Fasting

I take several medications and I wonder how this community feels about fasting. Do you deny your body of everything but water? I have seen there is quite a bit of intelligence on here and would love to hear the different views. I do not drink or smoke however I do smoke marijuana before I go to bed. Just a single joint, I do not over use And change my state of mind.
Please share how I you think fasting should be handle for someone in my situation or similar. I look forward to reading the different views from a very knowledgeable group that this is.

I, like you, take a couple medications (supposed to take them with food.) I used to fast food for a couple days at a time when younger, but just to see if any change might occur. I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others also. Would it be for health or spiritual benefit? Not sure.

Welcome to CC, Steve.

Upavasa (Fasting) means forgetting food, when you are immersed in God. (Upa = Near God, Vasa = Immersed). But today people are fasting by force, suffering with hunger. This is not Upavasa. When you do such fasting, Yogi Vemana says ‘Kuudu Vidachi Malamu Kudchura Upavasai’. This means a little excretory matter is left over in the digestive system after motion. When you fast the digestive system assimilates this little excretory matter. So on that fasting day, one has eaten the excretory matter instead of food! Similarly if you do not get sleep due to thinking of God, that is ‘Jagaranam’ (Not sleeping in the night. But people are stopping their sleep by force.

There should not be force to stop eating or sleeping. If they are stopped without force, automatically due to immersion in God and then only ‘Upavasa’ and ‘Jagaranam’ are fruitful. Aspiring some benefit, people are doing Upavasa and Jagaranam by force. Such acts are waste and useless. The right knowledge is necessary in any religious deed.

I think fasting is a matter of the spirit, you need to remember that the earthly rules of how to do it don't count----it is the spirit that counts. When we fast we deny the material in order to immerse ourselves in the spiritual of God.

I have taken advantage of the wonderful power of fasting only once--now I am handling extremely advanced age. I used a five day fast for God to direct me as I faced a complete change in my lifestyle and relationships. In the world of the flesh, poor poor me seemed the only option I had. It was a total fast except for coffee, my time spent in bible study and prayer for five days. The Lord replaced my "poor me" with joy and gave me painting in oil;s to fill the time I had that the Lord couldn't use. (See the rose at this post)

Fasting, originally, was abstaining from consumption of food or drink. It has been broadened to mean abstaining from any "normal" activity. If you are wondering about fasting from food specifically, I would recommend Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. It's soundly practical and based on his own significant experience.

Hi Sridatta,
It appears that you are drawing from a belief system other than biblical Christianity. Any teacher with the title "Yogi" would be associated with a form of Hinduism. Hinduism and Christianity are not compatible in any way. We believe there is one God, not many, and that He came to Earth as the man Jesus, died on the cross, rose again from the dead, and is seated now in heaven. He is the only way to salvation, for there is no other Name given among men by whom we must be saved.

I believe that most people think of fasting as no "nourishment" in the form of food or drink.... no sports drinks, etc...
Obviously, one cannot go without water, but doing without food is not generally a physical hardship... underlying medical conditions excepted, of course. Check with your doctor if you have concerns there.

I have also read that when you are fasting, your body will "tell" you when it is time to break the fast. Apparently after a day or so, your body ceases to feel hunger pangs.. then when you DO feel hunger again, it's time to stop the fast.
Also, when stopping the fast, you are supposed to gradually add food back into your system... don't just go eat a large meal right away.
I've heard that you should gradually add food back in for almost as long as you fasted. In other words, if you fasted for 4 days, you should "wean" yourself off your fast for about 4 days before resuming full food consumption.

There are many benefits associated with fasting, health-wise... along with the spiritual benefits, if that is why you are fasting... to devote yourself more fully to prayer...

... Yum.

Health wise, I don't see how smoking anything would be good for your lungs. I hear marijuana is rougher on the lungs than tobacco. That may be because it is expensive or hard to come by, and I hear pot smokers hold it in a long time.

The trend toward calling a vegetarian diet 'fasting', is a bit odd to me. Daniel actually fasted, but he abstained from unclean food from the king, which included meat, and ate vegetables on another occasion.

