. Be led of the Spirit.

Be sure to keep fasting a positive discipline in your life and don’t allow it to become physically harmful or bog you down in religious drudgery. Get plenty of rest when you fast. Speaking of which, I don’t recommend fasting when your work demands a lot of pressing activity (since it would naturally require regular sustenance to be effective on the job).

For a list of fasts featured in the Bible and their lengths, see this article.

Important Closing Words

Again, the Scriptures expect that New Covenant believers will fast, but nothing is said about how long or how often; and neither is fasting commanded. Whether you fast or not, how often and how long, is between you and your personal Counselor (John 16:13 & John 14:26). Every believer’s situation is different.

Speaking of which, I know strong believers filled with the Word & wisdom who don’t fast on a regular basis, although they have fasted on particular occasions in the past and will fast if the LORD leads them to do so. I know other believers who fast on a regular basis, e.g. weekly.

One devout woman my wife knows said she fasted for 40 days to concentrate on a spiritual breakthrough regarding her husband, and she was victorious, but I can’t in good conscious recommend taking such a looong fast — 40 days — since 43-70 days without food is the point that people will die of starvation, depending on their weight and state of health. Meanwhile people can only survive without water for about 3-7 days, sometimes a few days longer.

Sure Moses did it, but he was on his face in the supernatural presence of the Almighty on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28 & Deuteronomy 9:18). So please don’t consider an extraordinarily looong fast without the very certain confirmation of your divine guide and helper, the Holy Spirit.

A mighty minister who flowed in the gifts of the Spirit and has positively influenced people all around the globe for decades said he was bent on taking extremely long fasts when he was a young man in Christ and suffered some health problems due to it (he had a history of medical issues going back to when he was a kid). He recovered quickly, thankfully, but the Lord instructed him to never again put his physical health at risk by engaging in dubiously long fasts. He said the Spirit counseled him from then on to live what he called the “fasted life,” which was to never eat to the point of being full. This worked for him and his global calling.

I point this out because how often you fast and how long you fast — not to mention what precise kind of fast you take — is between you and the Lord, corresponding to your unique situation and calling. Whatever you decide, make sure the peace of Christ rules in your heart (Colossians 3:15). In other words, don’t do anything you don’t have a peace about.

Lastly, fasting is not the all-and-end-all spiritual discipline and so believers have to be careful to not allow it to become a legalistic ascetic practice, which fuels religious arrogance (Colossians 2:23 & Luke 18:12). If you fast, keep it between yourself and your Heavenly Father, as Christ plainly instructed (Matthew 6:16-18).

And, please, don’t allow any spiritual discipline to go to your head and think you’re better than others since “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). Actually, as noted above, one of the purposes of fasting is to humble oneself before the LORD (Psalm 35:13 & Ezra 8:21).

NOTE: Matthew 17:21 is not covered here because it cannot be found in the earliest, most reliable manuscripts of Scripture, which explains why some versions of the Bible don’t include it, such as the New International Version (although the NIV does include it in the footnotes). How do we explain this verse’s inclusion in later manuscripts? Evidently an overzealous scribe foolishly added it to the text at some point, evidently due to Mark 9:29 (below), perhaps thinking he could make God’s Word better (Proverbs 30:6).

Mark 9:29 features a similar scenario to Matthew 17:21 (although not necessarily the same occasion) where “and fasting” was added in later manuscripts. This explains why these words are absent in translations based on earlier, more reliable manuscripts, like the NIV, ESV and BSB.

There are two other occasions in the New Testament where the word “fasting” was wrongly added to the text at some later point, Acts 10:30 and 1 Corinthians 7:5. Again, “fasting” is not included in the earliest, best manuscripts.

This article is available in book form as chapter 12 of…