Fasting

By virtue of the internship I have, it would be very hard for me not to be awakened to the power that God gives through fasting and prayer. I help a man out who seems to rarely ever go more than ten minutes without mentioning his passion - fasting. He loves to point out how Jesus' miracles occurred after he did the forty day fast, not before and how Jesus finished his fast full of the Holy Spirit's power (Luke 4:14). When I hear testimony after testimony that just thoroughly dismantle every box that I had put God in, I realized that what I thought was devotion to the Lord would be considered backsliding to those who have a much better grasp of devotion.

I thought of an analogy to the old James Bond N-64 game. If, from a ministry standpoint, having a 20 minute quiet time is like carrying a PP-7, having a day of complete devotion to the Lord in prayer and fast is like having a grenade launcher. It isn't that the PP-7 is so bad, (it a lot better than not having a weapon or not having time with the Lord), its that the amount that the Lord's fruit, presence, and power can flow through us on a fast is so much greater.

I think some people tend to try to appeal that God's will will occur when we pray so we don't have to do anything. If this is so, then why does the man I'm interning with have God's will answer prayer thousands of times more than people who rarely pick up a Bible? Why does God's love and His passion for the Lord seem so contagious while other Christians are thinking the odds that God doesn't exist is high because they are so disillusioned due to lack of answers to prayer in their own life?

The sad thing is that people seem so defensive. The one thing you better not tell someone to do is to be more devoted to the Lord or tell them there is something wrong in their walk. They'll probably accuse you of being legalistic or something. They can be completely miserable, but don't tell them there is something wrong in how they are approaching God. I see so many that are "so busy" that they can't spend more than 20 minutes with God in a day, but waste volumes of time through pointless conversations, excessive amounts of movies, television, video games, etc. Just from a question of common sense - if the tv one watches promotes lust, pride, unforgiveness, and the like and comes in a dose of more than two hours a day, but the Bible comes in less than 30 minutes a day, do you really think that person is going to have God's fruit rather than the world's fruit flowing out of them? I mean, come on, this isn't exactly rocket science here.

I am continually blown away at the devotion of some of the greats of the faith. I ask some of them on my own how much their devotion level is to Jesus in the form of prayer and fasting. These people would never come forward and say how much occurs because they are too modest. But when pressed they open up. They might not want me to share what I got out of them, but I will anyways. When I asked Mark Strandjord, he said that when he does revival meetings he typically does a ten day fast with his wife first. But, he says, "I don't really have an annointing for fasting like she does. She does a 40 day fast every year." Mark was actually in a wheelchair from incredible pain due to Arthritis for 8 years. His wife did multiple forty day fasts until he saw his healing.

I cornered Paul Betiku and asked him how much he fasts and he modestly answered that, "I just want people to get their answer to prayer. If I pray and they are not healed, I know that if I fast for a couple of days, they probably will get healed if we pray again." But then I pressed him, how many days in the average month does he fast. He said, "fourteen, or a little more."

I was blessed with the opportunity to see Mike Francen preach a while back. This man has a life goal of a hundred million salvations through his healing crusades and a thousand church plants a year (in addition to other incredible goals). He told that when he became a Christian he spent 10-12 hours a day in the Word of God and then when he started to do healing crusades would fast for the duration of the crusade. A 7 day crusade received a seven day fast. He was doing so many that he dropped all the way down to 155 pounds (and was 6 foot 4). So he did say he went too far, but there is something to be said for his dedication.

I asked Doug Stanton. He simply replied that he lived a fasted lifestyle.

Todd Bentley talks about how he spent 8 hours with the Lord for a ten minute sermon then, upon finishing, would go immediately back to the Lord.

I started reading some of A.A. Allen's book online. He talks about the cost for God's Spirit to flow through someone. He would spend time in his prayer closet and would not know if hours or days had past. (Unfortunatly, he had some major problems at the end of his life).

