Thoughts on Chapter one Fasting

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Well this was supposed to be Chapters one and two combined, however, so far, I only have Chapter one completed.

I will be posting snippets/text from the book that spoke to my heart and post thoughts as they apply…some may not have explanations the text may just speak for itself…

“It is part of God’s commitment to prepare the Church for the soon coming time of glory and crisis in the End Times.” 

This is the second time I have heard recently about being prepared for when we are in Heaven. I understand that we are always to be following God’s word, should be following his commandments, not caught sleeping when the time comes….Most of what I just said though is from the perspective of what I need to do…I have never heard this perspective that God would be doing something to prepare us and our hearts….maybe that was always implied through following his word…he would be preparing us that way….

I have heard about fasting before, the concept, I have seen a word or two in the bible that mention fasting….but I think my mind chose to not grasp ahold of that concept because it would force me to get out of my flesh, force me to surrender more of my will, out of my comfort zone if you will. To say you are going to fast…wow, I would just think people would think I am off the deep end so to speak if you would pardon the slang…just way to extreme, too conservative….and why is that??? Because there are not enough bible believing, walking, talking Christians that truly follow His word!!!  There are not enough examples “out there” modeling how we are to put into practice God’s instructions.  It is no wonder that the Muslim religion is growing faster than that of Christianity….we have more Christians right now but they are only Christians in name only, the practices God set forth in his word are being ignored, passed over and treated as non-important…..sigh….

The Lord is doing a wonderful magnificent work in my life these last weeks..building up a fervor for Him that is unexplainable, unquenchable…drawing me closer to Him.

“With boldness Jesus emphasized that the Father rewards fasting (Matthew 6:17,18)…It is not secondary”

It seems to me that this statement, “It is not secondary”, is right up there next to Matthew 23:38-39 This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  It is not an option to choose to do it, it is required.

“the rewards He gives are not earned or deserved by us because of our fasting.”  It is only by his grace that we are saved in the first place.  We can never do anything to seek his rewards if we do receive them it is just additional grace on His part.

Our Dilemma: We Need To Experience God’s Love

“fasting is one of the most practical ways to posture our hearts to experience more of God’s affection and love.”

I can see this is an area I have been sadly missing out…to thirst after God so much and to realize I have missed so many golden opportunities through this practice to have that closer more intimate relationship with Him….

“rooted in living from a false identity based on the way people receive us, rather than on how God receives us…..” 

Oh my, hand held up in the air over here..I think I touched on this up above but even more significant….just missing entirely that concept most times that God is my Father in Heaven, my dad, the one who cares about me the most only first to my earthly father, that seeks to have those close personal relationships, those intimate times, to have that feeling like you are so excited for your dad to get home from work so you can jump in his lap to tell him all about your day…that kind of relationship…. I mean yes, we know we are to go to God with all our petitions but something about that special confidant, that he would be pleased with us to partake in fasting…..

“Our Creator is the only One who fully knows who we were deigned to be.”

“Our belief in His affection for us determines how we feel about ourselves, how we approach life, how we interact with others, and how we deal with setbacks and difficulties.”

Now see, that there above….I can completely relate to I am very upbeat, like “I have it together”…I think privately there are some issues I am working on and that is kind of what I touched on earlier with the Lord working in my life….I think at times when it comes to my relationship with my husband, I have a very low self-body-image….and that part about dealing with difficulties…there have been in my marital life that I think subconsciously I am still dealing with…that is probably for another post as I work through those issues… 

The one thing that I see though, is my thoughts grasping hold of this concept and seeing it as the key that unlocks the door to this self-imposed bondage that the  Lord never desired for me to have.  That is what is exciting, gets the blood stirred up, the adrenaline rushing, stoking the flames of this desire for this completeness with the Lord.

“It is the revelation of Jesus as our Bridegroom God and of us as His cherished Bride.” “Therefore, we must encounter Jesus as our Bridegroom God by positioning our hearts and lives in such a way that this revelation really takes root in us.”

As in a marriage with our earthly spouse, we share everything with our spouses…or we should, our desires, our needs, our frustrations our joys…so, I am thinking, this is the way it should be with Christ…that time of day when we have our prayers, let it be about having a normal conversation with God and letting him know all our heart is pondering….not just the requests that have burdened us down…the daily stuff as well….Just because He knows our thoughts doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to hear them out loud!

The Bridal Paradigm of the Kingdom of God

“..believers being given a position of indescribable privilege far beyond even what angels enjoy.”  “…an invitation to experience God’s affection and desire for us.”

This is the aspect of God that I have never had expressed to me before, this is what I find fascinating that God has affection for me and a desire to know me as intimately as I want to know him.

“As His Bride, we are in a position to experience God’s heart—His emotions, affections, and desire—for us.”

Are you sold out for Jesus, are you just so crazy and excited for him?  This just gives me goose bumps to think that he would be that excited about me!! “We begin to see ourselves as ones who have immense value to him.”

Ok, I have to stop for this evening, I have laundry to fold before tomorrow so my hubby has clean clothes for a business trip.  I still have another four pages left of Chapter one notes to go over and type out…they are going to have to be put on hold.  I am not sure when I will get back to posting since I will be on my own for the next few days.

I hope this has given you some things to think about that might spark your desire to learn more about fasting.

If you would be interested in joining in on the study or reading the comments of others, stop by Michelle’s blog at She Looketh Well and you will see the posts on fasting.

The book is: The Rewards of Fasting Experiencing the Power and Affections of God by Mike Bickle and Dana Candler