FASTING TAKES YOU HIGHER
Memorise:
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. .. Matthew 17:21
Read:
Acts 13:1-12
Message
When you start fasting, you will notice changes which show that your flesh no longer controls you. First, fasting will bridle your tongue. During a fast, it becomes clear to you that many a time, you don't gain anything by talking. James 1:26 says if you say you are religious and you cannot control your mouth, you are deceiving yourself. Thus, as you fast and talk less, you also sin less.
Fasting also helps you to control your temper, particularly prolonged fasting, because you would have no energy to fight anyone. When you get angry easily, it is because you have a lot of energy; let me see how you will get angry when you have been fasting for twenty-one days and nights! If anybody offends you, you would simply say, "God bless you, just leave me alone". Ecclesiastes 7:9 says clearly that you should control your anger because anger rests in the bosom of fools.
You should ask yourself how come your body hates fasting. Galatians 5:17 says the flesh lusts against the Spirit. In other words, your flesh wants to fight the Spirit. If we do not say there is fasting tomorrow, you can wake up and not eat until 2 p.m., but once we announce that there will be fasting, some people would eat until midnight and still wake up hungry. This is because the devil does not want you to fast; this should tell you that fasting is good for you. When you learn to fast, you will be amazed that there are certain agents of darkness in your life that you have been coping with, but they move easily when you fast. Matthew 17:14-21 tells us that there was a demon the disciples tried their best to cast out but could not, without fasting and prayer. There are certain mountains that won't move unless you back your prayers with fasting.
In Exodus 17:8-13, when there was a war to be fought between Israel and the Amalekites, Moses went to the mountain top and lifted his hands, while Joshua was below the mountain, fighting. Whenever Moses' hands were up, the children of Israel would be winning the battle, but when his hands came down, they would start losing. The spiritual controls the physical. The solution to that lingering problem could just be some days of fasting in addition to your prayers.
Bible In One Year:
Luke 16-18
Hymn:
Stand Up! Stand Up For Jesus
Key Point:
Fasting lifts you higher so you begin to operate in a realm higher than the natural.
Stand up! stand up for Jesus