When I lived in Indonesia, a lot of people fasted water and food during daylight hours, including Christians. So I was trying to find the water-only fast I was used to from Christians in the US, and I couldn't find any passage where it says something fasted and drank water. There are passages about Moses or Jesus fasting and things like that, and references to fasting without the 'mechanical' details of it. But I did find two passages where people fasted both food and water. One was when Esther and others fasted before she went before the king. There was another occasion in the Old Testament.

I am not against the water-only fast. I don't think I've fasted water. Those who do so in Indonesia may fast food and water during daylight hours for a particular period of time, or fast food and water until dinner or until lunch. I spoke with one pastor's wife who said she fasted either 21 or 40 days just drinking one glass of water at night and that was all. I don't know if, medically, I could have gotten away with that in that tropical environment that usually feels like a mild summer in the deep south (maybe up to low '90's) unless something miraculous happened.

There are supposed to be some medical benefits to intermittent fasting-- releasing keytones and such. No doctor has told me to fast. I wouldn't intentionally fast like that unless it was for spiritual reasons. I think I've done three days without food once, but usually fasting for me is until an early dinner and I drink water, but nothing else. If it's a hot day and I need to keep the water from getting hot in a plastic cup in the car, I might use ice, too, or forget I am fasting and put ice in my water.

There is also that passage in Isaiah about a fast that pleases the Lord about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

the Old Testament has earthly obyiscal
Patterns ofnthe New Testament fasting from food is a pattern of Christian’s abstaining from works of the flesh in other words fasting morally and behaviorally fasting from worldly things that interfere with our spiritual growth and focus

Food is about our flesh the food laws were about the flesh

for instance clean and unclean foods defined by the law was a physical pattern of the spiritual issue revealed To us in the gospel

“And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭7:18-23‬ ‭

what we eat or even when we eat isn’t a matter of the gospel it was a matter of the earthly physical patterns of the spiritual issue

under the law eating the wrong food made a person unclean in the gospel it can’t affect our status with God but what we think about , what we say and do will what comes out of us will not what food we take in this is the change that happened all physical laws were a pattern of the true spiritual laws

we want to fast from the works of the flesh and not worry any more about whether we eat food every day or not we want to make sure we don’t get comfortable in our flesh nature is the thing and remain in repentance

fasting was a part of that in the e ot they would not eat , spread ashes on themselves and tear thier garments to appear as destitute and sorrowful and humble and meek needy and repentant

we have the gospel to induce repentance and don’t need to do any of that we don’t need to worry about the flesh but to follow the spirit

“for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:17-18‬ ‭

I’m not saying fasting isn’t a benefit if you believe it is, just that the testaments have changed and how we interact with God has changed.

we have the living water to drink daily but it’s spiritual water and we have the bread of life to wet every day but it’s spiritual food and when we fast it should be towards the things of the flesh

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

( we want to fast from any of these )Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16-17, 19-21‬ ‭

but if we are hungry and don’t eat I’m not sure what spiritual principle we’re accomplishing now more an excercise of our own Will power not to eat when we’re hungry .

The gospel will
Induce fasting from spiritual evil on earth like lust , pride , grudge bearing , greed , selfishness and then we can begin spiritually fasting in Christ

I'm not exactly clear what you mean by "Please share how you think fasting should be handled for someone in my situation or similar." Are you asking for medical advise?

Advice:

Stop poking smot while you are fasting. Stop poking smot while you are not fasting. They say only users lose drugs.

I heard drink grape juice. Or you could use slim fast or boost. It's important to stay healthy. I once did a 35 day fast until I was forced to eat or be kicked out of bible college. As for marijuana don't think it makes you lost. It's not a salvation issue.

I always like to use Jonah as an example to fast when one is trying to get the Lord's attention. Let's go into Jonah 3: 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Thank you to everyone who gave input, has gave me ideas on how to approach and execute.

Fasting is no good if you dont spend that time in prayer as well

Otherwise its just a diet.

My understanding of fasting is that although we are eating seemingly simple foods, in fact, apart from the meaning of food, eating is the most closely connected with the secular world. Fasting may help us to free ourselves from the secular concept, whether it is prayer or communication with God, it may be a good way.