Last year, I began to explore the purpose of fasting and prayer together as a spiritual discipline. A few weeks ago I felt the Lord prompting my heart to explore this act of faith by fasting one day a week for the duration of our trip. During my time of fasting from food, the Lord specifically put on my heart to pray for the work he is doing in our team in our last month in Nepal, healing for those who have been getting sick, and what is in store for the next season of my life.
Fasting is a relatively new concept to me. It is an act of worship I am still learning and growing in my knowledge in. The best example we have for the purpose of fasting is Jesus Christ’s 40 days in the dessert (Mathew 4:2). Jesus himself talks about fasting as a form of personal worship and intimacy with the Lord and that is should only be don’t to glorify the Lord (Matthew 6:16). The early church also mentions fasting as part of spiritual disciplines to grow and strengthen the body of Christ, the Church (Acts 1: 14, 13:2-3).
What I have learned is that fasting is actually more of a mental battle than a physical one. Choosing to focus your mind on the Lord and his provision, not on what your flesh presently desires, each time you feel weak or hungry is a spiritual act of obedience during a physical temptation. This has helped strengthen my spirit to withstand other temptations such as lust, gossip, drunkenness, idols, or numbing/ intoxicating my mind with images or words that glorify evil and sinful natures.
I felt the Lord ask me to enter into a two day fast over Easter weekend. I began my fast from food on Good Friday. That evening, I watched The Passion of the Christ with a few of my teammates which was an incredibly moving and powerful experience both spiritually and physically. The brutality of the portrayal of the crucifixion in The Passion of the Christ is difficult enough for me to process on a normal day, but even more so as my body felt exhausted and weak after my first day of fasting. I began praying for emotional and spiritual strength and immediately felt his presence more potently. How ironic for me to be praying for strength from Jesus as I watched the brutality he endured on my behalf.
During the scenes reenacting the intensity of his beating, my spirit was moved to a place of intimacy with Christ I had never experienced before. Tears streamed down my face and I asked my heavenly Father, “Is this really how bad it was?” My sobs increased as I felt his answer, “No my daughter, it was so much worse.”
In the same moment I clearly felt a peace in my spirit as he continued to speak as if he was holding my hand and sitting right next to me, “I did this for you my love. YOU were worth it. And I would do it all again to call you mine.”
I couldn’t believe how incredibly close I felt to the Lord that night. I can’t express it in words, but the reality of his presence and the conversation we held throughout the night was as real as if he was sitting right next to me.
Worship at Nepali church the next day brought me to tears as we sang about the power that defeated the grave living in us today. Thant truth resonated so strongly with me, more so than it ever has before. My heart felt incredibly close to the Lord’s and I was hearing him speak to me so clearly was because both my body and soul were solely leaning on his strength and not my own. I was denying my flesh over and over again for the sake of wanting to grow closer to His Spirit. By Saturday night, I didn’t want my fast to end. I was experiencing so much of the Lord on a moment by moment basis that I wanted to continue the fast for another day. However, I knew the Lord hadn’t asked me to do that. He asked me to break this fast on Easter morning as I celebrated Resurrection Sunday with believers all over the world.
my team met on the rooftop for sunrise Easter Sunday service. Our church, all 20 of us living and serving together to spread the gospel throughout the nations, sang of the broken chains of sin and death for all of our Nepali neighbors to hear. We shouted his glory from the rooftop as we read aloud the story of Christ’s death and resurrection from the gospel of Luke. In an incredibly sweet moment, I broke my fast with communion.
On Good Friday he whispered to me that I alone was worth the physical and spiritual pain endured at the crucifixion. But as I took communion with the body of Christ, I felt him remind me that if death was not too great a price and if the grave was not too great a weapon, than neither were my sins. He is whispering the same to you. Our Lord is Risen, He is Risen Indeed, and death no longer has power over those who believe in the Resurrection christian brothers and sisters all over the world are celebrating.
