Our personal experiences with fasting are no doubt as varied as we are in number. Of the many benefits to be reaped while fasting, the two that stand out most to me are an intensified personal awareness of the presence of God, to include a much improved ability to hear His voice as part of ongoing communication with Him, and a tangible increase of His power at work either personally in my life, or on my behalf in the lives of family and acquaintances, circumstances etc.

It is not that I become more powerful spiritually, but that His awesome power becomes more evident as I get out of the way, in large part specifically due to my flesh being put on a back burner because of the fast itself. He increases as I decrease, and the relationship becomes something much closer to what He intended all along, in my opinion.

God simply responds to right hearted fasting in a unique way, whether it be demonstrated through relationship with us, or His responding to a situation for us. Fasting and prayer with another or others for a specific reason, or with a specific request of God, even if separated by distance, produces results which are seldom seen otherwise.

I often think of Jesus' words to the disciples in Matthew 17, when they had been unable to cast out the demon from the "lunatic, sore vexed" son of the father who had then brought him to Jesus. Christ said that their problem had been twofold - one, unbelief, and two, that "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. I have with my own eyes seen God drive an unbelievably powerful spirit out on our behalf in answer to several days of prayer and fasting with another Christian for this battle. He and He alone took up the fight on our behalf sovereignly in His power, our role was obedience and surrender.

I probably have as many fasting failure stories as I do big fasting success stories, specifically because satan fights fasting and prayer tooth and nail, and to be honest, I have by no means won them all. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, mine moreso than others it seems at times. I know people who have done long fasts with nothing but water, others who have done juice fasts, still others who have had a cup of broth maybe twice a day, and everything in between. Most everybody agrees that whatever you do, it is best to give up caffeine for the duration. Personally, I've done best with nothing but a small bowl of liquid only soup or broth once or twice daily, and personal communion nightly during the fast, the longest of these going 5 to 7 days or so? I also once did a multi-day fast when doing physical labor by eating a piece of nutritious Ezekiel type bread once daily, and liquids otherwise.

Blacknarwhal, I couldn't agree more that prayer and fasting can tip the scales in times like these.