Tag Archives: spiritual warfare

Protecting My Peace: I Have To Fight For It Every Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Protecting My Peace

If Jesus has given me peace, why is my soul disquieted? Why do I struggle?

The peace is there and cannot be taken away.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
— John 14:27

But, I have an adversary who attempts to obstruct it. So, I have to fight to overcome the obstruction by believing His Word.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.”
— Psalm 42:11

We have an adversary who is an obstructionist that incessantly tries to block God’s gifts to us.

But, we have weapons to tear down obstructions.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”
— 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

We have to fight for what’s ours every day.

Achieving Greater Enjoyment By Not Allowing Its Obstruction

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Achieving Greater Enjoyment By Not Allowing Its Obstruction

The sun is massive.

Yet, it does not take much to obstruct its view.

Whether the sun’s light is obstructed can be the difference between whether something thrives or dies.

I’m talking about God.

There is so much good.

But whether we see it depends on whether we allow something to obstruct its view.

And, Satan is an obstructionist.

Satan can not stop the good, but he can hinder our enjoyment of it by focusing our attention elsewhere.

Even when Man was in Paradise, Satan was able to convince them that it was NOT paradise. And amazingly, Satan did not achieve this by pointing to a real existing problem -because there were no problems, he did it using only an idea, a hypothetical, something that wasn’t even real.

Satan was able to ruin paradise simply by focusing our attention elsewhere, obstructing our view of God which is the beginning of sorrows.

Romans 5:14 says that “death reigned from Adam to Moses”, the consequences of which are devastating and far reaching.

But, God.

Because of God’s goodness, lovingkindness and His faithfulness to His original purpose, God moved toward us even after we moved away from Him!

God moved!

God moved to overcome the obstruction for His glory, that a right view of Him would be had throughout the cosmos, the result of which is Life!

Isaiah 11:9 put it this way,

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
— Isaiah 11:9

Today, we have plenty of actual problems to point to because there is still sin in the world and the death that results from it, but there is now a refuge in Jesus Christ —a place where there is more life than there is death in the world.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:6

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
— 1 John 4:4

Because God who was a far off has been brought near through Jesus Christ and accepted by faith, I now have so many wonderful things.

I now have a place of love, joy and peace that I can even bring others into which makes it even better!

In my Christian walk, I find a duality where there is simultaneously the suffering of deep pain and the enjoyment of depthless love.

The ancient wisdom for enjoying the good even in the face of real and significant suffering is to deal with my suffering in the context of that good.

I refer to this as “grieving in context”.

Satan is an obstructionist.

Every moment of every day, Satan attempts to place something in our view, very often using the real and significant pain we are suffering, to block of our view of God, so that we die because we lose the life-giving benefits that come from a right view of God.

But rather than allow Satan to use our suffering to turn us from God, what if we turn WITH our suffering to God, obeying 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you”? Then we can enjoy, Philippians 4:6-7,

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Yes, we experience hardship.

But there is so much good that is far greater.

We can live with so much greater joy and satisfaction if we keep this in view.

Our moment by moment battle is to reject the obstructions that Satan attempts to put in our view and instead believe God and enjoy Him.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
— James 1:16-17

#joy #suffering #spiritualwarfare

Our Fights Reveal What We’re Really Seeking First

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Our Fights Reveal What We're Really Seeking First

You can tell what we are truly “seeking first” by what we fight for and what we fight against.

The world seeks commodities. (Matthew 6:32)
They fight for “all these things”: food, shelter, clothing.
They fight against losing what they perceive as theirs or against others gaining more.

The children of God seek the Kingdom. (Matthew 6:33)
They fight for communion.
They fight against what hinders communion (2 Corinthians 10:4-6): those things that work to separate the family of God, including the Father and His lost children —sheep that are not yet of this fold (John 10:16).

I must pay attention to what I get defensive about and what I fight for (James 4:1-5). It will reveal what spirit I’m really of, whether I’m of the world or whether I’m a child of God, not as a condemnation but as an opportunity for correction -so that I can repent and turn from my way, or the world’s way, to Him (James 4:6-7).

If I were seeking first the kingdom of God, I would be fighting for communion with the beloved in God through Christ.

What do the reasons I fight tell me about what I’m truly seeking first and how I need to correct course?

