DO YOU REMEMBER

 

Do you remember when you were first Born again? Do you remember how that felt? The joy, the power, the love of God, those mountain top experiences, the loving communion with our Lord? Then after such a grand period of Grace you were expected to stand and found out you could not. Do you remember wanting things to go back to the way they were? Longing for God and wondering why? What Happened? And has it been so long that at times you feel like giving up and just walking away, saying to yourself; “Perhaps it was all in my head, maybe I was never really born again.” But for some reason you just cannot give up. You still greave over your sin, and wonder why is it this way.

I have been in that place of grieving and wondering why. I revisit that place more often than I should, because I am a stubborn, stiff necked, sinner. A wretch saved by the grace of God/

Brothers and sisters, there is a time when we are granted a special period of grace as an infant in Christ. In the same way of the innocence of a new born where faith and trust is so easy and to love and bond with your parents is natural. But then you must learn to walk, not on your own. Your parents are there to help you and guide you but you still make mistakes as you grow. In the same way in our Christian life at a certain point we must learn to walk. And this is why God allows us to walk. Not to become independent of God but we must take responsibility for feeding ourselves spiritually and learning to walk with confidence in the Lord, and learn how to do battle with our fleshly desires. This is why I want to talk to you about spiritual disciplines and how to use them to defeat the old man and put on the new. God has not abandoned you; He is training you, teaching you. And there are certain things we can do as our part in this spiritual education God is giving us. Not to earn salvation but to do our part in sanctification.

In the last article we discussed Fasting, but just fasting by its self would be drudgery. There are other spiritual disciplines That if practiced at the same time as fasting It would help us to offer up a sacrifice of humility and repentance and help build our spiritual discipline in a way we have never experience. And no promises but, if not the mountain top experiences we once enjoyed, then at least we may regain the joy of our salvation.

What are these spiritual disciplines that we can practice? Good question, I’m glad you asked.

1)     Bible intake

2)     Prayer

3)     Worship

4)     Evangelism

5)     Serving

6)     Stewardship

7)     Fasting

8)     Silence and Solitude

9)     Journaling

10) Learning

These are the disciplines that I want to discuss with you over the next few weeks. These disciplines can be practiced separately and together. It would be hard to fast without solitude, Praying, and bible intake. However, one can pray without fasting, one can take in the word of God without fasting. One can enjoy Solitude without fasting but it would be hard to do this without prayer. We will start with how to take in the word of God or bible intake. And there is a good reason to star there. Bible intake has multiple forms such as

1)     Hearing God’s Word

2)     Reading God’s word

3)     Studying God’s word

4)     Memorizing God’s word

5)     Meditating on God’s word

6)     And Finely Applying God’s word

I spent a lot of time setting This article up. So, this time we will only cover, Hearing God’s word. There are good reasons to be ashamed of not knowing God’s word, and you should be ashamed. I know that I am. As long as I have been a believer, well, I should know better. I am writing this so there is no excuse for not knowing God’s word. I would like to see every new believer lean these disciplines. Here is a quote from a book titled, (Spiritual Disciplines for The Christian Life.) By Donald S. Whitney, “It is one thing to be unfamiliar with the scripture when you don’t own a bible; It’s another thing when you have a book shelf full.” Whitney had just discussed a third world country he visited where there was no bible at all not one. Their knowledge was limited because of this. American Christians have no excuse, accept laziness, for not knowing God’s word.

The easiest Discipline concerning the intake of God’s word is Hearing God’s word. Why is this simple task considered a discipline? Because if we make it a practice to not go and hear God’s word whenever it is available to us, then we may only here it accidentally. This is not in keeping with a devoted life in Christ. It does not matter what kind of experience you have had with so called churches in the past it is your responsibility to find a church that is faithful in teaching the truth of God’s word and to be there to hear it. But the purpose is not just to hear it, Jesus said “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it,” (Luke 11:28.) The discipline comes in the form of being there to hear the word of God, and obeying the word of God.

Jeremiah Burroughs, from the 1600’s wrote regarding preparation for the discipline of hearing God’s word,

“First when you come to hear the Word, if you would sanctify God’s name, you must possess your souls with what it is you are going to hear. That is, what you are going to hear is the Word of God…There you find that the apostle, writing to the Thessalonians, gives them the reason why the Word did them so much good as it did; it was because they did hear it as the Word of God. “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:14). (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life)

In order to obey we must practice active listening, not in one ear and out the other listening. As I said before I am as guilty as anyone on this count and must learn to practice active listening and obedience to God’s word. No one will be perfect at this, on this side of the grave. But we can all get better as we put forth an effort to learn and build these skills.

Why Fast

 This article relies heavily on Samuel Miller who is a Presbyterian minister from the early 1800s, however, when someone is right, they are right, so let’s get started.

 

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting.”

This is a quote from Daniel 9:3, Daniel has realized that the 70 years that the prophet Jeremiah had prophesied was nearing the end. Realizing that corruption was all around him and this included the corruption of his own people, Daniel turned to God in prayer and fasting. Daniel was not presumptuous. Nor was he lazy or sluggish in his action because of the certainty of God"s approaching deliverance. But Daniel instead, “considers himself called to special humiliation, fasting, and prayer.” Daniel confessed his sins and the sins of his nation before God in an attitude of Piety, Humility, and Penitence, asking God to bring about what He had already promised.

