Last Evening Of Our 21-Day Fast
It’s a little before 10pm. Today was just juice and water again; no vegetables or solid anything. I wanted to go stringent again here at the last because this is not just about food! I want to discipline my body to remember that I’m in charge of it, not the other way around. I want to hear from the Lord and not just have one more fast under my belt. I want more than anything to have a surety of my connection with Jesus being stronger than ever. I want to hear from God.
I read that when a rescue boat goes out to pick up survivors of shipwrecks, the most dangerous time is the period between when the victim sees the rescuers, and when the rescuers actually can pick them up. The victims tend to relax and stop trying so hard, relieved that somebody else is going to rescue them. Can you imagine giving up right before the rescue?
I’ve also seen an Olympic swimmer who was ahead of the competition for an easy win swing his arms for one last stroke and glide to the finishing touch at the end of the pool, only to look up and see that somebody else was hungrier for the win, and stole that gold medal right from him because that other person swam with all his might ALL the way to the finish. No gliding. Can you imagine? Silver medal because he coasted in the end.
I am going to finish this fast well. I’m going to eat tomorrow night with thanksgiving, but until then, I’m still going to fast well. I’m going to pray like God is going to answer, because He does. I’m going to pray like it’s up to me to pray, because it is. I’m going to believe like it will make all the difference, because it does.
And that is why we are going further and farther than we’ve ever gone before. The person I used to be was not willing or even able to go the distances I can go today. That’s one reason I didn’t receive the blessings back then that God gives me today.
Take inventory of yourself, and keep swimming! Don’t give up! God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! Be diligent and He will reward!!
Reading Over The Past Week
Over the last week or so I’ve had a ton on my plate. The tyranny of the urgent! That’s what it’s called. This blog is important, just like watering the lawn, weeding it, and reseeding it for the coming spring are all important. But when you’re putting out fires, it’s a battle between the important and the urgent. Some things you can delegate, and some things require my personal attention. Pray for your pastors! 
In the last few days, our reading has been a lot…a WHOLE lot of what God gave to Moses to lay down as laws for the Children of Israel as they wandered around in the wilderness.
First, they missed their opportunity to trust in God and take the Promised Land. Side note here: Isn’t that awful that one People could just go where they wanted and take land by force? They would just wash right in, fight a war, kill all the inhabitants, and take over their land. That’s the way things were back then. It’s just the way things were. Anybody who buys into that whole, “These others were here first so they have the right to have it all back,” needs to look at the USA. Apache, Navajo, and all the tribes of Native America were here in their home, and settling immigrants took it by force. I’m here because of a violent taking of California. Can we please, please change our thinking to a place where we are where we are and let’s do as much good as we can! Okay, enough politics.
So they didn’t trust God enough to take the land promised to them. So God would have to march them around the wilderness for 40 years to allow a generation to pass away, and bring up a new generation that wasn’t stuck in the old way of thinking. That’s a key. Let’s let God change our way of thinking so He doesn’t have to wait on the next generation to do something He would like to do through you. Believe He can do a miracle, and bless your work.
While they’re traveling in circles for decades, I love the way the Bible takes a bunch of chapters and shows us all the rules God gave Moses. One reason is this. Lawlessness has always been shown in a godless environment. God gave 613 mitzvot, or laws, that would keep the children of Israel safely in His plan. And they would show anybody was out of line and not healthy for His children to associate with.
There are things ranging from how to prepare food to how to mete out judgment to how to live morally…it’s all in there! I’m not as hung up on WHAT those Old Testament laws were, as I am interested in HOW much God is interested in the tiny littlest things in life. For me. Today! He really does care how we present ourselves in private and public. Ex 23:4 says if you meet your enemy’s ox while you’re going about your business, take it back to your enemy. He’s talking about enemies INSIDE the family!? Day by day, finding a dollar that was dropped by somebody who owes me big time is not an answer to prayer. It’s a test to see if I’m honorable enough to return what is not mine.
See how the rule is the same for morality and Godly life, but not a stumbling-block that says, “You broke a law now you die!”
