Lisa Bevere Twists the Scriptures on Fasting, Says You Can Fast from Anything Other Than Food to “Indulge in God” - by Jeff Maples

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The acerbic author has appeared in these pages before, and continues his myopia.

The title claims Ms. Bevere twists Scripture, but the author will never tell us which Scripture is being twisted, or explain the correct interpretation. In fact, he will never quote or even allude to a single Scripture.

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From the Bethel Church and Christianity Facebook page:

Lisa Bevere, an itinerant speaker at Bethel Church, says you can “fast” from whatever you want. i.e. “Fast magazines…Amazon Prime…” and “what may be a fast for you may not be a fast for someone else.”

What Lisa (and many others fail to understand) is the word for “fast,” (Heb: Tsowm; Grk: Nesteuo) in the original languages, literally means “not to eat.” (Unfortunately for our bombastic author, this is not entirely true:

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

νηστεύω; future νηστεύσω; 1 aorist (infinitive νηστεῦσαι (Luke 5:34 T WH Tr text)), participle νηστεύσας; (from νῆστις, which see); to fast (Vulg. and ecclesiastical writingsjejano), i. e. to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink: either entirely, if the fast lasted but a single day, Matthew 6:16-18; Matthew 9:14; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33,(); ; Acts 10:30 R G; Acts 13:2,(); or from customary and choice nourishment, if it continued several days, Matthew 4:2, cf. Matthew 11:18; νηστευει συνεχῶς καί ἄρτον ἐσθίει μόνον μετά ἁλατος καί τό πότον αὐτοῦ ὕδωρ, Acta Thom. § 20. (Aristophanes, Plutarch, mor., p. 626f; Aelian v. h. 5, 20; (Josephus, contra Apion 1, 34, 5 (where see Müller)); the Sept. for צוּן.)

Notice what Strong's says: ...or from customary and choice nourishment, if it continued several days... So a fast cannot simply mean "not to eat." Sometimes it means to abstain from certain food or foods you would customarily eat. For example:

Ac. 15:20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

And John MacArthur, to whom the author will later link, will contradict him. He says, "There is a sense in which a modified fast or a partial fast can be taken where you don’t totally fast and totally abstain from food, but you abstain from banqueting, you abstain from lavishness, you abstain from the rich foods, to eat a rather common food.")

Also, we never see an example in the Bible of anyone fasting from anything other than food and always as a corollary. (Well, except Daniel. [Dan. 1:8]. And the Nazirites [Nu. 6:3]. And the fast of Isaiah 58.

And of course, those who abstain from meat:

Ro. 14:6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.)

Fasting is not about “indulging God,” as Lisa says. Fasting is an involuntary response to an outward influence and the Bible says fasting is always (Always? Again we note that John MacArthur says something different: "Fasting then, was a personal – watch this – non-compulsory, spontaneous, voluntary act (Emphasis added). There’s no structure to fasting delineated in the Scripture. There’s just endless variety, endless variety.")

tied to mourning or some extreme situation/decision. (No reference for any of these assertions. And in fact, Strong's contradicts our author yet again: ...to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink... This is a purposeful choice, not involuntary, and not necessarily related to an extreme situation. 

And are these "mourning or some extreme situation/decision?"

Ac. 13:2 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.”

Mt. 6:17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face... 

Mk. 9:29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting."

Lk. 2:37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 

Ac. 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 

Ezr. 8:23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. 

The author seems to think that fasting is only for severe emergency situations, but of course he does not bother to document it.)

One does not wake up and simply decide to fast; we do not fast to “get closer to God” or to “hear God better.” (Three more undocumented assertions.)

(Here is the link to MacArthur:) Biblical Fasting: https://www.gty.org/…/sermons-library/2231/fasting-without-…

Lisa’s Original Post:

If you can’t fast FOOD then FAST WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK! For those of you looking to start your 2020 with a fast, keep this in mind: fasting isn’t so much about denying yourself as it is about INDULGING GOD.
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To dive deeper into the topic of fasting, grab my FREE mini e-book FAST FORWARD at the link in my bio!
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ALSO @johnbevere and I have a FREE COURSE called Reset 2020 coming out on January 1st to help you start the new decade RIGHT! It covers fasting as well as 7 other key areas that impact your life! #StayTuned #momto4men #SicilianGmama #Reset2020