ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITHOUT BREAKTHROUGH? Consider this.
I don’t typically like to talk about this because it feels self-promotional but I don’t really hear too many people talking about fasting and breakthrough so I’m going to assume that most of you don’t either. The Bible already seems ‘old school’ to many so I am sure it’s methods also seem too outdated to be usable in our present age.
Besides what does food and/or giving up something physically have to do with your emotional or spiritual status, or even an unrelated physical issue? –Well, Tony gives an answer to that question in this sermon but let me give you a little testimony to back it up because what he says here is almost verbatim of what I have experienced in the last year.
But first, here are some other examples where it has helped me.
When my grandfather was dying 7 years ago, there was an issue that we were all unaware of. He was out of state. I was unable to handle it and I almost got the police involved on my behalf. I cannot tell you the turmoil of my own emotional state or the upheaval that I was causing in my family trying to get to the bottom of it. I felt led to fast for 3 days without food. At the end of 3 days, I had peace about leaving the situation alone. Thankfully, the issue resolved itself. But my emotional ‘crazy’ left me as well.
Another time over Lent (in an effort to take better care of the body that God gave me) instead of giving up something, I decided to ADD a 10-minute workout each day because it was all that I could incorporate at the time. Thankfully, it led to a pretty regular routine that grew in length. I exercise more now than I ever have. (That may not sound like giving up anything but sometimes our lives are so busy '10 minutes' feels hard to muster.)
I look forward to a daily devotion mid-day, each day, which is another habit that started the same way during a different season of Lent.
I gave up alcohol completely for almost two years. I am not sure if it really qualifies as fasting because I had many pros/cons documented for giving it up. Many of which were little things in my own heart that may not have made sense to anyone else but me at the time. But I also felt like I needed to do so without a definite reason. It was indeed a crutch in my life and giving it up came in at the beginning of one of the hardest seasons of my life.
I gave up coffee for several months, again without knowing why. -Just feeling like I needed to let it go.
I’ve fasted several other times in several other ways over the years. -Sometimes seeing the benefit of the fast right away. Sometimes never learning the why until a very long time after, if at all.
This last fast was indeed a breakthrough of all breakthroughs for me. Last April, my friend Dawn and I started fasting once a week. Sometimes from coffee, sugar, TV, sleep, or a similar thing. Sometimes from dinner one day to dinner the next.
On 'fast' day, we would call each other on the phone because she lives out of state. We would walk during this time before the kids ever got out of bed. We’d catch up on life, and then we would pray about whatever was going on in our lives.
I can’t explain it but I could feel something shifting spiritually within me. (I didn’t notice this other times in my life, so don’t expect this right away and I was not making the connection to fasting at the time.) By September, I began counseling for an issue. This ultimately led to one of the biggest changes of my life, emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc. I can’t get into all of it now. But I found a root problem with ‘fear of failure’ that influenced many things in my life. I also found understanding (which has led to healing) in a battle with anger that also covered a lot of territory in my life.
When Dawn and I started fasting, I didn’t have any idea that it would affect so many areas of my life or in such a big way. I just knew that it had made a difference every time that I had tried before and I wanted to really incorporate its power, more often. We prayed for the ‘thing of the week’, or ‘thing of the month’, or that one thing we couldn’t seem to let go of. But my life was radically changed by the end of the year and it really hasn’t stopped moving since. (Even though I tapered off fasting this year but I am trying to incorporate it again.)
Over, and over, and over again, throughout this transition, I have been reminded of the passage in Matthew 17:21 that says ‘This kind only comes out with Prayer and Fasting’. I even felt like something ‘left me’ this past July that I can only explain as ‘spiritual torment’ even if that sounds a little ‘hinky’.
While she and I thought we were praying for regular old stuff, there was something inside of me that was getting dealt with on a whole other level. –And in the end, it impacted many of those little things that she and I were praying for. Whether or not you see it yet, I can tell you that I am not the same person that I was last year and I know, that I know, that I KNOW, it was because of the power of fasting in my life. She too was recently able to attest of breakthroughs and healing in some areas of her own life which she attributes to our season together.
I am sharing this with you today because one of the things that I have struggled with has been a ‘mountain’ to me for several years. I shared a post one time on Instagram about how when God moves your mountain, it might rock your world, and knock you off your feet, and he might answer in a way that you never expected. –Let me tell you, I thought I was encouraging someone else with that post but that was a premonition for me an EXACT YEAR TO THE DAY of my ‘break’ even though it did NOT feel like a ‘through’.
In this sermon by Tony Evans, he hits on so many personal things that I can attest to. The power of fasting. The power of giving up something of the flesh for something spiritual. The faith of a mustard seed that moves mountains. And how planting that tiny mustard seed of faith might seem small but when it breaks open, it becomes something evident to everyone.
He talks about how the weight of that external mountain is what holds our light in. Your ‘mountain’ is the shell to your faith. When the external breaks, the internal expresses itself. Oh, how I could go on and on.
I’m not a doctor. Consult one if you have concerns. But fasting doesn’t always have to be from food. It could be from an activity or adding an activity. If you don’t feel led to do it, it might not be time for you do so and so there is no reason for shame or guilt. It may be a seed for later. But fasting doesn’t have to be ‘radical’ either. I implore you that if you have been battling something to no avail, PRAYERFULLY, consider how you might be able to incorporate fasting for healing in this area of your life and then do it until it’s done or until you get an answer.
If you try it, then during your fast, every time you get that hunger pang or the urge for the thing, remind yourself that it’s a prompt to pray instead. I will be praying over anyone who accepts this challenge.
If you have EVER fasted and experienced breakthrough, no matter how great or small. Not only do I give you permission to feel awkward, piggybacking, and self-promotional by sharing it in the comments below, but I encourage you and INVITE YOU TO SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY FOR GOD about how you’ve experienced breakthrough in hopes that you may encourage someone, who is silently struggling, to do the same. Now go!
Now here’s the sermon ‘Fasting for Deliverance’ by ‘Tony Evans’.
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