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The most recent articles, videos, blog entries, and more that have been added to ChristianUnion.org.

Learn more about biblical fasting.

Whitepaper

Three Spiritualities
In this Christian Union whitepaper, you will discover biblical patterns of godliness that also attract God's increased presence and power.

Books

by John Piper
A Hunger for God
(PDF: Free; Paperback: $15)
In this book, John Piper argues that fasting expresses "homesickness" for God. It is like an exclamation point at the end of our prayers saying, "This much, O God, I want you!"

Table of Contents:
Introduction: A Homesickness For God
1. Is Fasting Christian? New Fasting For The New Wine
2. Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone The Desert Feast Of Fasting
3. Fasting For The Reward Of The Father Jesus' Radical God-Orientation In Fasting
4. Fasting For The King's Coming How Much Do We Miss Him?
5. Fasting And The Course Of History A Call For Discernment And Desire
6. Finding God In The Garden Of Pain A Different Fast For The Sake Of The Poor
7. Fasting For The Little Ones Abortion And The Sovereignty Of God Over False Worldviews
Conclusion: Why Does God Reward Fasting?

Bill Bright
The Coming Revival: America's Call to Fast, Pray, and Seek God's Face
This book provides a moving account of how God led Bill Bright, his wife, and many of the staff and friends of Campus Crusade for Christ to fast, pray, and seek God's face for forty days in 1994. After that fast, Bright and others invited many of America's Christian leaders to gather in Orlando, Florida, in December of that year for three days of fasting and prayer for America's leaders and a great revival in America and the world through the call to fasting, prayer, and seeking God's face. Over six hundred attended, and many cited those days as among the most significant of their lives.

This book, in part, is that call. In the middle of the book, Dr. Bright draws attention to the moral decline of our incredibly privileged and influential nation and the great degree of spiritual impotence of the church in America. Through biblical and historical examples of God's people seeking his face through prayer, fasting, humbling themselves, and repenting – coupled with God's repeated and dramatic responses to that prayer and fasting – Bright argues that nothing less than faithful fasting and prayer and seeking God's face will be the answer to our problems today. He writes, "We need not wait for a sovereign act of God to bring revival...Our task is to surrender to the Lordship of Christ and the control of the Holy Spirit, fast and pray, and obey God's Word. Meeting these conditions, we can expect the Holy Spirit to transform our lives" (page 89).

To that end, in the last part of the book, Bright thoroughly answers a barrage of questions about fasting, such as, "Why do we need to fast?" and "How does fasting help?" In successive chapters, he responds to all kinds of excuses for not fasting and offers pages of practical and spiritual advice that will be helpful before, during, and after fasting. Dr. Bright brings over 50 years of experience of walking with the Lord in this book that will increase your faith and help you humble yourself, pray, seek God's face, and turn from sin through fasting.

Jentezen Franklin (1962- )
Jentezen Franklin is the senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia (since 1989) and Free Chapel OC (Orange County) in Irvine, California (since 2007). His church begins each year with a 21-day fast together. While preparing for a career as a saxophone player, Jentezen felt led by God to become an evangelist. When his brother graduated college, Jentezen dropped out and they began traveling as an evangelistic team. Having visited Free Chapel annually as an evangelist for some years, Franklin became the congregation's pastor when Roy Wellborn, the church's senior pastor, died. Currently, over 10,000 attend Free Chapel each week. Jentezen is the author of New York Times best sellers, Right People, Right Place, Right Plan and Fasting.

Fasting
Franklin defines fasting as "refraining from food for a spiritual purpose," and points out that fasting is included among the three normal Christian duties Jesus speaks about in Matthew 6: "When you give...," "When you pray...," and "When you fast." Jesus not only taught us to fast, but he exemplified fasting (Matt 4:2). If he could have accomplished all he came to do without fasting, why would he fast? Franklin's answer is, "The Son of God fasted because he knew there were supernatural things that could only be released that way" (page 14). And if he needed to fast, how much greater is our need to fast?

After discussing some of the differences between types and lengths of fasts, Franklin says there's no formula to determine which is right for you. He encourages his readers to begin obeying Jesus's instruction through less intense fasts, working their way up to more intense fasts. The minimum measure and starting point of fasting is whether the degree to which you give up food is meaningful to you: "If it means something to you, it will mean something to God" (35). The goal is humble dependence and love for God. Recalling when he and his wife were first dating and were so caught up in each other that when they went out for a meal they rarely ate all their food, Jentezen writes, "When we are...lovesick for our first love, fasting is easy" (171). For years Franklin's church has fasted together for the first 21 days of the year.

The challenge he leaves his reader with is this: Compare notes at the end of a year in which you ate normally for the first 21 days and one in which you fasted for the first 21 days. Did 21 days of normal eating at the beginning of the year accomplish as much as 21 days of fasting at the beginning of the year – and periodic fasting throughout the year – accomplished?

Dallas Willard
Dallas Willard was a professor at the University of Southern California's School of Philosophy and a Southern Baptist minister.

The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives
Willard believes that the heart of the New Testament message is that we can become like Christ in character and power by doing one thing: by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in – by arranging our lives around the activities he himself practiced to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father. What activities did Jesus practice? Such as solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation on God's word and God's ways, and service to others.

What he practiced in his love for God will prove rich soil for our love for the Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit, to flourish. And our love for Jesus ought to manifest itself, at least in part, through a resolute will to be like him whom we love. The Spirit of the Disciplines is written to aid you in understanding the disciplines that Jesus practiced and the revolutionary results that can come from them.

