To listen to the blog post “5 Powerful Spiritual Benefits of Fasting You Actually Need” over reading it click the play button below.
There are many spiritual benefits of fasting. I personally have done spiritual fasting and it has actually helped me deal with my issue of lust, before you judge just read the full post here to see exactly what I am talking about. In any case, I am going to tell you about the other special benefits of fasting.
I highly recommend that you read my blog on The Step by Step Guide To Spiritual fasting as well so you can get the basic foundation of fasting. In that blog I stated that what you are NOT doing is fasting to lose weight and you are not fasting so that you can show how holy you are. It is a one on one transformative process between you and God. Not for you to be some type of sacrificial lamb because you want attention from other people. The Bible clearly states:
“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. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so 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
Now that we have gotten the basics out of the way, you may be thinking why on Earth would I want to fast and now can me doing this actually help me spiritually. And that is exactly what I am going to tell you. BUT first, I do have a fasting guide that give you a more in depth dive on how to spiritually fast which you can click here to buy, for only 99 cents. You can watch the video below to see some of what it covers. And also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here.
Let’s get into the spiritual benefits of fasting shall we?
1. Spiritual Benefits Of Fasting ~ To Gain Control Of Your Flesh
The first of the spiritual benefits of fasting is to gain control of your flesh. If you are a reader of my blog I talk about getting control of your flesh so many times and I even have a blog on the works of the flesh that you can read by clicking here. As human beings we can be very weak minded and allow our flesh to control us. Just to give you an idea of what the flesh is read the following Bible verse:
Now the practices of the [a]sinful nature are clearly evident: they are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (total irresponsibility, lack of self-control), idolatry, sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions [that promote heresies], envy, drunkenness, riotous behavior, and other things like these. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
In short, the flesh are all the sinful things that us as man kind feel when Eve decided to eat the fruit and bring these things into the world. I do not think that is is rocket science but understand that when you read the above things that God does not want us to feel or do these things YET so many of us do these things and have completely normalized it.
Thinking we do not have the ability to control your emotions. And that is because you are being ruled by your flesh. You do not have to be jealous, angry, or suffer from lust. These are things that can be controlled which is where the fasting comes in. As a side bar, I highly suggest that you check out my series on understanding the devil so that you can get the aspects of the flesh, why it is not of God, and why you need to control it. Watch the video below and click here to subscribe to my channel.
In the case of spiritual fasting the biggest fleshly desire that you are going against is your hunger. And I know what you may be thinking that being hungry is not a sin. NO it is not but stick with me. You do not need the works of the flesh to survive BUT you do need food to live. During a spiritual fast your stomach is going to tell you that you are hungry and you are going to feel hungry and you may even feel weak.
But it is up to your mind to gain control over your flesh and to choose to go on a spiritual fast despite your flesh telling you need to eat. So if you can deny your flesh of something that you NEED then you will be able to conquer something that you don’t need AKA works of the flesh. NOW mind you, not all fasting means that you have to fast from food which is what I talk about in my guide.
You may have legitimate health issues likes hypoglycemia or diabetes that prevents you from fasting from food. If that is the case, you can do different variations of a fasting such as the Daniel fast, either way you have to take something away from yourself that will be difficult for you to give up because that is the only way that the flesh can be conquered.
So you may be wondering why it is important to control your flesh. Controlling your flesh is just the first step to controlling yourself. Once you are able to control your body when it is in the state of hunger, you will be able to control your body in the state of anger, in the state of fear, and in the state of anything else that your flesh may be feeling. That will lead you to be stable and not being so easily controlled over your emotion or bad situations around you. Having total control over your flesh allows your mind and your soul to be in charge. Not your physical body. Which I also talk about in my video down below for more spiritual benefits of fasting.
2. Spiritual Benefits of Fasting is to Show God That He is All You Need
Like I said before we need food to live. If we go too long without food then we can die of starvation. But when you fast you are literally sending a message to God telling God that you do not need food for survival the only thing you need is Him. And you are trusting that God will fill the void that you are feeling on an empty stomach.
