Daniel fast. Personal experience.

Russian version you can find here.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

This article is not written to show the author some kind of ultra-spiritual man. It is written to describe the personal experience in a fast. In modern Christianity, this kind of information is rather difficult to find, the experience of spiritual practices is hardly sanctified. However, in the Bible, we see how people recorded their experience of communicating with God, if Daniel had not recorded his experience, we would never have known about his fast and could not imitate him. I realize that in describing my spiritual experience, I lose the “reward”. Why? Because fast is something personal between you and God. Of course, I will not sanctify my personal needs and revelations here, rather, I want to describe the process of being in the fast of Daniel.

First week.

Should be noted that I decided to enter the fast of Daniel on Sunday evening, when it began on Monday, so almost all Sunday evening I spent in search of recipes and the purchase of products.

The first week of the fast was quite difficult. When I looked at the list of foods that could be eaten, I had no doubt that it would not be so difficult. Already in the first working day, I was faced with a lot of inconveniences associated with food. The main problem is the lack of meat and sugar. When the company in which you work, uses a list of products that are prohibited to you, it is necessary again and again to fight with thoughts about food. No matter how spiritual you are, thoughts of food will somehow come to you. I tried to focus on the spiritual side of the post. I understood that fasting is not just a hunger strike. Regarding this, the first week I tried, step by step, to put this theory into practice. It was not easy at all, the week was filled with fussy, I was not ready for it.

The essence of fasting is to get closer to God and His Word, therefore, I needed to spend more time with Him in prayer and in thinking about His Word. So, if I traditionally conducted one basic prayer per day (15–20 minutes) and read the Scripture (30–45 minutes), then these figures needed to be increased two, or maybe three times. Understanding this, I described the basic prayer needs, made a schedule of prayers and reading the Scriptures, in order to enter the second week of fasting prepared for battle. For the first week, I realized: I’m fighting with myself. I tried to run away from those places that distracted me from thinking about God, and not to think about food. I tried to subordinate any thought to Christ, here you understand: man can’t offer anything to God, only by His mercy we are delivered from our sins.

Second week.

The second week began with the understanding that the spiritual state during fasting is something that you need to invest all your time. Already had a week-long experience of being in fasting, I began to understand what was important and what was secondary.

If you compare my spiritual state with the first week, here the time spent in prayer and the Word of God increased two to three times, depending on the workload of the day. I learned to pray in breaks from work, go out for prayer walks. During working hours, I tried to make time for reading the Word, breaking away from the routine. Regarding food, the body adapted to the diet, I had dishes that I cooked regularly, and there was also resistance to situations where people ate what I could not eat. During the second week, I realized that fasting is a breath of freedom. I am free from entertainment, social networks, stupid pastime. I do not remember when lately I was so efficiently managing my time. In the middle of the week I decided to pray for the brotherhood of the church, the desire of my heart was to stand in the gap for their families and ministry. I also tried a new practice of personal time with God, I wrote down the truths from Scripture thematically, and during prayer, I pronounced and proclaimed them in the ear.

The plan for the third week was to no longer increase in quantity, but in quality. With my daily routine, the amount was more than enough. I want to learn how to lament before God and His Word, tremble before His greatness, consciously stand in the gap for the brotherhood, trusting Him my way.

Third week.

To say that I “failed” the third week is to say nothing. During this week I realized: in the fast is a very important physical condition. If you are like a squeezed lemon physically, you simply cannot build bridges with God in personal prayer. The week was ultra-loaded, so I clung to every free five-minute to spend it with God.

The relationship to food has become balanced, although it is difficult to dispel the idea that the end of the fast is near, and I can eat everything. With all the workload in the week, the idea that I needed to spend time with God did not let me go. This factor suggests that I felt an acute shortage of something that depended on my satisfaction and joy. When there was a break in the relationship with Christ, I felt a lack of spiritual joy like never before.

The fast ended during the Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of what Jesus did for me — this is a good completion of the fast, when you understand: everything that happened in the fast is due to Him, all of His glory, and you cannot draw His attention to yourself then hunger strike or self-sacrifice.

During the last days of the post, I reflected on what happened to me during this time. I realized that fasting is needed not for God, but for me. It is I who need Him, not He in me, it is I who need His mercy and fellowship, rather than He needs my sacrifices.

Results.

1. The fast of Daniel is good because it is long, you can understand what you did wrong yesterday and how to do it right today. When you fast from one to three days to assess your progress is quite difficult.
2. During the post, I realized one truth: I need fasting, but not to God. I, and only I need changes, but God does not need them. When you are in cramped circumstances, it is quite simple for you to understand that you have nothing to offer Him. But He has what you need.
3. I learned to set aside time for prayer during the workday, to do prayer walks while working. As soon as I had free time, the trigger immediately turned on: prayer and reading of Scripture.
4. The realization that I am not perfect and make a slip for a slip, even when I try and set myself on a qualitative relationship with God. This is striking, but the fact is that only God can be saved; we cannot offer him anything, even when we really want it. This fact should strengthen our faith, and excite in us the rapture that God loved us, not us.

Recommendations.

• Biblical foundation of the fast can be found here: (Russian version) (English version).
• A list of foods that can be eaten here: (Russian version) (English version).
• Need to prepare before the fast. Try to write out the basic needs, goals that you want to pray about during the fasting period before the fast begins. Also here it will be appropriate to purchase products, as well as to see the recipes of dishes that you will eat during the post. You can even make a diet. Spiritually tune in, understand why you are doing this, then during fasting you will no longer waste time on it.
• Fasting is not just a hunger strike. You need to understand that your spiritual state is more than what you eat or do not eat. Thus, remove all things that prevent you from keeping the focus on prayer and God’s Word. For example, I also did not use social media during fasting. networks (Instagram, Facebook, Vk, YouTube), of course, I used instant messengers (Viber, Telegram, Mail) to communicate with the outside world, I also excluded watching movies and listening to music (even Christian) as much as possible, I also excluded sexual intercourse. Objective one: to keep the maximum focus on God’s Word and prayer.
• Be in good physical condition. If you feel like a “squeezed lemon” every day, you simply physically cannot spend time in prayer.
• Think about how you will develop what you received in the fast. It is necessary to understand that we need not a jump in relations with God (fasting), but systematic growth. Think about how you will keep fasting in everyday life.
• Smoothly get out of the fast. This implies not only food but also entertainment, social networks, everything that you have given up for the duration of the fast. It is not worth on the very first day after fasting to fill your belly, sit on the phone from morning till night or break for some entertainment. Exit from the post should be systematic.

I hope that this article will be an occasion for you to strengthen your relationship with Christ.

Blessings!