Acts 13: Fasting

Fasting. The very idea of living any period of time without food is almost unthinkable in our culture. Yet to the earliest Christians, life was unthinkable without fasting.

To abandon food while praying and worshiping God was a normal action, even among the leaders of the Antioch Church in Acts 13. There, the chapter begins:

¹ Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

Much can be said regarding team leadership and the diversity of leadership at this church, but my focus here is the act of spiritual leaders fasting. When is the last time your pastor spent time without food to seek God’s will for your church, community, country, or other countries? When is the last time you did?

When these five men prayed and fasted before God, they received a powerful call of God that impact their entire church and the world. Two men, Paul and Barnabas, were selected for a missionary trip that would start new churches and lead many to faith in Jesus.

The church sent out two of its top leaders to unreached people groups as their mission strategy. On paper, it doesn’t make sense. With prayer and fasting, it became God’s way to change the world.

Want to change the world? Consider spending some time skipping a meal or more to focus on worship and prayer. Seek God. Listen. He might have a plan waiting for you that doesn’t make sense on paper but also just might change the world both for now and eternity.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author or co-author of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of the New Testament in 2011 at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.