Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts (18 page)

We can fast.

When we fast, God gives us light that breaks into our thinking like the dawn of a new day. The light is His perfect will for our lives.

Although the Saint Paul Fast helps us to receive God’s wisdom to make our decisions, its purpose is not to help make insignificant decisions for us. This fast is not for every minor decision in life, such as where to go for lunch or what minor purchases to make. The Saint Paul Fast offers help in weighty decisions such as choosing a mate, resigning a job and other life-changing choices.

John Maxwell makes some excellent observations about making decisions.

Life is centered around decision making. We choose a college, then
choose a major. When we graduate we choose a job and an apartment. We choose the car we’ll drive, and we choose our friends. Mornings present us with the choices of what to wear, what to eat and what to include in our daily priority lists. We choose our attitudes. When we let little things annoy us, we even choose to be grumpy.

Most of life is a choice. Those who have reached the top have a history of making good choices. Like a heavyweight boxer who must win the important fights to become the world champion, those who succeed in life must make right choices in the important decisions that confront them.

Wrong Choices

Wrong choices can lead to disaster. Fasting will not automatically cause us to make better choices. Although it should help us focus on the elements of the decision God wants us to consider, we should also use our own initiatives to be aware of any factors in our lives that have contributed to wrong choices in our pasts.

Wrong emotional perceptions often lead to wrong choices. We choose according to how we perceive things. We think someone hates us when they don’t; they just ignore us. The responses people have made to previous commitments can cause us to make choices for or against them. Tradition can cause us to make wrong choices: “We’ve never done it that way before.” As every parent knows, peer pressure often leads to bad choices: “All the guys are going”—and that pressure can lead to poor parental choices. Pride can force wrong choices, causing us to make poor decisions simply to “save face.”

As the president of a Bible college, I had to purchase a van for our traveling team one summer. Like all struggling Bible colleges, we had little money—not even enough to pay salaries. Four staff members wanted to buy an off-brand German van. Using it to make fund-raising tours would enable us to pay for it, they argued. I was not convinced we should do it, but was daily pressured into making the purchase. Finally, I called the four into my office. We all knelt around my desk and prayed for God to lead us to the right van. When we finished praying, I said, “Go ahead.”

The van was purchased from a private party—not new from a dealership. It caught fire one block away from the place of purchase and was completely gutted. Fortunately, we had pre-arranged for insurance by
telephone, so we were covered. But the parts did not arrive from Germany for six months, so we didn’t use the van to raise money. Instead, we actually lost the use of the money. When the mechanic was finishing the repairs, he tightened a screw in the front windshield too tight, and cracked the windshield. Another three months’ delay occurred before we obtained use of the van.

I made a bad decision, even after praying with four people. We were all convinced it was the right decision. We could easily have made the same bad decision had we been doing a Saint Paul Fast, because we simply did not have enough good information about that brand of vehicle.

Before you begin the Saint Paul Fast about an important decision, you need to have a decision-making strategy. The following strategy will be used throughout the fast, and will become the basis of the decision making process. The five steps of this strategy were not developed especially for this book, but are generally accepted steps that should be followed in any decision-making process. I don’t believe God “drops” an answer out of the blue on us. He is a rational being who guides us through our own minds—first to understand Him and second to apply the principles of His Word to our lives. Fasting can avail us to the application of good decision-making principles.

1. Honestly face any problem that clouds your decision
. Begin your fast by admitting you have a problem. Sometimes this involves confession of sin. “We have sinned” (Dan. 9:5), Daniel confessed, as he faced decisions in captivity. It is useless to fast just to avoid your responsibility to confront a problem. For example, a man may know he has to make a decision about a job, so he says to his friends, “Let’s pray about it.” This is
another way of admitting that he doesn’t know what to do. And while they pray, they don’t follow any strategy in decision making.

The Saint Paul Fast is a means of admitting you must do something about the problem. You have decided to withhold food to help yourself find a solution. One great benefit of this fast is knowing that you are doing something about your problem.

2.
Define your problem
. Be hard on yourself as you approach the Saint Paul Fast. Buckle down to work. Don’t just meditate about symptoms, but write out your problem. Seeing your problem in black and white may result in a different idea about the solution. Also, a well-defined problem is a half-solved problem. When you have clearly defined your problem, you can marshal all your energies toward the solution. During your fast, write and rewrite the problem three or four times. Each time you process the information about the problem, you get a different view-point. Rewrite the problem again. Eventually you will clearly understand the problem, and your mind will focus on an answer.

3.
Gather information
. This involves reports, charts, articles—anything and everything pertaining to your problem. You may need to summon your diary, or other written documents that will give you a “handle” on the problem.

As you gather information, ask, “Why?” Force yourself to look at causes. Why are things as they are?

4.
Make a list of all possible solutions
. Gathering information will force you to think through all potential solutions to your problem. Brainstorm! Write down every way the problem might be solved. List the obvious as well as the foolish solutions. Write everything that comes to your mind. A weak answer may trigger the best answer. Don’t try to answer your problem until you’ve exhausted the list of potential solutions. If you grab too soon at one solution, you may circumvent a better solution. It is important to write out as many solutions as possible to your problem. This way you will find your mind working overtime on each of the solutions.

