Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough and Healing

Fasting can feel intimidating, exhausting, and no fun. But I’ll tell you what. Fasting can become a joy when we really understand just how powerful it can be. Fasting is literally a “fast” track to spiritual breakthrough, deliverance, and miraculous healing.

She really wanted to fast.

When I was in college, I was part of a prayer intensive called The Furnace. One thing I’ll never forget was when one of the leader’s wives, who was great with child, about how her pregnancy was going. And they asked her what was the hardest part of being pregnant. I thought she might say that she couldn’t have wine or eat sushi or that she was having morning sickness. These are the usual things I heard. But when she genuinely shared that the hardest part about being pregnant was that she couldn’t fast, I was honestly dumbstruck. Who says that?! She was lamenting that she couldn’t fast for that season of pregnancy. But she knew deep in her soul that the reward of fasting is spiritual breakthrough and healing. She was looking forward to both the joy of holding her baby in her arms one day and looking forward to the joy she found in fasting.

I remember marveling at this pregnant woman and her honest sadness and longing about not being able to fast. I remember thinking she must know something about it that I don’t understand. The fire of both curiosity and power was lit by this woman’s testimony about how she longed to be able to fast again.

I know I have a lot to learn about the true power of fasting, but I started to tap into that power while I was in the Furnace. That intensive season was aptly named, as I feel I’ve been in various furnaces of sorts ever since. But that was a special season, my senior year of college. I stowed away to prayer and time in the Lord. That was the very best way to prepare for life after college.

Longing for the Breakthrough

At that time, I had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes infertility. The doctors told me at age 18 that I wouldn’t be able to have children. And that’s all I ever wanted. At such a young age, the doctors were telling me that my chances of having babies someday were slim to none. I cried and prayed and set my feet to do anything I could to get healing.

My family got a Christmas card that year when I was home from a family I didn’t know and don’t remember ever meeting. It was several typed pages, and for some reason, I sat on the stairs and read the entire thing. The woman wrote about a massive sickness she faced and how they fasted and prayed and how God healed her. It was a miracle and she gave glory to God and to the power of prayer and fasting for her healing and spiritual breakthrough.

When I read the letter and listened to the sermons on how fasting Christians fast and thought of this enigma of a pregnant woman who longed to be able to fast again… it was clear. I needed to try more of a fast than I’d been doing. During this season, I also [overheard a man telling his testimony of fasting] and how he was able to see angels towards the end of his 40 days.

All this gave me a sense of wonder. And these testimonies taught me that at least it’s worth a try!

Giving Fasting a Try

I don’t remember a lot about those long days except that it was difficult to walk through campus. I kept going and persevered. But it didn’t feel like anything was happening. At all. The whole time. I did wonder if this was just self-torture or if God was going to somehow open up the heavens for me any moment. I prayed for my healing and my babies.

Long story short, God did heal me. That entire story is for another day. But MIRACULOUSLY, all my symptoms but one stopped that very day! And God healed me. When I married my beloved and we wanted to start a family, I’m pleased to report that the doctors were wrong and God reversed the story and He heard those prayers!

Let’s be honest. It’s a rare woman who finds joy in the fasting. But the joy comes when you taste and see and know that God is good. When we fast, we have an extra confidence that God hears our prayers. Jesus explained in Matthew 17 that some healings and deliverances can only happen by prayer and fasting.

Fasting Accomplishes More Than It Seems.

Yes, fasting can feel lonely, exhausting, pointless, and ineffective when you’re in the middle of it. But I’ve heard story after story where breakthrough happened during a fast, at the end of the fast, or often after the fast. Many people say they felt like nothing was happening at all and saw no victory at all until it was over. Sometimes months later!

Regardless of how we feel, fasting leads to spiritual breakthrough by breaking up the hard earth and watering the seeds of faith and miracles. It takes time before we see the natural fruit of what was actually happening in spiritual realms while we fasted. I woke up earlier this week hearing the kind whisper of Holy Spirit, “When you fast, you trade your natural strength for supernatural strength.”

No matter what you have been battling and no matter what you’ve been trying to get free from, be it financial or health-related or spiritual or relational or all of the above… My best advice to you is to just try prayer and fasting. Start small. Maybe just one day. Start with just liquids or juice. Or just fruit and veggies. But whatever you do, start and try. Fasting accomplishes so much more than we think. It allows you to trade your natural capacities for supernatural ones. And it’s worth it. Every time.