What is the Spiritual Significance of Fasting?

A Sister wrote in with a great question regarding fasting. Our response was very short and by no means comprehensive, but as she found these comments helpful, we will share them with everyone else in the hopes that the benefit may be extended.

The Question

Question: I’m trying to understand the spiritual significance of fasting. Not the health benefits but what I would be doing as to God. And help would be appreciated. Sis Ruth Cintron

Our Response

Dear Sis. ________,

Great question! I myself have wondered what the exact purpose of it is, and your question has forced me to finally look into it. So thank you! My time is short, but I’ll share my thoughts, findings, and personal experience.

If we search the Scriptural use of fasting, we find that it relates to focus, determination, humbling/strengthening oneself, and reliance on God. It is a way of communicating our desire and reliance upon God and the spiritual things as compared to the natural things. If you search “fasting” in the Bible, we see that it usually correlates either to A) a show of sincere repentance and sorrow, or B) a show of heartfelt devotion and reliance. In Acts 10:30, we learn that the gentile Cornelius sought the Lord with all of his heart, and a large part of this is shown in his fasting. In seeing the devoutness of Cornelius’s heart, the Lord heard his prayer and sent Peter to teach him the Gospel so that he might be a partaker of it.

We also see that fasting can be used as a means of purifying and testing oneself spiritually. Christ fasted for 40 days, and it was only then that he began to be heavily tempted by the lust of the flesh to use his newly received spirit-gifts for carnal purposes (creating food, preserving his life, acquiring power for himself, etc).

As always, Christ should be our prime example. When we see him fasting, we see that he was living out what he and the Old Testament taught, namely that "man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4). It is by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God that man lives, and it was this that gave Christ strength more than any carnal food could offer. We see this in

John 4:31-34 - In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. (32) But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. (33) Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? (34) Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

The practical effect and the results of this are seen in Matthew 17, for there we see a man possessed of an “unclean spirit” that the disciples tried to cast out. It took a level of focus and faith that the disciples did not yet have. Seeing the man throwing himself about more violently than any that the disciples had ever seen before, their faith wavered and they were unable to cast it out. Yet Christ was able to do it, and he explained the reason why: ”Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). What did fasting have to do with Christ’s ability to cast it out? Obviously it had nothing to do with nutrition or the lack thereof. Christ had determined for himself that he would serve the Lord, and his commitment to this was on a higher plane than that of his disciples then. He was therefore more firmly planted in his faith and unshaken by the raging man.

As far as spiritual purposes for us goes, it should not be any different. I know that I myself have fasted only once, and it was when a relative of mine was sick with Covid and had to be placed in the acute care unit. We feared for their life, and though they are still unaware of my doing this, I resolved to fast and pray to our Father that He might preserve them. I thought of when David fasted for his child from Bathsheba who the Lord smote:

2 Samuel 12:16 – David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

I wanted to show how dearly I cared for them and trusted in the Lord in that He would be able to heal them, and He did.

And so, if and when we fast, it should be for this same purpose as Christ and the others in the Bible, summed up in the charter, ”my meat is to do the will of him that sent me”. It should not be to appear unto men as to fast so we look “holy” to them or direct attention to ourselves, but to communicate and show a devotion and reliance upon God for all things necessary. We can be glad that we’re given clear instruction on this and how to fast:

Matthew 6:16-18 - Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (17) But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; (18) That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

There are many other verses one could look at to see in what exact ways fasting was used, but this should suffice as a short summary. I believe that if we do it, we need to ensure that we are doing it for the right purposes and using it as the righteous men and women of old used it. Hopefully this helps to answer your question.

Bro. Tanner Hawkins