Fasting is not something unique to Christian, Jews and Islam. In fact it is found in many other religion as most religion has some form of fasting. The Hindu fast, Baha'i fast, Buddhist fast, and even Pagan do fast. Although Judaism is a very ancient religion yet no religion can be said to have invented fasting. The idea does not originate from any particular religion but it is found deep in the nature of man. In man you find a deep hunger to reach out to the divine and have some kind of communion with God. Fasting is the expression of that hunger and desire to reconcile with God and have fellowship with Him. Man wants to taste of the supernatural, they want to partake in the things of the divine as such they fast.


Fasting, whatever form it may appear and whatever religion it may be found is the attempt of man to reconcile and partake with the divine. Christianity is not just a religion that originated from Judaism neither is it just another religion among other religion. Instead, Christianity is the consummation of all religion. Christianity is Christ and Christ is the sum of all things.

"We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." (Col 1:15-16 MGS).
"He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth." (Eph 1:10 MSG).

All this things of God, all the things of the universe and all the things of man got stated in Christ, got its origin in Christ, and would be summed up in Christ. This propensity of man to fast has its origin in Christ. Fasting got started in Christ and would be summed up in Christ with all its various forms and expression in the diverse religions. Christianity (or rather Christ) is the summation of fasting in its many forms. In Christ you find the many different kind of fasting summed up in harmony despite of the diversity in the days of fasting, the purpose of fasting, the method of fasting etc. Fasting as practice by man has its origin in Christ, therefore in Christ you would find the original and the real fasting. There is something that exist in Christ that man is trying to express or copy.

Man had always fast to please God. In their many religion, in their many ways they try to reach our to God, to appease Him. But they've failed. God wasn't satisfied with their fast, they couldn't give God the fast that He desire. They thought fast was all about going hungry and starving themselves. This even angered God the more, they were so focus on the rituals that they miss the true meaning of fasting. Fasting was never about going hungry, that is not real fast, man is so blinded. Then God spoke, revealing to them what fasting really is.

"Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." (Isa 58:5-7).

Notice that refusing to eat was never mentioned in these verses. Because refusing to eat is not really fasting. In the eyes of God, what He sees and calls fasting is the work of righteousness. When I first read these verses I was confused and I didn't understand, how does doing certain righteous work be called fasting. Our mind have been condition to think God request hunger strike from us. And it is hard to relate going hungry with with being righteous. Man sight is so limited, all they could see is an act of abasing yourself by going hungry. To man going hungry is the goal, it is fasting. But in God's eyes the goal is righteousness, this is fasting to Him. To Him the process of going hungry is not really fasting, it is only a means to a goal and that goal is the real fasting.

God described fasting as, "freeing those who are wrongly imprisoned; lightening the burden of those who work for you. Letting the oppressed go free, and removing the chains that bind people. Sharing your food with the hungry, and giving shelter to the homeless. Giving clothes to those who need them, and not hiding from relatives who need your help." Man had failed to fulfill this fasting. In all their many method of fasting none were able to meet the target. They got it wrong because they don't have what it take to give God the fast that He desire.

God must have fasting on earth, He must get the fast that He desire. So He sent His Son to give Him the fast that is after His own heart. Jesus came being anointed to fulfill the fasting that God require of man.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” " (Luk 4:18-19).


Can you see the striking similarity between these verses and the verses where God described the fast that He demand. Yes, they are the same, God anointed and sent Jesus to fast the fasting that He described in Isaiah 58:5-7. Man couldn't fast this kind of fast therefore God sent His Son to fast this fasting for man. Christ means the anointed one, yes Jesus is the one anointed to fast the true fasting, for man. Hence, all those who are in Christ have fasted this fasting.


"...we believe if one died for all, then all are dead:" (2 Cor 5:14).

