As a Chrisitan, there are two roads you can travel—the divine will of God or the permissible will of God. You can walk in His permissible will and still receive some blessings from the Lord, but they will be nothing compared to what you will receive by walking in God’s divine will. You can make it to Heaven walking in God’s permissible will, but you must be walking in God’s divine will to make it to Rapture ground. Unfortunately today, more people are walking in God’s permissible will than in God’s divine will.

God’s divine will is what the Lord has divinely planned for your life. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye (Psalm 32:8). When you get saved, the Lord maps out a plan for your life—a special path for you to follow and people for you to reach. To walk in that divine will, you will have to pray, fast and live in the Word of God. The Early Church disciples turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6) because they sought to live in the divine will of God.

Focus on the Lord

Many people consider fasting to be just going without food. For example, you may not be very hungry one day and not feel like eating much; so you decide, “I think I will fast today.” That is not a fast. You don’t decide to fast just because you’re not hungry; you fast to draw closer to the Lord. You should have a purpose for fasting, and that purpose is not just going without food so you can say you’re fasting.

To really fast, you have to set aside some of the things you would normally do and spend time with the Lord. Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning (Joel 2:12). Yes, you have to go to work and take care of your family; but you should limit socializing and going places with others so you can seek God and be in His presence.

Jesus said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). I say again that it is not enough just to go without food, and you should not be thinking about eating all the time. Some people spend so much time deciding what they will eat when they break their fast. If the devil can’t keep you from fasting, he will hinder you during your fast so you won’t receive the full benefits of it.

You have to put all thoughts of food aside and say, “Lord, feed me. Lord, I want you.” Jesus said, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger (John 6:35). You have to conquer your human appetite, and that is hard to do; but when you look to the Lord, you can conquer your appetite and anything else that comes against you.

Take on Humility

You are not supposed to fast so that others know you’re fasting. Jesus taught against that saying, When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly (Matthew 6:16-18).

When you are fasting, you are to carry God’s anointing and look fresh. You should not walk around with a pitiful face that says, “Woe is me. I’m fasting.” The Pharisees did that, and the Lord called them hypocrites. If you are fasting just because you want people to know about it, then that’s all you will get out of it and nothing more.

You have to really get down to business with God. It’s not a matter of how many days you have been fasting; it’s a matter of deciding you will reach God no matter what it takes. There have been times when I had actually forgotten how long I had been fasting because my soul was crying out to God and seeking Him.

Being on a Bible fast means you are sacrificing your food and going without for the physical man so the spiritual man can be edified and blessed. You will never be edified and blessed by the Lord as much as you could be until you walk the path of fasting. That is the way into the innermost chamber of the Lord where you will be anointed in ways that you can’t be any other way. It is an anointing that will completely humble you. Be clothed with humility: for God...giveth grace to the humble (I Peter 5:5).

Put Self Down

Fasting can make you irritable, so being grouchy is one thing you have to battle against; but some of you don’t fast long enough to conquer your grouchy spirit. You may feel like you’re really going through it, so you just dare anyone to say the wrong thing to you. Fasting puts you in a battle to conquer self, and that can work on your nervous system; but some of you don’t fast long enough to get over that.

The first days of your fast are the hardest. Once you have conquered them, you won’t have to fight irritability quite as much; however, you always have to guard against things getting on your nerves and upsetting you because that will hinder you in reaching God. When you are fasting, you are in the process of bringing self under subjection; so self will want to grumble and get irritated, but you can’t allow that.

The worst in self comes out on a fast, and those are the things you should be seeking to get rid of. You will find out how much divine love, divine faith and divine determination you have. You will find out whether or not you have what it takes to hold on to God or if you are one who will give up.

Do Not Seek Attention

Surely, you have heard of people who have gone on hunger strikes to get what they want or to get others to do what they want them to. Some want people to pity them and have sympathy for them; and others are afraid they are going to die, and they want to stir people up and draw attention to themselves.

A hunger strike is not a Bible fast. When you are fasting, you are not trying to draw attention to yourself; you are seeking to get Heaven’s attention, and you must keep that in mind throughout your fast. That will help you determine what you should and should not do while you’re fasting.

You should not expect special favors from people just because you are fasting, and you should not expect them to act differently around you. Never expect others to cease from eating or cooking around you when you’re on a long fast. You should act as if everything is normal, and you should want people to treat you as they normally would.

It isn’t necessary for you to decide how many days you are going to fast before you begin. You can just take it one meal at a time or one day at a time, but there also will be times when the Lord will lay a fast on your heart and let you know how many days it should be. In either case, you must decide you’re going to reach God for whatever it is you need no matter what it takes. You have to realize that fasting is the pathway that leads to God’s greatest and best for you.

Seek God’s Greatness

The disciples were so blessed when Jesus was on Earth with them, but there were things they could not do on their own. At one time, a man’s son needed to be delivered; but the disciples couldn’t help the boy. It wasn’t because the Lord didn’t want the boy to be delivered; it was because the disciples didn’t have enough faith to do it. Jesus told them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).

Only on the pathway of fasting will you find the greatness of God’s anointing, and you must have self under subjection to be able to receive it. After Jesus had received the Holy Ghost and fasted, He declared, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised (Luke 4:18).

When you decide you’re going to fast, you can’t let anything or anyone deter you from that—not your wife or husband, not friends, not obligations, nothing. The devil will come at you with everything he can because he knows what a great anointing you will receive. He knows you will get prayers answered that cannot be answered any other way.

Live in God’s Presence

You can’t always be thinking about when your fast will be over, or you will hinder God moving for you. Put all unnecessary things out of your mind and feast on the Word of God. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). You have to depend on the strength and the anointing of God, or you won’t hold up. How much time do you spend preparing your food? How much time do you spend at the table? All of that time should be spent in the presence of the Lord when you are fasting.

Some of you don’t spend enough time with the Lord, and that is why fasting is so hard for you. You are going without food but not feasting on the Spirit. You are not praying more or reading the Word more, and that can put you in bad shape; but when you are living in the anointing of the Spirit, you will become strong when you’re feeling weak.

You will reap the benefits of a Bible fast long after the fast is over. Now, that doesn’t mean you just fast once, and that’s it. Some of you are always looking for excuses not to fast, and that’s not good. You must let fasting become a part of you.

Remain Consecrated

When you are fasting, make sure you drink plenty of water. There is no nutritional value in it, and your body needs it. Chewing gum and using breath mints are fine too because your breath can get bad when you’re fasting. Those things have no food value, and they won’t give you any strength; but you have to be mindful of those you are around. The Lord might want to use you to testify to somebody while you are on that fast, but they won’t want to hear anything you have to say when your breath stinks. You should certainly guard against that as much as you can.

When it is time to break your fast, you have to do it very carefully. You can start with a little broth and juice and then gradually work up to solid food. You can’t just begin to eat whatever you can get your hands on, or your stomach will be a mess. You have to get it back in shape a little at a time.

If you have fasted the right way and have not received your answer, just be patient; and it will come. You have done your part; so wait on God, and He will do His part. You can’t let the devil rob you of your faith in God, and you must continue to be dedicated to the Lord. So many people have fasted and received a great anointing and then let it slip away when the fast was over. You don’t want to be one of those people. When God gives you something, He intends for you to keep it; so hold the things of God close to your heart and never let them go. God bless you today.