We all have some things that cause us to miss the greatest breakthroughs needed in our lives. During this series of articles that I'll be doing during the weeks of January/2014, I will be blogging my little fingers off about fasting. I believe in it...I believe it is a powerful tool to help God's people receive a bunch of blessings. Yeah....a bunch. Fasting is good for the body...it is tremendous to the soul, it is impressive to God and it is even better as a game changer in life.
Let's clear the air about what a fast is. Refraining from food is not a fast. That is a diet. But refraining from food for a spiritual purpose.....that dear one's is a fast. From a biblical perspective, fasting has and is to be a normal part of a strong and vital relationship with God. David, the Goliath killer,
communicates that to us in Psalms 42 where he credits fasting (42.1-3) as the means to having a deeper(42.7), more intimate and powerful relationship with the Lord.
When a person deliberately, and with a purpose for spiritual growth, eliminates food from his/her diet for a given period of time, that person's spirit becomes uncluttered by the things around them and super sensitive to God. As David stated, "Deep calls unto deep"(Ps 42.7). David was fasting. His hunger and thirst for God exceeded his basic desire for food. That kind of want for God made it so that he could find God's presence and comfort in any situation. Even when Absalom forced David into a short term exile from his God-appointed throne in Jerusalem.
For anyone who has ever experienced an intimate relationship with the Lord and the numerous blessings that come with His favor--your whole perspective of life changes. You are not a victim anymore and you will never be conquerable anymore. You realize that His favor has come, in a huge part, from fasting.
During Jesus' ministry on this planet, one of things He did was to teach and demonstrate to His disciples the principles of the kingdom of God. If you've spent any reasonable time in your Bible, you know that those principles conflict with the worldly life of today - and of back then. Jesus taught a tremendous message titled 'the Sermon on the Mount' (Matt. chpt 5-7). In chapter 6, He teaches us the pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God. That pattern deals with three main issues of a Christian's duty: giving, praying and fasting. The Bible records Jesus' words this way, "When you give..."When you pray"....and "When you fast." Making it perfectly clear to everyone, that fasting, giving and praying are to be a normal part of a Christian's life.
King Solomon, earlier in biblical history wrote a book for all of Israel to read and learn from. In that book he made a very special point about strength. He uses a rope(cord,wire) for his example. You can find this illustration for yourself in Eccles. 4:12, where Solomon says, "a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord(rope, wire) is not easily broken" (NLT). And that is the way it is when giving, praying and fasting are joined together in the life of a believer. It creates a trilogy of actions and efforts, a three-twain cord that is not easily broken. Do you remember when Batman was on TV every week? They would put up the words; "Bang, Bam, Boom" when he and Robin were in a skirmish. These three words described-with excitement- Batman and Robin's conflict and their beating up on their opponents.
Well to the Devil, it is not "Bang, Bam, Boom", it is praying, fasting and giving. Through these three, we open the pathway to victory in our lives. To the victor goes the spoils, [so we get to drive off in the batmobile!] Could it be, oh lover of Christ, that we may be missing our biggest breakthroughs because we fail to utilize all three of these amazing tools? More specifically: fasting.
C u in part 2.
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