He Has You

The secret of your spiritual growth is through fasting unto the Lord. Some will read this, and immediately turn and go the other way. Oh how much of the imperishable treasures we abandon in life as we refuse to let go of the things that will perish!

If you refuse to give anything up for the Lord, then do not be surprised when He will scarcely entrust very much to you. Yet, never fast to gain anything, and when you do this rightly, you will gain more than you ever imagined you could.

In my life I have seen the wondrous work of the Lord as I have become devoted to a life of consecration and fasting unto the Lord. I have found that regular devoted fasting every week produces the cyclical pattern through which the Lord will move mightily in the life a saint. Just be willing to dare and believe that God moves in the current age, and be ready to live a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

Stop looking at fasting as giving up something good, but rather gaining something so much greater. If you want to walk a higher faith, you have to let go of the lower things. If you have a higher calling, then you need to have a higher walk. Those with a higher walk will reach the higher places. Never think that you cannot walk higher, because you can if you are willing. Are you willing? Be honest in your answer.

There is nothing on this earth that will hinder your spiritual growth more than your natural desires. The only way to grow spiritually is to shrink naturally. You must break down the natural barriers such that you could have a break through spiritually. You have to empty the cup of the one that you would gain the other. You will only have a victory when there is first a surrender.

The Lord Jesus taught, “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:17-18). Jesus never said “if you fast”, but “when you fast”.

The Lord cannot lead you unless you follow. The Lord cannot speak to you unless you listen. Growing spiritually is not by effort but only through submission. Walking with God is never how religious you act, but how obedient you are. You have to be real in your faith for God to be real in your life.

We need to step out of the natural to step into the supernatural. We need to sacrifice the natural to receive the supernatural. We have to become weak that He will be our strength. Moving from self-reliance to God-reliance. Moving from selfishness to selflessness. Moving from self-centered to God-centered.

Fasting is an outward sign of an inward change. But it is also an outward action that will cause an inward reaction. You have to do something different that a new thing would come about.

Fast to return to the Lord. “’Now, therefore,’ says the LORD, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’” (Joel 2:12).

Do it unto the Lord, or don’t bother. The Lord God said, “…When you fasted and mourned…did you really fast for Me – for Me? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets…” (Zechariah 7:5,7). Never play games with God, because you will lose.

Fast to get near the Lord. To hear Him more clearly. Not to gain gifts, but to gain Him. But then the gifts flow from Him. Only fast as regularly as you would like to hear from the Lord. “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2).

Fast to seek the Lord’s favor. “So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:23)

Fast because you love the Lord. “And then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37 ESV).

When once you rely upon the Holy Spirit, nothing will be impossible for you.

Blessings to you,

Paul