Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: #5. Fasting feeds your faith. "When you add fasting to your prayer, you know you are following the example of prevailing prayer in both Old and New Testament.
Your confidence begins to deepen. Your hope begins to rise, for you know you are doing what pleases the Lord. (Google image, Praying man)
Your willingness to deny self and voluntarily to take up this added cross kindles an inner joy. Your faith begins to lay hold of God's promise more simply and more firmly.
6. Fasting opens you more fully to the Spirit's working. Fasting is a letting go of your natural desires, refusing to be bound by the visible and tangible, and makes it easier to lay hold of heaven's resources.
It helps transcend the natural and helps keep your body your slave (1 Cor. 9:27) when you are denying your physical nature. It perhaps opens your nature more fully to the Spirit's touch. It is easier to hear the Spirit's voice, as fasting helps shut out the world about you.
We do not manipulate or command the Spirit, but we become increasingly available to Him as we fast and pray. He is able to say new things to us, to have new access to us.
I can never thank God enough for what He said at such a time. He can clothe us more fully and prepare us to be used more freely. It just seems to open us anew to the Spirit's presence and power. Jesus returned "in the power of the Spirit" when He had won His forty-day battle of prayer and fasting (Luke 4:14).
7. Fasting fires earnestness and zeal. As fasting feeds our faith, solidifies our determination, and opens us to the Spirit's inner working, it fires us with increasing earnestness and zeal.
Shortly after Jesus' forty-day fast we see Him burning with zeal for God's will in God's house (John 2:17). Fasting kindles all kinds of holy earnestness and zeal—to give oneself totally to and for God, to pray until we prevail, to see Satan defeated and God's will brought to pass, and to do everything possible for the honor of Christ's name.
Such earnestness and holy zeal greatly empower prevailing prayer. They fire your soul to see Christ prevail in every life and in every situation.
To summarize, fasting prepares the way for the Lord. It empowers prayer to push back and repel Satan's darkness, to remove Satan's roadblocks, and to defeat Satan's attacking forces.
Fasting prayer prepares your heart to prevail more powerfully, believe more trustingly, and hold on perseveringly until Christ's will visibly triumphs. Fasting adds tremendously dynamic power and effectiveness to all forms of prevailing prayer.
Isaiah rebuked Israel for assuming that fasting without obedience had any value whatever. He said,
"You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice
to be heard on high" (Isa. 58:4).
He was not condemning fasting per'se, but hypocritical fasting. The implication is clear: biblical fasting does help your voice to be heard on high and helps your prayer prevail for God on earth.
Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana (With Jean's impressions added)
#106 Fasting Feeds Your Faith
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 189 -190) Zondervan
Prayer-
 |
| Prayer needed |
Father, as our fasting prepares the way for the Lord to more effectively speak to us, giving us important inspiration and guidance, may we consider seriously our involvement.
We'll not manipulate or command the Holy Spirit by doing so, but we will become increasingly available to Him as we learn to set aside other influences when we pray.
May we find our souls see Christ prevail in our lives and in every situation from our efforts to pray and fast.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
We'll not manipulate or command the Holy Spirit by doing so, but we will become increasingly available to Him as we learn to set aside other influences when we pray.
May we find our souls see Christ prevail in our lives and in every situation from our efforts to pray and fast.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Today's Bible verses-
(Ps. 119:114 KJV) "Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word."
(Is. 33:7 KJV) "Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly).
(Matt. 18:20 KJV) "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
(Luke 12:34 KJV) "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Today's quotes-
~ Charles H. Spurgeon- "Get Christ in you, curing your sin, Christ in you filling your soul with love to virtue and holiness, bathing your heart in comfort, and igniting it with heavenly aspirations — then will you know the Lord. Christ believed in, Christ possessed, Christ experienced, Christ in you, this is worth a world." (Taken from Dec. 2016 of Herald of His Coming, p. 3)
Today's question:
Do you understand that God doesn't need to change your circumstances for you to have peace, but that He wants to make changes in you in the midst of it all?
We can look to Jesus for affirming words to speak to ourselves to have a good day, regardless of our circumstances!
We can look to Jesus for affirming words to speak to ourselves to have a good day, regardless of our circumstances!
Today's popular post:
#5 Strategic-level Spiritual WarfareC. Peter Wagner tells us: Here we contend with an even ominous concentration of demonic power: territorial spirits.
In Ephesians Paul writes,
"We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, . . ."
Upcoming posts-
Hope in the Strangest Places
15th- Saturday's post by Ron Hutchcraft
#107 United Fasting with Practical Suggestions
18th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
#108 Carrying a Prayer Burden
20th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
God Knows
22nd- Saturday's post by Jean Oathout
Jean's blog (Click to see snippets of recent posts)
Below, you have an opportunity to leave a comment.
Or email me at jowildflowers@gmail.com
Or email me at jowildflowers@gmail.com
31-day Devotional
+ Jean's testimony
[Maybe just choose a title each
day that interests you]
Sample verses from p. 40-
Receive God's Love
So Others Know
Receive God's Love
So Others Know
"Receive God's Love so others know
When God's way others see.
It is with love He reaches out
To draw you to Himself.
He will reveal your every doubt
Begins within yourself."
You live for His glory.
For it is true your faith will showWhen God's way others see.
It is with love He reaches out
To draw you to Himself.
He will reveal your every doubt
Begins within yourself."
(Published by Lighthouse Publishing
of the Carolinas. Used by permission).
A great gift for someone who may need help
to prepare for marriage, and for those in a
to prepare for marriage, and for those in a
marriage, wanting some helpful advice.
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