God IS Working: Don’t Judge the Results Prematurely (Don’t Judge, Part 3)
Does it seem like nothing is happening on your fast? Have you been praying for miracles, for breakthroughs, and not only have you not received any, you don’t feel closer to God?
Sometimes We Don’t Feel the Results of Our Fast Because…
Sometimes when we’re fasting, we don’t feel any results because:
- We’re experiencing warfare, as Arthur Wallis described. The enemy always attacks us when we’re fasting and praying. Fasting draws the enemy out—because He knows fasting is effective against him. Jesus’ fast demonstrates this.
- Our bodies are adjusting to lack of food, or lack of caffeine. In such cases we might feel weak, or have a headache. This sometimes makes it difficult to “feel” God’s presence or feel focused and energetic in prayer.
- Victory often doesn’t come until after the fast. Jesus returned in the power of the spirit after his fast. Many men and women in the Bible experienced results after a period of fasting. There are some immediate results—such as discovering what bottom line desires have been controlling you—but there are also long term results.
But God IS Working
You may not yet see evidence that God is working through your fast, but if you’re doing the following things (and therefore, not merely engaging in a diet), God IS working!
God is working if you are:
1. Making Time to Pray
Find time over and above your regular prayer time to spend in prayer and the Word. The time that you would normally spend eating, or watching television, or engaging in other unnecessary activities—spend that time in prayer. If you don’t make time to pray, you’re just on a diet.
Prayer is relationship with God. And fasting, as Elmer Towns describes it, is the exclamation point to that relationship. Along with setting aside your normal foods, are you setting aside normal routine in exchange for time in prayer? If so, you’re telling God, “I want YOU! You are more important to me than everything else—more important than food, than everything else in this world.”
“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat” ~ Matthew 5:6, MSG
2. Beginning Your Prayers with Praise and Worship. Focusing on God, not your problem.
We connect with God in prayer when we begin by praising and worshipping Him. Praise is simply thanking God for who He is. It means to esteem Him, to value Him, to acknowledge who and what He is. Or another way of thinking about it is that praise is simply bragging on God.
Biblical fasting is relationship—in the same way that prayer is relationship. So if you feel you are fasting and nothing is happening, you might should examine what you’re doing just as you would if you were praying and felt your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling.
Fasting is a relationship. . . . It’s like prayer—sometimes I start praying and when I’m praying, I feel like my prayers are bouncing off the wall. When I do that, I come back and say, “Now what’s wrong with my prayers. Why are they bouncing back to me?” And I realize the greatest way to get answers to prayer is to start with worshipping God. When you worship God, His presence comes into your room. . . . The Bible says if you worship Him, He will come. … The Father seeks worship. If you worship the Father, He will come to receive your worship.
So when you are fasting, don’t focus on yourself; focus on God. Start with worship. . . . Praise him for what he has done in your life. And thank God. He will come to receive your worship. THEN you present your petition to Him.
Psalm 22:3 says, “God inhabits the praise of His people.” According to Jentezen Franklin, a Japenese interpretation of this verse says:
Whenever people worship, God brings His big chair and sits down. (Tweet this)
Worship God in your prayer time, and He will come, meet with you and receive your worship! You may not feel immediate answers to your causes for fasting, but you will feel His presence!!
3. Repenting of Sin
The basic foundation of fasting and prayer is repentance. Unconfessed sin will hinder our prayers. The following is a good pattern for repentance:
- Ask the Holy Spirit to show you your sins.
- Confess every sin that the Holy Spirit calls to your mind.
- Accept God’s forgiveness. (I John 1:9)
- Ask forgiveness from all whom you have offended, and forgive all who have hurt you (Mark 11:25; Luke 11:4; 17;3,4)
- Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 5:18
- Surrender fully to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master, refusing to yield to your worldly nature.
4. Praying the Word
God’s word is alive! “For the word of God is alive and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12). The original Greek word translated “powerful” is energēs (notice the resemblance to the English word “energy”?). The word was used in secular society of the day to describe a medicine effectively engaged in the work it was designed to do.
God’s Word was designed to do a work in your life, in your fast, and in your causes for fasting. So let it!
Why respond to a matter by praying God’s word?
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
This is war. God has given us weapons for the spiritual battle.
What are these weapons? In Ephesians 6:10-12, Paul listed the whole armor of God. Only one piece of the armor is a weapon. The rest are defensive pieces of armor. The Sword of the Spirit, identified as the Word of God, is the only offensive weapon listed in the whole armor of God.
Second Corinthians 10:4 uses the plural, assuring us we have weapons for warfare. What would the other weapon be? I believe the other weapon is given right after the words identifying the Sword of the Spirit as the Word of God in Ephesians 6:17. The next verse says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions.” There are two weapons with divine power in our warfare: the Word of God and Spirit-empowered prayer.
These two weapons have divine power! In 2 Corinthians 10:4, the original Greek word for power is the adjective form of the term dunamai meaning “to be able.” Our English word dynamite is derived from the same word.
In Praying God’s Word, Beth Moore writes:
God has handed us two sticks of dynamite with which to demolish our strongholds: His Word and prayer. What is more powerful than two sticks of dynamite placed in separate locations? Two strapped together… [1]
Your Prayer Has Been Taken to a Higher Level
You may not feel the benefits yet, but if you are doing these four things, God is working through your fasting and prayer!
Fasting takes prayer to a higher level of fulfillment. So if you’ve been praying—focusing on God, repenting of sin, and praying His Word during those prayer times—and you’re combining that with fasting? Beloved, your prayer has been taken to a higher level! Dynamite is exploding in the enemy’s camp! God is working . . . and the devil hates it!!
So persevere! Don’t quit! Be diligent to the end of your fast! God “is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV).
Questions:
- How are you making time to pray over and above your regular prayer time?
- In what ways are you beginning your prayers with praise? (Reading from the Psalms, singing worship songs, etc)
- What scriptures are you praying every day for each of your causes for fasting?
OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
- Don’t Judge the Results Based on What You Feel (Part 1)
- Don’t Judge the Results Based on What You Feel (Part 2)
FROM THE FASTING ARCHIVES
- Fasting Day 14: Fasting Is Saying, “Give Me Jesus” (Fasting Is, Part 1)
- Fasting Day 14: For the Little Ones
- Fasting Day 14: Fasting Affects a Nation
- Fasting Day 14: Praying for Our Government
___________
[1] Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 6
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Thank you for this. Very helpful. A query- I am not able to fully feel His presence as I fast. Is there something wrong with me. I am doing a 40 day fast but feel parched and sometimes feeling dejected. I am trying to repent,praise and read His word. I want more of Him. What am I doing wrong.