Prayer & The Holy Spirit

Part 5

 

Praying in the Spirit & Fasting

Jesus practiced prayer and fasting 40 days for a reason: 40 is in connection with sin and responsibility for strength to overcome it, Jesus wants us to know that he is  being tempted to the degree that he takes on the battle against our sinful state and puts himself in it. Moses (Ex.34:28) because of his leadership against sin in mediating the 10 commandments.  Elijah, (IKg19:1-8) because of his fight in killing false prophets and trying to protect Israel, he finished running from his enemy Jezebel and fasting 40 days and also appeared in the  transfiguration (Mt 17:3).  40 nights & days of rain because of sin, Ge 7:4,12.  40 years of wilderness wanderings for sin, Num.14:33.  40 stripes offenders were to be beaten Dt.25:3.    40 days Moses intercedes in prayer for sinning Israel, Dt 9:25.
Jesus made fasting to be from our own volition and was to help us not harm us, Mat. 6:16-18, to be closer to God or when we feel the strength of Jesus isn’t in our life and we want to be active with him again. Often it is an act of preparation for a ministry. Jesus actually wants us to fast and said so, Mat. 9:15. The church used prayer and fasting to prepare themselves for service, Acts 13:1-3, 14:23, it was an obvious attempt to show God, not man, that they were serious about relying on Him for their strength to do the job. Faith is powerful, IJn 5:4.  We need to be humble enough to say we need stronger faith, so that what we need done can be done or provided for.  Humility is essential, the father came kneeling, Mt 17:14.
The fact is today the lack of prayer and fasting in our lives, Mk 9:23 29, can hinder faith.  Faith comes from Gods word, Rom 10:17, but if Gods word is spoken to you all day and night, it will not increase the faith given unless we pray in the Spirit! Jude 20-21, Eph. 6:18.   Prayer and fasting to increase our faith is  just as important as the Bible in providing faith in the first place, we must mix faith with the word so that we can PROFIT, Heb. 4:2. .  Just as the boy was ruthlessly torn, the devil will not leave us without a struggle, however we must resist him, Jas 4:7, and prayer mingled with fasting is a great tool.
However, the tool of prayer and fasting has been abused and is twisted in our religious culture today, and this may cause some Christians to neglect it. Pope Gregory, officially initiated a tradition in 509AD which over the centuries, has resulted in many denominations of Christendom practicing Ash Wednesday to start Lent.  Lent comes from the Old English "lencten", meaning 'the spring'. The Saxons called the month March, "lencten monath', because the days noticeably lengthened.  A fast of 36 days was introduced in the 4th century, but it was lengthened to 40 days in Catholic churches during the early 7th century, corresponding to the temptation and fasting of Christ in the wilderness.  But the churches of Christ have never had a tradition of observing it's ceremonies.  Should we as Christians see the true value & purpose in the principle behind Lent?  Prayer, Fasting & Repentance, all go together in the Bible, but  Jesus condemns religion which is based on the traditions of men, Mark 7:7-8, see, Luke 20:1-4, Matthew 15:3-9.  Christians should know the truth about this subject and more importantly, we of all people should be the best at living daily, what Lent emphasizes in society.  There is a proper place in our life for prayer & fasting to bolster repentance.  Repentance is an attitude which should change our behaviour toward God and away from sin in our daily life.  The worst element of Lent is that it ostracizes repentance to just one calendar date, almost excluding the idea of prayer & fasting to one part of the year, rather than encouraging Christians to learn and experience prayer, fasting and repentance when it's appropriately needed in our daily life.  The obvious fact is this: How can we serve God better, if we do not take action against sin and prepare for serving God by fasting and prayer.
Prayer and fasting is linked with experiencing the power of God in prayer, Mark 9:29, when the Apostles lacked the ability to work a specific miracle.  When we look at the mountainous task of removing sin from our life, it feels like we need a miracle to move the mountain of sin in our daily lifestyle, so indeed prayer and fasting would be appropriate to help gain God's strength of righteousness to oust the error of sin we personally commit, this is the epitome of repentance, Matthew 17:14-21.  Jesus prophesied that his disciples would indeed fast and pray, after He left them, Luke 5:35.