Fasting - Escort into His arms

The concept of fasting was foreign in my traditional Methodist/Baptist upbringing, but after only 1 day I saw results!  I had read about fasting and prayer in the Bible, but never actually partnered the idea with reality (this was before I had received the baptism of the wonderful Holy Spirit).  My wife, 2 year old son, and myself were all living at my parents house at the time.  The move from our apartment to my parents was instigated by my wife undergoing several hospitalizations and it had put a large dent in our finances.  My prayer life had recently come alive with passion as I was zealously praying to the Lord in the morning to deliver us from certain circumstances (specifically, we needed a place to live permanently).  For several days I felt the urge to fast, without explanation.  After considering the possibility that the "urge" could be the Lord, I took a day off from eating.  Within a month of that single one-day fast, my wife and I received a check for $14,000! 


So, why fast?  Because God will give you $14,000! But seriously, God responds to a heart that is willing to lay down the desires of the flesh to seek Him.  Some of the Biblical purposes of fasts are:

• Mourning
• To inquire of the Lord
• Repentence
• Deliverance
• Power
• Humility

If you need set free of an oppression, a response from God, or more of the power of God in your life... fasting should be partnered with your prayers.  Fasting is never done outside of prayer but coupled with it.  While many pastors are afraid to suggest fasting from food, there really is no other Biblical example of fasting.  Fasting from television and video games are certainly worthwhile pursuits, but if you expect to raise the dead after spending a week away from Call of Duty you may be disappointed.

In his book titled, The Hidden Power of Prayer and Fasting, Mahesh Chavda reminds the reader that,

Jesus didn't say, "If you should someday decide to try to fast, although I know it's almost impossible for you..." in Matthew 6:16-17.  No, He said, "When you fast..." He didn't give us the option not to fast.

Fasting is intended to be a part of your everyday Christian life!  Christ expects it of us.  We need to fast to continually die to the flesh and sustain a life of victory.  I've actually found that it's quite a joy to fast (once you get past the first couple days), because God's voice is so much clearer.  As the junk seems to filter out of my system, my ears open more... His presence is more tangible... it's almost as though my spirit becomes softened to respond to Holy Spirit and it's wonderful! So if you haven't experienced the joys of prayer and fasting, I encourage you to try it out.  Please share you testimonies and encounters you've had while fasting as comments as well.

Lord I pray for impartation for every reader that looks upon these words.  I ask that you would grant them the grace to fast as long as You have called them to Lord.  Grant them a willingness to respond to Your voice, which is calling Your people to the position of humility through prayer and fasting in Jesus mighty name.

Living Sacrifice

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."-Romans 12:1 (NASB)

 As I was praying yesterday, I said "Lord I offer myself to you as a living sacrifice today" (it's a fairly regular ingredient of my prayer times).  He responded with "being a living sacrifice is willing to be consistently uncomfortable". While we most certainly are aware of praying to "be living sacrifices" or to "take up our cross daily", the concept of what we have been praying is oftentimes foreign to us.  I noticed that while my heart and spirit meant this wholeheartedly, I had been neglecting the conscious willingness to follow up the prayer with the actions.  When we say things like "Lord I offer myself as a living sacrifice" we are declaring that we intend to submit our will to His. 

To be a living sacrifice, always means giving up our selfish desires in exchange for adopting the Lord's desires.  One example of this is having a willingness to pray for others, regardless of agenda.  Personally, this was a sacrifice when I started doing it, but is now a frequent practice and subsequently no longer a sacrifice.  My agenda when I used to go shopping at Kroger or Walmart never included other people.  I was going with intentions of groceries, not God.  However, as the Lord began challenging me to simply "Do What Jesus Did" I was confronted with the concept that my intentions had excluded His (yes even regarding shopping malls).  So what did "being a living sacrifice" entail in that scenario?  It meant I was to being very uncomfortable approaching strangers and asking them if I could pray for them (initially).  My will was to get some ground beef, His will was to heal the sick.  After all, Christ and all of His followers had no problem going into strange towns and preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, raising the dead, and cleansing lepers so how obscure is it to awaken to the fact that His desire for that hasn't changed? The more we are willing to lay down our lives for His sake, the more we take up His life... and His motives.

Walking out this life as a living sacrifice is a yielding of our will to His, but even more than that.  The degree with which we yield to Christ's will for our lives is the degree to which our hearts are conformed to His.  I rarely struggle with apprehension about approaching people to pray for them anymore.  It has been engraved in my heart, that now I truly love to do it!  So instead of being afraid of this "scary prayer", perhaps we should pray it but also respond to the implications of sacrificing ourselves for His sake.