If I Keep Sinning, Am I Really Saved?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - If I Keep Sinning Am I Really Saved?

If I keep messing up, am I really saved?

Are you familiar with those challenges during a basketball game where if you make a shot from mid-court you’ll win a car, $100,000 or something like that?

Now imagine that instead of being awarded if you make the shot, that you die if you miss it.

Missing the mark is exactly what sin is, and killing us is exactly what sin does.

“the wages of sin is death” — Romans 6:23

It is important to understand that death is primarily a result of sin, not a punishment.

God’s desire is for us to live, not to die and He created us for this very purpose.

God is not lurking around every corner waiting for us to mess up so that He can punish us. We see in Christ that this is contrary to God’s very nature because Jesus, who is the Christ, proclaims, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” — John 10:10

Death is a natural outcome of sin because sin is missing the mark and the mark is God. It’s like a branch being separated from the vine, or if our planet were no longer in view of the sun -eventually, all processes of life would cease and everything would die.

Life is abiding in God.
Death is separation from God.

But God, desiring that we live and not die, sent His only begotten Son, Jesus. “His only begotten Son” means Jesus is the only direct and unmediated expression of God. He was sent so that the offense would be removed and the mark would be met, connecting us with God.

“In these last days [God has] spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person”
— Hebrews 1:1-3

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”
— John 3:16

Just as a man, Adam, missed the mark (sinned) and plunged everything in his dominion into death, the man Jesus made the mark (abides), tipped (more like flipped) the scales in our favor satisfying the debt of sin through His death, removed the offense (stumbling blocks – “lies block love”) by declaring the truth, and came as a King establishing the Kingdom of God that is taking by force everything that was sold under sin (redemption) -establishing an everlasting kingdom that we receive when we believe and that grants us access to God, resulting in everlasting life. This kingdom, with Christ as King, is advancing until everything that opposes Him is put under His feet to the end that Christ will present the subdued creation to the Father that everything will forever bask in God’s life-giving presence to His ever increasing glory.

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
— Romans 5:19

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. … Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:24

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.”
— Isaiah 11:9-10

Jesus makes the mark so that we can be with God.

Not only that, He’s made it so that we can also make the mark without fear of failure, completely destroying the threat of death through His resurrection.

“But [our salvation] has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”
— 2 Timothy 1:10

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”
— Romans 8:1

To return to our basketball analogy, what Jesus has done for us is removed any risk of failure because He’s made the shot in our stead. In doing so, He’s removed all fear. Now we can just focus on becoming as great as He is.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
— 1 John 4:18

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
— 1 John 4:17

So, to the original question, “If I keep messing up, am I really saved?”

Messing up -sin, is not necessarily an indication that there’s a question about my salvation.

We mess up because there’s stumbling blocks in our lives (pre-existing and those that are continually being put in our way) which are lies that block God’s love.

Everyone has sin (1 John 1:8) -the saved and lost alike.

However, God gives the saved capacity through the manifold grace of His Word, the revelation of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit and His church, to discern these cancerous areas of rebellion in our lives, to confess them and to be healed of them. These are the weapons of our warfare to advance the Kingdom of God, starting in our own hearts.

Conviction, the very awareness of “messing up”, is a good indication of my salvation!

The key distinction of someone who is truly saved, returning again to our basketball analogy, is that they want to make the shot.

Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, is known for his exceptional scoring ability. He is also widely known for the sheer number of shots that he has missed. But despite missing over 9000 shots in his career, what we can be sure of is that he took each shot wanting to make every single one because he has a heart of a champion that wants to win.

Those who are born of God, as a new creature, have a new heart that desires excellence because He is excellent.

So, though we may mess up and miss the mark at times, those who are saved aren’t frivolous about it.

We don’t carelessly throw up the ball. We don’t foolishly throw it into the stands.

We want to make the shot.

But if Jesus already made the shot, why would I even bother shooting at all?

Because, making the shot -living as Christ lived, abiding in God’s love and being governed by it, brings God glory, and like Jesus, there’s nothing that authentic children of God want more.

Every time we take to the court, we want to contribute, increasing the glory of His already glorious victory. And when we have a bad game, we submit to the necessary practice and gym time to work out our bad form.