We find this principle all over Scripture. Jesus died so we are all dead, Jesus was righteous so we are all declared righteous, Jesus obeyed therefore we are no longer children of disobedience and Jesus was victorious therefore we have overcome. So also when Jesus fulfilled the fast that God demanded of man, we are fulfill that fast. We have fasted in Christ and Christ had become our fast. Just as Christ is our righteousness and our victory, Christ has also become our fasting. One fasted therefore all had fasted.

Those who are in Christ are in fasting. They are living a life of fasting as they live Christ. To the Christians Christ has become their fasting. Other religion can remain in the struggle to please God through fasting but Christ have put an end to that struggle for us. He was anointed to fulfill this fasting therefore he had become this fasting for us. When we practice Christ we practice the fasting that is after God's heart.


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FASTING IN THE NEW COVENANT

"But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do." (1Cor 8:.

About refusal to eat food, the truth is that it doesn't matter whether you refuse to eat or not. You may call it fasting but that is for the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant Christ is our fasting. I know I have just step on something that is sacred to most Christian but the truth need to be told. The Bible made it clear that eating or refusal to eat does not bring you closer to God. What brings you close to God is Christ. The reason why this must be address is that many Christians would go on a food fast while consuming the junk in the world and yet they wonder why the fast is not working.

Fasting in the New Covenant is not about denial to eat but denial to do everything that the carnal man needs. It is refusing to feed the carnal man. Fasting in the New Covenant is utterly spiritual and has nothing to do with natural food or natural hunger. Fasting in the New Covenant is starving the carnal man making him weak so that Christ would be strong through you. If only we understand this and practice the New Covenant kind of fasting we would have very strong Christians doing exploit for the Lord. As a Christian you cannot live with the mentality that all you have to do is periodically abstain from food while you go ahead and feed on whatever poison the world has to offer. No wonder we have so much weak Christians - Christians that don't know how to starve the carnal man but are expect in going hungry.

"One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?” Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved." (Matt 9:14-17).

Jesus' disciples were not fasting and Jesus approved of it. And when he was confronted about it he reminded them about the Jewish tradition and gave them a parable. In the Jewish tradition the guest of a wedding do not fast but there comes a time when the groom would leave the bride for up to a year and the wedding guest would fast for the groom to come back and consummate the marriage ceremony. Jesus went further to give a parable about mixing the old and the new. How does that relate with the demand for his disciples to fast just as other Jews have been fasting? It's simple, the disciples of Jesus are not Jews but Christians. The Jews and their religion of Judaism are for the people of the Old Covenant while the followers of Jesus and the religion of Christianity are for the people of the New Covenant.

Jesus was saying you can't impose an Old Covenant practice on the people of the New Covenant. You can't patch an Old Covenant practice with the New Covenant. The practices of the Old Covenant should remain in the Old Covenant while the New Covenant involve a New kind of practice (yes a new kind of fasting). Jesus said all these while referring to fasting. He was trying to say Christians - the New Covenant people - should not get involve with the Old Covenant kind of fasting which involves the temporal abstinence of natural food. But in the New Covenant there is a new kind of fasting and it is utterly spiritual as it has nothing to do with natural food. But we have failed our Lord, for we have patched old cloth with new cloth and put new wine into old wineskins. This is a disaster and this is why we as the New Covenant people have fallen short of the glory that the Lord has for us.

In the New Covenant, fasting is not something you go in and out, it is not something you do for a period of time. Fasting is a person, it is Christ. And as long as you are in Christ you are fasting. Fasting is our lifestyle, we live a life of fasting as we continue to starve the flesh while exploring the riches of Christ. It is not about natural hunger but spiritual hunger. If the natural fasting of physical food is powerful just imagine how much power reside in the spiritual fasting. I have tasted of it power, just a little sip of it and I know it's greater than anything we've ever know. In just a short period it would catapult you to a spiritual height you never thought you would ever attain in your life time. May our eyes be open to this truth.

