In his latest feature article in Charisma Magazine Online, Jentezen Franklin is breaking down the barriers and misconceptions about fasting and who is called to fast.
While some may believe that fasting is only for those who already have reached great spiritual heights, Franklin says that this isn’t the case. Instead, he shares that fasting is for all who genuinely desire an encounter with the Lord and are seeking refreshment in His presence.
“Victories are not won in public, but in private,” Franklin writes. “If you want a stronger relationship with God, you have to seek it. There is a secret source to our power, and it always accompanies the discipline of fasting and prayer. Fasting is not for the strong. Fasting is for the weak. Fasting is for the common. Fasting is for the frail and for the ordinary.”
In an exclusive Beyond the Article interview with Charisma magazine based on this article, Franklin further emphasized that fasting is more than just something to do to lose weight and abstain from food. He says that as a young man it was after fasting when God gave him clear direction about what he was supposed to do with his life.
“You know, what am I going to do; it’s time to really focus on my major. I had to decide you know, am I going to go this way in education as a musician or performer, and it was time to make major decisions and so something in me, thanks be to God, said, ‘just go on a fast; seek Me. Why don’t you ask Me?'” Franklin says.
It was during the end of this fast that the Lord gave Franklin a clear answer on the direction for his life.
“The third day of that fast…I just had the Lord show me in so many ways that He had called me to preach,” Franklin explains. “It was time to accept that call. I was terrified. I felt totally unqualified. I felt so intimidated.”
This experience completely redirected Franklin’s life as he went on the path to ministry. He says that there is something completely special about fasting and the way it makes you attuned to what the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you and show you.
“There’s something about fasting that just makes you sensitive,” Franklin said. “It makes you open; it makes you broken, it makes you [have] anointed ears to hear, your spiritual ears get bigger.”
Fasting is more than a mere discipline to be followed, but it is a discipline that reaps spiritual rewards. Just as the apostle Paul wrote “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10), fasting makes us rely on God to see, do, and become what He desires for us.
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Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.
Stephen Strang