Fasting is one of the keys to opening doors in the Spirit that have been set before us, though if we do not know how to turn the doorknob we may end up running headlong into the wood and falling flat on our backs, more trouble than acceleration. The same goes for the enemies of fasting, we will either posture our hearts correctly to enter into what our Heavenly Father has for us or we will end up going about it wrong and making friends with these "Enemies" rather than embrace Revelation and true breakthrough.

Enemy #4: Eating Disorders

One danger zone in fasting that must be avoided, especially among women, is the temptation to fast out of wrong motivations that flow from eating disorders, which are at an all time high in our culture today among Christians and non-Christians alike. The tricky part to be alerted to is that a person might begin fasting with pure motivations before God, and as time passes, slowly diverge into false motivations while being unaware of the transition. Empowered by thinking they are responding to the biblical exhortations to fast, they are truly strengthening an eating disorder. Eating disorders are very dangerous and are rooted in darkness, not light. Anyone who has struggled with one in the past knows that fasting can be a serious trap that may ensnare a person in darkness. We fast only to position our hearts to receive more from the Lord, not to enhance our appearance! We must not seek our identity in being thin but in being loved by God. And on a practical dimension, as we have already considered when we looked at the changes that fasting brings to our metabolism, we recognize that fasting is never a way to lose weight. I urge people to watch over those in their midst who may be prone to this. Satan wants to kill, steal and destroy human life (John 10:10) by any means possible. If he cannot destroy us by overindulgence then he will go to the other extreme and try to trap us with denying our flesh with impure motives.

Enemy #5: Legalism and the Religious Spirit

Legalism seeks to earn one’s standing with God. It was a religious spirit that drove and motivated the Pharisees. They fasted to earn something from God. It is not fasting to gain God’s approval through our own works but rather to enter into the experience of His freely given love. We embrace fasting out of the place of being overwhelmed with the revelation of His marvelous grace toward us; all of sudden we have the courage to fast. It’s not fasting to earn or deserve, but to have a greater capacity for agreement with the Holy Spirit, whom we love. Anyone who is not grounded in the grace of God should wait before they start fasting—otherwise legalism will be strengthened in them by the very act of fasting. The only foundation for a fast that doesn’t degenerate into legalism is the knowledge that God embraces us with delight, even in our weakness. 

Paul addressed the problem of legalism in the book of Galatians, (Gal. 3:1-3)  and he went on to exhort them to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free by His glorious work on the cross, and to not be entangled with a yoke of religious bondage (legalism). This would cause them to be estranged from Christ, for they would fall from grace if they attempted to stand before God based on their good works and dedication (Gal. 5:1-8).

Let’s ask ourselves a few questions. Do we feel more confident before God and worship with greater assurance because we are fasting? Do we tend to shrink back in shame when we are not fasting? If so, we know we are putting confidence in our dedication to God rather than His dedication to us. This is a deceptive trap, that leads to one of two dead ends—either condemnation or pride.  If we do not fast we end up in condemnation, thinking God is disappointed in us, and when we do fast, we fall into spiritual pride, imagining that God is pleased with us based on our asceticism. The religious spirit of self-loathing that condemns us when we do not fast is the same spirit that boasts in us when we follow through in our fasting and prayer, and both find their roots in spiritual pride. 

If we think that we are more desirable to God because of our prayer and fasting, we are on the road to dead religion. Paul warned the early church against the spiritual deception and pride that can come with self-denial. Some in the city of Colosse based their confidence before God on their religious rigors. They kept rules of “Do not taste, touch or handle.” Paul said in essence, “Why do you subject yourselves to your own regulations and rules that you created—finding confidence in these lists?”

All of God’s children can enter into the free enjoyment of God, regardless of whether we have fasted that week or not. The knowledge that a tender Bridegroom cherishes us is the force behind our desire to be fully surrendered to the Lord. People who fast before their image of an angry God are desperately scrambling to avoid the disapproval of the Judge. With this view of God we end up condemning ourselves most of the time, and missing the affection and tenderness of God in our fasting. It is only in the presence of a Bridegroom of joy that our fasting is safe and most edifying to us.

A religious spirit does not enhance our gratitude, or our affection toward God and others. Rather, it compares itself with others and boasts in its greater commitment. If we are fasting because of love, there is no boasting or comparison. There is no competition. There is only the desire to love and receive love for God, and to bring others into this marvelous experience of God’s affections also.

