Fasting: Lifting the Veil and Removing the Blockages

Recently God's revealed to Vanessa and I something that we feel have been overlooked within the Church today.  It's not a 'fun' topic, and it's not something that gets talked about often, but it should be talked about nonetheless.  This topic is fasting.

Remember that Jesus said "when" you fast.  Jesus said "when" you pray.  When, and not if! Christians today have come to realize the importance of prayer, and that's awesome...but what about the importance of fasting?

“And now about fasting. When you fast, declining your food for a spiritual purpose, don’t do it publicly, as the hypocrites do, who try to look wan and disheveled so people will feel sorry for them. Truly, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, put on festive clothing, so that no one will suspect you are hungry, except your Father who knows every secret. And he will reward you."                                                                 Matthew 6:16-18   TLB

Fasting eliminates the distractions caused by over-indulging in food.  Fasting causes hunger, and that leads to desperation.  Fasting causes desperation, and desperation leads us to seek God.  And a hunger for God leads us to rewards from the Father!

Fasting is something we do for our own good!  Fasting feeds the spirit, not the flesh.  It feeds the Spirit of God within us, not our own flesh.  Fasting gives the Holy Spirit free reign.

When we fast and pray, revelation starts to flow.  We can see and hear God more clearly.  We can feel His heart without normal distractions!  It becomes our food to do the will of the Father.  And when we do the will of the Father, He gives us our daily bread and we become satisfied by Him.

FASTING BRINGS BREAKTHROUGH

Right now, there are barriers between us and God's will.  There are blockages, delays, and obstacles opposing what God wants to do.  There are things hindering us from being blessed, and there are things hindering us from overcoming.  There are problems in our life that don't seem likely to ever go away.

Remember, there are some problems that only go away with prayer and fasting.  When desperation is mixed with faith--when fasting is mixed with prayer--breakthrough happens!  When we draw near to God, we can ask for anything in His name.  And when we ask, He allows us to receive for our problems the right solution.  Fasting removes the blockages.

FASTING BRINGS UNDERSTANDING

Right now, there are things we don't understand.  There are situations that we just can't figure out. But we need to remember that Jesus lifted off the veil.  Jesus paid for our spiritual discernment, and He paid in full for our wisdom and understanding.

Now, God does not promise us all knowledge.  But if something impacts us, it's within our area of influence, and it's within our inheritance to understand.  It's within His power to cause us to know.

Fasting allows us to live in a place where we experience wisdom.  We can validate by the Holy Spirit that Jesus really did tear the veil!  We can validate by our walk in the Spirit that Jesus really does give the spirit of prophecy.  We can receive God's perspective on things if we are spiritually hungry enough to attain to it.

There's a time for everything, and for you, it may not be time to fast.  But I believe this is a word in season, and I believe that fasting, combined with prayer, is something that the Church is missing right now.  Imagine what would happen if we all fasted and prayed and became closer to God!  Fasting may be hard, but it's worth the rewards.  And I believe we're missing out.  

Snapshot: Jesus Sows The Prophetic Word

Last week, I saw a vision where the Lord Jesus was holding a large, intact loaf of bread in His hands, just waiting and smiling at me.  Then He began to break off pieces and throw them up into the air, where they were caught in the wind and scattered across a larger area. It was really cool!  This vision was confirmed the next day in the natural, because Vanessa and I started feeding our chickens old bread by hand, first breaking it up and then throwing it to them.

And the Lord also gave the knowing into the vision--what He was holding was our daily bread.  He was breaking it up according to His will, and each piece of bread represented a specific and personal prophetic word.  He tossed the pieces, pretty much all at once, into the air, and it was the Holy Spirit than distributed each message to it's recipient.  Wow!

"So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:11

It is Jesus who sends out the word.  He's the one mediator! (1 Timothy 2:5)  He's the one through whom all blessings flow.   His testimony is by the Spirit of prophecy, and by this same Spirit, we ourselves receive a message that points us back to Him. (Revelation 19:10)

"All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills."
1 Corinthians 12:11

So Jesus sows this word, which is our daily bread, and then the wind of the Holy Spirit carries out the Father's will in delivering each message to the intended person.  One person gets one message, another gets a different one. They all come from one body of life, which is Jesus, and they are all given to one body--the Church.  And it's the Spirit that elevates the prophetic message so that it can be carried to it's recipient!

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth."
Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

Sometimes there is a lag time between a message from God and it's fulfillment.  There probably will be!  The revelation is waiting for it's appointed time (Habakkuk 2:3).  We need to give our prophetic words, our gifts, back to the Father, and trust Him with them.  We need to acknowledge His faithfulness, and we need to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit.  He may deliver the same word again and again, in dynamic ways, until it is finally fulfilled.  Jesus casts our bread upon the winds of the Spirit, and once we have received, we may need to wait patiently, knowing that our promise will not be lost.