We don’t live under the Old Testement, we are living in the New Testament. We have a sweet liberty that is incredible! That’s why it’s so important to actually read the Bible. Knowing the voice of God through the Bible is the best…I said BEST way to recognize when something we haven’t read in the Bible comes our way. “Hmmm. That sounds like a great idea, and if it were in the Bible, it would agree with the rest of the book!” That, my friends, is exactly what we are looking for in life!
So enjoy reading the history of the children of Israel. Get to know the voice of the Father as He instructed them, guided them, and brought them through some incredible circumstances. I encourage you to try and take a template from their experience and layer that onto your own life. That doesn’t mean if somebody get’s gored by your ox, you have to go shoot the ox. (Okay, if somebody gets hit by your car you don’t have to take it out on the car.) But it does mean that when something happens to somebody else and it’s connected to you somehow, get involved in trying to make it right!
Keep reading. It’s the BEST way to get familiar with God’s voice in your own life. These last 2 days of this 21-day fast are the time to pray like never before. Pray!
It’s Thursday
Last night during Bible Study, we saw that the Apostle Paul teaches us this:
Use whatever reason you can find to send you to prayer!
Like that time I bought flowers for Karen because it was Wednesday. Or the time you called that friend because you saw a flock of seagulls and it reminded you of a concert where you saw somebody who reminded you of them. It doesn’t matter what the reason is, as long as you use it as a reason to go to God like it matters!
So….it’s Thursday. What are you going to do? I know what I’m doing.
Quoting a GREAT Comment!
Hey! Did everybody see how Stacy ended her last post?
“I have made a conscious choice after today to no longer allow Flesh people to have a voice in my life. ”
That is the smartest thing anybody could say!!
None of us are alone. All of us need each other. See you in the morning for the Word and Worship!
Fasting and Prayer Day 16
If you’re fasting a total fast — drinking only clear liquids, you know you have to stay close to the bathroom still. (Can you believe how honest this blog is?) All those toxins and waste and buildup are letting loose, and you’re cleaning your system out like never before! But the headaches might still be there. And you don’t have the stamina you have had before. Don’t despair! This is only a few short weeks, and the fast isn’t designed to make your physical body amazingly strong. It’s to make your spirit strong; it’s drawing you closer to God while you pray and read the Word.
There’s also the mental clarity that is coming. God can give you ideas clearer than you’ve had before. I tease that it’s because you no longer have that food stuck in your spiritual ears. Maybe there’s some truth to that. I will quickly add that every single idea that runs through our minds isn’t necessarily from the throneroom of the Almighty. Weigh your decisions wisely with prayer and the Word. Nothing’s wrong with counsel. Ideas right now from God don’t have to get shot down in committee, but you might actually amaze those in your counsel circle by the clarity and value of those ideas right now.
If you’re living on a modified fast, including fruits and vegetables, you’re doing so excellent! It worked for Daniel and his friends, and at the end of their testing period they looked healthier and more wholesome than peers who ate and drank anything they wanted. Isn’t it funny? Discipline in our diets is good. Not using discipline in our diets makes for an undisciplined lifestyle and none of us what that anyway!
If you have particular food items you’ve removed from your diet during the fast, and if there are activities on top of that food restriction that you’ve removed (TV, Web-browsing, etc.,) be sure to couple all that with reading the bible and praying. God can absolutely honor that. He will meet you where you are and bless your obedience to Him.
Temptation is a regular visitor in everyone’s life, and I guess in every area of life too. Temptation is NOT a sin!! Did you get that? Temptation is not a sin. It’s a trial. A test. It’s a proof that you are made of sterner stuff than the temptation. Yesterday after church, Christopher and I went to the store to pick up something after church and they were cooking ribs on the barbecue out front. Grrr. It smelled like a corner of heaven will probably be. Okay, maybe they won’t be cooking pork ribs in heaven, but you know what I mean.
