Spiritual
Disciplines Course.
Lesson Four : The Discipline Of Fasting (CSG facilitator and leader’s copy)
WELCOME SECTION: Warmly welcome all the people and introduce yourselves
(20 mins) if there are newcomers.
Ask each person to share back by reading their prayer from
Last week.
If time, give each person a card with one thing you can fast
From – they must act it out and the others must guess (eg.
Food, television, meats, sweets etc..)
WORSHIP SECTION : The worship leader should select songs denying self
(30 mins) sacrificing ,yielding to the Lord and being purified
Suggested songs: We bring a sacrifice of Praise,
You are my Strength when I am Weak
We are an Offering, Purify My Heart.
Allow for the operation of the gifts (prophecy, new song etc.)
WORD SECTION : The facilitator should take the group through the attached
(60 mins) Lesson. Get different people to read through the sections
and any Bible Verses. Stop to discuss as prompted allowing
everyone to get involved (drawing in the quieter ones). If
the discussion is going off track bring it back to the main
topic. Be conscious of the time and pace yourself.
If there are any practical excercises take time to discuss the
Lessons learnt in conjuction with the lesson theme and don’t
allow too much wasted time.
Discuss what you, as a group, can fast from during the next
Week.
Give
each person a passage of Scripture to meditate on whilst they fast in the week.
Choose from…
Nehemiah
1: 4-11, Esther 4: 12-17, Isaiah 58, Daniel 10: 1-14, Zechariah 7: 5-6, Matthew
4: 1-4 (Luke 4: 1-13), John 4: 31-34, Acts 13: 1-3, Acts 14: 19-23, Galatians
5: 13
WORKS SECTION
: Pray outwards for unsaved friends , for your neighbourhoods
(10 mins) to have revival, for Singapore as a whole and even for our
missions work in China etc.. and other pressing prayer needs
such as the sick and troubled. Pray also for any events
coming up.
Close with offering and benediction. Go and eat…..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spiritual
Disciplines Course.
Lesson Four: Introduction to the Discipline of Fasting
(For the CSG Members)
Ask a different person to read each of the reasons for fasting. Don’t discuss anything yet.
The
primary purpose of fasting is worship, it must forever centre on God. It should
be God-initiated and God-ordained. Fasting puts us in a place where God can
change us and reveal to us the things that are controlling us. (Foster, p. 69)
The
central ideal in fasting is the voluntary denial of an otherwise normal
function for the sake of intense spiritual activity. (Foster, p. 75)
Secondly (Foster p. 69ff): Fasting reveals the things that control us.
Fasting
reminds us that we are sustained "by every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God" (Matt. 4: 4). Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. We
usually cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but when we
abstain from these things, they are brought to the surface, and we are forced
to examine them. (Foster, p. 69).
Thirdly,
the hunger striker fasts because they want to gain political power, or attract
attention to their cause. Health dieting stresses abstinence from food for
physical, not spiritual purposes. Spiritual fasting refers to abstaining from
food for spiritual purposes, to bring us closer to God. (Foster, p. 62 - 63).
Don't
rush into an absolute fast. Start small and build your way up. Constantly
monitor your reactions (both physical and spiritual). Don't set your goal too
high at first.
A
'normal fast' is abstaining from all food , solid or liquid, but not from
water.
A
'partial fast' is the restriction of diet, but not total abstention.
An
'absolute fast' is total abstention from food and water. (Foster, p. 63 - 64)
Fourthly,
fasting provides more time to do more ‘spiritual’ activities.
You
may want to spend the time you would have been eating in contemplative prayer,
meditation, study, spiritual reading, reflection, confession, etc.
A
fifth and more weighty reason for fasting is that it is a help to prayer;
particularly when we set apart larger portions of time for private prayer.
Then
especially it is that God is often pleased to lift up the souls of his servants
above all the things of earth, and sometimes to rapture them up, as it
were, into the third heaven. And it is
chiefly as it is a help to prayer that it has so frequently been found a means
in the hand of God of confirming and increasing . . . seriousness of spirit,
earnestness, sensibility, and tenderness of conscience; deadness to the world
and consequently the love of God and every holy and heavenly affection.- John
Wesley
Foster
suggests some other forms of fasting (besides from food), fast from: people,
media, telephone, consumer culture (spend time with the broken, bruised,
dispossessed).
How
is the practice of fasting leading you into a deeper experience of intimacy
with God?
What
have you found to be the greatest benefits of fasting?
What
have you found to be the greatest difficulties in fasting?
What
has your practice of fasting been teaching you about yourself and your
relationships?
What
has your practice of fasting been teaching you about God?
Copyright 2000 Gibson
Productions
E-mail Webmaster
(Tim Gibson)