Working The Word (Walking Away From Addiction Into The Sweet Arms of Jesus) Let's Talk About Fasting

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around the Globe”

October 18, 2016

Let’s Talk About Fasting

Daniel 1:12

 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 

Today we are going to talk about everybody’s least favorite subject I am guessing – fasting. Yes, that’s right, fasting. That means doing without. Once your flesh gets done screaming at me, settle down and receive what God has for you in this. Laugh first! I am always as surprised as you are at the topics for the day. I never know what the topic will be from day to day. Nor do I know what the Lord will bring out. It is Holy Spirit doing the work. I am just the typewriter. The tongue of a ready writer.

Why am I led to talk about fasting today? Because I just had to fast in order to undergo a colonoscopy. What fun! Two not very popular subjects! Talk about a double whammy! Yes, and it was. I had not fasted food for an entire day in a very long time. It had been too long in fact. Sunday I had to forego eating to prepare for the test first thing Monday morning. As  I went through the day, it was really no big deal. I drank my favorite tea and some lukewarm water to soothe my stomach. I had asked for a low volume prep so I didn’t have to drink as much fluid and the prep went well. I only had one bout of nausea because I tried to drink too  much water at one time at 2:00 in the morning.

Those were not pleasant moments and I’ll spare you the details. The thing is, previously I had fasted on a weekly basis. I would go all day without eating. I went to work and then I went to prayer at church, having no food until I got home after 8:00 at night. And it had been fine. Once I was in the mode, I became used to it. Now because of the food addiction I struggled with, the Lord has called me to a lifestyle of fasting. Everywhere I go, I must decline foods that others are partaking of. And I have become quite accustomed to it. It really does not bother me now to turn my head away from all that food – most of it is pure junk that would bring no nutritional value to my body whatsoever.

Fasting is good for our bodies. They need to rest from food intake occasionally. It is good spiritually. It gives us more time to spend with the Lord and just rest in general. It helps us to see a different perspective. It helps us to reprioritize things. It helps us to see that feeding on the word of God is much more important than even our necessary food….

Jeremiah 15:16

Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.

Job 23:12

I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.

It is true. Eating God’s words can fill us up in ways we can’t begin to understand. It is supernatural. Feeding on His words does something to our spirit and our soul. Remember, God’s word is a living and active thing. Also…

Luke 4:4

But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

  

No cooking! I like that part too. If we would all take this more seriously, myself included here, we would see breakthroughs in our spiritual lives and eating habits such as we have never imagined. It is OK to be hungry. It is no big deal! And God is not looking to starve us to death. He may call us aside to fast for a time, but it won’t be longer than He feels is necessary. Sometimes it may just be one meal.

Two weeks ago when I was in Branson for our church conference for the week of increase, I would get up and just spend time with the Lord in prayer and in His word. After about 2 ½ hours I would get dressed to go to the gym and workout for nearly an hour, and them make the 25 minute drive back to the condo where we were staying. By the time I got home it would be close to lunchtime. One day it was late enough that I was just led to skip the breakfast and move right into lunch. And it was fine. No big deal.  

For the addict, fasting is especially important! Why? We need to starve the flesh! Any time we are struggling with addiction to something, the best way to overcome it is to starve it. What I needed to do even more than I did was to spend time fasting and praying. It would have broken me free from my eating issues much sooner. What was the root for my eating addiction? It was fear. Fear of lack. In the back of my mind I would think that there wouldn’t be enough later. Little did I know this had been ingrained in me as I grew up in a very poor household.

When I fast, it shrinks my stomach. The next day I do not want to eat as much. I was refreshed on this latest round of fasting because I realized it was nothing to fear. There is nothing for any child of God to fear. That comes from the devil! If we are eating out of control, a good way to get it under control is by confessing out loud the word of God over ourselves every day. Fasting will help us to put things into the proper perspective. It can give us much needed time with the Lord. It can help us to realize what is important in life and what is not.

Paul said in Philippians that he had leaned to be abased and how to abound. He became comfortable and content in any situation he faced. He went without food many times. Did he let it rock his world? Certainly not, as he would say. He was content to be full and content to be hungry. He just went about the Lord’s business.

Philippians 4:11-13

¹¹ Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: ¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

People with food and sugar addiction have a different challenge than those with drug and alcohol addictions, as well as other things. Those are not things that must be consumed to stay alive. Food is a necessity for life. Sugar however is not. Sugar should be placed in the drug category because that is what it is. Sugar is a drug and it should be as illegal as cocaine. In fact, studies have shown sugar to be 8 times more addictive than cocaine. That’s powerful. And it is true! How do I know? Because I have done them both. The cocaine leaves one craving more and more. But it makes one feel so terrible when the high is gone that it becomes much easier to walk away from than eating an entire box of Ho-Ho’s in one sitting.

I was so addicted to sugar I felt completely helpless to stop it. Coming from a family with several alcoholics in it, I was the one who got hooked on the sugar. Yes, I did just about every illegal drug out there and plenty of prescription drugs too. But it was the sugar that had a hold on me that wouldn’t let go. How did I get it to stop? I didn’t. I couldn’t. The Lord did it. It was by His Spirit as we can see in Zechariah 4:6-7…

⁶ So he answered and said to me:

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
⁷ ‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”

Whenever someone needs to get free of a behavior, they need to just starve it. In doing this, the cravings will subside. I am not saying that the process of starving the addiction, whatever that may be for you will be easy. Your flesh will scream “at the top of its lungs” so to speak. But starve it we must. For food and sugar addicts, it is a challenge we have to face every single day – unless of course we are fasting.

Learning not to fear hunger, as I did, is a really big deal. One needs to get a little hungry once in a while. It is OK. With the Holy Spirit and the word of God as our strength and our guide, we can do it. We can starve any addiction long enough to make it null and void in our lives. With the heavier drugs, there may need to be some medical intervention to help people with the withdrawals. They can be extremely intense. And it can be dangerous. But if a person will trust in God, He can make it much easier. His power is made perfect in our weakness…

2 Corinthians 12:9

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior should not be addicted to anything but Him. The more we feed on Him, our Bread from heaven, the less we will depend on worldly things to try to gain comfort from them. Those things never really bring comfort anyway. What they do bring is loss and devastation in one form or another. We must also remember it is sin because it is idolatry. 

The Lords takes this very seriously. So we just need to practice the habit of fasting on a somewhat regular basis. If we do, it will make us stronger, healthier and overall we will be much happier. And don’t forget the theme of this devotional. We must work the word. It will work if we work it. We will see the miraculous of walking in freedom and victory because we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength. Praise His name forever!