What is required for fasting?

1)     Fasting is abstinence.

2)     Fasting is not a requirement or duty of law that must be fulfilled. (You are not bound by the church to fast at certain religious dates or times.)

3)     There is no required number of days to fast.

4)     Fasting is a DIVINELY INSTITUTED tool for which ALL CHRISTIANS ARE BOUND, at PROPER SEASONS, to attend.

5)     Yet it is a matter of the heart.

Fasting is affirmed by the following considerations. 1. Nature itself seems to recognize fasting is necessary. Throughout time many false religions have used the practice of fasting to discipline their followers in a legalistic sense. More recently fasting has been recognized as beneficial for your health by giving the body a much need occasional vacation from the labors of digestion and other necessary movements of bodily function. Fasting has also been recognized as increasing mental acuity, while fasting, it might be a good time to memorize scripture.

Those were physical natural reasons to fast. What benefit is there in fasting before God? One thing to remember is, that fasting cannot make you more presentable to God. Christ has already made you presentable by His imparting righteousness to you when on the cross, “He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It is the humiliation before God, of confession of sin for ourselves and our nation that brings Spiritual acuity we cannot get just by mental exercises. It is in rejoicing in God’s forgiveness, God’s Mercy, God’s Love that brings peace that surpasses all understanding.

  Mark 9:29 “And He said unto them, “This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.”

The above scripture speaks to a spirit that we cannot overcome by superficial prayer. Only through much prayer and fasting can we overcome such spiritual opposition from the unseen world around us. One example is how the spirit of the antichrist is consuming and controlling the world governments. OUR GOVERNMENT! This kind can only be put out by much prayer and fasting. Sincere, humble confession and repentance, then pleading with God to break the hold of wickedness over our nation and the nations of the world.

By the way, confession is neither humble nor sincere if not accompanied by repentance. Repentance is the fruit of humble sincere confession. This is what I am calling all true believers to. Prayer and fasting, not a certain day, not a certain amount of time. But a continuous, weekly, whatever day of the week you can set aside until we see God’s will revealed for our world. And we must say and believe unanimously, EVEN SO, COME LORD JESUS!

We cannot know for certain that this is the end of time. BUT we cannot know for certain that it isn’t the end of time.

Now I will give you some homework. Examples of fasting in the Old Testament and New Testament. As well as commands to fast from the New Testament.

1)     Joshua 7:6  

2)     2 Samuel 12:16

3)     1 Kings 21:27

4)     Nehemiah 1:4

5)     2 Chronicles 20:3

6)     Jonah 3:7-8

7)     Esther 4:16

8)     Ezra 8:21

9)     Matthew 4:2

10)  Acts 2:33

11)  Luke 2:37

12)  Acts 10:30

13) 2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27

What attitude should we have when we fast?

Mathew 6:16-18, “Moreover when you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when you fast anoint thy head and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”  When we fast, we must remember the attitude of Daniel, who when he fasted, he laid before God His own sins and the sins of his people in humility, broken and contrite remembering that he is going before the Holy God. After confession and only after confession does Daniel present his request before YAHWEH. First penitence and humility then request and praise for forgiveness and restoration that only belongs to God.

The Benefits of Fasting

First, we must empty ourselves of any idea that we are meritorious because we would do such a thing as deny ourselves sustenance for a period of time, we are not. If we do this, we are doing only what is required of us. Many heathens have used fasting to their own vainglory and to lead unknowledgeable people astray, don’t fall into that trap.

Fasting, “is a natural and significant expression of our penitence for sin.”

Fasting is for the Mortification of the flesh, a tool to be used to stamp out our fleshly God-dishonoring desires. From the first day of Salvation the carnal desires of the flesh war against the Spirit of God that now dwells within us, prayer and fasting, is the means by which we do battle to keep the flesh under control. And that battle rages until we are home and in the presence of our Lord and our God. Fasting must not be done to such an extreme that one would impair their health. Just as man was not made for the Sabaoth, but Sabaoth for man, in the same way, fasting, is for the man. As was said before fasting is a tool for us to use to subdue the flesh in repentance and humility in thanksgiving for Grace and Forgiveness. Not a legal requirement to be shoved down someone’s throat, not to make one holier than thou, not to fill us with pride or shame because one who does look down on one who doesn’t. Fasting is deeply personal and should be kept between you and your heavenly Father.

Let us remember that fasting has been from the beginning of time. Our forefathers have handed fasting down throughout the ages. Should we neglect such a powerful tool to aid us in our fight against sin?

Shall we not fight against national sin and the corruption of our nation with every tool that God has equipped us with? Remember, Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” God has given us this tool to fight against these powers. Shall we not use them?

I repeat the earlier call for fasting and prayer, fasting and prayer are the ultimate peaceful protest. This battle can be fought from your private place of prayer. So, I beg you my brothers and sisters in Christ to get on your knees. Not just for sake of country but for the sake of building God’s kingdom, for the sake of God’s glory, for the sake of God’s will in your life, my life, and the lives of all the elect. Let us humble ourselves, and give God the Glory.