Are you feeling lighter today? I am not just talking about the physical pounds that we have lost. More importantly, are you carrying less baggage in your spirit as a result of the past sixteen days you have spent in Breakthrough Fasting & Prayer? Fasting is a scalpel you place in the hand of the Great Physician. Fasting is your consent to have God perform the necessary surgery that identifies the areas of fleshly domination, and cut away those “growths” that drain our spirituality. Fasting reveals just how sick we are. Jesus said in Luke 5:31, “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.” Personally, I am sick of the routines of mediocre Christianity that permeate my everyday life. Fasting enables me to trust God. Trust Him to cut away the desires of my flesh, and their overpowering effect. It is not until you make up your mind to fast, and actually begin, that you can tangibly measure the strongholds of your flesh.
Fasting reveals who you are really working for; what you are really building up; your flesh or your spirit. The works of the flesh are discussed in Galatians 5:19-21. Here are those scriptures from The Message translation, “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.” Ouch! This fast has helped me see just how much power I give to my flesh!
As my flesh strengthens through its uninhibited works, my spirit weakens. When my spirit weakens to the place of losing control to my flesh, my entire relationship with God becomes an internal conflict that forces me to masquerade my fleshly domination by exhibiting religious behavior. When this happens, I change the location of my spiritual battle assignment to my flesh. Ephesians 6:12 gives us the precise location of our battlefield, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are fighting in the spirit realm. The best way to strengthen your spirit at times is to strip the power of your flesh by fasting. Stay the course, we are almost there.
Send me your testimony of deliverance and breakthrough. Email it to me at pastorgreg@clfn.org. I can’t wait to hear what God has done for you. I am standing with you in faith today for every breakthrough you desire in God!
Numbers 6:24-26 “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Blessings & Peace,
PG
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All scriptural references unless noted otherwise are from the New King James Version of the Bible.
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