5.
Choose the best decision
. The act of decision making is not sitting around praying for an answer to drop out of the blue. Nor is it suddenly trying to come up with a better answer. It is choosing the best solution among many. The best solution is uncovered by sifting through all the available facts, and even then, it might not be a perfect solution. Only God and His Word are perfect. So after you have looked at all the data and examined all the solutions, choose the one best for you.

Someone has said, “Make a decision...make it work.” The first step in making a decision work is to make a
commitment
to the decision. Because you know the facts, you must exercise your will; your emotions will follow your will. The whole personality becomes steeled toward the decision—intellect, will and emotions.

A man who wanted to lose weight was looking at various diets. He realized that the amount of sugar in his coffee put him way over his calorie count each day. He loved three teaspoons of sugar per cup of coffee in the five cups he drank daily.

Someone suggested that if he would drink black coffee without sugar for seven days, he would never add sugar again. He accepted the challenge. For six days he drank black, sugarless coffee, but he didn’t like it. On the last day his wife suggested, “Add a little cream to take away the bitter taste.” He did. Ten years later he drinks his coffee without sugar, just a little cream. When someone mistakenly gave him coffee with sugar, he couldn’t drink it. What kind of decision radically transformed his coffee habit? He knew with his intellect what he wanted (i.e., to cut calorie intake). His emotions of enjoyment were important. He marshaled his will. The total personality made a decision—a permanent decision.

The Saint Paul fast began at a time when Paul needed to correct his horribly wrong idea about Christianity. The New Testament introduces Paul as the young man who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen (the first recorded Christian martyr) to death. Later, Paul testified that he persecuted Christians to the death (see Acts 22:4). Paul had a misconception about God. He saw Him as a narrow, Jewish God. Paul did not understand God’s love for the world. He went door to door arresting Christians and throwing them into prison. On what charge? They were followers of the Way—Jesus Christ who said, “I am the Way” (John 14:6). Paul was traveling down the wrong highway, doing the wrong thing, with the wrong attitude.

What could turn him around? Jesus Christ, who radically changed his life as he traveled down the highway—better known as the Damascus road. How did that change take place? For three days after meeting Christ, Paul fasted without eating or drinking. In those three days he
reassessed and rethought his views of both God and Jesus Christ. During that time God spoke to him, gave him revelations and laid the embryonic foundation for the entire theology of the New Testament.

The Saint Paul Fast is for gaining insight and wisdom. Paul gained life-changing insight and wisdom from this fast, and it became the basis for Paul’s changing the direction of Christianity. The Saint Paul Fast became the most important fast in the Christian Church. The following 10 principles drawn from Paul’s original fast can direct your own.

Step 1: Make Time to Listen for Jesus’ Voice

As he was traveling down the highway to Damascus, Paul heard the voice of Jesus and fell to the earth (see Acts 9:4). Paul was directed into a house off Straight Street in the city of Damascus. There he had time to meditate upon what he had heard. We, too, when we hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us, must know we are listening to the One who can help. God is too loving to deceive us and too kind to hurt us. Begin your Saint Paul Fast by listening for the Lord to speak to you. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

Some will pray for one day, not eating food for 24 hours. (See glossary for the typical fast.) Some will eliminate liquids. Others will pray one day a week for three or four weeks. Some will fast for three days as did Paul. During whatever time frame is chosen, they listen for God and concentrate on the decisions before them.

Step 2: Ask and Answer Questions About Yourself

The greatest thing about the Saint Paul Fast is that we can look into the mirror of self-examination to see ourselves. At the beginning of the fast, we still see ourselves as we think we are. Time invested in the presence of God will cause us to see ourselves as we really are.

When Paul was on his knees on the Damascus road, God asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Paul honestly thought he was serving God when he was persecuting Christians. Sometimes we think we are on God’s side when we’re really not. We think we are making a decision that is right—a decision that is in the will of God—but it’s not. When God comes looking for His people, He often asks a question to make them ask themselves “where they are”—just as He came asking, “Adam,...where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9,
KJV
).

Obviously, God knew where Adam was. Adam was hiding naked in
the bushes. God asked the question not to locate him, but to make Adam realize what he was doing.

God came asking Cain why he was downcast (see Gen. 4:6). Obviously, God knew why Cain was angry, but He wanted Cain to face his feelings. A question is often God’s way of teaching us what we need to do.

When you fast, let God ask questions. You can do this by first studying what Scripture says about the issues pertaining to your decision. Second, in quietness allow God to speak to your conscience. After God had asked Paul a question, the confused Jew in turn asked God a question, “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5). Paul didn’t recognize the transfigured Son of God who had stopped him from entering Damascus with vengeance in his heart. Paul asked an appropriate question. Until we know who God is, we cannot know what to do. God will not show us an answer until we want to know Him. He will not show us an answer until He shows us Himself.

Step 3: Recognize the Objective Truth

As we approach a decision we may be confused, discouraged or, at least, “shut up” to our own thinking. The Saint Paul Fast will change our introspection. The answer may be silently awaiting our discovery. The answer is not within—it’s without. Although Paul was stunned and confused, he recognized that the answer was in the Lord (“Who are you, Lord?” Acts 9:5), not in himself.

Sometimes God speaks with loud authority. At other times He speaks with a still, small voice. We have to listen to hear Him. God’s silence can feel threatening; however, in those quiet moments, we tell God by our fasts that we are searching for Him and for His answer.