Already this year has been jam packed full of various and diverse intense emotions and situations.
One of the highlights has been partnering in a 'Daniel Fast' with my church, Shiloh.
A Powerfilled Start.
Every year, Shiloh church undertakes a 21 day fast from the 10-30 (inclusive) of January. A 'Daniel Fast' is typically characterised by plain fruits and vegs and no 'pleasant' food, such as wine (alcohol), meat, bread, pasta, rice, sugar, caffeine, maybe dairy ( at least , this was mine). I didn't entirely exclude dairy, but had very little, and I also included some seasonings and sauces.
The idea is, at a time of fasting, you spend more time committed to the Word and prayer and seeking God. It is a powerful discipline to participate in, on whatever level you choose to do so. Some people fast from social media, TV, sports Tv, electronic games or devices, particular activities, or places. It all depends and it is between you and God.
So tomorrow is the last day, and it has been a ride!
The first week week a nice sliding into more time in prayer and reading and some prophetic insights. The second week brought a surge of a sense of power and authority in the Spirit. This third week has brought drama and circumstances and opportunities to lean on what was provided through weeks 1 & 2.
Second Month and Moving right along!
And now, with the fast concluding, I am preparing for changes that require such a depth of drawing on all that I perhaps hadn't even fully processed, plus all that I consciously picked up along the way. I guess you could say that I was given some theory and now I have to walk it out. Or swim it out, coz I feel thrown in the deep end! And this is how the Bible teaches us to gain a fuller understanding of what we hear.
Philemon 1:6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. ESV
This, and many other similar verses, let us know that as we actively share and communicate our faith, we actually grow in to a deeper knowledge of what we have through our faith In Christ Jesus.
Only God knows how our hearts work and what it takes to really prove us in His Word. His love for us, if we allow Him, will lead us through various training, so that we are able to stand in times to come. The Spirit inside us is an expert at guiding us into the Truth He wants us to know, and provides us with the perfect places to implement it. No wasted or unnecessary learning here! No years of study before gaining experience. Oh no! It is line upon line, precept upon precept. Learn, do. Hear and heed. Put it into practice.
Ready or not!
Nobody Does it Better.
It's important to appreciate tho, this is strict training and it is for a purpose. To make you strong, firm and steadfast. Your labour in the Lord is not in vain. Life is not going to wait for you to get ready. God preapres us for what He knows is headed our way.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. I Cor 15:58
We do ourselves, and potentially others, a great disservice to resist the lessons and opportunities God provides because they will enable God to work through us in the lives and circumstances in which we are soon to find ourselves.
Sigh! And yet, even knowing all this, it is still hard to simply surrender.
Much as my heart wants to please God and trust Him in everything, this smelly flesh wants to rise up, taunted by distractive and devilish devices that draw me from the real purpose and heavenly perspective to focus on emotional reactions and natural reasonings.
O, how I hate falling for that stuff and giving the devil such satisfaction!
But here's the thing:
We Are Not Alone
Being FULL of His word, and Spirit so that we can say:
"It is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me" Gal 2:20
"It is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me" Gal 2:20
And you can't just pull that out of your hat in an emergency! This is something that has to be practiced day in and day out. It is a learned response, a training and maturing in the righteousness that you've become in Jesus.
It is the little foxes that spoil the vines (SS 2:15). He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much (Lk 16:10). Every thought, word and deed is a seed for life or death, blessing or cursing.
It isn't merely by an act of your will. All such human effort will eventually fail. It is an act of your willingNESS and the result of the obedience that comes from your faith (Rom 1:5). Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God ( Rom 10:17). If we aren't in the Word constantly and consistently, we will have the infuriating frustration of knowing the theory but lacking the experience of it. We will have the talk, but not the walk to back it up. EMPTY. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. I Cor 4:20 (But our power comes through God's Word.) Without which we become disillusioned and disenchanted because we thought God's word and the Name of Jesus should work like a magic charm and God failed us.
No. The Bible is clear...JOsh 1:8
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
If we want to participate in the divine nature through His great and precious promises, and escape the corruption that is in the world caused by evils desires, we need to be constantly adding to our faith (II Pet 1:4-9) Use it or lose it!
We have had a lifetime of being assaulted by the media and misguided people who know nothing of God's wisdom! (And consider it foolishness when they do hear it!) It takes diligence to overcome that with the Word.
The Word does the work if we just seek to know God and what pleases Him by reading and studying, pondering...and DOING it.
Be blessed in your being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only , and so deceiving yourselves!
Now, that's NOBLE living!
Now, that's NOBLE living!
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