I watched one of the evangelists from the Florida Healing Outpouring. He tells how from 4 am to 9 - the first five hours are devoted to the Lord every day.

I met a guy who sees all sorts of healings. I asked him about it and he told about spending the first six hours every day in the Bible.

This business of being so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good is one of the most ridiculous lies the church has seen. It also is blatantly against the Bible. Col. 3:1 tells us to set our minds on things above and not on earthly things. It is those that are heavenly minded that actually ARE earthly good, not just coasting through life.

As I started to see what true hunger and devotion to the Lord looks like I started to realize that what I thought was devotion wasn't. I prayed to the Lord and asked why the cost is so great to have the Lord's power flow through an individual. What I felt like he showed me was that the cost was extremely great for His Son to give up so that this could even be a possibility for a believer. He wouldn't want His people to take it lightly. Besides it is the glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings to search a matter out. Far from the microwave, instant gratification culture we live in and many in the American church seem all to often to want God to endorse, God's ways involve perseverance, steadfastness, surrender, and dedication.

There is a tendency as Christians to call people who are truly being used by God fake because they have not seen God work in those ways in their own lives. Unfortunately, many do not see what these people's relationship with the Lord looks like behind the scenes and the sacrifices they make so that others could see some form of miraculous breakthrough and/or salvation. These people should be commended for their devotion, not slandered by other Christians. It is sad that so many Christians seem so quick to shoot at their own soldiers.

God, make me a man who is truly devoted!

I love this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr_Oqun3CWo&feature=related

I think I've had it on repeat for the last hour or so now... It is kinda like an Upton song where you hear it once or twice and think its ok, but after listening to it quite a few more times the presence of the Lord just gets stronger and stronger...

quotes

Over the last couple of years, when I hear a good and/or challenging quote or even one that just makes me think, I put it in the back of my Bible. I was reading through them the other night and here were some that stood out to me...

"Unless a humility that rests in nothing less than the end and death of self and which gives up all the honor of men as Jesus did to seek the honor that comes from God alone, that God may be exalted, until humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price; there is little hope of a faith that will conquer the world." -Andrew Murray

"As soon as [any] honor or service is done for the honor and not for the service-sake, the doer is that moment outside of the kingdom." -George MacDonald (as quoted by John Eldredge)

“Religious people can be the hardest to reach because they are dead and think they are alive because of what they know.” –Dave Johnson

“God is looking for people who are wandering and stumbling into His plan, not asking Him to empower their plan.” –Doug Stanton

“I think we only finally start to learn something when you figure out you don’t know and you get smart enough to listen to everybody else and anybody else who has got any wisdom.” -Joyce Meyer

“Everyone is as close to God as they want to be.” -Tozer

“God didn’t kill His Son for you to have a part time interest in Christianity.” -Doug Stanton

“When I don’t need to be used, but only want the Lord’s hand to move through anyone, is when I’m ready to be used.” (me - now, if only I could always apply that...)

“God’s work is always much bigger than what we plan to do for Him.”

“If you are not ready to share your testimony, than you are not free.” –Doug Stanton

“I think God will cause something cataclysmic to happen in our lives. [Otherwise,] We’ll just continue on in that same misery. God allows things to happen there… We think, ‘You know what, I do not have to live here. I am miserable here.’ And I have a God echoing down into that pit, ‘Come and be free. You can be free.’” –Beth Moore

“Am I multiplying my talents for me or God?” –Rodney Howard-Browne

“The Bible says draw near to God and He will draw near to you so the onus in on us.” –Rodney Howard-Browne

“Your eternal job is not what you do, but who you are; Your earthly job is not what you do, its who you are. But because of what you are called to do, you’ll become who you are meant to be. And when you get that, it takes the pressure off you; but not the pressure of believing God to do it through you. If the pressure of doing something is hard, then its probably not God doing it through you. If it is no longer you who do it, there will probably be no burden.” –Doug Stanton

