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66 Bible verses about the power of Fasting
The power of fasting really lies in honestly opening your heart to the Lord. It's in that space where His love shines through and transforms every part of who you are. Fasting is something you do when you’re truly seeking Jesus, when you're willing to sacrifice physical needs to ask for a deeper connection with Him.
It strengthens your spirit, grows your faith, and draws you closer to God. By saying "no" to the physical demands of your body, you're saying "yes" to a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. It's about prioritizing that connection above all else.
When you abstain from food or drink for a set time, it’s like a spiritual and physical cleanse. It helps to clear away anything that might be holding you back or weighing you down.
Remember what Matthew 6:16-171 says – it's not about showing off or seeking attention when you fast. It's about humility and sincerity before the Lord.
One day, my enemies will take me away, then my followers will be sad, and they will stop eating food.”
Cornelius said, “4 days ago I was praying in my house at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly I saw a man wearing bright shining clothes standing in front of me.
Then Jesus touched the men’s eyes and said, “You believed in me, so you will see again.”
Jesus kept on teaching the people. Some of those people used to stop eating for a while, so they can think about God and respect him. Jesus said, “Whenever you stop eating for a while, make sure you look the same as you always look. You know, there are some people that want everyone to think they are good, even though they are not good. Whenever they stop eating food to respect God, they want everyone to know what they are doing, so they let their faces get dirty, and they try to look sad. They want people to say, ‘That’s a good person.’ But listen, that is all those people will get. God will not give them anything good for doing that. Don’t be like them.When you stop eating for God, just be normal and look the same as you always look. Wash your face and comb your hair.Then nobody will know that you have stopped eating. But God your father knows. Nobody can see him, but he sees everything you do. He will see what you do in a secret way, and he will be properly good to you for it.”
At one time, Barnabas and Saul, and those other men, they stopped eating food for a while, and they prayed to God. At that time, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Pick out Barnabas and Saul for me now. I’ve got special work for them to do.”It was about 450 years from the time they went to Egypt, to the time they got that country. Then God picked leaders for them, so they always had a leader to look after them. After lots of other leaders, God picked Samuel to be their leader. He was a man that told God’s messages to the people.Samuel was their leader, but the people wanted a big boss that would always tell them what to do. So God gave them Saul. He was the son of Kish. Saul belonged to the Benjamin tribe, and he was the big boss over the Israel people for 40 years. Then God stopped Saul from being their big boss, and God picked David, and he made David the big boss over the Israel people. And God said this, ‘Look at this man, David, the son of Jesse. He is a man that makes me happy. He will do everything that I want him to do.’And God promised that a man from David’s family will come to save us Israel people. And now that man has come. His name is Jesus.But before Jesus came, John the Baptiser came and talked to us Israel people. He said, ‘Stop doing bad things. Turn around. Turn back to God, and then I will baptise you.’And John said, ‘Who do you reckon I am? Do you think I’m that special man that God promised to send to save his people? No way. He will come later. I am nothing. I’m not good enough to touch his feet or untie his shoes.’ That’s what John told everyone when he was finishing his work. Listen, friends. Some of you are Jews that belong to our grand-father Abraham’s family, and some of you are not Jews but you respect our God. All of you have to listen to this message that God sent to us. It is about how God wants to save us.A long time ago, the men that told God’s messages to people wrote those words in his book. They said that God will send a special man, but people will kill him. And people read those words from God’s book in their meetings every Saturday, but they don’t understand them. The people in Jerusalem and their leaders didn’t know that Jesus was that special man, and they said, ‘We have to kill him.’So, even though he didn’t do anything wrong, they asked Pilate, the Roman judge, to kill him anyway.That’s how Jesus died, just like those men wrote in God’s book. And after they killed Jesus, they took him down from the cross and put him into a grave.So those men kept on praying and not eating any food for a bit longer. Then they put their hands on Barnabas and Saul, and they prayed for them and told them, “You can go now and do God’s work.”
Then, in each town, Paul and Barnabas picked leaders for the Christians in the church there. After that, they stopped eating for a while, and they prayed for those leaders. They prayed, “Jesus, our leader, these men believe in you now, so we ask you to look after them all the time.”
The Holy Spirit made Jesus very powerful, and he went back to Galilee country. The people that saw him kept on telling other people about him, and those people told more people, so that soon everyone there heard the news about him.He went to the Jewish meeting houses every week, and he taught everyone about God. And they were all really happy with him.Then Jesus went to his own town, called Nazareth. That was the town he grew up in. He went to the Jewish meeting house there on Saturday, like he always did, and he stood up to read to the people from God’s book.A helper there gave him the part that Isaiah wrote. Isaiah was a man that told everyone God’s messages, a long time ago. Jesus opened the book to the right place, and he read these words.“God’s spirit came into me. He picked me to tell good news to poor people. He sent me to tell prisoners, ‘You will go free.’ And he sent me to tell blind people, ‘You will see.’ And he sent me to people that are in big trouble, to take their trouble away.He sent me to tell everybody, ‘This is the time now for God to be good to you.’ ”
So, if your husband or wife wants to sleep with you, to do what married people do together, you can’t say, “No.” But both of you can agree to wait for a while without sleeping together, so you can use the time to pray. Then, soon after that, you have to sleep together again. If you don’t, Satan might trick you. He knows you can’t control yourselves very well. If you go too long without sleeping together, then he will try to get one of you to sleep with somebody else.
So they all met together at Mizpah. They got some water from a spring and poured it on the ground. That was their way to tell God that they felt shamed. They were sorry that they showed respect to those statues. On that day they didn’t eat any food as they prayed to him. They prayed like this, “Our God, we did wrong things. We didn’t follow your way.” That’s the way Samuel led the people to go the right way.