When you are fasting and you are completely able to forget about the hunger that you are feeling and instead you are able to feel God’s presence and allow Him to fill the hunger pains in your body. That is when you truly become aware that God is your salvation and your provider not food. To better explain my point you can read my blog about the Samaritan woman. Where she was trying to use men to fill a void in her life that only God can fill. Which I also have a video down below you can watch.
3. Spiritual Benefits of Fasting ~ Case in point: Jesus
Then Jesus was led by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After He had gone without food for forty days and forty nights, He became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-4 (AMP)
So 40 days is a REALLY long time first off. But there are two main points that I want to bring up here. The first is to bring up the spiritual benefit #1 in the sense that it is about controlling your flesh. Look at how long he fasted and Jesus did this fasting right before he was crucified because HE KNEW he would have needed to control the flesh in order to be able to go through the pain that he was about to suffer.
The second point speaks to the spiritual benefits of fasting in which we need God not food. The devil came to a starving person and started talking to him about food and literally Jesus a HUNGRY PERSON said, all I need is God. And shortly after that Jesus stepped into his purpose.
Granted you may be saying to yourself that he was crucified YES that is true but that is his purpose. BUT my main point here is that fasting brings purpose and also brings about change as well. And if your purpose is not to be crucified then you have nothing to worry about. Also, check out my video on who the devil is where I talk about this situation in which he was tempted Jesus and why that was so significant. Click here to subscribe to my channel.
4. Spiritual Benfits Of Fasting ~ To Make God hear You
The next of the spiritual befefits of fasting is to make God hear you. How many times have we read in the Bible of people going on fast in order to get their prayer heard? And as soon as they fasted, something happened and they got the answer to their prayers and you may be asking yourself why that is? Well it really ties into all of what I was talking about.
God knows that you need food, He knows that it is hard to go against your flesh and not eat despite your body telling you to, and He knows that even when you are hungry it is hard to find your only solace in Him. Which is why He hears your prayers even louder. It is like your hunger pains are crying out to Him saying God listen to me. I don’t need food and I feel like I am starving. I don’t need food right now I need an answer to my prayer! And so He is more likely to answer your prayer faster.
5. Spiritual Benefits Of Fasting Case in point: Examples in the Bible of people who fasted for their prayers to be heard:
The last of the spiritual benefits of fasting is to get God to hear you. Take the following Bible characters for example.
- Spiritual Benefits Of Fasting Esther: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16
Esther fasted to save the Jews from being wiped out and also because she was going to go in front of the king un-summoned to ask for something which means that she could have gotten her head chopped off. So Lord knows that she needed God to hear her prayer to keep her head and to have favor in being victorious in saving the Jews.
- Spiritual Benefits of Fasting David:David therefore appealed to God for the child [to be healed]; and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 2 Samuel 12:16
In this case, David sinned with another man’s wife Bathsheba and got her pregnant. God told him the child was going to die and David fasted for the child and the child still did die and I know that sounds very depressing however. David did get his answer even though it was not the answer that he wanted to hear.
David said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I thought, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me and the child may live.’ But now he is dead; why should I [continue to] fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him [when I die], but he will not return to me.” 2 Samuel 12:22-23
Even though the answer to your prayer may not be what you want to hear you will get an answer and David knew that, once he got his answer he stopped fasting and moved on. It is not a situation where you are fasting, God told you His answer, and then you are fasting some more to change His mind. You may be fasting forever by that point and God has already told you what you needed to know. Fasting is not trying to manipulate God to make Him do something after he has already told you he wouldn’t.
More than anything the spiritual benefits of fasting are about spiritual breakthrough and that means accepting the breakthrough in whatever form it may come. Here are the benefits of spiritual fasting but there are more of them and I speak about them in my spiritual fasting guide. Click here or the picture below to buy. Its legit less than a dollar. And if you know someone who may want to know about the point of fasting then share this post with them.
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