The aim is development, to be more and more perfectly aligned to Christ so that His life: His purposes, His power and His production shines through.

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
— Romans 8:11

This is a work that God does in us, that when we submit to it, we can’t miss.

“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
— Philippians 2:13

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
— 2 Corinthians 2:14

So, the test of my salvation isn’t whether I mess up, it’s whether I want to make the shot.

Because of His life in me, I want to.

And because He makes it possible, I can

without fear.

Thank you, Jesus.

Success

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Success Is Contribution Not Conceit

If I can be honest, I struggle mightily with this.

I struggle with the constant pressure of the world’s repeated assertion that success means being out in front, on display, exalted above others, and if you’re not, you’re a failure.

The constant temptation is to seek that, to make it my ambition and orient my life around what puts me out in front; hustle, grind, concentrate on achieving the thing or making the money to buy the things that makes me better than others, thereby proving that I am a success.

But, in God’s creation, success is the health of the whole that we’re connected to, where we’re one member of many, contributing to the whole as the whole contributes to the members. It’s literally what we’re built for: connection, community, and contributing toward its betterment which is one and the same as self-care. We know this. We can feel it. It’s what we find most fulfilling.

Yet, I find myself desiring the allure of being the dead flower in the vase. It is singled out and put beautifully on display.

And my flesh foolishly yearns, “Ooh, pick me! Pick me!” I want to be exalted. I want to be praised. I want to be sought after. Not realizing that it neither grows others nor is being grown and was dead the moment it was separated.

Do not be deceived. Satan’s specialty is creating beautiful dead things.

Those of The Way know to be cut off is a death sentence. Oneness is our pursuit.

“Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
— Mark 12:29

And, whatever comes our way as an individual, including honor, we use for the benefit and uplift of the whole (One).

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

[…] But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
— 1 Corinthians 12:12, 24-26

So, each day I wake or every time I fell pressure to conform to the world’s measure of success, I will set out with intention to resist the world’s way and to seek contribution as a definition of success instead of conceit, success being evidenced by fruit in others.

#success #ContributionOverConceit #thriveday

We Must Fight And Fighting Never Stops Being Hard

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Fighting Never Stops Being Hard

This is something every believer needs to know.

The chipper, everybody’s happy, dry tooth Christianity milled by the industrial church does not prepare believers for the reality and horrors of war they WILL face everyday.

In the world we are always in enemy territory and we are always under attack.

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
—1 John 5:19

The lies of the world hurt.

And those lies come through real hurtful events and real hurtful statements at the hands of real people with an aim to establish real hurtful outcomes that contradict the truth of what God says, how His kingdom operates and His desire for our lives.

So, we fight.

In the world, Satan’s kingdom is the default, and we are in the world, so we fight to establish God’s kingdom -in our hearts, in our homes, in the church, in our spheres and in every interaction that we have with others.

Faith in Christ is an embassy in hostile enemy territory. We can run to it and find shelter in it, BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THE PAIN of the lies or the difficulty of warfare that we must face every day.

Without knowing this, a believer could be tricked into thinking that God is not with them, that He’s displeased with them, that they’ve not done something right or that faith in Christ is not real.

No, beloved.

We’re in enemy territory.

We must fight.

Fighting is hard.

It never stops being hard.

But, there is power available to us.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
—Philippians 4:13

But above all, we win.

We who are in Christ always win because He has won.

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
—2 Corinthians 2:14

As we speak, the enemies of the kingdom of God are being subdued where there will be no kingdom besides His and where our King, Christ, is fully established as Lord of all.

“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For ‘He has put all things under His feet.’

But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
—1 Corinthians 15:25-28

Then, finally, we can rest and war no more.

Until then, we must fight.

Fighting never stops being hard.

Life can be hard and good.

Overthrow Idols

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Overthrow Idols

We are cruel, oppressive, incompetent rulers on the throne of our lives (we are cruel and oppressive because of our incompetence).

A heart ready for heaven knows this, vacates the throne, offers it to Jesus because it sees He alone is qualified and it violently overthrows anything that even suggests to take His rightful place.