Tell God that you are sorry. Tell him that you know that you are weak, and that you are not important. If you do that, he will tell you that you are important, and he will make you strong.
You see, it is like this. We all have a bad part in us that makes us want to do bad things, to make us feel good. And we also have God’s spirit in us, and he makes us want to do good things. Those 2 are both in you, and they both want to control you, so they are fighting each other inside you all the time. Whenever you listen to God’s spirit and try to do good things, that bad part in you tries to stop you, so you don’t do what you really want to do.
My Christian friends, God is so very good to us. So I really want you to use your bodies to live for him. A long time ago, God told his people to give him animals to show him respect. They did it like this. They used to kill the animals and burn them up. But now it is different. Now you have to use your bodies to live for him and do good things, it’s like you are giving your own bodies to God while you are still alive. If you do that, you will make God happy. That is the proper thing to do to show that you follow God.You have to love each other like brothers and sisters that belong to the same family. You have to respect other Christians more than you respect yourself.Don’t get lazy as you work for God, but work hard and be really happy about it.We know that everything will be really good after God fixes everything up, so think about that and you will be really happy. But if people give you trouble now, don’t give up, but stay strong for God. And keep on talking to God about everything.If any of God’s people need anything, you have to give them whatever you can. If they are visiting your town, and they need somewhere to stay, let them stay at your place.If anyone makes trouble for you, don’t ask God to punish them, but ask him to help them.If somebody is happy, you be happy with them too. If somebody is sad, you be sad with them too.Always try to be friends with other Christians and don’t argue with them. Don’t think to yourself, “I’m too good to be with them.” Sit down with anybody and be their friend. Remember, you don’t know everything. If people do some bad things to you, don’t do payback to them. You have to do good things, so that people will know that you are good.Try not to argue with anybody, and try not to fight with anybody.Listen, my good friends, if somebody does something bad to you, don’t do something bad to them. Don’t do payback to them. No, just wait for God. He will get angry with them, and he will do payback to them one day. We can read this in God’s book, “God says, ‘It is my job to do payback to people for the bad things they do. I will punish them, so don’t try to do it yourself.’ ” Don’t be like most of the people in the world that like to do bad things. You have to be different from them. You have to let God change the way you think, so that you will become new people. Then you will be able to find out the things that God wants you to do, and you will know what is good, and the things that really make God happy.
Don’t worry about anything, but pray to God and ask him for everything you need. And always thank God for what he has already done.Then God will get you to feel happy and quiet inside yourselves. You belong to Jesus Christ, and he will do that to look after your minds, so that you will think properly. Nobody knows how God does it, but he can do it.
My Christian friends, God is so very good to us. So I really want you to use your bodies to live for him. A long time ago, God told his people to give him animals to show him respect. They did it like this. They used to kill the animals and burn them up. But now it is different. Now you have to use your bodies to live for him and do good things, it’s like you are giving your own bodies to God while you are still alive. If you do that, you will make God happy. That is the proper thing to do to show that you follow God.
But I am good. On 2 days every week I don’t eat any food to show that I respect you. And whenever I get some money, I give you some of it, like $1 out of every $10. I do all those things, so you have to say I am all right.’
You see, there are a lot of people that don’t live the right way. I have often told you this before, and now I’m telling you the same thing again. When I think about it, I get so sad that I cry. There are people that reckon they are Christians, but they are really enemies of Jesus Christ. They live in a way that shows they are against the good things that Jesus died for on the cross.They don’t listen to God. They listen to their own bodies, and they do bad things so that their bodies feel good. They do those bad things, but they don’t feel shame. Instead, they think they are smart. They only think about the things that belong to this world. And in the end God will finish them up for ever.
Think, instead, about the things that are good for God’s family, and try to do the good things that God wants you to do. Then God will give you all those other things that you need.
So this is what I’m telling you, let God’s spirit control your lives, and you will not do any of those bad things that make you feel good.You see, it is like this. We all have a bad part in us that makes us want to do bad things, to make us feel good. And we also have God’s spirit in us, and he makes us want to do good things. Those 2 are both in you, and they both want to control you, so they are fighting each other inside you all the time. Whenever you listen to God’s spirit and try to do good things, that bad part in you tries to stop you, so you don’t do what you really want to do.
Jesus told them, “The only way you can force that sort of bad spirit out of somebody is to pray to God, and get him to force it out.”
When you stop eating for God, just be normal and look the same as you always look. Wash your face and comb your hair.Then nobody will know that you have stopped eating. But God your father knows. Nobody can see him, but he sees everything you do. He will see what you do in a secret way, and he will be properly good to you for it.”
Jesus kept on teaching the people. Some of those people used to stop eating for a while, so they can think about God and respect him. Jesus said, “Whenever you stop eating for a while, make sure you look the same as you always look. You know, there are some people that want everyone to think they are good, even though they are not good. Whenever they stop eating food to respect God, they want everyone to know what they are doing, so they let their faces get dirty, and they try to look sad. They want people to say, ‘That’s a good person.’ But listen, that is all those people will get. God will not give them anything good for doing that. Don’t be like them.
Those people that run in races, they control themselves and train their bodies so they can win a prize, even though that prize will only be good for a little while. But it is better for us. We control ourselves properly so that we will win a prize that will be good for ever. God will give us new life, so that we will live for ever.So, you see, I’m like a good runner that runs in a straight line to the end of the race. And I’m like a fighter that hits and doesn’t miss.I control my body, and I make it do what is right. I want God to give me that good prize. I don’t want God to say to me, “You went wrong. You didn’t do what you told other people to do. So you don’t get new life.”