Bill Johnson - Developing a Lifestyle of Prayer and Fasting
Fasting, for some of us, has sometimes been more likely called a hunger strike. That’s where you announce to God you’re not eating until something happens. It doesn’t earn brownie points, you know. What it does is help you become hungry for something you can’t see rather than what you can see. That’s what it is. Jesus said this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting, but he neither prayed nor fasted. We know Jesus fasted one time; it was 40 days at the beginning of his ministry. It’s kind of at the initiation, but he didn’t—we’re not saying it’s wrong, but he just didn’t fast for a problem; he fasted into a lifestyle.
So Jesus said this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting; yet he neither prayed nor fasted and brought deliverance. What did Jesus identify as the problem in this story? Unbelief. Unbelief was the problem. What did the dad think the problem was? A demon. Yes, he wanted the demon out of his son. What’s the problem for the dad? The demon. What’s the problem for Jesus? Unbelief. There are times when you face a situation that is bigger than your unbelief can handle. I can feel it; there’s a sucking sound into this hole. There are times when the measure of faith, compared to all the questions that you keep pondering, questioning, and meditating on—fueling with the energy of your own soul—becomes too big of a battle. When you actually have the faith of God Himself, which is more than enough to move the mountain, you’ve allowed it to be planted with other competing things, and you’re in a war he didn’t create for you.
Prayer and fasting do not drive out demons. The devil isn’t intimidated when I miss a meal; I think he finds it entertaining. It may be because I’m such a pitiful pastor. I was fasting this week, watching hunting shows where they cooked the food they shot. I gravitate toward those kinds. Just leave me alone and be quiet! I don’t think the devil is intimidated by my fasting; he’s intimidated by my authority. What happens in prayer and fasting is you discover who He is and you can discover who you are.
Let me rephrase this: fasting, for some of us, has sometimes been more accurately called a hunger strike. It’s where you announce to God you’re not eating until something happens. To me, that’s funny that it would ever cross our minds that, «All right, you want me to fast, so I’m fasting until this.» It’s not like fasting earns brownie points; it doesn’t. You know what it does? Fasting makes you hungry for something you can’t see rather than what you can see.
What does faith operate in? It operates in the unseen. What does unbelief operate in? It operates in what you can see. It’s the wallowing child, foaming at the mouth; that’s the challenge the disciples had. They had not been given a proper amount of authority to deal with that child. Jesus gave them all the authority they needed to deal with any problem they faced, yet they didn’t deal with it. Why? Too many seeds in the garden. Too much competing with what God had given them. They had the authority; it was just deluded in its use to minister to this problem.
Fasting is learning to have an appetite for things you can’t see. As abstract as that sounds, it is the life of faith. As abstract and unreasonable as it appears, it is where I become anchored in what Paul said: what you can’t see is eternal; what you can see is temporal. So, if my confidence is in what I can see, my confidence will crash; it will fail because this is not reliable. My own human strength isn’t reliable. It can’t be on any of those things, nor can it be on human talent or skill. It has to be on something outside of that which brings influence.
A miracle comes; I’ve watched it so many times. It’s hard to explain, but it’s in the unseen. I see a problem, and the miracle, through faith, is released into that situation. I’ve watched it change before my eyes. I’ve seen bones that were missing grow, bones that were deformed dissolve. I’ve watched absolute 100% deafness, and all of a sudden they hear. It was in the unseen, but it was released into the visible, into something inferior, something damaged, destroyed, or afflicted. It’s that connection of the believer between the unseen world and the visible world, and I come as a representative.
That’s why we don’t beg God for the miracle; He’s already decided to do it. We’re just learning to cooperate with the way He moves, the way He works, the way He thinks. I’m so thankful for the Lord’s Prayer that He taught us to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come; your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. The rest of the prayer, «Give us this day,» is all petition prayer, but those two statements can be translated like this: «Will of God be done, Kingdom of God come.» They are decrees; they are part of the prayer life.
Their prayer life has woven into it the responsibility to take the heart and mind of God and proclaim it into a given situation. The worlds were made out of Him speaking; that’s why He wants us to talk, but talk as a yielded vessel to Him. Because then it’s not just good ideas being declared into a situation; it’s not just the power of positive thinking. If that’s all you have, don’t lose it; otherwise, you’re depressing.
So He says this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting. Do you know what He’s telling them? He’s saying, «Listen, the way to deal with unbelief is to focus on that which is eternal.» There’s something about prayer I don’t understand. I find that when I need this kind of praying the most is when I want to do it the least. It’s the prayer that is beyond words. It’s the prayer beyond words—sometimes it’s praying in the Spirit, praying in tongues. Sometimes it’s literally just engaging in the presence of God with a groaning that’s too deep for words. There are no words for what I feel, but I’m not going to leave this engagement; I’m not going to leave this moment.
It’s a face-to-face moment. I’m not manipulating or controlling God; I simply want to be shaped by Him. I want my heart to reflect His heart, and my words to reflect His words. There are moments where He’s just saying, «Listen, the problem isn’t the demon; the problem is unbelief.» The antidote? Learn to pray beyond convenience and be willing to skip a meal to anchor into what you can’t see. Why? Because that’s where your authority functions from.
Typically, what gets done is creating all kinds of bad theology to explain why something didn’t happen. Picture this today: if this were today and we were the disciples, we’d try to get the child free, and if the child doesn’t get free and there’s no Jesus in the flesh to bring deliverance, what do we do at the end of the day? Well, in most places, it would be, «Well, God works in mysterious ways.» We know that God is able to use this; I’m sure what He’s doing is trying to really increase the level of devotion to Christ in the prayer effort of this household instead of saying, «There are too many seeds planted in my garden; I’ve got too many options, too many other things to think, too many other things to believe.»
According to Jesus’s example on the size of faith, it doesn’t take this big a faith to move something as large as a mountain; it just takes this kind of faith. So when Jesus talks about great faith and greater faith, I don’t know that He’s talking about greater in the sense of size. I think He’s describing whether that faith is by itself, whether it’s the only seed in the garden.
That’s why it’s great; its impact, its significance, and its mountain-moving weightiness is not in its size; it’s in its ability to stand by itself. In my own personal prayer time, I’ve been asking the Lord about this thing of authority. I became aware several months ago—maybe six to eight months ago, or a little longer—that I was much stronger in being able to move in power than in authority. I don’t mean to imply I don’t move in authority; I feel I do. But I could tell if you could have power and authority, I have one leg a lot longer than the other.
I want to be able to walk in a way that represents Him well in any situation. Some situations require power, but sometimes power won’t fix it. Sometimes it’s not who He is; it’s knowing who you are—unashamedly taking your position and posture into expelling that influence that is wreaking havoc on a household, a city, or a situation.
I pray that in this next season, every one of us would see personal breakthroughs, family breakthroughs, corporate breakthroughs. To me, this mystery may be clear to you, but it’s a mystery that would become clear. May there be something more deeply rooted in who He made me to be that knows how to operate in both power and authority.