Four Types of Fasts

By: Andy McMahon

The goal of fasting is intimacy with God and clarity in hearing His voice. Biblical fasting always has to do with eliminating distractions for a spiritual purpose; laying down the pleasures of earth to take up the pleasure of heaven. It also enables us to recognize the goodness of God and align our hearts with His.

Your fast should present a level of challenge, but it is very important to know your body, your options, and, most importantly, to seek God in prayer and follow what the Holy Spirit leads you to do.

Complete Fast

In this type of fast, you drink only liquids, typically water with light juices as an option. It is important to drink much more water that you usually do during the day. We suggest one ounce for your bodyweight. So if you weight 150 pounds, your goal would be 150 ounces.

This fast is not for the ‘spiritually elite,’ mostly because that’s not a thing. This is for anyone that is medically able. Still, if you are new to fasting food we would suggest you check out the Daniel Fasts and Partial Fasts to get acquainted with this discipline.

Daniel Fast

In this type of fast you remove meat, sweets, and bread from your diet and consume water and juice for fluids and fruits and vegetables for food.

This is also called a ‘selective fast.’

Most people choose this type of fast during corporate fasts, so I made a simple guide to it.

Partial Fast

This fast is sometimes called the “Jewish Fast” because in scripture the Jewish people would often not eat from “sun up to sun down,” and involves abstaining from eating any type of food in the morning and afternoon.

Another example of a partial fast is choosing to abstain from food for a certain meal. For example, maybe you could choose to fast breakfast and lunch but still have dinner with your family.

If you are new to fasting food, we would suggest starting with this one and maybe fasting one meal a day.

This is also the type of fast that is most sustainable as you incorporate the discipline into your lifestyle beyond the 21 days we do as a church.

Soul Fast

 

This type of fast helps to restore and refocus ares of our lives that are out of wack. For example, you might choose to stop using social media or watching television for the duration of the fast and then carefully bring that element back into your life in healthy doses at the conclusion of the fast.

The word ‘fast’ in Hebrew literally mean to ‘close the mouth’ so scripturally we hold that a fast involves not partaking in food or certain types of food for a period of time. Still, not everyone is able to do this medically. If you have health issues that prevent you from fasting food this is a great option.If you are able to fast food, our suggestion is pairing a food fast with a soul fast.


Fasting changes things!  

We KNOW that you will see fruit no matter what type of fast you choose to engage in. In fact, we’d love to hear your story either from this fast or a previous one. Click HERE to share that story with us so we can celebrate with you.

6 Comments

  1. Emmanuel Simfukwe on January 3, 2021 at 8:11 am

    It was very helpful have learnt something.

  2. Patrick Simmons on January 14, 2021 at 11:19 am

    Thank you for opening up the several different ways we can fast. Fasting is a heart issue, trusting and relying in God as it’s done in quiet obedience. This is to be done between ourselves and God Almighty👍🏼

  3. Jan on January 28, 2021 at 7:40 am

    Very helpful! Thank you

  4. Regina waithera on March 8, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    Thank you am now able to choose the fasting that fits me

  5. Chris kimilu on April 22, 2021 at 10:51 am

    Very insightful and able to place myself in either types with knowledge.

  6. Della on July 7, 2021 at 7:01 pm

    Thank you I needed more understanding before I go into my fast very informative

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