Once our word returns to us fulfilled, then we can share it with others!  Then we can use God's message to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16).  When disaster happens, mercy can triumph over judgement. (James 2:13)  And then we can look back to Jesus, hopeful that He will continue to give us our daily bread.

Snapshot: Spiritual Communion

I remember once the Lord showed me a vision where He was breaking bread.  He was breaking the bread, and He told me--He told me to eat His flesh.

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

John 6:53-57

This is what happens during communion, when we get together as a church or alone and eat in remembrance of the Lord.  And it also happens when we commune with Him spiritually.  That's when we are nourished.  That's when the Father gives us our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).  Jesus mediates this, and in the vision He gave, the Lord Jesus tore that loaf right open.

After this experience, I was instructed to get to the online Hebrew/Greek lexicon.  I find God likes to confirm Himself that way.  And I felt Him tell me to plug in the number 1234, into Hebrew.  So I did.

Strong's 1234- baqa
--to split, cleave, break open, divide, break through, rip up, break up, tear

Wow!  That's communion.  That's when God through His Son rightly divides the word of truth         (2 Timothy 2:15).  He comes along with the Spirit of love and the Spirit of revelation (Ephesians 1:17).  He divides the fresh bread of the Word for us, so that we can then do it for others!  He gives us nourishment that leaves us empowered, not ashamed.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."                                                          Luke 22:19

Let's break bread with Him before we break it with anyone else.  Let's come to Him.  Those who seek Him find Him.  Let's feast on His holiness.  Let's come to Him and never hunger again!

Your Prophetic Word Confirmed: He Sets a Table

In a blog post here yesterday, I went into how the Lord is faithful to keep us well nourished regardless of our spiritual surroundings. Below is an excerpt from that blog post, with bolded parts for emphasis.


1/14/15 Snapshot:  Rest and Comfort: 

The Holy Spirit brought to remembrance Psalm 23:5.  There were several confirmations for this verse...and I had it playing and replaying in my hear for much of the day:

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

Spiritually speaking, believers today have enemies as real as those of King David. However, our enemies are not flesh and blood like his.  Instead, they are systems of this world and spiritual powers of darkness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).  The good news is that God still protects us!  He still gives us messages and words--the bread of life--amidst chaos and darkness brought about by the enemy.  He invites us to feast with Him on the Word, and still, enemies and accusers lurk nearby.  But God protects us from these things!  That's what Psalm 23:5 testifies to--the faithfulness of God overcoming all else. 


Then, today, a new Word was released on the Elijah list--"Your Watch Word for 2015".   In it were some very encouraging lessons.  There were also lots of confirmation, one of which was especially striking.  Below is an excerpt from this Word, by Russ Walden.  I italicized it, and in addition bolded the parts that really stuck out to me.


1/15/15 Elijah List:


"You will find My favor in the morning. You will find My favor in the evening. You will sit at the table of My favor in the presence of your enemies and they will not be able to reduce you or inhibit you in anyway.

"Make My presence your priority," says the Father, "for 2015 will be a gauntlet of distraction. The tyranny of the urgent will go to war with the priority of My presence. The enemy is very time conscious for he knows his time is short – therefore he will intensify his wrath against you and against My Kingdom. Do not put your attention on the enemy but let your eye go beyond the second heaven and garner your instructions from My throne – for I will give you rule over your enemy with an iron hand.

Glory to God!  I know that this is a message from the Lord (Jeremiah 32:8).  We are going to find ourselves in the presence of our enemies, but we will then be shown in a new way that Jesus is Lord!  And we'll be aware of this, but God is going to overshadow the enemy!  We'll know that darkness is around us, but more than that, we'll know that God has already set us a table.  We'll see that He has already given us such favor.  We'll see that He will continue to, "give us this day our daily bread".  Praise Him!

He is going to feed us more richly than ever; He longs to satisfy us with the riches of foods (Psalm 107:9).  He is going to speak to us more clearly, by His Spirit and with truth (John 4:24).  The enemy will try to interfere with this; He will try to make us fall for his schemes.  He will try to exchange the truth for a lie, and place these lies on the Lord's table.  But we have the mind of Christ--we can know the character of God (1 Corinthians 2:16 and context)!  We can "appraise all things" and see them as they really are.  God's given us a Spirit that knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff.  He's given us discernment.  We can know His truth.  We can sense darkness near, while not fearing it.  We can accept only the finest of foods--that which He's given us.

