The Significance Of Jesus’ Forty Days And Forty Nights Fasting

1. Scripture Reading

Matthew 4:1–2 (KJV)

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Mark 1:12–13 (KJV)

And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Luke 4:1–2 (KJV)

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

2. Introduction — The Prime Mental Fasting

The forty days and forty nights of Jesus in the wilderness were not merely a physical fast from food — they were a prime mental fasting, a deep spiritual alignment where the Spirit, Soul, and Body of Jesus were in perfect unity with God.

This mental fasting represented the renewal of the mind — the conscious discipline of thought, emotion, and will — where all human faculties are surrendered to divine authority.

When the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are read together and interpreted through John 17, it becomes clear that this fasting was the foundational act of divine alignment — the ultimate demonstration that humanity can live in complete union with God.

3. The Source of the Scriptures — Jesus Himself

The most important question is: “Who was the source of their writings in these passages?”

The only answer is Jesus Himself. Jesus, being 100% God and 100% man, revealed through His own experience the mystery of spiritual transformation — the renewing of the mind that brings the inner man into divine order.

The Gospel writers recorded these truths not from imagination, but from divine revelation through the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

As Jesus taught in John 17, He gave witness of His own unity with the Father — the same unity He desired for every believer.

4. The Inner Man — Alignment of Spirit, Soul, and Body

During the forty days and nights, Jesus’ fasting represented the purification of consciousness — the silencing of the lower mind (flesh) and the exaltation of divine awareness.

The Spirit led Him; the Soul obeyed; the Body submitted.

This was perfect spiritual order.

When Scripture says, “He afterward hungered,” it means the natural body became aware of its physical need only after 40 days and 40 nights of the Spirit, Soul and Body which were in complete alignment with God.

It was not hunger from deprivation — it was the body’s recognition that spiritual food had been its true sustenance.

6. The Unity of the Gospels — One Interpretation

All Scripture interprets itself.

The accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each emphasizes a different aspect of the same truth:

• Matthew reveals the authority of the Word.
• Mark reveals the immediacy of obedience to the Spirit.
• Luke reveals the fullness of the Holy Ghost.

Together, they show that Jesus’ fasting was not a ritual but a spiritual initiation — the renewal of the mind that precedes divine ministry.

7. Jesus’ Prayer of Unity — John 17 (Selected Passages, KJV)

John 17:1–2

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

John 17:21–23

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

This prayer compliments the purpose of Jesus’ forty-day mental fasting: to bring man into the same divine union that He shared with the Father.

This is the fulfillment of the renewed mind — the mind that no longer lives by the senses but by divine consciousness.

8. The Spiritual Law Revealed

Spiritual Law:

To fast mentally is to silence the human will, elevate divine awareness, and allow Spirit, Soul, and Body to act as one in God.

The forty-day fast of Jesus was the highest form of renewal — a restoration of divine alignment that all believers are called to experience through repentance, meditation, and obedience to the Word.

9. Application to the Believer

• Fasting begins in the mind, not in the mouth.
• True fasting is the discipline of thought, focus, and intention toward God.
• Hunger for the Word is greater than hunger for food.
• Spiritual alignment comes when Spirit governs Soul and Body, not the reverse.
• The believer is called to live by every Word proceeding from the mouth of God.

10. Meditation Verse and Reflection

Romans 8:6 (KJV)

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Reflection

Father thank you for renewing my mind that I may live not by earthly bread but by every Word that proceeds from Your mouth.

My thoughts shall be aligned with Your will, my heart one with Your Spirit, and my body a vessel of Your glory.

Thank you for teaching me the true fast — the silence of my flesh, and the awakening of my spirit.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.