Table of Contents:
Foreword and Preface
1. The Secret of the Easy Yoke
2. Making Theology of the Disciplines Practical
3. Salvation is a Life
4. "Little Less Than a God"
5. The Nature of Life
6. Spiritual Life: The Body's Fulfillment
7. St. Paul's Psychology of Redemption – The Example
8. History and the Meaning of the Disciplines
9. Some Main Disciplines for the Spiritual Life
10. Is Poverty Spiritual?
11. The Disciplines and the Power Structures of This World
Epilogue
Appendix I. Jeremy Taylor's Counsel on the Application of Rules for Holy Living
Appendix II. Discipleship: For Super-Christians Only?

Audio & Video

John Piper
Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting: The Pursuit of Communion with God

Over the course of this six-hour seminar, John Piper discusses:
• Biblical passages on communion with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
• Communing with God through his word, and reasons for doing so,
• Communing with God through prayer, and praying in sync with the way God works,
• Biblical foundations for and aims of fasting.

You can also read the notes that go with the seminar here.

A Hunger for God
Sermon series (January 1 – February 19, 1995)
• Prayer, Fasting, and the Course of History

• When the Bridegroom Is Taken Away, They Will Fast—With New Wineskins

• Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone

• Fasting for the Safety of the Little Ones

• Fasting for the King's Coming

• Fasting for the Father's Reward

• A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail, Part 1

• A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail, Part 2

Reflections on Cultivating Humility

Christian Union invites you to take part in supporting this ministry through both fasting and prayer.

As we invite the Lord to change the nation, we first give attention to our own hearts. Fasting has fallen out of fashion among many in the Western church, which is a tragedy given its ability to help humble the one who fasts, attracting the presence of God through the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The following is a brief overview of scriptural fasting, and the strong rationale for seeking to develop deeper humility through this until-recent-times typical Christian practice.

God alone rules the universe, and strongly opposes all who seek to usurp His role. It was because of pride, the desire to be like the Most High, that Satan was thrown out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-20).

Peter makes plain God's opposition to the arrogant: "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

Arrogance is repellent to God and He doesn't want anything to do with it. Pride repulses God and, just as powerfully, humility delights Him and attracts His presence.

Fasting is not the only thing in the Christian life that contributes toward the development of humility, but it is vital to the Christian life and should be practiced regularly by those who seek after God.

There are countless examples in the Scriptures of devout men and women humbling themselves before God with fasting:

Moses fasted for 40 days and then another 40 days
Elijah fasted for 40 days
Nehemiah fasted for 120 days
Mordecai, Esther and thousands of Jews in the Persian Empire fasted for 70 days, and some went without both food and water for 3 days of that fast
Ezra fasted
John the Baptist fasted
Anna the prophetess fasted
the Apostles and first elders fasted
All Christians in the first-century church

Fasting is not the only thing in the Christian life that contributes toward the development of humility, but it is vital to the Christian life!

Fasting, simply put, is going without food and perhaps liquids, for a definitive period of time to humble oneself before God. It is sometimes accompanied by mourning and grieving.

When fasting is mentioned in the Bible, it usually meant going without food during the day and then eating only in the evening, unless the Scriptures specifically say otherwise. For instance, Moses' fast was without food or water— a supernatural fast that should only be undertaken if a person has received a direct revelation from God.

Many Christians around the world fast regularly, and so did many in church history. We know from a first century document called the Didache that it was the regular practice of Christians in the first century to fast every Wednesday and Friday until 3 p.m. This was the universal practice of first-century Christians. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in the 18th century, believed in the necessity of fasting so powerfully that he would not ordain anyone to the ministry who did not fast every Wednesday and Friday.

The first-century Christians fasted because Jesus expected them to fast. When Jesus was directly asked about fasting, He explained there was no need for His disciples to fast when He was still with them, but there would be need to fast when He left (Matthew 9:14-15). Jesus even gives instructions about how to fast: Christians should do it in a way that does not bring attention to themselves (Matthew 6:16-18).

Note how the verses say "when you fast" not "if you fast." It was never suggested that Christians should not fast; rather, their fasting should be in stark contrast to the way the Pharisees fasted.

Fasting helps develop humility and a longing after God because the lack of food causes you to recognize your humanity and need for God for everything in life. Because of this, fasting helps increase fervency in prayer, which has a powerful impact on God.

It's important to keep in mind, of course, that God cannot be controlled by any human being and fasting does not assure an automatic response from God.

God answers prayer according to His sovereign will, which is sometimes beyond our immediate comprehension. God gives what He knows is best for you. He is not obligated to answer your prayer, in the specific terms you request, just because you fast.

However, the Scriptures make plain that fasting and humility sway God and incline Him to draw near when otherwise He might not have. He has made clear to humanity what delights Him and under what circumstances He is likely to draw near.

Of course, fasting is not a panacea for pride, because a person can be very proud even though he fasts. This was the problem of the Pharisees. They fasted regularly, as they should have, but were still proud and self righteous.

If a person is determined to be arrogant, fasting will not help him, but for the man or woman truly seeking to humble himself before the Lord, fasting is an important and necessary part of the Christian life.

With these reflections in mind, consider incorporating regular set days for fasting, as well as special times in response to great prayer concerns. The Lord knows we often come to Him with mixed motives, but don't let it hinder you from growing in this area. Confess any tendancy toward pride as you learn to fast, and invite Him to cultivate the humility He desires.

Thank you for joining Christian Union in seeking God. May the Lord bless you richly as you willingly humble yourself before Him.

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