He Has You

In 2015, the Lord poured a message through me at a church where I was preaching about fasting. Here is the first part of that message:

If you have a higher calling, then you need to have a higher walk.

Those with a higher walk will reach the higher places.

It is your natural self that smothers your spiritual self. The harder you hold on, the greater the tearing must be to set you free.

Fasting is the next level; it is breaking the outer man, your natural man, but this time it is by your own hand, voluntary self-breaking.

I read a story explaining why fasting is not needed today. Such an interesting article, well studied, but from a natural view. I have fasted for many years, and I can tell you there is power in fasting. I fast regularly, each week, to recharge, to stay connected.

I hear many talk down on the gifts, yet the only ones that can are the ones who have never experienced the power of God. Only argue what you know, otherwise shut up.

It’s not the length of the fast, but the reason you do it that matters.

When I fast, it turns my attention to God.

At first, fasting makes you think about yourself, you’re hungry, your flesh yells out, your soul cries like a little baby. Fasting reveals truth; we are so selfish, so inward, so natural.

But then there is a breakthrough, that point when your spirit man realizes he is now in charge, and your flesh will start to quiet, and your soul will submit beneath the spirit man, and tell the flesh to wait.

When your flesh sees that your spirit man means what he says, your flesh will submit, and your spirit man will be strengthened. Your spirit needs diet and exercise; the diet is the Word, and exercise is walking in it, and fasting is the treadmill upon which you walk.

The Lord wants your soul and your flesh to be subject to your spirit.

We read about fasting in the Old Testament, such as in Leviticus 16:31 (NKJV) “…you shall afflict your souls…” This term “afflict your souls” is from the Hebrew word Ana, which means to lower yourself, humble yourself, deny yourself. These are the words the Lord Jesus gave to us: to deny ourselves.

What does it mean “to afflict our souls”?

I ask God so much, I want to know, I want to understand. He says if we ask for wisdom, He will give it, so I ask. James 1:5 (NKJV) “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

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 so 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. From relying on me to relying upon You, O Lord.

Where does my strength come from? Psalm 121:1-2 (NKJV) “I will lift up my eyes to the hills– From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

If you ever feel stressed preparing a message, you are plugged into the wrong power source. You have to unplug from one power source that you would plug into another.

Fasting is an outward sign of an inward change. But it is also an outward action that will cause an inward reaction.

Also, we say inward and outward, but it is better to say natural and spiritual, what we can touch, and what we cannot touch.

Body, Soul, and Spirit

But why afflict our souls? What does that mean?

The Lord showed me how He has designed man to be.

That our stomach is our flesh, this represents our appetite.

The heart is our soul; it stands above the stomach. The heart should reign over the flesh. This is our emotions, our personality, what makes us tick, our uniqueness, who we are.

The highest is our spirit man, this is in the mind. Our thoughts are the only thing about us nobody can see, you cannot measure, and yet they are so real. The spirit man is supposed to reign over the soul, over the flesh.

But the world is upside down. This is what happened in the garden. The appetite of man first reigned in the garden. The first sin was when the flesh ruled man. It all started with a piece of fruit.

If you ever get a chance, go watch the message by Andy Stanley on appetites he gave at a Passion conference. He spoke about Esau, how he sold his birthright, his inheritance, his chance to be in the line of the Messiah, for a bowl of stew.

You will either own your appetite, or your appetite will own you. Who sells their birthright for a bowl of stew? We all do. What future have you given up to taste the pleasures today?

We all let our appetite own us. It’s not just food. Sex owns us. Money owns us. Our emotions control us. Our feelings drive us. Our soul has gained control over us. Our flesh runs rampant, telling us what to do and when.

Our stomach says, “I am hungry.” Our soul says, “I will just die if I don’t eat now.” Our spirit hides as a coward.

Here is what happens: The stomach cries out, I am hungry. The heart chimes in, “Oh, I am going to die.” The spirit man relinquishes everything.

Genesis 25:30-32 (NKJV) “And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’ And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?’

Fasting is a realignment placing the spirit man over the soul, over the flesh. If you want to break the natural, you have to get to the root of the problem, and the problem looks squarely at you every day, in the mirror.

If you only fill yourself with the natural, you get no supernatural. I hear women say that the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But the Lord says, it is in the path of affliction through the stomach, up through the heart, that the Lord can touch our spirit.

Afflict your soul. Set your spirit man free. If we cannot control the natural, then the spiritual will never be in our grasp. We have to deny ourselves of something we truly need before we can take hold of all that He would give us.

When the Jews were in the desert, they had no food; they had to rely upon God. When you fast, you are telling God, I trust You to get me through this.

This is the first part of the message I preached. My prayer for you is that the Lord would guide you on how you can safely fast, whether it be from food or perhaps from TV or social media, that you would grow spiritually.

Blessings to you always,

Paul Balius