Hellooo beautiful ladies,
I hope you are all blessed and well, and I also hope your prayer life is not stagnant but very much flourishing. I thought that I would continue to write a few more messages about prayer, as it is extremely important to keep up a great and constant prayer life. The bible says in Matthew 4:4 ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which precedes the mouth of God.’ So we can never talk about prayer too much, or ever pray too much.
As mentioned in the previous post, prayer is a fundamental aspect in helping develop our spiritual life. Another way in which we can heighten our prayer life is through fasting. As a believer you should desire to take part in the things which Christ Jesus did. We should incorporate fasting into our lives, and try to make it a practise. The bible says that some things require fasting as well as prayer (Matthew 17:21).
One of the main reasons why I would encourage Christians to fast is because Christ fasted himself. We as believers are called to imitate Christ, and fasting is one of the ways in which we can do so. Many scriptures within the bible also tell us of the great benefits which come from fasting. After Christ completed His 40 day fast in the wilderness after being tempted by the devil He left filled with the Holy Spirits power (Luke 4:14). So we can see here that, fasting can help us overcome temptation and also provides us with supernatural power from the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 34:28-29 tells us about what Moses achieved whilst fasting. He was able to write the Ten Commandments, and his face shone so bright when he came down from Mount Sinai, after spending time in Gods presence. In all honesty I would love for my face to shine so radiantly from spending time communicating (praying) with my Heavenly Father.
I find that when I fast I am more sensitive to the voice of God, my spirit man is more attentive to the things of Gods kingdom. Fasting heightens my ability to do more work for the kingdom i.e. as I’m fasting now, I am able to write up this post and be a blessing onto others. Fasting accompanied with prayer helps aid in breakthrough. There are some stubborn problems out there that will only shift when prayer and fasting are conjoined. Fasting can help one focus on God more, which is a great plus when it comes to prayer, it just helps limit the number of distractions. Sometimes we do not realise how much of our time and energy can be focused on food. When I fast I tend to find that my thoughts are not geared towards when and what I’m going to eat and the time it would take for me to cook something up, when compared to when I’m not fasting.
I would just like to make an important point, which is that you should allow the Holy Spirit direct you on when and how long you should fast for. Personally the Spirit has ministered to me and encouraged me to make fasting a weekly habit. For some it may be once a month or once every two months. The most important thing is that we allow the Holy Spirit to individually direct us and not copy others. This does not mean that we should not get involved in cooperate church fasting. If you are new to fasting you could maybe try skipping your breakfast, and if you can lunch also. People fast for different lengths of time, some fast for 12 hours and others 24.
Another important note which I’d like to mention is that if you have any medical conditions you should consult your physician before attempting to fast. Food is not the only thing you can be abstinent from, things such as social media sites are things which you could give up and even TV. As well as food these activities can also become idols in our lives and consume A LOT of our time. I myself had to take a long break from playing Candy Crush (hangs head in shame), that game is waaayyy to addictive, if you let it get the better of you!
But anyways beautiful ladies I hope you were able to take something away from this post. I think I may possibly do a follow up post on this topic. Have a blessed week. Xxx