Like I said, mankind has other definitions for fasting, but can you show me in the bible?
Hi Ladybug
My two cents.
I hope you can bear with me .My grammar suffers. I apoligize in advance for the rambling.
I am no expert but fasting from my own experience and searching the scriptures is one of those things that are easily misunderstood. This is especially true I believe if a person does not have a proper understanding of how and why God used the temporal law as ceremonial or ritual pertaining to the flesh .
The apostate Jews through the oral tradition of their fathers were constantly changing the requirements of the fast. Therefore making the word of God to no effect, as Christ nemesis .
Like all the ceremonial laws set forth as parables..... they speak of the suffering of Christ beforehand, the spiritual meaning is hid.
Fasting as something we do outwardly is in a spiritual way used represents forgiveness from God. (the eternal not seen) The purpose of the fast is to glorify Him not seen.. Our work of fasting is a shadow that points to the spiritual work of God.
Afflicting our souls although required, it is not source for loosening the bonds of the father of lies. The gospel of Christ alone is. Those who say otherwise, the scriptures inform us in the end they have received their reward
Again the purpose of a fast is to show we have been forgiven as we offer them as the word of which worked in us caused the forgiveness (the gospel of hearing by faith)
For if ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you: But if ye forgive
not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward. Mat 6:14
Our fast therefore is not unto ourselves. Put like prayer we go into our closets or private place in a hope that God will likewise forgive others when we offer the gospel of our salvation.
It I believe is why the disciples could not cast out the lying spirits, as demons.. Both prayer
and fasting. With prayer being something we can do and fasting as something God does to loosen the bonds of sin.
Matthew 17:21 Howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer
and fasting.
Mark 9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by “nothing”, but by prayer
and fasting.
The doctrine of fasting seems to have its roots our foundation in “manna” as to how it is used and what it respects spiritually in the book of Exodus.. Which when the word manna is defined simply means ; “what is it”? To represent something that is not of our own selves like the scriptures, our daily bread, the living will of God.
Exodus 16:15 And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: “for they wist not what it was”. And Moses said unto them, This is
the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
On the sixth day they were to gather
twice as much so they could fast on the Sabbath which represented the eternal rest we have by walking by faith. God had set aside that day so that men did not have to do their regular work of a gathering manna . It did not mean they could do no work whatsoever just the work of feeding ourselves according to the work of gathering manna.
And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. Exo 16:22
The one person used as an negative example when he gathered sticks I believe was not faulted for working but the sticks were more to be used to bake or possibly heat up the mana from the previous days. Some liked it hot perhaps. Whatever it was it was unauthorized fire sort of like when Aaron's sons when they changed the a offering by strange fire and they were also killed as example of what not to do.. .
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that
gathered sticks upon the
sabbath day.And they that found him
gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. Num 15:32
The Jewish apostate fathers again performed that through an oral tradition of men (Christ nemesis). and turned it into an opportunity to make it about the flesh by adding addition requirements .Like the Sabbath walk giving it a distance which was up for grabs depending on which father the persons were measuring that kind of by and through. . (again Christ nemesis)
This was again as if the Sabbath was designed for a person, not to move, and a person should just rest up for the regular work needed to feed their bodies that will die. .. That I do not believe would describe the Sabbath rest we do have in Christ, as a rest from our own work we performed during the 6 days.. it would show they were not mixing faith in what they did hear.
They did that with many of the ceremonial laws that were required but again where used as parables in respect to the eternal substance not seen, the faith principle. I
It would be kind of like today putting requirements on what we could eat or how many times on the Sabbath would be acceptable by the fathers the leaders or how much is required or possibly adding some nutrition by adding it to water. .
The true fast does not reflect something we could do called a dead works .But rather the forgiveness we already have in Christ . As we offer the gospel by prayer that he will apply to the hearts of the hearer, the bond can be lifted , as the demons are cast out.