How feasting leads to fasting.

Human beings are incredible creatures: capable of shaping the world around us - crushing mountains to make roads, draining the sea to make new fields and even escaping gravity to explore the stars - but almost totally incapable of doing anything when we are engrossed in something we are deeply engaged with.

For example: have you ever been so lost in work that you forget to eat? So engrossed in a TV series that you forget to go to bed? So deep in conversation that you missed your bus home?

Have you ever laughed so hard that you forgot to breathe?

Fasting is often described as a spiritual discipline: it is a spiritual task that takes effort, self denial, and can be physically punishing.

While this is true, I don't believe this is a complete biblical picture of fasting. There is a place for us to consciously deny the things of the flesh - to consecrate the things in us that fall short of God's glory - but this is to be done at God's prompting. It is he who shapes us to be more like Christ, and it is he who should tell us what we consciously need to lay down, and when. This prompting can look like a ritual fast (such as Lenten fasting), or just an inclination to fast.

The reason I say that God should prompt it is that, while we may lay something down in faith, if we are not fully committed to the sacrifice, we may fail to lay it down fully, and thus fail to sacrifice. If the act of the sacrifice steals our joy, then God is not in it, and we are likely to come back to it and reclaim it for our own. We come across this principle in tithing: 

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

2 Corinthians 9:7

In giving reluctantly, or under compulsion, we exchange the gift for resentment. 

Fasting is mentioned a few times in the New Testament, and it is usually mentioned in the context of enabling us to carry out supernatural deeds.

In Mark 9, the disciples fail to cast out an unclean spirit from a boy, and the father of the boy appeals to Jesus, who succeeds. When the disciples ask "why could we not cast out the spirit," he tells them that it would only come out through prayer and fasting.

A traditional reading of this is that fasting enables us to cast out demons. This sounds to me like a transactional, or performance based belief: we must pay the price for casting out demons. In fact, we often tie fasting to a time period, as if a longer fast is somehow holier – “I will give up meat for six weeks,” or “I am off Facebook for a month.” This doesn’t add up. We cast out demons by the authority of Jesus Christ, which he gave to us through his Holy Spirit.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

It seems to me that this authority is freely given to us as sons and daughters of God and co-heirs with Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

What if fasting is not the root of our ability to cast them out?

It is interesting that this story takes place immediately after the transfiguration. Jesus has just come from a place of spiritual feasting, so why is he talking about fasting?

Reading about Jesus’ life, it is clear to me that he spent a lot of his time with his father. He knew how to feast in the spirit. He knew how to eat and drink of the spirit beyond the point of satisfaction to the point of overflowing. He also knew that to get to that point, he had to be willing to submit to the feast. He had to value his communion with his father over any other concern, so that he could be so lost in God that he didn't even think about his physical needs. He fasted almost accidentally. He was so consumed by the spirit that (for want of a better word,) he forgot to eat, or drink in those moments. It did not occur to him to eat.

At the very beginning of his ministry, the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke describe a time when Jesus did not eat for forty days. All of the gospels open their account of this by saying that Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness. None of them say that he went there to fast. Mark and Luke say that he was being tempted by Satan during those forty days. Matthew says that that is the reason he went there. None of them say that he went there to fast, but they do say that he did not eat for that time, and that he was hungry afterwards.

Jesus purpose in that place was not to fast, but to meet with his Father and to be tempted by Satan. He was lost in the spiritual realms, having conversations with his Father, the Spirit, and Satan. His sustenance came from the Spirit, and via God's angels. He feasted in the presence of the Father, and he was consumed by it. What if that is the reason he did not eat?

Jesus talks about fasting during his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6, he says that fasting should be done in secret, so that our father may reward us. If we take this to its logical extreme, this means we cannot fast if we are offered food by a friend, as our refusal of food means our fast is discovered. This extreme interpretation would mean that we can only fast effectively when we are in communion with our Father in the secret place.

It seems to me that if our goal is to fast, we will be distracted, and we are likely to fail. Self denial invariably leads to feelings of unfairness, or of comparison (“Why should I deny myself that when others have it and bear fruit?”)

If your goal is to feast in the spirit, you will be distracted from the world, and you are likely to give in to God. In choosing to feast on God, you are choosing to allow the Spirit to captivate you completely, and that is something of which He is infinitely capable.

Revel in him, and you will fast - almost by accident. Seek him first, and you will accomplish fasting, simply through lack of interest in eating. He is the most satisfying meal you will ever taste, and he wants you to eat until your heart can't hold him in anymore.

This kind of fasting will cast out all the demons you are ever likely to meet.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Matthew 6:33