Demonstrating The Gospel: Part 4
Fasting for the Sake of Feasting
by Gavin Bennett
Begin with prayer (5 minutes)
Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Have somebody lead a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Read this overview (5 minutes)
In the Targum, which was the Aramaic translation of the Torah that Jesus and his contemporaries grew up reading, it says that at creation God was hovering over the waters like a dove. Fast forward many, many years to Jesus being baptized by his cousin at 30 — as he was raised out of the waters by John, the text reads that the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. Far from an accidental textual correlation, the people writing about Jesus’ baptism were making a point: the creative, miracle-working power displayed through Jesus’ life came when the Spirit rested on Jesus at his baptism.
Jesus’ life was not a case of evidence to convince us of his claims to be God. His life was a compelling example and call to see what a human anointed with the Spirit of God looks like, and then to become that kind of human being. But it was not just a filling; it began somewhere else. Jesus showed us the way to the Kingdom, and it begins with self-denial. Why? In part because self-emptying readies us for God-filling.
The invitation of God is to become a home for the Spirit like Jesus was, to be anointed with the Spirit of Jesus in order to continue the very ministry of Jesus. So this week we want to practice that emptying, so that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Work through these discussion questions together as a Community (30 minutes)
In the teaching, there were 8 symptoms of resisting the experience of the Spirit’s anointing. Which of them resonated with you and how do you need to respond?
For reference, the 8 symptoms were:
We become students not practitioners
We have a lack of expectation
We feel disqualified by shame
We have unrepentant sin
We have a low stamina for disappointment
We are self-centered
We have a comfortable apathy
We have a dysfunctional love
Where do you sense the Spirit’s invitation to make more space in your heart and life to receive more of the Holy Spirit’s power?
Discuss the coming week’s Practice (5 minutes)
This week, we want to intentionally engage the idea of self-emptying in order to receive God’s filling. Historically, fasting and abstinence have been practices used to create hunger for the Holy Spirit. Now, there’s not one way to fast; there are many — and they’re all good. The goal is to deny yourself something (e.g. food, media intake, sugar, alcohol, etc.) in order to remember that it does not truly satisfy us. It is about cultivating an appetite for the Spirit who truly satisfies.
Remember that fasting isn’t about endurance, it’s about appetite. It isn’t about how long you can do it, but about what happens to you and in you as you do. It is about cultivating a space of hunger in your soul that can only be met by the power and presence of God’s Spirit.
All throughout the Scriptures, we find examples for fasting and abstinence, but one of the most common is a 40 day fast. If this is the route you choose to go, keep in mind that 40 days from the Sunday of this teaching is Thanksgiving. These 40 days will look different for everyone. Some will fast from certain kinds of food and drink and others will abstain from social media or the news. Some will do a full 24 hours fast once a week until the 40 days are up. Some may choose something entirely different. It’s really up to you, but, as a church, we want to intentionally cultivate a collective hunger for the Holy Spirit.