"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD."  Psalm 112:7

This is what God does.  He takes away our fear and timidity.  He gives us a Spirit that at once recognizes danger yet does not fear it.  God wants us to know that the evil one will not touch us.  Our Lord wants us to have that blessed assurance.  We can and will always be fed by His hand.  We can sit with Him at His table.  He wants to set us there.  He wants to give us rest there.  He wants us to see Him ridiculing the enemy.  Will you take shelter under Him?

"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."  Psalm 91:1

Rest and Comfort

God has been speaking to me a lot about rest and comfort recently.  It's great to enter His rest!  It's great to be comforted by Him!  It's amazing to be perfectly set at peace by the Lord.  And this rest, this comfort, really came to pass in my life yesterday, and it was such a blessing from the Lord.  In many ways, it came as a fulfillment of prophecy.


Like I said, the theme of rest was fulfilled throughout the day yesterday.  And He gave me rest, so that I could praise Him fully.  He gave me time alone to spend with Him.  He gave me rest on every side.  Wherever I turned, I saw him at work, and I was comforted with a message from Him.  I watched a lot of TV, yes, but I received from the Lord even more quickened messages.   I received from the Lord's mercy such rest and comfort.

Below are confirmations that led up to that point.  In hindsight, God was showing me about the reality of His rest long before I experienced it yesterday!




Confirmed 1/12/15:  That night I was reading in 1st Kings.  I kept reading about peace--the Lord was giving Solomon rest on every side.  What strikes me as important is why God did this.  He did it because Solomon pleased Him!  He did it because it pleased Him that Solomon would build Him a temple.  God honored the desires of His servants, firstly with David and then with his son Solomon.  God gave Solomon rest so that Solomon could set up a life of worship for the people.

"But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster."     1 Kings 5:4



Confirmed Yesterday:  The Holy Spirit brought to remembrance Psalm 23:5.  There were several confirmations for this verse...and I had it playing and replaying in my hear for much of the day:

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

Spiritually speaking, believers today have enemies as real as those of King David. However, our enemies are not flesh and blood like his.  Instead, they are systems of this world and spiritual powers of darkness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).  The good news is that God still protects us!  He still gives us messages and words--the bread of life--amidst chaos and darkness brought about by the enemy.  He invites us to feast with Him on the Word, and still, enemies and accusers lurk nearby.  But God protects us from these things!  That's what Psalm 23:5 testifies to--the faithfulness of God overcoming all else.

This message of communing with God in the midst of darkness was so timely yesterday.  I was alone in the house all day, and at times I did feel the enemy encroaching.  But God took me through it.  He took me through it and ensured that I was spiritually nourished throughout my time with Him.  More than anything else, I knew He was there with me, preparing a table.  Praise Him!



Confirmed Yesterday:  I felt prompted by the Lord to obtain a "verse of the day".  Something to summarize His lessons; something to paraphrase what He wanted to say...and He gave me John 14:26:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 

Glory to God!  What a fit.  The Comforter Himself was teaching me how to find His rest.  The Comforter was comforting me!  He was giving me rest on every side.  It was the Holy Spirit that first brought to my memory Psalm 23:5.  And it was this same Holy Spirit that then gave me the fulfillment, through my experiences later on.  He is the one who gives a word and always fulfills it!  He is the one who comforts us with the truth.  He is the one who gives us rest, regardless of how many enemies attempt to surround us.

 God wants to draw us close.  He wants to teach us all things.  He is faithful to remind us of His rest and comfort.  He is so faithful to protect us and lead us on in the truth.  God wants to bring us rest so we can worship Him.  He wants to give us the Spirit so we can be true worshippers (John 4:24).  In Him, we can draw near and experience true peace.

Snapshot: A Time to Receive

Sometimes in our walk with God we forget to receive from Him.  We pray, praise, and thank Him, and we try to obey His commands, but we forget that He has so many good things for us.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."  Ephesians 1:3

This is a wonderful truth.  In Heaven, we already have all spiritual blessings.  Jesus died for us, and He purchased for us them all!  The unfortunate thing is that many believers are not in agreement with Heaven.  They are not walking through this life in Christ, and they are not receiving like they could be.  They are not taking advantage of the blessings that God so loved to give us.

Let's awaken to our spiritual reality.  Let's know that although we're unworthy, He still loves us.  He wants us spiritually nourished by continually receiving love, light and truth.  He is faithful to give us our daily bread!  But we need to believe it.  We need to believe God's truth, which is Jesus, and then we should pray into it.

This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

    

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

    

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from the evil one."

This is how Jesus taught us to pray.  Therefore this is what we should do!  We need to come into agreement with Heaven.  We need to ask for His Kingdom and His spiritual nourishment.    Because in Christ,  asking is receiving.  Now is the perfect time to accept the grace of God.  He is offering us gifts from His hands!