“A wise person is one that is broken that they can receive correction.” –Doug Stanton

“All that hinders the blessing being ours is pride or lack of faith. …Jesus reveals to us that it is indeed pride that makes faith impossible: ‘How can you believe if you accept prise from one another?’ [John 5:44] …In their very nature, pride and faith are irreconcilably at odds.” –Andrew Murray

“The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard lest unconsciously what was begun in the Spirit is perfected in the flesh, and pride creep in where its presence is least expected.” –Andrew Murray

“It’s God that does it, not you. So its not like somehow you are going to get faith so that you are going to heal people. Your just going to get to a place where your unbelief and doctrine doesn’t stop what God wants to do through you. That’s about all there is to it.” -Doug Stanton

How To Make Christianity Work - A Paradigm Shift

"Jesus did not come to be a model. He came to be our life." -William P. Young

A common idea occurring in Christianity today is that I need to work harder and try harder to reach Jesus' standards. Just be a little more determined. Reading the Bible becomes an exercise in discovering what things I am not measuring up to today and see what things I just need to buckle down and work more at. The problem should be obvious. The measurement is Christ. I am not perfect. And therefore I can never reach His ways on my own.

I'm convinced that this is an unbiblical humanistic idea of Christianity. And it doesn't work. I've never seen it work. And the legalism people strap to it, doesn't make it work. It can't change heart issues.

Gal. 3:3 asks why anyone would try to do through human effort what can only be done through the Spirit.

I'm convinced the Christian life is much more parasitic (the good works only come from us leaching them from the Lord). As we abide in Christ and receive from Him, THEN we bear fruit (John 15). It is through Him that it occurs, not through me.

Let's look at the idea of love, for example. 1 Corinthians 13 defines love as not being proud, rude, self-seeking, but being patient, kind, and many more things. To even try to do one in my strength in a day is going to be virtually impossible, much less the whole list. But yet I'm doomed because the beginning of the chapter says that if I don't walk in love, it doesn't really matter what incredible things are occuring in my life because they mean nothing. However, everything changes when we see that what 1 Cor. 13 is describing is not human love. It is GOD'S love. It is a perfect definition of God's love. But how can I have God's love in me? It seems impossible to get by simply willpower and determination.

1 John 2:15-16 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world." It appears from verse 15 that if God's love isn't in a person if they love the world that God's love CAN be in a person if that isn't the case. So it IS possible to have 1 Cor. 13 love in me. However, the Lord is pretty good about defining what loving the world is (since people have twisted it to include pretty much everything under the sun). It's sinful cravings, pride, and lust. So God's love is opposed to those things. So if I think I can walk in pride and God's love at the same time, I'm kidding myself. And if I walk in pride BECAUSE I was walking in God's love, it disappears (seems like a catch-22). Like virtually everything good in the Christian walk, I am only indirectly able to make it appear in my life. I can stop it from occurring by my actions, but ultimately only God can cause those things to flow through me. Which is crucial because if I could directly make those things occur, I would grow prideful which would cause them to cease! Hopefully, that makes sense...

I kinda think of pride, lust, and sinful cravings as like little trinkets or fool's gold. They feel fun and are enjoyable for a little bit. But ultimately the happiness wears off and one needs a new trinket or something else to lust after or be prideful about or whatever in order to satisfy (i.e. only partially because there is no true lasting contentment here). However, those things rob from the true Mother Lode - the love of the Father. It is only as one experiences and dwells in that love that they freely give it. Think for a moment of when you saw The Passion of the Christ or were in another way deeply touched by the Father's love. I'm guessing no one had to tell you not to walk in lust or pride afterwards. And you couldn't help but want to pass along the love you experienced from the Lord through the movie to someone else. You received His love and you past it along. And it was a pure love - no strings attached. You weren't trying to get something from that person just as the Lord wasn't trying to get something out of you. But yet you couldn't help but pass it along. This is the type of relationship with the Lord that we are called to. The depth of encounter of knowing the love of the Lord like this need not be an isolated occurrence, but rather a way of living life such that God is flowing into and through us to impact those that are around us. When one realizes that the focus of the Christian walk is not in the performance and determination of trying to measure up but is in saturation in relationship with the God who loves us is when Christianity does not burn us out, but becomes incredibly fun because of the joy of living in His presence and the fun of watching Him do stuff through us that we could never have hoped to do on our own! In fact, I think a frequent marker of God showing up is to think, "wow, that was good, I wish I would have come up with that (when the rest of the world thinks it was us, but we know that what occured was far better than what we could do)!"