So the test came. Peer pressure would keep us from falling because my son doesn’t want to disappoint his daddy, and Daddy wants to set a great example for his son. Plus, it’s not going to kill me not to eat flesh for a few weeks. Because my son is 14 and active in baseball at school and still growing, his fast is not as stringent as mine. It’s not a go-to-hell-for-breaking-fast sin for him to have some ribs! But he made me laugh when he took a great big sniff, sighed, and said, “Well, we’re coming back here in a couple weeks!”
You will feel better about yourself for holding true to your commitment through to the end. You may stumble and mess up and “cheat.” Don’t give up! You’re not disqualified. Get up and keep going forward. Pray like you really mean it!! Pray for your own strength. Pray for your Pastors. Pray for Promise. Pray for our city, state, nation, world! Pray for the church around the globe fighting for their faith when we have such freedom here. Read the bible and see what God has done for His children throughout history.
He’s still on the job. He’s still a faithful God. He’s the ONLY faithful God! And I promise, He is proud of you for your sacrifice and obedience. Keep moving forward. He has plans for you that are coming to pass.
Promise Church Fasting and Prayer Day 14
If you don’t have a copy yet, print the Bible-reading plan we posted right here.
Today is Day 14 for the Promise Church Bible Reading plan on our corporate fast. Just yesterday morning Karen and I were talking with a long-time friend and the story of Joseph came into our conversation. Why? Because it’s fresh since we’re reading about his life’s story right now!
That’s a HUGE hint for all of us: read the Bible and the Holy Spirit will bring it back to your rememberance. But we have to put it in there to start with, huh?
So we’re talking with our friend, and I mentioned how God seems to very, very consistently move people into the *world* system for some kind of training, coupling it with the *God’s family* system training He has given them in order to complete their preperation process. Then, and only then it seems sometimes, are they ready for their Destiny to be fulfilled.
When I preach, I use my own life experiences as examples. Things like working the fast food restaurant when I was young, and the lessons I use today that I learned then. You know what I mean.
I don’t think it’s just that we should use all our experiences to help us today. I think the Bible shows us that God deliberately brings us through experiences that will enhance our ability and effectiveness. There’s no replacement for experience, right? That’s why I pay attention to other people’s experiences too. Sometimes I don’t have to go through things if I can learn from other’s lives.
So here in Chapters 41 and 42 of Genesis, Joseph is now brought UP. God’s miraculous empowering, (interpreting dreams,) coupled with God’s miraculous equipping, (Potipher’s house and the jail,) coupled together for the great promotion God had in mind all along.
We can’t look at the jail cell we might be in right now. We have to look at the Lord, and see where His eyes are looking. Why? Because He has a bigger idea in mind than anything we’ve considered so far.
And He knows how to use all that YUCK you’ve been through to make you the perfectly equipped person for the job!
Fasting and Praying at Promise Church
So excited to see REAL comments on the blog! I get so many comments every single day on this blog that it’s crazy! Why? Because they’re by Blog-bots spamming and looking for unmoderated blogs to slam their wares on.
But hooray! We’ve got a dialogue going!
We’re “in” Day #4 now, as we officially started Sunday at sundown.
What a great service tonight! Mainly because we’re not just Fasting! We’re Praying and Fasting, so having a Bible study on praying was entirely appropriate. The Lord’s Prayer is the model Jesus Himself gave to his disciples, so I think it is a perfect pattern for us to follow too!
Yes: Pray your prayer list. But at the end of the list, when you’ve prayed about everything on your page, we can still follow Jesus’ example and declare our Heavenly Father is Holy. That His Name is Holy. We can still announce out loud in our prayer that we pray His kingdom comes (and the sooner the better I say!) and that His will takes place in our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, everywhere on earth like it does in heaven.
I love verse 8 of Matthew Chapter 6 because it comes right before a prayer that says ask God for our needs, but it says right up front that God knows our needs before we ask them. Yet, we are to ask them. Thank you God!
Forgiveness is a book series, sermon series, and television series all in one, and yet the crux is that you and I must must MUST forgive others. Period! God forgives us as we forgive others. Be eager to forgive.
Read the Lord’s Prayer. Pray it. Begin with it and then move to your personalized heart-felt communion with the Lord! I promise He will honor it.
