For those of you who are following my notes that I've taken directly out of Jentezen Franklin's book on "Fasting", please, please look up the scriptures. I wish I had time to type out the stories he shared but time will not permit. While his stories are good, God's Word is what makes a difference in our lives. I would highly recommend this book.
Ps. 50:12-15
As a believer, you can pray, read your Bible, adm go to church week after week and still be losing sight of your first love. It is not that you don't love teh Lord, but the business of life can bring you to the point of losing your freshness, your enthusiasm, and your sensitivity to His Spirit and what pleases Him.
What if God were hungry and all we have to feed Him is our same dulle religious routines day after day? Just like ending up with meat loaf on the table every night, I can just hear our heavenly Father sighing, "Religion again?"
God does not need our routines. He does not savor heartless activity. He does not want our "leftovers" when He can get "fed" elsewhere. True worship that comes from our hearts feeds Him and satisfies Him; it is something He desires--and deserves. Our religiosity of going through the motions once a week does not please Him as much as our obedience to His Word.
...Fasting is a constant means of renewing yourself spiritually. The discipline of fasting breaks you out of hte world's routine. It is a form of worship--offering your body to God as a living sacrifice is holy and leasing to God (Rom. 12:1). The disciplines of fasting will humble you, remind you of your dependency on God, and bring you back to your first love. It causes the roots of your relationship with Jesus to go deeper.
God desires to move powerfully in your life. His plans for you are always progressing and developing.
There are dimensions of our glorious King that will never be revealed to the casual, disinterested worshiper. There are walls of intercession that will never be scaled by dispassionate religious service. But when you take steps to break out of the orinary and worship Him as He deserves, you will begin to see facets of His being you never knew existed. He will begin to share secrets with you about Himself, His plans, His desires for you. When you worship God as He deserves, He is magnified.
David was a man who fasted often, and not just from food. He knew that to worship God was to magnify God. His invitation to all of us to "magnify the Lord with me" (Ps. 34:3) still stands open today.
When you worship, you magnify God. Your enemies or circumstances may seem to be so large and so powerful that they are all you can see. But when you worship, you not only magnify God, but you also reduce the size and power of everything else around you. David said, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears" (Ps. 34:4). God will hear you when you set your heart to worship Him. When you magnify the Lord, you shrink the supposed power of your enemy, the devil. The greatest thing you can do in teh midst of a battle is magnify the Lord.
John 4:23, 29, 32, 34
His disciples returned with food, but He told them He was not hungry. He said, "I have food to eat of which you do not know...My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (vv. 32, 34) The worship of that woman had so satisified Jesus that He was no longer hungry for natural food. The disciples were busy gathering food, but she took time to worship and feed Him that which He most desired.
What is God saying about you? Is it, "Religions again?" Or does He dine with you, fellowship with you, and share with you deep secrets and plans for the future? If you are in a rut or a routine where your worship just isn't cutting it, if you have not heard God speak to you in a long time, if your circumstances seem to be the biggest obstacle in your life, stop everything and begin a fast. One day, several days, some food, all food--the details are not as important as your heart's desire to satisfy God with your worship and sacrifice.
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