“You are not [oppressed] by us (Christ’s ambassadors), but you are [oppressed] by your own affections.”
—2 Corinthians 6:12

I can’t help but think about the thief on the cross who initially mocked Jesus but was eventually emptied. The Holy Spirit brought him to a place of recognizing that he justly deserved his condemnation as a rebel against the State and recognized that Jesus was rightful King of a Kingdom where he wanted to be,

“Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” —Luke 23:42

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’” —Luke 23:43

That is ALL that is required to be saved, for the Holy Spirit to open my eyes, to bring me to a place where I confess my rebellion against God and my need for Jesus, God’s Christ, the blessed and only Potentate, who alone can reconcile me to God and restore God’s wonderful kingdom order to my life and all of creation.

I believe God timed Christ’s incarnation when He did because the Romans had it right. That’s how sin should be treated: as rebellion against the Kingdom, it should be violently confronted, purged, exposed, humiliated and killed without mercy.

That’s how I should have been treated as an enemy of God’s perfect order. But, God. Thanks be to God for Jesus who not only came to restore that kingdom order but served my sentence, paid the required penalty (in order for God to be just) and took my place on that cross so that I could be with God! He didn’t have to do that. He could have just re-established His perfect order without me, but He chose to save me at an exorbitant expense that I was not worthy of. Thank you, God.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” —2 Corinthians 5:21

Now, that I, with great joy, accept Jesus as King, I should treat sin the same way the Romans treated rebels. I’ve been far too gentle with such an insidious and deadly threat to my life, the lives of everyone around me and even the order of creation.

I repent.

It’s past time to cut off hands and gouge out eyes (Matthew 18:8-9). I need to be violent with my sin and overthrow every threat to Jesus’ rule, He who is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

One Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - One Day

NOT:

One day, I will have:
that car,
that house,
or that body,
1 John 2:15-17

BUT:

One day, I will see God:
my Redeemer,
the Lover of my soul,
in the Great Assembly of His beloved,
Job 19:25-27, John 17:20-26

AND:

When I love:
I see Him now,
in the mirror of love,
now dimly but then, face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:12

“Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” -1 Corinthians 13:12

I will not only know God but all those that are known by Him in Christ.

Oh, how wonderfully glorious!

I believe God made known and brought near through Jesus Christ.
My earnest hope and expectation is to be with Him and His.
I am assured through love. 1 John 3:14, 4:18

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” -1 Corinthians 13:13

To know God, to dwell with the beloved in the unity of the Spirit through the fellowship of Christ, to see His kingdom come everywhere in my sphere is what I labor to attain in some measure now and to enjoy fully, unrestrained, without hindrance or opposition at His coming.

This is the desire of my heart that directs the work of my hands, not the things of this world.

This is my “One Day.”

#oneday

I Can’t Believe My Eyes

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - I Can't Believe My Eyes

Jesus said we are blind.
Jesus said we are deaf.

Yet we perceive an image and we register sounds.

What does this mean?

It means we’re hallucinating. The natural man is deluded.

We are under the influence of something.

Satan deceived us and we sinned. We declared ourselves enemies of God. We grasped for His power and sought to obtain knowledge apart from Him and we fell into delusion, under the spell and rule of the evil one.

We sought to know God on our own terms according to our own understanding but God will not allow it.

He has hidden Himself that our knowledge of Him is not obtained by our own wisdom, power or will, but that is obtained through Him.

“Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.'”
—Romans 11:8

We don’t get to say who He is, He tells us who He is, because nothing is more important than getting that right!

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
—Isaiah 11:1-2

“And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!'”
—Luke 9:35

The only way to know God is if He reveals Himself and gives us sensitivity to perceive it.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
—John 1:12-13

God has revealed Himself and has ordained His Word as the means that we receive perception.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
—Romans 10:17

Jesus is the Word in flesh.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
—John 1:14

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
—Hebrews 1:1-2

The Gospel, the good news, is we were hopelessly separated from God -man’s most desperate need, but God has provided a Way to overcome the sin that’s separating us, a Door to bridge the impossible chasm between us, the Truth that we may know Him, and Life that we may be with Him forever. Jesus is the Way, The Door, The Truth and The Life.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”
—John 14:6

However, the evil one is still actively working to separate us from God.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
—1 Peter 5:8

He is the god of this world that we gave over to him when we obeyed him and disobeyed God.

