PRAYER AND FASTING: THE GAMECHANGERS!

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Mark 9:14-29 (CSB) When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. 16 He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?”17 Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”19 He replied to them, “You unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” 20 So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21 “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father. “From childhood,” he said. 22 “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”23 Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: Come out of him and never enter him again.”26 Then it came out, shrieking and throwing him into terrible convulsions. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.28 After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”29 And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

1. Why is fasting, along with prayer, so important?

• It’s expected of believers

Matthew 6:5-6 Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18 Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

• It exposes the power of God 
  • Rick Warren wrote about some examples from Scripture of prayer and fasting
    • Moses fasted before he received the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 34:28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets.

• The Israelites fasted before a miraculous victory.

2 Chronicles 20:1-4 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, together with some of the Meunites, came to fight against Jehoshaphat. 2 People came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast number from beyond the Dead Sea and from Edom has come to fight against you; they are already in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, En-gedi). 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he resolved to seek the Lord. Then he proclaimed a fast for all Judah, 4 who gathered to seek the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek him.

2 Chronicles 20:15 and he said, “Listen carefully, all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

• Daniel fasted in order to receive guidance from God.

Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and  petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

• Nehemiah fasted before beginning a major building project.

Nehemiah 1:4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

• Jesus fasted during His victory over temptation.

Luke 4:1-2 Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry.

2. What is the purpose of fasting and prayer?

• Focuses our faith

Acts 13:2-3 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.

• Elmer Towns says, “Just stopping eating will not get answers to prayer. You have to spend time with God. You’re not fasting to get your prayers answered; you’re fasting to know God—to hunger and thirst after righteousness.”

• Sets our desires aside to seek God’s desires

Psalm 35:13 “Yet when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, and my prayer was genuine.

Zech 7:4-5 Then the word of the Lord of Armies came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?

• Reveals the kind of power which can only come from God

Ezra 8:21-23 I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions. 22 I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his fierce anger is against all who abandon him.” 23 So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and he was receptive to our prayer.

Bill Bright said, “Fasting reduces the power of self so that the Holy Spirit can do a more intense work within us.”

3. Does fasting actually make a difference?

• The power of fasting has less to do with what we give up and more to do with who we run to – God!
• Prayer and Fasting is a discipline which reveals God’s ultimate authority and power within our lives
• Prayer and fasting takes us into a deeper relationship with God than we could ever experience otherwise