Enemy #6: Inappropriate Asceticism (Self-Denial)

There are two great enemies we must watch out for—the destructiveness of self-indulgence and the destructiveness of religious self-denial. Though there are more perils in self-indulgence than in abstinence, the perils of fasting come when our focus is not on a God of love, a God of burning affections. The Bridegroom fast leads us into confidence into His burning heart, not in our flesh—an essential deliverance from ungodly self-denial.

Jesus calls us to take up our cross and deny ourselves as we follow Him in the grace of God (Matt. 16:24-25). False asceticism leads people into confidence in their religious deeds instead of God. The enemy seeks to pervert this glorious pathway of obedience and derail anyone who takes it seriously, deceiving us into extremes that are not prescribed by Scripture.

Some monasteries in the dark ages entered into strange kinds of asceticism—beating themselves with whips and wearing painful clothing or objects. Paul speaks of the false ascetics making celibacy mandatory and imposing dietary restrictions. Throughout church history, people have tried tortuous regimes of self-denial in an attempt to keep themselves from immorality and indulgence of the flesh. This is not by any means biblical and will not lead us to the heart of Jesus. These extremes are rooted in false assumptions about God and how His grace operates. What keeps the heart in holiness is revelation of the love and beauty of God. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Therefore, we have access to God’s presence and thus, to the beauty of His majesty. Paul had a passion about people having confidence in grace. It is not about marking off religious to-do lists and how severely “spiritual” we can be. The strength of God’s love seals and empowers our heart, not the strength of man’s own flesh (Song 8:6).

Enemy #7: Spiritual Pride

A premier pitfall in the fasted lifestyle, and the one that perhaps hits most close to home in many of our lives, is the fierce temptation toward spiritual pride. Abstinence from food and pleasure can greatly stoke our pride. This pride is the most common danger of the fasted lifestyle, and it is lethal to true spiritually. There is nothing more powerful than a group of people in unity of abandonment to God—praying and fasting together. However, such a community has a corresponding great and continual temptation to pride and judgment. 

What does spiritual pride look like? We find ourselves desiring to be recognized as one uniquely dedicated and close to God. We love being acknowledged as one who fasts. We feel gratification when we get “caught” fasting. We can become desperate to appear close to Jesus even if it requires us to leave exaggerated and false impressions about the depth of our spirituality. We want others to believe more about us than what is actually true. We are disgusted that others aren’t fasting as much as we are. We feel superior or judgmental toward those who don’t fast. Though we may hear all of these manifestations of spiritual pride and quickly decide they do not apply to us, we must remember just how subtle pride is, and be always on the lookout for its residue in our motivations and mindsets. It may be more personal to us than we realize.

Another Face of Spiritual Pride is in an unholy confidence to judge people. Fasting provides a tremendous open door for religious arrogance—an unholy confidence to judge others. Without a purposeful resistance, we will unknowingly forge a negative assessment over others. In light of this, Paul urged, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to be a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way” (Romans 14:13).

Sometimes those who have given themselves to intense prayer and fasting are the most angry and judgmental people. They have a strange boldness to judge others. Who killed the Messiah? Pharisees who fasted twice a week; they were emboldened in their religious deception and pride. Instead of looking down at others with contempt, the Lord wants us to grow in gratitude for the grace working in our hearts that enables us to sustain a fasted lifestyle. Jesus told a parable about two men who went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men, noting that he fasted twice a week and gave tithes of all he possessed. The tax collector cried out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” He was the one justified, not the Pharisee (Luke 18:10–14).

If God has given us a revelation of the importance of prayer with fasting, and has also given us the grace to sustain it, the right response is to say, “Thank You, for this glorious gift.” When gratitude for grace arises in our hearts, the dragon of pride is held somewhat in check. Why have we learned of this noble way of life? It is not because we are good followers of Jesus, but rather that He is an excellent leader. It is not that we are good students; rather, He is an excellent teacher. It has never been about our ability to listen all that well, but about His exceptional ability to communicate in a way that gets our attention.

As we humble ourselves and receive the revelation that God’s grace is the only reason we can obey Him in any capacity, we are in a good position to resist the devil’s schemes against the fasted lifestyle. Sincere believers who love Jesus and want to enter the fasted lifestyle must develop a strong foundation in what the Word says about the grace of God. During times of fasting we must stay focused on intimacy with Jesus, stay connected to the Body of Christ in authentic relationship, stay in the Word (even twice as much as usual), and continue in humility of spirit, easily receiving correction from those in spiritual authority. We will thus avoid the seven dangers of the fasted lifestyle and move forward into the abounding benefits and rewards God desires to bring forth in our lives.