Fasting Day 8: Fresh Inspiration From the Archives
Fasting Day Eight Posts From the Archives:
Fasting Day 8: Gaining Thirst
Are you fasting but your spiritual thirst isn’t increasing? If your desire for God and His Word hasn’t changed, there’s something simple, yet so powerful, that you can do.
If this is you—if you’re frustrated because your thirst for God isn’t increasing—I encourage you to pray God’s word on this matter. (I’ve compiled a page of scriptures and prayers for you.) Why pray God’s word? For the following three reasons …
Fasting Day 8: Feeding Faith, Part 2
Unbelief is the greatest hindrance to the breakthrough we desire. Fasting and prayer are vital to removing unbelief.
“The faith that can overcome stubborn resistance such as you have just seen in this evil spirit, Jesus tells them, is not possible except for men living in very close fellowship with God and in very special separation from the world—in prayer and fasting. And so He teaches us two lessons of deep importance in regard to prayer. The one so that faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong. The other is that prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development. Faith needs a life of prayer for its full growth….”
Fasting Day 8: Brokenness, Part 1
The Bible speaks of you and me as earthen vessels who contain the treasure of Jesus Christ. When we submit ourselves to God in seasons of brokenness – in suffering – Jesus is put on display to others. God gets glory! We can also experience voluntary seasons of brokenness through prayer and fasting.
As you may know, I’ve been through a season of intense brokenness (at times it felt like the pot was not only broken, it had been ground to fine dust!). As a result of undiagnosed Lyme disease, I spent ten years in a wheelchair, seven of those years confined to bed and three years in severe mental and physical torture.
The agony was extreme. Undeniable. Ever-present. Yet rising from the dust of my shattered jar was the Spirit of Jesus Christ. I came to know Him in a deeper, fuller way. He became my existence. My everything. My treasure. Oh how I came to love Him and require Him. My body and mind were suffering, but my spirit had never before known such joy, such contentment, such peace….
The breaking of my jar – the crucifixion of my flesh – revealed riches of Himself that God had deposited in me. Once I began to glimpse the value of this treasure, it changed how I viewed my illness. I no longer despised my jar-smashing. How could I? Without it I’d never have known such depths of Jesus! … This is why I value fasting …
Fasting Day 8: God Fills The Hungry
Psalm 107:9 says, “[God] satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” This passage has incredible implications for us as we seek God through prayer and fasting!
Beloved, if you are fasting, then no doubt you are thirsty and hungry in the natural – but even more hungry and thirsty for God. This is a promise from God to you today.
He will satisfy you in the coming year as a result of you giving Him the first through a fast. He will fill you with good things – today, while you are fasting, and throughout the year….
He satisfies the “longing soul.” “Soul” in the original language means the seat of your appetites, your mind, will and emotions. By fasting, you have submitted the appetites of your mind, will and emotions to the appetite of your spirit man. In other words – every appetite in you longs for more of God. God has promised: You will be satisfied.
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