Why We Fast
What is a fast? It’s abstaining from food for a limited period of time to seek God. It’s a denial of self for the purposes of intense spiritual activity.
A fast is not eating fast food.
4 Types of Biblical Fasts
The Normal Fast: Fasting from all food like Jesus did for 40 days and forty nights. (Matthew 4:2)
The Partial Fast: This is when you eat or abstain from eating certain things like when Daniel refused to eat the king’s food, but only vegetables. (Daniel 1:12) (Some people may want to fast from going on the computer or anything else that may hinder time with God.)
The Absolute Fast: This is when you eat and drink nothing like Ezra did when he mourned over the unfaithfulness of his people. (Ezra 10:6)
The Supernatural Fast: When Moses went to get the two stone tablets, he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights and ate no bread and drank no water.” (Deuteronomy 9:9)
Biblical fasts could be 1 day, 3 days, 7,14, 21 days, or 40 days. (Judges 20:26; Acts 9:9; 1 Samuel 31:13; Acts 27:33, Daniel 10:3-13, Matthew 4:1-11)