Fasting

There are several different types of fasts. Some are mentioned in the Bible and others are practices that developed over time but that seem to be things God blesses in the area of fasting and prayer. My list is only a partial list, but let me share eight different types of fasts with you:

DANIEL FAST

This is taken from the book of Daniel when Daniel and his friends were taken away as captives to Babylon. They were the bright youth who demonstrated natural ability and skill. So they were made into eunuchs and given all sorts of training and development. (That was sort of like being sent to an elite college.) Part of the package included eating food "from the king's table." But there was a problem with this; much of this food was not kosher. If they ate it, they would break Jewish dietary law. Daniel wanted to honor God in his eating, so he asked permission from the chief of the eunuchs not to defile himself with the food he was given. The chief of the eunuchs said that he'd get in trouble if Daniel and his friends appeared less healthy because of their eating habits. So Daniel proposed a ten day test in Dan. 1:12-13, "Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants."

The end result, verse 15, "And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies."

Daniel's "fast" was not actually a fast, it was a ten day test to demonstrate God would take care of His servants if they obeyed His law and did not defile themselves with non-kosher food. This was never intended as as fast, it was always intended as Daniel's efforts to get permission to observe his religious practices. However, it has served as a model for fasting along these lines: eat only fruits and vegetables during the fast period.

God seems to honor people as fasting when they do a Daniel fast before Him. He is particularly gracious in honoring the vegetables-only type of fast for people who have health problems that make it physically dangerous for them to go without eating, such as diabetics. Most of the time, people who do a Daniel fast stay on it for a lot longer than the ten days that were recorded in the book of Daniel.

SKIPPING A MEAL DAILY

Some people are unable to go without eating for a full day. It may be due to health reasons or it may be due to physical demands put on them by their job. So they will fast one regularly eaten meal per day for their fast period, eating the other regular meals for that day. For instance, if a person was to fast lunch, they would not eat between breakfast and dinner, but would eat both breakfast and dinner.

Please note, if you are a person who doesn't usually eat a meal and you decide to fast that meal, it doesn't count as a fast because it is not something you regularly eat. For instance, if you never eat breakfast, then it would not be valid for you to fast breakfast since you are not really giving up anything you normally eat.

This is actually a partial fast, where you only fast part of the time instead of continually. There are times when God calls a person to a partial fast instead of a full one.

FAST ONE DAY A WEEK

Some people will join a longer fast on a modified basis. They will pray the entire duration of the "fast" period, but they will only actually physically deny themselves food one day a week.

This is another version of a partial fast.

LIQUID FAST

This is a full fast, in that you abstain from solid food for your entire fast period; you do not put any solid food into your body. However, it permits you to drink any type of liquids, including fruit juices and milk to liquid food supplements (like Ultra-SlimFast). You can have decaf coffee sweetened with sugar; you can have tomato soup -- anything that is "pure" liquid, regardless of the amount of nutrients in it. (Chicken noodle soup would be a no-no because the chicken pieces and the noodles are solids.)

You deny yourself food and this is very much to your stomach like a full fast. But in this case, you are not denying your body nutrients. Health-wise, this is the mildest of the full fasts.

Some people make this even more liberal by saying you can have anything you can drink, and even go to the point of putting vegetables and other foods in a blender to liquefy them. That is a bit liberal for my personal thinking. If anything is solid food in it's unprocessed state, then I personally think of it as off limits. But things that come in liquid form (nonfat milk, liquid diet supplements like canned Ultra-Slimfast, etc.) are allowed.

I have had some people tell me that a liquid fast isn't a "real fast" because there is some nutrition in it. But I did one of my 40 day fasts this way and let me tell you... I died to self on this fast and it sure "felt" like I was fasting and God seemed to honor it and meet me in this fast. I don't think that people's opinions are the opinions that matter here. If God calls you to this type of fast, then He considers it a real fast -- and His opinion is the one that matters.

JUICE FAST

This is a more restrictive version of the liquid fast. The only nutrition you are allowed to have on this fast is diluted fruit juice. Other than that, you only drink water. (Some versions of this fast allow any non-nutritive liquid such as unsweetened herbal tea or diet soda. But the purists would only allow fruit juice and water.) You are not allowed to drink milk products, liquid protein or dietary supplements, etc.

For some reason, this is the most "popular" version of fasting (especially for those who do it for relatively short periods of time, like a week or two. I am not sure why the juice fast as become the "standard" of fasting in many circles. I haven't found a biblical precedent for this form of fast. It is a fine fast; there is nothing wrong with it. But since there are some nutrients in fruit juice, I don't really see it as being any "better" than the more liberal liquid fast. It is a bit harder on your body than the liquid fast because it is slightly more restrictive -- you can have sugar but no proteins. But it still allows you to have some form of calories and nutrients.

NON-NUTRITIONAL LIQUID ONLY FAST

This is pretty restrictive. You are not allowed to drink anything that has any sort of nutritional value. You could have decaf coffee or herbal tea sweetened with artificial sweetener. But you can't sweeten your tea or coffee with sugar, because sugar has nutritional value. And you can't use cream or milk in your coffee for the same reason. In other words, you are not allowed to have any calories at all during this fast. You are denying your body any form of nutrition on this fast. This is how I did my first 40 day fast and it is probably my favorite in terms of my own personal fasting.

It is, unfortunately, starting to wander into the realm of a physically dangerous fast. Your doctor probably won't like you doing this one for more than a few days at a time. It is not something you should do for a long fast (21+ days) unless God explicitly tells you to do it. It can be physically dangerous when done apart from His direction. It has the capability to cause long term health problems by putting too much stress on your body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you need to take good care of the temple. Don't be presumptuous and enter into this stringent of a long fast (more than 3 weeks) unless you are sure God is calling you to this.

Having given this warning, let me say if God directs you to this type of fast, He will usually give a supernatural grace and protection for your health while you are on it.

WATER ONLY FAST

This is a stricter version of the non-nutritional liquid only fast, and is probably the type of fast that Jesus was on during His 40 day fast in the wilderness. The non-nutritional liquid fast does not have any more nutritional value than this one, but it allows you to drink things that taste better than water to you. The water-only fast eliminates the option of drinking things that have a different taste than plain water. Many people on this fast drink most of their water lukewarm, but they have some hot water for when they are cold and occasionally some icy cold water when they need refreshment.

ESTHER FAST

This is the fast that Queen Esther did before going to the royal court to beseech the king to spare the Jews. She did not have the luxury of a lot of time for a long fast, so she did a short but extremely difficult. She denied herself both food and water, not eating or drinking anything. She did this for a three day duration. She was inside the palace while she did this (a physically non-stressful environment) and she was waited on by servants, so she probably did not exert herself much by way of physical activity. This was an extremely stressful and physically dangerous fast. We need water to survive and it is possible to die of dehydration in a three or four day period. Also, if you are on the Esther fast, you begin to feel so thirsty that it is almost physically unbearable. Esther pushed her body almost to the point of death while doing this fast. (In her case this fast was not too much of a risk for her, because she knew she'd be executed for coming to court if God did not give her favor with the king. So she was looking at dying anyhow, if God did not meet her in regard to what she was fasting for.)

This is not the type of fast to simply decide to do. You really need to hear from God to do this one, especially if you try to go a full 72 hours (three days). There are times when we need this type of urgency in our fast, but they are rare. So please be sure you being spirit-led before you try a 72 hour Esther fast.