[stephanos]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Christian

Do you mean that certain prayers of yours go unanswered unless you fast? Or is fasting a way of you getting God's attention so that He answers a prayer quicker than if you hadn't fasted?

It sounds like fasting is a *magical* formula that is used to move God? If this is the case why isn't every Christian doing it, and why is it not spelled out in the New Testament? The only time I can see prayers being hindered or unanswered is again in the context of an husband and wife:

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

It doesn't look like fasting was practised before the law of Moses was given, it's clear Israel practised it in the OT and the disciples & early Jewish church were doing it in the gospels and the book of Acts. Paul said he practised it during his persecutions (2 Cori 6:5; 11:27), but he never gave clear instructions about it in his writings to the body of Christ?

Through David we learn that fasting humbles & chastens the soul:

Psalms 35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

Psalms 69:10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

Is that what God wants us to do? Are we to outwardly demonstrate to the Lord that we want him to take our prayers seriously? Unlike the OT saints we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our mortal bodies, and Paul said in Romans that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf, and that we don't really know what we should pray for anyway!

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Maybe God has kept fasting one of those grey areas so that only those who really desire to get close to Him will see it's signifigance in their personal walk with the Lord? Maybe I need to try practising it in my life, I could do with a revival.

Your questions are all valid. Personally I think fasting is more of a weapon against the flesh. It's a tool that we can use to tear down carnal strongholds in our life. I don't think it's a magical formula to force God to answer prayers. But rather, it demonstrates to God that we are serious about changing and serious about submitting to His will by depriving our flesh of the things it lusts after. Hunger is something that is very difficult to resist, but when we practice denying ourselves in this way we should find that it becomes easier to say no to the flesh in other areas.

One thing though you should be curious about is this verse:

And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:28-29 KJV)

Why prayer and fasting? What was wrong with just prayer? I cannot answer that myself.

Peace and Love,
Stephen