Natural and supernatural fasting.

 BY Argie Simonis

In addition to normal fasting, there is also the supernatural fasting, such as the one that Moses did, where God supernaturally kept him alive. He did not eat or drink water for 80 days! (2 times of 40 days without any pause. Read Deuteronomy 9:9-25 with Exodus 32:30)

You know, after 3 days without water, man starts to die!

We have a similar example of supernatural fasting with the prophet Elijah:

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." 1Kings 19:4

"And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said to him, Arise and eat." 1Kings 19:5

"And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again." 1Kings 19:6

"And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for you." 1Kings 19:7

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God." 1Kings 19:8

In both of these examples of Moses and Elijah, the Lord preserved them in a way that defies physical laws.

Medical science confirms that a person can go without food for 40 days before he begins to die. Imagine how difficult it was for Jesus that when He fasted for 40 days and reached His limits, the devil came to tempt Him by asking Him to turn the stones into bread.

And after Jesus endured the temptation, angels came to strengthen Him because He was so exhausted that He did not have the strength to go back.

The reason I mention all this is that

1st: YES, it is good to fast,

and

2nd: NO, we NEVER enter into such supernatural fast if the Lord hasn't told us so. 

Because fasting is a spiritual thing, some people totaly ignore the physical part. There are physical laws that must be considered, and as I said, after the third day without water, man begins to die.

 

Attention also to people whose health does not allow them to do extended fasts. It is something that must be done wisely. When we do something without the Lord's direction, we are actually tempting Him:

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them..." Mark 16:18

~~ We do NOT catch snakes, NOR drink poison to confirm this verse, and likewise we do NOT go on endless fasts to show off to people. ~~