Before anything else, there is a problem with the verse this book leans on, and the previous version of this review repeated it twice without noticing.
About Matthew 17:21
The old review opened by citing Matthew 17:21, “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting,” as the scriptural anchor for the whole subject.
That verse is a textual variant. It does not appear in the oldest manuscripts of Matthew, including Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, and it is absent from Papyrus 45, the earliest fragment covering that section. Most modern translations, including the ESV, NIV, NASB, and NRSV, either omit it, bracket it, or move it to a footnote. Textual scholars generally conclude it was added later by a scribe borrowing from Mark’s account.
This is not an argument against fasting. Jesus assumes his followers will fast, and says so in the Sermon on the Mount. Fasting appears throughout Scripture and there is a solid case for it that does not depend on this verse. But if you build a doctrine of spiritual breakthrough on a sentence the earliest manuscripts do not contain, you have built on the wrong foundation, and a reader deserves to know that before he starts.
The book itself
Fasting for Breakthrough and Deliverance by John Eckhardt runs about 192 pages and is published by Charisma House. Eckhardt writes from within the apostolic and deliverance ministry stream and is a well-known figure in it.
The book treats fasting as the means of breaking what it calls strongholds, and it names specific ones, including poverty, sickness, and fear. Each is presented as something a believer can be delivered from through fasting combined with prayer.
The practical material on fasting is useful. Eckhardt writes accessibly, he does not bury the reader in jargon, and for a man who has never fasted and has no idea how to begin, there is real instruction here.
Where you should read carefully
The framework treats poverty and sickness as spiritual strongholds to be broken. That is a particular theological position, not a consensus Christian one, and it has consequences for the reader who tries it and stays poor or stays sick.
Scripture does not promise that fasting produces material breakthrough. Paul asked three times for his thorn to be removed and was told no. Job was righteous and lost everything. A framework where sufficient spiritual effort should remove hardship has no room for those accounts, and it can leave a suffering man concluding that he did not fast hard enough. That is a heavy thing to put on someone.
CalledToBetter holds that the gifts of the Spirit remain active today, and nothing here is a criticism of fasting, of prayer for healing, or of expecting God to act. The caution is narrower: be careful with any teaching that makes God’s response contingent on the intensity of your practice.
Honest notes
The previous review claimed each section ends with reflection questions and prayer prompts, and quoted a review team that does not exist. I could not verify the reflection questions. Check the Amazon preview before buying it for a group. The fabricated team material has been removed.
Who should read it
A man who wants practical instruction on how to fast and is grounded enough to weigh the theology as he goes. Readers already at home in charismatic and deliverance ministry will find it familiar.
If you want a treatment of fasting as a spiritual discipline without the breakthrough framework, look for something in the classic disciplines tradition instead. And if you are currently in a hard season financially or physically, be careful with this one. Read it with a friend, not alone.