Fasting Part 3
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My first day of the fast: Burgers and Fries
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
“I have food to eat that ye know not of” They thought He was speaking of literal food, and they wondered where He got it. Then He explained that doing the Father’s will—in this case, leading the woman to salvation—was true nourishment for His soul. The disciples were satisfied with bread, but He was satisfied with accomplishing the Father’s work.
And when Satan tempted Him to make bread out of the stones, Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (v. 4).
When Jesus was 12 He said I must be about my Fathers business.
2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Barnabas and Saul were called to ministry, but it didn’t happen until they were in God’s presence. If you want to know God’s will, you have to be in His presence. The more you’re in His presence, the more specifically you’ll hear His call.
When we fast it brakes open our spirit man were the Holy Spirit dwells. Our spirits must be cracked open to release the Spirit’s life, and fasting helps us do this.
Illustration:
Its like the process to the popping of popcorn. You can’t eat unpopped popcorn because the shell is too hard. It will break your teeth.
But every kernel of popcorn has moisture in the center. When you put the corn in the microwave, the microwave heats up the moisture, which becomes steam, and the steam pushes against the shell.
All of a sudden you hear a pop, followed by many more as the shells of the popcorn kernels are cracked open to reveal the edible part of the corn. You wouldn’t think that tiny shell could hold all of that stuff, because the shell is suppressing what’s on the inside. But the environment of the microwave oven breaks open the shell to bring out what’s inside.
When you come to God in the environment of fasting, He heats up your spirit, which inflames your soul, which then breaks through your body and results in righteous living and the power of God to live in freedom. That’s a great result, but it only happens when you come into God’s presence and bow before Him in humility and allow Him to break you. To be broken means to be stripped of your self-sufficiency.
The flesh is so dominant sometimes. What we need to do is weaken the flesh so the Holy Spirit can break through.
We can’t fight flesh with flesh. What we need is to get the flesh out of the way, to set it aside in order to focus on the spirit. Fasting is a tangible way of demonstrating to God that we are setting aside the flesh in order to deal with the spirit.
It’s Ok when you have fasted a meal or two and your flesh feels weak. When the flesh runs the show it declares I’m in charge lets eat.
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But once the flesh starts to get weak, we become strong in the Lord’s strength.
We begin to break through the clouds and touch heaven.
Illustration:
Since about 1937, airplanes have been pressurized so they can fly above the clouds. Before then, they had to fly low so they could stay in the atmosphere.
As soon as you start fasting and praying, Satan and his demons are going to line up at cloud level. And they are going to try to keep you below the clouds so you don’t fly high and reach the throne of God.
But if you fast and throw yourself on the mercy of God, you are going to break through the clouds because God will “pressurize” your soul so you can breathe up there in the heavenly places where God’s blessings and power are.
So don’t let Satan keep you on the ground. It is time to fly. It is time to get the flesh under control so you are not under its control.
Fasting helps with direction in our life.
The answer to my prayer about direction for my business.
2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
It causes us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. In Luke 2 we read about a lady called Anna who lived a lifestyle of fasting. This woman perceived by the Spirit that Jesus is the Messiah.
23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.