Tag Archives: fasting

How Fasting Can Radically Change Your Life Forever

How Fasting Can Radically Change Your Life Forever

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Fasting and praying on a regular basis can be a life-changing experience. (Lightstock)

What if one simple act—one singular dedicated effort or sacrifice—could better your life, your soul forever? What if that sacrifice took just an hour or two or even an entire day?

Would you do it? Would you consider it worth it?

What if that very sacrifice could sharpen your focus, open your heart and move the hand of God in others and your own life?

If what I asked has peaked your interest, know that I inquire because I have the answers to these questions based on personal experience. What I have to share has the ability to better your life forever once you make the choice to take the adventure.

Twelve years ago, my friend Wendy and I felt prompted to journey down the road of fasting and prayer together. But why would two average women who love to talk and do typical "girl" stuff, and who also really love food, want to give it up for any period of time? God whispered in the inner places of our being to draw closer to Him in a new way.

Suddenly, we didn't want the status quo anymore. We believed and we studied, but in the hidden parts of our heart, we knew there was more. We wanted to engage in the spiritual realm on a deeper level, one we had not yet experienced. We wanted more … so much more.

So, one day a week, from Monday night after our family dinners to Tuesday night before family dinner, we would fast and pray. We were ready for powerful changes, amazing answers to our requests and nothing short of miracles. What we got was instruction and a thorough look into the condition of our soul.

It was hard, to see what still existed in the corners of our minds and the recesses of our hearts. We found the thoughts, the unforgiveness, and the resistance to righteousness still alive and well. Big and little wrongs, judgments and critical spirits. Excessive self-awareness in danger of becoming narcissistic, fear, striving.

However, we were not bombarded with this all at once. Our God is very gentle, very kind. Yet, He is truth and truth was what He intended to show us.

Did He show us our shortcomings to condemn us? Never! He showed us this to better us, to mature us, and to prepare us to come before Him with those sincere, heartfelt requests we desired to have answers to. Yes, and He was, as Scripture puts it, "doing a good work in us."

When we fasted and prayed, our senses were heightened. We focused on getting alone in our own special designated locations to get quiet, to listen and speak once we had been spoken to. On occasion we would speak first, but that was usually to worship and confess anything that had been revealed by our loving Lord. This spiritual discipline tuned our ears to hear the voice of God so that He could meticulously take the sin, the baggage, the past hurts and present trepidations and give us the peace of His presence. We allowed Him control and, as we relinquished our very lives to Him, He would work His good and perfect will in us to much greater and richer places only found through Him.

As time went on, we grew quickly. No longer did we dread the hours we couldn't eat, nor did we binge the night before just so we were sure we had a reserve to live from.

Instead of hungering for food, we hungered for time alone with God, looking forward to His gentle correction and His drawing near to us in a way that filled us with peace, joy, hope and purpose. We were energized and eager to know more about Him, more about us and use what we learned to help encourage others to do the same.

In both of us, God strengthened our faith for the tough times. This was valuable during times of job loss, illness and relationship issues. Sometimes life's pain can cut so sharply you can't find the words to pray. That's when your fasting friend can intercede for you, giving you peace that your concerns—if not from you own mouth—still reach God's throne with the same intensity. The weighty value these prayers carry for a hurting heart provides hope; the hope that eliminates stress that could lead to irreparable health damage. 

Our book, Fast Friends, The Amazing Power of Friendship, Fasting and Prayer, releases October 1. It is our chosen path, ordained by God and it has forever altered our very existence.

Our lives don't look the same as before. We see people differently; we see life differently. We have new aspirations, new leading and guidance, new eyes with which to see ourselves and the future. It's all because a God who loves us more than we could ever comprehend planted a seed of desire to draw closer to Him. Fasting and prayer was the tool, finely fashioned by the hand of God, and the plan, lived out in the Bible by many of the faithful, for us to follow.

We received answers. Some were yes, some were no and some told us to wait. Some spared us and our loved ones from pain and sorrow of which we are not aware. Some answers are yet to come because God's timing is not ours.

One answer that comes quickly to mind concerns Wendy's daughter, Sydney, who was born with cerebral palsy. When Sydney was 4-years-old, the doctors estimated she would need multiple surgeries until her growing ceased. As we fasted and prayed that God would overrule that diagnosis, Sydney continued to grow. Today, she is 14 and surgery hasn't been required.

Fasting and prayer is a lifestyle. God willing, we will continue to fast and pray together until our time is done.

And that "so much more" we were seeking? It has exceeded our hopes and dreams and manifested in ways we would never have fathomed. If God could empower Wendy and me to live this way, He can do the same for you.

