Understanding the Bridegroom Fast
I. CASTING THE VISION
A. The Lord gives the vision
B. The Lord calls us to have prayer furnaces in the cities of the earth 24 hours a day in the spirit of the tabernacle of
David.
C. Hundreds – and millions – of people will answer the call to prayer on a full time basis.
D. It is a new hour in prayer. He is allowing us into something historic in importance.
II. A PROPHETIC CALL TO A NEW KIND OF FASTING
A. Jesus gave a prophetic call from Zechariah 8 in Matthew 9:
“Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your
disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14)
B. John the Baptist in John 3:29 had just a few months ago declared himself a Friend of the Bridegroom. Jesus’ first
title over the apostles is that they would operate in the same spiritual reality that John did.
C. Jesus prophesies the destruction of the religious structures of his day in Matthew 9:16-17. They associated
mourning to a natural disaster or a military disaster.
D. Jesus is going to use the same word, mourning, that is associated with fasting but He is going to relate it to an
internal experience of lovesickness.
III. A NEW PARADIGM OF FASTING
A. Jesus is establishing a new paradigm of fasting.
B. John the Baptist, the first ‘friend of the bridegroom’. He is the first one to experience joy in the wilderness kind of
fasting.
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him,
rejoices greatly because of the bridegrooms voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled”. (John 3:29)
C. Jesus talks to the apostles about mourning related to a bridegroom God.
D. The embraces of Jesus cause us to feel enjoyed by Him.
E. The physical absence of Jesus creates desire that leads to bridegroom fasting. His physical presence, the
stunning beauty of His life ruined them.
F. The bridegroom fast is a fasting born out of desire.
G. John the Baptist fasted because he was at a distance.
IV. SONG OF SOLOMON RELATES TO BRIDEGROOM FASTING
A. I believe Song of Solomon 8:5, in poetic language, speaks of bridegroom fasting.
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I awakened you under the apple
tree. There your mother brought you forth; there she who bore you brought you forth”.
(Song of Solomon 8:5)
B. There are only two times the bride describes herself as lovesick.
1. The first type of lovesickness: like the apostles with Jesus before the Cross.
2. The second lovesickness is very different. It is the apostles after the Cross with the Holy Spirit.
C. She is seeking the Lord. She is lovesick and cannot feel His presence. The apostles were going to experience
this after the Cross. Jesus told them that the bridegroom fast would bring the nearness of God.
“I arose for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles
of the lock. I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up
when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The
watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls
took my veil away from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell
him I am lovesick.” (Song of Solomon 5:6-8)
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy as
cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love,
nor can floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.”
(Song of Solomon 8:6)
V. LOVESICKNESS LEADS INTO THE FASTED LIFESTYLE
A. God has ordained lovesickness to lead us into conviction into the fasted lifestyle not into the hopelessness of past
experiences.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? … why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise Him for the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will
remember You…” (Psalm 42:5)
B. God calls us from one realm to another in the deep depths of God.
“O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,
and from the heights of Hermon, from the Hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all
Your waves and billows have gone over me.” (Psalm 42:6-7)
C. The bridegroom fast is based on an initial experience of desire.
D. To create desire feed upon the bridegroom revelation.
E. The bridegroom fast increases our spiritual capacity to receive the beauty of God.
F. I believe this verse Isaiah 61:3 summarizes the contrast to the Old Testament fast and the New Testament fast
in its aim.
“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:3)
G. This unique fast is the pursuit of beauty. It flows out of joy and the garment of praise. The little bit of joy is the
power of the bridegroom fast and very different than the old paradigm and people.
H. Beloved, there is an available privilege in the Holy Spirit that is so dynamic and the Bride of Christ has to say yes
to it. We have to go forward from this place in any means that God makes available. We are calling the earth into a
fasted lifestyle before a lovesick God that He would impart to them the joy of lovesickness.