Fasting: A Pathway to Spiritual Growth and Authority
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
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When you allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your physical appetites, your spiritual appetite for God increases. It's just a wonderful biblical principle. When the appetites that are controlling us are brought under control and restrained, then our appetites for God increase. The appetite, the hunger for God increases as the flesh decreases. [00:03:01]
Fasting is not about following a formula but about pursuing God with a sincere heart. It is about giving up fleshly appetites to seek a deeper hunger for God. This practice should be a delight, not a drudgery, as it allows us to prioritize our spiritual desires over physical ones. [00:10:55]
The desire to pursue God is greater than my desire to fulfill the lust of the flesh on an hourly basis almost, it seems like. I mean, do you remember when I was little, it was breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Now it's breakfast, a snack, Starbucks on the way somewhere, a pre-lunch something, and then after lunch, we're hungry. [00:12:09]
Fasting involves prevailing prayer. We go from asking to seeking to knocking. I have to remind you that this is really not about fasting; it's about seeking God because fasting without prayer is, you might as well go to Weight Watchers, right? It's just weight loss; it's just detox. [00:20:24]
Lean mean fighting machine. Humility is the access code. Humility is the disappearance of self. So if you want to fast in this area, if you want to fast at all, if you want to draw closer to God, humility is the disappearance of self. Self has to disappear. You say, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" [00:18:57]
Fasting draws us closer to God. It makes us more sensitive to His will. The door of possibilities is enlarged, and the power of the Spirit is magnified. Do you want the Holy Spirit in you magnified, not to be weird, but to be bold and powerful? I think the Bible said somewhere that when Jesus was done fasting, He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit. [00:42:57]
Lean mean fasting machine. You know where that saying comes from, right? Probably the military. But lean, what does lean biblically mean? Remove every weight and sin that so easily ensnares us. Remove. So what you're doing, you're fasting, you're removing the weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. [00:34:39]
You better be very mean to the kingdom of darkness. It is not your friend. You don't play pattycake with the devil. You don't compromise. I am very mean. I am very nasty. I don't play by the rules when it comes to the enemy of my soul. You have to fight, expose the unfruitful works of darkness. [00:37:31]
Fasting is not like getting bonus points; it's like getting me deeper into the heart of the Father. So what is pleasing to God? Here's what's pleasing to God: Psalm 51:17, the New Living Translation. I say that because it's not a verse-by-verse comment; it's more of a commentary in the Bible, but it outlines as well. [00:41:12]
The key to fasting is, again, like I said, humility. The releasing of appetite must correspond with the releasing of sin. Isaiah 58, there are fasting God was not answering. God said, "Get the heart right, get your heart right, and then you will seek me, you will find me." [00:41:49]
Fasting, coupled with prayer, becomes a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. It breaks down strongholds and draws us closer to God, making us more sensitive to His will. This combination magnifies the power of the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us to walk in His strength. [00:44:56]
When you fast, when you pray, and you get your heart right, the enemy's done. There's nothing he can do. There's nothing he can do. He can harass, he can taunt, but his power is in you giving him the power. Do you realize that the strength of the devil is what you give him when you give in? [00:49:11]
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Fasting is not about following a formula but about pursuing God with a sincere heart. It is about giving up fleshly appetites to seek a deeper hunger for God. This practice should be a delight, not a drudgery, as it allows us to prioritize our spiritual desires over physical ones. [00:10:55]
The desire to pursue God is greater than my desire to fulfill the lust of the flesh on an hourly basis almost, it seems like. I mean, do you remember when I was little, it was breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Now it's breakfast, a snack, Starbucks on the way somewhere, a pre-lunch something, and then after lunch, we're hungry. [00:12:09]
Fasting involves prevailing prayer. We go from asking to seeking to knocking. I have to remind you that this is really not about fasting; it's about seeking God because fasting without prayer is, you might as well go to Weight Watchers, right? It's just weight loss; it's just detox. [00:20:24]
Lean mean fighting machine. Humility is the access code. Humility is the disappearance of self. So if you want to fast in this area, if you want to fast at all, if you want to draw closer to God, humility is the disappearance of self. Self has to disappear. You say, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" [00:18:57]
Fasting draws us closer to God. It makes us more sensitive to His will. The door of possibilities is enlarged, and the power of the Spirit is magnified. Do you want the Holy Spirit in you magnified, not to be weird, but to be bold and powerful? I think the Bible said somewhere that when Jesus was done fasting, He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit. [00:42:57]
Lean mean fasting machine. You know where that saying comes from, right? Probably the military. But lean, what does lean biblically mean? Remove every weight and sin that so easily ensnares us. Remove. So what you're doing, you're fasting, you're removing the weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. [00:34:39]
You better be very mean to the kingdom of darkness. It is not your friend. You don't play pattycake with the devil. You don't compromise. I am very mean. I am very nasty. I don't play by the rules when it comes to the enemy of my soul. You have to fight, expose the unfruitful works of darkness. [00:37:31]
Fasting is not like getting bonus points; it's like getting me deeper into the heart of the Father. So what is pleasing to God? Here's what's pleasing to God: Psalm 51:17, the New Living Translation. I say that because it's not a verse-by-verse comment; it's more of a commentary in the Bible, but it outlines as well. [00:41:12]
The key to fasting is, again, like I said, humility. The releasing of appetite must correspond with the releasing of sin. Isaiah 58, there are fasting God was not answering. God said, "Get the heart right, get your heart right, and then you will seek me, you will find me." [00:41:49]
Fasting, coupled with prayer, becomes a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. It breaks down strongholds and draws us closer to God, making us more sensitive to His will. This combination magnifies the power of the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us to walk in His strength. [00:44:56]
When you fast, when you pray, and you get your heart right, the enemy's done. There's nothing he can do. There's nothing he can do. He can harass, he can taunt, but his power is in you giving him the power. Do you realize that the strength of the devil is what you give him when you give in? [00:49:11]
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