Today at Bridge Church I am speaking on a discipline that has been lost in the church today… fasting. The church in general has gotten into the habit of not practicing on a regular basis the disciplines of communion and fasting. Over the years I did not make fasting a priority in my spiritual life as I should. Only up until several years ago did I take fasting seriously and begin to see God’s power in my life.

I started out doing one day fasts, then three days, then seven days and earlier this year a twenty one day fast in the process of launching Bridge Church. I used to think that fasting was for the weirded out Christian who was on the verge of insanity. It wasn’t until I started to study scripture and read a book by Ronnie Floyd titled The Power of Prayer and Fasting, that I began to be convicted that fasting needed to be part of my spiritual life. When I fasted I saw God move in ways I had not experienced before. God didn’t show up and stand before me physically, but God did show up and met the need I was fasting for. In the case of Bridge Church, it was that God would use Bridge Church to reach a community and that we would be faithful to the call he had placed on the church.

Today I challenged Bridge Church to pick a day this week and fast. I asked them to identify a need they might have in their life such as breakthrough, clarity, or courage. When we have a spiritual hunger we should fast and when we fast I believe that we will have a spiritual. I hope that makes sense. God asks us to fast from food because food is something we have to have, a necessity. People who say we can fast from the internet, tv, music etc… miss the boat on this. Those things are not necessities and we can live without them. We cannot live without food and we cannot live as believers without God’s presence.

Fasting is all about God’s presence, not God’s presents. Many people fast for money, things etc… Wrong motive! Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things(needs) will be added unto you – Matthew 6:33.

Try a God centered fast this week. You might be surprised what God will do, when you live this spiritual discipline.