Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts (14 page)

Mental and emotional effort are needed to prepare for a fast, and these are aided by physical preparation. Look at the “checklist” at the end of this chapter to make adequate preparation for the Elijah Fast.

Step 2: Recognize Your Limitations

Elijah knew what he must do. He needed to go to the place where God had revealed Himself to His people—to Sinai—where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. But he was not ready for the trip—“The journey is too great for you,” the angel said (v. 7).

The initial steps in breaking a negative emotional response are: (a) admit you cannot break your habit alone and (b) let others help you
defeat your habit. Alcoholics Anonymous teaches that people in the grip of alcoholism are “powerless” to break their habits themselves. They must depend on a “higher power,” and on a “buddy” who will help them get through difficult times.

Step 3: Go Where You Can Meet God

Sometimes it is important to celebrate the Elijah Fast away from home and friends. You may have to go to a mountain cabin, a motel or some other private retreat. If there is a place where God has met you in the past—such as a church auditorium or a camp—that might be the place to fast and pray. Why? Because just as you may physically return to a geographical place, you spiritually return to God’s anointed position.

Note that Elijah “strengthened by that food...traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God” (v. 8,
NIV
). Technically, Horeb is a mountain range, and Sinai is a tall peak within that range. Mount Sinai is the place where God appeared to Moses in the flame of fire after the deliverance of Egypt, and where He issued the Ten Commandments.

Actually revisit the place
. Sometimes we must go back to the very location where we had past spiritual victories. The world says, “You can never go home again.” Maybe not to live, but you
can
go home to get something you’ve lost during the journey. As the environment reinforces our emotions, so we are strengthened to trust God for future victories.

Revisit the place symbolically
. Sometimes you can’t actually revisit the place geographically, but you can go there in your memory. There you can recommit yourself to what God previously accomplished in that place. Revisit in your mind the meetings and events where God spoke to you. The word “revival” means a “return to life.” This can occur by returning to our former places of strength. In a revival we return to (a) New Testament Christianity where God poured Himself out on the Early Church, or (b) the place of our conversion where God first manifested His presence to us and we experienced the forgiveness of sins.

There are places where both God and demons want to manifest themselves
. Elijah was from the northern kingdom of Israel. There he had his greatest victory on Mount Carmel. His homeland, however, was a land of idols. It was a place where Satan was manifesting himself through false gods. Elijah sought a new touch from the true God, so he returned to the place where God had originally revealed Himself to Moses.

Step 4: Fast to Hear the Word of the Lord

After Elijah arrived at Mount Sinai, “the Word of the Lord came to him” (v. 9). God had a message for Elijah, and he had to obey God to receive it. He had to travel to Sinai to get the message.

a. Study to know what the Bible says, not what you think it says
. Many people who have destructive physical or emotional habits have convinced themselves there is no hope for themselves. Depressed people believe in the credibility of their memories. Because they remember something, they attribute omniscience to their insight. Because people are not perfect, neither are their memories perfect. People who are locked into negative cycles of thoughts and emotions need to look outside themselves to see what God says about the patterns. If God says a habit can be broken, it can be broken.

A depressed person needs to hear from God that:

The wrong desires that come into your life aren’t anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation’s power so that you can bear up patiently against it (1 Cor. 10:13,
TLB
).

b. Depressed people need to receive a positive external influence from outside their thinking
. To know only of your limitations is to believe in your limitations. The way to break that cycle of negative knowing and believing is to introduce new facts into your thinking. Carefully study the Word of God. Study portions about faith, hope, the power of God and victory. As you understand the promises of God to overcome a habit, you will gain strength to break that habit.

Step 5: Let the Word Reveal Your Weakness

When Adam sinned, God came asking him, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). God knew where Adam was; He asked the question to cause Adam to reflect on where he was. When we read the Word of God, we begin to question “where we are” spiritually. We reexamine our presuppositions.
Only when we question our habitual thought patterns can the bondage of mental habits begin to be broken.

When Elijah arrived at Mount Sinai, the Word of the Lord came to him. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” God asked (1 Kings 19:9). Notice how God uses questions as a mirror to make people view themselves from outside their inner compulsiveness. During the Elijah Fast, use Scripture as this kind of mirror to show you your weaknesses—“where you are,” emotionally and spiritually.

Step 6: Confess and Agree with God About Your Weakness

When the Word of the Lord came to Elijah on Mount Sinai, God began to penetrate his soul. Immediately, Elijah was embarrassed. In an attempt to justify himself, Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant” (v. 10).

Although this sounded like a bold self-defense, this statement was actually Elijah’s confession of failure. When we are filled with self-justification, we cannot confess our needs.

Elijah had covered his need with the claim to be defending God, not realizing that God can defend Himself. A wise Bible teacher once said that the Word of God is like a lion. No one has to defend a lion—just release the lion and he will defend himself. In the same way, we sometimes are zealous for God’s honor, as we should be, but when we try to defend God, we use our own beautiful thoughts. Perhaps we simply need to tell people about God and allow God to defend Himself.

Step 7: Look for Quiet, Inner Meaning

Elijah was a broken leader, depressed and withdrawn from people. God did not perform a miracle or give Elijah outward power to correct his negative perceptions. God did not even solve Elijah’s problem. Instead, He asked Elijah to look within himself for the answer.

