I hope you guys are learning a lot from this book. I certainly am. Here are the notes I took directly from J. Franklin's book on Fasting. Don't forget to look up the examples he supplies for us via scripture. That is the most important part of all we read.
Matt. 4:4
In Colbert's book Toxic Relief, he states, "We may be actually starving from a nutritional standpoint, while at the same time becoming grossly obese...Sadly, we really are digging our graves with our forks and knives!"
In that sense, it is easy to see how our physical lives again parallel our spiritual lives. We can become overnourished on a hefty diet of church programs and activities, religious structure, and traditions of men and yet be severely undernourished when it comes to the deeper things of God.
Matt. 5:6
When you begin to develop a hunger for the deeper things of God, He will fill you.
Hungry in Flesh...Hungry in Spirit
Hungry people are desperate people, and they are hungry for more of God than they have ever had. They are breaking out of religious rules, regulations, and traditional thinking and breaking through to more of His presence, more of His power to turn situations around, more of His healing power, and more of His miracle-working power! Only Jesus satisfies that hunger!
Fasting stirs a hunger in your spirit that goes deeper than the temporary hunger you experience in your flesh. When you hunger for God, He will fill you.
Matt. 8:5-13
In this day, God is saying, "I'm looking for somebody who wants something. I'm looking for somebody who will do more than show up, but they will hunger for that which I want to place in them!"
Matt. 12:1-8
...when you hunger for more, you will receive more. God will break all the religious rules for you. When you hunger for God, He will break the rules of man and cause His favor to come on your life.
Anybody can be normal. Normal is overrated. Someone has to say, "But I want more! Lord, I'm hungry! I'm going to have to push tradition aside! I'm going to have to push religious rules aside! I'm going to have to push all of the rituals aside because I'm starving to death, and I just can't do 'church as usual' any longer." My suggestion is to begin pushing the plate aside. Show God that you are serious. We must get to the place where we are desperate for God again. We must begin to desire Him more than food or drink. Let us be filled with the Bread of Life instead of the refuse of religion. Begin to make fasting a regular discipline, and see how GOd answers your hunger!
Are you hungry for more of Him? Are you desperate for more of Him? Are you at a point in your life where you feel stuck, discouraged, just wandering around from place to place, need some answers to some questions, need some emptiness filled, ETC? If so, why not add fasting to your prayers? Anybody?
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