I think a lot of life is just to bring some brokenness into our lives so that some desperation can come which can break some pride so that we won't think we got it all figured out and can do everything on our own so that we are ready to truly turn to God and cling to Him and walk after Him and learn to receive from Him. It seems there is no shortage of brokenness in this world. And there is no shortage of people who want deliverance. But what they seem to not get is that God delivers people not only FROM something but TO someONE. The casual Christianity no longer cuts it anymore, because that isn't the way God intended us. The pride, lust, and sinful cravings can't stay around anymore because God's love doesn't inhabit with that stuff. But yet people aren't truly wanting to be delivered from that stuff. They like the fool's gold. And so they are slowly dying internally because their desperation to live for something more than the emptyness of this world has not prompted real change. Oh, people make little changes and tweaks in their mind. Ha, perhaps YOU might be even making them now thinking that maybe this or that little change might make a difference. But lets face it. I'm pretty sure most people I know don't need just a little tweaking. I know I need an overhaul every single day. An overhaul called the Father's love, abiding in Christ, soaking in His presence, walking in the Spirit, and complete obedience (this includes what I own, what I do, and so forth as much as I am able). Christianity is no longer about justifying and rationalizing what "isn't that big of a deal" or using others as my litmus test of what is acceptable - even if they are Christians - instead of the Bible. Because it is only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness that will be filled (Matt. 5). And it is when we are filled and content that we no longer hunger after lust, pride, and sinful cravings.

Wow, I didn't realize when I started this would turn into something so long. If you read this to the end, though, and it makes sense to you, I don't think you will be disappointed. Hopefully, I didn't over advertise on my title.

You know what's funny? As I finished this, I watched Brian Welch (formerly in Korn) in an interview and was like, dude, he's talking about what I am (at the end).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHHu8-2ZmqI

2 Things

I read this book lately called The Shack which I need to recommend. It is truly a fabulous book. Now, just because I recommend it does not mean that I completely agree with EVERYTHING said in it. However, that being the case it is a wonderful book. Here is a link to an interview of the author.
http://www.lifetoday.org/site/PageServer?pagename=tel_USCalendar_Jul08
Scroll down to July 14 and July 15th. If you read this today it might not be updated yet, but it is on the home page www.lifetoday.org

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Here's a good quote I found on interpreting the Bible
"I began learning to recognize God's voice through the study of Scripture. During one season of my life I spent considerable time in the Book of Ephesians. When I read, 'and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God' (Eph. 3:19), the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me that it meant that I could know by experience what would be beyond the reach of comprehension. Later I was able to do a word study and found that this was exactly the meaning of the verse in the original language.
Often I would come to the Bible with a need and God would address it clearly from His Word, again and again. There were times when He spoke so clearly from a verse, yet I knew that what was ministering to me wasn't what the writer originally intended. But it was a living word, a sword, ministering to the very need of my heart. It wasn't until years later that I learned that God didn't speak that way anymore.
I'm thankful I learned to hear God through the Scriptures before I found out what the rules were. It's like being told there are no miracles today. That laughable statement might have gotten my attention years ago, but it's way too late now. I've seen thousands." -Bill Johnson Dreaming With God p. 141-142 (all italics Bill's)