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THE FRUSTRATION

Frustration had always been an impetus for fasting. Ancient men fasted as a result of frustration in an attempt to reach God. People from different culture and different religion fasted as a result of the frustration in their attempt to please or appease God. It is frustration that cause man to refuse to eat, to denial themselves of that which is basic to life and go on a fast. Frustration brings man to humble himself before the Creator. Without this frustration man in his arrogance and pride would never humble himself before God. But these are the types, the shadows and copies of fasting.

In the reality found in Christ fast is the starvation of the flesh in all its lustful cravings in order to express the life of Christ in us. Remember, Christ is fasting, therefore living by the life of Christ is living a life of fasting. The seed of this fasting also lies in frustration. In our flesh we've tried hard to please God, to get closer to Him and to taste of the things of God but nothing seem to be working. In our arrogance we think we have what it takes to please God. We think if we should just struggle hard enough we would attain spiritual height. But all our effort yield nothing because they are done in the flesh. And finally we cry, "alas I have failed a thousand times, I do not have it in me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will deliver me."

We discover that the flesh in all of its ability can't please God nor partake in the things of th divine. We are broken; brought to the end of ourselves. Seeing that we are not sufficient enough while our soul continue to cry our for a greater experience of God. We want Him! We just want Him but there seem to be no way to reach Him as our ability has failed us. How much we hate ourselves; we hate the flesh. It only we can get rid of it, it is no good, for its lust, sinfulness and weakness had denied us of our heart greatest longing - the Father's love and acceptance. How can we find peace with the God and fellowship with Him? Right there, at the peak of frustration and desperation we learn of Christ the fasting. Oh, fasting (Christ) is the way, it is the way to peace about fellowship with the God.

Through fasting (Christ) we are reconciled with God and we accepted by the Father as He is now please with God. We enter into this fast (Christ) and we never want it to stop. We learn to live a life of fasting and enjoy fellowship with God. That we may reach this point of frustration and desperation. That we may desire Christ our fasting and embrace him with all our being. That we may realize that outside of Christ we are alien to God. Let us fast, for this is a commandments of God. We must enter into this fast.

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AN HUNGER FOR STARVATION

We've spend all our lives try to feed the flesh, to yield to it and its hunger. We thought if we can just give its enough food and satisfy it we would be happy. We seek the pleasure of satisfying the flesh. We chase after our lustful desires, we try to satisfy our mental curiosity, our evil cravings, our moral justification, our religious inclination, our self-preservation and all that the flesh deem necessary. We've believe being awaken to our carnal instincts would enable us live a longer, safer and happier life. "Just give the flesh what it wants and you would be happy; if only I can get what I want I would be happy." These are our thought the deception that the devil have put into our heads.

After pursuing the cravings of the flesh and satisfying all its needs we discover there is a deep dissatisfaction in our soul. We are still not happy and the flesh keep demanding for more. Would there been an end to this cravings? Would the flesh ever be satisfied and be happy. It now begin to dawn on us that we've believed a lie; the flesh would never be satisfied and be happy. We now notice a wariness in us, a cry for something we never knew existed. This cry have been there all along but we never notice them because we are too busy feeding the flesh. Trying to listen closely we had to stop feeding the flesh. We deny the flesh of its food in order to hear this cry louder. We now hope that this cry would lead us to something better. Why feed the flesh anyway, it has only made us miserable.

All these had made us hungry. Hungry with a different hunger, an hunger to starve the flesh and follow that silent voice. It led us to fast as we refuse to feed the flesh, we are tired of feed it anyway. Yes, we entered a fast and this fast has a name - his name is Jesus. That cry had led us to Christ and in him we deny the flesh like it never existed, deadening ourselves to its lust. As a result we begin to feel an excruciating hunger in our flesh but we struggle not to yield to it. Our flesh grew weaker daily but in our spirit we are refreshed, we are beginning to know Christ as our satisfaction. This satisfaction is so great that we never want to go back and seek the satisfaction of the flesh. We would now remain in fasting for the rest of our lives, for our new focus is pursuing Christ and getting closer to God through Christ. Yes! In this fasting there is happiness as we feel closer to how Creator and we now enjoy a wonderful fellowship with Him.
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