Will you join us and dare to live life in the spiritual realm, where you will meet with and know God in ways that you never thought possible? Will you dare to become everything God wants you to be in order to truly know Him? We can promise you will never regret it.

We were made in God's image and created for more than what this world has to offer, and so were you.

Suzanne Niles is the co-author of the new book Fast Friends, The Amazing Power of Friendship, Fasting and Prayer. Find out more at www.fastfriendsbook.com

Five Ways Fasting Can Change Your Life

Five Ways Fasting Can Change Your Life

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You have the choice to change your life by a simple decision. It is fully within your ability to make this choice, and absolutely within God’s power to give you the strength for the sacrifice. Fasting and prayer, if faithfully done, will alter your existence, rock your spiritual world and bring your life on this earth into “God’s” perspective. We know because it is doing that for us. You can’t argue with personal experience; it is fact and it is incredibly exciting.

Wendy Simpson Little and I answered a call from God to enter into a relationship of weekly fasting and prayer. We followed a routine of one day a week, from after Monday night dinner to before Tuesday night dinner. We felt led to fast from food, but you may be led to fast other things. How much time do you spend on social media? If given the choice to run to God or grab the remote, which would you choose? Don’t worry, only you and God need to know the answer.

Naiveté would be one way of putting it in regards to our leap into this spiritual discipline. We thought the simple equation of Prayer + Fasting = Quick Fix Answers was what we should expect. Little did we know that our heavenly Father would choose first to carefully address the areas in our life that needed fixing, confession and repentance.? What a gracious God He is to only want the best for us—transformation that likens us to his Son. Thankfully, He continues to refine and replace those sinful and broken places with His faithful forgiveness and invaluable instruction. The outcome? We will continue to fast and pray, to live it out as our lifestyle, until God takes us home. Why? Once you come this close to God, you don’t retreat.

Let’s talk about five of the things that can change our lives when we fast and pray:

1. Fasting and prayer can help us hear from God. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3, NIV).

For those of you who truly know Jesus, how could you ever resist that appeal? You have been invited to “call” to Him in prayer. His Word says that He will tell us things we don’t know, which is very helpful in point No. 2! If you want deeper intimacy with God then we highly recommend you enter into a sacrificial space in time where you seek Him like never before.

2. Fasting and prayer can reveal our hidden sin. “My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes” (Jeremiah 16:17, NIV).

God can see our sins like a flashing neon sign. Nothing is hidden from His sight. We have found that frequently the harder sins to acknowledge are the hidden ones, especially when they involve our motives and attitudes.

When we fast and pray, we are taking time away from a meal or an activity to devote our entire being to focus on God. We find we are more sensitive to the voice of God, more attuned to hearing what He has to reveal to us. Gently, God whispers in our mind what we were really thinking at the time of our sin, what our true intent was and we are shocked … momentarily. Then like a light turned on in a pitch black room, we see it. We did mean harm. We were manipulative. Even though our recognition makes us want to hide our face, our loving Savior lifts our chin to look into his forgiving eyes. As we repent, we no longer want to hide, but to praise and worship the very one who confronted our wrong.

3. Fasting and prayer can strengthen intimacy with God. “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV).

As you remain consistent in prayer and fasting, over time, you will crave more quiet time alone with your heavenly Father. Psalms 42:1 says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God”. The more you know of God, the more you want. Fasting and prayer is a great catalyst to create an insatiable hunger for God’s presence and you will enter into a place of deep intimacy with our Lord.

4. Fasting and prayer can teach us to pray with right motives. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3, NIV). The more you focus on your prayer time, pressing in with heightened sensitivity through the sacrifice of fasting, your will aligns with God.

No longer are you praying with wrong motives, but are petitioning the Lord with a heart of worship, gratitude and an outward vision that cares for the needs of others. 1 John 5:14–15 tell us that we can have confidence then as we approach God, knowing “that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him (NIV). This is great news!

5. Fasting and prayer can build our faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV). God says He will answer our prayer. As we fasted He has bolstered our faith by answering incredible requests with many a yes. He has also built our faith by helping us trust when He says no. Whatever the answer, we have learned that we can believe God knows best. Our reward is the peace that comes from being fully surrendered to God’s control over our lives.

We have come to know God like never before. His grace amazes us that He would call us into this sacrificial relationship where we gain infinitely more than we give up. God has changed our lives through prayer and fasting—are you ready for Him to change yours?

Suzanne Niles and Wendy Little are authors of the newly released book Fast Friends (Broadstreet Publishing, October 2015).