And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah
heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out (vv. 11-13,
KJV
).

Elijah found the answer in the Lord’s still small voice, not in the powerful wind, the earthquake or the fire. The power was in the Word of God. Whether that voice was audible is not the issue. Elijah heard within his own ear the voice of the Lord speaking to him and telling him what he must do.

Some people go to the altar and ask, “God, take this habit from me.” Sometimes this is an appeal to God for external power to overcome their habits. People want to put the ball in God’s court, when all along God wants to give them the ball to empower them to be more responsible.

Habits are broken not by external forces, but from within. They must be broken the way they are formed, one act at a time—by submitting to discipline—by repeatedly choosing not to behave according to habit. Just as the habit of overeating was established one meal at a time, conquering that habit will require submitting to disciplined eating one meal at a time.

Remember that a habit is “frequent repetition.” Disciplining yourself for one meal is not enough. There must also be frequent repetition of your discipline. Like the football player who builds up torso strength by employing daily workouts, so the Christian builds up strength to break a bad habit by using daily discipline to resist that habit. Our strength comes from within as we build up the inner person.

The Elijah Fast should not begin by asking God to do a supernatural miracle to take your habit from you. Of course He could—and may—do it in this way. Instead, begin by looking within the Word of God, and listening within your own “inner ear” to hear what God is saying to you. Perhaps He does not want to use His power to break your habit externally. Perhaps He wants you to build up your inner strength so you can break your habit. Be flexible in discovering God’s will in the matter.

Step 8: Look for the Positive Through God’s Eyes

Too often, we enter the Elijah Fast focusing on the “negative” emotional pattern, thereby trapping ourselves within the problem. Elijah’s problem was his depression and pessimistic despondency. He continually reminded God, “I am the only one left.” This proclamation was a manipulative way of bragging to God about his ability to be faithful. Elijah should have been seeking to view his problem from God’s perspective.

God came to Elijah to give him a positive message, to get the prophet’s eyes off his human weakness and onto God’s strength. God told Elijah, “I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal” (18,
KJV
).

As long as we focus on our problems, we exercise faith in our problems. We are admitting that our problems are bigger than we are and even bigger than God. God wants us to focus on His power so we can have more faith in His power than in our problems.

Step 9: Plan Positive Actions

Habits are broken by taking positive actions rather than concentrating on negative traits. Notice that God does not tell Elijah to “quit being depressed” or to “stop grumbling.”

The way to break a bad habit is to acquire a stronger positive habit. When a three-year-old boy wants to suck his thumb, a mother puts a toy in his hand. By substituting that which is more desirable, she can break the thumb-sucking habit.

God gave the depressed prophet some positive things to do. First He told him, “Go...anoint Hazael as king over Syria” (v. 15). Next, “You shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel” (v. 16). Even then God was not finished with Elijah. Next God told him to go commission Elisha, the prophet already selected to follow Elijah (v. 16).

Much of what we do in life is in response to the way we see ourselves. To break a bad habit, therefore, we must see ourselves successfully doing a new habit. It is good to develop the ability to see ourselves as we really are, but more importantly, to develop the ability to see ourselves as we want to be.

Step 10: See Potential Results

People break bad habits when they have goals that are stronger than the attractions of their bad habits. God had a plan for Elijah. By directing Elijah to go anoint Elisha to be his successor, God gave the pessimistic prophet a new vision of the prophetic potential in Israel. And when Elijah understood his importance in God’s plan, he left his despondency behind.

“America is great because America is good!” concluded the French author Alexis de Tocqueville in his study of America’s reasons for greatness. What he could not find in our nation’s political and business institutions, he found in our churches. He coined the phrase “habits of the heart” to describe the moral character of the American people of that era.

Understanding how to develop moral character in our lives gives us the strength to break bad habits. In the words of a country farmer, “What’s in the well comes up in the bucket.” That is, our inner beliefs or convictions influence our expectations or visions. These in turn influence our attitudes and values, which influence our actions, which influence our habits, which shape our characters.

Faith is at the core of being a Christian. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). One of the first descriptions of Christians in the Early Church was the expression “believers” (Acts 5:14). The kind of faith that impresses God and characterized those early Christians is faith that is evidenced in the way we live. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:26). Our biblical faith must influence the way we live our lives. Our faith will build good habits, and break bad habits.

When people see the gospel making a difference in our lives, they will be attracted to us so they, too, can experience similar changes. Just as the bright petals of a flower draw a bee to the sweet nectar inside, so consistent Christian character will draw others to the Christ who indwells us and enables us to live the Christian life.

A correlation exists among what we believe (our creed or the content of our faith), the process by which we believe (the foundation of our faith), how we live (our actions and habits) and who we are (our character).

The apostle Peter (see 2 Pet. 1:4-8) summarizes the process of developing biblical character. Compare the steps of this verse, which I paraphrase here, to the above paradigm of character development:

God has given us powerful, yet precious promises in Scripture that will break our old habits and change us into people of character. Give diligence to add to your (1) knowledge of Scripture, (2) faith by which you live, then (3) add the virtue of expectation. Next (4) add the attitude of self-discipline,
as a (5) consistent godly habit. If you have these (6) qualities of habit, you will not be ineffective and unproductive (author’s paraphrase).