And, this world is the hallucination, the wool pulled over our eyes to distract us, to deceive us and blind us.

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
—2 Corinthians 4:3-4

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
—1 John 2:15-17

So, we cannot trust our natural senses, what we see.

But thanks be to God,

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 4:6

Light is how we see. There is false light and the True Light.

“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:23

We do not walk according to what we see naturally (sight) and according to the wisdom of this world.

“This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”
—James 3:15

We walk according to what Jesus reveals (faith).

“But, the just live by faith, not by sight.”
—2 Corinthians 5:7

We distrust our senses and trust Jesus, following Him, who, upon the revelation of Himself, commands us to come to Him and step out on what we cannot see.

“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’

And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’

So He said, ‘Come.’

And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
—Matthew 14:25-29

I endeavor to follow Jesus and “walk on water”.

If He is not real, I will perish.

But since I’ve been following Him, I have not yet utterly fallen.

Because, He is real.

This world is the delusion and the myth that it, under the rule and sway of the evil one, purports Jesus to be.

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
—1 John 5:19

“We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
—1 John 4:6

We are in the Matrix for the sole purpose of saving people out.

Jesus is real. The world is not.

Which are you going to trust?

#gospel #lookagain

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 – A Quiz (About Fasting)

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 - A Quiz (About Fasting)

In week 21 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a quiz.

I was at Rosey Baby’s for lunch and as I was leaving I passed a table where Monica Banks was having lunch with a colleague.

She was aware that I had recently accepted my call to the ministry and she motioned for me to come to her table.

Now Mrs. Banks was constantly investing in people, looking to develop leaders in the community and trying to help them get to the next level.

She asked me a question, “What does it mean to fast?”

She was quizzing me, because, being a seasoned woman of faith and also a minister, she knew the answer better than I did.

I gave her an answer that may have been technically correct but I could sense from my delivery and from her response that it was from my head but not from my heart. It was something I thought, not something I knew.

She responded, “Thank you, Reverend. Hug Melissa and those babies for me.”

That was almost two decades ago, and since that moment I’ve been pondering her question in my heart.

Providential factors: life, seeking, surviving a crisis of faith, and reading the following passage at just the right time brought her question full circle.

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
—Deuteronomy 8:2-3

All that God does is to make Himself known. There is not only no higher good, there is no good beside that.

It is during a fast where the cloak of our sufficiency is removed and we are confronted with the depth of our earthly dependencies to the point of idolatry. We are confronted with our reaction to withdrawal from them and the true condition of our heart from which our reactions spring.

God’s objective toward us is to perfect us so that He can shine through us, like He does through Jesus, His only begotten Son.

**We can either do it with Him** and cooperate by willingly putting things down and exercise ourselves to godliness through disciplines such as fasting, **or it can happen to us** through a “forced fast” like the one experienced in this passage by the Children of Israel as they are tried and trained in the wilderness.

Either way, we’re going to be made to learn, if we’re His. And, it’s for our good.

“If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
—Hebrews 12:7-8

We can either seek out opportunities to confront those things that get between us and God, that block His love to and through us, or find ourselves thrust into situations that cause us to confront them, or both.

He desires to make us stronger, to conform us to the image of Christ, until like Jesus we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

It is a work that He will complete without fail.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
—Philippians 1:6

God wants to grow us to the point where, when the enemy attacks us at our weakest point, tempting us, our Strength is so overwhelming we can respond, “Man shall not live by bread alone [our earthly dependencies or whatever Satan’s offering], but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

But [Jesus] answered [Satan’s temptation] and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
—Matthew 4:4

Fasting is a spiritual discipline of forsaking natural satisfaction in pursuit of spiritual sustenance.

Without the **pursuit** of God, fasting is just dieting.

But, a real fast is much more.

Fasting is more than abstaining, it’s availing ourselves of the sustenance only God can provide, through seeking His revelation, obedience to what He reveals, while putting aside our earthly comforts and dependencies to rely on Him alone.

“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’

But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’

Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’

Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.'”
—John 4:31-34

Fasting is strength conditioning, where at the point of our weakness, His strength is made perfect. It is preparation for the trials that are sure to come.

I’m so thankful to my dear sister in Christ, Monica Banks, for her quiz that prepares me for the test.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG #fasting #spiritualwarfare