What does Tribe teach about fasting?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on fasting starts with a simple observation: Jesus did not treat fasting as an optional extra for unusually devoted followers. Joy, who brought a full teaching on the practice ahead of the church's twenty-one-day focus on Israel, pointed out that in Matthew 6 Jesus says 'when you fast,' not 'if you fast,' placing it alongside prayer and giving as an expected rhythm. The Western church has largely lost this, she said, even as the health and medical world has been rediscovering it. She also drew a clear line between fasting and other forms of self-denial. Giving up social media or following a restricted diet has real value, but fasting in the biblical sense means not eating, with water only.
The heart of what Tribe teaches on fasting is that it is an act of worship, not a technique for getting things from God. Joy said, 'Our motive in fasting is always to offer ourselves to God. It is an act of worship.' She grounded that in Romans 12:1, which calls believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, and argued that fasting is one of the most direct ways to do that because you physically feel the sacrifice. Deuteronomy 8 gave her the deeper logic: God let Israel hunger in the wilderness and fed them with manna to teach them that human beings do not live on bread alone. Fasting puts the body in that same posture of dependence. She also noted that Ezekiel 16:49 connects pride and a full stomach, and quoted the phrase that landed in the room: 'Pride and a full stomach are bedfellows.'
Pastor Brian, in the weeks surrounding that teaching, framed fasting as the way to create appetite for what God wants to put in. Drawing on Proverbs 27:7, he made the point that a person who is full refuses honey, but bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry. If there is no hunger, there is no room. The twenty-one-day fast the congregation undertook was not presented as an end in itself but as a way of making space in their hearts for something they had not yet had room to receive. Amanda's later message on Jesus in the wilderness added one more layer: Jesus himself went into the wilderness fasting immediately after his baptism, and that season of deprivation was not a detour but deliberate preparation for everything that followed.
Taught from Matthew 6:16-18 · Deuteronomy 8:2-3 · Romans 12:1 · Isaiah 58 · Matthew 4:1-11
“You can know all day long there's a glass of water that will quench your thirst. But unless you actually drink the water, it does nothing for you.”
From The World's First Selfie
The passage taught · Deuteronomy 16:9-12
9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 2, 2023 The World's First Selfie Brian Hunter walks Tribe through the biblical feast of Sukkot, exploring why God invites his people to remember, recalibrate, and rehearse his faithfulness seven times a year.
- August 28, 2023 When You Fast Joy Hunter teaches Tribe fam why fasting matters, what it does to body and soul, and how it connects to 21 days of prayer for Israel.
Mentioned along the way
- August 18, 2024 Jesus In The Wilderness Amanda Lack walks through Jesus in the wilderness, looking at his three temptations and what they teach us about identity, trust, and how to endure hard seasons.
- June 3, 2024 A Step by Step Guide to Walking in the Spirit Brian Hunter walks through four practical steps to walking in the Spirit, covering Scripture, obedience in small things, disciplining the flesh, and praying in the Spirit.
- September 25, 2023 Making Room for Israel Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Romans 11, exploring God's heart for Israel during a 21-day fast and what it means for believers grafted into that story.
- September 18, 2023 A Measure of Hope for Israel Brian Hunter walks Tribe through Daniel 11 and what Scripture calls Jacob's trouble, asking who will stand with Israel when that time comes.
- September 11, 2023 Contending for Apostolic Foundations A guest speaker shares his journey from communist college student to plumber and back to faith, exploring what Scripture calls the apostolic foundations of the church.
- September 4, 2023 Make Room in Your Heart Brian Hunter walks Tribe Church through John 8 and Matthew 6 as he launches a 21-day fast for Israel, asking the congregation to make room in their hearts for what God cares about.
- August 21, 2023 Pack Your Bags Brian Hunter opens a three-week journey into God's heart for Israel, reading Genesis, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Romans 11 together as a congregation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
- June 5, 2023 The Power Accessible in Recalibration Joy Obot teaches Tribe on how practicing rest and spiritual disciplines now prepares you to trust God when life's darkest days arrive.