Fasting with others is different than fasting by yourself. When you fast by yourself, it is harder to remain focused because you are alone. If you are tempted to eat, you don’t have anyone to hold you accountable. Even if you’re alone, though, once you’ve made the decision, through an act of the will, you can always follow through. It hasn’t been a problem for me to sin by breaking my promise to God to set aside the day to fast. It was sin for Jesus to eat a piece of bread before the end of His fast, and He replied to Satan’s temptation that “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4 NASB)
Actually, when you are desiring food, it shows just how little you desire God. Your soul then yearns more deeply for God, to trump the pain of hunger. This is how you draw nearer to God, and why He draws nearer to you.
When I’m fasting alone, I often tell my mother or a close friend so that they can pray with me over the phone in the afternoon and help me to get through the final slump of the afternoon, when it’s the hardest to finish the fast. My energy takes a nosedive after the noon hour. When they pray with me, it suffuses me with strength and enables me to finish the fast.
If someone else fasts with me, I feel a huge difference. When I’m praying and someone else is praying at the same time, there is a power that’s similar to electricity. One time I was praying for the salvation of the husband of one of my friends, and I felt that deep spiritual electricity for three hours. I felt released at 10pm to go to bed. The next day when I got together for a prayer meeting at noon, another one of the ladies who was fasting felt prompted by God to pray intensely from 10pm to midnight. I was so shocked that at the very moment my electricity stopped, it was passed to another woman who was fasting for the same thing. When we all gathered at noon, the five women who had fasted got on the floor and wept before the Lord for this man to come back to Christ.
The Holy Spirit would have never prayed so intensely through me for three hours if He never intended that man to be saved. Because it was the Spirit praying, I knew that my will was God’s will, and that I would be getting the request. (I John 5:14) It’s just a matter of time.
The Spirit can intercede through you. This electricity is not normal. Most of the time I feel nothing. I just fast and pray and choose to put God first. Don’t be disappointed if nothing spectacular happens. When I fasted with my husband about his insomnia, I had no electricity or anything. It was just a lot of hard work of praying. But God answered miraculously by having someone from the church pay for the sleep study. So God honors your fast, even if it’s just drudgery and you don’t seem to be connecting to God. Don’t be discouraged. Continue to press in to God, and He will reveal Himself to you more and more.
This is especially true at first, when we start to pursue God wholehearteldly. There is so much sin that we don’t know about in our lives, that we can’t really connect to God until we ask God to remove it little by little. So it might take several fasts to get to the point where you can actually feel the Holy Spirit interceding so strongly inside of you. I can’t remember how many times I had to fast before I actually experienced this. Also, don’t pursue an experience; pursue God Himself. Who cares about experiences? I want God!
You can also physically get together with another believer who is fasting for the same thing, and it can be a wonderful time of communing before the Lord. What God reveals to one person is confirmed by the other person because you can both hear God because you are emptied of self with no unconfessed sin, pressing into God for an issue that God has placed on your heart.
Here is the audio that explains how fasting with others can be better than fasting alone (to download, right click, choose Desktop, and save)
Have you missed one of our posts about fasting? Follow our “Hunger for God” Fasting Series. (One will be posted each Friday):
- What is Fasting?
- Reasons to Fast
- Seeking Wisdom During a Fast
- How to Fast
- Fasting with Others (this post)
- Fasting for an Enemy
To keep up with my prayer posts, follow my Prayer Page, where you will find exclusive prayer videos to help you hunger for God and establish a prayer life that is truly alive!
Tags: Christian Living, fasing, prayer
Fasting is one of the purest things that we as Christians can do. It gives us a time to fully rely on God for all of our needs.
Absolutely! And it helps us to hunger for God more, which enables us to access His presence in more tangible ways, not always during the fast, but sometimes immediately after the fast.
This is great! I love that you mentioned that there isn’t always that “electricity”. How easily I get discouraged because I don’t feel the Holy Spirit as powerfully as I have previously, but that doesn’t mean that I am not supposed to be engaging in prayer!
Each fast will be different. Sometimes when I fast for other people, I feel a huge burden and an oppression that doesn’t go away until after the fast, because I’m standing in the gap for that person, taking their load.
Fasting increases our faith and strengthens our trust in God. Especially fasting with others also helps create a divine bind which helps blessings to spill over.
Fasting definitely increases our faith, because we see answered prayers, and that builds a history between us and God that stands the test of time.
I have always found that fasting with someone was easier than by myself. Maybe because a chord of 2 or 3 is not easily broken! Thanks for sharing x
Fasting with others is always easier because the time goes by faster, and you don’t feel alone in your suffering.
I love these lines, “Also, don’t pursue an experience; pursue God Himself. Who cares about experiences? I want God!” This is so important not only for fasting but for praying in general. It’s a great reminder that our time with God is not for us but to praise and worship Him!
The Giver is more valuable than His gifts!
Excellent advice. It is so great that you have partners in fasting. Your posts always have real depth to them.
Thank you!
Great post! I have recently been feeling like i need to fast more. You give some great points about the benefits of fasting with others.
There are so many benefits to fasting with other people. I highly recommend it.
Thank you for sharing what you experienced, Susan! You’ve done a great job explaining fasting through this series!
Glad the series has been helpful!
We have seen God intervene so many times as we fasted and prayed. Fasting and praying with others is a wonderful way to be accountable to complete it, as well as accomplishing more in the spirit realm; for there is power in agreement. We hear so little about fasting today. Thanks for sharing!
When we combine in prayer, there is certainly power in agreement, since Christ specifically said where several believers agree, He would do it. Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
Thank you again for working through this topic and just explaining your experiences. It’s important to note that not every experience will have “electricity.” Prayer is so important and I also appreciate that you have others praying for you while fasting.
If it’s a difficult fast to break through something strong on behalf of someone else, to have someone pray that God will strengthen and sustain you during your fast is also helpful, even if that person doesn’t know who you are praying for.
Fasting is something that I have really felt pulled to study and pursue. I have not truly fasted since a weekend event my youth group planned many years ago, and I love what you suggested about having a trusted individual praying for you during that timeframe. Thanks for sharing!
Fasting is a way to seek God more intensely.
Such an interesting series, Susan. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on fasting with us.
You’re welcome. I’m glad the series has been helpful.
God bless you for this post. In deed it is very powerful when you fast with others and the accountability system really helps.
It makes the day go by faster, and if you are upholding each other in prayer, you are strengthened to continue praying.